Five stories that have North Texas talking: A 10-mile hump in Frisco becomes a new way for soldiers and others to mark the 4th; Beyoncé bans external photogs at sold-out Dallas stop tomorrow, campers refresh by leaving iPhones at the gate in the Redwoods and more.
Last year on July 4th, buddies Tim Nelson and Cliff Sosamon hacked a 10-mile hump – military talk for lugging a weighty rucksack while marching. Thing is, Nelson, who’s a Frisco City Council member and an Army Reserve major, was in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Sosamon, meanwhile, took the challenge in Frisco – he’s a former Marine sergeant. Both men were joined by soldiers and others on their respective hikes last year. But this year, the friends got to tackle the miles side-by-side in Frisco, along with 100 people looking to mark veterans’ sacrifice with some sweat. [Dallas News]
Beyoncé’s So Real - But No Press Photogs At Dallas Show: Beyoncé comes to American Airlines Center tomorrow for her Mrs. Carter world tour. But don’t expect multiple local interpretations of that amazing “Dance For You” chair routine in the slideshows to follow the sold-out show. (She’s back in December.) After being particularly dissatisfied with photos from her Super Bowl performance in February, she’s decided to ban external photogs from the pit in every city, allowing only Frank Micelotta to photograph her and dispense photos to press. As Jody Rosen of the New Yorker explains, Bey directs her own proverbial (and literal) documentary. NPR’s Code Switch used the “famously opaque” Beyoncéas an example of how we adjust our language and mannerisms to fit certain settings and project appropriate, ahem, images of ourselves.
No Pics And It Still Happens: Weary social media managers and others simply keyed to the Internet every second for “fear of missing out” – what’s become known amusingly as “FOMO” – are paying to surrender their devices at technology-free camps. Camp Grounded, put together by a group called The Digital Detox, is one of them. It was a sold-out, three-day hiatus from all gadgetry in Northern California, where campers gazed at the Redwoods instead of screens. They weren’t allowed to talk about work or even use their own names. And the experience is exclusively theirs – they return with no photos to share, of course, as digital cameras are banned. [NPR]
Young Texas Murderers Wait As Lawmakers Decide How To Enact Supreme Court Ruling: One item Texas lawmakers still have on their plates: How to sentence 17-year-old murderers. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that life sentences without parole for 17-year-old murderers violate the constitution. Lawmakers could grant the young killers parole after 40 years, which is the requirement for 14-16 year-old capital murderers. [Texas Tribune]
The Underdog Versus Perry And Abbott For Governor: Who is Tom Pauken, the self-deemed “Reagan Republican” up against Gov. Rick Perry and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for governor? He’s not a household name with dependable campaign funders like Perry or Abbott to begin with. The former Texas Workforce Commissioner is leaving the starting gate with a call for local control of public education and more attention to vocational training for students, a point of contention between he and George W. Bush in his earlier career. [Texas Tribune]
