Planting a park in Fair Park, AT&T's high payout, fundraiser for crane collapse victims: Your Monday evening roundup

Good Evening! Here is a look at the top headlines of the day.  [Evening roundup]( 06/18/2019 By Wayne Carter and Chelsea Watkins Good Evening! Here is a look at the top headlines of the day. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [here.]( The Texas Star towers over Leonhardt Lagoon at Fair Park on Tuesday, June 18. (Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer) DALLAS [Life slowly returns to Fair Park, now under new management. But where's the park?]( From city columnist Robert Wilonsky:Monday evening, after the dust and nerves settled downtown, I went to Fair Park for the June board meeting of Fair Park First. That's the nonprofit that the City Council tasked with turning Dallas' 277-acre crown jewel into a lively round-the-clock destination rather than a crumbling afterthought when the State Fair's not peddling corny dogs to tourists from Fairview. A few items on the agenda caught my eye: "Community Park Planning." And: "Update of the Fair Park Master Plan." Also: "Master Plan Neighborhood/Neighborhood Park." After all, planting a park in Fair Park — turning more than 200 acres of cracked concrete into swaths of green grass — was at the top of the pops as far as everyone was concerned during years' worth of meetings with previous councils and South Dallas residents who felt locked out of the gates in more ways than one. [The surrounding community shouldn't have to beg for amenities and year-round access to the landmark that devoured their neighborhood](. Also: Changes are being made to brush and bulk trash pickup in Dallas [following powerful storms earlier this month](. ADVERTISEMENT BUSINESS [AT&T’s stock dividends pay over 6% a year. Is that an opportunity or a warning?]( From business columnist Mitchell Schnurman: For 35 consecutive years, AT&T has raised the dividends paid to shareholders. This year, the Dallas telecom giant will pay $2.04 a share, up from $1.74 in 2012. But today’s stock price is lower than it was seven years ago. As a result, the dividend yield on AT&T shares was 6.3% on Monday — near the top of AT&T’s historical range and the highest prolonged payout from the company since the wake of the Great Recession. At the end of 2018, when AT&T stock was selling below $29, the yield topped 7%. Since then, the yield has declined as the stock appreciated. On Monday, AT&T closed at $32.30 a share. AT&T remains among the highest-paying dividend stocks in the S&P 500, and it’s offering three times more than the yield on a 10-year Treasury note. The question is [whether AT&T’s high payout is an opportunity or a warning.](   Ripple effect: Following the tax law change, charitable giving by Americans [has taken its biggest drop since the Great Recession.](   Also: Amazon is adding 15 planes to its shipping fleet [to get your Prime deliveries to you faster.](  GUIDELIVE [Former TV anchors Ron Corning and Alexa Conomos raising money for Dallas crane collapse victims]( Ron Corning and Alexa Conomos, the WFAA-TV anchors who left Channel 8 and launched a new video podcast together, are raising money tonight for the victims of a crane collapse in Dallas. "I was watching the horrific footage and was moved to do something to help these people in need," Corning says in a press release. ["We're all Dallasites, and we need to come together for each other."]( The event is called Aid for Elan and is named for Elan City Lights, the apartment building that was crushed on June 9 when a crane collapsed on it during a storm. One woman died and hundreds of residents were forced to move out. News reports say that no one will be able to move back in. Corning and Conomos' "emergency fundraiser," as it's being called, is 4 to 7 p.m. today at Big Al's Smokehouse BBQ in Dallas. Money raised will go to Elan City Lights residents, says a press release.  Real corkers: "Wine Enthusiast" has named three Dallas restaurants [among the 100 best in America.](   ADVERTISEMENT (Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer) PHOTO OF THE DAY Chef Aldo Sandoval serves a flight of ice creams at Baldo's Ice Cream and Coffee in Highland Park. Baldo's was launched by three Southern Methodist University graduates in 2017. They hired Sandoval, a pastry chef, to develop seasonal flavors with herbal notes, like basil cinnamon, Strawberry Fields with fresh berries and lemongrass, and Pink Goat, made with Bonton Farms goat milk and pink peppercorns. They’re currently working on a dill pickle ice cream base, [and the cream was a perfect balance to the tart and acidic finish of the pickle juice]( says food writer Karen Elizabeth Watts. Happy Taco Tuesday, let's taco 'bout the results You've voted and narrowed it down to 16 semi-finalists. ⚠️ As a D-FW native, it's up to you to decide which of our restaurants has the best Tex-Mex. Click below now to vote. Only four restaurants will advance to the finals. [Click here to cast your vote!]( EDITORS' PICKS - Commentary: To save the humanities and restore their prestige, [universities might look to prison]( writes Thomas S. Hibbs. - Rate of return: A Fort Worth firm will pay back $39.7 million [on payday loans that charged 375% interest.]( - Immigration: Despite growing opposition, Tarrant County commissioners voted Tuesday to [continue alerting ICE to unauthorized immigrant arrests.]( FINALLY... ['We have our own opinions': Mount Vernon ISD's first board meeting since Art Briles hire remains cordial]( Aaron Sanders, the president of the Mount Vernon ISD School Board, read a boilerplate precursor to the meeting's public forum session Monday before looking at the crowd and sending a message tailored for the specific moment. "Let me just say at this time: Please don't put myself or any of our law enforcement officers in a situation where we would have to remove anyone from the board meeting," Sanders said as two officers stood at the doors to the high school's lecture hall. "This is our meeting [with] the public, and we ask that you be cordial with us and let us do this peacefully." And that's exactly how Monday's meeting went, the first regularly scheduled one since the school board voted unanimously to hire former Baylor football coach Art Briles as the school's new head coach and athletic director. The national conversation, since the moment the hire became official on May 24, has been volatile, but Monday's meeting — filled with over 60 people — [was underwhelming compared with the national reaction and many expectations.]( 👋 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. 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