Dallas property tax rate still up for discussion as council members look for wiggle room ... and more news

The Rangers President of Baseball Operations joins the guys to break down the remainder of the season and to share thoughts on what has gone right and what's gone wrong. The guys wonder if the 5-1 homestand is a harbinger of a run and theorize on why the offense might have a different dynamic. Also, Evan gets emotional over the Rangers' great smiles and a little wistful when John mentions Yu Darvish in the Archives in Arlington. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chefs in North Texas and the Dallas Morning News food team have some thoughts on what it looks like to dine out in 2025. Get your fill of restaurant etiquette hot takes, with a side of dining-out horror stories, on this episode of Eat Drink D-FW. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Cowboys traded Parsons to the Green Bay Packers for two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark, two people familiar with the deal told The Dallas Morning News. In other news, both protesters and job seekers alike came out in droves for a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hiring event in Arlington this week, as the agency looks to fill thousands of open positions using new funding from the Trump administration. Nearly 2,000 people preregistered for an ICE hiring event at Esports Stadium Arlington, part of a nationwide recruiting effort with big incentives; Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton expressed concern Thursday that Plano ISD “is allowing antisemitic behavior to take place,” asking in a letter to the superintendent for documentation about the district’s investigations and disciplinary actions related to pro-Palestinian protests, anti-Israel rhetoric and antisemitism; and The All-American Rejects wound back the clock to the 2000s on Wednesday night, playing several of their old hits at a skate park in South Dallas. The band will sign copies of a limited tour-only vinyl edition of Sandbox at Good Records in East Dallas at 1 p.m. today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the 10th straight year, the Dallas City Council is considering lowering the property tax rate — even though many homeowners will still pay more due to rising home values and costs. However, the exact new rate is still under discussion, as city officials continue to review a proposed $5.2 billion budget and gather public input before a final vote in mid-September. In other news, While work has slowed from historic highs, Dallas-Fort Worth is second in the nation for new apartment construction in 2025 — adding more rental units than entire states like Georgia and Arizona. The Dallas metro is expected to welcome nearly 29,000 new apartments before the end of the year, trailing only New York City. DART delayed a vote on public transportation cuts aimed at saving $24 million a year. And, a months-long impasse over how to replace the unpopular mandatory Texas STAAR test for millions of public school students inched toward closure Wednesday – as Republican lawmakers drew closer to an agreement and the legislature’s second special session approached its halfway mark. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SportsDay Insiders Kevin Sherrington, Evan Grant and Joe Hoyt take a look [00:12] at the Cowboys’ final roster decisions and how it impacts several positions, running backs in particular. For the second year in a row, no one’s impressed. Kevin notes that Derrick Henry, who wanted to sign with the Cowboys last year, was ranked this year among ESPN’s top 100 players. The guys also try to figure out why Jerry Jones refuses to negotiate with Micah Parsons’ agent, David Mulugheta, and give their best guess when something gets done. [25:32] Kevin and Evan were both surprised at Bruce Bochy’s enthusiasm about his job, putting the ball in Chris Young’s court. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Texas Water Development Board would be charged with identifying flood-prone areas in the state and require municipalities in those areas to install flood sirens under a bill advanced by the Texas House on Tuesday morning. In other news, anticipating increased costs, Plano city leaders will vote next month on a proposed budget that includes $788 million in expenses, adds no new programs or services, recommends keeping the same tax rate and focuses on maintaining the city’s aging infrastructure; a trip to the State Fair of Texas this year will be a little more expensive for patrons compared with previous years. The 2025 fair opens Sept. 26 and runs until Oct. 19. Prices for regular, single-day admission will vary depending on the day of the week. This year, adult tickets cost between $19 and $29, while children’s admission tickets will range from $14 to $24; and Smoothie King now serves a food menu at its more than 1,200 locations. Some menu items from the smoothie maker, unsurprisingly, come with a healthy twist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A mix of sun and clouds today with a cold front bringing a chance for an afternoon thunderstorm. It will also bring a little relief in the temperature for a few days. Today’s high will be 89. Clouds and a chance for more rain and rumbles of thunder this evening with a low of 70.  The high won’t get out of the 80s tomorrow. Thursday will be back in the 90s but another cold front is on the way that may drop temperatures back to the 80s by the time the holiday weekend comes around. In other news, A DART bus crashed at White Rock Station on Monday morning, injuring five people. At least one person had to be extricated from the vehicle. It was not immediately clear how many people were on the bus, or what caused the crash; Dallas plans to increase its budget to maintain its buildings after discovering earlier this year the city is spending half of what it needs to keep up with all of its facilities. The recommended budget includes about $36 million for the facilities and real estate management department, which is about $2 million more than last year’s budget; with less than three weeks to go before the second special legislative session ends, Gov. Greg Abbott is still waiting for nearly all of his priorities to land on his desk; nd Fort Worth’s political and business leaders have touted the city’s economic success for years, but new data is backing up those assertions. Among large American cities, Cowtown ranks fifth best for economic growth, buoyed largely by strong marks in education and international trade, according to a new study from Coworking Cafe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Since 1996, the value of the Dallas Cowboys has outgained the S&P 500 by more than double, increasing 47 times over to a world-record $12.8 billion. That’s according to Sportico’s latest analysis. Simultaneously, the team has failed to reach the NFC championship game over that same time frame — the longest such drought in the National Football League. In other news, a Dallas firm plans to give a historic downtown hotel new life in a first-of-its-kind project. Sycamore Development plans to renovate the 29-story Magnolia Building placing hotel rooms and for-rent, mixed-income apartments within the Dallas landmark; when Jane Gow was 13 years old, she fled with her family to the United States during the fall of Saigon. That collapse marked the end of the Vietnam War. Fifty years later, the former refugee is using her nonprofit shop, BeKinder Coffee, to help refugees and asylum-seekers build new lives in Dallas; and across Texas, doctors and patients say anxiety, confusion and legal concerns have transformed a routine adherence to standard of care into something new — a standard of fear. An anonymous emergency doctor based in Dallas said the state’s abortion ban has created a world of distrust in doctor’s offices. Patients don’t know if they can trust their physicians. Physicians don’t know if they can trust their patients. In “Standard of Fear,” we share doctors’ firsthand accounts of the impact Texas’ abortion bans have had on their practice. Read the series now at DallasNews.com/Texasabortions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dallas-Fort Worth chefs share some of their guiltiest of guilty pleasure foods, and the Dallas Morning News food team takes you on a journey around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eddie García, the former Dallas police chief who departed for Austin last year despite efforts by city leaders to keep him, will be Fort Worth’s next police chief. The appointment comes less than a year after García became an assistant city manager in Austin, joining former Dallas city manager T.C. Broadnax. García’s swift return to North Texas was driven by a realization during his time in Austin that he was “born to be a cop.” In other news, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, the North Texas mother accused of killing her young son, is now in Tarrant County custody, FBI and Tarrant County officials said Thursday; the Powerball jackpot rose to $700 million after no one won the big prize Wednesday night. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, while the odds of winning some sort of smaller prize are about 1 in 25. And the first White Castle burger in Texas is expected to open in The Colony in the summer of 2026, a spokeswoman for the fast-food company confirmed to The Dallas Morning News. And if you’d like to learn more about the North Texas food scene then listen to Eat Drink D-FW, a podcast produced by the Dallas Morning News. A new episode just dropped with the title, ‘Chefs are just like us!’ and you can find it in this feed or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices