Inside the Dallas County juvenile detention facility, 56 teen-agers line the hallway to the gym, waiting for lunch. They’re a tough bunch. These boys have broken into homes, stolen cars, brandished guns, or committed other crimes serious enough to land them a 60-day stretch in boot camp. Predictably, the camp…
When you work for an alternative weekly, it’s not popular to say that you like or admire the publisher of your town’s daily newspaper. So my approbation for Dallas Morning News publisher Burl Osborne needs explanation. Osborne, who also holds the Belo-conferred title of “president/publishing division,” is, to me, a…
When the Tejano Democrats threw their support behind Elsa Tovar, a political neophyte challenging state Rep. Harryette Ehrhardt in last year’s Democratic primary, the four-term Democrat of East Dallas was perturbed. Why not concentrate fire on Republicans instead? Some Hispanic political leaders brushed off such sentiments then, and they’re not…
What a Gas Warm and fuzzy: OK. I get it. You can take your child to the Dallas Zoo (“Chick Fillet,” February 15) and give them the warm and fuzzy feeling of touching, holding, and interacting with a sweet baby chick. Then you can return in a few days and…
Forgive Buzz for bringing this news to you a week late, but when we first heard about it, we became so giddy at the prospect of firing off juvenile Dallas Morning News jokes, we felt like Anna Nicole Smith at a Highland Park AARP meeting–overwhelmed by the rich possibilities. Here’s…
A toddler stretches his arms out over his head and puts both hands on the front glass of an aquarium. Behind the glass, a dozen or so baby chicks are bathed in the warm orange and yellow glow of a heat lamp. The chicks scurry toward the glass, delighting the…
To the Hole And the free-throw line: I wanted to say that I truly loved and agreed with your article about Michael Finley (“Neither Swish nor Foul,” February 8). I do indeed respect this player’s All-Star ability and team leadership; however, I am very adamant about this guy getting to…
To most of the world, at least those who love all things “E” (Entertainment Weekly, Entertainment Tonight, and E!), the word “Sundance” means Robert Redford’s indie-film festival, held each January in the snow-and-golden-sun-capped mountains of Utah. Newspapers, magazines, and TV shows have also wrapped another layer of creepy meaning around…
Oliver Lankford, an African-American father of two teen-agers attending Lancaster public schools, thought he was just making a political statement when he placed three small signs in his front yard. Lankford, upset with school Superintendent Billy J. Ward and the leniency he allegedly has shown white troublemakers in comparison with…
Now that his Rhodes scholar buddy Bill no longer resides in the White House (replaced as he was by anti-scholar Dubya), U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins is planning to take a job with the Dallas office of Fish & Richardson, a Boston-based law firm that represents Broadcast.com and its parent Yahoo.com,…
It happens every spring or thereabouts: The rookies can’t wait to get started, to prove themselves worthy of a shot in the bigs. For aging veterans, the layoff has been too long. They stretch their backs and arms, working out the kinks, eager to find their shot, which seems all…
There is a faint but distinct tearing sound as Billy Murkledove flips through a stack of old photos, each showing a group of smiling youths. The pictures are stuck together from age; Murkledove has collected them for almost a decade. “This boy here, he got 40 years,” Murkledove says, indicating…
Ashleigh Banfield stands demurely in front of a police barricade in Washington, D.C., scratching her face as a TV camera captures the moment live. Caught unaware, she adjusts her signature glasses, the source of some local gossip and much national notoriety since her rise last year from Fox 4 anchorwoman…
First-term City Councilman Leo V. Chaney Jr. proudly calls himself a fighter for “poor people’s issues.” And for more than a year, he’s sought to prove it, toiling to hammer out a majority coalition on the City Council capable of passing a so-called “living wage” ordinance. Last week, however, an…
Holidays in Hell Everything but the rat poop: Why couldn’t you have put this article (“Unfair Share,” January 25) out three months ago? Where were you when I was having to stress over my impulsive purchase? Well, thank God that someone might be saved from this hassle after reading your…
TEXARKANA–The enduring legend began not with death, but with a frightening and vicious attack on two young lovers who managed to survive. On a February night in 1946, 24-year-old Jimmy Hollis and his girlfriend Mary Jeanne Larey, 19, had attended a downtown movie, then decided to prolong the evening with…
For Bill Jones, it was the “biggest weakness” question that first had him wondering about job candidate James Simmons. Simmons was interviewing to become the new senior pastor at the White Rock Community Church, and someone popped him the old job-interview standby. He answered, “I guess it’s that I’m a…
Forget Romania. Call off the bloodhounds in New Zealand. The search for the world’s most famous and most missing atheist is now only a forensic test result or two away from being over. In just a few hours of digging last weekend on a remote Hill Country ranch 120 miles…
Solid journalism, the sort that makes kids weaned on All the President’s Men all excited and proud, is rarely flashy. No, solid journalism is like a second baseman who hits .290 and turns a perfect two: It won’t be showered with awards, but it will be vital to any good…
Disorderly retreat: A generally accepted practice in journalism is to write about things that happen, not those that don’t. A general rule for humor is that you put the punch line at the end of the joke. But this being Buzz, which is neither journalism nor, some would argue, funny,…
Rhymes with Asso I’ll see you outside: Let me get this straight: The future of art is right here in Dallas. It is an artist whose name rhymes with Asso (Letters, January 11). If I understand him correctly, the future of art is basically major corporate underwriting. The future of…
No news…: Sanger police last week removed a prominently placed 4-foot-by-2-foot sign proclaiming January 15 “James Earl Ray Day.” For Buzz’s historically unaware readers, January 15 was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. James Earl Ray is the man who murdered MLK. And the person or persons who put up that…
