Email Author Brantley Hargrove

2012 Stories by Brantley Hargrove

• Wynnewood North Man Who Says DPD Smashed His Face Prepares to Explain Injuries In Court

  published Dec 31, 2012

  We return to the story of Danny Cantu, the middle-aged diesel mechanic who was preparing a sandwich in his South Dallas kitchen in 2010 when a flash-bang grenade punched through the backdoor. Dallas ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  After Chest-Thumping Over International Election Observers, Greg Abbott Admits Texas Sovereignty In No Danger

  published Dec 28, 2012

  In an exercise in states' rights fetishization, the Texas Legislature tasked Attorney General Greg Abbott with figuring out whether international organizations are usurping Lone Star sovereignty. If ... More >>

• Judge Recuses Himself From Keystone XL Protesters' Cases Over Conflict of Interest

  published Dec 27, 2012

  A $65,000 bond for three young people arrested on misdemeanor charges sounded unusually high to us when we wrote about the Keystone XL protesters locked up in Smith County a week ago. Bail was halve... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Killer Steven Lawayne Nelson Calms Down on Death Row -- For Now

  published Dec 26, 2012

  Last time we checked in with Steven Lawayne Nelson, the scent of flame retardant and his screams were carried into the courtroom shortly after the jury handed him a death sentence. In October, the 25... More >>

• Plan Commission Punts Floodplain Fracking Proposal To City Council, Where They Might Finally Have To Make a Decision

  published Dec 21, 2012

  If you could make it through the interminable hours of debate regarding the virtues of video boards; the dire necessity of liquoring up establishments zoned dry; and what sounded like a monolithic Oa... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Bond Was Set Extra High for Keystone Pipeline Protesters, to Send Those Hippies a Message

  published Dec 20, 2012

  For more than two weeks, three young people arrested on misdemeanor charges have remained in a Smith County jail, unable to bond about because a judge set bail at $65,000. They stand accused of misde... More >>

• No, Six-Gun-Toting Teachers Will not Rove DISD Campuses (Updated)

  published Dec 18, 2012

  As we reported earlier, newly elected state Representative Jason Villalba announced his intention to file legislation allowing Texas school districts to arm trained faculty and staff members. "Schoo... More >>

• DNA Links Man in County Jail to Halloween Mask Found at South Dallas Murder Scene

  published Dec 14, 2012

  More than three years ago, a woman Dallas police will not identify for her safety returned to her home on Frio Drive in South Dallas. A 36-year-old man named Hashim Anderson was there when she went t... More >>

• Landowner's Temporary Restraining Order Against Keystone Pipeline Dissolved By Nacogdoches County Judge

  published Dec 13, 2012

  Two days after a Nacogdoches County man won a temporary restraining order against TransCanada, halting construction of the controversial, 1,200-mile Keystone XL pipeline across his land, the judge th... More >>

• Nacogdoches County Landowner Wins Temporary Restraining Order Against Keystone Pipeline

  published Dec 11, 2012

  Nacogdoches County Court at Law Judge Jack Sinz issued a temporary restraining order against TransCanada Tuesday, preventing the company from continuing construction of the southern leg of the contro... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Review: UT Study Declaring Fracking Groundwater-Safe Failed To Disclose Conflict of Interest, Should Be Withdrawn

  published Dec 07, 2012

  An independent review of the University of Texas study that famously declared fracking could not be tied to groundwater contamination has recommended that the school retract it. The well-publicized ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  National Weather Service: Expect A Warm, Dry Winter, North Texas

  published Dec 06, 2012

  Last winter was a godsend. After surviving the driest year in Texas history, we got one of the wettest winters on record. Since April, though, North Texas has been racking up rain deficits, according... More >>

• This Is What Texas Stands to Spend, and Gain, with Obamacare

  published Dec 05, 2012

  Governor Rick Perry vows that the Medicaid expansion prescribed under Obamacare won't come to Texas, the state with the highest rate of uninsured in the country. He fears it would render Lone Star St... More >>

• Frackers Are Walking Through Gaping Holes In Texas Chemical Disclosure Law

  published Dec 03, 2012

  Last summer, as the Dallas City Council was briefed on the ins and outs of bringing heavy, industrial processes into a densely populated, urban area, industry boosters like Ed Ireland of the Barnett S... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  The Bizarre Tale of Sam Lone Wolf, the "Spiritual Elder" in the Case of the White Buffalo

  published Nov 30, 2012

  Earlier this month, I wrote a cover story so bizarre, I had to periodically check official documents just to be sure I had not wandered into the realm of magical realism. Yes, in fact, a sacred white ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Hey Dallas, Don't Get Used to that Cheap Water

  published Nov 28, 2012

  We've had it good, no doubt about it. Ever since the drought of the '50s, when Dallas water planners set forth, constructing and acquiring the rights to reservoirs that would feed the city's growth fo... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Texas Railroad Commission Still Needs to Work on Holding Oil and Gas Producers Accountable

  published Nov 27, 2012

  Once again, the Railroad Commission of Texas' raison d'etre has been evaluated by a commission comprising state legislators and two regular citizens. Once again, it was given a reprieve from being ab... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Writer Loses CultureMap Gig After Blasting Highland Park "Rape Apology"

  published Nov 26, 2012

  Pop culture and music writer Dan Solomon, who until recently contributed to CultureMap's Austin and Houston sites, says his byline is no longer welcome at the digital-media venture. Apparently, corpo... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  A Witness Watched Two Dudes Gun Down Another Saturday, in Defense of Mom's Honor

  published Nov 19, 2012

  Just after midnight on Saturday, an employee of an apartment complex off of Bonnie View Road, not far from Paul Quinn College, was sitting in his car when saw a man in a gray hoodie shooting in the di... More >>

• Irving-Based ExxonMobil Wants A Carbon Tax. Meanwhile, Hell Freezes.

  published Nov 16, 2012

  Now that one of the largest oil and natural gas producers in the world is behind the carbon tax, is it finally an idea whose time has comer For the record, White House spokesman Jay Carney says Presid... More >>

• UTSW Research: Mice Predict Spread of Skin Cancer in Humans

  published Nov 08, 2012

  When Dr. Sean Morrison and a handful of researchers at UT Southwestern placed two lists side by side, it was as if the air had been pulled from the room. On one list were patients being treated for me... More >>

• Congressman Ralph Hall is Almost 90, and Totally Unstoppable

  published Nov 06, 2012

  On this Election Day, I pause to consider Representative Ralph Hall, the man from Fate, Texas. Not long after he is re-elected -- and he will be re-elected -- he will turn 90. Why am I so confidentr... More >>

• Donald Trump and Mark Cuban Are Fighting On Twitter Right Now

  published Nov 05, 2012

  Today, from the annals of meaningless, social-media ephemera, we'd like to direct you to the bitchy little TwitterFight between Mark Cuban and Donald Trump. It is, we assure you, the kind of TwitterFi... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  David Barton's Libyan Fever Dream: Obama Was Complicit In U.S. Ambassador's Murder

  published Nov 05, 2012

  Today, in The State of American Discourse, I present to you David Barton, religious ideologue, fantastical historian and weeping boil on the hide of Texas. No, he is not an entirely fringe crank. Bar... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Co-Creator of White Buffalo: An American Prophecy: Investigation into Animal's Death a "Crock of Shit"

  published Nov 01, 2012

  In this week's edition, the cover story chronicles the short life and ambiguous death of Lightning Medicine Cloud, the rare white buffalo born to Hunt County rancher Arby Little Soldier. To the Lakota... More >>