More than a year has passed since 16-year-old Misty Murphy scuffled with a black schoolmate at Madison High School after he called her a “redneck peckerwood” during a class discussion on slavery. Following a trip to municipal court, where Misty was acquitted of assault charges for scratching the boy with…
Up the academy I am shocked and dismayed about the horrific attack against Marine Military Academy Cadet Gabriel Cortez [“The few, the proud, the battered,” December 25]. The perpetrators of this cowardly and criminal act need to be brought to the most severe justice. However, I am more shocked about…
Back of the line, pal Add Matthew Harden’s name to the list of people queued up to get their hands on the infamous Peavy Tapes. Lawyers representing the embattled DISD chief financial officer surprisingly came one step closer this week to hearing selections from the two-year-old tapes of former school…
U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins–once referred to on these pages as “Publicity Paul”–usually seems more than happy to chat with reporters. Frequently, he sends them cards. He calls them with tips, and he has appeared at dozens of news conferences during his tenure to tout his office’s good works. But even…
Unless you were a law enforcement official, it used to be next to impossible to find out if a person was convicted of a crime in Texas, but a new state database may soon make that information available to anyone who has access to the Internet. In January, the Texas…
Rich man’s welfare Ms. [Laura] Miller, thank you for your informative article [“That giant sucking sound”] in the December 11 issue concerning Ross Perot Jr. and his arena scheme. I believe that the whole idea is a bad deal for the citizens of Dallas, but until I read your article,…
William R. “Bill” Morgan still remembers the phone call that led to the most mysterious presidential fundraising episode of 1996, which led to the strangest political story of 1997, which in turn promises to spawn several entertaining crime stories in 1998. It came on the afternoon of October 22, 1996…
At 3 a.m. on a humid night in early October, Gabriel Cortez’s screams awoke his fellow cadets in the Bravo Company barracks at the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen. Boys rushed into Cortez’s darkened room to find the 18-year-old high school senior soaked in blood and lying in his lower…
It’s eight minutes before opening time on a chilly Sunday morning, and two suburban moms are huddled outside the locked doors of the LiL’ Things store in Plano, waiting for the signal to charge. The women peer through the doors of the 30,000-foot store, identifying their targets and paths of…
Well-known Dallas journalist and author Jim Schutze has joined the Dallas Observer as a staff writer. Schutze, 51, was an investigative reporter and columnist for the Dallas Times Herald for several years and also served on its editorial board. While at the Times Herald, Schutze won the Texas Headliners Award…
Mending fences Pardon us while we strut our stuff. Two weeks ago, staff writer Thomas Korosec reported on the crappy state of a privacy fence at the home of City Manager John Ware. Neighbors complained that the 6-foot fence around the back yard had been tipped over for at least…
For six years from her office at the Dallas Observer, columnist Laura Miller has wielded her pen like a rapier, scoring the backsides of the lazy, the dishonest, and the inept in city government. Now she’s off to put her own butt on the line in a race for city…
Miller time Hooray for Laura Miller! [“Mr. Mayor, meet your nightmare,” December 18]. We will vote for her change from journalist to crusading politician. As an African-American, I have known all along that Mayor [Ron] Kirk did the bidding of the businessmen. That was his job as a lobbyist, and…
The message left on the answering service was unnerving. “Hey man, what’s wrong with this phone?” a male voice demanded. “OK, I’m going to be over there in 20 minutes to bring the drugs you ordered. It’s going to be $10,000. I got a great deal on it, man…What’s wrong…
Empty calories Buzz got a peek at the slick mail-out put together by the pro-arena Yes! For Dallas Committee, and we must say it’s a…um, piece of work. It’s sort of the intellectual equivalent of a Rice Krispies treat: tasty, but low on nutritional value. You’ve got your simple-minded charts,…
Dallas Observer columnist and investigative reporter Laura Miller is leaving journalism to pursue a seat on the Dallas City Council. Miller, 39, expects to announce her candidacy today for the District 3 council position currently held by Bob Stimson. The Oak Cliff councilman has told reporters that he intends to…
Now that the Love Field suit has landed in his courtroom, The Dallas Morning News apparently has discovered Fort Worth federal Judge John Henry McBryde’s existence. Moreover, they appear to like him–though still not enough to give his historic constitutional brawl with fellow jurists the billing it deserves. As the…
Swinging Dallas I can’t quite figure this out. Dallas Ken Doll vice officers spend two hours inside the Jet Set (read barn off the beaten path that no one knew about) before they noticed anything of note, and they had to clear two doors to do so [“Intent to arouse,”…
I am walking down a Dallas street on a beautiful December day, and I am confused. For more than a week now, my mayor, Ron Kirk, has been telling me–and everybody else who pays taxes in the city of Dallas–not to worry. Not to fret. Not to pay any attention…
Editor’s note: Charles Bowden first came across the work of the Juarez street photographers while reporting on a murder in El Paso three years ago. His research took him to the dirt streets of Juarez, where drug murders, gang killings, and the disappearances of dozens of young women who work…
Bruce Coleman is seeking divine intervention. “We’re basically looking for an angel,” says the 36-year-old artistic director of New Theatre Company. “And if it sounds desperate, that’s because I am desperate.” Coleman has been feeling religious ever since he and New Theatre’s co-directors, Charlotte Akin Jorgensen and Jim Jorgensen, learned…
Think, for one wild moment, of the DISD board of trustees as the candy store in a twisted Halloween movie. Then place Don Venable, a 43-year-old paralegal, as the new kid who has just walked wide-eyed and hungry through its doors. The school board, of course, isn’t serving up any…
