Ignoring the evidence Your writer chose to trivialize and ignore the factual and scientific information Texas Industries (TXI) provided the Dallas Observer [“Ill wind blowing,” June 12 and “Something in the air,” June 19]. Instead, she used anecdotal information to present a very biased two-part story. The “hump” the Downwinders…
Prince Jake never met a stranger. That much is apparent watching the three-legged dog work the waiting room of a Balch Springs veterinary clinic, nuzzling everyone in sight. A black cocker spaniel–a stuffed toy compared to the 90-pound Jake–cowers beneath a chair, fearful of becoming an appetizer. No chance. Even…
Sammy Allen stands meekly and hopefully outside the screen door of his family’s house in South Dallas, calling out, “Daddy! Daddy! It’s Sammy, Daddy!” Sammy’s 11-year-old nephew comes to the door. “Hey, it’s Sammy Tee,” he tells the boy, trying to come across as a treasured relative, one who sets…
Attorney Dennis Eichelbaum’s law firm is paid about $650,000 a year to serve as general counsel for the Dallas Independent School District, providing routine legal advice, handling lawsuits, and things of that nature. Not surprisingly, disgruntled citizens with a beef against the district sometimes name Eichelbaum personally as a defendant…
Who needs an agent? Virtually lost in the guilt-addled celebration of Timothy McVeigh’s death sentence was more evidence that Dallas author–and former Dallas Observer staff writer–Dick Reavis may be one of the most ingenious book promoters Buzz has ever seen. Reavis left the Observer to write a book on the…
There will be no sweetheart deal in Austin for Dallas businessman William “Sonny” Oates this year. Last Friday, Governor George Bush vetoed a nifty little piece of legislation that would have made Oates a small fortune and cost the citizens of Texas millions of dollars in new document filing fees…
Ill wind blowing I commend your paper on having the guts to bring to the attention of the public the hazards of the cement-kiln industry [“Ill wind blowing,” June 12]. It has always amazed me how these filthy businesses could work and make money in a state that has the…
Jeanne Rivers does not profess to be a scientist, but she does know that her six-year-old son, Shawn, didn’t have tungsten and trichlorethylene in his blood two years ago, before the family moved within shouting distance of Texas Industries’ Midlothian cement plant. Now, there are traces of the potentially harmful…
Dallas screenwriter Gretchen Dyer fully expected that some heterosexuals would resist the plot of her debut feature, Late Bloomers. The film, which was directed and co-produced by her sister, Julia Dyer, concerns two middle-aged women who unexpectedly fall in love while working at the same suburban high school. But she…
WFAA’s Catholic channel Buzz is in awe. We know Doug Fox, Channel 8’s mustachioed warbler, has worked in this town for a long time. But even we couldn’t have guessed that Fox has sources from beyond the grave. Fox’s connections to the dark side surfaced about two weeks ago while…
Born with severe cerebral palsy, Evaristo “Pee Wee” Vela walks with a halting gait. He communicates with jerky hand movements, or shakes of the head, or by grunting yes and no. Earlier this year, when Vela came to live in a Dallas home for people with AIDS, supervisors worried about…
What could Michael Irvin and Erik Williams be thinking? Why would two guys with reputations steeped in strippers, sex toys, and baby oil–not to mention drugs or alcohol–want to mix it up in civil court with KXAS-TV Channel 5 and the Dallas Police Department? Big Nate Newton, the Cowboys’ motor-mouthed…
Support in the aftermath Thank you for the excellent story on the sexual assault case against Richard Sanchez Jr. [“The lies that bind,” May 1]. So often when cases of sexual assault are reported, the public’s shock soon wears off, and the stories fade in their minds. This case, which…
Part One Beneath the smokestacks of Texas Industries’ Midlothian plant, four giant kilns operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The massive ovens burn at the hellish temperature of 2,800 degrees–hot enough to bake rock. A mixture of limestone, shale, sand, and water is blended and cooked until…
A bevy of barristers First we learned about employees padding their overtime. Then came reports that a roofing company was being paid to not fix leaky roofs. How many other ways can the Dallas Independent School District blow taxpayer money? On lawyers, of course. For a few years now, DISD…
These days, it seems society is awash in self-help relationship books–breezy little volumes on snagging the right man or woman, getting him or her to marry you, then finding a way to save the relationship when it begins to fall apart. Despite this surfeit of advice, divorce seems as prevalent…
For most of the last 17 years, Fonda Vera has lived like many other single mothers–balancing a full-time job with the needs of her two sons, now aged 17 and 13. With the exception of her brief marriage to a man who is not the boys’ father, Vera has been…
Our own man Thank you for writing an article that was not only refreshing, but also exciting [“His own man,” May 29]. I agree with you: DISD has a breath of young, fresh ATTITUDE–an attitude found in Ron Price that will, I’m confident, breathe “new life” into the DISD’s resolve…
Save a buck and a tree You might remember the mesmerizing tale of the Quedlinburg treasures. For decades, no one knew the whereabouts of a trove of medieval German relics–including richly jeweled manuscripts worth millions of dollars–that disappeared from the town of Quedlinburg at the end of World War II…
Artist David Alvey knew when he started work on the piece he calls “CYBER.sex” that it would contain subject matter that might offend people. “The concept consumed me and, literally, my studio,” Alvey says of the almost six-foot-long installation, a solid mahogany tabletop with three computer monitors, two of them…
Hit the road, Gordon Regarding Gordon Hilgers’ “Windy City” letter [May 15]: If Mr. Hilgers is such an independent thinker and he thinks so little of Dallas, here’s a dollar, buy a clue, LEAVE! Randy Haloran Dallas Poetry slam Regarding Jimmy Fowler’s article [“Put a lid on it,” May 15]…
It’s a weekend night, and Brandi, a honey-skinned, bitty-bodied woman in snakeskin shorts and go-go boots–just one step above hoochie-mama status–is holding forth on the finer points of man-hunting. While sitting at a nightclub table with her two girlfriends, Cynthia and Brenda, she regales them with sure-fire methods for luring…
