“Now That All of Your Secret Racist Dreams Are Coming True” is the protest song we all need.
BY STEVE STEWARD
METROPOLIS
Local GOP heads may determine fate of a mentally ill TCU grad, lawyer, and former Democratic activist. BY MARK HENRICKS
EATS & DRINKS
The Magnolia will go goth for a night as part of Panther City MIXologist Club #2, a cocktailand-vinyl pairing collab. BY STEVE STEWARD
STUFF
It’s strength on strength in the Super Bowl. BY
PATRICK HIGGINS
MUSIC
Cassettes are more than just nostalgia-inducing artifacts. BY
KENA SOSA
INSIDE
Gay Blades
Cultural phenom Heated Rivalry delightfully sets gay romance in the extremely un-gay world of pro ice hockey.
By Kristian Lin
Political Football
Should a TCU grad, lawyer, and former Democratic activist go to jail or receive probation for a threatening call?
By Mark Henricks
Unlikely Heroes
The QBs aren’t the only oddities this Super Bowl.
By Patrick Higgins
Panther City Tricks
Pairing cocktails with industrial music will rock The Magnolia Feb 12. By Steve Steward
17
SERVICE CHANGES
to Trinity Metro Bus Routes 2 and 4 begin on Sunday, February 1. Route 2 will have an adjusted schedule for better connections, and Route 4 will have expanded service to the Cultural District. Plan ahead at RIDE TRINITYMETRO .org/ SERVICECHANGES
STAFF BOX
Editor-in-Chief: Anthony Mariani
Art Director: Ryan Burger
Special Projects Manager: Jennifer Bovee
Calendar Editor: Elaine Wilder
Film Editor: Kristian Lin
Music Editors: Patrick Higgins, Steve Steward
Proofreader: Emmy Smith
Editorial Board: Anthony Mariani, Emmy Smith, Steve Steward, Elaine Wilder
Contributors: E.R. Bills, Jennifer Bovee, Jason Brimmer, Jess Delarosa, Buck D. Elliott, Danny Gallagher, Juan R. Govea, Mark Henricks, Patrick Higgins, Kristian Lin, Cody Neatherly, Rush Olson, Emmy Smith, Kena Sosa, Steve Steward, Teri Webster, Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue, Elaine Wilder, Cole Williams
Owner / Publisher: Lee Newquist
Director of Operations: Bob Neihoff
Director of Sales: Michael Newquist
Director of Marketing: Jennifer Bovee
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Account Executives: Tony Diaz, Wendy Maier, Sarah Niehoff, Biz Thames, Wyatt Newquist
Brand Ambassador: Clint Newquist
COPYRIGHT
Threat to Fairness
The fate of a mentally ill TCU grad and former Democratic activist may be decided by the local GOP machine.
BY MARK HENRICKS
Next week, a Fort Worth court will either send Dylan Lofton to prison or reinstate the probation he received last year after telephoning threats to a county commissioner. One issue is whether mentally ill offenders belong in jail. Another is whether politics influenced Republican officials’ handling of the case against a former Democratic Party volunteer.
Lofton’s mother has no doubt about whether her 28-year-old son is getting fair treatment.
“We’ve tried to make them aware from the very beginning that this is a mental illness situation,” said Crystal Ledet. “They’ve just thrown the book at him.”
Why Lofton might receive harsher handling is another question. Some who know both Lofton and the local political scene say they know the answer.
“This is saturated in politics,” said one Democratic insider who knew Lofton but did not wish to be identified. “I don’t think this would be happening the way it is if the general election were not happening now. There is not a Republican in Tarrant County that is not afraid and concerned about this election cycle.”
It’s certain that last March Lofton made a series of phone calls to the office of Commissioner Manny Ramirez. In graphic, racist language, Lofton threatened Ramirez with physical harm.
Fort Worth police traced the calls to Lofton’s apartment and arrested him. District Attorney Phil Sorrells’ office charged Lofton with a felony for threatening a law enforcement officer. Ramirez, a former policeman, is still technically a reserve officer.
Lofton was held in the county jail until November, when he pleaded guilty and received a sentence of five years of probation. In similar cases when mental illness appears present, Tarrant
County MHMR typically shows up when inmates are released. They counsel family members and ensure the person’s mental health needs are addressed. That didn’t happen this time.
Within days, Lofton’s parents, concerned about his increasingly erratic behavior, called 911. Ledet said they wanted an ambulance. Instead, they got Fort Worth police, who escorted Lofton to John Peter Smith Hospital’s psychiatric unit. While there, Lofton was diagnosed with schizophrenia and began taking medication. He improved and was released to his parents.
The same day, Lofton reported to his probation officer and was promptly arrested for violating probation, which required wearing an ankle monitor, as well as threatening a family member. Ledet denied reporting threats. She also said the probation office told her that not wearing the monitor in the hospital would not be a violation.
Regardless, Lofton was arrested and has been in jail since. The hearing to decide whether to reinstate probation or send him to prison for two to 10 years happens Thursday, Feb. 12, in Judge Andy Porter’s Criminal District Court 4.
The district attorney’s office declined comment on its plans for the hearing. However,
continued on page 5
Dylan Lofton graduated from TCU before getting his law degree and working as a lawyer and Democratic activist.
Ledet said the public defender assigned to the case expects prosecutors to demand prison time. The case is not being heard in the mental health diversion court set up to help incarcerated persons with mental illness receive treatment instead of jail.
People who know Lofton agree that, until a few years ago, he was a model citizen. A graduate of Chisholm Trail High School and TCU, Lofton went to law school in Arkansas and become a licensed attorney in Texas. He was active in the Democratic Party for a few years starting about a decade ago and eventually served as a precinct chair.
Lofton worked for Justice of the Peace Sergio De Leon before and after law school. The judge wrote letters of recommendation for his law school application.
Lofton, De Leon said, was “a very nice, respectable, and overall great person. Otherwise, we would not have had him come back twice. It took us as a complete shock the things that he did and the issues he experienced.”
Tarrant County Democratic Party Chair Allison Campolo got to know Lofton as a party volunteer and said he stood out for his commitment and character.
“Dylan was one of those important voices,” Campolo said. “He was always coming to council meetings. He was always protesting.”
Another local political activist agreed. “He was always unfailingly respectful, the absolute model Boy Scout. He would say ‘yes, ma’am’ and ‘no, ma’am.’ ”
And numerous additional colleagues and friends signed notarized affidavits attesting to Lofton’s sterling character and behavior.
It’s also agreed that a few years ago, Lofton began behaving erratically. He quit his first job as a lawyer, citing fears that he was being conspired against at work. He lost another job and used alcohol excessively.
By last spring, Lofton was claiming to be born in Ireland, the son of an Irish Republican Army bomber, and not related to his actual mother. He began speaking to everyone in an Irish accent, including when making the offending phone calls to Ramirez.
Lofton’s bizarre behavior didn’t stop MHMR from certifying him as competent. His parents hired an independent forensic psychologist to examine him. She found Lofton was schizophrenic and suffering from paranoid delusions and recommended hospitalization.
