Thousands Rally In Dallas For Immigration Rights: Your Roundup

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The fact is that Kirk had a bad case of jock itch.”

—Attorney Rick Davis to the Houston Chronicle. Davis’s client, Texas A&M sophomore wide receiver Kirk Merritt, pleaded not guilty on Friday to two charges of indecent exposure stemming from alleged incidents during two consecutive tutoring sessions last fall. Davis defended Merritt in a statement on Friday, claiming Merritt did not intend to offend anyone and was instead simply trying to deal with a rash.

BIG NEWS

Juan R. Ramirez gestures as he leads the front of the Mega March protest on City Hall on April 9, 2006, in Dallas.Jensen Walker/Getty

Mega March II—Thousands of people decked out in red, white, and blue took to the streets in downtown Dallas on Sunday to rally for immigrants’s rights, according to WFAA. The 2017 “Mega March” wasn’t quite as mega as the original Mega March in Dallas in 2006, when 500,000 people came out, and while protest organizers expected a lot more than the 3,200 folks who attended this year, the turnout was still far more diverse than it was a decade ago, according to the Dallas Morning News, and no arrests were reported. Marchers came from as far away as Oklahoma, Washington D.C., and New York, protest organizers told WFAA. Their backgrounds ranged from an 87-year old woman who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico to a pair of 17-year old high school students whose parents immigrated from India. President Donald Trump’s policies aimed at cracking down on undocumented immigrants, as well as his attempted implementation of a travel ban targeting refugees and predominantly Muslim countries, made the Mega March a particularly charged event. “You know, there’s times when you have to march to get your point across,” Roger Rocha Jr., president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, told WFAA. “This is one of those times.” There was a small counter protest. According to the Morning News, some people gathered toward the end-point of the march, waving Trump flags. “We give them everything, more than we give our veterans,” Dallas resident Eddie Ellis said of immigrants. “They need to go back and solve their own problems.” But marchers were undeterred. Several guest speakers attended the march and made remarks, including activist Martin Luther King III and Congressmen Joaquin Castro and Beto O’Rourke.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS

Hillary In Houston—Hillary Clinton emerged from her reclusive woodlands hiking spot long enough to make a rare public appearance in Houston on Friday, where she spoke on stage at a luncheon for Annie’s List, a group dedicated to helping elect Democratic women to office in Texas. She commented on everything from Donald Trump’s recent decision to bomb a Syrian airbase (she supported the military action but was critical of Trump’s attempts to ban Syrian refugees) to the recent bill filed by Texas Rep. Jessica Farrar that would regulate the masturbation habits of men, saying, “the bill may be satirical but the message sure resonated.” Clinton even predicted that Texas may eventually turn blue. “Think of all the great progressive causes and candidates who came out of Texas,” Clinton said. “If we stay true to their vision, I believe in my heart that this state will be as blue as the big Texas sky.” While the Clintons were in Houston, Bill spent some time with fellow former president George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara. According to the Associated Press, Bill Clinton tweeted about his visit with the Bushes on Sunday, during which he apparently gifted Bush a few pairs of socks.

Hell’s Bells—Every emergency siren in the city of Dallas went off about a dozen times each on Friday night. Every. Single. One. All 156 of them. As the Washington Post accurately noted, “it was loud.” The sirens started blaring at 11:42 p.m., and Dallasites finally got some peace and quiet about an hour-and-a-half later, after city workers were traveled around the city and unplugged each siren. According to the Dallas Morning News, city officials believe hackers may be behind the massive disturbance of Dallas’s peace, though it seems unlikely the culprits will be caught. Rocky Vaz, director of Dallas’s Office of Emergency Management, said finding the hackers will be like “finding a needle in a haystack.” The incident was loud enough to earn Dallas headlines in the New York Times, CNN and the Post, and it flooded the city’s already strained emergency response system with thousands of calls from residents who were concerned that the sirens could have been legit.

Too Damn Good—Torchy’s tacos are, as the Austin-based chain likes to say, “damn good tacos.” But not everyone’s tacos can be damn good. According to the Fort Collins Coloradoan, Torchy’s is suing a Fort Collins eatery named Dam Good Tacos, claiming the Colorado imposter infringed on its trademark phrase. Torchy’s trademarked the slogan in 2008; the Colorado taco chain started in 2012. Torchy’s tried to handle the situation out of court by sending a cease-and-desist letter in November, and even offered some financial help to Dam Good Tacos so it could change its name to something a little less damn good. But Dam Good apparently dug in. “Through our significant investment in this trademark, it has become inextricably linked to our products in the minds of consumers,” Torchy’s said in the statement. The case will be heard in the U.S. District Court in Denver sometime within the next few months.