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'Dallas Buyers Club' Looks A Lot Like ... Shreveport?

Focus Features
Matthew McConaughey is shockingly thin -- and, critics say, shockingly good -- in "Dallas Buyers Club."

Five stories that have North Texas talking: Whether to buy Dallas Buyers Club, JFK and the Secret Service, a swarm of earthquakes, vicious Bears and more.

No doubt what’s the buzz movie in theaters today: Dallas Buyers Club. Matthew McConaughey has spurred plenty of Oscar talk playing an emaciated rodeo-rider-turned-AIDS-patient-turned-drug-importer, including from our Big Screen team, Stephen Becker and Chris Vognar. (Chris lists his five fave McConaughey roles in The Dallas Morning News.) But when you settle in with the popcorn, don’t be surprised if 1980s Dallas looks a lot like … Louisiana. As Cary Darling puts it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “The Dallas of Dallas Buyers Club, which was shot in Shreveport,  feels like a small backwater, a place where every time a cop shows up, it’s the same guy (Steve Zahn).”

Only two weeks till ‘The 50th – Another no-doubter: The JFK anniversary blitz is in full swing. NPR’s Brian Naylor looked at how the assassination transformed the Secret Service last night on All Things Considered. A choice tidbit: A half-century ago, the Secret Service budget was $5.5 million; today’s is $1.6 billion. And tonight at 7, the National Geographic channel dives into JFK: The Final Hours, a documentary narrated by Fort Worth’s own Bill Paxton. And our own Eric Aasen rounds up reports on those final hours in the latest post in his series, "22 Days in November."

A Latina queen for Paul Quinn -- The newly chosen "Miss PQC" at historically black Paul Quinn College is a barrier-breaker. Cici Soto is the first Latina to wear the crown in the pageant's 86-year history. 

A swarm of earthquakes rattling Texas towns – A fourth earthquake in three days rockced Parker County northwest of Fort Worth last night. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the latest quake hit 2.9 on the Richter scale – the strongest one so far. “This is part of a continuing swarm of earthquakes,” Dale Grant, of the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo., told the paper. “We consider this rather minor, but it was widely felt.” And, he says, there’s no solid evidence the quakes were touched off by fracking of oil and gas. “Everybody’s got an opinion on that,” Grant said. “Truthfully, we just don’t know until more investigation is done by people in that area. To speculate what might be the cause is just that — speculation.” There have been no reports of damage or injuries. You can track the latest and greatest quakes around the world here.

When Bears attack… – There was a different kind of quake last night a little farther south, in Waco. The Baylor football team whipped Oklahoma, 41-12, in front of the fourth-biggest crowd in school history. It was only the second time in the last 23 meetings that the Bears have topped OU. And it’s even spawned some national-title talk in Waco: After No. 2 Oregon’s loss last night, Baylor is one of only four top-10 teams with perfect records.

Rick Holter was KERA's vice president of news. He oversaw news coverage on all of KERA's platforms – radio, digital and television. Under his leadership, KERA News earned more than 200 local, regional and national awards, including the station's first two national Edward R. Murrow Awards. He and the KERA News staff were also part of NPR's Ebola-coverage team that won a George Foster Peabody Award, broadcasting's highest honor.