Dallas, TX

Cothrum: Stop with the speakerphones in public

Published

1 year ago

October 15, 2024

Cothrum: Stop with the speakerphones in public

(Michael Hogue)

If you spend time with me, you’ll potentially hear me muse, “I feel a column coming on.” Often, it’s because some city staff member or elected official has said or done something I deem egregious.

Other times, it’s because I’m trying to write about what everyone is experiencing. I’m listening for it. Unfortunately, it’s becoming harder and harder to listen because too many people are using their speakerphones in public. It’s a menace. From where I sit, people are increasingly violating the earspace of others.

As Woodrow Call in Lonesome Dove maintained: “I hate rude behavior in a man. I won’t tolerate it.”

It makes me want to take out my old referee whistle and blow it and cry, “Foul!”

I recently was forced to hear a lengthy Facetime interaction — a woman being beseeched by her friend, who was in Portugal, to travel more. Ironically, we were in a crowded airport terminal.

Sadly, she and her cousins were only off to Cincinnati.

I’ve been logging these conversations for a few months now. At Tom Thumb, an offender needed to discuss swim lessons by speakerphone. Out for a walk, I saw a shirtless man riding a bike — poorly, I might add — holding a phone and barreling toward me. My pandemic skills kicked in and I safely distanced. I’ve gotten to hear a woman discussing her aging mother’s health. I was worried I was unwittingly committing some HIPAA offense.

I can report that people also feel compelled, while eating tacos, to watch programming on speakerphone. This is wildly out of bounds. Everyone has to be entertained all the time. We are not at Idiocracy levels yet, are we?

Still others think they are starring in their own reality television show. Often on those programs the loathsome contestants talk into their phones so as not to spoil the shot. Perhaps people think this has a high cool factor and seek to emulate it.

Come on, people. How hard is it to hold the phone to your ear? Maybe I’m more sensitive because I sometimes read in public — and not what’s on my phone. You know, like books and stuff.

I can’t turn my hearing off, so I try to turn off my active listening. It’s getting increasingly difficult to do so because the disruption is blatant.

Sometimes the culprit isn’t thinking about it. That’s a sin of omission. In others, however, it’s one of commission. They know it’s loud and invasive — and they do not care.

I politely tried telling the guy eating tacos that the volume was bothering me. He curtly let me know, “I don’t care.”

I’m not always one to let things go — even in my 50s. I asked if he was aware of something revolutionary called headphones. He flashed me the number one signal. I hope he isn’t a newspaper subscriber.

I imagine many of these scoundrels are unhappy, unrecognized or frustrated with life. Maybe they are intentionally oversharing their volume because they need to be noticed. I am reminded of the work of the late psychologist Marshall Rosenberg. His groundbreaking work on nonviolent communication surmised that people are only ever saying two things: please and thank you.

These societal offenders seek attention. I have started to give them some with a simple greeting or wishing them a good day. I’ve tried to ask what musician or television program they’re enjoying. Next time, I’ll ask the guy eating tacos if his lunch is good.

“I like to listen,” Ernest Hemingway remarked. “I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”

I’m trying to hear people and listen to ideas. But all the noise makes me want to give up, put on my headphones and ignore everyone.

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Dallas, TX

Utah hosts Los Angeles after overtime win against Dallas

Published

7 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Utah hosts Los Angeles after overtime win against Dallas

Los Angeles Lakers (18-7, third in the Western Conference) vs. Utah Jazz (10-15, 10th in the Western Conference)

Salt Lake City; Thursday, 9 p.m. EST

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Lakers -6.5; over/under is 241.5

BOTTOM LINE: Utah hosts the Los Angeles Lakers after the Jazz took down the Dallas Mavericks 140-133 in overtime.

The Jazz are 6-11 in conference matchups. Utah allows the most points in the Western Conference, giving up 126.1 points and is allowing opponents to shoot 48.8%.

The Lakers have gone 13-5 against Western Conference opponents. Los Angeles has a 5-0 record in one-possession games.

The Jazz are shooting 45.8% from the field this season, 2.3 percentage points lower than the 48.1% the Lakers allow to opponents. The Lakers are shooting 50.4% from the field, 1.6% higher than the 48.8% the Jazz’s opponents have shot this season.

The teams meet for the third time this season. The Lakers won 108-106 in the last matchup on Nov. 24. Luka Doncic led the Lakers with 33 points, and Keyonte George led the Jazz with 27 points.

TOP PERFORMERS: Lauri Markkanen is scoring 27.8 points per game with 7.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists for the Jazz. George is averaging 37.0 points and 5.0 rebounds while shooting 55.0% over the past 10 games.

