Email Author Brantley Hargrove

2011 Stories by Brantley Hargrove

• Chatting With a NOAA Meteorologist About This Drought: What It Is and What It Ain't

  published Sep 16, 2011

  So, what's our problemr Mostly, it's La Nina, that little trollop. She's been messin' with Texas for a long time. And the relationship between her cool Pacific sea-surface temperatures and dry times h... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Gulf War Syndrome Is Brain Damage Caused By Nerve Gas, Not Psychological Issues, UT Southwestern Study Proves

  published Sep 15, 2011

  There's no denying it now: Gulf War Syndrome, characterized by memory loss, lack of concentration, neuropathic pain and depression, is a physiological illness, not a psychological one. A UT Southwest... More >>

• Lessons in Recessionomics: Beef Prices, a Historic Drought and Hamburger

  published Sep 13, 2011

  As my grandfather would say, "It's drier than a popcorn fart." We're smack-dab in the middle of the worst one-year drought ever. The costliest too. Feed prices are nearly unaffordable. Stock tanks are... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Dollar Signs and EKG Lines: Dallas Heart Disease Study "Striking" For Poor Young People

  published Sep 12, 2011

  We hear a lot about income inequality these days, as we do about our collectively clogged arteries. But it's less often that we're reminded of how one affects the other. A study in the Canadian Me... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  New Texas Education Law Could Help Render Board of Ed Culture Wars Obsolete

  published Sep 09, 2011

  The jury's still out, but the fact fetishists at the Texas Freedom Network seem to think that the recently enacted Senate Bill 6 may help neuter the historically science-averse state Board of Educatio... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Still No Consensus at City Hall on Converting Refuse to Revenue -- Or How to Do It

  published Sep 07, 2011

  Waste as opportunity, or waste as the perpetuation of racial and economic inequalityr Unfair interference in the trash-hauling free market or the forward-looking future of refuser Both sides have been... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Obama, Schmoshama: ICE Counterterrorism Unit Arrests 27 For Outdated Visas

  published Aug 31, 2011

  Rest easy, Friends of Unfair Park. ICE's Counterterrorism and Criminal Exploitation Unit is on the job. In the most recent sweep, they rounded up 27 dangerous immigration violators in the Dallas-Fort ... More >>

• The Texas Cattle Market Is Reeling From Costliest Drought in State's History

  published Aug 29, 2011

  Feed yards are glutted with the cattle of drought-stricken Texas ranchers forced to liquidate their herds, according to the most recent report from the USDA. Some 640,000 head were placed in feedlots ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Amidst Legal Battle With Plano Parent, a Tour Through Dublin Dr Pepper's Bottling Plant

  published Aug 25, 2011

  I guess it's just plain dumb luck that I happened to be drifting through tiny Dublin (population 4,000) on the one day a month delicious Dublin Dr Pepper is bottled. Now, for the uninitiated, Dublin D... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  With Millions at Stake, Exoneree Steven Phillips Arrested in Carrollton For Cocaine Possession

  published Aug 23, 2011

  Steven Phillips, a man who spent 25 years in prison for a string of Dallas rapes he did not commit, was arrested in Carrollton for cocaine possession -- an arrest that could cost him millions. When r... More >>

• Dallas Developer of Lake Whitney Resort Sued For Allegedly Pocketing Owners' Assn. Fees

  published Aug 22, 2011

  More than 450 current and former property owners at a Lake Whitney residential golf community, including dozens of locals, are suing Dallas-based developer Double Diamond, Inc., claiming they were cha... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Gov. Perry: We Teach Creationism in Texas Public Schools. The Rest of Texas: No, We Don't.

