Five stories that have North Texas talking: Remembering Kidd Kraddick; two false identities enter the Museum Tower vs. Nasher Sculpture Center squabble; young, poor women seeking abortions are met with alternatives at the Texas-Mexico border and more.
Update, 2:00 p.m.: Granville Morse, deputy coroner in Jefferson Parish, La. says that Kidd Kraddick died of cardiac disease. Dr. Morse says a preliminary autopsy shows that the Dallas radio icon's heart was enlarged and his coronary arteries were 40 to 80 percent blocked.
Morse tells KERA Kraddick did not actually have a heart attack, but most likely died of an irregular heartbeat brought on by the blockages. The final autopsy report, including toxicology, is expected within the next couple of weeks.
The coroner says he's been busy today answering phone calls and doing interviews with Dallas media.
"You know, I didn’t fully understand how well-beloved he was," Morse said. "I’ve been reading more and more about him, and understand what a wonderful person he was who definitely used his success in the best way possible to help others.”
Kraddick, 53, died Saturday at a golf tournament benefiting his charity, Kidd's Kids.
Our original post: This morning sounded like any other on 106.1 KISS FM at first: host Kidd Kraddick was insisting that happiness is a result of effort, quizzing co-host (and self-deemed “radio wife”) Kellie Raspberry on her knowledge of Freud. Too much intellectualism, Kidd said, is the recipe for misery. But when the spirited conversation broke up, a staff-recorded message told listeners something the loyalists already knew:
This archive show was in memory of Kidd; he died Saturday at age 53. He'd been in New Orleans raising money for his Kidd’s Kids charity.
Like so many in Dallas who were strapped in passenger seats with lunchboxes in the mid-'90s, I grew up hearing Kidd Kraddick In The Morning every single day on the way to school. Since 2001, listenership included more than just Dallasites – the show is now heard in 100 cities. Kelly Clarkson, One Direction’s Harry Styles, and Kevin Jonas were among the pop stars who paid homage on Twitter. And there are at least two roadside billboards already dedicated to his memory – one near Northeast Mall and another Facebook commenters have seen in Haltom City.
- Museum Tower And The Case Of The Fake People: Those rabble-rousing comments on the Dallas News and D Magazine sites that side with the Museum Tower in its never-ending fight with the Nasher? Not all of them were for real. As in, posted by real people. Former Channel 5 anchorman Mike Snyder created two false Facebook profiles in the name of “strategic communications” directed by a lawyer for the tower's owner: the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System, a governmental institution funded in large part by taxpayers. Pension system administrator Richard Tettamant told the Dallas Morning News he had no knowledge that Snyder was commenting on his behalf, though the paper's Steve Thompson and Gary Jacobson found emails through an open records request that suggest otherwise. [Dallas News]
- Crossing The Border For Black-Market Abortions: As the new Texas law toughens standards for abortion clinics and bans any abortion after 20 weeks, Mexico anticipates more women will cross the border to end their pregnancies. KUT’s Joy Diaz went to the mostly Hispanic and Catholic border town of Laredo and crossed into Nuevo Laredo, where pharmacies and doctors’ offices line the streets. Salespeople dressed as nurses reach out to passers-by at shops where abortion drugs are cheap and stocked. One doctor tells Diaz that she's gotten requests from American girls as young as 14. The doctor doesn't serve kids that age, but she fears the girls leave and find someone who will – at the cost of safety. [KUT in Austin]
- Amazon Brings 5,000 New Jobs To DFW: It’s official. Amazon originally said it would hire more than 1,000 people for sites in Coppell and Haslet. Turns out, that number is 5,000. Gig-seekers can find out more here. [Dallas News]
- Bee Careful, You Guys: A Pantego woman survived 200 bee stings and refused a hospital visit after a gruesome swarm chased her and her boyfriend down last week. Firefighters battled an estimated 30,000 bees with foam after Kristen Beauregard and her beau, whom she did not name, met the intruders while exercising their miniature horses. The horses and five hens were killed by the bees. “We swept up piles and piles of them,” Beauregard told the Star-Telegram. “It was like a bad movie.” Experts are trying to determine via a sample whether they were Africanized honey bees - “killer bees.”
