Saving Ridgecrest Terrace apartments, NHL's 2020 Winter Classic comes to Fair Park: Your Wednesday morning roundup

Good morning! Here is a look at the top headlines as we start the day. 🌧️ Weather: Cloudy and cold with an 80 percent chance of light freezing rain in the morning changing to rain by midmorning. High of 37.  [Morning roundup]( 01/02/2019 By Wayne Carter and Nataly Keomoungkhoun Good morning! Here is a look at the top headlines as we start the day. 🌧️ Weather: Cloudy and cold with an 80 percent chance of light freezing rain in the morning changing to rain by midmorning. High of 37. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [her]( There have been some improvements at Ridgecrest Terrace since tenants sought help from the Dallas City Council in October, but problems remain. (Robert Wilonsky/Staff) DALLAS [Can Dallas alone save a dangerous, decaying west Oak Cliff apartment complex HUD won't help?]( From Metro columnist Robert Wilonksy: Let's begin this new year with an old familiar: [Ridgecrest Terrace, the 50-year-old sprawl of subsidized housing in west Oak Cliff]( — forever in the city's scopes but always, somehow, elusive. When I went to visit the morning of New Year's Eve, the 16-acre apartment complex perched on a trash-strewn hill off Walton Walker Boulevard just south of Interstate 30 looked better than when last I stopped by in October, shortly before tenants went to Dallas City Hall asking the City Council for the hand it refused to extend. But better is only a relative term for a place damned in legal documents — written by city attorneys — as "a place where persons habitually go to commit crimes of disorderly conduct, aggravated assault, arson, criminal mischief, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated robbery." Courts: Dallas' new DA is promising a new era in which [petty criminals aren't punished "because they're poor."]( Club brawl turns deadly: Two security guards face murder charges after a Dallas nightclub patron [was shot over 20 times as he tried to flee a bar fight.]( ADVERTISEMENT POLITICS [Police groups wary of Texas lawmakers' plans to decriminalize pot, stop officers from seizing assets]( AUSTIN — At the start of the 2017 legislative session, Texas law enforcement groups were reeling from years of high-profile use-of-force incidents involving black victims, as well as the deaths of five Dallas officers in a downtown shooting. The message from state lawmakers was simple: We back the blue. They [passed laws]( funding [$25 million worth of rifle-resistant bulletproof vests]( for police departments and property tax relief for the [surviving spouses of police officers]( killed on duty, and they gutted [police accountability legislation]( pushed by advocates. With a new session starting in January, state law enforcement groups say their profession has mostly avoided headline-grabbing incidents, such as the controversial arrest and subsequent jail death of Sandra Bland in 2015. Instead, they hope to focus on bread-and-butter issues like creating a minimum wage for police officers across the state, ensuring pension systems are functioning properly and getting the state to help recruit people into law enforcement careers.  Unusual valedictory: Did retiring Rep. Jeb Hensarling change D.C. with his crusade against big government? [He’s not sur]( Also: Texas is slowly gearing up to [tax more online purchases.]( EDITORS' PICKS - Fatal shooting: Police say a female bystander was killed when a fight at a large New Year's Eve party in Fort Worth [escalated into gunfire.]( - Car talk: Electric cars and ride-hailing services are having their days, but the automotive future in America [looks a lot like Havana]( says personal finance columnist Scott Burns. - Dallas County: Longtime County Commissioner John Wiley Price [swore in Marian Brown]( the county's first black sheriff, in a ceremony Tuesday at the Frank Crowley Courts Building. The Cotton Bowl Stadium at Fair Park. Dallas will host the 2020 Winter Classic at the Cotton Bowl, marking the southernmost outdoor game in NHL history. (Jae S. Lee/Staff Photographer) FINALLY... [How and why the Dallas Stars and Cotton Bowl landed the NHL's 2020 Winter Classic]( The Cotton Bowl will again host a game on New Year's Day. This time, though, it won't be the historic bowl game, but rather the first outdoor game in Stars history. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced Tuesday that [Dallas will host the 2020 Winter Classic at the Cotton Bowl]( marking the southernmost outdoor game in NHL history. The game will be on Jan. 1, 2020, and the Stars' opponent will be announced at a later date. The Winter Classic is the league's marquee outdoor game that has traditionally been hosted in hockey-crazed markets like Buffalo, Boston, Pittsburgh and Chicago since 2008. The Stars are the ninth team to host the event. "I don't want us to ever act like a small-market team," Stars president Brad Alberts said. "Just because this is football country doesn't mean we have to act like we're a small-market team. We've got to act like we're a major-market organization, and this is the kind of stuff that if you're a major-market player in our sport, you got to be able to do." 👋 That's all for this morning! 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