Fort Worth Weekly // March 1-7, 2023

NEWS

Nothing to see here, just your police chief speaking at a Republican meeting in uniform.

BY STATIC

JaeBoy

Fighting through early childhood trauma has brought the rapper to his new, cathartic album.

BY STEVE STEWARD

EATS & DRINK

Thanks to volunteers, more than 3,000 pounds of recyclables were retrieved from last year’s Fort Worth Food and Wine Festival.

BY LAURIE JAMES

BUCK U

As TCU tennis brings home the title, hoops prepares for the Big Dance.

BY BUCK D. ELLIOTT

SCREEN

Young actors are jumping behind the camera and producing good work like Creed

BY KRISTIAN LIN

III

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Frauds Frauding

Though voter fraud accounts for less than one percentage point of all Texas voting, people are now being paid full-time to investigate it.

By Static

The Fort abounds with mudbugs this time o’ year.

By Jennifer Bovee

Purple-People Eaters

As TCU ballers get ready for March Madness, don’t forget about the champs on the other court.

By Buck D. Elliott

CONTRIBUTORS

Christina Berger, E.R. Bills, Jason Brimmer, Buck D. Elliott, Juan R. Govea, Patrick Higgins, Laurie James, Kristian Lin, Vishal Malhotra, Cody Neathery, Wyatt Newquist, Madison Simmons, Teri Webster, Ken WheatcroftPardue, Cole Williams

Anthony Mariani, Edward Brown, Emmy Smith

transforms his childhood trauma into brilliant rap.

By Steve Steward

METROPOLIS

The Fraud Squad

BY STATIC

Speaking at last week’s commissioners court meeting, top county leaders made the case for the newly formed Elections Integrity Task Force. County Judge Tim O’Hare, who made voter fraud a top priority in his recent campaign, told his fellow commissioners that four cases are pending at the district attorney’s office.

“There has been a conviction as recently as, I think, 2018,” O’Hare added, likely referring to a plea deal accepted by Charles Jackson, a homeless felon with an extensive rap sheet who may have been put up to spreading bullshit about O’Hare’s Democratic opponent in the most recent election (“Harvesting Misinformation?” Oct. 22).

O’Hare, Sheriff Bill Waybourn, and DA Phil Sorrells — all Republicans — announced the formation of the elections task force in early February. Consisting of undisclosed numbers of investigators and prosecutors, the unit will look into allegations of voter fraud and refer those findings to Sorrells’ office for potential prosecution.

Commissioner Roy Brooks said he worries that the unit could be misused to question legitimate election results.

“I am concerned that we are enshrining in our Tarrant County infrastructure the ability to deny the results of any election that the three of you take exception to,” he said. “That’s a problem for me.”

O’Hare, Sorrells, and Waybourn are diverting county resources to a crime more commonly found in the wet dreams of indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton than in reality. Based on state data, the AG’s office has prosecuted 154 individuals for mail ballot fraud, assistance fraud, or illegal voting since 2004, all of which account for 0.0006% of the 90 million votes cast during

that time period.

The Fraud Squad may be pandering to Tarrant County voters who are unaware or willfully ignorant of the Republican leaders’ recent history of using deception, malicious prosecutions, and backdoor endorsement deals to meddle in elections to further one side’s political ideology.

Buying Endorsement?

Political endorsements are typically given based on the merits of the endorsee. The idea is to signal to prospective voters that a candidate is worthy of elected office due to their work ethic and integrity.

Donald Trump’s February 2022 endorsement of Sorrells was oddly out of step with the former president’s formal backing of high-profile candidates with a history of pandering to the disgraced Florida man’s narcissistic machinations. Sorrells had a long but unremarkable career as a misdemeanor judge and no clear connections to the twice-impeached one-term former occupant of the White House.

Federal campaign disclosures show Sorrells’ father-in-law, Kent Hance, donated $100,000 to a prominent Trump-supporting PAC (political action committee) two days before Donald formally endorsed Phil. The timing caught the attention of one state watchdog but not the local press, us included.

That August, Texas Tribune political correspondent Patrick Svitek tweeted, “Another Texan donation to the main pro-Trump super PAC that is bad optics, at a minimum. Kent Hance gave $100K to the group two days before Trump endorsed Hance’s sonin-law for Tarrant County DA.”

Svitek went on to say that Hance had

been a fundraiser for and donor to Trump previously. Speaking to one of our reporters last spring, Sorrells denied that any member of his family bought Trump’s endorsement.

For Sorrells to feign concern about the integrity of our election system after using his family’s largesse to allegedly buy the endorsement of a former president whose disgust toward free and fair elections is wellknown shows how ethically bankrupt our county’s top law enforcement official was and remains. It is no surprise that a 2021 poll of Tarrant County defense attorneys voted Sorrells the least likely of 10 county criminal judges to follow the law. And yet now he’s our top prosecutor. We have only an aggrieved citizenry being fed lies by Fox “News” to thank.

Courting Christian Nationalists

Separation of church and state is under attack in Tarrant County, thanks to mobs like the elections “integrity” unit. Social media posts by Mercy Culture Church show Fraud Squad soliciting support and votes from the thousands of members of the Christian Nationalist house of worship on the North Side.

Federal laws expressly prohibit churches from endorsing political candidates. The IRS emphasizes the 1954 legislation that bans churches from engaging in campaign activity.

“To the extent Congress has revisited the ban over the years, it has in fact strengthened the ban,” the IRS says on its website. “The most recent change came in 1987, when Congress amended the language to clarify that the prohibition also applies to statements opposing candidates.”

Mercy Culture co-founder and pastor Landon Schott is an outspoken homophobe and conspiracy nut who, based on his public statements, cares little for our country’s separation of church and state.

“Elections matter!” Schott wrote on his Instagram page last year. “Our tyrannical leaders have stolen our freedom and indoctrinated our children in schools.”

Late last year, Mercy Culture again showed its complete disdain for federal laws prohibiting churches from engaging in political activities when the right-wing church’s members opened their Candidate University course, in which Mercy leaders train public office seekers who “will stand for righteousness” — but not the Constitution

Upending Democracy

We were the first publication to expose Sheriff Waybourn’s connections to anti-government militias who have threatened and continue to threaten this nation’s elections by engaging in violent insurrections and training and mobilizing armed combatants to overturn

perceived illegitimate electoral races. Here’s how we got here.

In 2021, Waybourn participated in the Claremont Institute’s Sheriffs Fellowship that teaches the evolution of “militant progressivism and multiculturalism with particular emphasis on the role of law enforcement in maintaining liberty.”

The Claremont Institute maintains strong connections with one alleged mastermind of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Last year, the January 6 Committee referred John Eastman, a former Trump advisor, for prosecution by the justice department for his role in the riot. Eastman is the founder of a Claremont Institute department called the Claremont Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, which seeks to restore the American government to the values of the Founding Fathers, who were largely OK with owning slaves and barring women from voting.

Waybourn is also affiliated with the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), a far-right organization that the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center have labeled an anti-government extremist group. Richard Mack, a founding board member of the Oath Keepers, another terrorist organization, started CSPOA in 2011.

Recent reporting by the Los Angeles Times found that Oath Keepers and similar right-wing extremist groups remain a threat

continued on page 5

As Tarrant County launches its “elections integrity” unit, remember our sheriff, DA, and county judge have a history of meddling with votes.

Federal laws ban politicians from campaigning at churches, especially during services, but that hasn’t stopped the Fraud Squad from pandering to Christian Nationalist zealots who aim to install a Christian caliphate in good ol’ Fort Worth.

