Good evening. Here are some stories you may have missed today.
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Japanese star Shohei Ohtani spurns Rangers in favor of joining Angels
The bad news for the Rangers: They will not get Shohei Ohtani.
The worse news: They will be facing him regularly over the next six years.
Ohtani on Friday announced his decision to sign a contract with the Rangers' AL West rivals, the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels will pay a $20 million transfer fee to the Nippon Ham Fighters. Ohtani is expected to receive the major league minimum salary of $545,000 and signing bonus of up to $2.3 million.
The decision to sign with the Angels will pair Ohtani up with game’s best player, Mike Trout, for the foreseeable future. It also places him in the Los Angeles market, the second-largest market in the United States.
Cowboys: Jerry Jones shared his thoughts Friday on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's new contract extension.
Frisco's $2 billion Wade Park project facing legal woes for millions in unpaid bills
A big chunk of Frisco's famous $5 billion mile has hit a bump in the road.
It's been more than three years since ground was broken for the $2 billion Wade Park project on the Dallas North Tollway. Work recently stopped altogether, with two uncompleted retail buildings -- along with a huge hole in the ground -- being all there is to show for the ambitious deal.
The 175-acre complex at the southeast corner of the tollway and Lebanon Road is the largest of several big mixed-use developments in the works along that stretch. Wade Park has also been the slowest of these Frisco developments to get going.
Companies that have filed claims against the project say they are still seeking unpaid debts.
"We've done everything we could to help them get over the hump but haven't been able to resolve this," said Wade Andres with Andres Construction Co.
And: Medicaid paid $5.5 million to cover health care services for dead Texans.
Also: Plano-based Pizza Hut is testing beer and wine delivery, but not here yet.
Upcoming court ruling could derail — or at least delay — prosecution of Texas AG Ken Paxton
It's been 2 1/2 years since Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was indicted, and there's no end in sight for the case.
Since he was charged with securities fraud in July 2015, Collin County taxpayers have shelled out $604,343.27 in costs related to Paxton’s legal woes. Less than half that has gone to pay for the prosecution itself.
Nearly $350,000 has been spent to fund multiple investigations into Paxton’s past, defend the county against a handful of lawsuits filed by the attorney general’s political allies and challenge the prosecution's cost.
And: Federal authorities say two men spun tale of Illuminati to scam a rural cabinet maker out of $1 million.
Also: Cops' colleagues criticize "baseless charges" in death of man who called 911 for help.
Photo of the day
Santa, snow and ... the Alamo? Frigid temperatures behind a cold front combined with moisture off the Gulf of Mexico yielded a rare snowfall in many parts of south Texas late Thursday, and Eldon Hanson of San Antonio celebrated the rare white sight in the season's finest style. See more snowy scenes from news photographers and from South Texans' social media accounts.
Around the site
Traffic fatalities: An adult and two children died in a crash that shut down Highway 75 Friday afternoon in Plano.
Off-beat news: The Kaufman cop who assisted rather than arrest a hungry Wal-Mart shoplifter has been removed from duty.
Past transgressions: Dallas City Hall removed a Park Board member after old felony convictions surfaced.
Good fences ... A court has ordered a chain link barrier to solve a fight between a gun range and its neighbors.
Finally,
OK, so the Dallas Cowboys aren't having the best year. The Stars could be doing better. The Mavericks, uh... Let's not talk about the Mavericks.
So if you're looking for a new sport to turn your attention to, you should know that this season's professional Call of Duty competition is kicking off at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center this weekend, Dec. 8-10. (Last year, the "Dallas" World League stop actually happened in Fort Worth.)
Teams from around the world will be competing for a prize pool of $200,000. They'll be playing the latest game in the franchise, Call of Duty: WWII, which, as you might have guessed, takes series back to its original World War II setting.
And that prize pool? That's just for this Dallas event. The overall prize pool for the whole shebang is $4.2 million, culminating in a finals match that will take place in the summer of 2018.
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