FrontBurner

Happy Thanksgiving, we’ll see you on Monday.

We’ll have a few stories publishing tomorrow, but this space—FrontBurner—will be quiet until Monday. We’re eating, too. See you in a few days. We at D Magazine hope you have a great holiday.

Pete Schenkel, RIP.

The name Pete Schenkel may not be familiar to some, but his fingerprints are hidden all over Dallas. He was the guy who kept the Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl in the late 90s. The South Dallas native was the former owner of Schepps Dairy. He has served on a slew of big-name local boards such as the State Fair of Texas, DFW International Airport, and Methodist Health System Foundation, to name a few.

Schenkel died at his Highland Park home this morning while in hospice care. He was 88.

In the Dallas Morning News, he is described as someone who “never left fingerprints,” opting to do his work quietly and behind the scenes. “He showed confidence in me in my first campaign that buoyed my spirit and drive,” Dallas City Councilmember Gay Donnell Willis said on social media. “Mr. Pete was genuine, always the same, supportive and wise,” said DHA Housing Solutions chair Betty Culbreath. A statement from the city of Dallas praised Schenkel for his devotion to “the betterment of our city,” and said that he would be remembered “for his steadfast commitment to serve with pride and humility.”

Funeral arrangements have not been announced. He is survived by his wife Pat, three children, and seven grandchildren.

Source: Dallas Morning News

R.I.P., Ron McKeown, former Buddy publisher.

McKeown, who was also a longtime photographer for the music magazine, died back in September, in Sulphur Springs, at the age of 78. Buddy put together a special 16-page issue all about McKeown that you can read and download here. The guy was a real one. You can get a printed copy of the special issue this Sunday, December 1, at a celebration of life at Poor David’s Pub. Maylee Thomas-Fuller, Jimmy Wallace, Rocky Athas, The Michael O’Neal Band, and Tutu Jones will perform. Things get going at 2 p.m.

If you’re not Turkey Trotting, here are the streets to avoid on Thanksgiving.

The 57th YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas’ Turkey Trot takes off tomorrow near City Hall at 8:30 a.m. But the closures begin tonight at 7 p.m., and there’s already fencing up and down Young Street. Generally speaking, you’re probably fine if you stay away from Young downtown and Oak Cliff near the Houston Street Viaduct.

Young between St. Paul and Park Ave. will close to traffic at 7 p.m. and reopen tomorrow at 5 p.m. The westbound lanes of Young from Field to Griffin streets will also shut down from 7 p.m. to 5 p.m. Young from Griffin to Harwood will also close early this morning from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. Don’t even try Marilla near City Hall.

As mentioned, the 8-mile course takes runners into Oak Cliff while the 5k’ers are corralled downtown. For you trotters: It will also be pretty miserable outside. We’ll wake up to close to freezing temperatures and it will take until noon to crack 50. The National Weather Service says to expect wind gusts of up to 25 mph, so maybe don’t be embarrassed to pull on that turkey costume this year.

This Dallasite found a hack to make their own very cheap bumper sticker.

Have a message for the world and a label maker? Do what this driver did, spotted outside Cattleack Barbeque.

A fascinating podcast about watching the Cowboys on death row.

Podcasts don’t come much better than Pablo Torre Finds Out, in which the eponymous host explores topics ranging from athlete-branded weed to the science of tearing down a goalpost to the Prince documentary Netflix doesn’t want you to see. It’s great, but me being a busy dude and all, I’ll cop to falling behind on episodes. That’s how, 14 days later, I belatedly came across what Torre calls “what might be the best episode of my show, to date.”

It’s about a man named Charles Flores, who in 1999 was convicted for his role in the murder of 64-year-old Betty Black during an attempted burglary in her Farmers Branch home. A different man pleaded guilty to shooting Black. But Flores, as an alleged accomplice in the murder, faced the same capital murder charge because of a Texas statute called the law of parties. He was sentenced to death. Flores maintained his innocence and real questions remain about whether he was even present. Without getting into particulars before the show can, his execution was halted in May 2016. Four years later, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied his appeal to contest the original conviction, leaving him on death row. He awaits a new execution date from a cell inside the supermax prison in Livingston.

