Preparations “…The sad reality is this: they wanted a big one. They wanted a spectacular one.” -David Koresh As the morning sun inched into the rain clouds over the blackland prairie on Sunday, February 28, Special Agent Sharon Wheeler braced herself for the raid that was about to begin. Her…
Get loaded Like most Texans, you’ve probably been wrestling with those sensitive, personal questions that you’re just too embarrassed to ask: When can I shoot to kill? How old do my kids have to be to “bear arms?” and Is there anywhere that I can’t carry my gun? Help is…
In a tiny office at the end of a sterile, white corridor that stretches across the fifth floor of the University of Texas at Arlington’s Life Sciences Building sits a white-bearded professor who says he has developed the decisive weapon in the war on crime. Using arcane secret formulas and…
Life in the ant farm The Indian in the Cupboard. What the hell were the producers thinking of when they thought to go with that title? You don’t see Hollywood making movies called “The Jew in the Cupboard,” or the Chinese, or the Mexican. What’s the deal with miniaturizing an…
Editorial error On Wednesday, June 7, the weekly column by Henry Tatum, associate editor of The Dallas Morning News editorial page, appeared as usual, accompanied by his photograph, on the paper’s “Viewpoints” page. It was typical Tatum. A former City Hall reporter and 25-year News staffer, Tatum, 52, had written…
Let’s assume that everyone on all sides of the affirmative-action debate is speaking in good faith. It makes the discussion so much more pleasant. What we are all after is the famous level playing field. We may differ on how to get there, but that doesn’t automatically mean that some…
“I think it proves there is a God,” said one Texas liberal of Senator Phil Gramm’s presidential campaign, which is going nowhere fast. Gloating is in violation of the liberal creed, which calls for compassion at all times, especially for those who are getting kicked around. On the other hand,…
It is one of the stranger sights in South Dallas: each day, when the weather is fair, 125 teenage girls stream out of the Ambassador hotel and cross the street into Old City Park. The girls are dressed almost identically, in navy blue smocks and skirts and crisp, lace-collared blouses,…
Realtor politik The folks who sell real estate in the tony Preston Hollow neighborhood were emotionally traumatized last month when an appraiser they invited to speak before a North Dallas Branch of the Greater Dallas Multiple Listing Service Realtors lunch uttered words no North Dallas house shopper should ever hear:…
The last day criminologist Daniel Rhodes worked for the Plano police department, he found someone had been messing with things on his desk. He had already found a new job with the Arlington police department and was cleaning out his cubicle. But in a frame that used to hold a…
Beware of reporters bearing flowers You have to give the guy credit for ingenuity–as well as a brazen willingness to dupe the bereaved. In the June issue of American Journalism Review, Morning News police reporter Todd Bensman–in a story titled “How Do You Feel?”–explains how he gets in the door…
Neander-goof One of the best things about your wonderful weekly is its ability to challenge convention. Sometimes you even do this on behalf of the underdog. Sometimes, however, all you do is give a platform for goofy people with terrible ideas. One of the goofiest is Ray Audette, who claims…
At Dallas City Hall, it can take a long time to find the truth. That’s because this city manager and city council don’t like the public to know what they’re doing. So they play games. They have a lot of closed-door meetings. They discuss things they’re not supposed to discuss…
On November 16, 1994, the Dallas city council convened behind closed doors, citing in its formal agenda two exceptions to the Texas Open Meetings Act–“discussion of Reunion Arena leases” and “attorney briefings”–as justification for doing so. This 10-page transcript of its recorded discussion, obtained by the Observer from the city…
Ask what Miss Texas can do for you It’s nice to know somebody is addressing society’s more pressing problems. Miss America President Leonard Horn has given the Miss Texas organization a deadline to correct a long-time Texas beauty pageant tradition of carpetbagging (i.e. Miss Bexar County is actually from Tarrant…
The words “Be prepared” may soon greet patrons when they enter the restrooms of local bars and restaurants. The slogan, printed on designer condom dispensers, isn’t just aimed at former Boy Scouts, but at anyone who is sexually active. The brightly colored condom vending machines carrying the “Be prepared” warning…
A better brew Six Flags Over Beer indeed [“Theme parks for beer,” June 29]. Instead of the adventure- land approach of brewing, why don’t these micros concentrate on making better beer? A good bock, or a true lager, for example. Also, the beer needs a little more carbonation (a little–not…
News opens up checkbook to prove McVeigh’s guilty “His few friends and many casual acquaintances say he doesn’t drink, smoke or take drugs. He doesn’t curse or chase women. He is frugal and keeps his room neat and orderly. He prefers listening to talking. He is intelligent, loyal and polite…
Wouldn’t you think that by now we would all react to the word “deregulation” the same way we do when we hear the buzz of a rattlesnake? Freeze, spot it, then run like hell. ‘Cause we sure have been snake-bit by deregulation in this country. Deregulating the savings and loans…
Ray Audette amuses his Far North Dallas neighbors. They laugh when they see Audette, a diet book author, tramp across the manicured lawns lugging fresh roadkill, usually squirrels. They know their neighbor is toting the furry accident victims back to his yard to feed his young red-tailed hawk. The hawk,…
We bought it for the prose For the past year, Buzz has chronicled the obsessive publicity-seeking of former Dallas Morning News plagiarist and world-class depressive Elizabeth Wurtzel as she desperately clung to the 15 minutes of fame that her fellate-and-tell book, Prozac Nation, generated. Well, Elizabeth’s popped up again, you…
Ryan Amacher, the former University of Texas at Arlington president who, with help from an interior designer imported from Arizona, spent more than $157,000 last year to remodel a presidential suite for himself, has fallen a long way. In March, Amacher moved from a spacious office in College Hall, noted…
