neiman marcus parade

DISD's dynamic duo at it again
The Dallas Independent School District doesn't routinely get the world's most favorable press, but this week U.S. News & World Report joined Texas Monthly and Newsweek in recognizing two of the district's most high-performing schools. The School for the Talented and Gifted and The School for Science and Engineering are both in the magazine's top 20 list of the best public high schools in the nation. Of course, the truest measure of these schools' success is the achievement of their students, even after graduation. Success stories abound, but they're hard to quantify, so we have no qualms about celebrating recognition where it can be found. Note to current students and staff: Keep making Dallas proud.

Revving up, cleaning up
At long last, a state-funded effort is about to begin in earnest to take exhaust-spewing clunkers off the road. It's about time. New rules will be out soon on a program to give vouchers to low-income North Texans who drive old cars that foul everyone's air. They can use vouchers of up to $3,500 to buy cleaner, newer vehicles. One new idea: letting car dealers handle the paperwork. That approach, if adopted, would be a promising way to expedite the process and avoid waiting in lines at government offices.

Twenty-year reign of cheer
It won't look its age, but today's Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children's Parade will be the event's 20th annual march down Commerce Street. What a wonderful gift to the city and to the cause of Children's Medical Center Dallas. Proceeds of the parade go to benefit programs that make hospitalization easier for patients and their families.

Leapin' Leppert
Mayor Tom Leppert hopped to it this week, vowing to get the Trinity River project moving at a faster clip. Good. He used words like "very quickly," "aggressively" and "expedite." All represent the right way to approach the transformative road-levee-park project. It's been stuck in neutral since voters gave the go-ahead nine years ago. "Compress the schedule," the mayor said. Compress away.

Money well spent
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins has received new, outside resources in his effort to check past convictions for the possibility of bad convictions. The Texas Bar Foundation donated $25,000 this week, and the Texas Innocence Project donated $15,000 from a fundraiser. The money will be spent on $5,000 DNA tests for cases under review by the DA's new public integrity unit. With 14 exonerations to date � the most of any county nationwide � Dallas County can't do enough to make sure no one else unfairly languishes in prison. And the outside help is welcome news indeed.

Depends on what your definition of 'oppose' is
Bill Clinton is renowned for his detailed grasp of policy issues big and small. How, then, can he forget details of the Big One � his pre-war position on Iraq? Pardon our cynicism. The former president, stumping in Iowa for his spouse's run for the White House, told a crowd this week that he opposed the war "from the beginning." That contradicts his statements in 2003 in which he gave President Bush the benefit of the doubt and supported military authorization. Mr. Clinton's new version of things puts him somewhat at odds with Hillary Clinton's pre-war vote. But she took him for better or worse.

'A no-brainer'
That's how Dallas County Commissioner Mike Cantrell describes a plan to make sure the county stops paying contractors who owe back taxes. Any taxpayer would agree. But if it's so obvious, why didn't someone come up with the brainstorm all by themselves? Why did the county need The Dallas Morning News to point out the absurdity of companies making money off the county while owing tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes? That's a different definition of no-brainer.
Several words could describe Aslynn Howell: Happy, energetic, a 9-year-old girl full of laughs. But one thing is for certain, Aslynn, who has leukemia, is definitely one tough cookie.

Her mother, Chance Howell, can think of a recent example of her daughter's fighting spirit. Aslynn had just started fourth grade at Bennett Elementary School this year and had also lost all of her hair to chemotherapy.

"She lost all of her hair and we got a wig, but she didn't want to wear it," Chance Howell said. "She went cold turkey, brand new school."

On Saturday, Aslynn will be rewarded for her toughness when she takes a ride through downtown Dallas in the Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children's Parade, a nationally televised march that benefits Children's Medical Center Dallas.

Children are nominated to ride one time in the parade by the child life department at Children's Medical Center.

Along with riding in the parade, Aslynn said she will have a chance to make a wish for something.

"My wish is to go to horse camp for 10 weeks," Aslynn said.

It was Jan. 27 when Aslynn found out she had leukemia. The family was living in Alabama at the time. Chance Howell, a native Texan, said she decided shortly after Aslynn's diagnosis that she wanted to come back home with Aslynn and her other children, Amber and Raymond.

"After they told me she was going to undergo chemotherapy for 2-1/2 years, two days later we got on a plane and came back to Texas," Howell said.

Coping with cancer has been a challenge for Aslynn. She has been hospitalized three times and has gotten sick from the chemotherapy treatments. Aslynn has received at least five blood transfusions in the past three weeks,.

"There have been a lot of little hard things," her mother said.

But Aslynn and her family have also looked on the brighter things and have kept a focus on staying positive.



"We laugh a lot and use humor a lot," her mother said. "We dance around when the nurses aren't in the hospital."

Aslynn said even having a port underneath her skin, where she gets her chemotherapy and blood transfusions, isn't as bad anymore.

"When I first had it, I kind of freaked out. But then they numbed it, and I thought it wouldn't work," Aslynn said. "Now, it doesn't bother me."

Both her teachers and fellow students at Bennett Elementary School have been supportive of her fight with cancer.

"She got a slew of cards that the kids hand-made in her class that her teachers brought up to the hospital," Chance Howell said. "Her homeroom teacher, second-period teacher and the counselor came to the hospital."

Some of the staff at Bennett, such as assistant principal Garry Gorman, has even offered support for when Aslynn's hair eventually grows back.

"Mr. Gorman said if I put a bow in my hair, he'll put a bow in his hair and wear it to school," Aslynn said.

Her mother said the staff at Children's Medical Center Dallas has also been a tremendous support for Aslynn.

"They've been very good," she said. "Her favorite nurse on the 10th floor is Nurse Brooke."

Aslynn said she is looking forward to being a little bit of a star in the parade on Saturday.

"I guess being on TV, that's going to be fun," she sai