Doncic is averaging 34.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, 8.8 assists and 1.5 steals for the Lakers. LeBron James is averaging 26 points, four assists, two steals and two blocks over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Jazz: 5-5, averaging 119.1 points, 44.2 rebounds, 30.1 assists, 7.2 steals and 3.4 blocks per game while shooting 46.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 126.1 points per game.

Lakers: 7-3, averaging 118.8 points, 42.4 rebounds, 23.6 assists, 6.0 steals and 5.4 blocks per game while shooting 49.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 118.9 points.

INJURIES: Jazz: Georges Niang: out (foot), Jusuf Nurkic: day to day (rest), Walker Kessler: out for season (shoulder).

Lakers: Maxi Kleber: day to day (back), Austin Reaves: out (calf).

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

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Dallas, TX

Packers star Micah Parsons heads to Dallas while awaiting ACL surgery

Published

19 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Packers star Micah Parsons heads to Dallas while awaiting ACL surgery

GREEN BAY – Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons won’t be with the team as he awaits surgery on his torn left ACL.

But it’s for a good reason.

“He’s about to have another child here pretty quick,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said Dec. 16 in his press conference.

Parsons has a home in the Dallas area and has returned there for the birth of his third child. He has not had surgery on his knee and LaFleur said he did not have a timeline on when that might occur.

Typically, doctors allow swelling to go down before they operate to repair the ligament, and so it’s possible surgery hasn’t been scheduled.

Parsons tore his ACL late in the third quarter of the Packers’ 34-26 loss to the Broncos on Dec. 14. Tests confirmed the injury Dec. 15.

LaFleur said he didn’t know if Parsons would have the surgery in Dallas.

As for the rest of the season, LaFleur said he thought Parsons would be around to support his teammates once his child is born and his medical situation is settled.

“He’ll be around, for sure,” LaFleur said.

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Dallas, TX

City Hall’s future is an opportunity for its leadership

Published

1 day ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

City Hall’s future is an opportunity for its leadership

Recent activities reminded me of a simple roadmap I laid out in these pages (Aug. 31, 2025, “Lessons from George W. Bush, his institution”) for effective leadership: providing safety, security, solvency and sanity.

In short, great leadership should provide physical safety for those being led and the security that they can trust the institutions to govern intelligently and with their best interests at heart, while ensuring both the financial solvency of the enterprise and the sanity to keep the place focused optimistically on the future.

Good leadership should do what it is strong at and be intellectually honest to own up to what it does not do well. Then, it should simply stop wasting time on those things outside its core competency. As my former boss was prone to pointing out — a government should do fewer things, but do them well!

As it relates to the current debate over the future of Dallas City Hall, applying these basic principles is instructive as the issue touches each of these priorities.

Our city government should exit the real estate business, since it is clearly not its core competency, especially given its record of mismanagement of City Hall over the years as well as other well-documented and costly recent real estate dalliances. It is time to own that track record and begin to be better stewards of taxpayer money. Plus, given the large vacancies in existing downtown buildings, relocating city functions as a renter will be much more economical.

The definition of insanity is to do the same thing and expect different results. Thinking that the city will be able to remediate City Hall’s issues in a permanent and economically feasible way is naïve. It is time for sanity to prevail — for the city to move on from an anachronistic building that is beyond repair, returning that land to the tax rolls while saving both tenancy costs and reducing downtown office vacancies at the same time.

I appreciate that the iconic architect’s name on the building is a city asset and demolition would toss that aside. But our neglect up to this point is evidence that it was already being tossed, just one unaddressed issue at a time. While punting is not ideal, neither is being in the predicament we are in. Leaders must constantly weigh costs and benefits as part of the job and make sound decisions going forward.

We now have an opportunity to demonstrate leadership and apply all of our energy and careful thought to execute on a dynamic plan to activate that part of downtown for the benefit of the next generation. Engaging Linda McMahon, who is CEO of the Dallas Economic Development Corporation, is heartening on this issue given her experience and leadership in real estate.

This is a commercial decision and ignoring economic realities is foolhardy. We have the chance to do something special that future citizens will look back upon and see that today’s leaders were visionary.

I’d like to see the city exercise its common sense and pursue the win-win strategy. By doing so, all Dallas citizens will be more secure knowing that its leadership is capable of making smart decisions, even if it means admitting past mistakes. The first rule when you’ve dug yourself into a hole: “Stop digging!”

It is time for our leaders to lead.

Ken Hersh is the co-founder and former CEO of NGP Energy Capital Management and former CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

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