Five stories that have North Texas talking: Arlington doesn't care for tourists?; Christian Taylor's autopsy released; Garland officer is called a hero; and more.
Arlington really hates its tourists, a new survey says. In fact, the city hates tourists more so than any other city. Stratos Jet Charters Inc., based in Florida, says it made that conclusionbased on geotagged tweets over a year that contained the terms “tourist” and “tourists” – tweets were analyzed for positive and negative characteristics. Arlington attracts a lot of tourists thanks to Six Flags, the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park and the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. “I don’t believe that at all,” Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I’ve lived in Arlington 30 years, and I can’t tell you the number of compliments we get from the hospitality of our citizens and our tourism partners, the city staff, policemen and firemen, all the way down. That would not happen if we did not treat them well.” New York City ranks No. 2 on the top 10 list of tourist-hating cities. Las Vegas is No. 3; Boston is No. 4 and New Orleans is ranked fifth. Which cities love their tourists? Chicago is No. 1, followed by Atlanta, Philadelphia, Miami and Portland. Houston is ranked No. 8 on the list of top 10 tourist-loving cities. [KERA/Fort Worth Star-Telegram]
- Christian Taylor’s autopsy report was released Wednesday. The report has found that Taylor, a black college football player killed by a police officer, had used a synthetic psychedelic drug and marijuana prior to the deadly confrontation at an Arlington car dealership. Taylor was unarmed when Arlington police officer Brad Miller shot him on Aug. 7. Miller has been fired. According to the report, the amount of THC, one of the active components of marijuana and a synthetic drug that causes hallucinations. The autopsy showed Taylor was shot four times. [Associated Press]
- A Garland police officer helped save a motorist from a burning car. KXAS-TV (NBC 5) reports: “Garland police officer Michael Mallison was headed to court in Dallas on the morning of Aug. 21 when he came upon a serious crash along U.S. Highway 80. A handful of people were already gathered around a smoking vehicle near Big Town Boulevard in Mesquite, with some using fire extinguishers to stop the entire car from catching fire. Mallison grabbed yet another extinguisher and ran to help. … Mallison was able to get into the vehicle through the back door, pull the woman into the back seat and out to a group of bystanders who helped carry her across the highway barrier to safety.” Watch the video here:
- Republican presidential candidates are crisscrossing Texas. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker visited the Highland Park Soda Fountain Wednesday before heading to San Antonio. He’ll stop in Midland on Friday. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is visiting too: He’ll attend a rally Thursday morning in the Fort Worth Stockyards. Then he heads to Tyler and Kingwood. The Texas Tribune has more details on Walker’s visit.
- Dallas composer Daniel Hart has been tapped for his biggest project yet. KERA’s Lyndsay Knecht reports: “Hart will make the score for Christopher Quinn’s film adaptation of ‘Eating Animals,’ the book by Jonathan Safran Foer that Natalie Portman credits for her turn toveganism.Portman will produce the documentary along with Foer, Heretic Films, and a couple of internet exec types with ties to Twitter. In the film realm, Hart is best known as the scoremaker for David Lowery’s southern gothic crime drama ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,’ which earned awards at Sundance and other festivals. Quinn was using Hart’s work for the Lowery short ‘Pioneer’ as temp music and reached out to him in a cold call, Hart says. The composer is eager to employ his ready knowledge of Indian and Chinese music in ‘Eating Animals,’ which visits both countries. Also, Hart happens to be a vegan-leaning vegetarian. 'I’ve only seen about 20 minutes of footage – I usually don’t start thinking about music this early in the process, but I am, with this one,' he says. Hart starts a tour this Friday with his band Dark Rooms; the Dallas show is Saturday at Double Wide."