Courtesy Facebook

It is not without irony that the Fraud Squad’s sheriff has direct links to armed groups who tried to violently overthrow the duly elected U.S. government on Jan. 6.

Courtesy Instagram

to our Democratic government, institutions, and elections.

“Prosecutions haven’t put a perceptible dent in the larger phenomenon of right-wing extremism,” the Times says. This “ecosystem” includes “white supremacists, antigovernment militants, and many (but far from all) supporters of former President Trump.”

Southlake School Board Interference

The past DA administration showed a semblance of integrity by rebuking the AG’s pleas to take over local voter fraud cases, including the one tied to O’Hare’s Democratic opponent, Deborah Peoples, but those safeguards against tyranny are now gone.

Perhaps the most horrifying revelation of our investigation into the Jackson/Peoples video was a leaked DA email that revealed

Static

Playing the Hate Card

Though local media outlets failed to notice our DA’s use of his family’s largesse to buy an endorsement from the disgraced, twiceimpeached former president, Phil Sorrells’ statements that Trump’s thumbs-up was honest appear to be just more lies.

two AG attorneys begging for DA Wilson to deputize Paxton’s minions to prosecute the case, which county prosecutors did not find credible. When O’Hare’s cabal failed to secure criminal charges against Peoples,

Noakes’ reference to phone-camera-wielding citizens is likely tied to citizen journalist Manuel Mata, whose recent arrest by Fort Worth police has captured national attention but little local reporting outside of the Weekly

The video “Police tried to stop a cop watcher from filming” by the alternative outlet the Real News has more than 40,000 YouTube views. In the video, Mata livestreams a traffic stop at an undisclosed part of the city. As he stands filming on the sidewalk, an unnamed officer orders him to move back several yards.

“Do you understand Turner versus Driver?” Mata shouts back, referring to the 2017 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals that affirmed the First Amendment right to record police.

Soon after, several officers arrest Mata for interference with public duties, a Class B misdemeanor.

O’Hare’s supporters, no doubt pouting and kicking cans, released the video directly to the public.

With the Fraud Squad in full effect and without any independent oversight, Tarrant County leaders have weaponized voter-fraud paranoia to suit the political aims of three of the most despicable public leaders our county has ever elected.

Arguably the most dangerous member of the three is our new county judge. O’Hare’s affiliations with elections meddling date back at least two years to the 2021 indictment of two Carrol school board members. Todd Carlton and Michelle Moore remain under bogus Class B misdemeanor charges for allegedly violating a law never prosecuted in Tarrant County until O’Hare took an interest in stirring up wild nonsense about Critical Race Theory to further his political ambitions. Citing text messages sent outside board meetings as the criminal offense, DA Sharen Wilson, a tireless supporter of O’Hare, charged Carlton and Moore with violating the Texas Open Meetings Act.

O’Hare capitalized on the Southlake in-

dictments in his successful bid to defeat his Republican primary challenger, former Fort Worth mayor Betsy Price. O’Hare hired right-wing propagandists Axiom Strategies to falsely portray Price as an Antifa-loving Marxist abortionist. O’Hare’s lies won him the Republican nomination, but he isn’t done spreading misinformation as a means of serving his personal and political ends. Just wait.

Anyone who wishes to report election meddling by the Fraud Squad or other rightwing asshats can call the Elections Integrity Task Force at 817-884-1213. l

This column reflects the opinions of the editorial board and not the Fort Worth Weekly To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly. com. He will gently edit it for concision and clarity.

This story is part of City in Crisis, an ongoing series of reports on unethical behavior and worse by local public leaders, featuring original reporting.

bution of the power of the people to voice their concerns,” she said. “Our system is supposed to serve the people but often fails to do so. We need independent voices like our cop watchers to fight back. We need independent voices to shape a counter-narrative to the one being peddled by elites. I hope Mata will get out of jail soon.”

Naming Names

Last week’s story on the decision by a Tarrant County family court judge to rent out his courtroom for a fundraiser for a for-profit company caught the attention of many readers (“Darker Possibilities,” Feb 22).

BY STATIC

Speaking to just over a dozen Republicans at a local diner last week, Fort Worth’s police chief opened by invoking God, the Constitution, and the group’s shared disdain for cop watchers.

“I love coming to a meeting with an agenda like this,” Neil Noakes said. “We open with prayer, we thank God, and then we pledge allegiance to the greatest nation of God’s green Earth.”

Noakes, who was guest speaker at a meeting of the Tarrant County Republican Hispanic Assembly, aired his apparent mistrust of the First Amendment, which allows citizens to voice grievances to government officials.

“We had a council meeting that went a little later than we anticipated,” Noakes said. “It was one where a third of the speakers hated the police. I take the hate sometimes. [Police] face so much hate these days [from] people who [film us with phones while] yelling and screaming. They are a very loud and vocal minority of citizens.”

In the Real News story using Mata footage, reporter Stephen Janis goes on to describe why Mata’s case deserves scrutiny.

“Let me show you an example,” said Janis, shown standing on a sidewalk and motioning to nearby private property and streets. “Sidewalks are sacred ground for journalists. If I step into the street, police can arrest me for obstructing traffic. If I stand on this land, the owner could get me for trespassing. That means the only space I have to do journalism is the sidewalk. The sidewalk is sacred in that sense. That is why this case is critical, and I hope Mata pursues this in some way as a lawsuit because we need to protect the ability to report from the sidewalk. It’s the only place left [where we can work freely] and one we need to protect.”

Our review of the public comments from last week’s council meeting revealed only instances of constitutionally protected speech. Several speakers — including one local who personally thanked the Weekly for advocating for government transparency — raised concerns about the lack of police accountability and the ongoing harassment and unlawful arrests of cop watchers.

Mata is on trial for his bogus trespassing and obstruction charges that resulted from his lawful work as a citizen journalist. He told our reporters on several occasions that one of his main goals is to compel police officers to follow their own procedures and to respect the civil rights of all Fort Worthians.

Based on Mata’s videotaped encounters with law enforcement that clearly show rampant misconduct, the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office should drop his ongoing charges. Local elected officials should request that an independent law enforcement agency investigate potential instances of official oppression by the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department and Fort Worth police.

Noakes owes the public answers about why he spoke in uniform at a political event in possible violation of Texas Government Code Sec. 143.086, which bans peace officers from politicizing their jobs. Despite Noakes’ poorly chosen comments last week, the feelings of police chiefs do not supersede the rights of citizens to film police or express valid frustrations to elected officials.

Real News host Taya Graham says Mata’s unlawful arrest reveals a deeper truism about American society.

“The inequality that defines our country is exacerbated by the unequal distri-

“Thank you so much, Edward Brown, for continuing to raise awareness of the family court,” one reader said.

Staff writer Brown received more than laudatory messages for his reporting on the event organized by the family counseling group Brighter Possibilities. He is now reviewing dozens of photos and government documents that appear to show recent fraternizing among judges, family law attorneys, and groups contracted by the county to weigh in on family court cases. Those friendly relationships are questionable at best and highly unethical at worst. Mothers and fathers have every right to assume that when they walk into a courtroom, those legal professionals are not predisposed to give biased rulings or advice based on personal relationships.

Clearly, there’s more reporting to be done in this area. We welcome anyone who has evidence — social media posts, photos, and documents — of unprofessional socializing that may constitute conflicts of interest to email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly.com. We will protect the anonymity of all whistleblowers.

This column reflects the opinions of the editorial board and not the Fort Worth Weekly To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly.com. He will gently edit it for concision and clarity.

