A popular Dallas County court program that successfully treats first-time drug offenders instead of shipping them off to prison is almost out of money and could be dramatically scaled back later this year unless state legislators find big bucks, those who are involved in the program say. District Judge John…
Strange things happen on Saturday nights in Dallas. People roam the streets freely, wildly intoxicated and blissfully oblivious. It is a night of escape. Sometimes, if the drugs and drink are strong and mixed together properly, the night yields an epiphany. Last Saturday was such a night. I watched the…
Library BummerThe stench: Jim Schutze made a good point about the bond referendum (“Saddam and City Bonds,” May 1). I used to be a big fan of the downtown library. I could usually manage to find a spot near an air vent and a reasonable distance from the nearest “researcher”…
The latest season of The Real World, MTV’s long-running show where “people stop being polite and start getting real,” featured smoking, drinking, cursing, screwing, fighting, cheating, bad parenting, overreacting and, somewhere in there, forking. (Seriously.) Somehow, even with all that going for it, as well as a sweet suite at…
The back-road drive into Tomball is stereotypical Texas. Cattle graze on long, flat prairies spotted with yellow dandelions. Trees are scarce; rolls of sod and wire fences mark the land. Large state and American flags fly at ranch entrances. A portable sign with black plastic letters, the kind youd find…
The charge might have been best described as “doesn’t play nice with others,” or so it seems from the tape of an unusual meeting of the seven people who govern Wilmer-Hutchins ISD. The 3,000-student district in southeast Dallas County generates more than its share of news (state interventions, federal probes…
Dallas Observer restaurant critic Mark Stuertz won a James Beard Award last weekend for his December 5, 2002, cover story “Green Giant,” about Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, father of the “Green Revolution” in agriculture. The James Beard Foundation’s annual journalism awards are among the most prestigious national honors a food…
Dino-myte What are you wearing right now, big boy? Are there just a ton of MILFs in the audience? Big nose, big feet, is the rest of the saying true? But Full Frontal took the high road and tried to insult the big, purple dinosaur as little as possible. Barney,…
On occasion, assorted persons–our friends, family and co-workers, chiefly–accuse Buzz of being a cynic. This wounds our heart deeply. Tears on our pillow, etc. etc. How can we be considered cynical, we ask in aggrieved tones, when people generally behave just about as badly as we expect they will? We’re…
School’s Out ForeverBizarre tales of beatings: Why are the truancy courts (“Absent Without Leave,” by Mark Donald, April 24) so bloated? My son’s story may shed some light on that. Last year he experienced a brief period of missing his bus, which made him miss enough first-period classes in his…
It’s a cold, clear Sunday morning as Keith Black shuffles through the sand spread over the sidewalk on Pacific Avenue and opens a makeshift plywood door. It spills into the vestibule of what will soon be the first cathedral to Dallas nightlife in the new millennium, though it’s hard to…
Elmer Fudd and lovers of rabbit stew probably think the most ridiculous airlift of all time is under way. Those who cherish rabbits as something other than a main course think otherwise. They believe trapping jackrabbits in Miami and flying them to Dallas for release to the wild makes perfect…
This may surprise you, or even lower your opinion of me (if that’s possible), but I’ve never watched the NFL Draft. It always seemed like an incredible waste of time, an exercise in nerd-dom. Oh, I would tune in periodically during the day and check the “draft crawl” at the…
Here’s a little inside Dallas Observer baseball for you: Our writers have quotas. They’re expected to write so many stories a year in exchange for continued employment. On occasion, our hardworking reporters find the quota system a bit burdensome. (By “on occasion” Buzz means “always,” and by “bit burdensome” we…
Breast Is BestEditor’s note: What follows is a sampling of the more than 150 letters and e-mails the Dallas Observer received from all over the world in response to Thomas Korosec’s April 17 story, “1-Hour Arrest,” and an April 24 follow-up in Buzz. All but one letter criticized the actions…
There is something about the boy’s eyes–half-shut and lifeless–that may hold the clue to his truancy. They mirror a depression driven by emotions too big and confusing for the 17-year-old to manage. But ask Bobby Malone why he cuts class and he will tell you flat-out: He is ready to…
The specialty license tags issued by the Texas Department of Transportation are a benign bunch really, offering little to raise the hackles of citizens on either end of the political spectrum. After all, how much moral outrage can you muster over an “Animal Friendly” plate that features a childlike drawing…
It was a dreary day late last spring, and SMU head coach Phil Bennett was standing to the side of the field wondering why the weather wasn’t cooperating. The skies were overcast and the ground was damp–far from ideal conditions for SMU’s “pro day,” a workout where NFL scouts evaluate…
He’s not a “draftnik.” Let’s get that straight. Rick Gosselin, the man Sports Illustrated’s NFL writer Peter King calls “one of the greatest football writers in America,” would not be watching this weekend’s pro football draft were he not The Dallas Morning News’ chief pigskin scribe. He would not be…
Finally, Buzz brings you some sort of good news. The state of Texas, in its all-too-finite wisdom, has bowed to eons of mammalian evolution and decided that breast-feeding your child is not a sign of unfit parenting. This is particularly good news for Jacqueline Mercado and her boyfriend, Johnny Fernandez,…
1-Hour OutrageBeauty made ugly: I do not think I could be any more disgusted or absolutely enraged by this story (“1-Hour Arrest,” by Thomas Korosec, April 17). This is a perfect example of how people of this country are so obsessed with sleaze that they can take something beautiful, twist…
Here’s a lesson in standard journalistic etiquette for those of you who aren’t part of the media elite. (And by “elite,” Buzz of course means anyone who knows where to find the chilé-lime fried pork rinds at Kroger.) Often, after you write a story about someone, that someone will call…
