Nobody likes a know-it-all, but it still beats being ignorant. Brush up on a few stories people will surely be chattering about this weekend.
Dr Pepper Snapple Group Did Not Put Dublin Dr Pepper Out of Business
Texas is still upset that Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company—now called Dublin Bottling Works since its settlement with the Dr Pepper Snapple Group—can no longer make their once-signature soft drink, but as Scott Reitz of the Dallas Observer reports, president Jeff Kloster remains committed to giving Texas small-batch, naturally sweetened sodas, including Big Red and Triple XXX Root Beer.
Klotz was in Dallas giving local restaurants a chance to join him in the cause of “soft drink independence,” which means getting their own soda-dispensing equipment so they can serve whatever drinks they like (restaurants that only serve Coke and its affiliates or Pepsi and its affiliates, usually rent their equipment directly from those soda companies).
Kloster said he hopes to eventually hire back the seventeen employees he was forced to lay off after losing his relationship with Dr Pepper. He also said that Triple XXX Root Beer “drinks like cake.”
Austin Police Reveal that a Suspect in the Murder of Esme Barrera Committed Suicide
Austin has been up in arms about the January 1 death of 29-year-old Esme Barrera, an El Paso native and longtime Austin resident who was especially beloved in the local music scene.
In a surprising but encouraging twist, Austin police revealed on Thursday night that her killer may be James Loren Brown. He lived just a few blocks away from Barrera and was found dead on January 12 in an apparent suicide.
Police already had DNA evidence linking Brown to an attack in the same neighborhood the same night as Barrera’s murder, as well as other incidents. “We are prepared to say he is a prime suspect,” Chief Art Acevedo said.
Rick Perry Less Popular Than Ever?
That was the takeaway from this week’s post-campaign coverage, including a poll commissioned by the state’s five newspapers which found Perry’s approval rating at just forty percent and Barack Obama’s at 43 percent.
“Poll finds Perry’s ratings sink to all-time low in Texas,” trumpeted the Houston Chronicle. That may be historically true of this particular poll’s methodology, but a Public Policy Polling survey from June 2010 had Perry with a 36 percent approval rating and a 49 percent disapproval rating. And in October of 2009, the UT-Austin Texas Politics Project’s data had Perry at 36 percent approval to President Obama’s 41 percent. (That same poll also asked, “Do you think that Rick Perry should run for President in 2012?” with 69 percent of the respondents answering no and just ten percent saying yes.)
Headline of the Week
Dog joins East Texas district attorney’s office.
And ICYMI at the TM Daily Post
Restaurants are serving breakfast tacos in Brooklyn, Robert Earl Keen has harsh words for Toby Keith, and Houston is drinking pig blood.
