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Weekly News Roundup 1/27

Collin County plans to begin acquiring (or taking) land along U.S. 380 between Denton County Line and Coit Road for a new freeway with a possible 2030 start date.
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Collin County plans to begin acquiring (or taking) land along U.S. 380 between Denton County Line and Coit Road for a new freeway with a possible 2030 start date. County officials plan to start talking with property owners this spring, according to a Jan. 22 Community Impact report. 

The Dallas Morning News has been continuing its age-old, outdated practice of supporting candidates for the upcoming elections. The editorial board recently recommended Scott Grigg for Collin County tax assessor-collector. You’d figure in this divisive time, when no one on the right-side of the political spectrum seems to trust newspapers, the decision makers would kill this practice, especially after the newspaper announced its support of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. (A death sentence for any publication in Republican-controlled Texas.)  

A former McKinney daycare worker pleaded guilty to more child abuse charges this week, WFAA reported Jan. 22. Jessica Wiese, a 44-year-old Collin County resident, received an additional 10 years for seven other cases that were pending. She is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for body-slamming a 2-month old baby, who suffered several fractures. 

Another UNT student was killed by police, according to the Denton Record-Chronicle. Darius Tarver, a 23-year-old undergraduate criminal justice major, was shot and killed Tuesday morning after he was discovered acting erratically while wielding a frying pan and knife, Denton police reported. Traver’s father, Pastor Kevin Traver, is demanding answers. His son, who he claims was a good kid, was set to graduate in May.  

A 25-year-old man was assaulted and robbed Jan. 18 in Wylie after he went to get his hair done by a woman he’d met on social media, NBC5 reported. He suffered multiple head injuries, but was able to escape the residence, according to Wylie police. Joshua James, a 19-year-old with a probation violation warrant for a different aggravated assault, was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm. The moral of the story: go to a reputable establishment to get your hair done. 

The Dallas Observer is feeling the heat from Tool fans on social media after publishing a story by a reviewer who criticized Tool’s Wednesday night appearance at American Airlines Center.  As he pointed out in his review, “This was probably Tool’s most calcified performance yet. It wasn’t irredeemable, but it reeked of complacency.” Fans seemed to reply collectively, “Writer was hoping for a Brittany Spears concert, I guess.”

Legendary broadcast newsman Jim Lehrer died last week, according to multiple news outlets. He was 85. Lehrer blazed onto the Dallas scene in the late ’50s at the Dallas Morning News before graduating to the Times-Herald. He then switched to broadcast journalism and went to work for KERA. In the ’70s, he teamed up with Robert MacNeil on The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, a PBS newcast that would become known as PBS Newshour. Lehrer told the Television Academy Foundation in the early 2000s, “It is not a journalist’s job to change the world. A journalist’s job is to see what’s happening in the world and report that to others, who will then change it.”