Calling Mr. Grant Forget the millennial fervor. Forget that the Super Bowl is just weeks away. For Buzz, the best part of the new year is that January 1 is the scheduled start-up date for TXCN, A.H. Belo Corp.’s all-news, all-Texas cable channel. We’re not so dweebish as to become…

Fire two Last week, Buzz saluted city council member Don Hicks for nominating former Councilman Chris Luna to the new city task force on ethics. (That would be the Chris Luna whose character is so flawed that it even offended his former fellow council members–not an easy thing to do.)…

Every man for himself Lame duck Attorney General Dan Morales has often stood alone. As a conservative Democratic legislator, he crossed ways with the Democratic leadership in Austin. As attorney general, he went against the wishes of many Hispanic activists by not challenging a court decision that overturned the UT…

Father of the year Upon returning to the team he abandoned for money at the end of the 1996 season, once-and-future Dallas Cowboys cornerback Larry Brown told local scribes that God brought him and his loving family back to Texas Stadium. Brown was contemplating retirement and seeking a little guidance…

Go ahead, make grandpa’s day Someone once said that the only things invariably fatal to a political career are being found in bed with a dead woman or a with live boy. We’d like to add a third to that list: getting crosswise with old people. You would think that…

If at first you don’t succeed… So Jesse Diaz is all set to attempt yet another ascent up the greasy pole and run for the Dallas school board seat so quickly vacated by Don “See ya later” Venable. That leads to the obvious question–no offense to Diaz–Is this the best…

The Thrilla on Marilla, Part 2 Buzz is not a regular at Dallas City Council meetings, but after sitting in on last week’s session, that may change. This isn’t because of any newfound fascination with City Hall, we’re ashamed to say. It’s because we’re swine, and we would hate to…

We hardly knew ye The Irrelevant Party, formerly known as the Texas Democratic Party, held a series of wakes around Austin on election night. The Republicans, on the other hand, gathered all their statewide candidates together for a single huge election-night celebration at the Austin Convention Center. (Buzz will refrain…

I shall whine no more forever Noisy activist-type guy Lee Alcorn gets to stay in the race for president of the NAACP’s Dallas chapter–for now, anyway. But the stage is set for a potentially nasty dispute if he manages to win the November 21 election. The national NAACP has been…

That’s entertainment Forget the cheesy haunted houses, skip the costume parties. If you’re looking for some real Halloween fun, wash your face, comb your hair, and head to church this weekend in Irving and Fort Worth. Bob Larson, described in his press release as a “lecturer, author, and radio and…

See no evil, etc. Regular readers of Buzz–both of you–may have noticed that former Dallas Observer columnist and current city council member Laura Miller appears fairly frequently in this space. This is not a conspiracy. We swear it. It’s just that, with the exception of Miller and Mayor Ron Kirk,…

Smells like Victory What do Albert Einstein, Jesse Owens, and the freedom fighters of Tiananmen Square have in common? Beats us. Maybe they all liked to shop at the Gap, which, Buzz suspects, one day will be one of the many stores at Hillwood Development Corp.’s arena-retail-office-entertainment complex. Al, Jesse,…

Old times best forgotten First, City Councilwoman Laura Miller made people cry when she suggested the city might have something better to spend $50,000 on than a Veterans Day parade. Now the city is the target of righteous anger by Confederate history buffs. It’s becoming clear why the city hasn’t…

As dramas go, last week’s City Plan Commission meeting wasn’t exactly a barn burner, but it was about as close to excitement as a meeting on street widths and railroads is likely to get. Greed. Conspiracy. Suspicion. Think The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, as performed by a troupe of…

Slow to anger Finally, someone in the judicial system is a little steamed about Vance Miller, the rich-as-God’s-bookie real estate heir who has spent the last decade saying he’s broke so he can avoid paying some big bills. U.S. District Judge Joe Fish ordered Miller to appear at a September…

No strings attached? Buzz likes trees. Buzz likes plants. Some of our most memorable moments–well, not memorable, but enjoyable, anyway–come from plants. So we’re as happy as anyone to hear that the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens has completed plans for a $16 million expansion, funded largely with private donations…

Coarse description We generally hesitate to point out weaknesses in others’ grammar and spelling, because we’ve received our share of snippy letters from retired seventh-grade English teachers raising doubts about our parentage over some improper use of subjunctive mood, but this course description from Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of…

Man bites bulldog When Buzz thinks of victims, our thoughts generally don’t go anywhere near Jim Mattox. But the former attorney general, who wants the job again, is fretting over the possibility of being a victim of negative campaigning. This is the same Jim Mattox who spread rumors during the…

Sacred cows? What sacred cows? Ah, the things Buzz does on your behalf, readers, such as reading a 14,000-word love letter to the Belo Corp. to be published in an upcoming edition of the American Journalism Review–and before lunch, to boot. Buzz received an advance copy of the article, one…

Serendipitous politics Buzz believes that it’s better to be lucky than smart, but being a little of both is best of all. So we envy Karl Rove, the chief political consultant to Gov. George W. Bush. “People are calling me up and asking if I’m a genius,” says Rove, who,…

Details, details We have long held off taking swipes at the Log Cabin Republicans for two reasons–pity, and the fact that the premise of the gay GOP group is itself so absurd that it defies what passes for commentary to Buzz. Gay Republicans? What’s next, an all-hetero Judy Garland fan…

Animal act Who says U.S. District Judge John McBryde, often described as churlish, doesn’t have a sense of humor? Buzz figures the Fort Worth judge must have some notion of the comic, otherwise he would have hurled his gavel at the lawyers representing two petitioners in his court recently–Barney the…