In case you missed the September 2012 issue of Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, here’s a heads up: phenazepam, a powerful anti-anxiety drug sometimes sold as “Zannie” or “bonsai,” is hitting the U.S. streets. It’s not exactly a new product — it was developed in the 1970s by Soviet scientists to…
It’s not impossible to see how voters, first in West Texas (1962), then in southern New Mexico (1968), might have decided to send Ed Foreman to Congress. He has a hypnotic stage presence and exudes a folksy charisma, complete with an endless supply of homespun anecdotes. Also pretty easy to…
Two years ago, no one had a clue what Erika Perdue had on her computer. Not her intellectual-property lawyer husband. Not her University Park neighbors. Her neon green Camaro with the “My Syn” license plates certainly raised some eyebrows, but no one suspected she was into child porn. Then, in…
In further proof that Mike Rawlings’ tendency to craft major policy initiatives in secret is ruffling feathers at City Hall, some (or at least one) City Council member is pushing back against the mayor’s newly hatched plan to curb Dallas’ meat consumption. The blowback comes on the heels of Rawlings’…
Let’s be honest: Apart from some obligatory references to the Emerald Isle’s patron saint and the enthusiastic embrace of Ireland’s most famous pastime (binge drinking), there’s nothing terribly Irish about Dallas’ St. Patrick’s Day celebration. For revelers, it’s about getting hammered; for the Greenville Avenue bars and restaurants that sponsor…
A significant chunk of America’s uninsured population lives in Texas, and a lot of those people live in the Dallas area. That’s partly because Texas refused to expand Medicaid, which has left a million-plus people too rich to qualify for government insurance but too poor to get subsidies to buy…
Dallas’ St. Patrick’s Day parade and party on Greenville Avenue this weekend was, for all the drinking and debauchery, generally peaceful. According to the final tally Dallas PD sent out on Saturday evening, police arrested seven people for public intoxication and one for DWI, handed out 125 parking tickets, and…
Last year, Governor Rick Perry called the Texas Legislature to Austin for two special sessions, both focused on passing one of the country’s most restrictive abortion laws. The new law, HB 2, put Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis on the map after an 11-hour filibuster. It also began to unravel…
Going into Sunday, most experts considered SMU a lock to make its first NCAA tournament in 20 years, even after losing to a mediocre University of Houston team in the opening round American Athletic Conference tourney. They beat four Top 25 teams, including a season sweep of UConn. They went…
It turns out that Arlington, of all places, is home to a sustainable garden/hippie residence called the Garden of Eden. Naturally, Arlington does not approve. Suspecting that the hippies were growing weed, officials first sent a manned aircraft over the Garden of Eden last year. Undercover officers paid a visit…
At the time, we never did get an official explanation for why DFW NORML was barred from participating in last year’s Dallas St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival. Presumably, it was like the marijuana group said at the time: Organizers simply didn’t think weed meshed with the event’s new “family-friendly”…
Non-journalists don’t understand how hard it is to be a newspaper columnist. It takes years, sometimes decades, of ink-stained toil in drab newsrooms. One by one, the hacks fall by the wayside. Only a select few have the talent and perseverance to be admitted to the pantheon and allowed the…
In case you haven’t been following one of the stupider developments of the primary election cycle — and there have been plenty to choose from — Buc-ee’s is officially an issue in the race to become Texas’ next lieutenant governor. To recap: Buc-ee’s is a chain of enormous roadside convenience…
Members of the Tri Delta sorority never technically own the diamond-studded star-and-crescent pins they are given upon initiation. They are merely caretakers, required to return the badges to the national organization upon their death, unless the executive board grants a special exception. That explains how Delta Delta Delta’s Arlington headquarters…
Attention Rockwall: We are receiving reports that Bigfoot is inside of you. According to the horrendous photoshop job photographic evidence above, he is currently perusing your quaint downtown. DO NOT BE ALARMED. Renowned Sasquatch chaser and Searching for Bigfoot, Inc. founder Tom Biscardi is en route from California and is…
Here’s an idea. What if, instead of maxing out its credit card on a road-building spree, Texas took care of the roads it already has? Crazy talk, right? If the past decade has proved anything, it’s that the state’s fiscal conservatism ends as soon as the asphalt begins. So who,…
When Allen ISD announced two weeks ago that its brand-new, $60 million high school football stadium had developed cracks in the concourse, it was clear that someone had screwed up in epic fashion. One doesn’t shut something down, disrupt graduation ceremonies, and call every reporter in earshot to a press…
It took more than a year and two special sessions to do it, but last July, the Texas legislature finally provided a constitutional option for punishing teen murderers. In Texas, 17-year-olds are treated as adults for purposes of criminal law, which previously meant that those convicted of capital murder were…
Correction: (March 9, 2015) In the story below, we incorrectly state the charges to which Matthew Bovee pleaded guilty. Bovee pleaded guilty to injury to a child, a third-degree felony. Mark smashed his ear to the phone. Even in the crowded cafeteria, he didn’t want anyone else to hear what…
David Moorman isn’t old, at least not by any modern standard. The Fort Worth man is in his mid-50s, still nearly a decade away from reaching Medicare eligibility, still in command of all his faculties, and he still has several years of productive employment ahead of him. According to the…
Dallas has lots of awesome places to shop, and also some cool neighborhoods that aren’t malls. But it’s easy to confuse the two. Most recently, in a piece celebrating Dallas’ transition toward walkable neighborhoods, the DMN pointed to the West Village as a place “often cited as Dallas’ most promising…
I’m not going to say whether my bike ride this morning, straight into a patch of freshly laid concrete, was an intentional but poorly executed attempt to leave leave an indelible mark on University Park (think a child’s sidewalk hand print, except with no hands and one ass), or whether…
