This roundup of Dallas news includes notes about a major anniversary in Deep Ellum, the return of scooters, a redesigned website by DART, an update on new state laws as of 2023, and a crime tidbit to the tune of $29 million.

Here's what happened around Dallas this week:

Scooter comeback update
Electric rental scooters and bikes will return to Dallas in 2023, this time with more regulations. The city is allowing only three companies to be purveyors: Lime, Bird, and Superpedestrian. It'll start out with fewer vehicles, a wider geographical distribution (not just confined to the city center), and limited hours: 5 am-9 pm. According to Fox 4, they'll be back "within a few weeks."

Deep Ellum hoo-ha
Deep Ellum will mark its 150th anniversary in 2023 with a year's worth of celebratory events. Gird thyself. This includes the installation of new streetlight pole banners trumpeting the 150th anniversary. (The Deep Ellum Foundation, the nonprofit that promotes the area, is very into streetlight pole banners.) The 150th anniversary banners are designed by marketing and advertising agencies in Deep Ellum including longtime firms Matchbox Studio and Belmont Icehouse, as well as newcomer TRG, formerly The Richards Group, plus Cimone Key Creative Studio, who aren't in Deep Ellum but who created the 150th year logo. The Deep Ellum Foundation is calling for nominations for the next round of banners, which will be a series of portraits of "the 150 faces of Deep Ellum."

New Texas state laws
Newsbreak has a handy list of new state laws that go into effect in 2023. These laws were signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021 but with some just going into effect this year. It's pretty nuts-and-bolts-y, touching on subjects that include the judicial branch, state agency rulemaking, education, taxes, water, and construction.

Embezzlement news
A bookkeeper embezzled more than $29 million over the past decade from a prominent Dallas family: According to the Department of Justice. Barbara Chalmers, 74, pleaded guilty to embezzling from multiple companies run by the family of Jim Collins, a businessman and Republican congressman who died in 1989. The entities include the Collins American Capital Corp., International Family Investors LTD, and the charitable James M. Collins Foundation. Collins' descendents discovered her activities, including to fraudulently writing at least 175 personal checks, after the death of Collins' wife, Dorothy Dann Collins Torbert, who had previously owned and managed the family’s corporate entities. When they took over ownership of the family businesses, they reviewed bank statements and identified "several alarming red flags."

DART website
Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) has redesigned its website to provide a more user-friendly experience and new trip planning capabilities. New features include:

• real-time trip planning with GoLink integration through an enhanced trip planner tool that replicates the results from the GoPass
• multi-language translation using Google Translate for 14 languages: Arabic, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Filipino, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Khmer, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Urdu, and Vietnamese.