The court, however, accepted Lofton’s guilty plea to the criminal charges and released him on probation. Soon after, he expressed a belief that he was engaged to be married to then-local Fox television reporter Hanna Battah, now with Good Morning America
Shortly afterward, Lofton’s behavior deteriorated further, and his parents called for help. That led him to JPS, where doctors diagnosed schizophrenia and began treatment.
Back in March when Lofton was arrested for the threats, many people had concerns about political tension. At the time, Ramirez said, “I hope that there’s an awareness out there that the level of rhetoric and the level of violent threats is growing, and it’s unacceptable.”
Ramirez’s hopes were seemingly fulfilled, given Lofton’s eight-month jail stay and rapid arrest after being released on probation. Since then, Lofton has continued being treated as a dangerous
criminal who deserves jail rather than a mentally ill person with a treatable condition.
“This was a crime and should be treated as such,” said one observer who requested anonymity for privacy’s sake, “but once you find that someone is suffering from acute mental illness, it should be treated appropriately. No one else who has this kind of charge against him sits in jail for eight months and receives this kind of treatment.”
Their theory is that local Republican officials are posturing about being threatened by dangerous liberals.
Others trace Lofton’s handling directly to his previous political activity.
“This seems like a case of political retribution,” Campolo said. “He used to be a very strong Democratic volunteer and a precinct chair before he went to law school.
“We’re glad that the commissioner is safe and nothing bad happened,” Campolo continued, “but they’re throwing the book at this poor kid who has been repeatedly diagnosed with a schizophrenic break. It definitely seems like they’re not treating him fairly.”
Ironically, Lofton’s personal politics apparently turned conservative in recent years. Today, he’s described as much closer to pro-Trump. That may not matter, however, if local officials use the case to make political hay.
Lofton’s mental health reportedly has also changed markedly with access to medication prescribed for his condition.
“He’s talking to me like a normal person again,” Ledet said. “He’s totally making sense. His delusions are gone.”
Next week, Lofton will either go to prison or get out on probation with a chance to regain his mental health, eventually clear his record, and even practice law again. To do that, he and his attorney will have to convince the court he needs treatment rather than incarceration and possibly also that politics does not outweigh justice.
Ledet plans to send Ramirez a letter pleading with him to support treatment instead of jail Lofton, but her concerns extend beyond her child.
“I think mentally ill people in Tarrant County are not getting the help they need,” she said. “My son is a good example of it.” l
Dylan Lofton was considered by many to be a model citizen before he became mentally ill and was arrested for making threatening calls to a Tarrant County commissioner.
Courtesy Crystal Ledet
Dem Trounces Trump-Backed R in Trump Country Senate Runoff
By defeating Southlake
Republican Leigh Wambsganns by double digits in the race for Texas Senate District 9, Taylor Rehmet becomes the first Democrat to carry the district since the hair-metal era.
Conservative commentator Steve Bannon:
“As Tarrant County goes, so goes Texas, right? As Texas goes, so goes MAGA. And as MAGA goes, so goes the United States of America. And as the United States of America goes, so goes the world.”
nothing but repeat the same petty grievances and culture-war-nonsense talking points wafting out of D.C. like the stink of a dirty diaper every day.
“Tonight,” Rehmet said in a statement, “we proved that when leaders take communities seriously, listen to voters, and fight for working people, new outcomes become possible. From the very beginning, this campaign has focused on the real issues people face every day: lowering costs, protecting public schools, and restoring trust in a broken political system. That message brought together folks from across Senate District 9 who may not always agree but share a belief that the government should work for everyday Texans.”
Working in Rehmet’s favor, Wambsganss’ primary opponent, John Huffman, the best funded of all three candidates thanks to casino interests, did not throw his supporters her way after losing to her. Though high-rolling Republican donors emptied their pockets into Wambsganns’ campaign and Trump made a big deal out of endorsing her and urging MAGA to the polls, she still lost by double digits. Rehmet won by +14, becoming the first Democrat elected to represent SD-9 since the year of our Lord 1983, with 57% of the vote.
District 9 includes a huge swath of Fort
when
so goes Texas, right? As Texas goes, so goes MAGA. And as MAGA goes, so goes the United States of America. And as the United States of America goes, so goes the world.”
Trump’s mishandling of the economy and war on everyday citizens in the name of border patrol partly explain his dismal poll numbers, with the Pew Research Center reporting a disapproval
Rehmet: “Tonight, we proved that
leaders take communities seriously, listen to voters, and fight for working people, new outcomes become possible.”
SCREEN
Icy Hot A hockey fan breaks down the zeitgeisty TV hit Heated Rivalry.
BY KRISTIAN LIN
Awards season for movies means that I am late to watching Heated Rivalry , but I’m not late to it becoming a bona fide cultural phenomenon, with the TV show’s lead actors carrying the Olympic torch in Italy and the mayor of New York City telling citizens to stay inside during the recent winter storms and read the Rachel Reid novel on which the show is based. (The New Yorkers took his advice, too.)
TV dramas and sports have historically not mixed well, Friday Night Lights and Ted Lasso notwithstanding. This series was created by the Canadian streaming service Crave and became available to Americans via HBO Max, and its groundbreaking gay romance only works because it takes place against the backdrop of hockey.
The story begins in 2008 in Regina, Saskatchewan, where Team Canada’s Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) meets Team Russia’s Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) at a world junior hockey championship. They are subsequently thrown together often as they become the biggest stars of the sport for teams in Montreal and Boston, respectively. They start having sex after they film a TV commercial together and Ilya sees Shane get aroused in the shower. Their relationship becomes more complicated as seasons go by and they trade off accomplishments on the ice: While Ilya is drafted first by the professional league, Shane is named rookie of the year. Ilya is the first to win the trophy that is pointedly not the Stanley Cup, but then Shane wins it twice in a row.
Hockey fans will recognize where Reid took inspiration from the real-life Sidney Crosby-Alexander Ovechkin rivalry. Speaking of real life, there is a certain amount of macho crap around most men’s sports (possibly not figure skating), and it is particularly heavy around hockey. Poisonous notions about manhood and how male players should behave have resulted in such sordid episodes as the Graham James pedophilia scandal and Todd Bertuzzi breaking Steve Moore’s neck. No doubt this is why there have been openly gay players in the NFL, the NBA, and Major League Baseball but not in the NHL. The gay hockey player is an even more mythical being than the gay football player, which is what makes Heated Rivalry groundbreaking.
And so it is that Shane can’t date a man without it becoming global news after he’s positioned as the sport’s wholesome face. Ilya can’t date one if he ever wants to go back to his homeland. They both go out with women in the fourth of the first season’s six episodes, and the montage of them doing so is set to t.A.T.u.’s “All the Things She Said,” which couldn’t be more on point. Shane is lucky to pair up with a Hollywood movie star ( Yellowjackets ’ Sophie Nélisse), who turns out to be the best abortive
hetero girlfriend that a gay man could ask for. The most unexpectedly moving moment comes when an American player (François Arnaud) who has been repeatedly denied a championship by either Shane or Ilya finally wins the not-Stanley Cup and celebrates by beating both of them out of the closet and kissing his boyfriend (Robbie G.K.) on the ice.
