Tarrant County

The Man Who Beat a Forest Hill Pastor to Death With an Electric Guitar Was Really High on PCP

Last October, in a particularly brutal and senseless act of violence, Derrick Birdow crashed a Mercury Grand Marquis through the side of Greater Sweethome Missionary Baptist Church and proceeded to fatally bludgeon its 53-year-old pastor, the Reverend Danny Kirk Sr., with an electric guitar. Police ... More >>

In Capital Murder Trial For Suffocation of Arlington Preacher, An Accounting. For Jonathan Holden's Family, A Time to Speak.

Two deaths will be answered for in a trial only intended to account for one. See also: - Imaginary Monsters Chased Jonny Holden All His Life, Then a Real One Caught Him First, starting Monday, Steven Lawayne Nelson, a deeply troubled 25-year-old, will be tried for the murder of Clinton Dobson, a 2 ... More >>

In Rural Tarrant County, a Man is Beaten to Death By Alleged White Supremacists

On the night of July 7, two women huddled in the back bedroom of the mobile home at 6108 Big Wood Court in rural Tarrant County. From another room, they could hear the cries of 34-year-old Earnest Ray Lackey, as three men hog-tied and beat him for hours until, at some point, the screams stopped and ... More >>

Star-Telegram Says Better Policy is Why Tarrant Has Fewer Exonerations than Dallas County. But What's The Real Reason?

Updated to include an additional interview. A Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial published this weekend concludes that Tarrant County has not exonerated nearly as many innocent prisoners as Dallas County simply because it did not wrongfully incarcerate them in the first place. This black-and-white ... More >>

Tim Love's Woodshed is Open in Fort Worth and Serving Straight Fat (Photos)

Woodshed Smokehouse (3201 Riverfront) held its soft opening last night on Fort Worth's Trinity Trails, playing to a large crowd of cowboy-booted TCU students and what was very likely the entire medical community of Tarrant County. Seriously, everyone was wearing scrubs. Or purple. Chef Tim Love's n ... More >>

DPD Says It Arrested 31 Drunk Drivers Over the Long New Year's Holiday Weekend

​Channel 11 had a piece last night about the breastfeeding mom and the party of 12 greeted by a New Year's Eve stray bullet coming through their bedroom ceiling. That footnote, as you'll no doubt recall, was part of DPD's crime-stats round-up yesterday. Today we get the DWI numbers, which are clos ... More >>

Once More, With Feeling, Dallas PD Warns You to Put Away Fireworks, Firearms This Weekend

​Forthcoming: Anna's account of a morning presser with Dallas PD Chief David Brown about a crime-ring bust-up and Leslie's chitchats with Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins and a Tarrant County ADA about drunk-driving initiatives over the holiday weekend. Happy New Year! But first, the ... More >>

Tarrant County to Publicly Shame Drunk Drivers. Dallas Isn't Ready to Go That Far.

If your New Year's weekend plans include a destination in Tarrant County and you have a nasty and terribly irresponsible habit of driving drunk, your boozebaggery and bad decisions can make you famous -- which is to say, infamous. The Tarrant County District Attorey's Office will publish the names o ... More >>

Reviewing the Redistricting, So Far

Dallas, Fort Worth and surrounding counties as divvied up in the Solomons-Seliger Congressional Proposal​Yesterday morning, the state House Committee on Redistricting and the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting released what's known as PlanC125 -- or the Solomons-Seliger Congressional Proposa ... More >>

For Your Bob Dylan's 70th Listening Pleasure

His Bobness​Back in August, Big Bucks Burnett sent word that he'd acquired a harmonica used by Bob Dylan during his November '78 appearance in Fort Worth, a stop along the Street-Legal tour. It would ultimately make a fine addition to Bucks's Eight Track Museum, along with Tiny Tim's dental mold. ... More >>

Nigerian Soccer Star Buried in Africa, As Family Challenges Little Elm PD's Suicide Ruling

Uche Okafor, a soccer star in Nigeria, played for Major League Soccer's Kansas City Wizards in the late '90s.​In the two months since Nigerian soccer star and Major League Soccer alum Uche Okafor was found dead in his Little Elm home, press from his home country has followed the blow-by-blow betwe ... More >>

But It's for Charity

Tarrant County Judge Delays Release of Surfing Star's Autopsy Till "News Frenzy" Dissipates

​On November 2, as you'll recall, pro surfer Andy Irons's body was found in a room at the Grand Hyatt DFW, a cache of prescription pill bottles by his bedside. His family insisted, no, those had nothing to do with the 32-year-old's death. Instead, they said, the world champion, who'd taken a room ... More >>

Whatever Works: Eating to Feed the Hungry; Dominion Farms Going Au Naturel

Dominion FarmsInside Dominion's Store​This year has been one of charity and fund-raising in the North Texas food world. So much so, it's surprising chefs haven't been hospitalized for Hollywood's favorite "medical" condition, fatigue. One of this year's most notable events (for its locavore emphas ... More >>

For Your Long Weekend Listening Pleasure: The Stones Bring Some Girls to Will Rogers in '78

​Figured we might as well get the usual week-ending rock-and-roll-and ender out of the way sooner than later, though we will return Friday (if not sooner). Besides, I've got cooking prep work to do tonight (this, highly recommended) and could use the company. And this offering, from July '78, also ... More >>

