6 February 9-15, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents The Dallas Zoo has collected plenty of national headlines recently, including men- tions in The New York Times, Washington Post, Slate and CNN. This incident is the lat- est in a series of odd occurrences for the zoo, which claims to be the largest in Texas. In January, Nova, the zoo’s clouded leopard, went missing for several hours after staff found its enclosure cut open. A week later, a 35-year-old lappet-faced vulture named Pin was found dead, the result of a wound de- tected by a necropsy. The zoo also explained in its social media post that the monkeys will need to clear a quarantine period before being allowed back into their usual habitat. The zoo also increased the reward it is offering for infor- mation that leads to the arrest and indict- ment of the person responsible for taking Bella and Finn from the zoo, from $10,000 to $25,000. ▼ CITY HALL #BADTWEETENERGY DALLAS MAYOR SLAMMED FOR HIS DIG AT THE COWBOYS. BY SIMONE CARTER F reshly salty from the most recent Cowboys’ playoff loss, some social media users are big-mad at Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. In a tweet on Jan. 29, Big D’s head rep ap- peared to praise one of the Boys’ all-time top rivals. “The Eagles truly belong to the City of Philadelphia and vice versa. And that’s pretty damn cool,” Johnson tweeted, along with CNN video footage showing Eagles fans rejoicing over their team’s advance- ment to the Super Bowl. “The City of Dallas deserves to know what this kind of mutual love feels like.” The Eagles had just crushed the San Francisco 49ers 31-7, prompting exuberant celebrations in Philadelphia and beyond. The win stands in stark contrast to the Cow- boys, who again had their own Super Bowl dreams squashed despite having been dubbed “overwhelming” favorites — at least by some people. To say that Johnson’s post didn’t sit well with some would be putting it mildly. “Vote this man out! F*** the birds! The city of Philly can rot in hell!” one fiery Cow- boys defender wrote in response. Some Philly fans thanked Johnson for re- specting the Eagles (not those Eagles). Other social media users challenged Johnson’s tweet, including by pointing out that al- though “Dallas” is in the Cowboys’ name, the team’s home games are in Arlington. “Seems like someone is the mayor of the wrong city [three thinking face emojis],” one Cowboys fan replied. “Fortunately, the Cowboys play in Tar- rant County and train in Collin County, so …,” Metro Sports DFW owner Chuck Kelly said. Still, certain folks seemed to question why Johnson was entering the debate in the first place, with one person asking: “Do you even mayor?” Johnson attempted to clear up his stance in a defensive follow-up tweet. He rhetori- cally asked why people thought the answer to the city’s “lack of pro football is the Dallas Cowboys,” adding that as far as he’s con- cerned, America’s Team can stay put. But some North Texans wanted the mayor to redirect his focus. “Bro, just fix the potholes,” one person shot back. “I just had to replace two of my tires and I’m out $750! @DiscountTire on Inwood did a great job though.” Never one to leave a hole to dig itself, Johnson again tried to clarify the thread, writing later: “This tweet, which doesn’t even mention the Dallas Cowboys, has proven itself to be quite the Rorschach test.” True enough. So anyway, about those potholes … ▼ LEGISLATURE CRYPTO CARE NEW BILL WOULD PROTECT TEXAS CRYPTO INVESTORS. BY JACOB VAUGHN T exas Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, a Tarrant County Republican, filed a bill intended to protect consumers investing in digital assets like cryptocur- rency. Capriglione’s House Bill 1666 would require digital asset exchanges to verify they have enough funds on reserve to pay cus- tomers when they ask for their money. The bill would also prohibit exchanges from commingling consumer funds with corpo- rate assets. The legislation is an attempt to prevent people from suffering the same fate as cus- tomers who invested in the crypto trading platform FTX. In December, the U.S. Securities and Ex- change Commission (SEC) charged Samuel Bankman-Fried with orchestrating a scheme to defraud investors in his crypto trading platform FTX Trading Ltd. According to the SEC, the Bahamas- based FTX raised more than $1.8 billion from investors, including $1.1 billion from about 90 investors in the U.S. Bankman- Fried told investors FTX was a safe and re- sponsible crypto asset trading platform and touted the company’s supposedly sophisti- cated, automated risk measures to protect customer assets. In reality, the 30-year-old crypto magnate was diverting FTX customer funds to his privately held crypto hedge fund Alameda Research and hiding it from investors, au- thorities say. Alameda Research also got special treatment from FTX, such as a virtu- ally unlimited line of credit funded by FTX customers. FTX also used commingled cus- tomer funds at Alameda to make undis- closed venture investments, purchase real estate and make big political donations, ac- cording to the SEC. On top of it all, FTX didn’t have adequate reserves to start paying customers when they came asking for their money. According to news site CoinDesk, Bank- man-Fried has been under investigation by the Texas State Securities Board since Octo- ber and is being called to a hearing in the state in February. His brokerage firm FTX Capital Markets LLC is registered as a dealer with the Texas board. As a result, “Texans were able to buy and sell publicly traded stock through the firm,” the Texas State Securities Board wrote in a notice for the hearing in November. The board wants a cease-and-desist order against FTX to halt securities fraud in Texas, the return of money to affected investors and fines levied against Bankman-Fried. The business practices of companies like FTX have severely damaged the industry, according to Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council. That’s why the council is behind Capriglione’s HB 1666. “We are confident that this industry will continue to grow, and we want to make sure that it does so in a properly regulated way,” Bratcher said. In a press release, Capriglione said his of- fice has been working on the bill for months with groups like the Texas Blockchain Council. “Over 8.5 million Texans have invested in cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, the vast majority of which are held by third party custodial account holders which facil- itate the trade,” Capriglione said in the press release. “Recently, multiple companies have betrayed the trust of their consumers by commingling investor funds with corporate assets, leading consumers to lose billions in their investments.” Capriglione said he hopes his bill will help restore trust in the industry. If approved, HB 1666 would apply to trading firms that serve more than 500 cus- tomers or hold at least $10 million in cus- tomer funds. These companies wouldn’t be allowed to mix customer funds with their own money or digital assets. The bill also calls for more transparency for customers. Each company would be required to create a plan to allow customers to see a quarterly accounting of its assets and proof that it has enough funds on reserve. An auditor must also be able to view all of this information. No later than the 90th day into the new fiscal year, companies will need to report to the Texas Department of Banking with an accounting of customer assets verified by an auditor. If passed and signed by the gover- nor, the law would take effect Sept. 1. ▼ GAMBLING WILL DALLAS FOLD? CITY COUNCIL EYES LEGAL PATH FORWARD FOR POKER CLUBS. BY JACOB VAUGHN I t’s a good bet that Dallas doesn’t know what it wants to do with poker clubs. In 2019, the city gave a certificate of occu- pancy to the first legal poker room in Dallas, Texas Card House. Then, although nothing had changed about the club, the city revoked the certifi- cate of occupancy for Texas Card House in 2021 and said no others could be issued. The city also revoked the certificate it had issued to another poker club called Shuffle 214. When the two clubs appealed the revocation of their certificates to the city’s Board of Ad- justment, they regained the certificates. The city sued its own Board of Adjustment in district court over this decision. The city was kicking its own ass in court with a ruling from Judge Eric Moyé in November that said the Board of Adjustment had abused its power by restoring the certificates. In January, the City Council approved funds to pay for the litigation. But council member Chad West took the opportunity to tap the brakes a little on Dallas’ Dallas Zoo Bella and Finn, two emperor tamarin monkeys taken from the zoo are recovering. Unfair Park from p4 >> p8 Getty Images Should crypto investments be protected?