Though mandated by state law to refrain from political activities, Fort Worth’s police chief has no problem ranting about cop watchers at political events.

Perhaps as expected for this town, Police Chief Neil Noakes loves surrounding himself with God, Old Glory, and Republicans.

The Longest Period

As whistleblower Joe Palazzolo fights for his old FWISD job, he holds fast to his faith and military training.

BY KEN WHEATCROFT-PARDUE

Sitting at our table at a South Fort Worth eatery, our cups of coffee long cold, our conversation wrapping up, Joe Palazzolo recalled photos of him that the Weekly took more than a decade ago, when his case was just beginning to be talked about. In the picture, he said with a self-deprecating grin, “My hair was dark.” He pointed to his hair now — almost completely white — then, without as much bitterness as I would have thought, added, “It’s taken a toll.”

The “it” is his decade-plus-long battle with the Fort Worth school district to regain his job, from which he believes he was unjustly fired. His saga, which he had just related to me, has more convolutions than Everything Everywhere All at Once but with the ending unfortunately still unknown and without the Oscar buzz and parallel universes.

In 1989, after being in the Army, running a small business, and working for the government, Palazzolo decided education was the career for him. As he recalled, “Education was a natural fit for me. … It was a natural transition from the military, in that 99% of what you do in the military is learn and teach others. You are also in the ultimate diversity of the human experience. I loved it. I loved teaching. I loved being an administrator and making a difference.”

In 2009, Palazzolo was in the second year of his dream job as an assistant principal at Arlington Heights High School. As he believes, he was naïve. “Like a babe in the woods,” he added. Not being from Fort Worth, he didn’t really understand the intense political infighting that’s unfortunately endemic in the fifth-largest school district in Texas.

It’s then I interjected, telling Palazzolo that when I started in Fort Worth ISD in 1996, I was shocked how regular classroom teachers would go into detail about the latest shenanigans of board members and administrators, talking about who was up or down. In the four previous school districts where I’d worked, I had never heard classroom teachers bringing up the petty inside politics of the school district with other teachers. Never.

As Palazzolo related it to me, as far as he knew, that school year of 2009-2010 at Arlington Heights was going well. He was in charge of the freshman class and freshman teachers, a great cadre of educators, in his view. On that year’s evaluation, he received

“Exceeds Expectations,” and his principal, Neta Alexander, had recommended him for a promotion — to be a principal at Metro Opportunity High School.

At that same time, because he was named Arlington Heights’ diversity representative, teachers had been coming to him with “complaints, ranging from inappropriate conduct, assault by an administrator on staff, sexual harassment, attendance alteration, theft, embezzlement, and discrimination against minority students.”

One of the complaints that really bothered him was the falsifying of attendance records. Students were allowed to clean for credit. By dusting windows, they perversely and illegally made up for their absences. When Palazzolo saw minority students being allowed to do that, he felt it was a prime example of the bigotry of low expectations. He felt compelled to fight for the teachers and students of Arlington Heights and present those complaints.

At the time, he and the teachers coming forward were assured by both the superintendent at the time, Melody Johnson, and the district’s diversity representative, Sharon Herrera, that there would be no retaliation. However, it wasn’t too long after Palazzolo submitted the teachers’ list of grievances in May that Johnson and other leaders broke those promises.

First, the district told him he was being transferred to the International Newcomer Academy, a definite demotion, and, later, the district decided to instead transfer him to Western Hills High School. It was proof to him that Johnson and other leaders were retaliating against him.

Here, Palazzolo paused and noted that over the past few years he had been trying to put all this out of his mind. Once he started recounting it, it all vividly came back, he added, with a sigh.

I remembered reading about his case in 2010, but when faced with more than a decade of information, I knew I had to look deeper. Going through the Weekly’s search engine, I found more than two dozen pieces over the years with such headlines as “It’s Official: Palazzolo’s Head Is on Johnson’s Platter” and “Day Two: Joe Palazzolo V FWISD.”

Interestingly, the amount of notice this case garnered in Fort Worth’s “paper of

record” is minuscule by comparison. Not to brag, but the Star-Telegram is deeply immersed in the Fort Worth Way, which allows powerbrokers to break the rules without accountability whether at City Hall, the county courthouse, or the school board. We try not to let that happen.

In 2010, Palazzolo’s case angered many and not just those close to him. Larry Shaw felt compelled to defend Palazzolo.

“When it was all laid out,” said the then-head of the United Educators Association, a local group that represents educational employees, “I thought this guy had gotten a really raw deal, so we agreed that the right thing to do was to work to get him his job back. He is a straight-arrow guy, a retired military man who did exactly what he was told to do by the district and got demoted for it. Incredible.”

After Palazzolo made a formal complaint to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), which oversees primary and secondary education, and the Weekly published an expose (“Powder Keg at Arlington Heights High,” Aug. 11, 2010), the retaliation intensified. Palazzolo’s evaluation was changed by the district from “Exceeds Expectations” to “Needs Improvement.” As Shaw described

it at the time, “This is a classic tale of killing the messenger.”

To understand why those in power were so determined to retaliate against Palazzolo for, in their minds, damaging Arlington Heights’ reputation, we need to understand that, at the time, as the Weekly reported, Principal “Alexander … ha[d] long been determined to avoid negative publicity about her school.” She seemed “obsessed with lifting the taint of the ‘Academically Unacceptable’ rating the school received in 2009.”

Not only was the principal determined to hide the problems at Arlington Heights, but also Judy Needham, the school board member representing the Arlington Heights area, reportedly felt just as strongly that Palazzolo had damaged the school. Her enemy was not the wrongdoing Palazzolo had uncovered but the man who had, in his capacity as the school’s diversity representative, exposed its failings for them to be solved.

In discussing Needham, it was the first time I saw Palazzolo really get emotional. He grappled with finding just the right words to describe her, then shook his head and said, “Especially in regards to my case, I question her ethics, character, and morals.”

continued on page 7

It’s been a long time since Joe Palazzolo’s hair was dark. His ordeal, he said, has “taken a toll.”

Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue

Later, he said he feels that through her PAC (Political Action Committee), Needham is still intimately involved with Fort Worth ISD and its elections, calling the present school board president, Tobi Jackson, “a minion” of Needham’s.

I reached out to both Needham and Jackson for comment but did not hear back.

Instead of remedying the problems at Arlington Heights and other campuses, the district has spent years going after the messenger. Palazzolo was demoted, transferred, fired, reinstated, and then fired a second time, but that was not all the district did. It seems they tried to destroy his reputation. Trying to defame him, they levied inflammatory but spurious charges against him — falsifying his initial application, violating district policy, creating a hostile work environment, violating the teachers’ code of ethics, and, worst of all, inappropriate touching of a student. In the hearings following Palazzolo’s firing, those charges were proven to be baseless.

Regardless of the district’s obsessive retaliation and false allegations, Palazzolo was awarded $2.4 million by a jury in 2014 for wrongful termination. The district appealed that ruling, and now Palazzolo awaits a new, ordered trial “because of an error in the court’s charge to the jury in the first trial.”

Since then, the district has played a cynical and wastefully expensive game of delay that’s included two unsuccessful appeals to the Texas Supreme Court and four unserious attempts at mediation. As Palazzolo told the Weekly in 2014, the district has allegedly paid out “millions … in legal fees … all with taxpayer money.”

The district doesn’t want to settle, Palazzolo feels, because that would set a bad precedent. Those in charge don’t want bad publicity or the truth to come out. If teachers and administrators know the district will fire you and also try to ruin your reputation, then the powers-that-be can be sure their employees will not show the public what’s really going on.

