At 9:30 last Friday morning, moments before the start of a court hearing that centered on his installation as president of the Dallas branch of the NAACP, the tall, nattily dressed Lee Alcorn conceded he was perplexed. “I just don’t understand it,” Alcorn said of a battle that has erupted…

With a satisfied smile, Jack Lowe Jr. works his way through the nest of cubicles at TDIndustries, a Dallas-based plumbing and air-conditioning contractor where he serves as chairman and chief executive officer. Lowe, dressed casually in an open-collar shirt, walks at a leisurely pace, stopping several times to greet employees,…

Paul Coggins, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, raised suspicions about his political plans when he announced earlier this month that he was dropping his bid to become a federal judge. “I just decided it wasn’t the way I wanted to go,” Coggins says. “I had been…

Info: Blowing smoke Denton residents like Parks and Delores Olmon want to know how a posse of city slickers managed to railroad plans for a lead-belching copper factory in their town By Miriam Rozen These days, Denton folks write dueling versions of history. To some, January 6, 1998, was the…

Late in the morning after he has already put in what would be to most people a full day of chores, Larry Don Keith, a farmer from Como in East Texas, can sound downright philosophical about his predicament. “They’re looking for someone to blame,” says the 48-year-old third-generation dairy farmer…

At 4:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, 11 grade-school kids sit quietly at metal desks in a borrowed classroom. The only sounds are the scuffing of pencil on paper and occasional sighs. Heads bent in concentration, the children mow down pages and pages of math problems while their teacher paces unobtrusively…

It is Saturday in Plano, a day when droves of well-heeled suburbanites gather at the mall or on the soccer field. As usual, Mali Subbiah is not among them. Instead, the Indian immigrant toils in a drab, crowded room in his suburban office suite. A “cheesy little sign,” as one…

Lee Alcorn, the contentious president of the NAACP’s Dallas chapter, may be disqualified from seeking re-election–on a technicality. The organization’s national office is looking into allegations that Alcorn has failed to meet all the criteria necessary to seek office. These allegations have been raised in a hotly contested election for…

Cheryl Craigie, the president and chief executive of the KERA public television and radio stations, admits she just can’t keep it straight. “I always get it wrong,” the 42-year-old executive says. “What is it we promise on air? More programming and less fundraising? Or more fundraising and less programming?” Craigie,…

By any measure, January 16, 1998, was a historic day for the state of Texas. At the federal courthouse in Texarkana, Attorney General Dan Morales announced the multibillion-dollar settlement he’d brokered with the tobacco industry–money that would flow directly into state, county, and hospital-district coffers for legislators and local government…

At 2:55 on Monday afternoon, minutes before the school bell rings to dismiss classes at Plano’s Rosemary Haggar Elementary School, Joy Ramsier, suburban mother of two, takes to the streets. Armed with clipboard and pen, she mans her post near the school property line, under the shade of a sprawling…

A federal jury deliberated for only three hours before convicting William Risby, a roofing contractor, last Friday on 64 DISD-related counts that included charges of kickbacks, embezzlement, and conspiracy to defraud the school district of more than $385,000 for roofing repairs that were never performed. But as the proceedings unfolded…

For one Richardson family, the wait for the sun to set on a recent Saturday seemed particularly long. It was the weekend last month that the Tom Thumb Food & Pharmacy chain was opening its newest store, at the corner of Coit and Campbell roads. The Richardson family members, who…

John Wiley Price did most of the talking, holding forth grandly on his reasons for supporting Mayor Ron Kirk’s Trinity River Plan. Clad in a typically natty outfit–tapered jacket, gleaming cuff links, high-collared shirt–Price appeared at ease, in control. He handily outshone the four men beside him, the collection of…

Wanda Holloway, the so-called “Cheerleader Mom,” is nowhere in sight. But in the air-conditioned hallways of a Plano junior high school this past Saturday morning, her kind of zealotry for pompom competitions wouldn’t be out of place. Holloway was the Houston mom convicted in 1991 of hiring a killer to…

The information-technology employees at Walgreens, the drugstore chain, didn’t need government statisticians to tell them about historically low unemployment rates. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this month that the unemployment rate had fallen to 4.1 percent nationwide, the lowest it has been in 28 years. But at Walgreens, the…

The classroom signs promote happy thoughts, visions of love and work and well-being. “Wanted,” one poster says. “Someone to love me for me.” The teacher, Wanda Evans, a middle-aged Lockheed Martin worker, has even tacked up one of her own messages: “A lot of good things will come out of…

A connection with former Superintendent Yvonne Gonzalez doesn’t seem to carry many advantages these days at Dallas Independent School District. Take, for example, Marshall Smith. Gonzalez appointed him acting head of safety and security at DISD before she was sent to prison for stealing from the district. In return, Smith…

In TV soundbites, he is taut-faced and frenetic as he sputters and raves about the evils of the U.S. government. But late last week, from a cubicle at the Dallas County jail, Richard McLaren, the self-proclaimed leader of the Republic of Texas separatist movement, seemed surprisingly docile, relaxed, even convivial…

He is cute, almost cuddly, with a harmless smirk and a sandy mop that maintains its state of calculated dishevelment as he scampers about the soundstage, grabbing props, dropping jokes, chattering continuously like a rapper without a beat. He wears a tight, grass-green V-neck sweater, several braided string bracelets–the kind…

For the past 12 years, Dennis Eichelbaum has served as general counsel for the Dallas Independent School District. But earlier this month the DISD board, apparently displeased with his performance, handed Eichelbaum his walking papers. The trustees had terminated Eichelbaum’s contract as outside legal counsel in June but continued to…

Only one photograph of Willard Rollins exists in his personnel file at the Dallas Police Department. This crude mug shot, taken 23 years ago, captures Rollins–now third-in-command on the Dallas force–as a fresh recruit. The image is flawed: Bright lighting casts a sharp glare on Rollins’ face, and a name…