First Sergeant Jeffrey R. McKinney died in Adhamiyah, Iraq, on July 11, 2007. Officially, the Garland soldier’s cause of death was listed as “injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident.” But, as recounted in this July 2008 story from the Army Times, McKinney killed himself in front of his men…
On this Acid Flashback Friday, while Pete’s busy posting best-ofs and music-biz breakdowns over on DC9 at Night, let me extend to the Deadheads among the Friends this Chrismukkah offering. It’s a soundboard recording of the Grateful Dead performing in Oakland in February 1993, during which they were joined by…
If you had Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins in your office’s Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year pool, well, collect your winnings. (This no doubt displeases Dallas County Commissioner Ken Mayfield, who says in the piece that Watkins and his DNA exonerations are “costing the taxpayers $480,000 per…
Look, goddamn it, Wade Phillips will be back as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys next season. And Jason Garrett ain’t going nowhere, neither. And, look, don’t ask Jerry Jones any more questions about that, K? Because he don’t wanna hear that shit.”Look, can y’all not understand statements?” Jones…
Conroe native Matt Lepsis, pictured at right, retired from pro football on New Year’s Day 2008 after 11 seasons with the Denver Broncos. Noted The Denver Post of the 34-year-old’s decision to hang it up: “He felt his play was slipping.” Now we know why: The offensive lineman was playing…
Speaking, as we were below, of The Great Depression II: Electric Boogaloo, Forbes asked some of the wealthiest folks in the U.S. and A. to predict where the economy’s headed in the coming year. Among those to respond to the survey was Mark Cuban, who offers his prophecy in terms…
A friend went out this a.m. in search of post-Christmas deals and found few — and about as many shoppers too, much to her surprise (these folks’ too). Then again, buying new is so 2007; we’re the Garage Sale Nation now, sucking up the second-hand and the slightly worn for…
Two weeks after the city council expanded Dallas’s smoking ordinance, state lawmakers are, yet again, looking to make all of Texas’s indoor businesses smoke-free. At least, those are the smoke signals being sent by state Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston and state Rep. Myra Crownover of Denton, who yesterday told…
Lufkin High School’s Jamarkus McFarland, a highly coveted defensive tackle, committed to the University of Oklahoma yesterday; Merry Christmas, Sooner Nation. And it’s a double kick to the Longhorns’ pants: The University of Texas had hoped to land the 6-foot-3, 280-pounder, but instead a post-Texas-OU party in Dallas helped McFarland…
As if I needed to remind you, don’t eff with Santa. – Richie Whitt…
“The Quiet Man,” by Matt Pulle, December 11 Roll Them Bones Holy crap, Batman. The leaders at City Hall have done more damage to our fair city than what the Joker, Riddler and King Tut combined caused to Gotham City! Once again I pick up the Dallas Observer and find…
Condom sense: Ignore the two charts that appeared this week on the Metro page of The Dallas Morning News—one showing a sharply sloping line tracking a boom in the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Dallas County, another a graph tracking a decrease in new cases. The charts accompanied…
State Representative Allen Vaught, an Iraqi war veteran and one of the bright, young stars of the Texas Democratic Party, is a trial attorney. Over the final months of a hard-fought re-election, Vaught’s peers gave generously to his campaign. Baron and Budd, which mastered the lucrative art of asbestos litigation…
Standing in the world’s most famous sports tunnel last Saturday night, the symbolism smacked me like the arctic north wind howling up from Texas Stadium’s frigid field. In a chaotic clash of eras—smack dab in the middle of the Astroturf-lined walkway where championships were celebrated and legends were born—the present…
Is it a sign of the apocalypse? Something in the water? Or is it just the way the wind is blowing?Whatever the case, when our often-contentious quintet of film critics put their heads together about the best movies of 2008, they managed to agree (more or less) on a dozen…
Michael Jacobs, a filmmaker based in San Francisco, is the director of a movie called Audience of One. It’s a documentary about a Pentecostal minister who says he’s gotten the divine green light to make a mega-budget, religious, science-fiction epic. If you attended one of 20-odd regional film festivals in…
As far as Jeffrey Katzenberg is concerned, up to now there have been but two “revolutions” in the movie business: the mass introduction of sound with 1927’s The Jazz Singer (itself, a process 30 years in the making) and, a year later, the debut of The Viking, the first feature…
Dr. Jane Sadler at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas grabbed Santy’s jingle bells last week and told him to cough in advance of the big man’s big night. Associated Press photographer Scott Hensley captured the Kodak moment that screams so eloquently and accidentally Christmas 2008. We’ll return on Friday…
While speaking with one of Mayor Tom Leppert’s consultants last month, I asked if Leppert was considering running for U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s seat. At that point, I heard he was contemplating the political leap from a few sources, but the response was something along the lines of: “Right…
Dallas’s real estate market in 2008 in a nutshell: OK, then not. Which is more or less the analysis offered by GlobeSt.com today as it sizes up the year that was and sneaks a peek at the year that will be or won’t, depending on folks’ fortunes. Among the prophets…
From KSL-TV, the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City, comes this piece about former Utah state trooper Brian Smith, accused of the Monday-night shootings on LBJ Freeway that left two dead. So happens Smith had given the station’s crew a highway tour in his cruiser in March 2007, 14 months…
Not going to lie, not on Christmas Eve: This isn’t exactly the most riveting video ever made, even if does feature Mayor Tom Leppert. Still, for those tracking the progress of the Dallas Performing Arts Center — specifically, in this case, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre — it’s an…
