Licensed to speak: OK, here’s a thought: The next time the Texas legislators want to propose a redundant state constitutional amendment, maybe they should consider one granting Texans the right to free speech unfettered by government regulation–sort of like, you know, the First Amendment. Why? Consider this: Two groups on…

Say I don’t: Hope, they say, springs eternal. Unless you happen to be a Texas voter of the progressive or liberal bent, in which case all hope was beaten out of you about the time Ann Richards cleaned out her desk in the governor’s mansion. So it was with low…

Go on, flame us: It’s been a busy few weeks here at Buzz central, as we’ve been doing our part to help put together the massive Best of Dallas issue you hold in your hands. It’s a lot of work, and it’s not over yet. Now comes the part where…

Opportunity poops: Listen up, editors of Dog Fancy magazine: You missed the scoop (that’s our last bit of wordplay, we promise) when you excluded Dallas from the list of Top 10 canine-friendly cities in your current issue. Houston made the list. Austin made it. But not Big D, a city…

Not so public: Buzz’s congratulations go out to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for winning the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas’ James Madison Award for his work on behalf of open government. Good for you, General Abbott, now about those Dallas Observer public records requests… “Texas functions best when…

Dang, some good news: Buzz, ever the one to point out the dark cloud amid the silver lining, was going to tell you about some of the sad, stupid things we’ve heard from certain people–dimwitted white people–about the evacuees from New Orleans. See, there was the article someone sent us…

Damn: Last week, Buzz suggested that The Dallas Morning News could provide a service to its readers if it would begin publishing longer Sunday pieces that wrap up big breaking local news stories, rather than letting the news come in bits and pieces. Specifically, we were looking for a scorecard…

Feelin’ groovy: One of Buzz’s all-time favorite lines about the news business comes from the 1994 movie The Paper: “We taint them today, we make them look good on Saturday. Everybody’s happy.” It’s funny, as Homer Simpson would say, because it’s true. Take, for example, two stories that appeared within…

Al redux: A few new faces are walking around the Dallas Observer offices, as former staffers have left for new “opportunities” (rehab). Among the newcomers is right-hander Matt Pulle (3.72 ERA) brought over from Tennessee as a reporter. To acquaint Matt with the city, Buzz sent him over to last…

Just because you’re paranoid: So Buzz and the missus were doing our monthly shopping at Sam’s Club this weekend–bottled water, beer, toilet paper. When we got to the checkout, the clerk told us that our account had changed. We could no longer use a debit card but had to pay…

We here at the Dallas Observer want to say “thank you” to D magazine for naming Jim Schutze “best muckraker” in the mag’s upcoming August issue. Or, instead of “thank,” maybe we mean another word ending in “k,” because D’s compliment was backhanded. The magazine’s editors said Schutze’s column was…

Where’s the love? Your regular Buzz correspondent travels out of town for a week’s vacation, and only then Dallas decides to hold one of its most absurd political farces in the past decade. OK, we’re overstating it. The farcical comes fast and frequently from City Hall. Still, the sight of…

First the bad news, at least for the media: Since the U.S. Supreme Court declined this week to hear an appeal by two reporters found in contempt of court for refusing to reveal the names of confidential sources, journalists, especially in Texas, have scant protection from prosecutors who want to…

The news is a bit old now, but if you think Buzz is going to pass up a chance to riff about high school cheerleaders pooping on a pizza, then all we can say to you is “Welcome to Dallas, new reader!” We’re talking about the story widely reported last…

Two questions leaped to our mind when we saw the billboard for Amdecon along Interstate 35 near Oak Cliff, featuring a chalk outline of a dead body and offering cleanup for the aftereffects of homicides, suicides and decomposing corpses. First, has Dallas’ long reign at the top of the nation’s…

Arabs fighting Kurds. Israelis battling Palestinians. Americans vs. Iraqis. And so on. Can’t we all just get along? Or, barring that, can someone tell a black woman where she can get a decent, inexpensive haircut in this town? Stay with us; this will make sense shortly. A haircut is what…

Being the suspicious, cynical sort, Buzz couldn’t help but salivate a little bit when we heard that Mayor Laura Miller’s chief of staff, Crayton Webb, quit his job not long after the strong-mayor proposal was defeated. Not to paint an unduly harsh picture of Webb, who’s always been friendly, helpful…

First the good news: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is all over the bureaucratic SNAFU that allowed convicted sex offenders to receive Viagra and other sex-enhancing drugs through the state’s Medicaid program. State Senator Florence Shapiro has agreed to attach an amendment drafted by the AG’s office to another bill…

Buzz is in Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective, mode this week, trying to get to the bottom of several mysteries: Who was the driver of the car that fled from the scene of a traffic accident involving Ricardo Medrano, brother of District 2 city council candidate Pauline Medrano? Why was political…

A quick note to those of you who think the media conspire to wield undue influence on politics: You can stop now. As apparent from the past weekend’s butt-beating of the strong-mayor proposal–supported by The Dallas Morning News, us and other media folk–we couldn’t influence our way to an order…

Dallas leaders often cite Houston as a city with ideas worth copying. Houston has a strong-mayor system, for instance, and its local government corporations and municipal management districts–private/public entities used to redevelop neighborhoods–are considered by some a pattern for redeveloping Dallas’ downtown. Now comes this little gem: banning BO. Last…

The fun vote: To the people who care–chiefly Dallas officeholders and the people who own them–the vote on the city’s strong-mayor initiative is the Most Important Issue in democracy since 1776. To everyone else in the city? Eh, not so much. After the first four days of early voting, Dallas…