Atatiana Jefferson’s funeral postponed, foster care battle, French Room: Your weekend roundup

The gates to The Potter’s House were closed Saturday after a family dispute and last-minute legal challenge postponed the Dallas funeral of Atatiana Jefferson.  [Morning roundup]( 10/20/2019 By Nataly Keomoungkhoun and Mallorie Sullivan Good morning! Here is a look at the top headlines of the weekend so far. 🌤️ Weather: Partly cloudy, breezy and warm. Quite warm, actually. High of 88 degrees. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [here.]( Flowers, candles, and teddy bears rest on the sidewalk in the front yard of the house where Atatiana Jefferson was shot and killed during a community vigil for Jefferson on Sunday. (Smiley Pool/Staff Photographer) NEWS [Atatiana Jefferson’s funeral up in the air after court order cancels Dallas service]( The gates to The Potter’s House were closed Saturday after a [family dispute and last-minute legal challenge postponed the Dallas funeral]( of Atatiana Jefferson. Jefferson, 28, was killed last week by a white Fort Worth police officer who now faces a murder charge. Her funeral was scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at the Dallas megachurch, but the service was postponed after her father was granted a temporary restraining order to stop her funeral and burial. The order, signed by Dallas County probate court Judge Brenda Hull Thompson, grants Marquis Jefferson “full authority to make arrangements for the funeral and burial.” The order also sets a hearing Monday morning to determine whether the restraining order should be continued. Attorney Lee Merritt, who is representing Jefferson’s relatives, tweeted Friday night that the funeral would proceed as planned. But early Saturday morning, he announced the service was postponed.  Also: Jewish students marked Sukkot by [serving the homeless at a Dallas shelter.](   ADVERTISEMENT POLITICS[Foster care plaintiffs ask judge to sanction Texas, citing blown deadlines, ‘shocking’ revelations]( Plaintiffs in a long-running legal battle over Texas foster care have asked a federal judge to hold the state in contempt of court [for allegedly making many “false statements” about nighttime watches of kids]( and for blowing a recent deadline for crafting a workload study. The Department of Family and Protective Services has been “utterly contemptuous” of U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack’s orders, plaintiffs’ lawyers said in a motion filed Friday. It asks the department, Gov. Greg Abbott and Health and Human Services chief Courtney Phillips to show cause for why Jack shouldn’t sanction them for the agency’s alleged stonewalling of her five-year quest to ensure foster children in group settings are supervised by adults who remain awake all night.  Head count: The U.S. Census Bureau has asked Texas to hand over driver’s license records as the federal agency works to supplement the 2020 census by [getting a count of how many citizens are living in the country.](   Early voting: Monday is the first day of early voting for the Nov. 5 election. [Here’s information about how to vote and what’s on the ballot.](  (Jason Janik/Special Contributor) PHOTO OF THE WEEKEND You may think you know it all when it comes to the State Fair of Texas. Or, as we head into the closing weekend, you may just have had your fill of Big Tex-related stories. [But I hope you’ll read one more]( writes Sharon Grigsby, for the sake of more than 3,000 young Lone Star heroes who died far from home and for the small band of volunteers who have shown up at the State Fair all day, every day for three decades to keep their memories alive. If you make one last trip to the fairgrounds this weekend, carve out time from the corny dogs and Crazy Mouse to visit the Texas Vietnam Veterans Memorial and visit with the men watching over this sacred space. ADVERTISEMENT AROUND THE SITE - Endless pasta-bilities: Fans of Spaghetti Warehouse [can buy collectibles at the Dallas restaurant right now.]( - Heads up: Thunderstorms late Sunday [could bring hail and strong winds to Dallas-Fort Worth.]( - Eagles-Cowboys predictions: Will Dallas’ three-game slide [come to an end with the NFC East lead on the line?]( FINALLY... [The French Room has a new chef and it’s Diego Fernandez, the original chef at Fauna]( The French Room — a restaurant with the grandest dining room in Dallas, and lately the most perilous kitchen in town — has a new executive chef. Diego Fernandez has taken the helm, a press release announced Friday, overseeing the “culinary operations and vision” for the gilded restaurant and its bar, which have been operating in the Adolphus Hotel for 107 years. [Fernandez is the French Room’s third executive chef in 14 months]( following Anthony Dispensa, who departed in the spring, and Michael Ehlert, who left in August 2018. Though Fernandez is a newcomer to Dallas restaurants, he’s already familiar with how turbulent they can be: He was the original chef at Fauna, Stephan Pyles’ exclusive restaurant-within-a-restaurant at Flora Street Cafe, but left just six weeks after it opened, on July 24, when Pyles reduced Fauna’s hours to just two days a week.  👋 That's all for this morning! 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