I listened to Palazzolo’s woes while in the background played what passes for country music these days over the usual din of plates being set down and the steady clicking of cutlery. I was just incredulous. Here was a man who had lost his dream job and afterward could not land another job in education. He had to switch to working retail, which he likes but describes as just a job. Plus, during this time, he had to burn through his savings and cash in his state retirement. When I heard that, I asked Palazzolo how he has been able to persevere for more than a decade at his quest to regain his position and to get what is justly coming to him despite the district’s stonewalling.

“I have a strong family. If I even considered taking the deal they offered me, my wife would tell me not to come home,” he added with a laugh.

He also credits living on his small ranch with helping him keep his sanity. All the dumpster-fire drama that went on in Fort Worth could not touch the reality of him being able to work with his hands. “I have tried to immerse myself in my family, neighbors, and ranch.”

And he has definitely immersed himself in the outdoor ranching world. He has learned such new skills as how to grow hay and weld. Also, he has picked up how to breed, raise, and work cattle. Plus, he has

continued on page 8

CONNECT WITH ART THROUGH COCKTAILS, CONVERSATIONS, AND CREATIVITY.

Each month you’ll find something different—from performances, artist talks, and unique tours to art making, music, and films.

MARCH 9, 2023 | FREE

Landscape & Light

Learn more about the tranquil photos featured in the exhibition Morning Light: Photographs of David H. Gibson Meet the Dallas-based artist, make your own art inspired by his process, have some drinks, and more during an evening themed around the exhibition!

Second Thursdays at the Carter is generously supported by the Louella Martin Foundation. David H. Gibson (b. 1939), Sunrise Moments, Eagle Nest Lake, New Mexico August 31, 2021, 6:37:48 AM (detail), inkjet print, Courtesy of the artist, © David H. Gibson

For Palazzolo, living on his small ranch has helped him continue to battle the school district.

Andrew and Kaitlyn Goode

Palazzolo: “The kids know when you have low expectations. If you don’t expect them to go to class, [and] you’re not going to do anything to make sure they go to class … some of those kids don’t have that in their lives.”

Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue

I'LL BE YOUR MIRROR ART AND THE DIGITAL SCREEN

February 12–April 30

Examining the screen’s vast impact on art from 1969 to the present, this exhibition includes the work of fifty artists in a broad range of media including paintings, sculpture, video games, digital art, augmented reality, and video. These artists demonstrate the screen as a powerful and valuable artistic and social tool.

Feature continued from page 7

“rescued several horses and raised registered German Shepherds.”

Palazzolo also pointed to his strong religious beliefs and his military background with helping him stand up to the Fort Worth school district. “I have a strong sense of right and wrong. All we ever wanted to do was to straighten the mess out … The kids know when you have low expectations. If you don’t expect them to go to class, [and] you’re not going to do anything to make sure they go to class,” his voice then trailed off. “Some of those kids don’t have that in their lives, and I loved that about teaching. I felt I was making a difference.”

In September 2022, at the advice of his counsel at the time, Palazzolo applied for five different positions with Fort Worth ISD after more than a decade of being shut out of education. Once he applied, he didn’t really know what to expect. Then, surprisingly, he received a call back right away. It was a district recruiter, and, as Palazzolo described it, she excitedly told him she would be able to put him to work.

Palazzolo was surprised. He asked her if he would be going back to work the next school year or the next semester? No, she allegedly said, right away. Next week, in fact. Then she explained that the district is short on administrators and teachers.

It would have been interesting to have seen the district’s reaction when that earnest recruiter found out she had practically offered a job to the man the district has been trying to destroy for years. Here she was, thrilled she might be able to reel in an overqualified candidate at the same time Fort Worth ISD was hemorrhaging teacher and administrator positions.

Around that time, NBC-5 reported that even though the fall semester had already begun, “Fort Worth ISD [is] hiring 300 teachers and campus monitors.” Also, the Star-Telegram said one month earlier that “staffing shortages have left teachers scrambling to cover classes for absent colleagues.”

This shows just how awful and wrongheaded this overly long vengeance crusade has been. The district desperately needs experienced administrators like Palazzolo, who is willing and has been waiting years to go back to work. Of course, since we don’t own insect drones to allow us to spy on other people’s conversations, we’ll never know exactly how the formerly excited recruiter finally learned that Palazzolo is, as far as Fort Worth ISD is concerned, completely unwelcome.

In October, Palazzolo was sent a form email that said his “profile did not move forward in the recruiting process” because he had earlier resigned and explained that his “current resignation code is do not rehire.” Interestingly, the email contradicts contemporaneous reporting that Palazzolo was fired.

Palazzolo then realized this was the key to understanding what had happened in his past. For three years after he was fired, he had tried to land a position at other area

school districts. Despite all his efforts, he had not been able to go back to doing what he loved. Palazzolo feels this new information makes it clear that he was blacklisted from education all this time because Fort Worth had mislabeled him as “resigned, not to be rehired.” Asked to respond to Palazzolo’s charges, district spokesperson Claudia Garibay said in an email that “due to ongoing litigation … we are unable to comment on this matter at this time.”

Next month, the date for Palazzolo’s new trial will be set. Potentially, the district could end up paying him upwards of $4 million, which would include $1 million in back pay, plus interest, and $250,000 in damages. With a new, more aggressive attorney, Palazzolo hopes to go on the offensive and try to prove that district personnel repeatedly lied under oath about an attendance audit from the U.S. Department of Education at the first trial and that School Board President Jackson was implicated in that perjury charge.

Joe Palazzolo did his job, and Fort Worth ISD fired him for that. He was a whistleblower who was letting the district know of real wrongdoing. He cannot be brushed off as some crank or a disgruntled employee.

The Fort Worth school district’s cynical game of delay is intended to go on until Palazzolo either accepts a settlement or dies. The district has gone to the Texas Supreme Court twice and lost both times. They’ve offered Palazzolo money but never what he wants and is rightly owed — his job back. The district has already spent millions of dollars fighting him. What they ought to do if they lose again is what they should have done all along: pay Palazzolo what he’s lost, give him his job back, and stop wasting taxpayer money on a petty political vendetta. l

In 2014, a jury awarded Palazzolo $1.4 million, but the district appealed the decision.

BUCK U

Heroes and Hopefuls

Men’s tennis makes history while basketball is dribbling toward the big dance.

BY BUCK D. ELLIOTT

The tennis world, for the uninitiated, revolves solely around grand slams and Sunday afternoon singles matches between millionaires with household names like Federer, Williams, Djokovic, and Nadal. For the rabid felt heads, there’s so much more to it. Somewhat quietly last weekend, TCU men’s tennis became the first repeat national team champions in school history when they defended their Intercollegiate Tennis Association indoor title at the University of Illinois.

Coach David Roditi’s court kings are 12-0 this season and have dropped only one indoor match through the last two seasons. Third-ranked when the weekend began, their tournament draw began with a flawless victory against 10th-ranked Baylor, beating their conference rival for the second time this season. The racket Frogs then teed off on 13th-ranked Georgia, winning anoth-

er perfect match and regaining some Fort Worth dignity from the Bulldogs.

The defending champions’ stiffest test came against their second-ranked semifinal opponent, Kentucky. The Wildcats stole first- and third-line singles victories but didn’t manage any other wins over the Frogs, who advanced through their finals match unscathed against 6th-ranked Texas to raise another trophy.

