SMU sends dinos to Smithsonian, elections' impact on Texas school finance: Your Wednesday evening roundup

November 14,  2018 By Wayne Carter Good evening! Here is a look at the top headlines of the day. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [here](. A photo of a great white shark serves as a backdrop for a recreated Prognathodon kianda skull in an exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington. The exhibit features Angolan mosasaurs unearthed by SMU paleontologists Louis Jacobs and Michael Polcyn and their team over the past decade. (Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer) ancient history How an SMU dinosaur hunter's 72-million-year-old sea monster got to the Smithsonian Three weeks before his team's fossil finds go on display at one of the world's most famous natural history museums, Louis Jacobs stands in a basement lab at Southern Methodist University sanding the lower jaw of a 72-million-year-old sea monster. His colleague Michael Polcyn sits nearby, dabbing sealant on a model of the animal's upper jaw and skull. White dust hovers in the air. Plaster tail bones, skulls and teeth top every counter. This is the sort of work — preparing models and fossils — that Jacobs had done early in his career, before he became a professor, before he hunted for fossils in Alaska, Antarctica, Malawi, Cameroon and Texas; before he dug up the bones of dinosaurs on display at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science; before he wrote three books and dozens of peer-reviewed papers. Jacobs and Polcyn, along with a small coterie of staff, students and volunteers have been working tirelessly for months [getting ready for the biggest show of their careers.Â]( Fossil creek: A routine inspection [led to an Ice Age find]( at DFW International Airport. advertisement [ texas What do elections mean for the future of school finance in Texas? Tired of waiting for a state fix, this month voters approved the Dallas, Richardson and Frisco districts' pleas to funnel millions more a year for schools locally. But now school leaders are worried about what's next. They're out of financial maneuvers after successful elections put them at the maximum property tax rate for operations. The increase will only sustain them for so long as costs continue to rise and the state's share shrinks. So they're counting on lawmakers to do something about it. And the shift in the Legislature after last week's elections [could significantly impact the direction of school finance]( as Democrats flipped key seats once held by Republicans. Also: A National Guardsman deployed to the border [tried to rape colleague at a West Texas motel](, police say. Sports Film room: Why Cowboys' Leighton Vander Esch is the NFL's best rookie LB — and one of the best, period Contributor John Ownings analyzes the Cowboys' first-round pick's play so far: Indianapolis Colts rookie linebacker Darius Leonard has had a terrific start to his career. Chicago Bears rookie linebacker Roquan Smith has a great career ahead of him. San Francisco 49ers rookie linebacker Fred Warner has played phenomenally at times this season. However, the Cowboys' Leighton Vander Esch [has been the best rookie linebacker in football through 10 weeks](, and if the 2018 NFL draft happened today, he would be the first linebacker off the board. Even though he was selected in the first round, no one thought Vander Esch's transition from Boise State to the NFL would be this easy, especially considering he missed large portions of offseason activities and training camp because of injuries. Week 12 college football picks: [Who wins the crucial Texas-Iowa State Big 12 battle?]( Balls and strikes: Rangers GM Jon Daniels has made 12 trades with Theo Epstein. [How many has he actually won?]( advertisement [ (Jason Janik/Special Contributor) Photo of the Day The Dalton Domino Band performs at Blue Light Live in Dallas. It takes a long time for a music club to display any sort of grit or soul, but the bones are in place for the Blue Light Dallas — an offshoot of the revered Blue Light live in Lubbock —  [to do that sooner rather than later](, writes music critic Kelly Dearmore. EDITORS' PICKS - Tricky commute: Icy roads [led to multiple wrecks early Wednesday]( along I-20 in southern Dallas County. - Burst pipe: A ruptured waterline [triggered a boil notice and forced Kaufman ISD to cancel classes]( Wednesday and Thursday. - Cold comfort: As temperatures dip, [business spikes for HVAC crews]( in Dallas-Fort Worth. - Commentary: A distorted brand of evangelical Christianity created our political crisis, [and it's time for revival](, writes Don Golden. - Books: Love him? Loathe him? ["Reagan" gets at all sides of the president.]( Finally... Dallas promised to build Amazon University to train tech talent for HQ2. We lost and should build it anyway. From The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board: Now that Amazon waved bye-bye to Dallas and went to build their clubhouses with the more popular kids in northern Virginia and in Queens, N.Y., a short break for some wound-licking and rumination was necessary. Now it’s time to move on. And it’s time for the people of Dallas at all levels to start looking at the landscape of tech like a battlefield. Ten years down the road when a large tech firm or e-commerce powerhouse is looking to set down roots a new city, [Dallas should do the work necessary to make sure it sits atop the list right from the start.]( 👋 That's all for this evening! For up-to-the-minute news and analysis, check out [DallasNews.com](. Share the love! If you like this newsletter, please [check out our other newsletters here](. Do you have feedback? Send your thoughts, questions, praise and corrections to [newsletter-feedback@dallasnews.com](mailto:newsletter-feedback@dallasnews.com?subject=Evening%20Roundup%20Feedback).[Dennis Jansen](mailto:djansen@dallasnews.com?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) STAY CONNECTED WITH US  [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( [Reddit](  [OTHER NEWSLETTERS]( [SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS]( [Unsubscribe](  |  [Manage Preferences](  |  [Privacy Policy](  |  [Contact](  |  [Advertise]( You received this message because you signed up for this Dallas Morning News newsletter or it was forwarded to you. Copyright 2018 - [The Dallas Morning News]( | [1954 Commerce St., Dallas, TX 75201](#)