Who says Mayor Laura Miller is divisive? Under her watch–and thanks partly to her support of the strong-mayor initiative–North Dallas business people and the pro-business Citizens Council have aligned themselves with their historical opponents, Southern Dallas minority politicos and grassroots neighborhood types such as Sharon Boyd and Avi Adelman. Someone…

Here’s further proof that having professional sports franchises in your town is worth a hell of a lot of money. In its recently released budget for fiscal year 2005, the Department of Homeland Security decided to award $5 million of the $3.6 billion it set aside for its Urban Area…

Ted’s gone, splitting City Hall and heading off to train young minds in government at the University of Texas at Dallas. Mike’s gone, too, leaving DISD and serving on the board of Trammell Crow Co. A-Rod’s a Yankee now. And poor Jabari is really gone, up to that happy banana…

To all the fans, friends and family of “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott who wrote and called in to complain about our image of the slain rocker on the cover of last week’s issue, please know this: We did not, whatever you may think, shoot a photo of him lying in his…

Buzz could use some extra holiday cash, so we thought we’d try our hand at a little political consulting and share this brilliant idea we had for Mayor Laura Miller. (She pays a political consultant for his help. We figure she could slip a few bucks, a fruitcake or something…

It pains Buzz to say it, but God love those little imps with the Young Conservatives of Texas, affectionately known around the Dallas Observer offices as the “Hitler Youth.” We don’t really believe they’re fascists; we just think “young” and “conservative” is an unfortunate mix, like “middle-aged” and “punk rocker.”…

Dallas County Sheriff-elect Lupe Valdez is a lesbian. You probably knew that already, if you’ve picked up a local newspaper or watched TV news in the past month. Shoot, people in South Africa, London, Boston, New York and Melbourne, Australia, have heard that news, according to a check we did…

How did that song about the “Merry Old Land of Oz” go again? “We get up at 12 and start to work at one/Take an hour for lunch, and then at two we’re done/Jolly good fun.” Well, that pretty much describes Buzz’s workday, so maybe Mayor Laura Miller is right…

In a rare fit of civic-mindedness, Buzz voted this election, for the first time in eight years, but only because everyone else seemed to be doing it. Yet we craved more motivation than what was provided by the stiffs at the top of the tickets. If only we lived in…

Herschel Wilonsky, owner of S&W Auto Parts on Second Avenue near Fair Park, is familiar with the trash problems that plague the troubled neighborhood. Usually it’s the two-legged kind: drug addicts and hookers who roam nearby or do business on a lot he owns behind his shop. Last week, he…

Remember A.M. Journal Express? No? Oh, c’mon, you remember. The free daily news-in-brief “commuter” newspaper launched in Dallas last November? It was available on street corners for about four months before folding. You must have seen it. Maybe you didn’t. Now you might get a second chance. Bill Hawkins, chief…

It’s a harsh job, this news business, exposing the shameful secrets of officeholders. We sometimes shudder at the truths we reveal, like this one: Congressman Martin Frost is–brace yourselves–a Democrat! OK, so maybe that’s not a big secret, but judging by the forest of campaign yard signs that have sprouted…

For the second time this month, the Texas Supreme Court, that oh-so-wise crew of legal geniuses, has handed the Dallas Observer a victory in a libel case. Hey, it’s good to know that some government agencies work, and we mean that sincerely, without bias. On September 10, the Supreme Court…

On Friday, a unanimous Texas Supreme Court, with one justice abstaining, sided with the Dallas Observer and ruled 8-0 that Denton County District Attorney Bruce Isaacks and County Court at Law Judge Darlene Whitten are “big doodyheads who need to grow up, get a sense of humor and act like…

Grow your hair for peace, John Lennon once suggested. That, um, didn’t work out so well. Maybe cutting your hair for Democrats is a better idea. Maybe. Jonathan Van Voorhees, a former Dallas City Council candidate and hairstylist in the heart of Republican Richardson, is offering a free cut and…

Buzz still has some loose ends to tie up in the ongoing Dallas Morning News circulation scandal: Something you didn’t read in the DMN’s story about advertiser reparations (they’re gonna take a $26 million hit because of rebates and credits to advertisers over inflated circulation numbers) is that the Audit…

Conservative local political blogger Sharon Boyd (www.dallasarena.com) sometimes reminds Buzz of the Terminator. No matter how hard you knock her down, up, up she comes again, ready for another pointless sequel. Sometimes we wonder why she bothers, particularly now. Boyd recently filed a lawsuit against DISD trustee Jose Joe May,…

It’s been a while since Buzz checked in with Belo. Maybe that’s because the new, well-received managing editor at the The Dallas Morning News, George Rodrigue, has so far impressed newsroom naysayers. (Note to them: You know Buzz appears every week, don’t you?) Finally, though, word comes of recent unrest…

Over the weekend, the news flashed all over the world. The Guardian in London, the Star Phoenix in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CNN and The Washington Post all ran stories saying that charges against Joanne Webb, infamous dildo saleswoman of Burleson, have been dropped by the Johnson County Attorney Bill Moore. In…

You think you have problems in your neighborhood? Crack houses? Rat-infested vacant lots? Listen, wuss, you don’t know how mean the mean streets of the city can get, and if you don’t want to find out, then don’t ever, ever touch one bloom on a crape myrtle. Someone should have…

Listen up, conservative people, could you please give the ol’ Buzzer a break and stop being so damned nice and reasonable when we call you? It would make our job–i.e., flinging stones at you–much easier if you would give us a little more rabidity and a little less rationality. What…

We all know that it’s illogical to compare apples and oranges. Anyone who would attempt to draw a comparison between two such dissimilar things is a fool. But that’s never stopped Buzz before, so here goes. See, we were talking on the phone Monday with Mario Hernandez, president of the…