Five stories North Texas is talking about: Inauguration afterglow, Texas ranks next to last on mental health funding and more.
While a very lucky elite few in Washington D.C. yesterday had access to a social media butler at the Madison Hotel, reporters from the SMU Daily Campus and SMU TV were among thousands who chronicled the Inaguration via their smartphones with no $47,000 help. They've organized the coverage in a blog and a Storify timeline.
- Wait for this: Texas is 49th in spending on mental health per capita. Where the national median is $101, our state spends $38.99 per person on mental health, according to numbers based on the 2010 fiscal year released by the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. Mental health advocates won't have this. They're appealing to lawmakers who are currently looking at potential budgets with no boosts in spending on psychological issues. [KUHF in Houston] We dig deep into this issue at City Performance Hall Feb. 5 with Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and leading mental health experts to be announced, in partnership with The Dallas Morning News.
- Massimo Vignelli made American Airlines' outgoing logo. He's not a huge fan of the new one announced last week. And it turns out, he carried around strong ideas about the eagle in the original logo, which he points out he did not design. [Bloomberg News, HT Unfair Park]
- According to the NY Times, you don't have to have read Henry James' novella of the same name to richly experience Dominick Argento's The Aspern Papers. But another supplement could enhance a viewing of the opera: tonight, Art&Seek's Jerome Weeks moderates "Composing Conversations" with Argento at The Dallas Opera. [Art&Seek]
- Ted Cruz says he won't criticize the controversial NRA ad featuring President Obama's daughters. He finds hypocrisy over the uproar - since, he says, President Obama exploited the Newtown tragedy. [Slate, HT Frontburner]