Until last summer, thousands of current and former employees of the City of Dallas had no reason to suspect that their retirement nest eggs might be in jeopardy. Since city employees don’t participate in Social Security, they were spared the widespread discomfort afflicting workers who contribute to the federal system…
Longtime political gadfly Rick Finlan has plunged head first into the saga of the Peavy Tapes, and a collision with the U.S. Attorney’s office could very likely ensue. In a recent letter to the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Finlan asserts that U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins…
There was a time when T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oilman-turned-corporate-raider, graced the cover of Time, struck terror into America’s most powerful boardrooms, and cut deals the way he, and only he, wanted them. These days, Pickens has had to give up half his dog. Pickens, to be more precise,…
U.S. district Judge Jorge Solis has made it possible for a few more listeners to hear the notorious “Peavy Tapes.” Judge Solis, responding to motions made by U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins, ruled this week that the FBI can forward the tapes to the civil rights division of the U.S. Department…
Just last month, Bill Keever called a press conference and tearfully announced that he would relinquish his seat on the Dallas Independent School District board. He hoisted a flag of surrender familiar to embattled politicians, saying he needs to spend more time with his family. Keever said he would step…
After Dallas police concluded last month that Cowboys Erik Williams and Michael Irvin had been falsely accused of rape, Williams’ attorney asked investigators to give back some of the personal items police seized during their investigation. In response, police boxed up and returned some sex toys, a video camera, and…
Convoluted legal questions surrounding who is allowed to know–or talk about–what is contained on the notorious Peavy Tapes could open the door to criminal investigations of former school trustee Dan Peavy and long-time DISD critic Richard Finlan. A federal prosecutor has told a judge that Peavy and Finlan may be…
Dan Peavy, the former Dallas Independent School District board member who was acquitted last November on bribery charges, has begun taking steps to prepare himself–and his wallet–to battle another potential criminal charge. As the Dallas Observer first reported last week, U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins has asked federal judge Jorge Solis,…
On a mid-February afternoon in 1995, the nine members of the Dallas Independent School District board were holding a work session, one of their regular informal gatherings to hash out the particulars of pending business. Among other things that day, the board faced the question of establishing permanent committees–small groups…
Peerly Butbul was in no mood to suffer any more than she already had. The pregnant, 30-year-old mother of two, lumbering 10 days past her due date, had finally entered Columbia Hospital at Medical City Dallas last week for a scheduled induced delivery. She was in labor for an exhausting…
Long after prime-time television hours, speaking by phone from a Marriott hotel room in a suburb of Chicago, Doug Hamilton is sounding anything but happy. His wife and three school-age children are back at the family’s home in Rockwall, just east of Dallas. But Hamilton had to accept the only…
Robert Riggs and John Miller were in New York to bask. Riggs, a 16-year veteran reporter for WFAA-Channel 8, was about to be invested as a top gun. At a ritzy luncheon, he would accept the George Foster Peabody Award for Investigative Reporting. For broadcast journalists, there is little to…
By appearances, Kathy and Richard Kingsmore’s world was picture-perfect. The thirtysomething couple had three kids and a $413,000 house on a quiet street, with purple impatiens bordering the manicured lawn. The Kingsmores were shining stars at Prestonwood Baptist Church, a North Dallas megasanctuary that attracts a wealthy congregation. Richard was…
In the annals of business history, what took place in the high-ceilinged ballroom of the posh Omni Mandalay Hotel in Las Colinas late last July surely qualified as a moment: T. Boone Pickens Jr. very nearly cried in public. The occasion was the annual meeting of Mesa Inc., the oil…
One month after he was sacked as the president and chief executive officer of Performance Nutrition Inc., Gary Lewellyn has filed a $30-million lawsuit in state court against employees and investors of the company he founded. In the suit, Lewellyn contends that the group is responsible for fraudulently ousting him…
Henry Billingsley, the son-in-law of Dallas real-estate developer Trammell Crow, has been sentenced to six months in a halfway house and three years’ probation for his illegal dealings with a Libyan finance minister. Billingsley had pleaded guilty in July to charges of smuggling Mohammed Bukhari across the Mexican border into…
The well-heeled Highland Park schools rarely elicit sympathy from the Dallas area’s commoner districts. Who could summon pity for a school district where the average home value hovers around $400,000, and where only eight African-Americans are currently enrolled in its schools? Indeed, for a quick measure of the Highland Park…
Chris Bryant went to see the Beach Boys perform at the Starplex Amphitheatre several years ago, but the California-happy music did not make up for his rude experience. A paraplegic who lost the use of his legs in a motorcycle accident when he was 21, Bryant had purchased a general…
Gary Lewellyn, the founder, chairman, and chief executive of Dallas-based Performance Nutrition Inc., was ousted last week by the company’s shareholders, and the company now is reviewing financial records from a portion of Lewellyn’s tenure. “The actions were taken following the publication of an article indicating that Mr. Lewellyn had…
A former female employee who sued Sky Chefs Inc. in 1994 claiming that company supervisors failed to prevent male co-workers from sexually harassing and assaulting her on the job settled her case earlier this month. Tonjua Benge worked as a truck driver for the Arlington-based airline food company. Her allegations…
A baseball cap covers the closely cropped, strawberry-blond hair of Marc Alvarez, and a Nike logo pendant dangles from the gold chain around his neck. Baggy jean shorts hover below his hips, drooping toward his leather high-tops with their flashy stripes. Top to bottom, he looks more like a teen-ager…
Friends and business associates of Henry Billingsley say the son-in-law of developer Trammell Crow has always relished the sheer drama and mystery of high-stakes deal-making. “Henry, intellectually, likes to cross swords,” Randy Dumas, a London investment banker, once told the Dallas Observer. Last week, Billingsley made what could be regarded…
