Senate backs teacher pay raise, Valley View solution: Your Monday evening roundup

Good Evening! Here are the top headlines of the day  [Evening roundup]( 03/04/2019 By Todd Davis and Nataly Keomoungkhoun Good Evening! Here is a look at the top headlines of the day. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [here.]( The atrium of the nearly abandoned Valley View Center in Dallas on Nov. 8, 2018. (Nathan Hunsinger/Staff Photographer) DALLAS Dallas, Valley View Center owners reach truce that should lead to mall's demolition by year's end Metro columnist Robert Wilonsky writes: I had planned to spend Monday morning at the George Allen, Sr. Courts Building, where attorneys for Dallas City Hall and Valley View Center's owners were scheduled to square off over millions of dollars worth of alleged code violations. Fun! Instead I found myself with some unexpected free time, because on Friday, while we were all focused on the latest corruption scandal oozing out of Dallas City Hall, those lawyers were signing the paperwork to settle this case. Which means that by year's end, if not before, [Valley View will finally be destroyed.]( So they say. Again. Do not yet pour out an Orange Julius for the fallen in this long-running war. The demolition is only if all goes according to plan. And so far, little has when it comes to the dead zone at Preston Road and LBJ Freeway, where some of this city's most valuable land sags and rots and despairs. Education: Dallas ISD trustees have [opted to keep a board seat empty]( until the May elections. Weather 'sanctuary': As temperatures plunged this week, Oak Lawn United Methodist Church [opened its doors to homeless men and women in need of shelter.]( ADVERTISEMENT POLITICS [Texas Senate OKs bill to give teachers $5,000 pay raises, but some worry support staff were excluded]( AUSTIN — The Texas Senate has officially given its blessing to a proposal [to give $5,000 raises to every teacher in the state.]( Next stop for the bill is the Texas House, where several members have expressed a preference for merit-based raises or giving local districts the freedom to make their own salary decisions. On Monday afternoon, all 31 senators voted to advance the legislation, which Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called his top school finance priority of the session. By the time the bill made its way to the floor for a vote, every member of the Senate had signed on as a co-sponsor. The bill, authored by Flower Mound Republican Sen. Jane Nelson, would require public school districts to give every full-time classroom teacher $5,000 more than what they're making this year, including those who work for charter schools. About 352,000 educators would be eligible for the raise at a cost of about $1.9 billion a year beginning in 2020, the Legislative Budget Board estimates. 'Despicable': Gov. Greg Abbott [sharply chided the Department of Public Safety]( which he blames for the flubbed handling of a recent inquiry into possible noncitizen voting. Texas Legislature: A state lawmaker running for mayor said he will file legislation to ["combat and hopefully eradicate corruption"]( in the awarding of affordable housing tax credits. CRIME [Pawnshop murder lands wrong man in jail, charged with Dallas musician's murder]( Brian Bennett made a stupid mistake and ended up being charged with capital murder for pawning a dead man's property. But he believes it shouldn't have taken months for authorities to realize their own error. Now that a judge has dismissed the case against Bennett, Dallas police and the district attorney’s office are closely reviewing the March 2017 murder of Delvin Montgomery, a 38-year-old musician. That’s what Bennett’s attorney, public defender Brad Lollar, says [they should have done before wrongly accusing his client](. Lollar said understaffing in the Dallas Police Department led to sloppy detective work on the murder at an east Oak Cliff music studio. And: Dallas police are investigating after [a woman was found dead]( from 'homicidal violence' at southeast Oak Cliff home. Also: [A wanted sex offender]( who fled from a Dallas halfway house has been arrested after more than a year and a half on the run. ADVERTISEMENT (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) PHOTO OF THE DAY Ice formed on the Fort Worth Water Gardens sign in downtown Fort Worth on Monday morning. At DFW International Airport, the temperature dipped to 21 degrees just before 6 a.m., the lowest temperature of the year, according to Patricia Sanchez, a National Weather Service meteorologist. It was one degree shy of the record low for the day, set in 2002. North Texas may have started the week with the coldest weather of the year, but [an end to the chill is close](  EDITORS' PICKS - It's official: Southwest Airlines' cheap inaugural flights to Hawaii are [already sold out.]( - Source: The Cowboys are placing [a franchise tag on DE DeMarcus Lawrence]( for a second straight year. - 'We miss our hero': A former Mansfield High School football player who went on to play at the University of Iowa was [killed after a crash early Sunday morning]( in Duncanville. FINALLY... [Award winning Miami restaurant headed to Uptown Dallas' new Park District project]( A Florida-based Southern-style restaurant chain has picked Uptown Dallas' new Park District project for its first Texas location. [Yardbird Southern Table & Bar]( will open a 7,000-square-foot eatery in the two-tower mixed-use development overlooking Klyde Warren Park at Pearl Street and Woodall Rodgers Freeway. The new restaurant and bar will be in the retail portion of the project, which includes an office tower and high-rise apartments. 👋 That's all for this afternoon! For up-to-the-minute news and analysis, check out [DallasNews.com](. Share the love! If you like this newsletter, please forward this email to a friend and [check out our other newsletters here](. Do you have feedback? Send your thoughts, questions, praise and corrections to [newsletter-feedback@dallasnews.com](mailto:newsletter-feedback@dallasnews.com?subject=). 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