Names and faces
■ President Joe Biden has at least one thing in common with thousands of parents and grandparents this winter: He’s picked up a cold from his young grandson. The 78-year-old president has had an unusually low, scratchy voice and an occasional cough all week, prompting questions from the media about his health Friday. The president assured reporters that he’s tested frequently for covid-19 and is negative, and that he has been dealing with a scratchy throat for a much less concerning reason. “What I have is a 1½-year-old grandson who had a cold who likes to kiss his pop,” he said. “It’s just a cold.” Biden spent the Thanksgiving weekend with his family in Nantucket, and on Monday, his youngest grandson, Beau — named after Biden’s deceased son — was at the White House to help his grandmother welcome the White House Christmas tree. Jill Biden picked a sprig off the tree and gave it to her grandson, along with a kiss. Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who has been Biden’s primary care physician since 2009, released a note Friday affirming that Biden is “experiencing some increased nasal congestion this week.” “This can be heard in his voice and he is feeling the colloquially wellknown ‘frog in one’s throat,” O’Connor wrote. He wrote that Biden has been tested for 19 “common respiratory pathogens,” including the flu, covid-19 and the strep virus, and all came back negative. The president is taking common over-the-counter medications to treat his symptoms.
■ Mark Cuban owns the Dallas Mavericks, a successful entertainment firm and a string of start-up companies — including a new drug company he hopes will lower prescription costs. And now the Dallas billionaire also owns an entire Texas town. Cuban just purchased the Navarro County town of Mustang, off Interstate 45 near Corsicana. All 77 acres of the tiny roadside hamlet sold last month to a company controlled by Cuban, county deed records show. In an email, Cuban said he bought the town because a good friend needed to sell. “I don’t know what if anything I will do with it,” he added. Located about 55 miles south of Dallas, Mustang was for years home to only a strip club and a trailer park. A killing in the nightclub back in 2008 made headlines around the state. More recently it’s just been a blink-and-you-miss-it spot along the interstate that the latest census shows a population of 23 people. In 2017, the town was offered for sale with a price tag of $4 million. But the property never sold. “I had a fair amount of interest in it, but it was priced too high — even when we bought it down to $2 million,” said Dallas real estate broker Mike Turner. “The old strip club is not in good repair, but it could be redone for something.” And, he noted, “There is a resident alligator in one of the ponds.”