Aside from defending their title, TCU tennis looks to be in position to push their personal best with the outdoor season approaching. Baylor and Texas are leagues ahead of the rest of the conference, and the Frogs have dropped one total point to the pair through three matches. The 4-2 win over Kentucky is important vindication from last season, when top-ranked TCU lost a nail-biting 4-3 slugfest to the Wildcats in the NCAA quarterfinals. Roditi has moved his squad back to the peak of the rankings after a dominating weekend, with Texas holding the penultimate position.

Roditi dominated offseason recruiting while the Frogs added Jack Pinnington from England, who is considered the most desirable acquisition in collegiate tennis and is still acclimating to the dual-match world as opposed to the tournament circuit, and Sebastian Gorzny out of California, a former junior Wimbledon doubles champion. Despite becoming the first team of repeat champions in Frog history, this group has their sights set on an elusive outdoor title, and they are perhaps more capable than any in the past to achieve it. Not because TCU hasn’t rostered amazing players — Frog alum Cameron Norrie just hoisted the Rio Open trophy after a three-set victory over the second-ranked player in the world — but because this team lineup has a smaller standard deviation between first and sixth line, which is what’s required to win a championship.

Staying with indoor court sports, Jamie Dixon’s ballers have weathered their typical second-half skid. I warned readers this would be the case as point guard Mike Miles and center Eddie Lampkin healed from injuries. After a four-game losing

streak, TCU rediscovered their shooting chops and exploded on Oklahoma State as Miles returned to the lineup and aided a charge during which five players finished with double-digit scoring. The Cowboys also suffered at the presence of Miles and Lampkin gracing the same lineup for the first time since the mid-season break. The Frogs dropped close tips against the Bears and Jayhawks — losing by a combined nine points — but have only prevailed against the Cowboys, Mountaineers, and Red Raiders during their second act. Tech, despite

suffering an uncharacteristically poor season, has mustered a handful of wins, five to be exact. Dixon’s disciples did manage to outfox the sand people’s late comeback to leave Lubbock with a Frog win for the first time since 2015 on Saturday.

The regular season buzzer is ready to wail, and this week, TCU takes on Big 12 deserters Texas on Wednesday and Oklahoma on Saturday. The Frogs are .500 in conference and tied with Iowa State for fourth, though the Cyclones won both head-to-head tips. The Longhorns charged back from an 18-point deficit the last time these teams met in Austin, but with a tournament invite imminent, it’s difficult to know if Dixon will pull out all the stops or rest his roster in preparation for the tourney. Lampkin’s minutes will be limited, if he plays at all, which he didn’t in Lubbock. I expect Dixon to safeguard the big man’s health and be judicious with Miles, especially on Saturday against the Sooners, who are dead last in the conference.

Aside from the Big 12 tournament, all attention is focused on how to prepare for March Madness. TCU is currently projected as a sixth seed, and that’s not likely to change. Part of their success — despite an average record — is thanks to the fantastically difficult conference in which they play. Even West Virginia, who is knotted in the standings with Tech for second to last, may find themselves as an 11th-seed and fighting for their lives during a play-in game.

TCU men’s basketball is making incredible strides during Dixon’s tenure. The Frogs have been left out of the AP Top 25 only during two out of the 17 polls this season, which were Weeks 3 and 4, when TCU was 26th in both. This level of national recognition is a different universe from the depths the program has seen while playing in Conference USA. It will be difficult not to project momentum to the NCAA tourney based on what happens this week and in the conference tournament, but we might still have to hold our collective noses a bit while the slightly shallow roster continues to rest and heal in preparation for the games that matter most. l

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES:

Synagro of Texas-CDR, Inc., has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for:

Amendment of Permit 159900

This application would authorize modification of a Biosolids Management Facility located at 2501 Greenbelt Road, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas 76118. This application is being processed in an expedited manner, as allowed by the commission’s rules in 30 Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 101, Subchapter J. Additional information concerning this application is contained in the public notice section of this newspaper.

The ballin’ Frogs are looking for their strongest conference finish in the Jamie Dixon era as they face Texas and Oklahoma in the final week of the season.

Courtesy TCU Athletics

SCREEN

Grudge Match

Jonathan Majors wins the spotlight in the third Creed movie.

BY KRISTIAN LIN

About 20 years ago, I read a movie review in the Star-Telegram saying that actors tended to hit age 40 before making their debuts as directors. There were quite a few examples: Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Denzel Washington, George Clooney.

These days, actors aren’t waiting for that milestone to move behind the camera, and why should they? In the past few years, we’ve seen sparkling directing debuts by Romola Garai (38); Jordan Peele, Megan Park, and Michael Angelo Covino (36); Olivia Wilde, Jonah Hill, and Emerald Fennell (35); Greta Gerwig and Paul Dano (34); and Bo Burnham (28). Currently working on their first features are Taylor Swift (33) and Kristen Stewart (32). There’s no set age when a neophyte becomes ready to direct — don’t make me run out the factoid about Orson Welles directing Citizen Kane at 26, because I’ll do it — and the only way to tell if someone can direct is to watch the results.

This week, 36-year-old Michael B. Jordan officially becomes a director with Creed III, and if his direction is more workmanlike than inspired, he still produces a watchable installment in the series. He returns as Adonis Creed, who has hung up his boxing gloves as one of the sport’s legends and moved back to L.A. with Bianca (Tessa Thompson) to raise their deaf 4-year-old daughter (Mila Davis-Kent) and manage the next generation of fighters. His comfortable life is upended by “Diamond” Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors), a Gold Gloves-winning amateur boxer who grew up alongside young Adonis in a foster home and went to prison defending him in a street fight in 2002. The ex-con goes straight from prison to Adonis’ gym and not only wants to resume his boxing career despite his advanced age, he wants a title bout against Adonis’ heavyweight champion (José Benavidez Jr.). One comes about in improbable fashion, and everyone except Donnie can see Dame’s heel turn coming. Adonis never visited Dame during his decades in prison. He’s about to pay for that.

Actors who direct themselves sometimes give themselves all the emotional speeches and funny bits and dramatic closeups. That’s not the case here, as Jordan willingly cedes the spotlight to Majors. The latter makes a better villain here than in the Ant-Man sequel, showing off the moves of a boxer who’s still dangerous even though his discipline has gone to hell, not least because he’s willing to fight dirty. Dame may be out of control, but he’s savvy enough to play Adonis’ guilt for all it’s worth, and when he learns that Bianca hasn’t been told about his and Adonis’ troubles growing up, Dame uses that to drive a wedge between them. It would be tempting to say that Majors steals this movie, were it not for the fact that the filmmakers have set up Dame to be the guy we watch.

(As for the director/star, he’s somewhat miscast as this version of Adonis, who’s emotionally closed up and doesn’t want his wife to know about his past. Jordan is a great movie star precisely because we know what’s going on with his characters.)

The director is occasionally let down by his script, and his one big swing — the climactic boxing match between Adonis and Dame, in which the crowd disappears and prison bars spring up around the ring — is a visual that we haven’t seen in a hundred other boxing movies, but it doesn’t resonate like it’s supposed to. Despite that, the pace doesn’t drag, the boxing matches are done up so you can follow the action, and a training montage pays tribute to the one from Rocky by having Adonis run up Mt. Lee to the Hollywood sign, because Jordan is as proud of his native SoCal as Sylvester Stallone is of Philly. Creed III doesn’t hit the heights of the first movie in the series, but it proves that Michael B. Jordan can be a director. That and Majors’ performance are what I take away. l

Jonathan Majors is a prison boxer fighting for the title he craves in Creed III.

