Five stories that have North Texas talking: Jerry Jones marks a big anniversary; Lake Highlands’ St. Vincent gets more love from NPR; the Ted Nugent controversy helps Wendy Davis and Greg Abbott; and more.
Twenty-five years ago this week, Jerry Jones took over as owner of the Dallas Cowboys – a move that changed the team, changed North Texas and changed Jones, too. Buying the team was emotional, Jones told ESPN: “There was a pretty serious reach there, risk wise, and I didn't know how it was going to turn out. I thought I had an idea, so it was a nervous time for me. I remember that. I developed an arrhythmia during that time and I never had an unhealthy day in my life.” Then he fired legendary coach Tom Landry -- the first of many, many moves that have attracted criticism. "If I had a chance to do it over again I would've waited a year and just got my feet on the ground a little bit more,” Jones said. “And probably just gone with the staff that we had and then later made the ultimate change that I made." But Jones says that for the NFL and professional sports, the future “is significantly brighter.” ESPN explores Jones’ history with the team. The Dallas Morning News also marks the anniversary.
- Yu Darvish will be the opening day starter March 31 for the Texas Rangers. "Yu is the kind of guy that doesn't show a lot of emotion, but he was excited," manager Ron Washington said. "He said he would work his tail off to represent us well and do the job." MLB.com reported: “Darvish was 13-9 with a 2.83 ERA and a league-leading 277 strikeouts last season. The righty finished second in the American League Cy Young Award voting.” The Rangers play the Philadelphia Phillies Opening Day.
- Meet some of KERA’s newest mascots: foxes. On Tuesday, two foxes – we'll just call them Fox and Friend – played outside the KERA studios near downtown Dallas. KERA’s Jerome Weeks captured them on camera. Some employees say they’ve spotted foxes around the station for nearly 20 years. “We believe they survive moving up and down the whole Reverchon Park/Turtle Creek area,” Weeks says. Take a look at pictures of the foxes – and find out what a fox really does say.
- The recent Ted Nugent controversy appears to have helped Wendy Davis – at least financially. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate attacked Republican Greg Abbott for campaigning last week with Nugent, who has made controversial comments about women and President Obama. The Texas Tribune reports a spike in contributions for Davis in the latest campaign finance reports from Jan. 24 through Saturday. She raised $684,792 during the last six days of the fundraising period, which included the time when Abbott announced he would appear with Nugent. That’s more than the $505,016 she raised in the first 24 days of the period. The Tribune reports: “The Nugent controversy did not seem to affect Abbott’s fundraising efforts. He raised $2.45 million in the latest reporting period and has a large cash-on-hand advantage over Davis, $30 million to $11.3 million.”
- Lake Highlands native St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, keeps attracting attention. NPR recently interviewed Clark about her unique music style. (KXT has been playing some of her songs – listen to them here.) “St. Vincent, a new album [is] replete with dissonances and distortions that make even its prettiest melodies read as disturbing,” NPR says. Clark told NPR: "I just do that because that feels very natural, and that's what's going on in my brain, so of course that would manifest itself in the music. Some things that people even find ugly or harsh don't register to me as ugly or harsh — I'm just like, 'Oh, that's beautiful!'” Clark was recently featured in Reddit's "Ask Me Anything." Clark was featured in the December edition of Smithsonian magazine. "I wanted to make a party record you could play at a funeral," she’s been quoted as saying.
Here's “Digital Witness:”
KXT has been playing another of her new songs, “Birth in Reverse:”
Photo credit: Henrik Lehnerer / Shutterstock.com