All this helps to make up for the show’s deficiencies in other areas. No doubt budget constraints are why the show’s locations in L.A., Tampa, and Moscow are all clearly filmed in either Toronto or Montreal. Someone other than the lead actors is doing the fancy stickhandling moves to make them look like world-class hockey players. Those perhaps couldn’t be helped, but series creator Jacob Tierney (who co-created Letterkenny , if you follow Canadian TV) makes a more avoidable misstep by not including more of the homophobic language that gets casually tossed around by hockey players.
While we’re on the subject of language, we should be hearing much more French spoken around Shane given his life in Montreal. We miss the book’s commentary on how Shane’s careful and correct public persona jars with his Quebecois fans, who tend to love their hockey
players loud and boisterous and appreciative of art and good food.
Oh, well. Maybe an upcoming season, boosted by the first’s popularity, can address some of those things. For now, the show’s gay sex scenes (which are almost as numerous as Normal People’s straight sex scenes) not only showcase the chemistry between the two lead actors but also drive the plot forward, with Shane freaking out at one point when Ilya finally calls him by his first name. (It appears that a fair portion of the show’s fans are women who are turned on by watching two hot men get it on. I can’t begrudge them that, given the long and well-documented history of men enjoying watching lesbians do it.)
The men’s growing realization that they might be in love and not just sexually attracted to each other leads to a great scene when Ilya goes back to Russia for his father’s funeral. Over the phone, Shane encourages Ilya to say what’s on his mind in Russian (which Shane does not speak), and Ilya spills everything about his mother’s suicide during his childhood and how his only family left now is a cokehead brother who’s financially dependent on him and hates him for it. Stuff like that makes this season of Heated Rivalry worth hanging a banner for. l
Connor Storrie (left) and Hudson Williams hold a joint press conference while hiding their romance in Heated Rivalry.
Courtesy HBO Max
NIGHT & DAY
Love & Loss: A Losing Game
Deciding whether to join the party or avoid it altogether is one thing local sports fans and romantics share. Your team didn’t make the Super Bowl? The Cowboys never really had a chance, but my Steelers were a little closer, so I feel your pain. (Make that a “we.” My husband and my editor are both true #SteelCity boys. I just married into it.) If football has been dominating your life and you suddenly have some openings in your schedule, now is the time to reevaluate your extracurriculars. To that end, here are some winning ideas
Division Brewing (506 E Main St, Arlington, 682-259-7011) is hosting two evenings of Edgar Allan Poe, with actors reenacting the author’s works on love and loss, including “Annabel Lee,” “Morella,” “The Raven,” and “Tell Tale Heart.” In keeping with the spirit of the event, you are encouraged to wear Victorian Gothic attire. For a more immersive, intimate experience, it will take place at nearby Growl Records (509 E Abram St, Arlington, 682-252-7639), a shop owned by the brewery that shares a backyard. Doors open at 6:30pm, and the show starts at 7pm. Tickets are $49.87 on Eventbrite.com and include a commemorative pint glass and two beers.
Don’t forget that the Kimbell Art Museum (3333 Camp Bowie Blvd, Fort Worth, 817-332-8451) will celebrate the Year of the Fire Horse at a Lunar New Year Happy Hour from 5pm to 7pm. This event is co-hosted by the Kimbell and Fort Worth Sister Cities International, a nonprofit that promotes Fort Worth by fostering global connections through education, the arts, culture, economic
Division Brewing/Growl Records is hosting two evenings of Edgar Allan Poe, featuring actors reenacting the author’s works on love and loss, including “The Raven.”
development, and humanitarian assistance in sister cities, including Guiyang, China, where the holiday is celebrated annually. Highlights include traditional Chinese music by the Dallas Guzheng Association, Lunar New Year artmaking, and an Asian-themed art scavenger hunt. This event is free and open to the public. Kimbell happy-hour refreshments will be available for purchase.
Galentine’s Day, an unofficial “ladies celebrating ladies” holiday made popular by Parks and Recreation is being celebrated early this year at Panther Island Brewing (501 N Main St, Fort Worth, 817-882-8121). Galentine’s Party 2026 runs from 1pm to 4pm and will feature giveaways, shopping with local vendors, a permanent jewelry booth, and the opportunity to meet adoptable dogs. Beer, mimosas, and nonalcoholic beverages will be on tap. There is no cost to attend, and all ages are welcome.
Meanwhile, in Tolar, about an hour southwest of here, Sledge Distillery (8210 Paluxy Hwy, 817-888-8119) has its Opening Weekend Hootenanny from 2pm to 10pm. There’ll be spirits, food (3pm-9pm), and entertainment, including mahjong lessons (2:30pm), a paint-and-sip session to create a colorful buffalo picture (3pm-5pm), and live music by Toby Hutchison (6pm-9pm). There is no cost to attend any of the above, except for paint-and-sip, which is $46.90 per person. For more information, go to SledgeDistillery.com/ our-events.html.
Today is the day: Super Bowl Sunday. If you’re watching the #BigGame to witness “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat,” you’re reading the wrong column. (Stuff. You’re looking for our Stuff column.) I’m just here for the party. If you sportos are still with me, you may want to stick around.
When you run into your redneck cousin at the game-watching party and the “wHo IS bAD BuNNy?! this AIN’t ’muriCAN!” halftime show commentary starts, pointing out that Puerto Rico is actually a part of these United States might not suffice. For a brief tutorial on all things Bad Bunny, and to study up on some smart-ass talking points, check out the documentary The Affect: Bad Bunny on the Peacock or YouTube TV apps. Trust me. It will be well worth the 20 minutes to “dive into the world of Bad Bunny, from his Puerto Rican roots and genre-defying sound to a historic homegrown residency.” You could also shout out, “Happy Gilmore 2!” That also might work.
Before Fort Worth native and TCU grad Bob Schieffer was the face of CBS’ highly rated Face the Nation, he was a reporter for the Star-Telegram. In late 1965, at the age of 28, the Star-T agreed to let him go on the assignment of a lifetime: Schieffer made history as one of the first correspondents from a major Texas newspaper to cover the Vietnam War overseas. He made it his personal mission to locate, interview, and photograph service members from Texas, especially from Fort Worth, and bring their stories home to loved ones. During his time in-country, he
Your redneck cousin knows Bad Bunny. He just doesn’t know he knows Bad Bunny.
and
located 235 soldiers from Texas and interviewed dozens of them.
