Email Author Brantley Hargrove

2013 Stories by Brantley Hargrove

• FEATURED STORY

  Randy Travis Really Doesn't Want Anyone to See That Video of His Drunken, Naked Arrest

  published May 17, 2013

  Randy Travis, the wiry, multi-platinum-selling country crooner with a golden voice that carries enough bass to rattle your silverware, had a tough 2012. In February, he was cited and arrested for pub... More >>

• Oncor's "Phantom Tax" Windfall May Become Permanent as Bill Hits Texas House Floor

  published May 16, 2013

  Oncor, the Dallas-based sticks-and-wires utility, has collected half a billion dollars from ratepayers since 2007 for federal income taxes. But according to a report, the IRS hasn't received a dime. ... More >>

• FEATURED STORY

  An Account of the (Toy) Gunman Who Inadvertently Put the George W. Bush Presidential Center on Lockdown

  published May 14, 2013

  Last Saturday, the folks taking in the new George W. Bush Presidential Center were briefly under the frightening misimpression that it had come under terrorist attack, as reports of an "active shoote... More >>

• FEATURED STORY

  Trinity East's Fracking Plans Might Be Screwed with the New Dallas City Council

  published May 13, 2013

  Even with two seats in limbo, the complexion of the new Dallas City Council looks decidedly unfavorable for Trinity East, the would-be fracker from Fort Worth that paid the city millions for the righ... More >>

• FEATURED STORY

  No Oral Arguments in Case that May Have Driven Eric Williams to Kill in Kaufman County

  published May 10, 2013

  It was always one of the pieces in Eric Williams' story that didn't quite fit a narrative with an otherwise tidy motive for murder. The disgraced former justice of the peace had appealed his April 20... More >>

• FEATURED STORY

  Dallas Settles With the Waste Industry, Killing Flow Control Once and For All

  published May 08, 2013

  The final chapter appears to have been inked in the long, sorry saga of flow control, a moneymaking scheme that placed City Hall's imprimatur on the idea that southern Dallas isn't much more than a tr... More >>

• FEATURED STORY

  Why Plano-based Chinese Telcom Huawei Thinks It Has Been Frozen Out of the U.S.

  published May 08, 2013

  Last fall, Huawei, the Chinese telecommunication giant whose U.S. base just happens to be in Plano, was the subject of intense scrutiny over fears that it might serve as a Trojan horse for cyber-spie... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Gov. Rick Perry: Standing Against Gays in Boy Scouts Akin to Sam Houston's Refusal to Align with the Confederacy

  published May 06, 2013

  The Boy Scouts of America is proposing to lift its ban on gay youths, but to leave it in place once those gay Scouts become gay adults. This compromise -- gays Scouts, no gay scoutmasters -- apparen... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  After Texas Parks & Wildlife's Slaughter of a Hunt County Deer Herd, Questions of Wildlife Ownership Abound

  published May 02, 2013

  For eight hours, rifle reports echoed across the Anderton Whitetail Ranch in Hunt County. In the larger paddocks, a wildlife biologist standing in the bed of a white Texas Parks and Wildlife truck pic... More >>

• 

  COVER STORY

  The Killings in Kaufman

  published May 2, 2013

  There was a time before 8:38 a.m. on January 31 when the people of Kaufman County would commonly leave their doors unlocked or sleep with... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  With Texas Reservoirs Dropping, State Lawmakers Kill a Water Supply Bill

  published Apr 30, 2013

  Last night, a bill to fund water projects across the state died an ignominious death in the Texas House of Representatives. This was strange because it looked like the rails had been thoroughly greas... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Mike Bishop, Hellbent on Stopping the Keystone Pipeline, Sues the Corps of Engineers

  published Apr 29, 2013

  Earlier this year we introduced you to Mike Bishop, the irascible ex-Marine with 20 acres in the path of the Keystone pipeline, just east of Nacogdoches. When we met him, the retired chemist and bio-... More >>