Eli Ade

EATS & drinks

Green Cleanup Crew

four days each year, and much of that detritus — aluminum cans, glass, plastic bottles, and cardboard –– is recyclable. Thanks to longtime volunteer Danelle Toups and her Eco team, the festival has kept more than 3,000 pounds and counting of material out of Fort Worth landfills.

Based on various reports, current landfills will be full as early as 2036 if we can’t find better ways to manage waste.

BY LAURIE JAMES

Since 2014, the Fort Worth Food and Wine Festival has delighted foodies with a rotating series of events that feature the best food, beer, wine, and spirits Fort Worth has to offer. The festival promotes chefs, restaurants, and the local farming and ranching communities while the nonprofit FWFWF foundation raises funds for local culinary efforts –– from assisting budding chefs to helping locally owned restaurants stay afloat during the COVID pandemic. But the fest also creates a small town’s worth of waste with events running over

When Toups isn’t wearing her green Eco shirt, she is the assistant director of library services at Tarrant County College’s Trinity River Campus. Toups has a long, loving relationship with the river — as an avid kayaker, she’s picked up trash along the banks and in the water near campus during her paddle time. Toups became a volunteer during the inaugural festival, and in 2019 she started a discussion with festival management after watching volunteers toss out thousands of bottles and cans.

“We need to be responsible about what we do with our waste,” she said. “Our landfills will be tapped out in a few years.”

Festival organizers were willing to pilot a recycling program, especially one with volunteer support. The FWFWF runs on volunteers –– 206 of them kept the 2022 festival afloat — but the special program that Toups heads is specifically responsible for collecting and separating recyclable material from the thousands of pounds of trash generated from the chefs and festivalgoers. Toups readied a group of volunteers for the 2020 festival only to have the event shuttered by the pandemic.

“We geared up and everything got put on hold,” Toups said, “but it worked out because we beta-tested the recycling program in the fall of 2021.”

For the mini-festival in 2021, all events were held outside at the Heart of the Ranch in Clearfork. The gloriously shaded area is a

perfect match for the brunch, barbecue, and burger events that happen there, but the huge footprint posed some logistical challenges at the beginning.

“The first year, we just had a handful of bins,” Toups said.

Watching the Eco team struggle with keeping bags in the tall wire containers and watching festivalgoers casually throw food waste in a designated recycle container forced her to rethink the approach.

“We tried to figure out the best process to gather recyclables,” Toups said. “We did not want to interfere with the joy of the festival. We wanted this to be seamless.”

Lessons learned from 2021 blossomed at the 2022 festival.

“The secret is that you have to have a trash can right next to a recycling container,” Toups said. “You have to reduce the friction for the consumer.”

Last year, Toups’s team circulated with bus tubs, clearing away waste in real time. Then the Eco team could streamline the process of separating the trash from the recycling.

“People want to recycle, but they don’t know how,” she said.

Because the majority of recyclable materials comes from vendors, Toups started each shift by introducing them to “the green shirt people” and telling them to pile the recyclables in a corner of the vendor booths, where, magically, the cans, glass, and cardboard would disappear.

“We have a giant City of Fort Worth 20-foot truck for recycling,” she said. “Last year, we filled and emptied that twice, along with another, smaller vehicle.”

The larger truck holds close to 3,000 pounds of recyclables. Toups said it’s not the just about the weight — the volume of the big cardboard boxes and the bottles take up extra space in landfills.

Ironically, Toups had a previous job that informs how she attempts to make the FWFWF the happiest place on Earth in terms of recycling. As a former Disney World employee, Toups was accustomed to helping keep a giant theme park spotless while keeping a smile on her face.

continued on page 17

Thanks to volunteers, the Fort Worth Food and Wine Festival reduces contributions to the local landfill while generating contributions for the town’s culinary industry.

Danelle Toups, longtime volunteer at the Fort Worth Food and Wine Festival, would love to talk trash (OK, recycling) with you.

Courtesy FWFWF

Eats & Drinks

continued from page 15

“The guest is not inconvenienced in any way,” she said.

Toups feels most festivalgoers appreciate the Eco team’s efforts, especially at a giant festival. If you’re interested in joining the Eco team this year –– the FWFWF runs March 30-April 2 –– Volunteer Committee Chair Lee Henderson said it’s not too late to sign up. “We definitely want to make sure we can have the Eco team adequately staffed throughout the festival weekend.”

Perks of the gig include a festival pass to another FWFWF event and the chance to do some real good in Fort Worth. Contact Volunteer@FWFWF.com.

Toups hopes the Eco team fervor could be caught by sponsors of other events that occur year-round in the Fort.

“I would love to challenge all the major festivals in Fort Worth to attempt to recycle,” she said. “Start with the vendors. They’re a captive audience.”

Main Street Arts Festival already encourages fairgoers to bring their own water bottles to branded water stations to reduce waste.

“If we can create an environment where people expect recycling, and we make it easy, it could go a long way,” Toups said. l

Eco team volunteers worked throughout the festival collecting recyclables from festivalgoers and vendors.

Danelle Toups and her Eco team crew filled up two of these large recycle trucks at the 2022 festival.

Courtesy

Who’s Your (Craw) Daddy?

With crawfish season in full swing, options abound. Along with rolling into J&J Oyster Bar (612 University Dr, 817-367-9792) for daily deals by the pound, there are some food events with crawdads, tacos, and more, all of them worthy of your time in the near future.

1.) Are you up for a mudbug road trip? If so, head to Selma (right outside San Antonio) daily Friday thru Sun, Mar 19, for the Big TX Fun Crawfish Festival at Retama Park (1 Retama Pkwy, @BigTxFun). Admission is $12 for adults or $8 for kids at the door, and parking is $10 per car. Along with crawfish by the pound (price TBD on the day of the event), you can purchase food from street vendors, ride some carnival rides managed by local entertainment guru Talley Amusements (translation: safe rides!), and engage in animal encounter sessions with kangaroos, ponies, and tortoises. On Sat, Mar 11, put your elastic pants on and enter a crawfish eating contest with a prize of $500. Every Saturday and Sunday, there is also a battle of the bands. For more information, visit BigTxFun.com.

2.) Horus Hall (208 NW 24th St, 817-6832882) is once again home to the Third Annual Cowtown Crawfish Boil noon-8pm Sat, Mar 11. All-you-can-eat tickets are $40 and include two beer tickets. You can also purchase crawfish by the pound (price TBD on the day of the event). Kids under 5 get in free. Those 6 to 12 are $10. In case you want something other than mudbugs, Cowtown Smoke Dawgz BBQ (682-7157744) will also serve alternate food options. Lot parking is $10 for 12 hours, but there is also some limited street parking for free. With the Music Award-winning Squeezebox Bandits performing from 6pm to 8pm, you

may just come to hear the band. If that’s the case, you can purchase an I’m-Here-for-theMusic entrance-only admission for $20. For more info or tickets, visit Eventbrite.com.

3.) Speaking of festivals, North Texas-based event producer Taco Festival USA (9 Cowboys Way, Frisco, 615-436-1219) is bringing its annual Fort Worth Taco & Margarita Fest to Bar 2909 (2909 Morton St, 817-3322909) noon-5pm Sat, with tickets starting at $10 at UTixManager.com. VIP tickets are $50, including early admission at 11am, two full-size margarita vouchers, and a festival T-shirt. For VIP, you must be 21+. General admission is $10 for ages 13+, and kids 12 and under get in free. Beyond the taco sampling, enjoy music from live DJs, shopping from local vendors, a hot chili pepper eating contest, and a taco-eating contest. The bar also has a Boy Band Brunch at 11am Sun. Both events are excellent choices.