Those experiences were detailed in his 2003 memoir, This Just In: What I Couldn’t Tell You on TV, and in numerous firsthand reports, letters, and photos archived at UTA’s Special Collections & Archives of the Central Library (702 Planetarium Pl, Arlington, 817-272-3393). Many of these items are featured in a new campus exhibit, Our Man in Vietnam, along with portraits that Schieffer painted last year of some of the Texas soldiers he met during the war. The exhibit runs now through Sat, Apr 4, but if you attend the grand opening on Monday from 4pm to 7pm, you can meet the man himself. There is no cost to attend.
Then at 7:30pm Tue, Schieffer will speak at the next installment of the biannual Maverick Speakers Series at UTA’s Texas Hall (701 W Nedderman Dr, Arlington, 817-272-5584). Schieffer will discuss his time in Vietnam, his storied journalism career, and his newfound passion for painting. Arrive early to take advantage of the extended exhibit hours, 5pm-7pm. Tickets are only $5 at Libraries.UTA.edu/schieffer/.
By Jennifer Bovee
Numerous firsthand reports, letters,
photos by legendary Fort Worth journalist Bob Schieffer are archived at UTA and are now featured in the new campus exhibit Our Man in Vietnam.
STUFF
Super Bowl LX Preview
The participants in this year’s Big Game™ might be familiar teams, but they’re led by unfamiliar faces.
BY PATRICK HIGGINS
This Sunday, we observe one of the most sacred of national holidays, an American celebration bested in scope only by Christmas, national “Talk Like a Pirate Day,” and maybe the Fourth of July. That afternoon, historical trends suggest that roughly half of all Americans will be parked in front of their flatscreens for five straight hours gluttonously housing chicken wings and light beer to watch half a billion dollars-worth of television commercials. In between each of those $25M-a-pop ad breaks, it’s rumored an actual NFL football game will be played as well.
This year, for only the second time in the last seven, the Kansas City Chiefs are not a participant in America’s biggest sport’s biggest game. Forlorn Swifties will have to put away their “Taylor’s Boyfriend” shirzees and endure the Seattle Seahawks taking on the New England Patriots in place of eagerly awaiting cutaways to Tay-Tay swilling vodka-crans and over-cheering in the suites.
I suppose Sunday’s bout is technically a rematch of one of the more entertaining Super Bowls of the last 15 years. However, the uniforms involved are where the similarities end. The extremely close Super Bowl XLIX was famously capped by Patriots DB Malcom Bulter intercepting Seahawks QB Russell Wilson in the endzone, negating what would have been a game-winning touchdown in the tilt’s final minute. Coach Pete Carroll’s decision to throw in that scenario — second down, 20 seconds left, inside the five-yard line, a timeout in pocket, and with running back Marshawn Lynch, then in peak Beast Mode form, inexplicably standing on the sideline — remains one of the most questionable calls in NFL history. The resultant 28-24 Patriots victory began Tom Brady’s “revival,” over which he made it to four of five Super Bowls (on two different teams), winning three of them.
This year’s version is unrecognizable from that classic game. Rather than a one-time-MVPcandidate QB on one side squaring off against a future unanimous Greatest of All Time signal caller on the other, we have a former Top-3-overall-pickturned-four-team-NFL-journeyman against a second-year standout trying to be the replacement for that aforementioned G.O.A.T. Seattle’s Sam Darnold, a consensus bust as a top QB prospect for the Jets in the 2018 draft before slipping into a career backup trajectory, began his redemption arc last year when he was suddenly vaulted to the starting job with the Vikings. This came after
Bust Redemption vs. Dynastic Return. The storylines to Super Bowl LX are likely to be more intriguing than the actual game.
presumptive rookie starting QB J.J. McCarthy suffered a season-ending knee injury during training camp. Darnold led Minnesota to a 14-3 record, earning the Most Improved Player honor and legitimate MVP consideration before being sacked nine times in the Wild Card game against the Rams, sealing a lackluster one-and-done playoff run.
While his career-redefining 2024 performance wasn’t enough to retain the starting job in Minnesota, it did earn him QB1 duties under Mike Macdonald, Seattle’s defensive-minded second-year head coach (not the sultry voiced former Doobie Brother). Darnold is now the first QB of the draft class that also produced Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and Baker Mayfield to make the Super Bowl.
Darnold’s counterpart in New England, second-year starter Drake Maye is looking to cap his own MVP-caliber season with the Patriots’ first post-Brady SB victory. With Maye under center and new head coach Mike Vrabel’s tutelage, the boys from Baahstin boast both a Top-3 offense and a Top-10 defense. The wild one-year turnaround for New England is really remarkable. In Vrabel’s first season on the Patriots’ sideline, they managed to invert 2024’s 3-14 record into 14-3 in 2025 and were perceived as AFC frontrunners nearly all season. The weakness of that conference certainly helped. With Denver starting QB Bo Nix kept out of the AFC championship game with a mysterious ankle injury (supposedly suffered in the locker room while celebrating the Broncos’ Divisional Round victory), I don’t believe New England has played an opponent as formidable as Seattle all year.
While Macdonald has revamped the Hawks’ perennial tough-nosed defense-first reputation, leading to a Top 3 rank on that side of the ball, Darnold is also armed with the year’s most productive receiver in North Texas product Jaxon Smith-Njigba on the outside. The QB also benefits from a complementary smashmouth running game. Seattle finished Top 10 in nearly all offensive categories as well.
Though the contest is really strength-onstrength, I think it’s hard to see New England hanging with the Seahawks’ offensive output. We saw what the Broncos’ vicious pass rush did to Maye in the AFC championship game. He was sacked five times on the way to throwing for just 86 yards. And Seattle’s front is just as scary. I see Maye similarly running for his life and unable to keep pace with Big Sam.
One member of Seattle’s menacing front is former Cowboy Demarcus Lawrence. “Tank” started quite the controversy in the offseason, commenting that he left Dallas because he knew he’d never win a Super Bowl here. As he sits on the doorstep in just his first year since leaving, he’s so far been proven right. My money is on him completing the twist of the knife. I’m taking Seattle 30-24. l
What an F’d Up Time To Be Alive: Glad
We’re in It
Together.
BY JENNIFER BOVEE
I’m not sure if it’s the recent inclement-weather lockdown making everyone stir-crazy or the current political climate that is, let’s just say, decidedly not cool, but things are looking kind of unhinged for Valentine’s Day. Oh, sure. You can do a bit of wining and dining, which we’ll get to next week in Eats & Drinks. (What? Like you procrastinators are really making reservations this week?) Odd events are afoot. You guys are weird!
For starters, Tarrant County’s favorite penal colonist, Joseph Maldonado-Passage, a.k.a. Joe Exotic, from Tiger King, who was convicted of 19 counts of this, that, and the other and is currently serving
his 21-year federal prison sentence at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) right here in Fort Worth, wants to make your Valentine’s dreams come true. He posted on Instagram that he will be doing live calls from prison in exchange for donations now thru Sat, Feb 28, at $25 for five minutes or $50 for 10. Joe says he is trying to raise $200K toward his legal expenses. Uh, where do we sign up, I guess? That would be via Cash App, PayPal, or Venmo. Fans are instructed to send payment, then DM a screenshot of the receipt to his Facebook team (search for “Joe Exotic”) to schedule the call.