• In the Wake of Spills, the EPA is Urging Tighter Review of the Proposed Keystone Pipeline

  published Apr 23, 2013

  Back in March, the Keystone XL pipeline's approval looked practically assured. Construction of the 1,179-mile leviathan, connecting Alberta's tar sand mines with Texas Gulf Coast refiners, was already... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Texas Sues the Feds, Part Infinity: Greg Abbott Wants to Take Greenhouse Gas Challenge To Supreme Court

  published Apr 22, 2013

  Last summer, Texas, Big Oil interests, the automotive industry and other assorted industrial polluters were dealt an unambiguous defeat in a legal challenge to dismantle greenhouse gas regulations. Th... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Report: Customers Have Forked Over $500 Million to Cover Oncor's Phantom Tax Payments

  published Apr 17, 2013

  Dallas-based utility Oncor has collected half a billion dollars from ratepayers to cover federal income taxes it has never paid. Last year alone, customers paid $230 million to reimburse the utility f... More >>

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  Trinity East's Vapor Chase

  published April 18, 2013

  No meeting was too small, too incremental for Trinity East CEO Tom Blanton, because too much was at stake. Whether it was a task force... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Eric Williams, Suspect in Kaufman County Killings: "My Life has Taken a Drastic Turn"

  published Apr 16, 2013

  When Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse convinced a jury to convict a former Justice of the Peace on felony theft charges, Eric Lyle Williams said his life was effectively ruined ov... More >>

• Barry Smitherman Retweets Image of Noose, Accompanied by Names of Senators Who Voted To Consider Gun Safety Proposals

  published Apr 12, 2013

  RT @psychscriv: Make sure none of these people have seats in 2014. twitter.com/PsychScriv/sta...We are in trouble when these Rs side w/ Sen Reid— Barry Smitherman (@SmithermanTX) April 11, 2013 ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Angela Hunt and Scott Griggs Want a Vote On Trinity East Drillsites in 30 Days

  published Apr 09, 2013

  Before term limits and elections change the complexion of the Dallas City Council in unknowable ways, Scott Griggs and Angela Hunt want an up-or-down vote on proposed natural gas wells along the Trini... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Slain Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and wife Cynthia Laid to Rest

  published Apr 05, 2013

  In tiny Wortham, just a ways northwest of Mexia, the fire ladders on two engines from the Teague and Fairfield fire departments were crossed over 3rd and Main street. A flag hung from between them, to... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Touching Eulogies (and a Bomb Threat) as Kaufman County Mourned its DA and His Wife

  published Apr 05, 2013

  Inside First Baptist of Sunnyvale, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland lay in a flag-draped coffin alongside the ashes of his wife, Cynthia. That was fitting in a sad way, their friends sa... More >>

• Days After Slaying of Kaufman County DA and His Wife, Terrell Man Arrested For Threatening a County Official

  published Apr 03, 2013

  Nick Morale, a 56-year-old man from Terrell, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of making "terroristic threats" against the life of an unnamed county official. Lieutenant Justin Lewis of the Kaufman C... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  In Kaufman County, Authorities Hunt for Killers as a Neighborhood Remains in Shock

  published Apr 02, 2013

  Police had only just opened Blarney Stone Way in Forney Monday afternoon when this picture was taken. Satellite trucks were already stacked fender to fender for 100 yards or more, and cameramen were t... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Greg Abbott Wants To Make Texas' Interim (And Still Probably Unconstitutional) Redistricting Plan Permanent

  published Apr 01, 2013

  As you may recall, Texas' 2011 plan to redraw political boundaries was so brazenly partisan, so undeniably bent on reducing minority influence, and the evidence was so mountainous and convincing that... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Federal Appeals Court Ruling on Lawsuit Against EPA is a Partial Loss For Dallas-based Luminant and Enviros

  published Mar 28, 2013

  The ongoing legal war of many fronts among Dallas-based Luminant, the state of Texas, the EPA and environmentalists is mostly a war of incremental victories.This week, EPA arose victorious. Next mont... More >>