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Mavericks’ Luka Doncic ‘not surprised’ by Jalen Brunson’s playoff dominance with Knicks
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FRISCO – At the crack of dawn on Saturday morning, Dallas Cowboys wide receiver KaVontae Turpin volunteered to join the fight against hunger and make a difference in the Dallas community. Turpin lended a hand to Tango Charities to help prep an impressive 4,670 meals for children in need across Texas.
It is important to Turpin to give back to the community that supports him and the Cowboys. Fighting hunger is a cause that is near to his heart.
“Growing up in Louisiana, sometimes it was hard for me and my family to put food on the table,” Turpin said. “I always said, if I make it to the league, one of the biggest things on my bucket list is to help the community… I am thankful to be here at the ‘Feed The City’ event.”
Turpin is electric on the field and friendly off the field. As three hundred volunteers shared bread, meat, cheese, mustard, chips, tangerines and Ziploc bags, many asked Turpin for autographs and photos. Turpin also donated two signed Cowboys footballs to raffle winners at the event.
“When someone like KaVontae comes out, rolls up his sleeves and uses his platform to spread the word, it shows that not only is playing for the Dallas Cowboys important to him: serving the Dallas community is more important to him,” said Nick Marino Jr., Chief Hunger Officer of Tango Charities. “He’s already talking about coming back to future events, which is absolutely awesome.”
Turpin joins a list of former Cowboys who have been involved with ‘Feed The City,’ including Travis Frederick, Byron Jones and Anthony Brown.
Saturday’s ‘Feed The City’ event was a milestone for the non-profit Tango Charities, marking their 1,500th ‘Feed The City’ event. with the help of over 96,000 volunteers, which have spread across five countries, 14 states, and 67 cities with the help of over 96,000 volunteers. By 2024, the charity is poised to achieve a remarkable milestone of providing 7 million meals to the communities its programs serve.
FC Dallas picked up another much-needed win on Tuesday night, a US Open Cup Round of 32 win over USL Championship side Memphis 901.
This morning, as I am sitting at a pub in the Pittsburgh Airport, I thought I would take a few minutes to discuss the comments made by head coach Nico Estevez and the game’s goal scorer, Logan Farrington, after last night’s win. I’m also going to take a quick look back at a game that FC Dallas had control over…for the most part.
This won’t be our normal breakdown of the game since we do need to quickly turn our attention to Saturday’s game with Austin FC.
For a coach who needed to go for it in a Cup tournament game at home against a lower-division team, Estevez really didn’t push things all that much with his lineup choice. He stuck it out once more with the 3-4-3, as he reintroduced Jesus Ferreira and Asier Illarramendi back into the lineup after the two weren’t ‘fully fit’ enough, Nico’s words there to do so in Toronto last week.
We had hoped that the Dallas City Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on General Investigating & Ethics would get to the bottom of how city permitting workers were moved into an unpermitted building. What council committee members received from city staff was obfuscation, incomplete timelines and conflicting explanations. Quite properly, committee members have asked the city auditor to investigate.
Inexplicably, city officials didn’t obtain final occupancy approval for Dallas’ new permitting office along Stemmons Freeway before workers moved into the 11-story tower late last year. Employees were ordered back to their old office in Oak Cliff months later, and the new building was closed after fire and safety violations were revealed.
But last week, Assistant City Manager Majed Al-Ghafry provided a different reason to the council committee, one that fails the smell test. Al-Ghafry said he decided to close the building and return staff to their former offices after a few employees wandered from their floor to other unfinished floors. He said the building had a valid temporary certificate of occupancy and that the employees weren’t in an unsafe building. “In full transparency and confidence, there wasn’t any life and safety issues that caused me to do this,” Al-Ghafry told the committee.
Well sort of. Only the fifth floor where the permitting employees were located had a temporary occupancy permit, but final approvals from the fire department and other inspectors weren’t obtained before employees moved in. Al-Ghafry previously said employees were warned not to roam beyond the first and fifth floors. However, Development Services Department Director Andrew Espinoza said employees had been working on the second and third floors between January and March. Espinoza also said no employees were disciplined for being on other floors.
Consider this revisionist history. Development Services employees began moving into the building in December. In January, an employee’s spouse filed a complaint with the state fire marshal’s office alleging a series of safety issues with the facility. In February and early April, city fire safety inspection reports discovered fire code violations. Al-Ghafry said employees started moving out of the building on April 9 after it was determined that the fire alarm didn’t sound on all floors.
Al-Ghafry, however, didn’t mention roaming employees in his email to the mayor and council on April 9. Instead, he wrote that “this move [from the new building] is the result of additional facility improvements recently identified at their current location.” He specifically cited additional work needed on the fire suppression system, IT equipment, connectivity, elevators, and other improvements.
It is embarrassingly ironic that the city’s permitting unit, long criticized for failing to deliver construction permits in a timely manner, failed to properly obtain permits for its own building before moving employees into it. More distressing is that grossly inadequate, misleading responses continue to keep us all in the dark about what happened and why, an all too common pattern at City Hall when mismanagement occurs.
Accountability is necessary. The city auditor must unravel the truth and do it quickly.
We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com
It’s time for Round 2.
Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks are on the road against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder for Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal Tuesday night. Follow along for live updates, game stories and more from our reporters on the scene in Oklahoma City.
— Game 1 is scheduled to tip off at 8:30 p.m. at Paycom Center.
— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) May 8, 2024
Mark Daigneault on Mavs’ attack. He later described Doncic and Irving as 99 mph fastball pitchers. pic.twitter.com/Z1yEo824sg
— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) May 7, 2024
— What the Mavs’ goal should be in Game 1 against the Thunder, according to Dirk Nowitzki
— Mavericks-Thunder predictions: Will Dallas be making a return trip to the West finals?
— Why you might hear Oklahoma City fans barking during Mavs-Thunder NBA playoff series
— Mavericks’ Luka Doncic ‘not surprised’ by Jalen Brunson’s playoff dominance with Knicks
— Why has Mavericks’ Kyrie Irving found peace in Dallas?
— Even without Maxi Kleber, the Mavericks have a favorable matchup against OKC Thunder
— Mavs’ big men, specifically Daniel Gafford, will have increased opportunity vs. Thunder
— Scouting Mavericks-Thunder: Which MVP candidate has the edge in Western Conference semis?
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