Add Matthew Harden's name to the list of people queued up to get their hands on the infamous Peavy Tapes.
Lawyers representing the embattled DISD chief financial officer surprisingly came one step closer this week to hearing selections from the two-year-old tapes of former school trustee Dan Peavy's salty, bigoted telephone conversations.
State District Judge David Brooks promised to issue an order calling for the lawyer representing WFAA-TV and reporter Robert Riggs to turn over portions of the tapes to Harden. (Riggs got copies of the tapes from Peavy's neighbor, prompting the former trustee to sue Riggs and WFAA.)
Harden's lawyers want WFAA attorneys to give them the portions of the tapes that might provide ammo in Harden's case against former school board president Kathleen Leos.
The judge's order, however, may not be the final word. Federal Magistrate Jeff Kaplan, who is overseeing the pre-trial matters in the Peavy case against WFAA, will be the one to decide whether Harden gets to listen to the most sought-after recordings since Bob Dylan's The Basement Tapes.
The nerve
The Dallas Observer is always willing to pitch in to help out worthy causes, but somehow building a new home for two sports franchises just doesn't make the cut.
So Buzz was surprised to receive a letter from Dallas Stars president James R. Lites seeking "support and assistance for our Vote YES! campaign."
His letter asked us to place pro-arena signs and posters at our offices, enclose Vote YES! literature in our paychecks, and "encourag[e]...employees who are regularly in contact with Dallas residents to wear pro-arena buttons."
Our response, in a word: Puh-leeze.
Granted, Laura Miller is no longer on the staff, but we're still pretty fond of her here. We just hate the thought of stepping over her cold, lifeless body to hang a pro-arena sign. (We also hate the thought of what she'd do to our bodies if we even tried it.)
FYI, Jim, the Observer is distributed for free throughout the city. Pick up a copy and check it out.
The nerve II
Is there any limit to the cynical little distortions of fact that plague political life in Dallas?
Apparently not. For evidence, just look for American Airlines' disingenuous salvo in the dispute over expanded service from Love Field.
The airline's ad campaign urges Washington to "leave our airports alone," referring to Congress' recent move to loosen some of the restrictions of the Wright Amendment.
By God, you just gotta admire that heirs-of-the-Confederacy, anti-gummint spirit, don't you?
Except, of course, for the fact that the amendment itself is one whopping bit of ham-handed federal interference in a local issue--one that just happened to hand American a near-monopoly at D/FW.
As for American's friend-of-the-common-folk posturing, Buzz's response is, in a word...you know the rest.
--Compiled from staff reports by Patrick Williams
Buzz us at [email protected].