The episode is a compelling listen for the criminal justice elements alone. But what pulled me in is how it examined the world of football culture in solitary confinement, where Flores spends 23 hours every day. That doesn’t stop him from watching his Dallas Cowboys or cooking game day meals and playing fantasy football with other inmates, not all of whom will live to see next football season. Think you’re a dedicated fan of America’s Team? You may not measure up to a guy who watches each game by sitting on stacks of legal correspondence and peering through holes in the grated door of his cell to watch the Cowboys on the prison’s 35-inch community TV.

Here’s why you don’t see Mark Cuban at Mavs road games very often anymore.

This week marks the one-year anniversary of Cuban selling his majority stake in the team, and in the aftermath of that, a sharp decrease in his attendance at Mavs road games.

Turns out there’s a fun reason for that: now that he’s no longer the majority owner, he can’t sit behind the bench anymore—and apparently wasn’t supposed to be able to in the first place?

Illuminating stuff by way of Marc Stein, who got the scoop from Cuban himself:

A frivolous complaint about new Fort Worth restaurant The Chumley House.

Today is the first day of business for The Chumley House, a deluxe Euro-inspired steakhouse from the team behind The Charles. They just gave a fun Eater interview that tries (with great strain) to piece together their reasoning behind opening a British-themed luxury restaurant in the Fort Worth market. Co-owner Chas Martin adds that the business is named after his late dog, Chumley.

Just one problem. There is indeed a snooty-sounding English village, castle, and surname pronounced “Chumley.” But it’s not spelled Chumley. It’s spelled Cholmondeley. It’s one of those wacky English spellings like Worcestershire or Marylebone, where they write in whole extra syllables that they never say aloud as a prank on foreigners.

So, a polite request to Duro Hospitality. Spell it The Cholmondeley House, then tell customers, “It’s pronounced Chumley.” Now that’s a proper English attitude.

Kacey Musgraves went to Texas Heaven in Dallas.

Over the weekend, Dallas welcomed Kacey Musgraves home—Golden, Texas is close enough—for a two-day stop at American Airlines Center on her Deeper Well World Tour. Nickel Creek and Lord Huron joined her, as did frequent collaborator Leon Bridges for their duet “Superbloom.” But minds were truly lost when the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders took the stage for a pom-pom-studded rendition of “High Horse.” As Musgraves, a noted DCC superfan, texted longtime director Kelli Finglass, “I died and went to Texas heaven… the only thing that would have made it more Texas is if Dr Pepper rained from the ceiling.” 

Will this important collaboration of great boots and illustrious hairography make its way into the recently confirmed season two of Netflix’s “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” in 2025? Fingers crossed the stars align.

On Frontburner this week.

It’s been a busy week over here in the Arts District, and Friday snuck up on us. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been some great conversations over here on Frontburner, including some drama at what is generally a pretty mundane post-election City Council meeting. That was followed by more election-related drama. We talked about (sigh) the Cowboys and the roof to AT&T Stadium. But it wasn’t all bad sports news: Garland got a new pro soccer team and the Wings came up with a big win in the WNBA draft lottery.

Join the conversation — we love seeing your comments.

Builders of Hope’s Stephanie Champion honored with advocacy award.

The Dallas Housing Coalition held its inaugural housing summit yesterday at Dallas College’s Bill J. Priest Center in the Cedars, with about 280 in attendance. The event covered a lot of ground around housing affordability. The group ended the night by awarding the first Raul Reyes Jr. Housing Advocacy Award to Stephanie Champion, chief of community development and policy with Builders of Hope. 

