Latest news with #Texas-raised
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Residential developer eyes D&D lots to build homes for seniors and veterans
May 8—Six single-family homes could be constructed on city-owned D&D lots so long as the developer is awarded funds from the Federal Home Loan Bank Homebuyer program. If Paramount Development grant is successful in obtaining its grant, the homes will target people with lower incomes, senior citizens and veterans. Jerry Floyd of Paramount Development told members of the Newton City Council that he won't know until December whether he received the awarded funds. The six homes would be built with two bedrooms over basements. Floyd said in order to score well enough in the program, the homes need to target certain populations. "In our particular case, all of these homes will be reserved for seniors for purchase," he said. "Seniors are defined as someone 62 and older. On top of that we have some additional targeting that three of these homes must be sold to a veteran. So that will be our targeted market." It would cost around $280,000 to build each of these houses. Floyd said the Federal Home Loan Bank comes in with a $150,000 subsidy, allowing the developer to sell the homes for $125,000-$140,000. These prices, he said, are affordable for seniors, and he expects they would be sold before they are built. "They will have a five-year period to sign," he said. "If they try to re-sell the home in that time, the Federal Home Loan Bank will recapture some of that money it receives over that period of time. But they're kind of in for five years, and once they're there that $150,000 for their benefits is no longer over their head." According to city documents, the developer anticipates the construction and sale of these homes to occur over a 24- to 30-month period. The D&D lots were purchased for $30,000 under the condition the developer is awarded funds. Otherwise the sale is null and void. The properties included: 1017 West 4th Street South, 1219 South 4th Avenue East, 902 1st Avenue West, 625 East 5th Street South, 917 1st Avenue West and 717 West 6th Street South. Council member Randy Ervin praised the idea of establishing new houses for seniors and veterans, but he asked Floyd why he chose Newton. Floyd said he has ties to the Iowa town. While he is not originally from Iowa, his wife was born in Skiff Medical Center and lived in Newton until the third grade. "Newton has been a special place in my heart," the Texas-raised Floyd said. "...But you guys are doing a phenomenal job with these D&D lots. We can't go buy $60,000-$70,000 lots in Waukee and do what we're doing. It just doesn't work. We're offering $5,000 which is pretty much the most I can offer." Paramount Development also purchased four other D&D lots in Newton, but with the same contingency that the sale is approved if its Iowa Finance Authority HOME Program Rental application is accepted. These three-bedroom, single-family homes are only targeted to those who have lower income. Unlike the earlier six homes, these four residences will be rentals owned and operated by Paramount Development for a 20-year period. Those properties include: 509 West 2nd Street South, 514 South 2nd Avenue West, 315 East 4th Street South and 616 West 4th Street South.
Time Out
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Bangkok, you're getting D4VD and it won't cost you a satang
May's here! May your luck follow you. New York-born, Texas-raised D4vd is hitting town soon. Here's your shot to be one of only 300 fans meeting the man himself at Lido Connect on May 14. Want in? Here's what to do If your luck's still holding up in 2025, keep an eye on your DMs for a link to register. Hit that and lock in your chance for the live show. Lucky perk alert The first 30 to sign up get access to an exclusive workshop, plus a surprise straight from D4vd himself. What's hitting the setlist? Heads-up
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Would you eat a ‘Texas Strip?': Texas Lt. Gov. in talks to change name of this famous steak cut
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the Texas Senate would work to change the name of the New York Strip to the 'Texas Strip.' The change would apply to the cuts of meat in the Lone Star State only. Patrick attributed the need for the change to Texas-raised cattle and the Texas cattle ranchers. 'We ask restaurants to change the name of this strip of meat the next time they reprint their menus, and grocery stores to do the same. We want this to catch on across the country and around the globe,' Patrick said. According to Patrick, the change would help market Texas beef, as well as benefit the state's economy and jobs. 'After session ends this summer, I might take a short cruise across the Gulf of America and have a juicy medium-rare Texas Strip,' Patrick said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBC
08-02-2025
- General
- CBC
New Calgary zoo boss promises 'exceptional care' for animal safety, conservation
