6 July 13-19, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents What’s New Death, drugs and political battles dominate North Texas news in 2023 so far. BY KELLY DEARMORE A s hard as it might be to believe, it’s official: we’re looking at the down- hill side of 2023. What isn’t hard to believe is that North Texas, as it always seems to do, has packed a year’s worth of major news stories into only six months. Remember the madness that was the Southwest Airlines meltdown and its many thousands of canceled and postponed flights? The chaos lasted until after the New Year’s holiday, but overall, it was a 2022 problem, believe it or not. In the Observer’s first news post of 2023, we discussed some key items to keep an eye on for the coming year. We wondered what sort of challenge Dallas Mayor Eric John- son would face in the May election. As Johnson made a point to tweet about on many occasions, he didn’t face a legitimate challenge. In that same article, we wondered if Dallas Cowboys star Micah Parsons, Dallas Stars stud Jason Robertson and all-world Mavericks man Luka Doncic would each challenge for their respective league MVP awards after each got off to blazing starts. They didn’t. What a difference a few months make, right? The most-read Observer news stories of 2023 so far make up a zesty stew of canna- bis and politics. Out of nowhere, a 1999 story on the suicide of Don Crowder has been this publication’s second most-read news story of the year so far. Crowder was a central figure in Love and Death, a Max TV mini-series based on the gruesome 1980 ax-killing of Betty Gore by Candy Montgomery. The most-read news story of 2023 so far? Jacob Vaughn’s January look at Mayor John- son’s wish that Universal Studios think twice about placing its new park project in Frisco and instead put it in Dallas, on a site that will require toxic cleanup sooner than later. Almost all of the rest of the top 10 most- read Observer news stories since January deal in our state’s convoluted cannabis legal- ities. Observer readers really like reading about isomers, THCa and the various at- tempts to see weed become legal in the Lone Star State. Arguably the biggest news stories of the year in North Texas, if not the state in gen- eral, have nothing to do with either pot or theme parks, however. Wild Stuff at the Zoo R emember the Dallas Zoo? In Janu- ary and through February, it seemed as though we had a new, and usually unfortunate, development an- nounced regularly from the Oak Cliff in- stitution. On Jan. 13 Nova, the zoo’s clouded leopard, went missing. Workers found an opening in the habitat’s mesh en- closure that police said was made by a hu- man with the intent of letting the animal escape. Nova was found safe that evening on zoo property. But that was only the beginning of the bi- zarre start to 2023 for the Dallas Zoo. Less than two weeks after Nova’s escapade, the zoo announced that Pin, a 35-year-old lap- pet-faced male vulture, had died. Police noted the vulture suffered a puncture wound and said the death was “suspi- cious” and “not from natural causes.” A $10,000 reward for information was an- nounced, but no cul- prit has been named so far. A few days after Pin’s death, the zoo began searching for Bella and Fin, a pair of emperor tamarin monkeys that had been stolen. A man-made opening in the animal’s habitat, similar to the one found in the case of Nova the clouded leopard, had been discovered. For two days the monkeys with wispy white beards were missing until police responded to a tip and found them in a closet of an abandoned house in Lancaster along with a number of other animals not taken from the zoo. Police soon arrested 24-year-old Da- vion Irwin for the theft and charged him with six counts of animal cruelty. Fentanyl’s Deadly Impact I n early February, the news that three stu- dents in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD had died from fentanyl and several more had survived fentanyl overdoses in the previous few months hit parents from around North Texas pretty hard. In the weeks and months that followed, authorities announced several arrests of drug dealers connected to the deaths and overdoses. Even with the increased scrutiny and awareness, fentanyl-induced tragedy con- tinued, with more students, even as young as middle-schoolers, needing to be revived with Narcan on Carrollton campuses after being found unresponsive from incidents that were consistent with what looked like opioid or fentanyl overdoses. In February, Sienna Vaughn, a Plano Senior High School student, died from a fentanyl overdose after taking what she thought was a single Perco- cet pill, and in June, another Carrollton teenager died from a fentanyl overdose after she ingested a pill she had arranged to buy from a dealer via social media after she was told it was a Percocet. Although Gov. Greg Abbott announced a $10-million campaign designed to create fentanyl awareness and stock counties with new supplies of Narcan, the state govern- ment isn’t yet all-in on trying new ap- proaches to fight fentanyl overdoses and deaths. In the recently completed legislative session each of the bills authored to remove fentanyl testing strips from the state’s list of illegal drug paraphernalia failed to pass. Shooting in Allen O n May 6, a gunman killed eight, in- cluding three children, when he opened fire in the parking lot at Allen Premium Outlets. The killer, 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, was shot and killed on the scene minutes after the attack began. Details from law enforcement didn’t come quickly, or often, in the days following the shooting, but Gov. Abbott took to the airwaves to say the mass shooting was more of a mental health issue than it was a gun issue. At the time of the shooting, Garcia was found with several assault-style rifles and other firearms, each purchased legally, according to investigators. The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed the press reports stating that Garcia, a former security guard from Dal- las, had expressed neo-Nazi and white su- premacist views on social media and had Nazi-related tattoos on his body. Among the victims was a mother, father and their 3-year-old son, a pair of elementary-age sisters and a 20-year-old security guard who police say helped save lives before he was killed. The mall was reopened a few weeks after the shooting. In late June, the Allen Police Department released the bodycam footage taken from the officer who confronted and killed Garcia. The Neverending Session W hen it was reported in January that the Texas Legislature would be working with a record surplus of $34 billion, there were plenty of reasons to think a lot of good was going to be done before adjourning. And, hey, if you look hard enough, regardless of which side of the aisle you favor, there’s bound to be something you can find that’s at least somewhat encouraging. How- ever, it isn’t difficult to find reasons to be dis- couraged at what did and did not happen during the 88th session. And, of course, plenty of local lawmakers made some noise. Pay raises for teachers, a move that many said would help stem the high turnover rate and teacher shortage throughout the state, never came to fruition. A rare public battle between Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Pat- rick over how to handle lowering property taxes also cast its own pall over the sesh, es- pecially as a failure to resolve that issue has led the governor to keep calling legislators back into Austin for more work. Bills regard- ing library books, drag shows and changing the legal age to buy an assault weapon all managed to stir controversy and prominent headlines as well. Arguably the two biggest stories to emerge from this year’s session involved politicians with North Texas ties. On May 8, Rep. Bryan Slaton, a Republican from Royse City, resigned his post before he was formally expelled the next day. A few weeks earlier, a 19-year-old in- tern had accused the married Slaton of provid- ing her with alcohol late one night in his Austin apartment and of having an inappropri- ate sexual relationship with her. Slaton had built his reputation on a platform of so-called “family values” and on the notion that Texas should secede from the United States. | UNFAIR PARK | THE MOST- READ NEWS STORIES OF 2023 MAKE UP A STEW OF CANNABIS AND POLITICS. >> p8 Dallas Zoo Tamarin monkeys are awfully cute, but don’t steal them.
