Five stories that have North Texas talking: A former SMU basketball player isn’t dead; DART light-rail expands to D/FW International sooner than expected; there’s a lime shortage; and more.
Former SMU and NBA basketball player Quinton Ross had to ease the fears of friends and family members after he was erroneously reported dead. Ross lives near Dallas and was attending Monday night's NIT game between LSU and SMU. He said he woke to a phone loaded with messages from people concerned about his well-being. "My phone was going crazy," he told The Associated Press. "I checked Facebook. Finally, I went on the Internet, and they were saying I was dead. I just couldn't believe it." The New York Post ran a story Monday on its website identifying Ross as a man found dead and buried on a city beach. The newspaper later corrected the story. After playing for SMU, Ross played seven NBA seasons with five teams, mostly with the Los Angeles Clippers.
- Want to get to D/FW International Airport without driving? By the end of the summer, that will be possible for Dallas Area Rapid Transit riders. On Aug. 18, DART will open a five-mile light rail extension that stretches from DART’s Belt Line Station in Irving to Terminal A at the airport. KERA’s Shelley Kofler reports: “Morgan Lyons, a DART spokesman, says this final expansion of the Orange Line will be completed under budget and several months early. ‘What this provides literally is a one-seat ride from downtown Dallas into Terminal A,’ Lyons said. ‘We think it is going to be incredibly convenient not only for convention goers, people coming into town to do some work, folks needing to be connected to the world and people who want to work at the airport.’” If you’re traveling from Tarrant County, you’ll have to wait a few more years before getting rail service from downtown Fort Worth to the airport’s Terminal B.
- More than 20 food truck owners say the process to get a permit in Dallas is too difficult and they’re trying to get city officials to change ordinances that restrict where food trucks can operate. The Dallas Morning News reports that the vendors have formed the DFW Food Truck Association. “Allison Catalani, owner of new dessert food truck Vegan Noms, described the permitting process a few months back as ‘time-consuming,’ ‘strenuous’ and ‘nerve-racking,’’ the News reports. The group has set up an online petition. One vendor says the goal isn’t to complain, but to open up the streets.
- The Dallas Museum of Art’s Arts & Letters Live series welcomes authors Claire Messud and Meg Wolitzer tonight at 7:30 for “The Ties That Bind,” a discussion on their careers and new works. Messud will discuss her newest novel The Woman Upstairs and Wolitzer will share insight from her new novel The Interestings at 7:30 p.m. Click here to learn more and to buy tickets.
- Your happy hour margarita may start to cost more: There’s a lime shortage. “Think about what that means for Mexican food alone: limes are used in practically everything, from margaritas to ceviche to guacamole,” KUT in Austin reports. One restaurant general manager in Austin told KUT that he goes through at least one case of 100 limes a day – it used to cost $14. Last week, each case was up to $99. Why has the price skyrocketed? The answers are international. Some Mexican lime growers say crops are often burned instead of being paid so little by drug cartels. Others point to floods that have curbed lime production. And there have been crop plagues. But a professor told KUT that it’s also a matter of supply and demand: more people want limes, while fewer limes are being produced.
