Five stories that have North Texas talking: Dallas ISD's alternative three-year-degree pilot program gets the green light, GIFs from the Spurs' fall at the NBA finals Game 7, new Susan G. Komen CEO speaks out - sort of - and more.
Dallas ISD could turn senioritis as we know it into preschool for everyone with an optional three-year high school diploma, after a bill just passed to allow a new pilot program. Trustees want to take the pomp, ceremony, and early release key of that 4th year experience and put the dollars into the district’s preschool program.
In fact, by trustee Mike Morath’s count, DISD could send two kids to full-day pre-K for each high school student who gets through in three years. The state education commissioner must still approve the plan. [Texas Tribune]
(We're getting to know North Texas students as they make their way through high school as part of KERA's Class of '17 project. Come along.)
- Hundreds Hoping To Testify At Abortion Restrictions Hearing In Austin Didn't Get To: "Byron Cook couldn't wait NINE MORE MINUTES to hear women testify against #HB16 #HB60," women's issues writer Andrea Grimes Tweeted at 3:42 a.m. Her feelings regarding the House Committee chairman's decision to close testimony after 3 a.m. were shared by others among the hundreds who'd signed up to speak about abortion legislation being considered by The House Committee on State Affairs. The bills would require abortion facilities to stick to the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers -- and ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, a provision that was removed from another abortion bill that just passed. [KUT in Austin]
- New Komen CEO Optimistic About Troubles Facing The Org: Can Dallas-based Susan G. Komen for the Cure bounce back after initially deciding to pull funding from Planned Parenthood last year, then reinstating it and losing support from both sides of the abortion issue? New CEO Dr. Judy Salerno succeeds founder Nancy Brinker. She said she's starting fresh on the matter and declined to give her stance on abortion in an interview with the Dallas Morning News.And there are no plans to rebrand, at least by replacing Komen's chief symbol: Salerno says she hasn't observed any “pink fatigue,” the notion that supporters and onlookers have grown weary of the so-colored ribbon symbolic of breast cancer awareness.
- GIFs From Game 7: Spurs fans with masochistic leanings, or those in a state of disbelief after last night’s loss to the Heat, let’s debrief on the hardest moments to watch: Mario Chalmers’ buzzer-beating three to close the third quarter; LeBron James basking with his NBA Finals MVP trophy (again.) And, oh, on the Spurs side, a distraught Tim Duncan after missing a layup, looking like he might burst into tears. It’s all here, in this this series of GIFs from SB Nation. Enjoy.
- Corchado's Mexico, After 'Midnight': As Alfredo Corchado tells it, there is a light at the end of the tunnel in Mexico's drug war. The author of Midnight In Mexico and Dallas Morning News' Mexico bureau chief told Tell Me More’s Celeste Headlee he sees a new generation ready to take corrupt government to task. "If you look at Mexico over the course of my career – 20 years in Mexico – having been born and lived in Mexico as a kid, you see a much more open society. You see a much more, I think, skeptical society. People questioning the government. I see hope in the courage of my own colleagues,” he said. Read an excerpt from Midnight and listen to his book-launch weekend conversation with Think host Krys Boyd here.
