Happy Hump Day,

I have to start off today’s newsletter with a Texas Tribune piece by our former intern Zahiyah Carter. Zahiyah spent last summer with us working on DFW stories and it awesome to run across her work with the Tribune. Her latest piece explores how Texas is making it easier for food trucks to thrive. This is through 2025 legislation that goes into effect July 1, creating a permit fee structure that will allow mobile restauranteurs to serve anywhere in the state without a hassle. 

Mrs. Baird’s Bread opened a factory in Dallas 1953 that operated until 2002. (Renelibrary/CC BY-SA 4.0)

By Sam Cohen

When Ninnie and William Baird moved to Texas from Tennessee in 1901, they had no idea what the future had in store for them. William primarily focused on running restaurants when the Bairds first arrived in Fort Worth, but once his health took a bad turn, Ninnie knew she had to find a way to provide for their family.

So, in 1908, she set up her company, Mrs. Baird’s, and began selling bread, pies, and cakes. The couple’s eight children—Ruth, Bess, Hoyt, Lorine, Roland, Dewey, Marjorie, and C.B.—assisted her as she got the business up and running. The girls helped take care of the youngest siblings and completed chores around the house while Ninnie baked, and the boys made deliveries for her on their bicycles.

She was bringing in a steady stream of profits when tragedy struck the family in 1911 with William’s death. Ninnie and the kids continued to work hard in the midst of their grieving, and by 1915, she had arranged to buy her first commercial oven from the Metropolitan, a nearby hotel, to help increase her output.

🏭 Families over factories: The city of Dallas is finally looking into how much it would cost to buy the West Dallas GAF shingle plant out if its contract in order to close it sooner than its 2029 contract end. Community members have been lobbying for the close of industrial plants in residential neighborhoods because of harmful environmental effects. (NBC 5)

🤰 Black maternal health event: Community leaders are kicking off Black Maternal Health Week by hosting “Nurture & Thrive – A Black maternal wellness experience” to help Black families better advocate for themselves in the health care space. Get the details here.
 (Fort Worth Report)

☕ Jetsetters coffee: A new coffee shop will soon open in Dallas Love Field’s Frontiers of Flight Museum, offering locals and travelers coffee drinks and bites from popular DFW eateries. 

💰 Murder settlement unpaid: The family of Botham Jean—the Dallas man murdered in 2018 by a police officer who entered the wrong apartment—has sued the city of Dallas in hopes of forcing it to pay the $98 million settlement decided in the officer’s case. The city’s municipal ordinance does say the city is responsible because the officer was its employee. (WFAA)

Enjoy this 1949 Linen postcard created by the Tichnor Brothers Inc. (Photo by Pierce Archive LLC/Buyenlarge via Getty Images)

There are two counties in New Mexico interested in becoming part of Texas—and the Texas GOP is actually considering it. Both Roosevelt and Lea counties in New Mexico are conservative ranching communities that want their state governments to reflect their values—‚and now some lawmakers are considering annexing the counties. 

You’ve heard rumblings of this in Oregon and Californians have long joked about splitting up their state

Annexation isn’t easy, that’s probably why it’s never happened state-to-state. Both states have to agree, as well as Congress. And even if there was a clear path, the consequences of states trading counties like playing cards would be a political one and undoubtedly unbalance our national government, but maybe that’s the point. 

What do you think? Would you support the acquisition of parts of New Mexico, making for an even bigger Texas?

Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Joi Louviere with reporting by Sam Cohen and editing by Brook Bolen.

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