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    Plane Crash

    Addison Airport plane crash victims included Dallas restaurateur

    Teresa Gubbins
    Jul 1, 2019 | 6:01 pm
    Brian and Ornella Ellard
    Brian and Ornella Ellard. Brian was a co-owner of Mille Lire.
    Photo courtesy of Bent Tree/Facebook

    UPDATE: As of July 2, all 10 passengers have now been identified.

    ---

    The 10 people who were killed in a June 30 plane crash at Addison Airport have been identified, including a co-owner of Mille Lire, a restaurant located in the Centrum building in Dallas.

    Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins tweeted the full list of two pilots and eight passengers, including a family of four, plus two couples.

    According to NBC 5, John Paul II High School in Plano sent out a letter stating that Alice and Dylan Maritato were killed, along with their mother and stepfather, Ornella and Brian Ellard.

    Alice, 15, attended the high school and was going into her sophomore year. Dylan was a 13-year-old student at All Saints Catholic School in Dallas, where he would have been in the eighth grade.

    Their mother, Ornella, was a business owner, architect, and interior designer. Brian co-owned Mille Lire with his brother-in-law Giuliano Matarese, a native of Naples, Italy, who has appeared on cooking shows Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay, and who worked at Charlie Palmer's Aureole restaurant in New York.

    Mille Lire's general manager Robert Bissell released a statement that said, "We are incredibly saddened by the tragic loss of our co-owner Brian Ellard and family Ornella, Alice, and Dylan. Mille Lire was built around the tradition of our family, and as you can imagine, this sudden loss has affected us all. Our doors are still open, and we are thankful for the support of our community. We continue to ask for thoughts and prayers for everyone involved."

    The Catholic Schools Office - Diocese of Dallas called it a difficult time, stating, "Please join us in praying for two members of our Dallas Catholic school family and their families who lost their lives in Sunday morning's plane crash at Addison Airport. We pray and hope for them, for the family & friends they leave behind, and for our All Saints Catholic School and John Paul II High School communities during this difficult time."

    A Plano couple also died: Steve Thelen, 58, and his wife, Gina Thelen, 57. Steve Thelen was managing director at real estate company JLL, which notified its staff of their deaths.

    BisNow did a profile in 2014, lauding Steve Thelen for his real estate prowess, including "landing Pizza Hut in Plano in '95." The story shows a photo of him on a fishing trip in Alaska, with a small plane in the background.

    John and Mary Titus were also on the plane, according to WFAA. Mary Titus was mixed league director at the Tennis Competitors of Dallas, who sent out an email on the crash to its membership.

    Crew members included Howard Hale Cassady, 71, a resident of Fort Worth and a pilot with extensive flight experience; and co-pilot Matthew Palmer, 28.

    The plane crashed into a hangar at Addison Airport right after it took off at 9:11 am on June 30, and burst into flames. No one was inside the hangar, but everyone on the plane died. The plane was headed for St. Petersburg, Florida, where members of the Ellard family had a home.

    At a news conference on July 1, officials from the National Transportation Safety Board said that it was a "personal" flight, not a chartered flight. The plane was a Beechcraft BE-350 King Air and was only two years old.

    It was previously owned by Chicago charter company Planemasters, who sold it in April to a company named EE Operations LLC.

    The NTSB said that a cockpit voice recorder was recovered and is being downloaded in Washington, D.C. Simultaneously, the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating records regarding the plane's maintenance history, pilot background, and training.

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    news/city-life

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    closing the gaps

    Texas no longer leads U.S. for racial progress, new report says

    Amber Heckler
    Jan 19, 2026 | 9:15 am
    The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Dallas
    The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center/Facebook
    WalletHub's report is released annually ahead of MLK Day.

    Texas has been overtaken as the No. 1 state that has made the most racial progress, according to a new study.

    The Lone Star State led the nation in 2025, but now ranks in third place behind Georgia (No. 1) and Mississippi (No. 2). It also ranked No. 5 nationally in the list of states with the most racial integration.

    WalletHub's "States That Have Made the Most Racial Progress" study is released annually ahead of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The report compares all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 22 relevant metrics divided into two main rankings: racial integration (which the study defines as "the current integration levels of white people and Black people") and racial progress (defined as "the levels of racial progress achieved over time").

    The report's author clarifies that the study focuses only on the racial integration between Black people and white people "in light of racial tensions in recent years that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement."

    "We released this report ahead of the holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who played a prominent role in the Civil Rights Movement to end segregation and discrimination against Black people," the report says.

    The study further divided each ranking into four main categories measuring the gaps between white people and Black people over time; spanning employment and wealth, education, social and civic engagement, and health. Texas performed the best in education and health, ranking No. 4 nationally in both categories, and it ranked in sixth place for its social and civic engagement. The state ranked 16th in the category for employment and wealth.

    According to WalletHub, Texas has "done a lot" to reduce gaps in health outcomes for white and Black residents, such as reducing gaps in health insurance coverage, and reducing the share of Black Texans suffering from "poor health" and diabetes. It also notes that Texas "made the second-most progress when it comes to obesity," but it did not acknowledge the racial bias in body mass index (BMI) that has been increasingly flagged in recent years.

    The report further praises Texas for reducing the gap in business ownership between white and Black Texans, and for its improvement in reducing discrimination in the parole system. WalletHub does not offer data behind the parole claim.

    "It’s encouraging to look at the data and see that some states have made significant strides toward racial equality over the past few decades," said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo regarding the overall report. "This change demonstrates that state-level policies and residents’ attitudes regarding equality have grown considerably better."

    Though racial disparity gaps are closing between white and Black people, racial profiling and discrimination is still a major issue affecting Black people and other people of color across the country.

    In 2023, a senate bill banned public Texas universities from having diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices and programs, prompting warnings of discrimination against Black, Hispanic, and other marginalized students, including those with disabilities.

    The top 10 states with the most racial progress in 2026 are:

    • No. 1 – Georgia
    • No. 2 – Mississippi
    • No. 3 – Texas
    • No. 4 – North Carolina
    • No. 5 – Maryland
    • No. 6 – Florida
    • No. 7 – New Jersey
    • No. 8 – Massachusetts
    • No. 9 – Louisiana
    • No. 10 – New Mexico
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