Email Author Brantley Hargrove

2012 Stories by Brantley Hargrove

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  FEATURED STORY

  Who's Watching the Watchers in Review of Controversial UT Fracking Reportr

  published Aug 15, 2012

  University of Texas prof Chip Groat's ties to the natural gas industry raised a few eyebrows last month after a report he served as lead researcher on gave the hydraulic fracturing process a clean bi... More >>

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  COVER STORY

  How Texas Came Within an Atom's Breadth of Discovering the God Particle

  published August 16, 2012

  Ryszard Stroynowski sat bathed in the pale glow of his laptop screen. At 2 in the morning of Independence Day, as the final, fugitive... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Ag Commish Todd Staples Tweets Column That Says Contemporary Democrats Are Basically Nazis Without the Fabulous Outfits

  published Aug 14, 2012

  Texas Commissioner of Agriculture Todd Staples sent a tweet to his followers Tuesday morning asking whether we're "worried about the direction of our country." Well, sure we're worried about partisan... More >>

• 'The Patrick Ewing of Suing' And His Fantastical Kardashian/Mark Cuban Fantasy Foursome Bounced From Court

  published Aug 13, 2012

  Gino Romano, alias Jonathan Lee Riches, alias Johnny Suenami, sued the Kardashian sisters, Kris Jenner, Lamar Odom and Mark Cuban in federal court. Whyr Because they're trying to kill him. Because he ... More >>

• With Larry McMurtry's Last Book Sale, Archer City Gets to Move On

  published Aug 10, 2012

  Earlier today, Larry McMurtry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show and Horseman, Pass By, began auctioning off some 300,000 books from his antiquarian store, Book... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings, Texas Biggest Power Generator, Piles On More Debt

  published Aug 09, 2012

  The announcement that Energy Future Holdings, the biggest generator of electricity in Texas, is going to issue $750 million in debt probably could have been timed better. Earlier this week, the compa... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Connection Between Quakes and Underground Frack-water Disposal Looks Solid

  published Aug 07, 2012

  There's a reason State Farm wants to insure Johnson County homes against earthquakes. Injecting millions of barrels of fracking waste water loosens faults the way whiskey loosens tongues. Cliff Fro... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Statistics Don't Equal Truth in Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Dallas Appeals Court Rules

  published Aug 07, 2012

  A recent opinion out of a state appeals court in Dallas sheds no light on whether Scott Wiseman of Garland is a complete scumbag. It does, however, make one thing clear: Prosecutors, do not let your e... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Judge: Farmers Branch Voting System Robs Hispanics of Representation

  published Aug 03, 2012

  A federal judge ruled Thursday that Farmers Branch's voting system is depriving the Latino population of representation on the City Council. City leaders have 60 days to address the violation of feder... More >>

• Regulators Didn't Need To Raise Price of Electricity To Keep Lights On

  published Aug 02, 2012

  As of Wednesday, the wholesale price of electricity generators can charge during times of peak demand goes up 50 percent. And as it turns out, that's probably a waste of money. Regulators are worried... More >>

• Farmers Branch Gets A Rehearing Before Appeals Court on Immigration Law

  published Aug 01, 2012

  A controversial Farmers Branch immigration ordinance will get a second chance in court after a sound rejection back in March, and the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's controversial immigration... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  TransCanada Can Move Ahead With Texas Portion of Pipeline, But the Fight Isn't Over

  published Jul 31, 2012

  Earlier this month, three East Texas hamlets with a collective population of fewer than 2,000 souls filed suit in a federal court in Oklahoma City to halt construction of the southern half of The Inte... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Meatless Mondays at USDA Out-and-Out "Treason," Ag Commish Staples Says

  published Jul 27, 2012

  Imbroglios don't get more prosaic than this: A USDA newsletter suggests its employees practice "Meatless Mondays," thereby shrinking their ecological footprint. Skip the Salisbury steak at the cafeter... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Ceasefire Called in Ongoing Scuffle Between Group Home and Dallas

  published Jul 26, 2012

  Judging by a joint filing in a federal-court scuffle between Avalon Residential Care Homes and the City of Dallas, the end may be in sight. Dallas has for years struggled to strike a balance between r... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Lead Researcher of UT Fracking Report Has Substantial Ties To Industry

  published Jul 24, 2012

  Back in February, I wrote about a heavily publicized report released by the University of Texas Energy Institute that billed itself as the authoritative guide for regulators wrestling with the extract... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Associated Press Says Fracking Debate Based on Bad Science. What Sciencer

  published Jul 23, 2012

  The Associated Press has news for the people who live above the shale formations experts say have transformed America's energy terrain: Critics of the gas extraction process known as hydraulic fractur... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  State Farm Wants To Insure Johnson County, Texas, Against Frack-Water Induced Quakes

  published Jul 20, 2012

  Like a good neighbor, State Farm wants to insure Johnson County homeowners against fracking-related earthquake damage. Cleburne, aka Lil' San Andreas, has experienced a string of quakes this summer. W... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  EPA Accuses Dallas-based Luminant's North Texas Power Plants of Clean Air Act Violations

  published Jul 19, 2012

  Dallas-based Luminant, the electricity generation arm of Energy Future Holdings, got hit with a violation notice from the EPA Friday, accusing it of completing major modifications to its northeast Te... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Former Fairview Cop Says Chief Fired Him In Alleged Sexual Harassment Cover-Up

  published Jul 17, 2012

  Last month, we wrote about a former Fairview Police officer who claimed the chief, Granver Tolliver, a fairly litigious former Dallas deputy chief of police, sexually harassed her repeatedly. In Lisa ... More >>

• In Farmers Branch Immigration Fight, Competing Readings of Supreme Court's Arizona Ruling

  published Jul 16, 2012

  Opposing counsel in a six-year legal battle over a proposed Farmers Branch immigration ordinance are trading letters to the judge, arguing, naturally, that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's... More >>

• Study: Texas' Hellacious 2011 Summer Is A Prime Example of Loaded Climate Dice

  published Jul 12, 2012

  Our record-busting summer 2011 continues to be an object of fascination to climate scientists all over the world. Alongside floods in Thailand, drought in Eastern Africa and the European heat wave, th... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Texas Executes Prisoners Like Dogs Now. And (If We're Going to Kill Them Anyway) That's A Good Thing

  published Jul 11, 2012

  On Tuesday, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced it would use a single drug -- pentobarbital, a barbiturate -- to carry out executions due to a shortage of one component in a three-drug... More >>

• Tiny East Texas Towns Join Fight Against Keystone Pipeline. Should Dallasr

  published Jul 10, 2012

  Together, they have a population of fewer than 2,000, but the tiny East Texas hamlets of Reklaw, Alto and Gallatin have an outsized mission: To halt the southern portion of TransCanada's Keystone XL p... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Victims of Joseph Garbarini, the Teacher Caught Molesting Kindergartners, Are Suing Plano ISD, Principal

  published Jul 09, 2012

  Parents of the victims of Joseph Garbarini, the pedophile who was sentenced to more than 60 years last October for the sexual abuse of kindergarten girls at Plano's Hunt Elementary school, are suing t... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Johnson County Landowners Accuse Chesapeake Energy of Skimming Shale Gas Royalties

  published Jul 06, 2012

  A family of Johnson County landowners is suing Chesapeake, the country's second-largest natural gas company, for allegedly cheating them out of royalties. Their lawyer, Dallas-based attorney James Hol... More >>