A state hearings examiner has recommended that a permit to expand Ferris’ landfill be denied because it constitutes an “incompatible land use” with an adjacent black neighborhood, as well as Lancaster’s city airport. The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission’s Office of Hearings Examiners issued the long-awaited “proposal for decision” last…
Salute to General Kael In his review of Pauline Kael’s latest collection of criticism [“Love Letters,” January 5], Matt Zoller Seitz takes the opportunity to deliver a stirring defense of Ms. Kael. But it’s a defense that mostly involves marching out a lot of flags and huffily pummeling a few…
Ave atque vale, Miz Ann. Hail and farewell, Governor Richards. Adios, Annie. Keep your wagon between the ditches. May your days be full of laughter. Good on ya. Ann Richards’ electoral loss to George Dubya Bush will keep political scientists studying for years. By all the conventional measures, she should…
News turns on departed It’s remarkable how irresponsible a good journalist can become when she leaves the Dallas Morning News. Especially if she ends up at the Wall Street Journal. That was certainly the case with Karen Blumenthal, who quit her job as business editor at Dallas’ Only Daily to…
Darold Molix is staring at what is commonly referred to as a dead tree. Molix, his head shaking in dismay, runs one finger down a long crack in the tree’s gray bark–the first clue, he says, that this young red oak isn’t alive any more. He points, too, to the…
On a brisk October morning, University of Texas at Arlington President Ryan Amacher and his wife, Susan, rose before dawn for their morning walk and headed down the long gravel drive that leads from their south Arlington farm house. As they reached the big gates at the end of the…
State District Judge Hal Gaither has earned a reputation as a no-nonsense jurist. In the seven years Gaither has sat on the bench in Dallas County juvenile court, making tough decisions on the sentencing of delinquents and the termination of parental rights, he has often preached the gospel of personal…
Ann had the best balls in Austin When Ann Richards was sworn in as governor four years ago, she brought along pals Willie Nelson and Jerry Jeff Walker. Win or lose, the woman with the big hair has been true to her Texas roots. Governor Ann delivered the opening address…
Por Dios! A revolution in New Mexico politics! Now follow this closely. For many, many years, off and on, the governor of New Mexico has been Bruce King, a fellow we love because he is fluent in Gibberish, the native language of former Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis. King, who…
Arena lust Wonder why the News is so loving toward city plans to build a new arena for the Dallas Mavericks and Starsso toothless in its news coverage and so supportive on its editorial page? A one-page letter from Texas Commerce Bank-Dallas board chairman John L. Adams to Mavs owner…
The new year is bringing with it happier people–at least the ones who appeared in this column last year are in that condition, for the most part. Minnie Washington, as you may recall, started out 1994 feeling incredibly grateful for having heat in her house. The 62-year-old great-grandmother had spent…
Post-modern anti-Semitism Miriam Rozen’s article on the Crow family dealings [“The Crow-Qadhafi connection,” December 22] with Libyan political figure Mohammed El Bukhari was quite an investigative piece, and rather good until its, ahem, racist climax. The penultimate paragraph, a diatribe by a friend of the Crows against doing business with…
Dallas city councilwoman Donna Blumer could tell that her constituents were not happy. For one thing, they wouldn’t break into small discussion groups, which the city staff was asking them to do. For another, they weren’t opening their city-issue manila envelopes, pulling out their city-supplied ballpoint pens and colored 3-by-5…
It was supposed to be a night of good cheer and celebration. Some 50 people associated with the USA Film Festival–board members, staffers, trustees, and assorted supporters and hangers-on–had gathered December 15 at the Highland Park home of trustee Dan Owen for a combination holiday party and board meeting. The…
The decision whether to grant an expansion permit for a controversial Ferris, Texas, landfill has been delayed several weeks–amid allegations that a state hearings examiner has been pressured to change her recommendation. Waste Management, Inc., the Illinois-based garbage giant, is seeking to expand Ferris’ Skyline landfill from 73 to 667…
Sometimes, our political debates are just so silly. The vogue du jour is for topping your tax-cut proposal with my tax-cut proposal. Does it take Ross Perot to remind us that we are still not paying for the government we already have? The Clinton administration has cut the deficit from…
Piling on Paula I don’t speak for the Dallas Morning News, nor do I presume to answer for everyone else who works here. I have to say I found your attack on Paula LaRocque completely unwarranted [BeloWatch, December 22]. I have worked with Paula for 12 years and have consistently…
Every October, Trammell Crow, the legendary Dallas real estate developer, hosts a camp-out for rich and powerful men at his East Texas farm. Crow, now 80, invites about 150 businessmen and government leaders. His guests have included former president Gerald Ford, former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft, former Dallas Cowboys…
Chalk it up to a slow news week, but an Observer reporter was intrigued by space travel research being conducted at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. The NASA-funded study required research subjects to lie in a hospital bed for three solid months to test a drug that prevents…
Need a walker at the charity stripe, Roy? OK, so Roy Tarpley shot a miserable four-for-12 from the floor in the Mavericks’ disappointing loss Dec. 8 to the Washington Bullets. Does that make him eligible for handicapped parking? The morning after the game, a spry Tarpley was spotted parking his…
News’ sacred Crows One would imagine that a federal grand-jury investigation of an internationally known businessman who lives in Dallas would grab serious attention from the Dallas Morning News. One would imagine wrong. About a year ago, U.S. News & World Report published a 1600-word story about Libyan attempts to…
Not that I want to add to the cynicism in this country, but have you noticed that eco-pornography is becoming more brazen than ever? You dedicated watchers of public-affairs programming may have noticed a recent spate of commercials from the Indonesian Forestry Association, and perhaps you are somewhat puzzled as…
