Dallas Observer staff writer Miriam Rozen has won the Dallas Bar Association’s 1995 Stephen Philbin Award for excellence in legal reporting. Rozen’s prize in the Division I newspaper category, open to all area newspapers, came for “This Boy’s Life,” her October 12, 1994, Observer cover story about a 15-year-old drug…
Rowlett’s broadcast blues Venerable WFAA-Channel 8 anchor Tracy Rowlett last week selected a very public forum–a Dallas Bar Association media awards luncheon–to take aim at a very surprising target: local television news. And he did not spare his own station. Rowlett, keynote speaker for the annual Stephen Philbin Awards, told…
When televangelist Pat Robertson, leader of the Christian Coalition, sponsored a 1994 food giveaway in Fair Park as part of a 17-city charitable tour called “Operation Blessing,” Dallas politicians eagerly paraded themselves at the event. But so did a less likely group of volunteers: managers and owners of several of…
In the midst of Oak Cliff’s Bishop Arts warehouse district, a stone’s throw from the Oak Cliff Coffee House, sits an unusual shop. It’s not the store’s collection of lovely antiques that makes it unique, or the relatively low cost of the well-maintained furniture crammed inside, although visitors constantly remark…
Better not left unsaid Sometimes The Dallas Morning News misleads by what it prints. And sometimes the News misleads by what it doesn’t print. Two fairly recent examples suggest how Dallas’ Only Daily can skew its coverage. The first involved the violence-tinged Detroit newspaper strike. On Sunday, September 24, a…
The weekend was warm in Colorado, the type of weather that puts a jingle in the cash register of anyone with something sweet and cold to peddle. Customers lined up out the door of Doug Gunn’s I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt shop. The frozen yogurt racket had proved a tough…
If a $7 bounced dog license check doesn’t strike you as the stuff of political intrigue, you haven’t been to City Hall lately–where Dallas’ blame game has dipped to an absurd level. Before Checkgate–or Doggiegate, if you prefer–was over, Mayor Ron Kirk had received a racially insulting letter, and fired…
$25 million kids Deion Sanders’ Cowboys contract may be in jeopardy, but another, equally controversial, if underreported Deion deal–this one with Dallas’ prestigious Greenhill School–is on solid ground. Deion’s daughter has made the Greenhill cut. Parents learned the news last week when teachers called to alert them that security would…
Miller wins Mencken prize; McVea takes NABJ honor Observer columnist Laura Miller has won the coveted H.L. Mencken Writing Award, given by the Baltimore Sun. The award, which includes a $5,000 cash prize, is presented annually to the newspaper writer whose opinion column “best captures the power of Mencken’s public…
Tuesday’s cartoon in the Chihuahua city paper showed President Ernesto Zedillo bustling toward a particularly frazzled-looking Mexican Everyman, saying, “I must recognize those who have paid the costs of the economic crisis.” The frazzled citizen wearily sticks out his hand to say “Muchas…” and then is left alone saying “…gracias”…
Desert storm Your article entitled “Desert Rat” (by David Pasztor, October 5, 1995) is excellent, except for your description of Arabian Shield Development Company, which is not accurate at all. To date, Arabian Shield has discovered and proved 7.2 million tons of commercial, mineable ore reserves containing copper, zinc, gold,…
On a sweltering hot day in early September, a red-haired woman with manicured fingernails is scrounging around the dirty floor of my two-car garage. She thinks she has spotted pocket change. “O-o-o-o, this is good,” Helene Glazer coos, picking up some coins and slipping them into her pocket. “When I…
It had come from lobbyist Don Lee, of the urban counties association; and the Texas Municipal League (TML) wasn’t far behind. As chairman of the County Affairs Committee, Lewis had a longstanding close relationship with the local government groups. Shanna Igo, 35, a former Senate aide among nine TML employees…
In mid-September, The Dallas Morning News reported the demise of a giant in Texas public education. Joseph Jones “J.J.” Pearce, 88, the superintendent “who guided the Richardson school district’s transformation from a single rural campus into one of the top urban school systems in the state,” had died, reporter Selwyn…
Lest we forget the s.o.b. The Dallas school board is seeking names for more than a dozen schools. Upwards of 50 suggestions have been submitted, including Arthur Ashe, Cesar Chavez, and Anne Frank. But Buzz figures that if the purpose of naming a school is to offer students a moral…
Quick thaw Lest anyone feel comfortable trusting the august Dallas Morning News to do the right thing, BeloWatch will briefly revisit the tale of The Little Investigative Series That Couldn’t Get Published. Faithful BeloWatch readers will, of course, recall last week’s column about the Howard Swindle-led investigation of U.S. Rep…
On what passes for the left in this country, the debate is about the damage being done by Newt and the Newtzis. Not damage control, just damage. There’s an extent to which liberals have been crying “Wolf!” for a long time now. (Actually, the left doesn’t cry “Wolf!,” it cries…
Sidekicks’ identity crisis I don’t know where you guys get off criticizing The Dallas Morning News for their puny coverage of the Sidekicks’ win over Pittsburgh [“Best of Dallas,” September 28]. You’ve done exactly the same thing. The Observer ran a great story about the Sidekicks [“Tatu tightens his belt,”…
He is the single most controversial black political figure in the nation. He is adored, deplored, revered, and feared. And last week, Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan looked down on the 2,500 African-Americans gathered in a South Oak Cliff church with a warm and loving smile. “Powerful black man,” breathed a…
Yemen is a meager country, cobbled together from rock and sand on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. A sporadically volatile confederation of tribes that predates recorded history, Yemen still is not sure of its exact borders. It is a bit player in the Middle East, a political punk…
Matthew McQuater has lived in quiet obscurity for more than two decades in a modest, slightly run-down home in a modest, slightly run-down section of Oak Cliff. It’s a quiet enough neighborhood, sandwiched in between beautiful homes and a golf course to one side and shotgun shacks on the other…
Media reports of a DISD trustee’s comments offended an entire city. His exact words are even worse Editor’s note: What follows is the full three-page transcript of comments by Dallas school trustee Dan Peavy–remarks that have scandalized the city, even though few people have had the opportunity to actually read…
