On The Fence With Ken Kalthoff

The Angelika Theater at Mockingbird Station was unusually busy Friday.  It was girls’ day out for SEX AND THE CITY.

Many ladies took the day off work to see the movie premiere.  At the Angelika, they were serving cosmoplitans, the signature cocktail from the TV show turned feature film.

Many of the fans dressed up for the show just like the characters in the story.  Some preferred champagne to cosmos.

It was almost like opening day at the ballpark, but much more glamorous.  It’s been four years since the TV show finale. 

Fans at the Angelika were anxious for more drama and fashion.  So, you ask, does Carrie go through with her wedding to Big?  I’m not going to tell…

Dallas police say 26 year old Paul Dewayne Thibodeaux tried to walk out of the Cedar Springs Kroger store with a Holmes Smokehouse Sausage stuffed in the front of his pants!  The Kroger price for that sausage? $4.79.  But police say Thibodeaux was not planning to pay for the sausage in his pants. 

According to police, the store security guard noticed Thibodeaux leaving with the sausage and tried to stop him.  Police say the suspect started to fight, kicking, punching and BITING the guard before he was detained and arrested by police.  The police report says the officers observed bite marks that punctured the guard’s skin on his wrist and chest.  Police also say Thibodeaux told them that he is HIV positive.  So, this robbery with biting is treated the same as if he had used a knife or a gun.  He’s charged with aggravated robbery instead of just shoplifting.  Records show Thibodeaux has a prior record for illegal drug possession and several arrests for prostitution.  He’s held on $100,000 bond tonight.  I filed a request to talk to him at the jail, but heard no reply.

A friend of the security guard tells me the victim is now very worried about his own health after getting bitten at a grocery store by the man who apparently knew he has AIDS. 

Here’s the story from 5pm Thursday:

http://video.nbc5i.com/player/?id=257125

A Dallas City Hall showdown comes Wednesday over uninsured drivers.  Right now, Dallas only tows uninsured cars that have been involved in wrecks.

A proposed policy would have police seize and tow all uninsured vehicles they find in routine traffic stops.  Officers would be allowed to used their discretion to allow some people to keep driving with only citations for lack of insurance, perhaps parents with children.  Several other North Texas cities already have this policy.  Dallas resisted it before for fear the police impound lot could not handle so many vehicles.  The latest plan is to spend millions of dollars to improve the police impound lot and hire more staff so tens of thousands more uninsured vehicles could be seized.  Supporters say the plan would pay for itself with impound fees.

Dallas Councilman Mitchell Rasansky has led the call for towing uninsured vehicles for years.  Councilman Steve Salazar leads the opposition, saying valuable police time would be wasted waiting around for tow trucks. 

What do you think??  You can sound off here on my blog or at the Dallas City Council meeting Wednesday.  I’m told a large crowd of people has signed up to speak. 

UPDATE:  The Dallas City Council passed the uninsured driver towing plan Wednesday, the vote was 10-5.

Dallas Police busted one of their own who they say was shaking down bribes to conceal possible gambling activity.  Cops tell me they got a tip from a third party and ran an undercover sting to verify the accusation.  The SWAT team swooped in to bust the officer Wednesday evening at a shopping center on Lakeland at Ferguson in East Dallas. 

Police say 54 year old Vietnamese Senior Corporal Minh Tran was demanding and receiving money from a Dallas Vietnamese family.  Tran declined to talk with us at the jail Thursday.  Community leaders say it is difficult for police to earn respect in the Vietnamese community because of hard feelings about the government in Viet Nam.   Still police ask anyone with knowledge of any other shakedowns to come forward. 

Police have not said what possible gambling activity was going on.  We do know that police have been after 8 liner game rooms for years in this part of Dallas.  They bust them and shut them down but new ones sneak into the back room of places.   Send me an e-mail if you know about new 8 liner game rooms hiding in Dallas.  ken.kalthoff@nbcu.com   

Southwest Airlines retiring chairman Herb Kelleher was moved to tears Wednesday as shareholders lined up with gifts and praises. 

The 77 year old Kelleher who is always quick with a joke was choked up during some of his remarks to shareholders.  Among the crowd were union members who’ve strongly supported Kelleher for many years.  It’s a stark contrast to the protests American Airlines union leaders stage at the Fort Worth airline’s shareholder meetings.  As American announced service cutbacks and fee increases, Southwest said it would try to seize customers who are unhappy with other airlines’ changes.  Southwest President Colleen Barrett is also stepping down.  Southwest CEO Gary Kelly will add the duties of chairman and president.  Kelleher and Barrett will continue with Southwest on special projects.  Both say they will only reduce their work from seven days a week to five.

Watch my story from 6pm today:

http://video.nbc5i.com/player/?id=254385

Fort Worth and Dallas Crime Stopper programs both report a big increase in calls lately.  People suffering from high gas and food prices may be looking for the reward money.  

