Ambassador Hotel fire, the scale of Pioneer's layoffs, spellers get ready for bee: Your Tuesday evening roundup

Another piece of Dallas' history is gone, erased by fire.  [Evening roundup]( 05/28/2019 By Wayne Carter Good Evening! Here is a look at the top headlines of the day. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [here.]( Dallas firefighters douse hot spots in the smoldering rubble of the Ambassador Dallas hotel building after a fire early Tuesday destroyed the historic 115-year-old building, which was being renovated. (Tom Fox/Staff Photographer) AMBASSADOR FIRE ['There will be no salvage': An obituary for the Ambassador, one of Dallas' oldest and most special places]( From city columnist Robert Wilonsky: For a long time on Tuesday morning, Jim Lake Jr. just stood there, in the middle of Belleview Street, staring at the horror. Staring, because he could not speak. And when he finally could, after he'd collected himself, after he choked back the emotion, he said this of the gut-wrenching devastation that lie only a few feet in front of him, smoldering in the early morning sunlight: "I am in shock. I am so ... disheartened," he said. "I am just so sorry for the city. I just ..." Lake had bought the Ambassador Hotel in 2015. He began the restoration work two years later. But aside from some remediation, the redo had not yet begun in earnest, because Lake needed the City Council to approve closing off St. Paul Street at East Griffin Street to make way for the Ambassador's new driveway. The Dallas City Council approved that closure last Wednesday. Council members did not discuss or debate the agenda item. It took only 54 seconds of their time. [The years it took to get to that minute at City Hall were now all for nothing.]( Commentary: The Ambassador Hotel fire reminds us [to value Dallas history — before we lose it]( writes architecture critic Mark Lamster. Also: Flames were visible for miles and thick, black smoke quickly spread across downtown [as fire gutted the historic, 115-year-old Ambassador Hotel.]( ADVERTISEMENT BUSINESS [How bad are Pioneer’s job cuts? At over 27% of workers, they’re deeper than after 9/11 and the financial crisis]( From business columnist Mitchell Schnurman: In the days after 9/11, when consumers cut back on travel and the public was still grieving over the terror attacks, scores of companies announced major layoffs. The economy had suffered a shocking hit and businesses had to respond accordingly. “I have declared a state of emergency at American Airlines,” then-CEO Don Carty said on Sept. 19, 2001. “This declaration is an official recognition that, hard as it may be to accept, our company’s very survival depends on dramatic change to our operations, our schedule, and worst of all, our staffing levels.” American, one of the region's largest employers, announced 20,000 layoffs. United matched the number, Continental cut 12,000, and Boeing said it would eliminate 30,000 positions. As jarring as those numbers were, [they’re not as deep as the job cuts recently made at Pioneer Natural Resources]( — not when calculated as a share of the workforce.   Commentary: The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal [is a major victory for Texas]( writes Roger Williams. GUIDELIVE [The art of the meal: How do you design a Dallas restaurant?]( Hatsumi Kuzuu and Kate Murphy design restaurants for a living. They work for themselves, creating dramatic spaces in some of Dallas' most exciting locally owned restaurants and bars. Their jobs seem pretty cool. But that's exactly what somebody sitting inside one of their restaurants would say. "It's hell," Kuzuu says. She's laughing. Because it's true. Murphy, who owns KMIA, and Kuzuu, who owns Kuzuu Design, are charged with telling a restaurant's story — on its walls, at its tables and even in its bathrooms. [They create that story long before a customer sits down for dinner.](  Rewards earned: Straight-A students [can get free pizza in Dallas this week.](  ADVERTISEMENT (Tom Fox/Staff Photographer) PHOTO OF THE DAY Jerry Nappi III grabs a bite to eat late Tuesday morning near the ruins of the Ambassador Hotel, which was destroyed in a fire that broke out early Tuesday. Nappi, who was the building's caretaker while it was under renovation, narrowly escaped a wall collapsing on the trailer that served as his home on the property. A homeless person awakened Nappi [just in time for him to escape with his dog and his truck.]( EDITORS' PICKS - Weather watch: Storms are returning to the Dallas-Fort Worth forecast, [with gusty winds, hail and flooding possible.]( - Essential music: Contributing music critic Kelly Dearmore shares his list of [10 can't-miss Dallas concerts for summer 2019.]( - Police blotter: DeSoto police are investigating a domestic disturbance [that left a man with a gunshot wound.]( FINALLY... [Three returning North Texas entrants prepping for Scripps National Spelling Bee]( The Scripps National Spelling Bee is buzzing with Texans eyeing the prize, [including three returning spellers from the Dallas area who finished in the top 10 last year.]( With a record almost 600 participants competing this year, 69 are from the Lone Star State. The competition takes place Tuesday through Thursday at the National Harbor in Maryland just outside of Washington. The preliminaries on Tuesday and Wednesday can be seen on ESPN 3. The primetime finals will be on ESPN at 7:30 CT on Thursday. Naysa Modi, an eighth-grader from Reynolds Middle School in Prosper, is a spelling bee veteran as she competes for her fifth, and final time, at nationals. Under competition rules, a participant is allowed to compete through their eighth grade year. Naysa finished the 2017 competition in seventh place, her first time cracking the top 10. She said the spelling bee is different from sports where other factors can influence the outcome. The initial rounds of the spelling show just how much you know. “But at a certain point, it’s all luck,” she said about competing in the top 10. 👋 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=). STAY CONNECTED WITH US [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( [Tumblr]( [Reddit]( [OTHER FREE NEWSLETTERS]( [Unsubscribe]( | [Dallasnews.com]() | [Subscriber login]() | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( You received this message because you signed up for this Dallas Morning News newsletter or it was forwarded to you. Copyright 2019 - [The Dallas Morning News, 1954 Commerce Street, Dallas, TX 75201, United States]()