🍦Sol Dias is No. 1 with H-E-B; Pinnacle buys Central Texas banks; Best & worst of Halloween candy.

Nebraska-based Pinnacle Bancorp, with a strong presence of Pinnacle Banks in the D-FW region, is becoming more Texan. It has signed an agreement to acquire Southern Bancshares, the parent company of SouthStar Bank of Moulton, TX. SouthStar Bank has an asset size of $1.35 billion with 16 full-service locations in Central Texas -- Austin, Bee Cave, Brazoria, Bremond, Calvert, Franklin, Georgetown, Gonzales, Harker Heights, Hearne, Kerrville, Leander, Moulton, Round Rock and Shiner. It also has a loan production office in Austin.

Sol Dias Ice Cream, which specializes in ice pops, artisan paletas and street market antojitos from locations in Haltom City, Watauga and Irving, won the $50,000 grand prize in H-E-B’s 13th annual Quest for Texas Best competition. Victor and Stacey Garcia started Sol Dias Ice Cream in 2020. In addition to the money, the company gets placement of its fruit paletas on H‑E‑B shelves. 

Eight electric vehicles at Frank Kent Cadillac sustained "extensive damage," and two others were exposed to flames after one EV caught on fire Friday evening. The Fort Worth fire department said it was the highest number of electric vehicles on fire at once that it has battled. Tech-Insider offers this deeper dive into early encounters with EV fires. 

Fort Worth-based Ranchbot Monitoring Solutions has partnered with Spectrum Technologies to integrate weather-station data into Ranchbot’s livestock and water-management platform. All data will be on a single dashboard. Ranchbot says its technology is used by more than 12,000 customers managing about 10 million cattle and 15 million sheep.

M&M's kept its status as the most popular Halloween candy in the United States, but Sour Patch Kids is making a push for the title. Each is the top choice in 10 states, but M&M's has maintained the lead in national volume since candystore.com’s 2024 survey. Skittles, Reese’s Cups, and newcomer NERDS Gummy Clusters round out the top 5. Circus Peanuts gave up the ghost as the worst Halloween goodie, and the much-maligned Candy Corn now wears that crown.

Model for all? Southlake approved a sweeping overhaul of the town's bicycle ordinance, adding 15 new violations tied to electric bikes and motorized scooters and placing much heavier legal responsibility on the parents of riders under 18. 

After nearly five years of questions and a lengthy court battle, NBC 5 finally obtained a controversial list of Grapevine-Colleyville ISD teachers. After a ruling by the Texas Attorney General's office, a new school board and administration agreed to release the list of what had been described as "poison" employees. Some on the list, which includes current employees, were quite surprised.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has set aside for fiscal year 2027 more than $7.5 million in grants to 15 community organizations across Texas to bolster suicide prevention efforts and support services for local veterans. Nationally, $112 million will be distributed across 191 organizations through the Staff Sgt. Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program. 

Texas Health Resources secured a $1.5-million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to implement the evidence-based Zero Suicide framework across its health system. The funds also allow the behavioral team to hire a dedicated program director.

North Texas contractor Jeremy Jerod Zeno was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing more than $300,000 from customers. Authorities say he continued his scheme using excuses, aliases, and ghosting clients while out on bond awaiting trial. Tarrant County prosecutors said the stolen funds have not been recovered.

Dallas-based Heritage Auctions will offer one of baseball’s most coveted collectibles, a rare 1909-11 Honus Wagner baseball card, during its Oct. 23-25 auction. Often called the “Holy Grail” of baseball cards, the T206 Wagner is prized for its scarcity. The card is expected to sell for more than $3 million.

The Panther awakening? The Fort Worth City Council meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday to vote on an agreement for a mixed-use development in the first phase of Panther Island. Also on the agenda: a $10-million interlocal agreement between Fort Worth, Keller, Northwest and HEB ISDs to run the school resource officer program.

The Mansfield City Council votes today on a resolution backing at-large elections for the Mansfield ISD board, after trustees voted 4-3 to explore single-member districts.

Houston-based real estate developer Hines has acquired the 1,476-acre Brown Ranch, spanning the Tarrant-Parker county line, for a massive master-planned community of 3,800 homes. The project, within Aledo ISD, will include about 70 acres of commercial development, 10 neighborhood parks, at least three amenity centers and an extensive trail system. Six homebuilders are involved in the project, and the purchase price was not disclosed.

President Trump awarded six prominent technology leaders the nation's highest science and technology honors during a summit celebrating American innovation. The National Medal of Science recipients were Elon Musk (Tesla and SpaceX), Sergey Brin (Google), Jensen Huang (Nvidia) and Lisa Su (AMD). Michael Dell (Dell Technologies) and Satya Nadella (Microsoft) received a National Medal of Technology and Innovation. 

Singer Leon Bridges is bringing his Happiness Anytime tour to his hometown Fort Worth April 23 at Dickies Arena. Tickets are available in a variety of ways starting this week.  

