Mount Pleasant

The Titus County Attorney Wants Texas Attorney General to Help Him in His Fight to Keep Bringing His Old Dachshund to Work

Titus County is a little spot on the far northeastern part of the map, comprising some 32,000 people total. Belle is a infirm, chocolate-colored, 16-year-old dachshund. She also lives in Titus, and it appears that she's made an enemy. Belle's person is named John Mark Cobern; he also happens to b ... More >>

EPA: Dallas-based Luminant Produces a Hell of A Lot of Greenhouse Gas, And So Does Fracking

The Environmental Protection Agency -- that scourge of freedom-loving Texans -- just released a nifty little interactive greenhouse-gas database that will almost certainly threaten your liberty, the free market and the Second Amendment, somehow. For starters, the data it compiled indicates Dallas- ... More >>

The Revisionaries Explores the Texas Board of Education's Fight Against Science, History

WFAA Probably Won't Let Libertarian John Jay Myers Into Senate Debate, So He's Protesting Its Downtown Headquarters

John Jay Myers owns the Free Man, a Cajun joint in Deep Ellum. He also runs a wholesale embroidery business, has a "deep, deep mistrust of the government," would like to legalize medical marijuana, and thinks we should bring all the U.S. troops home. And he believes Texans are being denied a chance ... More >>

Keystone Pipeline Protesters Tie Themselves to Construction Equipment, Halt Work

Three protesters tied themselves to logging equipment clearing trees for the southern portion of the Keystone pipeline early Wednesday morning. A representative of the group, which calls itself the Tar Sands Blockade, says work on the East Texas site is currently halted. "A caravan of between seven ... More >>

How One Man's Flaming Water Fired Up a Battle Between Texas and the EPA

Steve Lipsky's epic battle and what it means for the future of fracking.

Camera Crew in Tow, Khloe Kardashian Occupies City Hall. For the Children.

Photo by Anna MerlanHow Mayor Mike will end up on E! But, wait, where's Dwaine Caraway going?!​Perhaps you've heard: Famous Person Khloe Kardashian lives in Dallas now. She spent her midday hours today over at Dallas City Hall, collecting toys for Children's Medical Center of Dallas. Joining h ... More >>

So, New EPA Regs Won't Cause Apocalyptic Blackouts in Texas After All?

Luminant's Monticello​Over the course of the last month, both ERCOT and the North American Energy Reliability Corporation have warned of outages as early as next summer, due in large part, they say, to new regs issued by the EPA aimed at reducing the amount of mercury, sulfur dioxide and other ... More >>

Report: Texas Power Plants (Well, Luminant's, Really) Biggest Emitters of Mercury in U.S.

How now, Big Brown?​Emissions of cancer- and central nervous system defect-causing toxic air pollution put Texas power plants atop the pile of serial polluters, a report based on EPA data finds. Nationwide, pollution controls such as smokestack scrubbers have reduced the rates at which air tox ... More >>

Enviro Groups Prepare To Sue Luminant's Northeast Texas Power Plants Over Air Pollution

Big Brown​The Sierra Club gave Luminant Generation Company, downtown-based and one of Texas's biggest power suppliers, notice Thursday that it plans to sue them for thousands of alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at two of its coal-fired power plants in northeast Texas. According to envi ... More >>

Pilgrim's Pride Shuttering Massive Dallas Processing Plant, Affecting 1,000 Jobs

​Shortly after Pilgrim's Pride announced that its second-quarter results were dismal (as in, "a net loss of $128.1 million"), the chicken-seller delivered some very bad news: It's closing its mammoth Dallas processing plant by September. The plant, on Ferris just south of downtown, employs 1,000 h ... More >>

Former NY State Comptroller Makes Case For Retiring Three of Luminant's Coal-Fired Plants

Big Brown​Former New York State First Deputy Comptroller-turned-investment banker Tom Sanzillo released a report this morning, via the Sierra Club, demanding that Dallas-based Energy Future Holding (and its Luminant subsidiary) shutter three of its coal-fired power plants: Big Brown (in Fairfield) ... More >>

Los Pinos Ranch Chardonnay: Less Oak,
More Turpentine

​Wine from Pittsburgh? Surely you jest. After all, Pittsburgh is Steel City, known for its dominating football teams, brawling blue-collar identity and Primanti's, a famous hangout where the cooks are known to stuff French fries inside their burgers. Of course you would want to wash down such ... More >>

So Three Cabs Walk Into a Wine Garden...

For those of us who visit the State Fair, it's worth braving the Midway to revisit old favorites and discover new delights. As I reported last week, my wining companion and I were particularly pleased to find the Go Texan Wine Garden, a little Hill Country-esque oasis of vino, music and sanity near ... More >>

Grading on a Curve, or: How Old Do Those State Board of Education Candidates Think the Earth Is, Anyway? Let's Ask!

State Board of Education candidate Thomas Ratliff (and family), who thinks the earth is plenty old​Well, who knew? The eyes of Texas have been focused on the GOP primary race between Governor Rick Perry and challenger Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison as the ultimate throwdown between far right and ... More >>

Midlake Sets Release Date, Moves Forward With New Album. Which May Explain Why Jason Lee Is In Town.

Looks like ritual day at the Midlake house...​Big news today from Midlake camp, as the band's publicity team has sent out a press release announcing the date (February 2, 2010) and cover art (see right) of the band's first release in three years (The Courage of Others)--not to mention the somewhat ... More >>

An Over-Wide Net

Felipe Calderón Said All the Right Things Yesterday. But ... Then What?

Best State Legislator

Senator Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant

Case Closed

How Dallas police detective Shari Degan solved the grisly murder that rocked Dallas--in 1913

Dr. Cop

John Mullen is a modern-day action hero straight out of television, a full-time emergency room physician who fights crime and solves murders on the side

Price He's Paid

Ray Price has seen it all, from bucket-of-blood joints out on the Jacksboro Highway to Hank Williams' surgery scars

The other victim

In the media frenzy spurred by a serial killer, one small-town victim was forgotten, but not by her neighbors

The "Doctor" Is In

School board candidate Richard Evans has a checkered past, a mail-order degree, and a confrontational manner. But many city leaders think he's the best man for the job.

Talk to the animals

Veterinarian Norman Ralston favors acupuncture, herbs, and homeopathy instead of traditional animal medicine. He says pets speak to him through a channeler, and he lets them prescribe their own treatment. It's no wonder state regulators are keeping a clos

What makes Sammy run?

Huge and helpless, schizophrenic and hypertensive, Sammy Allen has fallen between the administrative cracks of a local mental health system that can't seem to get its ACT together

Losing Faith

Dallas Area Interfaith wants to give the city's poor and disenfranchised a voice in politics. But all critics see is another grab for power.

Joe Bob Briggs

Drive-In Movie Critic of Grapevine, TX

Fouled nest

Chicken king Bo Pilgrim meets his critics on his home turf

Bo? Hell no!

Chicken king Bo Pilgrim wants to bring a new plant and new jobs to East Texas. But East Texans say they want no more of his filthy business.