Whitewright, Texas, appears to be an uncontroversial place. It is what it is: a former railroad town, whose main industry now is the Carl’s Sausage plant on Bond Street. Grand Street is lined with shops, city hall, the library, and the police department. The side streets of this town 60…
Two weeks before Christmas, on a nippy Monday night, there was a party at the Belo Mansion on Ross Avenue downtown. But as I entered the back door, I figured I had come on the wrong night. There was no activity in the back of the house, nothing happening in…
If you are 7-and-a-half years old, halfway through the second grade, and living on a steady diet of CD-ROM and Nickelodeon’s “Weinerville,” very little slips by you. Such is the case with Caitlin, who has already shattered some of the most sacred myths of childhood. First, she is already hip…
Did Ray Hunt support Mandela? We learn more about Mayor Ron Kirk every day. Last week, for instance, the mayor, who announced he would lead a trade mission to South Africa, told The Dallas Morning News, “I cannot escape the symbolic parallels of being the first African-American mayor of Dallas…
Like businesses throughout the city celebrating the holiday spirit, the office of Intertect Relief and Reconstruction Corporation held a Christmas party last week in the Oak Cliff home of one of its staff members. It was a bittersweet affair, to be sure, because Fred Cuny, the founder and director of…
Channel 8 gives Rene Syler the boot Eager to head off a lawsuit, A.H. Belo Corp. attorneys are negotiating with a lawyer for dumped Channel 8 anchor Rene Syler, BeloWatch has learned. Syler, who worked as a field reporter and as co-anchor for WFAA’s noon news broadcast, was summoned into…
Hopeful house I am very unhappy with the way the article on Hope House was written [“Young, Gay, and Thrown Away,” November 30]. The tone is very sensational, there are many things stated that are just not true, and some things Johnathon Briggs wrote are plain rude and offensive. When…
Oh boy, a good race! I know that politics is in dreadful disrepute, but the prospect of a fine, old-fashioned duke-out over some real stuff–not just the spin on stuff–gets the juices stirring. Rep. John Bryant, a populist Democrat, has announced he’s running against Phil Gramm, the part-time senator for…
Mickey Mantle never saw himself as a hero, never felt comfortable in the role, and he rebelled against it all his life. After he had been out of baseball for several years, he was contacted by the New York Yankees, who wanted information from him for a publicity package they…
Head erect, shoulders squared, Dr. Linda Norton walks purposefully into a packed courtroom in Belton, Texas, to take her seat on the witness stand. For the next hour and a half, Norton, a forensic pathologist, will lead the hushed courtroom on an exacting and graphic tour of the bruises and…
Better not pout Buzz sometimes wonders if North Dallas is even aware that there’s a world out there. Usually, of course, it doesn’t matter. Bosnia, the budget battle, and peace in Northern Ireland, are, as we said, Out There. But every once in a while, something happens Out There that…
Vernon Johnson, the superintendent of the Richardson Independent School District, looked glum as he sat with other school administrators on a stage before an agitated audience of 550 people. Johnson had mostly kept his mouth shut and listened during the town-hall meeting that ran for well over two hours last…
The NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) battle, where residents rise up against something they fear will drive down their property values, has become an art form in the Dallas suburbs. I like to think of Plano as the NIMBY capital of the world, probably just because I get the…
Picking on peaceniks It is apparent that Glen Warchol gave no thought to the reasons behind a toy gun buy-back [“Buzz,” November 16], instead finding it easier to belittle the “peaceniks” and save himself the time it might take to reflect upon the event. It would seem obvious that our…
Fellow Texans, I have been to Seattle in the state of Washington and seen wonders there. Seattle is the home of ecological correctness, good living, and a lot of coffee junkies. OK, so lots of places have environmentalists, the good life, and coffee, but try this: There is a Massage…
Darryl Fourte stands at the corner of Denton Drive and Storey Road, looking a bit like Wesley Snipes on a secret mission. With one hand on his hip, the other clutching a black walkie-talkie, Fourte surveys the skid marks on the road before him through a pair of sleek, dark…
Zion met Koani at The Rusty Bucket. Sometimes they would play darts, sometimes they’d sit together drinking a cup of klah. They lived 1,500 miles apart, but they were together every day, for hours. They fell in love. They lived once upon a time, last year, on the Internet. “Koani”…
In the spartan room that serves as Michael Stiles’ office, the only hint of color is in the former principal’s necktie–a busy pattern of black, white, and brown children dressed in rainbow hues, their hands interlocking like paper dolls on a blue silk background. In contrast, the walls, bookshelves, and…
Most non-profit agencies do not employ private investigators, scrounge through people’s trash, or use hidden cameras to pursue their quarry. But the Trinity Foundation has never been typical. A small, religious enclave in East Dallas that runs a ministry for the homeless, Trinity has also forged a formidable reputation over…
KERA’s Wanderer You’ve got to hand it to KERA president Richie Meyer for coolness under fire. Late last month, The Dallas Morning News, no less, reported on an anonymous letter circulating about Meyer and his wife, KERA vice president Susan Harmon. The letter–heavily excerpted in the News coverage by Manuel…
It was the morning of August 19, the day before my due date, and if this kid was anything like the last, I knew he’d be arriving the next day, right on deadline. I was ready. A naturally obsessive person, I had been certifiably manic since going on maternity leave…
Can Morning News keep its hands clean–while getting personal? The Dallas Morning News has stepped into the personals business–including “900” numbers, as well as “men-seeking-men” and “women-seeking-women” advertising. After years of shying away from a realm it clearly considered too controversial–the ads offended some advertisers and readers–the News has made…