Mike Ditka, the first tight end inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame, has passed away at the age of 86. Ditka also won the Super Bowl as a player with the Dallas Cowboys and as the head coach of the legendary 1985 Chicago Bears, a team that may have had the best defense and characters in league history. 

Texas Wesleyan President Emily Messer released her fall state of the university message. It includes the largest first-year class in its history, new spaces, the application for NCAA Division II membership and innovative academic programs. See the video here.

Tarrant County College cut the ribbon on a $193-million re-imagining of its Southeast campus, unveiling 100,000 square feet of new space and 234,000 square feet of renovations as the campus celebrates 30 years of serving Arlington, Mansfield and southeast Tarrant County.

Defense industry digest:

• Fort Worth-based Twenty-Six Defense will debut Primex, its next-generation soldier perception system, at a U.S. Army annual meeting today through Wednesday in Washington. The lightweight, wearable system combines multi-spectral sensing, secure access and battlefield-data connectivity intended to improve soldiers’ situational awareness.

• Breaking Defense is reporting the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin are in discussions over a mega-deal for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that could span up to a decade and include production and maintenance for the stealth jet.

• Lockheed Martin debuted its interceptor's defensive capability against hypersonic and advanced missile threats in competition for future U.S. Army work. The new interceptor — PAC-3 Edge™ — leverages combat-proven technology and industry-leading capability to deliver decisive performance against the most critical threats. The Army has advanced Lockheed Martin to the next stage of development and it will begin testing PAC-3 Edge in 2027 to prepare for 2031 deployment.

Snippets:

• Justin Boots has manufactured the first of its Mavrik collection of work boots, designed to deliver durability, comfort and stability. 

• Tarrant County Commissioners Court will consider $3 million in contracts with nine Texas counties for juvenile detention and residential placement.

• Comfort Keepers of Fort Worth, a provider of in-home senior care in Tarrant County, is making its most updated dementia care guide free for area families.

• A Dallas ISD insider examines the good and the bad of state interventions. In the end, the students going through the bad-to-good period are hurt the most. 

Today in history: 1997 = Singer-songwriter John Denver dies at age 53 when his experimental aircraft crashes into California's Monterey Bay. Known for hits including “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “Rocky Mountain High”, Denver sold more than 32 million albums in the U.S.

Significant stat: 18% = Fort Worth's office vacancy rate at the end of September, down from 18.7% a year earlier and well below the D/FW market's 24.6%. According to JLL's third-quarter report, Class A vacancy stood at 12.5%, compared with 22.5% for Class B properties.

Daily digit: 15th = Texas’ rank for overall EV readiness (EV adoption, charger availability and charging power) per the 2026 HERE Technologies-SBD index. That's a jump from No. 25 in 2025. Texas has 43 public chargers per 1,000 miles of road, below the national average of 60. TxDOT plans 300 locations this year.

Announcements:

• Texas Capital: Adds CPA Jack Murphy as Vice President Middle Market Banking. 

• Texas Association of Manufacturers: Names Wroe Jackson President and CEO.

• D.R. Horton: Promotes Blake Arnold to Division Vice President.

• Kelly Hart: Adds Myles M. Chapman as associate in litigation practice area.

• Cook Children’s Health Care System: Names M. Scott Perry Interim Chief Research Officer. 

• Alcon: Names Vanessa Kelley Senior Manager, Legal Counsel for U.S. manufacturing operations.

• 1610 Services: Names Nicolas McDonald Chief Executive Manager. 

• Texas Health and Human Services: Hires Renata Liggins as Eligibility Advisor I. 

• Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau: Names Keri Parker Berry Director of Special Projects. 

• Specialty Healthcare Consortium: Hires Lyn Lewars as Chief Strategy Officer.

• Homage Hospice Plus: Hires Alyssa Buck as Director of Business Development.

• BNSF Railway: Promotes French Thompson III to Assistant Vice President Structures and Public Infrastructure & Investments, and Craig Rasmussen to Vice President Environmental and Engineering Services.

• Campus Compact: Selects University of Texas at Arlington junior Monet Chiessa as a 2026-27 Newman Civic Fellow.

• Omni Fort Worth Hotel: Expands leadership culinary team -- Cynthia Romstadt as Executive Chef, Corey BeCoats as Executive Sous Chef, Radames Garcia as Banquet Chef and Minh On as Chef de Cuisine. 

• American Airlines: Hires Arden Kenney as an Analyst in Finance and Katharina Gamboa as Corporate Communications Manager.

• Forvis Mazars: Promotes Andrew Brannon to Senior Audit Associate. 

• HDR: Names Clara Castaneda Real Estate Section Lead. 

• North Central Council of Governments: Promotes Ernest Huffman to Senior Project Manager. 

• Commerce Bank: Hires Octavio Pena as Team Lead in Fort Worth.

• NBT Financial Bank: Hires Salvador Ramirez as Vice President/Portfolio Manager in the Camp Bowie office.

• Dallas: Hires Jenny Kerzman as Assistant Director/Treasury. 

• Parker County: Names Bryan Grimes County Manager. 

817 Biz is formatted for viewing on mobile devices. Some links may expire after posting or be paywall-protected.