Public-radio regulars endured the usual whining last month during KERA-FM 90.1’s June pledge drive. But this time, the pleas for donations were slightly shriller. KERA announcers and staff members told listeners they were worried because donations have fallen off since the station revamped its format, switching to all talk and…
Friends and business associates of Henry Billingsley say the son-in-law of developer Trammell Crow has always relished the sheer drama and mystery of high-stakes deal-making. “Henry, intellectually, likes to cross swords,” Randy Dumas, a London investment banker, once told the Dallas Observer. Last week, Billingsley made what could be regarded…
Prayers of trees are answered One of the greatest threats to literacy has, like a bad virus, spread to the Internet. That, of course, would be vanity publishing. Since Gutenberg, self-proclaimed novelists, poets, and pundits have paid to have their loopy thoughts on travel, politics, and beloved schnauzers bound into…
Snakes bite I explained clearly to Miriam Rozen, when she asked me to cooperate with her story [“Hot product,” June 27], that it was common knowledge that, at the very least, the Observer is “fast and loose” with facts. But, after listening to her assertions to the contrary, I “opened…
At 8:15 on a Sunday morning in June–Father’s Day, specifically–families pack the St. Luke Community United Methodist Church, where the Rev. Zan Holmes presides over one of the largest African-American congregations in Dallas. Three Palestinian children sit in a front, left pew of the church, looking bored and tired during…
Customers wandering into VVV Records last week found one of Dallas’ more venerable music stores in its death throes. Tables were cluttered with merchandise and five-for-one specials, and price tags hung from everything that could be hauled away. There was a distinctive smell in the air, a musty odor of…
Daisy Joe divides the world simply. You are either on the side of good, or the side of evil. You either do right, or you do wrong. And if you do wrong, she will come for you with a picket sign. As director of Black Citizens for Justice, Law and…
Will it call collect? In another sign of the collapse of American civilization, Buzz received an information packet on a new communications service being offered locally by The Computer Services Group in Dallas. What’s offered is a high-tech solution to that time-consuming, tedious, not to mention incredibly annoying, task of…
Chez canard Mary Malouf’s review of Chez Gerard [“French, seriously,” June 27] is hard to take seriously: “You have to cultivate your relationship with this restaurant to truly enjoy it.” Let’s see–they overlooked her reservation, she and her guests received inattentive service, and she had to track down her check…
The first time I saw David Rivera, he was standing behind the lipstick-smudged glass of a jail visiting room, head bowed as if in prayer. Guards had led the 38-year-old Fort Worth printer there from Tank 30, Unit 59D–better known as the “pervert pod.” Through the glass I noted Rivera’s…
Mark Linnear Hays sat beside his defense attorney in federal court two weeks ago, arms folded across his chest, face drawn and sullen. So far, it had not been a good day. It was halfway into his trial–U.S. vs. Hays–and a string of forensics experts had spent the morning testifying…
Loe blow Passing off someone else’s words or ideas as your own is a basic taboo among writers, yet it’s amazing how casually transgressions are tolerated at newspapers, including, apparently, The Dallas Morning News. An allegation of intellectual theft has been brought to the attention of the Observer by Stephen…
A standoff that is bizarre even by newspaper-management standards has been playing out for the past month at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, leaving reporters and editors curious about just who is in charge of the paper’s newsroom. Vice President and Executive Editor Debbie Price, through an attorney, contends that she…
Sweat Jesus Thanks for Kaylois Henry’s excellent story about Bishop T.D. Jakes [“Bishop Jakes is ready. Are you?” June 20]. Having watched his show on TBN several times recently, I wondered about his background and his apparent rising status in the TV-preacher business. Henry’s well-written piece answered my questions, and…
After two years of enduring suspicion that she helped murder her husband, Joan Ridgway finds herself once again a suspect in what authorities are now describing as a murder-for-hire scheme against former Dallas Cowboys punter Colin Ridgway. Joan Ridgway, 53, has not been charged in the murder, but the arrest…
Jayne Loader is too modest to admit it, but she was one of a trio that irrevocably changed American pop culture’s perception of the Atomic Age. Fourteen years ago, she, Kevin Rafferty, and Rafferty’s brother, Pierce, premiered The Atomic Cafe in New York City. Celebrities, including Richard Gere, Christopher Reeve,…
Gary Lewellyn sits behind a massive wooden desk holding a telephone to his ear, but says nothing. From his Carrollton warehouse, the chairman and chief executive officer of Performance Nutrition, Inc. is a guest on a nationally syndicated USA Today Radio Network talk show, “Here’s To Your Health.” But even…
When he was running an insurance-fraud scheme out of his North Dallas office, Jeffrey H. Reynolds III would sometimes pass himself off as the Secretary of Commerce for a fictional country called the Dominion of Melchizedek. But Reynolds’ phony diplomatic title earned him no grace when he finally stood before…
All the news that fits and then some Because The Dallas Morning News would bristle if Buzz characterized its coverage of the Rowlett child murders as sensationalism, we’ll pick a less crass journalistic term. How about “reportorial carpet bombing,” or “vomitous volumes,” or that old favorite, “pointlessly excessive.” Hell yes,…
The mayor wasn’t eating. This was noteworthy for several reasons, not the least of which is that our mayor, if nothing else, is a man of enormous appetites–for politics, for the spotlight, for animated conversation, for a rousing ball game on TV, for good food and drink. So it was…
Laura is jolly I was appalled to read Laura Miller’s article [“Power houses,” June 13] in the Observer. Obviously, Miller was concerned that maybe some people take her seriously. Miller’s article should alleviate that concern. Miller disdainfully comments that Gloria Campos’ home belies her “folksy” image. If Miller knew anything…
With a public-relations extravaganza fit for a Royal Divorce, DART inaugurated its zippy new $900 million train set last week, finally bringing commuter-rail service to Dallas. There were opening-day parties, bevies of dignitaries, television specials, and fawning newspaper accounts. Journalists, in particular, were inundated with mounds of information on the…
