Five stories that have North Texas talking: the “dream team” has unveiled its Trinity toll road recommendations; Texas Rangers’ attendance has tumbled; a presidential contender is coming to Texas to raise some cash; and more.
A woman got out of trouble by playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors" with police officers. She was underage and had been drinking over the weekend at Chilifest, a music festival near College Station. KBTX-TV reports Burleson County officers were working security at the festival and gave the drinker a chance to get out of a ticket if she won the popular children’s game. “You can see from her reaction that she was both excited and relieved to have won,” KBTX reports. The county constable told his officers they couldn’t work security at future Chilifests. He said he has a problem when officers “play games to get someone out of a ticket.” [KBTX-TV]
Here are some Vines from the scene:
- A team of design experts on Tuesday issued a new vision for the controversial Trinity Parkway. One main recommendation? Let the park design the road. The so-called “dream team” of 12 planners says the road should be a “gracious and harmonious” parkway that maximizes access to the Trinity Park, opportunities for inner city development near the park, and an easier way to bypass downtown Dallas. The Dallas City Council will discuss the report Thursday. The Dallas Morning News has more details.Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told WFAA-TV: "I'm confident their work will dramatically shift the conversation about this important project.” The Trinity toll road is the subject on Think today at 1 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM. You’ll hear from architect Robert Meckfessel and from Michael Morris with the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
- Texas Rangers’ attendance hit a five-year low Monday. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has the details: “The run of bad luck and losing finally caught up with the Texas Rangers. An announced paid attendance of 18,401 for an AL West meeting with the Los Angeles Angels was the lowest at Globe Life Park since July 8, 2010. The smallest announced crowd a year ago was 23,081. The Rangers are just two seasons from setting a club record with 3.4 million tickets sold in 2012, the season that followed consecutive trips to the World Series.” [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]
- A presidential contender is coming to Texas to raise some money. The Texas Tribune reports: “Fresh off becoming the fourth major candidate to announce a run for president, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is heading to Texas next week to raise money for his new campaign. The Florida Republican will be in Houston on Monday and Dallas on Tuesday, according to one of his top backers in the state, Dallas-based investor George Seay. The Texas trip is expected to follow post-announcement fundraisers in Boston and New York. ‘We really have three people from Texas running from president — [Ted] Cruz, [Rick] Perry and [Jeb] Bush,’ Seay said. ‘They all have lots of fans down here, and the fact that this is his third stop’ speaks to the support Rubio is seeing in Texas.” [Texas Tribune]
- Security video released this week shows a construction crane toppling onto the roof of the Dallas Museum of Art. A worker was taken to the hospital, and the crane crushed part of the roof and punched a hole in the south wall. The crane was being used to assemble a tent for a special event.
