Lew Blackburn, at right, doesn’t seem to quite know the meaning of the word “impressive.” If you want to know why the Dallas Independent School District seems to have a spending scandal more often than the Dallas Mavericks lose a game, well, maybe part of the answer lies with trustees…
A place for birds to live, as long as they don’t breath the polluted air. A year ago this month, before the brouhaha surrounding TXU’s coal-fired power plans peaked last month in a buyout of the company, the utility made more environmentally friendly headlines. In one of the stories, an…
A woman should ask a man’s advice about clothes? In what universe? What an easy, breezy digital society we live in. E-mails and e-cards are composed without a second thought, off to their destination before we can say “bare minimum effort required.” Nobody sends real, live letters anymore — nobody…
So, Sunday, my partner in dining and I were about to tuck into some deliciously bad for us brunch at our neighborhood’s pride, the Gold Rush Cafe. As is the case for most meals at the Gold Rush, we ran into five people we knew, including our own Jim Schutze…
Jamie Beck, first assistant to Denton County District Attorney Paul Johnson, sheds some light on the “hate crime” trial that took place last week in Denton. On Friday, a jury acquitted George Clifton Young of assault under the Texas hate crime statute. “We believed it was a hate crime,” says…
So after six months in Texas, last week I officially had my strangest experience yet. Dallas Observer business took me to the Panhandle, where I got to stay in the lovely little highway town of Dumas. Like nearby Sunray, home to the world’s largest grain elevator (holds 7 million bushels,…
Is that a light saber in your pocket, or is this your wedding night? Busy this Saturday? I know it’s St. Patrick’s Day and all, but who really wants to go run around on Lower Greenville, downing pints in broad daylight with a bunch of other drunks wearing green? You…
The perfect man. OK, Miss Lonelyhearts, this one’s for you. Men’s Health magazine did all the work for you in your quest to find Mr. Right by analyzing the single-women to single-men ratio of 101 cities across the nation, and your man is out there somewhere. Criteria also included divorce…
On Monday, a case goes to trial in Denton County that might answer a question brought up last year: Can a crime against a homosexual be successfully prosecuted there? The case involves Christopher McKee, a mental health caseworker who, on December 3, 2005, was badly beaten outside a Denton club…
Have you heard? Tom Leppert is a businessman. There is the glamourous and consequential side of journalism: Covering a presidential race, writing about a war, detailing the side effects of a new cancer drug, profiling Maggie Gyllenhaal. And there is this: Attending a debate for Dallas mayor at 7:30 in…
Sandra just doesn’t get Bible Girl. We know the feeling. Seems as if our very own Bible Girl is becoming a celeb’s celeb. Well, maybe that’s overstating it, but she’s on at least one celeb’s radar: None other than queer icon Sandra Bernhard brought Bible Girl up during my recent…
Folk singer/songwriter Tom Brosseau grew up in Grand Forks, North Dakota, a city devastated by the massive Red River (not ours, theirs) flood of 1997. Though it’s taken him a solid decade, Brosseau’s newest album — simply titled Grand Forks — gives a voice to the once struggling residents of…
Kudos: We don’t usually envy daily newspaper folk. Dailies are too bureaucratic, too lacking in the smart-alecky-ness that we love. Here in alterna-world, when big papers suffer through staff cuts, as The Dallas Morning News did with a round of buyouts last year, we eat up the schadenfreude like it’s…
This week’s cover story in the paper edition of Unfair Park — on newsstands beginning tomorrow — deals in part with a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was demoted, passed over for promotions and eventually forced into retirement because he blew the whistle on two different cases of alleged…
Into the breach: Once again, the Texas Legislature will consider baby steps that would make it somewhat easier for sick people to use marijuana to treat their ailments. We say “somewhat easier” because this session’s HB 1534 would not legalize medical marijuana. It would simply allow anyone busted for possession…
Every year, I threaten to attend the All Texas All Garden Show with Neil Sperry to learn once and for all if it is really possible to grow a tasty Texas homegrown tomato. Then I look at my shameful yard and realize that the last thing I need is more…
Well, it looks like Mayor Laura Miller’s schedule has cleared up for tomorrow. She was supposed to land in Austin at 7:20 a.m. Wednesday for the first day of hearings before the State Office of Administrative Hearings concerning TXU’s attempt to get permits for 11 coal-fired plants throughout the state…
Mark Graham District Attorney Craig Watkins denies his office cut some slack to a Dallas police officer who lied to a DeSoto cop. Did Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’ office cut a break for one of his friends? That’s what one of his own prosecutors suggested in a secretly…
More than 10,000 cold-blooded creatures are heading to North Texas this weekend, which is surprising. I didn’t know the GOP National Convention was coming to Texas, and I thought it wasn’t scheduled to place take until next year. (Thank you. Remember to tip your waiter.) Seriously now…the first North American…
It’s everyone’s dream to be an illegal immigrant, right? Walking for days through the desert with little food or water, watching painful blisters pop up on your heels and burning or freezing your feet since no one told you to wear decent shoes. And the most fun of all –…
Wade Phillips, aka Parcells Light. Right, Richie Whitt? As both of my loyal readers know, I led the campaign to run Bill Parcells’ old, tired ass out of town. So it is with great, um, pleasure(?) that today I join Dallas Cowboys’ fans in welcoming the new head coach: the…
Take this job…: Buzz and, as far as we know, Mrs. Buzz, are not running for mayor. That makes two of us. As of Monday, the city secretary’s office listed 20 people who have filed to run. There’s the usual slate of generic white male biz types. We forget their…