  published Aug 18, 2011

  How does one explain the follicle-by-follicle perfection of Gov. Rick Perry's imperturbable man-maner Where does his mega-watt smile and its rows of pearly whites come fromr Bracesr No, silly. They co... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  "Wildlife Rehabilitator" Bradshaw Has Been Acquitted of Theft Charge in Raccoon Rescue

  published Aug 17, 2011

  You may remember Bonnie Bradshaw, the woman who freed a raccoon she believed was overheated and dying in a live trap at a Richardson apartment complex. On that sweltering June afternoon, she thought s... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Science Wins In Evolution Denier's Campaign To Scrub Evolution From Texas Textbooks

  published Aug 15, 2011

  In July we told you about Dr. David Shorrman, author of The Exchange of Truth: Liberating the World From the Lie of Evolution and a member of the state biology panel making recommendations to the Texa... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Johnnie Lindsey Spent 26 Years Wrongfully Locked Up, But the State Won't Pay For Eight

  published Aug 15, 2011

  If a man spends 26 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit, you can bet he's going to want every cent he can get through the state's statutory compensation plan for the wrongfully imprisoned. We s... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Why Won't the State Pay Billy Allen For His Time In Prison -- Or Should Itr

  published Aug 12, 2011

  In the spirit of this week's cover on the exoneree compensation scheme and the attorneys who've profited handsomely from it, we submit the case of Billy Frederick Allen -- a man incarcerated for nearl... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Standing on the Margaret Hunt Hill, Before Getting a Look at What Runs Below

  published Aug 12, 2011

  Speaking of the Trinity River ... Perhaps I didn't end up visiting the under-construction Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge on the best day for our ongoing Unfair Park series, "Sweaty Dispatches From a Swelt... More >>

• Last Night, a First Step Toward Solving, Or Not, the Problem With ICE's Secure Communities

  published Aug 10, 2011

  Tuesday night, the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council's Task Force on Secure Communities (hold on, gotta catch my breath after that pithy title) held a pilot meeting at the Dallas County... More >>

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  COVER STORY

  Kevin Glasheen Fought to See Innocent Prisoners Compensated, Then Fought To Take Millions For Himself

  published August 11, 2011

  Steven Phillips was about to boil over. This, the attorneys in the room must have known, wasn't good for anyone. At 51, Phillips had a... More >>

• In Landlord-Tenant Squabble, West Oak Cliff Center Contests Diocese's Eviction Notice

  published Aug 08, 2011

  Last we checked, a small Hispanic community center offering after-school activities to the kiddos, tutoring for teens and a support group for seniors was getting kicked out of its West Oak Cliff digs ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Broken Men On the Mend at DNA Exoneree Steven Phillips's Carrollton Haven

  published Aug 05, 2011

  Call him Steven Phillips, collector of broken men. After all, he should know a thing or two about breaking. The man spent a quarter century in prison for a string of rapes in the early '80s. In 2007, ... More >>

• Dallas's Bishop Kevin Farrell Takes on An Old Latino Community Center in West Oak Cliff

  published Aug 03, 2011

  That sure happened fast. Behold, the Three Stages of Lawyering Up: Stage 1: A perceived injustice occurs -- in this case, a July 29 letter from attorneys representing the Diocese of Dallas and Kevin... More >>

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  Do-Gooder and Critter Trapper Both Get Tickets In Richardson

  published Jul 29, 2011

  Here's a moral conundrum for you, Friends of Unfair Park: Do personal property rights trump the exigency of a wild animal dying in a live trapr Apparently, they trump each other, because when certifie... More >>

• One Exoneree For Whom Doing the Time For Not Doing the Crime Definitely Did Not Pay

  published Jul 27, 2011

  We're ahead of the curve here in Texas when it comes to our treatment of the wrongfully convicted. These days, instead of loosing them into a world they barely recognize with empty pockets, we hand th... More >>

• Middle East Field Buyer Alleges Anti-Muslim Atmosphere At War-Zone Contractor Giant KBR

  published Jul 25, 2011

  KBR, Inc., the massive and controversial Houston-based wartime contractor that has landed billions in military contracts for erecting base camps and supplying fuel for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan... More >>