Motor Trend weighs in on Texas’ Drive a Clean Machine program — by, more or less, encouraging folks from outside the state to drive their exhaust-spewing beater to the Dallas, Houston or Austin areas so they can cash in on the $3,000 exchange program. Looking to upgrade to a shiny…

Last time local scrivener Will Clark published a short story in a tome edited by John McNally, he was blessed with the caterwauling of a Rhode Island mother who called for his shiny pate on a platter. She didn’t take kindly to her kiddo being taught Clarke’s autobiographical tale “How…

ABC News reminds us this morning of the North American Solar Challenge that revs up on July 13 — a sort of 10-day solar-powered Cannonball Run that will find 25 collegiate teams racing from Plano to Calgary, which measures some 2,400 miles. Notes the story: What began as a modest…

A curious note in the in-box this a.m. from Tanna Gilder, wife of the legendary Charlie — man behind Circle A Ranch, the Twilite Room and, of course, Bar of Soap. Has to do with some kind of “misunderstanding” between the owner of the Exposition Park building — Lou Reese,…

Hetal Jannu, left, and Anuja Balasubramanian Courtesy USA Today, word of a local cooking show — on the YouTubes and out of Frisco. Stay-at-home moms Hetal Jannu and Anuja Balasubramanian are the hosts of the Web-only Show Me the Curry, for which they’ve made some 100 how-to videos for everything…

So much for there being a Starbucks on every corner. Because today the company announced it’s shuttering “approximately 600 underperforming company-operated stores” in the U.S. — only, it hasn’t announced where, not yet. That may come in a few minutes: At 4:30, Pete Bocian, the coffee seller’s chief financial officer,…

Trademark Property Company Oddly, we have this same painting hanging over the bed. For those bored by today’s news, how about something from tomorrow’s New York Times. Like, oh, this business story about how Fort Worth-based Trademark Property Company developed the 52-acres Watters Creek Shopping Center up in Allen –…

From Australian public television, host Richard Snashall rides the Dallas Area Rapid Transit rail. Looks like he had a g’day, mate! –Robert Wilonsky…

Sean Greene, the Dallas Zoo’s director of community relations, read yesterday’s item about folks protesting the zoo’s moving Jenny the elephant to the Africam Safari Park in Puebla, Mexico. Then he read the comments, which keep piling up from people who’d rather see Jenny sent to an elephant sanctuary in…

As you’re no doubt aware, the Institute for Creation Research wanted the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to let the joint hand out master’s degrees in science — and failed at the end of April. Which doesn’t mean the Royal Lane-based institute’s giving up: Today, Henry Morris, the institute’s CEO,…

Peter Calvin Lou Reese Lou Reese, a major Deep Ellum property owner, died over the weekend while fly-fishing in Montana — a passion of his, according to his biography on the Madison Partners Web site. Theresa Martin, Reese’s assistant, says he suffered a heart attack Saturday and died Sunday; Reese…

From next week’s episode, when Lisa Garza asks a Girl Scout, “Do you like steak?” No more avoiding the — yawn — inevitable: Your Weekly Next Food Network Star update, starring Suze’s Lisa Garza. Though what’s to say about last night’s episode, when Garza was nearly done in by the…

Anyone who knows me knows how much I covet my Yums. I possess all the freshest graffiti-streaked flavors, from Lemonade to S’mores, with my Tum Tums kept in the closet vault till only those most special of occasions. (Because, frankly, they aren’t cheap — $125 a pair, goddamn.) So good…

Jeff Koons Well, looks like Howard and Cindy Rachofsky done got ’em a little extra spending cash, as they finally parted with their beloved Jeff Koons sculpture, “Balloon Flower (Magenta),” for $25,648,698 — or, about $1.5 million more than experts initially guesstimated. No wonder, then, that Christie’s is heralding the…

Brian Harkin Matt Kadane, left, and brother Bubba Saturday night at the Granada I see over on DC9 that Pete’s posted quite the rave for Saturday night’s triple-header at the Granada: The Theater Fire, Matt and Bubba Kadane and Centro-matic. To which I’d only add that it was a bit…

Among the myriad chuckles from yesterday’s Los Angeles Times piece on the making of W, Oliver Stone’s biopic concerning once and future Dallas resident George W. Bush, was this note: Major League Baseball refused to cooperate with the production. Don’t know how that will effect references to the Texas Rangers,…

From today’s Boston Globe, a suggestion: “Want to get rich? Move to Texas.” And while that didn’t work out for some of us — alas, perhaps that’s the problem with being born here — the paper notes that, courtesy a Salary.com report, “Plano topped a list of the best American…