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Presidential Center Planning Means Running A Tight Ship In University Park

Courtney Collins
/
KERA News

Five stories that have North Texas talking: University Park braces for Bush Presidential Center chaos, furry emissaries have landed in West, thinking in lieu of clicking and more.

Get ready for road closures, overnight work crews and adjusted trash collection schedules. The opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center at SMU isn’t just a high security event on campus, it's going to impact the whole neighborhood. Trying to stay ahead of the curve, the City of University Park has delivered door hangers to folks who live near the school with all the particulars of this week’s peculiarity. Specifics include blocked off alleys, extra stringent parking enforcement and fair warning about a private party Thursday night that will include fireworks. You can view the door hanger and read up on all the relevant changes by clicking here.

Parking on campus is going to be a spider’s web starting tomorrow, so SMU has made alternate plans for commuting students and those who live in certain areas on-campus. This website has been created for Mustangs trying to find out how to get to class Wednesday and Thursday, and where to leave their cars when they arrive.

Want a little insight into all the fuss over logistics? KERA’s Lauren Silverman gives us a sneak peek at the George W. Bush Presidential Library’s record setting electronic archive. We’re talking 200 million e-mails, for one. BONUS: her story includes the word terabyte.

  • West Bound And Wagging: There were 14 traveling in their party, eight human, six canine. The K-9 comfort group from Lutheran Church Charities in Addison, Illinois didn’t think twice before packing up at 3 a.m. Sunday, driving to Wisconsin and hopping a flight to Waco. The therapy dogs and their handlers traveled by private plane (donated for the cost of fuel) and were able to greet elementary school kids in West yesterday when school resumed after Wednesday night’s deadly explosion. Also hoping to give comfort to the community of West, President Obama will be in Waco Thursday to attend a memorial service for victims of the blast. Already scheduled to be in North Texas for the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the President and First Lady will travel to Baylor Thursday afternoon for the service.

  • Parents Skipping Rx Drugs During “The Talk”: A study released yesterday shows a troubling oversight; while the vast majority of parents teach their kids about the dangers of street drugs, not even 15 percent think to bring up prescription pills. The Partnership at Drugfree.org also reveals that a third of the time, mom and dad say Ritalin or Adderall may be a helpful study aid, even if the student doesn’t have ADHD. But Tracey and Jeff Gerl of Cypress, Texas hope people won’t sit still for this type of misinformation. Their son Nick started smoking pot at the age of 12 and began ransacking his parents’ medicine cabinet with his friends not long after. He was in rehab by 14 but despite two escape attempts, left clean and sober almost eight months later. [AP via NPR]

  • There’s A Brainwave For That…: Tired of all that exhausting tapping and scrolling? Is hitting the back key on your iPhone browser just too draining? Well good news, a respite for your overtaxed digits is on the horizon. An electrical engineering professor at the University of Texas at Dallas is working with Samsung on a new smart-phone technology: mind control. Roozbeh Jafari is connecting test subjects to electrodes and making them mentally open apps, select a contact, power on or off, etc. The scary news? It’s been working, 80 to 95 percent of the time. [Dallas Observer]

  • Bluebonnet Season Is Trespassing Season: Who doesn’t want a picture of their toddler, or better yet, toddler plus puppy, shrouded in blossoms of Texas’ most beloved wildflower? Whether you’re a bride-to-be, budding photographer or proud parent, chances are you’ve snuck across at least one property line to capture a perfect bluebonnet photo. According to the New York Times, 92 percent of all land in Texas is privately owned, so just know that the next time you bend a blossom to your cheek and say “cheese,” chances are, you’re also trespassing.
Courtney Collins has been working as a broadcast journalist since graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 2004. Before coming to KERA in 2011, Courtney worked as a reporter for NPR member station WAMU in Washington D.C. While there she covered daily news and reported for the station’s weekly news magazine, Metro Connection.