SECOND THURSDAYS ARE ALWAYS FREE! No talking. No food and drinks. No Valentines.
Come break the rules and say “yes!” to new art experiences at the Carter’s Second Thursdays!
Every Second Thursday is different than the last. You’ll never think of museums in the same way again.
Capitalizing on the rare occurrence of Friday the 13th and Valentine’s Day falling back to back, Cutting Edge Haunted House (1701 E Lancaster Av, Fort Worth, 817-348-8444) is inviting you to “the scariest date night of the year” on Fri, Feb 13, and Sat, Feb 14. Rather than the standard horror scenes, there will be a dark-romance-themed 55-minute walkthrough that promises to test couples’ nerves. Tickets for specific time slots are $37.96 per person (all-inclusive price after fees) at CuttingEdgeHauntedHouse.com.
If the thought of Queen’s A Night at the Opera conjures memories of the B-side “I’m in Love with My Car” rather than “Bohemian Rhapsody,” then
this is the event for you. And you’re probably going solo. On Sat, Feb 14, from 10am to 1pm, the DFW Car & Toy Museum (2550 McMillan Pkwy, Fort Worth, 817-834-3625) hosts Ferraris & Forever, a celebration of speed, style, and timeless design. Along with the more than 200 classic and exotic cars already on display, there will be a special Ferrari exhibit, live music, photo ops, sweet treats, and themed drinks. The museum is dog-friendly, and admission is always free.
Along with a host of Valentine’s-themed upcoming shows, Big Laugh Comedy Club (604 Main St, Ste 100, Fort Worth, 817-840-7998) has a wild night planned for Sun, Feb 15. At 8pm in the Funky Room will be Sidepiece Sunday: A Comedy Show for the Other Person, where you can “end Valentine’s weekend laughing instead of explaining.” You are invited to come with your person or your other plans for a no-labels, no-pressure evening of stand-up comedy about messy relationships, situationships, secrets, and the things people pretend are not happening. Tickets start at $20 at FortWorth.BLComedy.com. l
THURSDAY FEB 12 | 5–8 P.M.
Invite your crush, your crew, or come alone and meet someone new for a night themed around the many types of love in our lives.
Enjoy five minutes alone on the phone with Joe Exotic on Valentine’s Day, you weirdo.
If you’re in love with your car, then head to the DFW Car & Toy Museum on Sat, Feb 14.
Art by Jennifer Bovee
Capitalizing on the rare occurrence of Friday the 13th and Valentine’s Day falling back to back, Cutting Edge is inviting you to “the scariest date night(s) of the year.”
EATS & drinks
MIXologist #2
Panther City Vinyl and Tricks of the Trade team up with Puscifer at The Magnolia for a fun Valentine’s-week alternative.
BY STEVE STEWARD
Given The Magnolia’s concept — an elegant-yet-approachable, wine-forward neighborhood cocktail lounge — no one would blame you for failing to associate it with goth culture and post-punk/industrial/art-rock, but on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 12, the bar will team up with West Magnolia Avenue record store Panther City Vinyl and South Main Village wine
and spirit provisioner Tricks of the Trade for Into the Dark. This goth-themed Valentine’sweek party celebrates Panther City MIXologist Club #2, a cocktail-and-vinyl pairing collab between the two shops.
Last June, PCV and TotT dropped their first Panther City MIXologist Club kit that paired the then-new Vandoliers album, Life Behind Bars , with the ingredients for two of
If you slept on getting Valentine’s Day dinner reservations or suck at planning things in advance, Into the Dark is a pretty fun alternative.
the bourbon-passionfruit-and-bitters cocktail named for its companion vinyl. PCMC #2 pairs a copy of the “indie variant” double-album vinyl edition of industrial rockers Puscifer’s new album, Normal Isn’t , with the stuff to make two of a cocktail called Blood & Honey: a small bottle of La Gritona Reposado tequila, King Floyd’s Black Lava Salt, a bottle of Bitter Queen Thai Spice Bitters, a bottle of Amargo Chuncho
Bitters, blood oranges, and one 12-ounce can of Puscifer Sparkling Mead.
That a weird, loud band like Puscifer would have its own branded, canned mead might sound as odd as The Magnolia masquerading as a goth club for a night, but that’s only if you’ve never heard of Puscifer. The band is fronted by Maynard James Keenan, a human being who continued on page 19
Puscifer’s new album will be paired with a tequila-and-mead cocktail in the Panther City MIXologist Club #2 vinyl + cocktail kit.
Eats & Drinks
might himself be aptly described as post-punk/ industrial art rock. Keenan is probably best known as the singer of his two other bands, Tool and A Perfect Circle, but oenophiles will likely recognize his name from Caduceus Cellars, the winery he owns in Jerome, Arizona.
Keenan got into the wine business in 2004 and became so captivated by it that he scheduled his bands’ tours and records around his wines’ production phases. Puscifer Sparkling Mead is indeed a keen commercial synergy between an artist’s two main, commercial pursuits — prog
rock and wine — which also includes a lot of devotion to his crafts. In a press release about Normal Isn’t , Keenan described the new songs as “leaning into our earlier influences. It’s the place where goth meets punk. It’s where I’m from.”
The “where I’m from” part of that quote makes me very curious about what life was like in the Michigan of the mid 1980s — where and when Keenan went to high school — so maybe the versions of Detroit as depicted in Robocop and The Crow are not too far off, seeing how he turned out and what his various bands sound like. In any case, I suppose “1980s Detroit goth vibes” are what to expect from Normal Isn’t ’s four sides, and a slightly fizzy, honey-forward tequila cocktail punctuated with a pair of interesting bitters sounds nice and indulgent for that kind
of soundtrack, certainly the sort of drink you’d want to imbibe while indulging in a Puscifer double-LP experience, especially if you’re dressed like a cyberpunk vampire. Or any kind of vampire for that matter.
And speaking of dressing up like a vampire, Into the Dark will have prizes for the best goth outfits, as well as a photobooth and tastings of Caduceus vintages, in addition to the Panther City Vinyl pop-up market and the vinyl DJ sets from Al G and Realm of the Oscure. Purchasers of the Panther City MIXologist Club #2 kit can pick it up at the party — order them from TricksBottleShop.com — and the $114 album-and-cocktail package includes admission to the event on Feb. 12. Otherwise, entry for Into the Dark is $10. The night begins at 7pm
with a spin of Normal Isn’t , followed by the vinyl dance party.
