Edward Hicks’ The Peaceable Kingdom is at the Dallas Museum of Art. Courtesy: Dallas Museum of Art
Five stories that have North Texas talking: Texan Clint Dempsey scores a big goal at the World Cup; Dallas County commissioners approve a resolution calling for slave reparations – but it was an accident; Dallas Museum of Art plays a role in a national art contest; and more.
- A Texan had a starring role in Sunday’s World Cup match. Clint Dempsey, 31, is a native of Nacogdoches and scored a goal during the U.S. team’s game against Portugal. Sports Illustrated reports: “Playing with a broken nose suffered in the USA’s Group G opener against Ghana, Dempsey scored an 81st-minute go-ahead goal for the USA against Portugal, momentarily putting the Americans ahead and on course for the knockout stage. … It was another landmark moment in a World Cup full of them.” The game ended in a 2-2 tie. Dempsey is used to scoring goals: during the U.S. game against Ghana, he scored the fifth-fastest goal in World Cup history (just 29 seconds into the game.) The Raleigh News & Observer explores Dempsey’s rise to soccer stardom: “His family lived in a trailer behind his grandparents’ house in the Texas town near the Louisiana border. Dempsey’s sister, Jennifer, died of a brain aneurysm when he was 12, and she’s been a galvanizing force in his life ever since. His father, Aubrey, sold his boat to help fund three-hour trips to Dallas so Dempsey could practice with his club team as a teenager.” The New York Times offers this recap of Sunday’s match.
- Voters on Saturday elected a new Dallas school trustee and a Fort Worth City Council member. Joyce Foreman defeated Bertha Bailey Whatley to win a seat on the Dallas ISD school board. Foreman replaces Carla Ranger, who’s retiring. The Dallas Morning News reports: “Her win was a blow to the Dallas business community and two well-heeled education political committees, which pumped $120,000 into Whatley’s bid, the most ever in a DISD race. … Foreman’s election probably won’t change the political makeup of the board.” In Fort Worth, former city planner Ann Zadeh defeated Ed Lasater in the District 9 race for the Fort Worth City Council. Zadeh replaces Joel Burns, who is resigning to attend graduate school at Harvard, the FortWorth Star-Telegram reports.
- Child Protective Services is investigating a Parker County school because of a photo showing a boy secured to a mat by duct tape. WFAA-TV reportsthat CPS is looking into the incident at Heart2Heart Montessori Academy in Willow Park, about 15 miles west of Fort Worth. The photo circulating among parents was taken by a worker who’s no longer employed at the school, WFAA reported. School officials say the child was not hurt and that they reported the incident to CPS. [The Associated Press]
- Dallas County Commissioners are in the national spotlight after they accidentally voted to approve a resolution that calls for reparations for African-Americans. KERA’s Pablo Arauz reports: “John Wiley Price, the county’s only black commissioner, wrote a Juneteenth resolution after being inspired by an article in The Atlantic written by Ta-Nehisi Coates about slave reparations. Price read the resolution outloud during Tuesday’s meeting. Commissioners didn’t appear to be listening. While the proclamation is nonbinding – meaning no actual reparations will be made – commissioners passed it unanimously.” Since Tuesday’s meeting, news websites and blogs have reported the news, including Gawker, The Atlantic, Talking Points Memo, The Guardian, Wonkette and Esquire, among others.
- Online voters have chosen dozens of works of art to appear on billboards and signs in cities across the U.S. later this summer. The Dallas Museum of Art was among five museums that are participating in the effort. The works will begin appearing Aug. 4 in as many as 50,000 displays in all 50 states as part of the “Art Everywhere” initiative. The works range from a John Singer Sargent portrait of a child to Andy Warhol’s painting of a Campbell’s Soup can. Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” showing three customers at a late-night diner got the most votes. KERA’s Jerome Weeks reports: “The Dallas Museum of Art has two in the top 10: Edward Hicks’ ‘The Peaceable Kingdom’ (No. 3) … and Frederic Edwin Church’s monumental ‘The Icebergs’ (No. 6). Archibald John Motley, Jr., the African-American jazz-age artist who is the subject of a current exhibition at the Amon Carter Museum, appears at No. 38 with ‘Nightlife.’ Read more on KERA’s Art&Seek. [KERA/Associated Press]
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