Judging the judge Your November 9 story [“The judge lawyers love to hate”] attempts to explain Judge Candace Tyson’s low bar poll ratings. Miriam Rozen’s investigative reporting suggests this is the result of the following: 1. She drives a Mercedes Benz; 2. She favors tight-fitting, brilliantly colored outfits of the…
Peace in Washington, peace (maybe) in Bosnia, the Dow hit 5,000, and now we’ve all stuffed ourselves with turkey and can start worrying about how to get everything done before Christmas. Not. Don’t touch that dial and don’t take your eyes off that sausage factory in Washington. The Republican budget…
Barron Storey is searching for a painting, determined to find a specific piece of his work among the many stashed away in a hall closet. He bends down, flipping back one piece after another–beautiful and abstract paintings that make up his as-yet-unfinished “Dream Series,” portraits he did for Time magazine…
A case of elephantitis Haven’t things in Dallas gotten so much simpler since everyone became Republican? Besides ending those tiresome differences of opinion on how to deal with matters such as the homeless, welfare, and gays, there were all those little hassles. Like phone numbers. In the old days when…
When it comes to Dallas, some things never change. This fall, once again parts of the city seethed with discontent as council members struggled to mobilize their disenfranchized constituencies to win bigger pieces of the power pie. But this time there’s a profound difference: the skin colors are reversed, and…
Whee! Spin City. Who’s responsible for shutting down the federal government and quite possibly sending the financial markets into a hopeless tizzy? “You hit me first.” “Did not.” “Did too.” “Did not.” “Did so.” We live in a great nation. Amen. Actually, taking the popular, fail-safe, appearin’-as-wise-as-a-treeful-of-owls, plague-on-both-their-houses position here…
A thankless job After spending years trying to motivate city employees to do their job, I think Mr. Burkleo [“Demolition man,” November 2] should be commended for continuing to keep Dallas clean–it is such a thankless job. Code enforcement has been a political football for years. While city officials talk…
What did Mayes say? News won’t tell Once again, The Dallas Morning News has patronizingly handled a sensitive story by telling readers far too little to let them make up their own minds. The story is the secret tape-recording of a phone conversation involving City Councilwoman Charlotte Mayes. The News…
Glen Coleman’s killer was not one for subtlety. When Coleman’s body was found, somebody had plugged him so many times with a .45 that bullet holes riddled virtually every part of the corpse. A coroner could not say exactly how many times the murderer pulled the trigger, but as many…
Sometime in the early hours of October 18, a computer hacker infiltrated the Nation of Islam’s Internet website and electronically altered the homepage with insulting graffiti, triggering an online debate about “cyber hate crime.” The homepage’s greeting was modified to: “Welcome to the nation of Murderers Homeb0y pAge,[sic]” and other…
Ratings madness Earlier this month, KXAS-Channel 5 did a hilarious, dead-on send-up of television’s penchant for hysterical coverage of dubious trend stories–particularly when it involves the use of hidden cameras and disguises–to pump up ratings during sweeps week. In this case, Sabrina Smith, the perky blonde member of the Public…
Staff writers Miller, Rozen take awards for investigative, business-news stories The Dallas Observer has won two Texas Katie Awards for outstanding journalistic achievement in the Dallas Press Club’s annual statewide contest. Announced at a November 11 ceremony, the Observer awards came in the major-market newspapers competition, open to all Texas…
It’s a shame that Colin Powell decided not to run; I think he would have contributed a much-needed lowering of the rhetorical temperature on the Republican side. I accept Powell’s word that his decision came from looking into his own soul and finding that he did not have the passion…
Holly Keiser was sitting on the living-room sofa, watching the evening news, when the story broke: a Dallas public-school teacher had been suspended from her job, supposedly for telling her black fifth-graders to “Go back to Africa.” At first blush, Keiser couldn’t imagine the story was true. What schoolteacher in…
The News’ Paul Quinn problem In columns past, BeloWatch has sounded alarms about how the Belo Corporation–which has a strict conflict-of-interest policy for lowly reporters and editors–allows its top brass to ignore those same rules. Belo CEO Robert Decherd, for example, personally made two contributions to the 1994 U.S. Senate…
Williams: Laura Miller maligns Laura Miller’s latest emotional tirade [“Kress and the merry morons,” November 9] is not only an extremely poor example of fair, objective journalism, it could be considered libelous. In every other of Miller’s advocacy pieces that I’ve read, she has at least allowed the targets of…
A poetic public place The story on the Prince of Peace Catholic Community’s experience in building their church and school [“From Bauhaus to God’s house,” October 26] is a very telling piece, for the following reasons: in one simple parable, the crisis of American culture and environment is made clear…
Darrell Frank appears at the door of his apartment wearing a black baseball cap with a Dead Serious logo–a guitar and bleached cow’s skull. His long, frizzy ponytail is pulled through the back. He ushers his guest past the living room’s big-screen TV, past his wife’s vast collection of stuffed…
Just call him Al With three distinctly different mug shots topping his column in just a week, it looked as if an identity crisis had befallen gushing Dallas Morning News gossip writer Alan Peppard. (To stay on Al’s good side, pronounce his name like “peppered,” not like that other puffy,…
Holy cow! What a vote that was in Canada. Speaking as one who is terribly fond of our neighbors, both north and south, I must confess that for me Canada has the additional charm of being the perfect polar opposite of Texas. In addition to affection, respect, concern, and goodwill,…
All the racial stuff happened while I was on maternity leave. And I don’t know what disturbed me more–the acquittal of O.J. Simpson or the trashing of Sandy Kress. I was squeezing a tomato in a Tom Thumb when the O.J. verdict came in. I’d run in to get something…
News gives brief play to ex-staffer’s kiddie-porn case In a 20-minute court appearance, with a soft voice, former Morning News assistant sports editor George Woods last Thursday formally entered his guilty plea to the felony charge of possessing kiddie-porn videotapes. The official action stirred Dallas’ paper of record to acknowledge–months…