Social Sharing The first thing Kyle Burks does when he gets home from work is greet his cat. "I tell her about my day and she tells me about hers," said the new president and CEO of the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo. "And then I kiss my wife." The Texas-raised zoo boss took on the role last month after previously serving as chief operating officer at the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans. He's also held key leadership positions at the Sacramento Zoo, Denver Zoo and the Walt Disney Co. in Florida. Burks, in an interview with The Canadian Press, said he fondly remembers the school field trips he'd take to a zoo in Houston, roughly 90 minutes away from where he grew up in Huntsville. "Man, did I love it," Burks said with a chuckle. "It was my favourite one every year." Burks takes over the Calgary job after a rough year for the zoo. One of its mandrills died in April after undergoing emergency surgery. A polar bear drowned in July when its trachea was crushed by another bear during rough play. Just a few months ago, a young lowland gorilla was killed after a worker closed a wrong door and hit its head. Burks said the increased attention does put more pressure on the zoo when it comes to the well-being of animals. "Everybody should expect the highest degree of professionalism and care from us, and that's what we should deliver on and then some," he said. "I've worked next to some of the most professional, dedicated people you'll ever imagine that spend more time with these animals than they do with their own families." Burks says going forward the focus will be on animal safety, wildlife conservation and saving species for the future. The zoo announced earlier this month it would begin an expansion of its Exploration Asia zone next month with larger and improved habitats for some of its more prominent residents like the snow leopard, red pandas and red-crowned cranes. The project is to be completed by next summer. Burks said with the Calgary zoo celebrating its centennial in 2029, work is underway to repair some aging habitats to improve the well-being of the animals in care. Some were built in the 1980s for the 1988 Winter Olympics, he said. Burks said zoos have evolved over the past 30 years. "Our public now expects us to not only provide exceptional care for the animals that they come and enjoy ... but they expect us to do conservation work," he said. "Our future is about saving species and creating a world where people and animals can thrive together." After 32 years of caring for animals, he said he understands why the public cares so much about their health. "We have an emotional connection with animals that makes our lives better," he said.
Los Angeles Times
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘Mo' goes from Mexican border to the West Bank in Season 2
On a farm about 45 minutes outside of Houston, a one-eyed horse stared warily at a man who had no business near a barn, livestock or hay. The city slicker in the paddock wiping manure off his shoe was Mohammed 'Mo' Amer, the Palestinian-Texan comedian behind Netflix's acclaimed comedy 'Mo.' It was last spring and Amer was on location for the second and final season of his eponymous series, directing an episode set on an olive farm. 'That's like the third time today I've stepped in it. My people just can't catch a break,' he jokes. By 'his people,' he meant Palestinians, of course. Amer's humor is steeped in the plight of his displaced family, his dreams of returning to a homeland he's never seen and his unique background as a Texas-raised Arab with a penchant for Mexican food and a knack for screwing things up. Playing a semiautobiographical version of himself named Mo Najjar, Amer returned to Netflix Thursday with eight new 30-minute episodes of 'Mo.' In the series, which he co-created with Ramy Youssef ('Ramy,' 'Poor Things'), Amer mines the pain, joy and absurdity of his character's circumstance as a Houston-raised Palestinian refugee seeking asylum and citizenship in the U.S. 'Just in time for the cease-fire,' quipped the 43-year-old during a recent follow-up video call. Amer's years as a stand-up comedian taught him that the sharpest humor often comes from the worst circumstances, and there's been no shortage of material. He and his team were working on the show's second season in 2023 when Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack, killing approximately 1,200 people in Israel. The IDF responded with a 15-month bombardment of Gaza that has killed at least 47,000 people, according to figures released by the IDF and the Gaza Health Ministry. 'The subject matter of the show is already so heavy,' says Amer, who co-directed the series. 