Eleventh-grade English at Wilmer-Hutchins High wasn’t what Tiffany Pullum had hoped it would be. Instead of reading novels or writing compositions, her class dozed in front of Bad Boys, Forrest Gump, and just about any other Hollywood video the kids thought to bring in and unspool. “The teacher told us…
A Dallas County jury may soon get to decide if Cowboys head coach Barry Switzer is an insensitive buffoon who thinks all strapping young black men play football. But the verdict is already in on Switzer’s alcohol consumption: He prefers Cabernet with dinner, because Scotch makes the Bootlegger’s Boy bleed…
Like a few other Native Americans in the area, Sue Amos can’t understand why the Dallas Inter-Tribal Center doesn’t have a child welfare worker on the job anymore. Amos, a 56-year-old Choctaw who shares a small two-bedroom apartment with her mentally handicapped daughter and three grandchildren, says the state would…
Lord bought ’em a Mercedes Benz You probably didn’t hear about the recent civil disturbance in the Park Cities. In a Dallas blueblood equivalent of a soccer riot, the Parkies got positively inflamed about projection problems with First Wives’ Club at the Highland Park Village Theater. After the first couple…
One month after he was sacked as the president and chief executive officer of Performance Nutrition Inc., Gary Lewellyn has filed a $30-million lawsuit in state court against employees and investors of the company he founded. In the suit, Lewellyn contends that the group is responsible for fraudulently ousting him…
Second opinion I was quite shocked to find my favorite newspaper sinking to the pits of journalistic sensationalism with your article on Dr. John Hargett [“Under the knife,” September 26]. Rose Farley dug so deep into the past that I’m surprised she failed to mention every single parking ticket Dr…
Michael Pezzulli wasn’t terribly surprised when NBC called him two months ago looking for Walker Railey. After all, the Dallas civil trial lawyer has had his share of high-profile clients. There was, for example, the time he represented Lee Harvey Oswald’s widow in her quest to exhume her husband’s body…
The doctor was in. He was seated at a table beside the bar, and he’d been there for five hours, drinking with several of his McKinney buddies. It looked like any other Saturday night inside Chris’ Blue Tees sports bar in downtown McKinney. On April 27, 1996, the Indiana Pacers…
The well-heeled Highland Park schools rarely elicit sympathy from the Dallas area’s commoner districts. Who could summon pity for a school district where the average home value hovers around $400,000, and where only eight African-Americans are currently enrolled in its schools? Indeed, for a quick measure of the Highland Park…
Henry Billingsley, the son-in-law of Dallas real-estate developer Trammell Crow, has been sentenced to six months in a halfway house and three years’ probation for his illegal dealings with a Libyan finance minister. Billingsley had pleaded guilty in July to charges of smuggling Mohammed Bukhari across the Mexican border into…
No static at all When I first moved to Dallas, I also thought WRR should be sold by the City of Dallas [“Static quo,” September 19]; however, over the past 13 years I have come to enjoy and appreciate the value of WRR to the City of Dallas. WRR is…
Fifty yards from the Fair Park Midway, and mere spitting distance from the landmark Texas Star Ferris wheel, sits a squat, putty-colored building. Modest signs first lead visitors down a narrow alley to the building’s locked back door. It takes more poking around corners and tiptoeing through shrubbery to find…
The sculptor’s fortress rises above a South Dallas neighborhood that has long since gone decrepit. His home is an island, surrounded by a sea of busy streets. It is walled off on three sides by an 8-foot, black metal fence, jagged at the top, and on its fourth side by…
Alasan Mansaray sees opportunity everywhere, be it in shopping malls or at gas stations. Wherever he sees people, Mansaray approaches. “Hello,” he says, his manner friendly. “My name is Alasan, and I’m very happy today.” When the person asks why, he tells them. “I’ve just published my book,” he says…
KFC: Korrupted Football Coaches? In these dark days of cynicism and profiteering, we always figured that if there was one thing that couldn’t be bought–a moral constant, if you will–it was former Dallas Cowboys coach-deity Tom Landry. (Oh sure, he’s been in a couple of ads, but those were for…
Cracking the door Thank you for publishing Ann Zimmerman’s piece [“Mesquite grilled,” September 5]. For the first time in many moons, I see an actual case of [Mesquite’s] finest and Dallas’ wonderful [District Attorney’s] Office at work. You see, so many times what would be a shocking story like yours…
It was clearly Nicole Lott’s first time at Dallas City Hall. This was obvious from the look in her eyes–that unmistakable deer-in-the-headlights look–that I detected when I walked up to her, reporter notebook flipped to an empty page, pen at the ready. “Excuse me, but could I get your name?”…
Editor’s note: When Ross Perot first announced his candidacy for president in 1992, his eccentric populism generated a tidal wave of popular support. But many outside of Texas did not know just how eccentric the Dallas billionaire could be. The country got its first clear look at Perot’s combative, sometimes…
Make that 1,000 lap dances Those North Texas Toyota Dealers sure know how to protect their image. When Michael Irvin stepped out of line with drugs and topless-dancer hootchie-kootchie, wham–the dealers dumped him as their shill and, worse, took his Landcruiser away. They shrewdly replaced the Cowboys’ fallen star with…
Gary Lewellyn, the founder, chairman, and chief executive of Dallas-based Performance Nutrition Inc., was ousted last week by the company’s shareholders, and the company now is reviewing financial records from a portion of Lewellyn’s tenure. “The actions were taken following the publication of an article indicating that Mr. Lewellyn had…
Chris Bryant went to see the Beach Boys perform at the Starplex Amphitheatre several years ago, but the California-happy music did not make up for his rude experience. A paraplegic who lost the use of his legs in a motorcycle accident when he was 21, Bryant had purchased a general…
Leslie was better Thanks for the article about Sam Phillips [“Born again,” September 5]. I met her in Sherman in 1983 when she opened for Petra. Even then, she had a passion I’d never seen before. (Bono comes closest.) The song I remember most was “Bring Me Through.” I became…
