Editor's note: A lot happened this week, so here's your chance to get caught up. Read on for the week's most popular headlines.
1. Texas restaurants and small businesses get the shaft on COVID-19 loans. A federal aid package for restaurants and other small businesses ran out of money — but not before some big businesses got cut checks, while small businesses got cut out entirely. According to the Texas Restaurant Association, hundreds of small operators across Texas not only did not get loans, they were not even able to get a response.
2. Texas reopens state parks and retail stores — but schools are closed. Heartened by a perceived slowing in the spread of COVID-19, Governor Greg Abbott said April 17 he was reopening the state of Texas in stages, including the immediate reopening of state parks on April 20. Retail stores would be allowed to reopen on April 24 for pickup and delivery. Schools, however, are closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 year.
3. Colleyville defies state orders and reopens churches and restaurants. Defying a lockdown across Texas as well as the most basic common sense, the town of Colleyville has allowed churches, restaurants, and other businesses to reopen with certain limitations, despite an unresolved ending to the coronavirus pandemic. This, according to a proclamation issued April 20 by Colleyville Mayor Richard Newton.
4. Second wave of COVID-19 openings & closings crosses Dallas restaurants. With the duration of the coronavirus stretching now well into April and possibly beyond, Dallas restaurants are undergoing a shift: Some big ones that tried to hang on are closing their doors; others have caught a second wind and are mounting comebacks. Here's the latest wave of openings and closings.
5. 3 Dallas high schools go to head of the class in prestigious ranking. A couple of Texas schools have been working hard on extra credit, or so says the latest ranking by U.S. News & World Report. Its list of the Best U.S. High Schools, released April 21, includes two Dallas public schools in the national top 10, with several other Texas learning institutions popping up further down.
Brizo, a bar in Richardson, would seem to be the perfect candidate for a COVID-19 loan.