I have to add that if you slept on getting Valentine’s Day dinner reservations or suck at planning things in advance, Into the Dark is a pretty fun alternative to eating a traditional, overpriced prix fixe meal at a crowded, popular bistro. Instead, a couple days before, you can crowd into a popular bistro and dance! If The Magnolia can try something new for Valentine’s Day, so can you. Maybe the Panther City MIXologist Club #2 is the push you need to finally go buy a record player. Whatever your impetus is — be it romance, putting on heavy eyeliner and a black dress while listening to Disintegration , or wine by a strangely interesting rock star — drop by The Magnolia on Feb. 12. l
RIDGLEA ROOM RIDGLEA LOUNGE
HearSay
With His New Protest Song, Fort Worth SingerSongwriter Denver Williams Leads the Way
While searching for an Atlantic article I sort of remember reading (Adam Serwer’s “Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong,” Jan 26), I happened across a different one from a week and a half earlier that I somehow missed, a think piece by a writer named Ashley Parker called “Trump Exhaustion Syndrome.” Exhausted, I clicked on it.
I didn’t get to the end. I didn’t get to the end because I, like you, am living through this moment in time and have a brain, eyes, and ears, and they all function well enough together to register what this administration is doing to make the world shittier for everyone not protected from societal collapse by a wall of wealth and privilege. What Parker had to elucidate wasn’t really anything I didn’t already know or feel. I didn’t get to the end of an article called “Trump Exhaustion Syndrome” because there is no end to Trump exhaustion. To pay attention, to try to absorb and respond to his endless litany of crimes, corruption, and norms-breaching is like playing Whack-a-mole, where the moles are actually drops of water and the whacking board is the entirety of the world’s oceans.
Since 2015, the “flood the zone with shit” strategy has been the Trumpian modus operandi. Near the beginning of her story, Parker trots out the old metaphor of the frog that eventually boils in a pot of slowly heated water. She asks former Trump adviser Steve Bannon about the so-called Overton Window, a political theory positing that persistent advocacy and promotion of radical ideas will eventually make them mainstream. Bannon, a man who looks like a pure physical manifestation of “old-person smell,” replied that Trump is “driving deep. … You have to take it however deep you can take it and, quite frankly, until you meet resistance. And we haven’t met any resistance.”
In light of how the end of January turned out, the people of Minneapolis will probably like a word about that. Same for those of us in SD-9 who voted for Taylor Rehmet over his Trumpian opponent. Same for Fort Worth rock singer-songwriter Denver Williams, who did what he does best last week and wrote, performed, recorded, shot a video for, and released a new song that seethes with exhaustion.
In “Now That All of Your Secret Racist Dreams Are Coming True,” Williams crashes out over the inexplicability of MAGA’s cultish
devotion, their misinformed Christian Nationalist notions about Jesus, and their general set-it-and-forget-it mentality regarding the cabal of fascists for whom they voted.
Up now on Bandcamp, the song is breezy and DIY, just him and his guitar over a computerized beat, but the urgency — and a deliberately derpy interpolation of the “Star-Spangled Banner” — color his lyrics with the jagged crust of frustration. I won’t spoil them, but here are some heard near the end.
“Now that all of your secret racist dreams are coming true / What will you do? / Will you make some popcorn? / Turn on the news? / Try to shake your bible study blues? / Punch the clock / Then / Kick off your shoes / While the whole world burns?”
Williams, for his part, is not kicking off his shoes while the world burns. Will a single Bandcamp-hosted diss track turn the tide against the fascism fomented by the Trump administration? Probably not by itself. But as the people of the Twin Cities demonstrated last month, there is strength in numbers, and you have more in common with your neighbors than Trump and his ilk would like for you to believe. And if you’re a musician/songwriter as fed up with this shit as Williams is, it’s time for you to make some fucking noise about it. — Steve Steward l
In “Now That All of Your Secret Racist Dreams Are Coming True,” Fort Worth rock singer-songwriter Denver Williams rails against the current administration and all its bootlickers.
MUSIC
Caught on Tape
There’s more to the cassette resurgence than just quality audio.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY KENA SOSA
A wave of nostalgia hit hard in 2016 with the debut of Stranger Things, taking us back to the ’80s, including the cassette tape.
Not sure if I should admit this, but I spent the first money I ever earned myself after appearing in a local commercial back in the early 1990s on cassettes, specifically Bel Biv Devoe and MC Hammer. I played those tapes to death. Then I taped over other tapes from the radio. Don’t tell. It’s too late.
Rewinding to my teenage years, I credit cassettes with giving me a voice on paper. I won’t divulge the details, but one time I was grounded all summer. All I had was a crappy typewriter that my mom had picked up from some thrift store and my walls. No electronics, so I opened up my cassettes and retyped the lyrics over and over until they were sewn into my heart. When I couldn’t bear to type them anymore because time was no longer tangible to me, I made up my own. Fast-forward to now, and I get the pleasure of covering stories about what I love. My love for writing has only grown since then.
Then CDs came around, and they were fun but less portable in my humble opinion, and I couldn’t pirate music from the radio anymore. I was forced to live within my financial musical limits. Eventually, I returned to vinyl as well and let my cassettes go along with the car that could still play them.
Maybe it was the oversaturation of digital media that people grew weary of. Or maybe people just prefer owning a physical item rather than something in a cloud far away. Cassette tapes had more than just the music. They had booklets of goodies, including pictures of the bands, lyrics, notes, and explanations. They fed morsels of trivia to the audiophilic soul.
In the 2010s, underground artists and live-based groups went back to cassettes and started a rumble. By the 2020s, major artists like Billie Eilish and The Weeknd were adding cassettes to their gallery but at a price much higher than artists who sold locally, even though the major record labels could take the hit with quality cassettes sold at a more affordable price.
There are those who buy cassettes now for the novelty or for the need to complete something, to hold their favorite album in all physical formats, to own a real piece of something in a way that digital media does not satisfy.
“As a label,” said Wyatt Parkins, founder and owner of Fort Worth-based Saint Marie Records, a label specializing in outre musics like shoegaze and post-rock, “cassettes are a cool optional format that makes sense for certain projects: smaller runs, lower barrier to entry, and the packaging can be really fun. What I like most is that tapes feel personal and handmade in a way. They’re still a physical object people interact with, not just a shelf item.”
Local garage-punks Mean Motor Scooter are one popular band that sees the upside in releasing their music on cassette.
“Response is great,” said frontperson Sammy Kidd. “They’re cheap. Five dollars a cassette is an easy way to support a band you love while not having to break the bank on a $25 vinyl, for young kids who don’t have a lot of cash to spend on merch. But way more people buy them than you might realize. We’ve sold out a ton of releases strictly on cassette. Cassette has a very specific sound. It’s very full, and you can hear things on it that no other format picks up.”
Forever Young Records in Grand Prairie has a warehouse-length wall of cassettes for around $5 each, and the collection of rare cassettes has gems untouched by time. New releases are by the front. The collection is easily in the thousands, possibly in the tens of thousands. Employees say they do sell quite a few, especially to younger listeners.
Young people are buying up cassettes because, compared to a $25-or-more vinyl record, cassettes are generally cheaper. There’s also the novelty of it. There is a warmer sound to cassettes that feels different than vinyl and CDs, plus a more real feel than streaming. There is the physical interaction with the music, keeping the listener connected by flipping sides, rewinding, and fast-forwarding.