'Then to make matters a million times worse, there's what's happening in Gaza and the West Bank, and everyone's input of what I should or shouldn't be doing about it. I've had to be super patient and meticulous about focusing on what I can control in this madness. And this [show] is one of the things that I could control.' Season 2 of 'Mo' picks up where it left off in 2022, with Mo stuck in Mexico after a debacle that involved stolen olive trees and a drug cartel. He can't get back into the U.S. without a passport or proof of citizenship, neither of which he has despite decades of trying to legally navigate the U.S. immigration system. Drawing on his hustling skills, he's now selling falafel tacos from a cart in Mexico City. After blowing an easy opportunity to gain entry to the U.S. through a Mexican diplomat, he pays a coyote to cross illegally, wading through the Rio Grande with immigrant families before ending up in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. 'We've heard so much about detention centers but we've never really seen inside, and certainly not in a half-hour comedy,' Amer says. 'So we thought, let's explore it and the sliding scale of each person's experience of getting to America. When he's locked up, Mo overhears one of the other immigrants talking about his journey: 'The mud slides, the snakes, the jungle, the cartel. And that's just to get to Panama.' Then Mo is asked what it was like for him, and he's kind of embarrassed to say, 'Oh, I took the bus.'' Mo does make it back to Houston, where he finds that his girlfriend, Maria (Teresa Ruiz), is dating another man — and he's Jewish. Mo is also no closer to getting his case through the courts, and he's randomly ordered to wear an ankle bracelet while awaiting asylum in case he tries to flee to … well, that's unclear. When his mother, Yusra (Farah Bsieso), and his brother Sameer (Omar Elba) are finally granted citizenship, Mo's fight to gain asylum becomes all the more critical. The series then takes us from the Texas olive farm where they work to checkpoints in Israel and finally, the family home on the West Bank. The big question for Amer and the team was how to address the real-world tragedy in Israel and the Palestinian territories on the show. 'We spent time a lot of time talking about whether or not we would want to change the story to cover what was happening and it almost felt like, how could we not?' says 'Mo' executive producer Harris Danow in an interview on the set last spring. 'But we had already built out our story beforehand. We were pretty far down the line, so there was no way to adequately address it without upending everything we'd already done, which gave me a panic attack. Obviously things after Oct. 7 changed dramatically. But the larger point that we were trying to make, the issues that the show was dealing with, didn't really change. It's just the scale of it escalated to a horrific level.' 'Rather than going on a hyper political rant, we had the ability to just let the show speak for itself and let the art do the work, so that's what we did,' Amer adds. 'Mo' hilariously tackles fraught topics such as cultural appropriation , like when Maria's new boyfriend sets Mo off by replicating his falafel taco idea (a recipe in itself that steals from Mexican culture). It also grapples with impossibly polarizing subject matter. When Yusra is relentlessly grilled by an Israeli customs agent on her first trip back home since her family fled the region in the 1960s, she has just one question for her interrogator: 'Where are you from?' she asks the agent. 'I'm Israeli.' 'No, I mean where did your grandparents came [sic] from?' 'My grandparents are from Spain.' 'Spain? I was born here,' Yusra says. 'My family was born here. Yet you are questioning me.' 'What was your point?' 'Point was made.' Back on the farm outside Houston, the 'Mo' set was a microcosm of Amer's cross-cultural existence. Black bean chipotle hummus was among the offerings in the craft services area. The crew donned cowboy hats and keffiyehs to shield themselves from the sun. And most everyone was feeling the pressure of working on the first and only comedy to portray a Palestinian American. 'It's the only show of its kind and this season ups the only-ness,' said series co-director and executive producer Solvan 'Slick' Naim. 'There's a lot on the table.' 'It's very important we present things in a way that doesn't immediately shut people down from listening,' Danow says. 'There are just certain things you can say or politicize, and it's like, 'Oh, OK, I know exactly what this is. Why do I need to keep watching? I can just go to the well — TikTok or Instagram — and engage in that.' The whole thing is a trap because it obscures the larger issue, which to me is all about dehumanization.' Directing and acting, Amer worked on various scenes that straddled the line between tragedy and comedy. His exhausted character falls asleep and dreams of statehood, only to fall out of his hammock into a pile of (simulated) manure. He treks across a beautiful field … in a humiliating ankle bracelet. 'I always imagine scenarios where you can influence culture, put something out for the culture in a way that's impactful,' Amer says. 'I feel like this does that, especially when you can share something that's not just like doom and gloom and death and destruction. It's something that can actually be celebrated, something that's relatable, something that's real, something that's grounded, and something that can shed a different light on this Palestinian family.'
