Protection Racket Rent-a-Dallas-cop: For a while, I used to think the Dallas Observer sided with the little people in their daily struggle against local leviathans like City Hall, Laura Miller and The Dallas Morning News. Then we watch as Jim Schutze, like Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode III, vaults…
Truth: Old Texas Rangers General Manager John Hart once appeared in TV ads wearing sunglasses. Myth: On the cover of this year’s media guide, new Rangers GM Jon Daniels will wear a bib. Truth: Daniels was born five years after the Rangers arrived in Arlington. Myth: His name is temporarily…
In late January, University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren crossed the Red River to steal some of the best and brightest students in Dallas from under the noses of college recruiters at the University of Texas and Texas A&M. The method was impressive–and expensive. OU recruiters filled a banquet…
Even before his name showed up in The New York Times Sunday Magazine on October 17, 2004, Bruce Bartlett knew he might be screwed. A few weeks earlier, the former Washington insider–he was a policy analyst for both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush’s administrations–appeared in The New Republic saying…
A Republican candidate for Dallas County district attorney, Dan Wyde talks on his Web site about his Southeast Texas family that emphasized “faith in God” and “duty to country.” Now a judge, Wyde also boasts about his conviction rate as a former prosecutor and his efforts to convict a major…
Bang, bang: Buzz had a couple of items to blather about this week. One was about Texas game wardens busting North Texas fishmongers and restaurants for illegally selling game fish. Eh, whatever. We had something else about whether that Woodall-Rogers park the city is thinking about will extend to Ray…
Four Horsemen of DTS Beyond the end: I just finished reading Rick Kennedy’s article on dispensationalism (“The End Is Near,” February 9) and its Dallas roots. I am speechless! I am an evangelical Christian dating from 1970 and was brought up theologically in the system. Many years and many changes…
Spit happens. Sometimes saliva mixes with chewing tobacco and is expectorated into the bottom of a Coke can. Sometimes the pungent concoction is left sitting in the can long enough to begin coagulating. Sometimes that almost-empty can gets set down right beside the almost-empty one you are drinking from. Sometimes…
Oh, c’mon: It probably doesn’t bode well for a budding politician when the first question a reporter asks about his plans to run for Dallas mayor is: “Dude, seriously?” To be fair, Buzz had pretty much the same reaction when we heard George W. was running for president, so perhaps…
Room 115 in Stearns Hall on the campus of Dallas Theological Seminary could be a classroom at any American college. The long, pale blue countertops dotted with laptop-friendly outlets are arranged in tiers rising away from the lectern at the front of the room. Most of the 70 padded seats…
At six stories high and with just more than 95,000 square feet, the beige box of a building that houses the Dallas Central Appraisal District on Stemmons Freeway is, at best, uninspiring. You get the impression that what goes on inside isn’t unlike certain scenes in Mike Judge’s film Office…
It was still dark on Tuesday morning when Lawrence Crader got on the bus and settled in for 20-plus hours on the road. He was eager to get started, though the destination wasn’t the one he’d prefer. The two buses leaving from East Dallas, loaded with around 80 Hurricane Katrina…
Money Down the Loo Un-Wizetrade: Thanks for exposing the utter charlatans that hawk this junk to unsuspecting and ignorant investors (“Wize Guys,” by Craig Malisow, February 2). It’s about time someone did it. I’ve personally tried to save at least a dozen people from making this costly and foolish mistake…
What if Jose Cortez made the field goal? You know the one, the 29-yard chip shot that would’ve given the Cowboys a 10-point lead over the Seahawks late in the game back on October 23. Instead of losing 13-10, Dallas wins 13-10. And that whopping 180 is merely a link…
GlobalTec doesn’t want you to read this, so you probably should. The Dallas company peddles investment software on infomercials, luring naïve customers to seminars in hotel rooms throughout the country, where evangelistic salespeople preach the gospel of get-rich-quick. GlobalTec’s flagship software, Wizetrade, purports to make users rich by telling them…
Testy: The 5th District Court of Appeals last week sided with the Dallas Observer and rejected a civil suit filed by a man who claimed we violated state law by revealing that he is HIV-positive. Roger Stanley, a worker at the Cathedral of Hope, had sought in excess of–get this–$1…
By now, the sad story of Walter Mann is well-known. The 69-year-old, schizophrenic and homeless, was held in a Dallas County jail for more than a year for not paying a $50 fine. During his 15 months behind bars, he never saw a lawyer or had a visitor. Each time…
Mike Rhyner’s Penis And other trivial matters: The Ticket may be great entertainment for IQ-challenged frat boys who flunked out of community college, but for die-hard local sports-talk fans? (“A Dirty Dozen,” by Richie Whitt, January 26.) The Ticket is as much about sports as Brokeback Mountain is about herding…
It sounds like a burglar’s vision of paradise. Starting next Wednesday, February 1, you can break into any business in Dallas, trip up the alarm and the police won’t rush to the scene. Thanks to a new law passed by the Dallas City Council, the city’s finest will no longer…
In the 17 months that Susana Loera worked at the Mexican Consulate in Dallas, she was horrified by what she saw. She and others at the diplomatic mission say that her boss, Mexican Vice Consul Luis Lara, regularly advised his compatriots charged with crimes in the United States to flee…
He wears bikini briefs. TiVos The View. Spends alarming time with his morning mirror, caressing his hair with extravagant product and bathing his skin with lush lotion. And when he’s not acting like our city’s most sensitive woman, Mike Rhyner is one of Dallas radio’s most powerful men. He can…
They may have worked at one of the most prolific real estate development companies in Texas, but they behaved more like awkward teenagers jilted by the object of their affection. Twice a week for months, employees at Southwest Housing had been asking Ruth Steward to lunch. Each time, the Oak…
