The winds are changing, and George McMahon can feel it in his bones. His ashen face takes on a pained expression as he peers out the window of his Lake Palestine home, watching the tops of the tall pines bend to the bluster of an approaching rainstorm. It’s not as…
Ashleigh Banfield stands demurely in front of a police barricade in Washington, D.C., scratching her face as a TV camera captures the moment live. Caught unaware, she adjusts her signature glasses, the source of some local gossip and much national notoriety since her rise last year from Fox 4 anchorwoman…
It happens every spring or thereabouts: The rookies can’t wait to get started, to prove themselves worthy of a shot in the bigs. For aging veterans, the layoff has been too long. They stretch their backs and arms, working out the kinks, eager to find their shot, which seems all…
One after another, they drift into the cramped Dallas offices of counselor Phil Taylor–a half dozen of America’s Most Unwanted, registered sex offenders all. Reeking of strong coffee, summer sweat, and stale cigarettes, they have come this Saturday morning seeking group therapy for the same reason they do every Saturday…
It spread like some contagion, ruthlessly ravaging the wardrobes of lawyers across the city. First there was the occasional “casual day.” Dressing down became a reward for a job well done, a celebration when a law firm’s billable rate topped $400 an hour. Then things got more habitual. Every Friday…
Let’s say you’re a disgruntled employee working for corporation, and your boss, the CEO, really pisses you off. You’ve grown weary of his sharp business practices, his wasteful spending, his penchant for young women. Let’s say you are sitting at home in front of your computer, and you decide to…
If you want to survive prison, there is only one way to do your time: Mind your own business. Prison culture demands that you keep to yourself and show no weakness, emotion, or tears unless you want to be someone’s punk or prey. Someone disrespects you, plays on you by…
His voice sounds so familiar–deep, resonant, dweebishly articulate–as he defends George W. Bush in front of a swarm of stinging reporters. His face is also hard to forget, though the years have wrinkled his brow and doubled his chin. He looks rounder in the middle, yet at 52, former Dallas…
Charles “Chuck” Muñoz says he’s led a structured life: organized, conservative, somewhat guarded. At 43, he doesn’t seem like someone who would act impulsively. Yet Muñoz is running for sheriff of Dallas County, as a Democrat no less, in the year of George W. Bush. Rather than run for an…
Having grown up Jewish in Dallas, I rarely read the Texas Jewish Post–OK, one time when my sister got married and the newspaper ran her picture, and another time after I had heard a rumor that the weekly had extended birthday wishes in its pages to a dead guy. It…
The platter of Swedish meatballs told the whole story. Each ball was chewy and just the right size to pop into your mouth at a political function and still be able to work the room with no fear of spillage. Yet these balls were too abundant, a mountain of meat…
When Bill Price entered a room full of politicians, his droopy eyes would light up, his blasé demeanor would turn commanding. The same thing happened when a TV camera started rolling or a reporter questioned his mission or his motives. Off camera, he spoke softly, measuring his words, but stick…
Back in the day, if you had asked Ruby Bouie about her drug of choice, she would have told you right out, “Whatever you got, honey.” Booze, pot, ecstasy, acid, crank, coke, smoking it, shooting it, snorting it–she had been drinking and drugging since she was 16.
You boot up your computer. Go online. Punch in the address www.TimberwolfPress.com and hit “enter.” Against a black background appears a photo of a lone wolf, its eyes narrowing as the image melts and morphs into a graphic: It’s the same wolf, only outlined in devilish red, its eyes just…
Bob Brightwell is reluctant to talk about it, and he damn sure doesn’t want to be photographed. Not with the skin grafts that discolor his forehead and temple. Not with the scars that disfigure his arms and hands. Not with the memory of the fiery crash more than 19 months…
As far as civil disobedience goes, the protest in front of The Dallas Morning News early Friday morning was about as obedient as it gets. A handful of Muslim demonstrators walked along Young Street, slowing their gait deliberately as they ambled in front of the entrance to the newspaper’s parking…
April 27, 2000. Dateline Dotcompound. Somewhere in a secluded section of North Dallas, the DotComGuy, a Dallas techno-geek who has cut himself off from the world to live his life online for a year, is holding yet another press conference. About a half dozen local broadcast and print reporters are…
It’s February 2000, the primary season is in full tilt, and busy worker bees from both parties are delivering their yard signs, marking their turf, extending their reach. A lone Jeep Wrangler rolls into the parking lot at Martin Weiss Park and Recreation Center, looking as if it were about…
As lambs to slaughter they come, pitiful men with middle-age paunches, clueless characters with bad teeth, tortured souls who have emotionally abused their wives and are now prepared to sacrifice themselves on the altar of daytime television. Just why they come seems incomprehensible: A trip to foggy Chicago in mid-March?…
Working homicide for the last 20 years, Dallas Detective Jesse Briseno was all too familiar with the pattern — a dead body, a thorough investigation, and an air-tight case, yet the prime suspect gets away with murder. Too often that murderer was a Mexican national living and killing in Dallas…
Bobby Wightman-Cervantes insists on explaining himself, purposefully slowing the rapid-fire patter of his New York twang to make himself understood. Yes, just two years ago, he ran for Dallas County district judge as the first openly gay Republican to seek that office. And yes, he is now running for the…
The scripture inscribed on his stationery offers some indication of just how sacredly immigration attorney John Wheat Gibson takes his calling: Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless, or the widow. — Deuteronomy 27:19 It also should have been Immigration and Naturalization Service District Director…
