Donna Blumer made a pronouncement to her peers on the Dallas City Council at mid-morning. “It seems as though things are unraveling,” she said simply. They were. The council had spent all morning last Thursday slugging through the language used to describe the duties of the soon-to-be-created city ethics commission,…
It seemed like such an innocuous idea to his new American scientific partners: take visiting Russian scientist Alexander Chepurnov out for dinner and a movie. Some laboratory joker recommended that they take Chepurnov, head of a virology lab in Siberia, to see Mission: Impossible 2. When he settled into his…
Convicted contract killer and insurance swindler Michael Lee Davis has a gift for making money from other people’s mortality. Now someone finally might make some from his death. Davis, who was called Walter Waldhauser Jr. when he took part in a triple murder in Houston 21 years ago, was sentenced…
Without prompting, “Flor” will show anyone her last report card from Sunset High School. She is proud of it, and with good reason. She had a 96.79 during her last year of classes, boosting her final grade-point average to 87.89. Flor, an ambitious student who once hoped to become an…
When you open your phone bill on June 1, don’t be surprised to see a vaguely worded statement explaining why you need to open your wallet a little wider. The changes in your phone bill are the result of a battle fought between Texas cities and telecom companies in Austin…
Eileen Sanchez cradles her 2-year-old son in one arm and her set of blueprints in the other. “This was going to be our dream home,” she says, unrolling the plans. Unfurled, the blueprints reveal a two-story house with four bedrooms and a three-car garage. Sanchez envisioned each of her three…
WACO — Standing at the top of the slight rise called Mount Carmel, it is almost impossible to imagine a tank charging up its slope. The windswept hill grants a serene view of the rugged landscape, the normally quiet Double E Ranch Road, and two small ponds so tranquil, they…
ennifer Mallett flips through photos of her late boyfriend, Juan Carlos Oseguera, seeking a good one to send to his parents in Honduras. She laments that there isn’t one showing the couple together. “I know my father has a videotape with both of us on it,” she says listlessly. “He…