“We release in all formats,” Kidd said. “We choose to do it because we want all formats available. Cassettes, vinyls, ads, streaming — they all sound different, and each gives the release a perspective from a different point of view.”
Fort Worth’s Dreamy Life Records releases signed artists on cassette. Saint Marie serves as a cassette label as well. But for recording, many artists prefer to go back to the roots of cassette: at home.
“Only cons are sometimes the making of them trips up, and we end up with a blank cassette,” Kidd said. “I have to check them all to be sure, which is why we make our own instead of letting a company make and wrap them up for us, like we’ve done in the past. Doesn’t happen often, but we can’t allow it to happen at all. So, we just DIY it now.”
A lot of record stores do have a cassette stash now, and many are filled with used cassettes or new releases by mainstream artists. Saint Marie has about 50 to 100 new titles this way. Local artists are making a dent in the market, too. Saint Marie’s Parkins said that local punk band Antirad is a big seller.
Parkins also notes that even though there are not a lot of local bands on the cassette shelf, he would love for more to come in and pitch the opportunity to change that. He also says there are plenty of steady and repeat buyers for the format.
Parkins is also a member of We Are Loveblind, a band that wanted the “trifecta” release on all major
formats: vinyl, CD, and cassette in addition to digital. Admittedly, the vinyl has been the biggest seller of the three, and CDs sold well, too, so much so that he had to get extra copies to meet demand. The cassettes, he said, found homes with other audiences.
Some artists override the record-store option and sell their cassettes at shows.
“I chose cassettes because my supporters really liked the idea of having something nostalgic and tangible to take home after my shows,” said Fort Worth rapper 88Killa. “The projects were still available to stream online, but almost everybody treated the cassettes like collector’s items.”
88Killa said he sold out of his two cassettes releases at his shows.
The pattern with cassette lovers seems to be just that, a physical and kinetic experience to connect to the emotional experience of the music. Some like 88Killa only sell cassettes at performances to give the listeners who come out in person an upgraded experience over those who stream from home. After all, it is a different level of support.
Streaming alone is hardly profitable unless you are a mainstream artist. The purchase of one physical recording regardless of the format benefits artists far more, and you get something tangible to actually own. In a world where being digitally savvy is a requirement, more and more daily functions that we as human beings want to still reach out and touch are forced into the digital realm. Digital requires us to give away our information, log in, put lists together, to search. It is work for the listener and little profit to the artist, who is more qualified than a streaming service to curate a hot plate of music served up in album form in a way I can savor.
Not everyone is jumping on board with cassettes the way they have with vinyl, but the resurgence has been around long enough that it feels more like a leveled-off niche.
Considering how little streaming pays ($0.003 cents on Spotify), if an artist can make cassettes through a company like Mastertrack, which will produce 100 cassettes for $362, or $3.62 each, then even if you sell them at $5 in a hand-to-hand transaction, your profit is $1.38. It would take from 138 to 1,000 streams to make that same amount of money. Grassroots is proving to be a smart business move, not only in terms of profits but in maintaining control over the artist’s image and creative rights.
If you are in the business of supporting music and musicians, buying something from them is always the best way to go. Support record stores by buying music there. Many new releases on vinyl and other formats come with a QR code to download and play digitally if you are worried about not being able to spin your new music in the car.
If you don’t believe me, for only $5, I got a full Tracy Chapman album and the lyrics for me to read, a conversation piece for my shelf, and the satisfaction of knowing that this purchase helps keep independent record stores and artists in business. l
Spanning all eras and genres, good music like MC Hammer’s Let’s Get It Started can cost just $5 on cassette.
The tangible essence of cassettes inspires visual and sensory pleasure to go along with the auditory delight.
One Day You’ve Got a Backyard. Two Days Later You’ve Got a Building.
By Jacob Broussard
There’s a difference between a company that sells sheds and one that actually builds them. SE Yard Solutions falls into the second camp.
The owner grew up with sawdust everywhere and a hammer nearby, straightening bent nails and pounding them into blocks of wood his dad brought home. Bruised thumbs taught lessons that stuck. His grandpa built sheds and houses across the Midwest. His dad put in over 30 years constructing agricultural buildings and custom log homes. By 18, he was already a shop foreman at an upscale portable log cabin company in Ohio. Since then, he’s built sheds across Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Washington. That kind of background shows up in the finished product.
Check out their services online or give them a call at 682-730-2238 to verify that they build in your area.
Why On-Site Construction Matters
Most sheds for sale in Fort Worth or anywhere are pre-built structures delivered on flatbed trucks. Sounds convenient until you realize that if the shed won’t fit through your gate, you’re out of luck. If your backyard has awkward access, forget about it. And whatever size fits on that truck is what you’re getting, whether it works for your space or not. SE Yard Solutions does things differently. They bring tools & materials to your property and build your shed right where it’ll stand. No size restrictions. No delivery damage. No transport wear. The whole process typically wraps up in one to two days. On-site building requires more skill than assembling prefabricated kits. That’s exactly why they do it. The result is just better.
More Than Four Walls
A shed’s not just storage. It’s the spot for your grandpa’s old tools and the kids’ bikes and all the stuff that piles up in life. SE Yard Solutions builds them with that in mind. Want double doors wide enough for a riding mower? They can do that. Need extra height or specific dimensions for your yard? Not a problem. That’s the advantage of building on-site rather than shipping a generic product from a truck.
Three generations of know-how means they’ve figured out what actually lasts. Materials that beat the desert scorch or sticky Gulf summers. Foundations that handle shifting clay or rocky ground. Techniques tough enough for Texas weather. They draw on farm-tough builds and high-end home details, depending on the project’s needs.
Deals Worth Knowing About
In December, they ran a promotion offering up to $ 1,500 off sheds, with the exact amount varying by model. For January, they’ve shifted to 0% APR financing with no payments for up to 6 months. That kind of flexibility makes it easier to get moving on a project you’ve been putting off. Maybe it’s a workshop space. Maybe a dedicated tool shed. Maybe you just want your garage back. It’s a good way to leverage your upcoming tax return if needed. The goal isn’t gimmicks. It’s removing barriers so people can actually move forward with projects that would make their lives easier.
Texas Proud
The owner’s a born-and-raised Texan who’s thrilled to be back home doing this work for folks right here. Every shed they put up reflects that Made in America spirit. Solid work. Straight-up honesty. Real dedication to Texas neighbors. This isn’t just a job. It’s about taking everything learned traveling the country and pouring it back into the place he calls home. For Fort Worth homeowners ready to talk through options, SE Yard Solutions offers straightforward consultations. No pressure or obligation. Just a conversation about what might work for your property and your situation. Not in Fort Worth? Their service area covers you whether you’re in Denton, Decatur, Weatherford or just about anywhere within 50-60 miles of the Fort Worth metro.
Continued online. Use the QR to read more at FWWeekly.com.