Reyes, a longtime advocate for West Dallas, died in February at 50. Coalition board chair Ashley Brundage said the group requested nominations and then culled through them before presenting a short list to the Reyes family, who picked the winner. Reyes’ daughter, Dahlia, handed out the award. Champion seemed a bit stunned, gazing at the glass trophy as she spoke about how Reyes supported her from the moment she arrived in West Dallas.

“He left incredibly big shoes to fill, and I will try my best to walk in them and carry on his work on behalf of West Dallas neighbors and our communities,” she said.

Examining the climate risks in major cities, including Dallas, Fort Worth.

This week, the Washington Post examined how climate change could affect how people choose safe places to live. Using data from climate modeling firm AlphaGeo, the publication delivers an interactive look at how climate events like hurricanes, droughts, wildfires, floods, and more would impact cities and regions. It also looks at the types of events those regions are most at risk for encountering. AlphaGeo looked at 28 factors in each city or region to assess its vulnerability, including life expectancy, infrastructure spending, the economy, how tightly knit the community is, income inequality, and household debt.

“Overlaying risk and resilience is a road map to a community’s future. It paints a picture of why a place is positioned to thrive or struggle because climate change won’t be a singular disaster,” the Post says. “It’s a succession of stresses, some small, others devastating.”

Dallas-Fort Worth ranked high for resilience, partly thanks to its use of renewable energy and its economy. It scored low on energy reliability, as did most cities in Texas covered in the piece, due to the potential for extended power outages. The region ranked medium for risk, with the biggest risks coming from the heat, drought, and wildfires.

Overall, the area is more resilient than risky—for now.

Attorney General Ken Paxton sues Dallas over pot proposition.

Paxton has filed a lawsuit after voters approved an amendment to the city charter that bars police officers from arresting anyone found in possession of marijuana weighing 4 ounces or less. The amendment also removes the smell of marijuana as probable cause for a search. Paxton listed as defendants the city of Dallas, Mayor Eric Johnson and the entire City Council, interim City Manager Kim Tolbert, and interim Dallas Police Chief Michael Igo.

Proposition R, Paxton argues, is in violation of state law, which still considers the use and possession of marijuana illegal. “Municipalities cannot refuse to enforce Texas drug laws concerning possession and distribution of marijuana—an illicit substance that psychologists have increasingly linked to psychosis and other negative consequences,” his office said in a statement.

This was to be expected. Mayor Johnson and councilmembers Cara Mendelsohn and Gay Donnell Willis failed at an attempt to append language to the proposition that would have stopped it from being enacted unless state law changed. Instead, the Council, Tolbert, and Igo agreed to enforce the proposition, a decision that preceded the lawsuit. Paxton in January sued the cities of Austin, Denton, Elgin, Killeen, and San Marcos for similar attempts to codify decriminalizing marijuana.

Joe Pappalardo’s bibliophilic return to Dallas.

You probably remember Joey Paps from his time as the editor of the Dallas Observer. No? Then perhaps you remember him as one of the plaintiffs who successfully sued the state of Texas in a First Amendment case to protect our right to photograph stuff with drones. No? His narrative history of the sunflower, which inspired Hitler’s invasion of Russia? You’re killing me here.

In any case, Pappalardo has a new book out titled Four Against the West: The True Saga of a Frontier Family That Reshaped the Nation and Created a Legend. It’s about Judge Roy Bean and his brothers. From the sizzle copy: “Using new information gleaned from exhaustive research, Joe Pappalardo’s Four Against the West is an unprecedented and vivid telling of the intertwined stories of all four Bean brothers, exploring for the first time how their relentless ambitions helped create a new America.” He’s doing an in-store tonight at 6 at Interabang. Tell him Tim sent ya.

Luka Doncic is injured.

Per ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Mavs superstar has a strained right wrist and will be re-evaluated in a week. The good news is the damage could be a lot worse. The bad news is he’ll miss a chance to go toe-to-toe with old pal Jalen Brunson when Dallas faces the New York Knicks on Wednesday.