More property tax relief; Oil patch news: Sheffield and Range Resources; Ouch: BNSF not so fine.

During its quarterly earnings call, Fort Worth-based Range Resources said it has put its Barnett Shale properties in Texas up for sale and announced it plans to focus on its "liquids-rich plays" in the Marcellus Shale in eastern North America. 

Scott Sheffield, former head of Pioneer Natural Resources, hired Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck to lobby on “issues related to the FTC,” according to a recently filed document. The FTC blocked Sheffield from the Exxon board when it bought Pioneer, claiming he had colluded with OPEC.

Led by Chris Nettles and Jared Williams, several council members are proposing the fiscal year 2025 Fort Worth budget includes a pay increase to $20 for the city's minimum wage workers. The rate sits at $15.45 an hour. City staff has suggested 4% to $16.07. The extra cost to pay $20 is approximately $117 million annually for 773 employees.

Cedar Fair and Six Flags Entertainment announced that their merger close date is July 1, 2024. The corporate name will be Six Flags Entertainment Corporation and the ticker symbol will be FUN. Six Flags announced a pre-merger special dividend of $1.53 a share to shareholders as of June 24 and payable if the merger is completed.  

BNSF Railway must pay nearly $400 million to a Native American tribe in Washington state, a federal judge ruled after finding the company intentionally trespassed when it repeatedly ran 100-car trains carrying crude oil across the tribe’s reservation.

Despite a bumpy 2023, Cruise LLC isn’t nearing the end of the road. General Motors, its parent company, said it would invest an additional $850 million into the autonomous vehicle developer.

Tarrant County Commissioners voted unanimously for property tax relief for homeowners, but questions remain about how the county’s publicly funded hospital, John Peter Smith, might be affected. Commissioners voted for increases for homestead exemptions from 10% to 20% on the county’s general property tax fund and the property taxes that fund JPS.

Fort Worth-based Sinclair Digital, a provider of advanced network solutions for hotels and commercial properties announced a strategic partnership with Environments. The collaboration will integrate Environments' Elevated building systems AI and IoT platform into Sinclair Digital's AGILE-CORE, a platform designed for safe power distribution, automation, control and management.

Heaven, Say Hey!: One of baseball’s greatest, Willie Mays, passes away at 93. 

Fort Worth-based PHP Capital Partners acquired Irving’s Freeport 7 at 9150 N. Royal Lane, a single-tenant, light industrial property near D-FW International Airport. The 56,076-square-foot property is 100% leased to Inspire Event Solutions. 

Legendary Laser, an aesthetic laser treatment business using the Astanza Duality Signature, has opened in Fort Worth at 2100 N. Main St., Suite 50. It offers a variety of services, including laser tattoo and permanent makeup removal. 

Fort Worth approved $36,600 in grants for the city's Fresh Access Program to ensure kids in summer camp get to crunch on healthy snacks. The Fresh Access Program, a Texas Health Resources-led partnership, benefitted more than 42,000 people and distributed 238,000 pounds of produce in the past year.

Housing report highlights for May 2024:

• Inventory in Fort Worth and Tarrant County climbed above the 3 month mark for the first time in more than 10 years.

• Active listings in Fort Worth were up more than 50 percent year over year.

ProLogis announced its first Texas battery storage project in Texas will be at 3601 Allen Ave. in Arlington. The 10-megawatt storage facility is a milestone in the private sector’s contribution to reducing strain on Texas’ power grid. Prologis has similar projects coming soon for Grand Prairie and Houston, with a total of 10 sites during the next year.

IQVentures Holdings LLC reached a $504-million deal to acquire Aaron's Company, a lease-to-own home goods retailer with four Tarrant locations. 

A $500,000 grant has been awarded to Texas Wesleyan University’s Graduate Programs of Nurse Anesthesia (GPNA). The two-year grant helps fund a specialized track in trauma care in nurse anesthesia — one of the first in the country. Trauma injuries are the leading cause of premature death for people older than 45.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office has notified more than 100 data broker companies of their failure to register as data collectors with the Secretary of State as required by Texas’s enacted Data Broker Law (March 2024).

Aww, what's another $400 billion? That is the increase the Congressional Budget Office added to the last federal budget deficit projection released in February.

 Snippets:

• Hedge funds are finding friends and getting SEC changes from this downtown Fort Worth address.

• Boeing’s long-delayed Air Force One replacement is facing new headwinds as the first flight has been pushed back 16 months to March 2026.

• Amid concerns about order accuracy when using AI, McDonald's is ending its AI experiment with IBM at restaurant drive-thrus. 

• The IRS has plans to end a partnership loophole and says it could be a $50-billion gain in 10 years for Treasury.  

• The U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, said he would push for a warning label on social media platforms advising parents that they could harm teenagers’ mental health.

Announcements:

• Trademark Property Co.: Names Jamie Cox SVP of Property Operations.

• Tarleton State University: Names Dr. J. Michael Leger Dean of the School of Nursing.

• O’Brien Right of Way Valuation: Hires Will Snider as Senior Director.

• Bank of Texas: Hires Michael Slesinger as SVP, Relationship Manager for Corporate Banking. 

• Dynamic Development Strategies: Hires Merritt Bush. 

• Schooler Truck & Auto: Matt Blake is the new owner.

• Takeda Pharmaceuticals: Hires Naga Navya Chadalavada as Quality Validation Associate.

• Tylock-George Eye Care and Laser Center: Michael George, the owner and chief surgeon, has passed away.

• Bell Flight: Hires Hannah McWhorter as Supply Chain Contracts Associate.

• DFWChild: Hires Jennifer Casseday as Contributing Writer.