The tree, all trimmed with popcorn and tinsel and Dallas Morning News :CueCats converted into Christmas ornaments, is dim now. We’ve finally shipped off the gifts. (More free colon-afflicted :CueCats. Buzz is cheap.) So it’s time to toss a few :CueCats on the fire, fill up a water tumbler with…

Calling Jesse Jackson: The race wasn’t even close, but some black leaders in Dallas are as furious as a Florida Democrat over what they claim is another stolen election–this one the recent Smith vs. Wallace race to head Dallas’ dissension-plagued NAACP chapter. Victor Smith, a community relations officer for DISD…

Buh-bye Belo: The revolving door is spinning again at Channel 8. City Hall scoopdog Dave Evans left for WABC-TV in New York months back. Then three bigwigs–Robert Riggs, Alan Berg, and Vince Patton–bolted Belo earlier this month. And if you think they’re the only big-time talents who will be leaving…

Never mind the upcoming opening of DART’s CityPlace light rail stop; the events that have DART employees buzzing lately are unfolding in Houston, where former DART exec Shirley DeLibero, now head of that city’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, is demonstrating how not to handle a sudden career crisis. For weeks now,…

Cookie monster: The 1994 case is infamous. An 81-year-old New Mexico woman spills hot coffee on herself at a McDonald’s drive-through and sues the chain, winning a $2.9 million judgment from a jury and making herself the instant national poster-granny for the cause of tort reform. Though a judge reduced…

Fart of the deal: Unlike nice people, Buzz just loves to say we told you so. The words roll off our keyboard especially sweetly when we get to say them to Belo Corp., the owner of The Dallas Morning News, as in, “We told you that buying a share of…

Looking for a reason why judicial candidate Mary Ann “Kamikaze” Huey, the only Democrat with enough guts and self-delusions to run against a Republican judge in Dallas County, came within a gavel’s throw of disrobing incumbent Bill Rhea? Wondering why Rhea, who had the unqualified endorsements of the legal establishment…

No news is good news: Your regular Buzz correspondent is back–pale, rested, and ready from a vacation that absolutely did not involve involuntary commitment or heavy doses of psychotropic drugs, as far as you know. And didn’t young Eric Celeste do a fine job while we were away? Don’t you…

Tow to tangle: Buzz would like to offer the following advice to former DART board member and current Dallas Councilwoman Maxine Thornton-Reese: Next time, take the bus; it’s better for your blood pressure. Our counsel comes after learning that Thornton-Reese was “livid”–her word–because her car was towed while attending a…

Jaws: Occasionally, Buzz has been known to indulge in a little lawyer bashing, going so far as to suggest that some lawyers are less than honest. No, wait. We’re lying. We frequently suggest that it’s common for lawyers to lie like a rug. But not this week. We have found…

When Lee Jackson interviewed for the job of Dallas schools superintendent two weeks ago, minority advocates picketed, angrily blasting the board’s consideration of the Dallas County commissioner and former state lawmaker. Jackson apparently lacked a certain je ne sais quoi. Something just wasn’t right about the Dallas County judge, something…

Here’s a digit for you: To Buzz, a man approaching 40, it was an ominous warning: “You’re about to be digitally converged,” said the Digital:Convergence software we had just installed on our office computer. Not yet, we hoped. Our dad warned us about the intrusive medical exams that men of…

First the good news: It’s becoming less likely that Oliver Stone, who shot parts of Any Given Sunday, Talk Radio, Born on the Fourth of July, and JFK in Dallas, will ever shoot another film here. (Buzz is not a fan.) The bad news? It’s becoming less likely that anyone…

Spell it out: So this is it then. After years of spiritual aimlessness and fistfuls of antidepressants, Buzz has finally found our lot, our destiny, our reason to exist. It’s to provide you all life’s little vulgar details that other Dallas media won’t. Sounds like a pretty good deal to…

Inquiring minds: So Wick Allison, publisher of D magazine, in defense of decency and virtue ordered 70,000 copies of his magazine destroyed before they reached readers because D inadvertently accepted a pair of “obscene” ads, The Dallas Morning News reported. Uh-huh. That’s nice, and we’re sure his mother, if she’s…

SEEDless: Conventional wisdom says that if something isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Sadly, conventional wisdom isn’t so conventional at Dallas Independent School District headquarters, and a good, working program will soon be broke. The new DISD budget likely will slash funding for Project SEED, an 18-year-old program that brings top…

Surprise, surprise: So former Dallas NAACP President Lee Alcorn developed a taste for his foot last week regarding the nomination of “Jew person” (Alcorn’s phrase) Joe Lieberman as the Democratic vice presidential candidate. Someone tell Buzz, What exactly was so surprising? Was it that Alcorn might harbor anti-Semitic feelings in…

Cold embrace How confusing it must be for old-school, pro-family, Christian-right Republicans now, watching the GOP lurch toward the center, toward inclusiveness, toward sodomy. Some longtime GOP faithful must be feeling like the devoted wife suddenly cast aside for a younger woman — or man, as the case may be.For…

Why wait? Dallas school board member Jose Plata, a two-term trustee and staunch supporter of now-booted Superintendent Waldemar Rojas, says he’s throwing in the towel. Slowly. Plata won’t seek re-election when his term expires next May, and he’s advising his fellow trustees to do the same. He says he can…

Very personal injury Dennis Rodman has settled a lawsuit filed in Dallas County by a woman who alleged he infected her with herpes. Stacie Shobe claimed in her 1998 case that she had unprotected sex with the former Dallas Maverick after he told her he did not have any sexually…

Buzz supposes it was progress of a sort.

What’s in a name So Gordon Keith, KTCK-AM radio jock and sometime contributor to this paper, agreed to change his name to Dallasmaverick for one year and have the team’s logo tattooed on his body in exchange for $125,000 from Mavs owner Mark Cuban–half the money going to Keith, the…