Crime Stoppers pays hundreds of dollars for good tips.  Dallas says arrests and cases cleared from paid Crime Stopper tips are way up so far this year, too. 

 And both programs say they have enough money to keep paying for good tips.

People with Fort Worth’s Safe City Program believe their new Gun and Gang Busters program may be the big reason for more calls.  They’ve put hundreds of posters in Fort Worth schools and gang infested neighborhoods offering an extra $250 for gun and gang crime tips that produce arrests.

Here’s a link to the Tarrant County program

http://www.safecitycommission.org/default.asp?nodeid=60

Here’s a link to the Dallas program:

http://www.greaterdallascrimecomm.org/crimestoppers.htm

A device built at The University of Texas at Dallas is due to land on Planet Mars May 25th. 

The mass spectrometer will help test Martian soil and atmosphere in search of water and signs of past life on Mars.

Physics professor Dr. John Hoffman built the device in his lab at UTD.  He has been involved in space exploration for decades. 

Hoffman worked on Apollo missions to the moon and studies of Haley’s comet.  Dr. Hoffman says the Phoenix robotic spacecraft carrying his latest equipment is due to land in a region of Mars that is promising in the search for past life on the planet.  He says the study of frozen Mars offers clues about our own planet Earth.  If all goes well, UTD’s Dr. Hoffman will soon help provide new data from Mars!

Two times in the past two weeks, HOLES have opened up in I-30 bridges near Downtown Dallas. 

First the bridge over Beckley on May 5th, then the bridge over I-35 on May 14. 

The holes were patched up after big traffic delays and some damaged tires!

An emergency rehabilitation of I-30 was announced Thursday.  It will start within weeks work that was to start late this summer.  TxDot says the Downtown Dallas freeway bridges are safe, but they are about 50 years old and do have some problems.   There are big plans to replace them all.

This is the main website for Project Pegasus which will reconstruct the Dallas Mixmaster, The Canyon and the Trinity River Bridges:

http://www.projectpegasus.org/

This is a picture of the I-30 plan which includes both of the bridges that developed holes.

http://www.projectpegasus.org/images/Pegasus_Sequence_IH30_AUG2006.pdf

It will be MANY years before these new bridges are open.  What do you think about using them until then??

First, the controversy was a $42 million price for the parking lot on Young Street at Lamar beside the convention center.  That is the favored site for a new Dallas Convention Center Hotel.  Critics’ appraisals claimed a lower land value.

But that was overshadowed a week ago when city councilmembers emerged from a closed-door committee meeting to announce plans that the city itself would OWN the new convention center hotel.  Today the full Dallas City Council approved the land purchase and the concept of city ownership.  It directed the staff to negotiate with 4 competing developers for a final deal to build the hotel.  The final price depends on which developer is selected, but the cost is forecast at around $500 million. 

Critics worry that will drain resources the city needs for other things like crime fighting and street repair.  But critics were heavily outnumbered Wednesday by an enormous crowd of supporters for a convention hotel.  The city has discussed building one for DECADES!  In the meantime, other cities have done so and Dallas tourism people insist is has severely hurt the Dallas Convention Center.  The supporters say a convention center hotel will help Dallas in the long run and pay it’s own way. 

From up “On The Fence” I’d say it is pretty clear that Dallas is behind the times without a hotel for it’s convention center.  Tourism people tell us that convention planners just won’t book it without that connected hotel.  As Councilman Ron Natinsky said Wednesday, maybe the convention center could just become a thousand lane bowling alley or something?  

It is the public ownership question that seems like the big debate now.  Dallas has tried for MANY years to get private developers to build one on their own or with only modest city subsidy.  Mayor Tom Leppert says tax free city financing is the key to make it happen.  Houston owns it’s convention center hotel, but Fort Worth is about to open one that is NOT city owned. 

Tell me what do you think??

They use electronic monitors to be sure that criminals behave as they should on parole or probation.  For the past two years, Bryan Adams High School in Dallas has been testing GPS monitors on chronic truants.  The school reports excellent results.

The GPS tracking device currently being used looks almost like a cell phone.  It’s worn on a belt or carried in a purse, not the same as criminal ankle bracelets.  A judge orders the monitor after too much school skipping, but the student and parents must agree to it.  Computers track the GPS signal.   Retired businessmen came up with the idea and run the program.  School officials say it’s helped dozens of students stay in school and catch up on missed classes. 

Nine students are currently being monitored.  Almost 50 were monitored last year.  Graduating Senior Richardo Pacheco was a gang member.  He says the monitor helped him stay in school.

Donations and grants pay the cost of the equipment and monitoring.  Boosters want to raise more money to expand the program to other schools.  What do you think of it?