4.) Fort Brewery & Pizza (2737 Tillar St, 817-923-8000) offers the Cajun Fun Fest & Crawfish Boil noon-3pm Sat, featuring beer, bugs, and beads, plus dueling pianos. There is no cost to attend. Crawfish is $40 for 2 pounds or $45 for 3 pounds and includes corn, potatoes, two beers, and a souvenir pint glass. For instructions on how to preorder, visit FortBrewery.com/Calendar.

5.) One bar and grill on the Near Southside has been on my mind a lot lately. Throughout the spring and summer, The Bearded Lady (300 S Main St, 817-349-9832) will serve up a slew of themed events, and crawfish season is no exception. The Bearded Lady Annual Crawfish Boil starts at 11am on Sat, Mar 11, and features specials on crawfish dishes like Cajun loaded fries, cornbread, gumbo, and mac ’n’ cheese, plus burgers and grilled cheese for the non-mudbuggers. For updates, check out Facebook.com/TheBeardedLadyFortWorth.

6.) The recently reopened Acadia Parish (7709 Camp Bowie West, 318-433-0650) is a natural go-to for Cajun food, especially crawfish, this time of year. The current hours are 4pm-9pm Tue-Thu and 11pm-9pm Fri-Sun. Many days, there are all-you-can-eat-crawfish deals for $19.99 until they run out, and at the moment, Acadia is BYOB. If you find yourself there at 6pm on Sat, Mar 18, you will also be treated to some live music by Randy Hawkins & The Two-Dollar Tour with Lisa Worley (no cover).

7.) Toward the end of the month, owner Tommy Tanner is serving up mudbugs and all the fixins at the Heads N Tails Crawfish Boil 2pm Sun, Mar 19, at Fuel 2.0 Bar & Grill (2616 E Belknap St, 817-683-3854), the winner of our prized Best Biker Bar award in Best Of many times over. For food pricing and dining times, check for updates closer to the event date at Facebook.com/ Fuel2.0Bar. However, we know that Rosie’s Shine & Wax (@RosiesShineNWax, 682521-0549) will be on hand starting at 2pm to wash bikes for $20 and up.

8.) And now for something completely different. (Monty Python, anyone? Dang, I’m old.) Are you interested in becoming a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tarrant County (205 W Main St, Arlington, 817-277-1148), teaching young ones about life and taking them to kid-friendly events such as those listed above? If so, learn more about it at the free Big Social event 6pm8pm Thu at Blackland Distillery (2616 Weisenberger St, 682-268-5333). Along with producing five spirits, including bourbon, gin, rye whiskey, vodka, and our editor’s favorite Texas Pecan Brown Sugar Bourbon, Blackland runs a full-service cocktail lounge and tasting room. This event would be a great excuse to check out this distillery.

By Jennifer Bovee

The crawfish are aplenty all around town this month.

Courtesy iStock

The Squeezebox Bandits will play the Third Annual Cowtown Crawfish Bowl Sat, Mar 11.

Courtesy Facebook

MUSIC

JaeBoy

Fighting through early childhood trauma has brought the rapper to his new, cathartic album.

BY STEVE STEWARD

When you think about it, the old adage about making lemonade out of life’s unsolicited lemons is staggeringly myopic. What do you do when, instead of a citrus fruit with thousands of positive applications, life deals you unwarranted trauma? Local rapper Jason “JaeBoy” Addington, who was raised by two people in the throes of alcoholism, would have welcomed more lemony predicaments. While Addington couldn’t alter his circumstances, he could choose how to react

to them. He chose music, learning to rap as a teenager, first under the alias “nameless” before switching to JaeBoy in 2019.

On Friday, JaeBoy will drop I’m Fine, an album dealing with the stress, anguish, and mental wounds he endured as a child of people trapped in the spirals of addiction.

JaeBoy is honest about his rough upbringing and his parents’ past, but he is also quick to reiterate that in the years since, his mother and father have managed to mend their relationship, due mainly to what they did to rise above their alcohol dependency. Still, the inciting incident behind I’m Fine is stunningly tragic: When JaeBoy was a kid, his mom, suffering from alcohol withdrawal, dropped him off at a safe place. His dad came to get him later but was too drunk to drive. The episode led JaeBoy to the heartbreaking conclusion that if he was to be accepted by his parents, he’d have to be like them, but rather than slip inside the bottle, he channeled his hurt into music, inventing a character in his head, a successful, strungout rapper who finds nothing but emptiness in chemical escape and broken love. And in the intervening years, his parents conquered their demons, and the three of them were able to heal.

“For them, it took a lot of maturing,” he said, “a lot of self-growth. My mom, she had it the worst,” meaning her addiction. “It took a lot of talking and rehab work to get her to where she is now. I am so proud of her, but it took a while to get to a normal relationship. For my dad and I [to reconcile], it was quicker. I had to sit down with

RIDGLEA THEATER

FRI 3/3 JR WOMAN’S CLUB OF FORT WORTH

SPRING SHOW MUSICAL

SAT 3/25 THE ITCHYWORMS US TOUR 2023

RIDGLEA ROOM

FRI 3/3

CARSON ADAY WITH JOSIE AND MIDFLIGHT

FRI 3/10 AFTER DARK FESTIVAL

WED 3/15

THIRD STRINGS PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS GIDEON

RIDGLEA LOUNGE

SAT 3/11 SUPERBLOOD (LA)

W/SPECIAL GUEST SARIKAYA +MORE BANDS TBA!

THUR 3/16

NOISEROT PRESENTS: REGIONS

JaeBoy: “The part of me that took over was like, there are kids who are going through this that don’t know what to do, and I wanted to help them.”

Blake LaBella

continued on page 21

him and say, ‘This isn’t right.’ He knew he was messing up, and he changed his life, but I’ve been having these conversations since I was 12. I was the parent to my parents, just to make sure they weren’t going to die of alcoholism. It’s tough going back on it. It’s a little bittersweet, but, ultimately, it shaped me to be someone who wanted to help others [because] I could’ve gone that same way as my parents.”

Understandably, creating an album that forced him to unpack childhood trauma was difficult. He said four years went by before he was able to complete it — when you compare the gravity of I’m Fine’s subject matter to some of his most recent releases, a 2019 commentary on chasing social media clout called “Billy” and a couple of boast tracks from that same year (“Super Saiyan Jae,” “Moonset”) — it’s easy to see what took him so long.

“There were times I wanted to abandon [I’m Fine], to just close the book and move on,” JaeBoy said, “but the part of me that took over was like, there are kids who are going through this that don’t know what to do, and I wanted to help them. I was able to persevere. It made me deal with that. I was too broke for therapy. Most of the time, when it came down to it, I talked to my grandfather, my mom’s dad who pretty much raised me

when I was a teen. He practically took me in because I was tired of being a victim of their alcoholism.”

But even when he was going through all of that, he found solace in music. JaeBoy was born in Blue Ridge, and he started playing guitar at the age of 5. He credits his grandfather for getting him “excited about music” and said he “grew up listening to Elvis.” After a move to Allen when he was 12, he became fascinated with beatboxing videos and more or less put down the sixstring in favor of his own vocal percussion, performing at talent shows and pep rallies at his middle school before relocating with his family to McKinney in high school. There, he began writing his own raps and producing his own beats using GarageBand. Now 22, he cites Maryland-bred rapper Logic and producer 6ix as his main influences, and it is not lost on JaeBoy that Logic also grew up under the care of drug- and alcohol-dependent parents.