Fares on the Trinity Railway Express Now Fair

​Morgan Lyons, spokesman for Dallas Area Rapid Transit, sends word this morning likely to be hailed as good news for riders of the Trinity Railway Express: Starting December 6, the fare zone boundary is moving two miles west -- from the West Irving Station in Dallas County to the CentrePort/DFW Ai ... More >>

Fort Worth Taco Week Proves Tacos Are Good For Everyone Except Fuzzy's Taco Shop

​Eating a taco helps fight your hunger. It also helps fight your neighbor's hunger. Well, at least that will be true next week. From November 14-18, The United Way of Tarrant County and a class of 23 seniors at Texas Christian University's Neeley School of Business in Fort Worth are partnering to ... More >>

Man, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles Is Really Proud of Its New Registration Stickers

​Truth told I wasn't aware the state's vehicle registration sticker was so hideous and hard-to-read. But it is. It is! Hence the new-and-improved version just debuted in Arlington at the Tarrant County tax office, where Texas Department of Motor Vehicles higher-ups gathered to birth with much prid ... More >>

For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: The Rolling Stones' Long Day's Journey Into Night at Sumet-Burnet Studios in June 1972

​Back in May I directed your attention to what remains my favorite Stones live comp, much of which comes from two Tarrant County Convention Center shows on June 24, 1972. Here's its exiled companion, which, till recently, I'd only heard in bits and pieces, and maybe with good reason -- it's six ho ... More >>

In Arlington, Open Records Not So Open?

​Speaking of criminals ...Courthouse News today has this lawsuit brought by an Austin law firm against the City of Arlington, in which Sullo & Bobbitt PLLC claims that the city, by moving its criminal records to municipal court, is attempting to restrict access to docs every other city in the ... More >>

Before You Grab That To-Go Sandwich at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Read This

​If you're traveling this holiday season, take note: USA Today has reviewed the food-inspection records for 10 airports -- including, of course, Dallas-Fort Worth International -- and dug up some unappetizing demerits. The story in this morning's paper doesn't detail the findings at DFW, but does ... More >>

Highway Patrol: NYTimes Examines the Clear and Present Danger Posed by Work Zones

​The front page of this morning's New York Times takes a long, hard look at how unsafe highway work zones are, especially those involving pavement-edge drop-offs (which, according to one 2006 study, pose "a potential safety hazard because significant vertical differences between surfaces can affec ... More >>

My Pet Goat Carcass, or: Yet Again, the State Goes After Local Grocer's Baaaaad Meat

​Seems the State of Texas isn't terribly impressed with the way Halal Import Food Market handles its meat -- and hasn't been since, oh, 2001, when the Arlington grocer-warehouse first opened its doors. Which is why Attorney General Greg Abbott's latest lawsuit against the East Pioneer Parkway-base ... More >>

Seen Any Protestors in Uptown? This is Why.

View Larger MapThe owners of 2525 McKinnon Street, home of The Retail Connection, and Gateway Tower on LBJ Freeway claim in court documents that they're being harassed by picketers -- and by picketers, they mean "homeless persons being paid to protest" by Alex Ornelas of Arlington, who's listed in c ... More >>

BREAKING NEWS: Russ Martin's Fiancee Taken Into Custody

The plot thickens.The attorney for Russ Martin's fiancee - Mandy - says this afternoon that his client was arrested via warrant and handcuffed at work Monday by Dallas County authorities, transfered to Irving and eventually taken by Tarrant County officers to Judge Jamie Cummings' County ... More >>

Go Home, GOP|Money For Nothing|Corrections

In Dallas This Week, a Grim Look at the Area's Sex Trafficking Trade

Russ Martin Update: No Update

Laughcast: Robert Hawkins, Steve Hirst, Backdoor Comedy Club

Laughcast: J.B. Smoove, Gary Hood, Dave Little

Laughcast: Dean Lewis, Todd Yohn, Mark Agee

Enter the Weekly Laughcast

Nice Cans

Designers and Architects show their can-do spirit

Rent Control

DA Does Have an Open-File Policy....Not

Does the DA's Office Have an Open-Door Policy? Pardon, Open-File Policy.

Good Hunter

The Inside Track

Eat This

Reel Gay

Short attention spans gets a little lesbian action

Runway Renaissance

No boarding pass required for Journeys: Public + Private

Best Kids Outing

Burger's Lake

Have a Cow, Man

Beef is what's for dinner at the Ultimate Cowtown Cookout

The Garden of Angels

With statues, crosses and Christmas ornaments, parents mourn and celebrate the memory of children taken by violence

Thanks, But No Thanks

Turning down millions in state money to build juvenile boot camps, Tarrant County opted for a different approach--one that works

Retreat

The Morning News ends its battle in Arlington with a whimper

Beaten paths

A plan for hike-and-bike trails faces gridlock

Toy boy

Tarrant County Sheriff David Williams lusts for helicopters, Chevy Tahoes, and machine guns, but in the hands of used car parts baron Ed Max, Williams is the ultimate cop toy

Handle With Care

Sex offender David Rivera was willing to do almost anything to stay out of jail. Except masturbate.

480 baseballs, 200 days

For Jeff Frye, North Loop Dodge is a long way from Port Charlotte