AUCTIONS
CLASSIFIEDS
RAILROAD COMMISSION OF TEXAS OIL AND GAS DIVISION
DISTRICT 05 STATUS/PERMIT NO. 912945
DATE OF ISSUANCE: JAN 27, 2026
NOTICE OF PROTEST DEADLINE: 5:00 PM, FEB 17, 2026
ADDRESS: RAILROAD COMMISSION OF TEXAS
ATTN: DRILLING PERMIT UNIT
P. O. BOX 12967
AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2967
FAX: (512) 463-6780
EMAIL: SWR37@RRC.TEXAS.GOV
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the UPP OPERATING, LLC, [RRC Operator No. 875310] has made application for a spacing exception permit under the provisions of Railroad Commission Statewide Rule 37 (16 Tex. Admin. Code section 3.37). Applicant seeks exception to the lease line distance requirement because the Applicant is less than the required Rule 37 lease line distance to an unleased or non-pooled interest within the subject unit for the RECOMPLETION permit in Sec. , Bk. , MAISE, M Survey, A-1001, NEWARK, EAST (BARNETT SHALE) Field, TARRANT County, being 0 miles Within direction from ARLINGTON, Texas.
PURSUANT TO THE TERMS of Railroad Commission rules and regulations, this application may be granted WITHOUT A HEARING if no protest to the application is received within the deadline. An affected person is entitled to protest this application. Affected persons include owners of record and the operator or lessees of record of adjacent tracts and tracts nearer to the proposed well than the minimum lease line spacing distance. If you have questions which are specific to the Application or the information set forth in this Notice, please contact the Commission’s Drilling Permit Unit at (512)463-6751. If a hearing is called, the applicant has the burden to prove the need for an exception. A Protestant should be prepared to establish standing as an affected person, and to appear at the hearing either in person or by qualified representative and protest the application with cross-examination or presentation of a direct case. The rules of evidence are applicable in the hearing. If you have any questions regarding the hearing procedure, please contact the Commission’s Docket Services Department at (512)463-6848
IF YOU WISH TO REQUEST A HEARING ON THIS APPLICATION, AN INTENT TO APPEAR IN PROTEST MUST BE RECEIVED IN THE RAILROAD COMMISSION’S AUSTIN OFFICE AT THE ADDRESS, FAX NUMBER, OR E-MAIL ADDRESS SET OUT ABOVE BY Feb 17, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. IF NO PROTEST IS RECEIVED WITHIN SUCH TIME, YOU WILL LOSE YOUR RIGHT TO PROTEST AND THE REQUESTED PERMIT MAY BE GRANTED ADMINISTRATIVELY.
THIS NOTICE OF APPLICATION REQUIRES PUBLICATION
The location and identity of the well is as shown below:
FIELD: NEWARK, EAST (BARNETT SHALE)
Lease/Unit Name : YU UNIT
Lease/Unit Well No. : 4H
Lease/Unit Acres : 604.87
Nearest Lease Line (ft) : null
Nearest Well on Lease (ft) : 642.0
Lease Lines : 539.0
Wellbore Profile(s) : Horizontal
Lateral: TH1 Penetration Point Location
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CUPIT CASINO NIGHT
Lucky in Love “Cupit” (get it?) Casino Night is Saturday, February 21st on the levee at 1108 Quaker St in Dallas, benefitting The Love Pit who is on a mission to save bully breeds thru rescue, rehab, education, and advocacy. Learn more at: Facebook.com/TheLovePit
EMPLOYMENT
CAD QC Leader sought by Plummer & Associates, Inc. in Ft Worth, TX to oversee the dsgn review of deliverables being produced by the CAD Services group. Must have 5 yrs of exp in using Autodesk Revit to produce detailed construction deliverables across multidisciplinary projects; 5 yrs of exp in Revit administration tasks, incl model setup & geolocation, custom family creation, template mgmt across multiple disciplines, & the dvlpmt of coordinated models for clash detection & resolution; 2 yrs of exp managing teams of Revit users; 2 yrs of exp reviewing & performing QC on CAD deliverables to ensure compliance w/ project standards & dsgn intent; & exp working on Water Treatment facility dsgn projects, w/ an understanding of relevant processes, standards, & regulatory reqmts. Qualified candidates email resume to jcasias@plummer.com w/ HR-18220 in the subject line.
EMPLOYMENT
Elevate Credit Service, LLC seeks Marketing Analyst I in Fort Worth, TX to lead analytical tasks. Telecommuting permitted. Apply at www.jobpostingtoday.com, Job ID# 37082.
EMPLOYMENT
Strategy Business Partner sought by Lhoist North America, Inc. in Fort Worth, TX to support the development and implementation of Lhoist’s strategic plan through in-depth market analyses, operational projects, and cross-functional projects. Leverage analytical, financial, people, and communication skills coupled with industry knowledge to move forward and evaluate strategic initiatives, acting as project manager or contributor. Support Mergers and Acquisitions projects to identify, cultivate, perform diligences, research, value, and negotiate potential deals. Remote work possible from home office 1 day per week. Domestic travel up to 15% to visit Lhoist manufacturing sites within North America. Interested candidates should submit resumes to Emily Kelley, Senior HR Manager, LNA.Recruitment@lhoist.com. Reference code SB74 in response.
EMPLOYMENT
Wabtec US Rail,Inc. DBA Wabtec Corporation seeks Lead Engineer – Controls Engineering in Fort Worth, Texas for the design, development, and testing of control functions spanning across all locomotive subsystems. 10% of domestic travel required. Telecommuting permitted. Apply at www.jobpostingtoday.com Ref#24581.
HISTORIC RIDGLEA THEATER
THE RIDGLEA is three great venues within one historic Fort Worth landmark. RIDGLEA THEATER has been restored to its authentic allure, recovering unique Spanish-Mediterranean elements. It is ideal for large audiences and special events. RIDGLEA ROOM and RIDGLEA LOUNGE have been making some of their own history, as connected adjuncts to RIDGLEA THEATER, or hosting their own smaller shows and gatherings. More at theRidglea.com.
HOST A PET FOOD DRIVE!
Thinking of hosting a Pet Food Drive? That’s great! Not sure how to begin? No problem. Don’t Forget to Feed Me will help you get started. Visit the website and look for “Host a Pet Food Drive” in the “Support DF2FM” dropdown: DontForgetToFeedMe.org
JACUZZI BATH REMODEL
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PORTABLE OXYGEN NOW
Portable Oxygen Concentrators may be covered by Medicare! Reclaim independence and mobility with the compact design and long-lasting battery of Inogen One. Call 833-349-2089 for a free information kit. (MB)
PUBLIC NOTICE
The following vehicles have been impounded with fees due to date by Lone Star Towing (VSF0647382) at 1100 Elaine Pl, Fort Worth TX, 76196, 817-334-0606: Ford, 1964, C10, VIN 4D66C128229, $650.45.
SAFE STEP: North America’s #1 Walk-In Tub
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The Vintage Shops on Lamar has expanded and we are on the hunt for fabulous vendors. Stop in and check us out. Our unique space is fresh, clean, modern and If you can make your booth “tell a story” we want want you!
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