“Logic saved my life to a certain extent,” JaeBoy said. “He had it worse than I did.”

JaeBoy’s flow, though, is all his own. His bars shift from low-gear, laconic phrasing into sudden speed-run syncopation, his lyrics pondering people’s sadly deficient degrees of self-awareness. While he does make his own beats, he’s been working with producers Chandler Roane and Zane Loose of local production house TRND Media for the past three years, moving to Fort Worth in fall 2022.

The move put got him noticed by the Fort Worth Public Library’s Amplify 817 program, a streaming service that highlights

artists who claim Fort Worth as a home base.

I’m Fine’s March 3 debut will be highlighted on Amplify 817.

JaeBoy heard of the program “through the grapevine,” he said. He played the album for Theresa Davis, the library’s communica-

tions manager, before he even knew she was part of Amplify.

“She loved it,” JaeBoy said. “The whole team,” including Music Librarian Rita Alfaro, “they’re awesome. They backed me 100%.”

JaeBoy is managed by TRND Media’s Blake LaBella, who plans to utilize local media resources and emphasize JaeBoy’s knack for making short form content that goes viral.

“For an album like this, and for what Jaeboy wants to accomplish, we’re gonna run the circuit with podcasts, the Fort Worth Weekly, run the local game,” LaBella said. “As far as Apple and Spotify, we work with [local label] Smith Music, and they’ve committed to help us promote Jaeboy’s record across TikTok and other socials. He’s good at making content. He’s been going viral for a short form content series called ‘POV Your Mental Health Is Rapidly Declining.’ It immediately gained traction, and we’ve been riding that ever since. … In line with his goals, a lot of [our promotion] is focused on mental health and providing a space for those who are dealing with mental illness.”

Transcending trauma takes a lot of work, but with his own talent and the lift from Amplify 817, TRND, and an ever-growing social media following, JaeBoy has a clear path to realize his biggest dreams. And, of course, at the top of all that is the renewed relationship with his parents, which is much better than a glass of lemonade anyway. l

Blake LaBella

Texas Commission on environmenTal QualiTy

APPLICATION. Synagro of Texas-CDR, Inc., has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for: Amendment of Permit 159900

This application would authorize modification of the Biosolids Management Facility located at 2501 Greenbelt Road, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas 76118. This application is being processed in an expedited manner, as allowed by the commission’s rules in 30 Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 101, Subchapter J. AVISO DE IDIOMA ALTERNATIVO. El aviso de idioma alternativo en espanol está disponible en https://www.tceq.texas.gov/ permitting/air/newsourcereview/airpermits-pendingpermit-apps. This link to an electronic map of the site or facility’s general location is provided as a public courtesy and not part of the application or notice. For exact location, refer to application. http://www.tceq.texas. gov/assets/public/hb610/index.html?lat=32.791666&lng=-97.141111&zoom=13&type=r. The amendment will authorize an increase in emissions of the following air contaminants: ammonia, carbon monoxide, hazardous air pollutants, lead, nitrogen oxides, organic compounds, metals, particulate matter including particulate matter with diameters of 10 microns or less and 2.5 microns or less and sulfur dioxide.

This application was submitted to the TCEQ on January 31, 2023. The application will be available for viewing and copying at the TCEQ central office, the TCEQ Dallas/Fort Worth regional office, and the Fort Worth Public Library - East Regional Library, 6301 Bridge Street, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas beginning the first day of publication of this notice. The facility’s compliance file, if any exists, is available for public review in the Dallas/Fort Worth regional office of the TCEQ.

The executive director has determined the application is administratively complete and will conduct a technical review of the application.

PUBLIC COMMENT. You may submit public comments to the Office of the Chief Clerk at the address below. The TCEQ will consider all public comments in developing a final decision on the application and the executive director will prepare a response to those comments.

PUBLIC MEETING. You may request a public meeting to the Office of the Chief Clerk at the address below. The purpose of a public meeting is to provide the opportunity to submit comments or ask questions about the application. A public meeting about the application will be held if requested by an interested person and the executive director determines that there is a significant degree of public interest in the application or if requested by a local legislator. A public meeting is not a contested case hearing.

NOTICE OF APPLICATION AND PRELIMINARY DECISION. In addition to this NORI, 30 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) § 39.419 requires this application to also have a Notice of Application and Preliminary Decision (NAPD) after the application is determined to be technically complete and a draft permit is prepared. Note: The TCEQ may act on this application without issuing a NAPD and without seeking further public comment or providing further opportunity for a contested case hearing if changes to representations in the application make the application no longer subject to the applicability requirements of 30 TAC § 39.402. In such cases, this NORI will be your final notice of this application and you will not have additional opportunities to make comments or request a contested case hearing. If a NAPD is required, it will be published and mailed to those who made comments, submitted hearing requests, or are on the mailing list for this application, and contain the final deadline for submitting public comments.

OPPORTUNITY FOR A CONTESTED CASE HEARING

You may request a contested case hearing if you are a person who may be affected by emissions of air contaminants from the facility. If requesting a contested case hearing, you must submit the following: (1) your name (or for a group or association, an official representative), mailing address, and daytime phone number; (2) applicant’s name and permit number; (3) the statement “[I/we] request a contested case hearing”; (4) a specific description of how you would be adversely affected by the application and air emissions from the facility in a way not common to the general public; (5) the location and distance of your property relative to the facility; (6) a description of how you use the property which may be impacted by the facility; and (7) a list of all disputed issues of fact that you submit during the comment period. If the request is made by a group or an association, one or more members who have standing to request a hearing must be identified by name and physical address. The interests the group or association seeks to protect must also be identified. You may also submit your proposed adjustments to the application/permit which would satisfy your concerns.

The deadline to submit a request for a contested case hearing is 30 days after newspaper notice is published. If a request is timely filed, the deadline for requesting a contested case hearing will be extended to 30 days after the mailing of the response to comments.

If a hearing request is timely filed, following the close of all applicable comment and request periods, the Executive Director will forward the application and any requests for contested case hearing to the Commissioners for their consideration at a scheduled Commission meeting. The Commission may only grant a request for a contested case hearing on issues the requestor submitted in their timely comments that were not subsequently withdrawn. If a hearing is granted, the subject of a hearing will be limited to disputed issues of fact or mixed questions of fact and law relating to relevant and material air quality concerns submitted during the comment period. Issues such as property values, noise, traffic safety, and zoning are outside of the Commission’s jurisdiction to address in this proceeding.

MAILING LIST. In addition to submitting public comments, you may ask to be placed on a mailing list to receive future public notices for this specific application by sending a written request to the Office of the Chief Clerk at the address below.

AGENCY CONTACTS AND INFORMATION. Public comments and requests must be submitted either electronically at www14. tceq.texas.gov/epic/eComment/, or in writing to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Office of the Chief Clerk, MC-105, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, Texas 78711-3087. Please be aware that any contact information you provide, including your name, phone number, email address and physical address will become part of the agency’s public record. For more information about this permit application or the permitting process, please call the Public Education Program toll free at 1-800-687-4040. Si desea información en Español, puede llamar al 1-800-687-4040.

Further information may also be obtained from Synagro of Texas-CDR, Inc., 2501 Greenbelt Road, Fort Worth, Texas 76118-7606 or by calling Mr. Bala Vairavan, Director, Capital Projects, at (443) 442-4213.

Amended Notice Issuance Date: February 23, 2023

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