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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
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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.

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Plea deal reached for final Dallas officer charged with excessive force during George Floyd protests.
Ryan Mabry, 38, was the last known officer to face criminal charges related to the force used against protesters during the 2020 George Floyd demonstrations. The Dallas Morning News reports that Mabry pleaded guilty on Monday for firing “less lethal” munitions at a protester, which caused the man to lose an eye. Brandon Saenz also needed metal plates in his head after the incident. Mabry’s sentence is two years of deferred adjudication and he must surrender the license that allows him to be a sworn officer. If he completes probation, he won’t face a conviction. Mabry had been charged with eight felonies, including six counts of aggravated assault by a public servant and two counts of deadly conduct.
Greenville officer killed in ambush.
Officer Cooper Dawson was shot and killed attempting to arrest a suspect with multiple felony warrants. His death marks the first time in over a century that a policeman was killed in the town about 50 miles northeast of Dallas. Dawson pursued after the suspect fled a traffic stop, chasing him on foot behind a house. Police Chief Chris Smith says the shooter ambushed Dawson after the officer came around the corner. The suspect, who has not been identified, was critically wounded after Dawson returned fire. The officer died on Tuesday morning at Hunt County Regional Hospital.
Warm Wednesday gives way to chilly Thanksgiving.
Today’s high is 79, but a cold front charges in overnight and will drop Thanksgiving’s high to 52 degrees. That’s about 10 degrees cooler than the normal. The weekend pops up to the high 50s and low 60s, but mornings will be in the 30s. WFAA doesn’t believe it will freeze in Dallas proper, but there could be “some patchy frost.”
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.
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Daystar’s Joni Lamb speaks about her son’s firing.
Daystar is a huge television network based in Bedford and registered as a church. Its cofounder, Marcus Lamb, died from COVID in 2021 after he himself and his network had spread vaccine misinformation, including an hourlong program featuring the wisdom of RFK Jr. The other Daystar cofounder is Marcus’ wife, Joni, whose second husband, Doug Weiss, filed for divorce from his previous wife just two months after Marcus died. None of this sat well with Jonathan Lamb, Joni’s son, who was fired from the Network 10 days ago. Yesterday, Joni posted a cringy video about the firing in which she said, in part, “We stand firm in our faith, knowing that God is with us, and his purpose for Daystar is far greater than any present challenge we may be facing.” The Righteous Lambs. I call dibs. Or maybe, to avoid getting sued, The Righteous Lambstones.
Kyrie is awesome.
The Mavs beat the Hawks 129-119, and Kyrie, playing through an illness, dropped 32 points. I needed a short item after that Daystar craziness.
It’s cold!
Super short item. I respect your short attention span.
Erykah Badu will do a DJ set tomorrow.
If I told you Badu was going to spin as DJ Lo Down Loretta Brown, would you guess that the venue will be the Lexus Box Garden in Plano’s Legacy Hall?
Someone is shooting coyotes in East Dallas.
Three animals have turned up dead in the Lochwood neighborhood. Dallas Animal Services says it’s investigating. Fun fact: in Texas, a hunting license isn’t required to hunt depredating or plundering coyotes on private property, as long as the hunter has landowner authorization. So says the Star-Telegram.
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:
Why haven't we seen Mark Cuban behind the Mavs bench at road games this season?
— DLLS Mavs (@DLLS_Mavs) November 25, 2024
Our NBA Insider Marc Stein has the answer...from Mr. Cuban himself.@TheSteinLine | @DLLS_Sports | @DLLS_Mavs | #DallasMavericks | @ALLCITY_NBA pic.twitter.com/AwCzQibuNH
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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.
@xobbrooke_ i was gagged #kaceymusgraves #deeperwelltour #dcc @kaceymusgraves @Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
♬ original sound - brooke
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The Wings are sellouts.
The Dallas Wings sold out season ticket memberships for the 2025 season in record time, the team announced last week. About half of Arlington’s College Park Center’s 6,251 seats are for season ticket holders. This could be the last season in Arlington, as the team is slated to begin the 2026 season in its new home: Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas Memorial Auditorium.
Dallas County Juvenile Detention subject of damning report.
A 100-page report from the state’s Office of Inspector General found that teachers and staff at the county’s juvenile detention center falsified reports, didn’t report abuse allegations made by juveniles there, and kept children in seclusion for days. WFAA reports that the facility could not provide the inspector with documentation for 176 of 191 juveniles that would show they were attending classes. So far, several people have been fired, and two top officials have resigned. A criminal investigation is ongoing.
Highland Park ISD investigates online threat.
Highland Park ISD police say they’ve made an arrest in connection to an online threat to Highland Park High School. The district adopted additional security measures last week because of a social media post that displayed a threat written on a bathroom stall.
Chilly Turkey Day.
We’ll start the week in the 60s, have a brief hiccup around Wednesday, where we’ll hit 80, and then move into true Thanksgiving weather where the temperatures will be in the mid to upper 50s and the lows in the 40s and 30s. Break out the turkey sweaters, y’all.
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.
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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.
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Dallas officer surrenders on misdemeanor warrant.
Officer Ali Toppa has been investigated by his employer at least three times in the four years he’s been a Dallas cop. He turned himself into the Irving Police Department on Thursday for a misdemeanor charge “of releasing a body-worn camera recording without permission.” The past investigations are troubling: he responded to a stolen vehicle call and made “unwelcome physical advances” toward the woman who called 911 in a motel room. He also turned off his body-worn camera and gave conflicting statements to internal affairs investigators, which led to a three-day suspension. In March 2023, a woman accused him of assault “while they were intimate at a hotel” in Trophy Club. Investigators asked her to report it there, which she did not wish to do. Irving hasn’t detailed the charge.
Two Dallas North Tollway lanes will be closed this weekend from downtown to SMU.
Other media outlets make you click to find the “Dallas highway” where there will be major traffic delays. Not me! It’s the Dallas North Tollway, and you don’t have to point your browser to a WFAA page that will autoplay an Adobe ad to find that out. From 10 p.m. today to 5 a.m. Monday, two lanes will be shut down in either direction from near Victory Park through the University Boulevard exit on the tollway.
Judge sides with police and fire pension, orders city to speed up spending.
Dallas may need to spend a lot more money shoring up the $3 billion police and fire pension shortfall based on a new accelerated timeline approved by a judge in Travis County. The city’s plan wanted to take five years to flow more money into the underfunded pension, but the pension board wanted it done in three. The judge agreed with the pension’s argument that state law dictated that the board must agree to the city’s plan, not the other way around; if the pension’s desire for a three-year step up becomes the path, it will cost the city $400 million more than the $11.2 billion Dallas proposed investing over the next 30 years. The city’s chief financial officer has said anything earlier than five years will result in cutting services.
Sunday’s high is 80.
I don’t know what to do with this weather, man. We have a sunny weekend ahead, with today’s high at 66. Tomorrow’s is 72. Sunday’s is, yes, 80. Next weekend should hang in the 50s, which seems a lot more reasonable for a standard November.
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.