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A First In Dallas County: Jail Medical Center Named For Latino, African-American Leaders

Five stories that have North Texas talking: Two Dallas minority leaders share the moniker of a new $39-million medical facility; a dozen ways to prevent mosquitos from breeding in your yard; Waxahachie football will get a fancy new scoreboard; and more.

Dallas County can add a new notch on its 170-year timeline. The first county government building to be named for a Latino and African-American together was dedicated Monday as The Jesse Everett Gill and Dr. Onésimo Hernández Medical Facility. The 139,000-square-foot medical center will include clinic space, a pharmacy and staff offices to serve patients from the county jail, the Associated Press reports.

 

It's also the first county government building to bear a Latino's name.

Here’s a statement about the center from Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price from March:

Hernández, who died in 1994 at age 69, was a trailblazer in the medical world. He was the first Latino to attend Southwestern Medical School, the first to work for Parkland Hospital and the first Latino Dallas school board member, according to the Associated Press and The Dallas Morning News. Hernández also co-founded the Commission on Mexican-American Affairs, working to recruit and appoint more Latinos to city boards and commission in the ‘70s, according to the Morning News.

Gill was the county's first African-American deputy sheriff, starting in 1954. After leaving the department, he taught in Dallas schools for nearly 40 years, retiring in 2000. He died in January at age 85.

 

Read more about Hernández’s life and work on The Portal To Texas History site. [Associated Press, The Dallas Morning News]

  • Monday marked the one-year anniversary of James Boulware perforating the windows of the Dallas police headquarters with a barrage of bullets from an armored van. Initially police thought as many as four gunmen were involved in the early morning of June 13, 2015. But Boulware, a 35-year-old with a history of mental instability and drug use, acted alone. He didn't hit any of the three employees inside the lobby despite the glass of the headquarters being shattered by dozens of bullets. In 15 minutes, the shooting was followed by a police chase that ended at a Jack in the Box parking lot in Hutchins, KERA News reported. Boulware eventually died in his van from a sniper’s bullet after an hours-long standoff. The Dallas Morning News revisited the night and Boulware’s motivations leading up to the shooting in a new interactive. [KERA News, The Dallas Morning News]

 

  • A mosquito can breed in as little water as it takes to fill a bottle cap. And don’t even think about leaving an empty soda can on your deck to fill with rainwater — as many as 20 mosquitos can come out of that. With Zika and West Nile virus on the state’s radar this summer, now’s the time to mosquito-proof your yard. Kelly Hanes of Tarrant County Public Health demonstrates a dozen ways to prevent mosquitoes from multiplying in your yard this summer. The tips range from the basics, like clearing excess water from flower pots, to more advanced prevention, like shaking patio furniture covers daily. Watch the full video below. [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]

 

  • A new $500,000 scoreboard is headed to Waxahachie High School by kickoff this fall. The school says the 12-year-old scoreboard at Lumpkins Stadium was plagued by technical difficulties. The district originally planned to replace it using money a 2011 bond package. But the post-recession price tag delayed the project for five years, the Waxahachie Daily Light reports. The 18-by-32-foot video board will display commercials, replays and even live productions from journalism students, the Daily Light says. Several other schools in the district will receive new scoreboards as part of an initiative approved at Monday’s board meeting. It will take three to five years for all of the digital scoreboards to be installed. [Waxahachie Daily Light]

  • New Baylor task force will take on 105 recommendations from law firm on sexual assaults. Pepper Hamilton, an independent law firm, concluded that the university had a “fundamental failure” in fulfilling federalTitle IX requirements in handling sexual assaults, theTexas Tribune reports. Football coach Art Briles is out -- at least for now. So is President Kenneth Starr, who remains a law professor at the school. The sexual assault task force will focus on athletics, public safety, counseling and advocacy, the school said in a statement. The Pepper Hamilton report has not been released, but The Baylor Line Association called on the Board of Regents to do so. [The Texas Tribune]