Round 2 Think Albertson’s effort to build a humongous grocery store in Old East Dallas died when the City Plan Commission voted unanimously to reject its rezoning request last month? Think again. The grocery store chain has already sewed up one influential ally in its bid to have the city…

Dallas’ most wanted Buzz is resting a lot easier tonight, knowing that men like Brad Lapsley can’t escape the reach of Dallas law. At 71, Lapsley, a former missionary in Ethiopia who once served on the Dallas school board, may not look like a hard case–except for that school board…

Assumption of risk Here’s a health tip for all you youngsters out there: If you don’t want to risk a raging case of herpes, never have unprotected intercourse with anyone in the NBA. OK, so that one’s a bit obvious. Apparently, however, some people are clueless, and one of them…

Was it something we said? Buzz really hates it when our targets turn the tables on us. We were ready to scorch state Rep. Jerry Madden after someone from the Richardson Republican’s office called the Dallas Observer last week and asked us to please stop sending a complimentary copy of…

Party pooped Well, this is just great. Just when we thought we had our New Year’s plans down, The Turn: America at the Millennium goes belly-up and Buzz faces greeting the end of the century with Dick Clark and a bottle of cold duck. Frankly, we hesitated at taking a…

Let’s not Was the Houston Chronicle making a snide prediction about the vapid speech Gov. George W. Bush gave at his inauguration, or was it just a Freudian slip? Buzz is referring to a typo in a Chronicle story that appeared before the event. The inauguration’s theme was “Together We…

Firewalk with him “Meet the challenge of a single evening and transform your entire life.” The last time Buzz heard an offer like that, we became engaged to be married. (Happily! Happily!) Now that Buzz has cleared our social calendar for, oh, the next decade, maybe we will take this…

Coals to Newcastle It’s not easy to survive on the mean streets, especially in a tough burg like Highland Park, where crime is a way of life and the peace is shattered nightly by the sound of barking gats blazing away in nocturnal leadfests. Sorry, Buzz is feeling noirish. Apparently,…

Dallas 1998. Think back with us to the unique, exciting moments over the past year. Really, we mean it. Think back with us. Better yet, think back for us, because, frankly, Buzz’s memory is not what it was before we discovered beer many, many years ago. Let’s see. We recall…

Calling Mr. Grant Forget the millennial fervor. Forget that the Super Bowl is just weeks away. For Buzz, the best part of the new year is that January 1 is the scheduled start-up date for TXCN, A.H. Belo Corp.’s all-news, all-Texas cable channel. We’re not so dweebish as to become…

Fire two Last week, Buzz saluted city council member Don Hicks for nominating former Councilman Chris Luna to the new city task force on ethics. (That would be the Chris Luna whose character is so flawed that it even offended his former fellow council members–not an easy thing to do.)…

Every man for himself Lame duck Attorney General Dan Morales has often stood alone. As a conservative Democratic legislator, he crossed ways with the Democratic leadership in Austin. As attorney general, he went against the wishes of many Hispanic activists by not challenging a court decision that overturned the UT…

Father of the year Upon returning to the team he abandoned for money at the end of the 1996 season, once-and-future Dallas Cowboys cornerback Larry Brown told local scribes that God brought him and his loving family back to Texas Stadium. Brown was contemplating retirement and seeking a little guidance…

Go ahead, make grandpa’s day Someone once said that the only things invariably fatal to a political career are being found in bed with a dead woman or a with live boy. We’d like to add a third to that list: getting crosswise with old people. You would think that…

If at first you don’t succeed… So Jesse Diaz is all set to attempt yet another ascent up the greasy pole and run for the Dallas school board seat so quickly vacated by Don “See ya later” Venable. That leads to the obvious question–no offense to Diaz–Is this the best…

The Thrilla on Marilla, Part 2 Buzz is not a regular at Dallas City Council meetings, but after sitting in on last week’s session, that may change. This isn’t because of any newfound fascination with City Hall, we’re ashamed to say. It’s because we’re swine, and we would hate to…

We hardly knew ye The Irrelevant Party, formerly known as the Texas Democratic Party, held a series of wakes around Austin on election night. The Republicans, on the other hand, gathered all their statewide candidates together for a single huge election-night celebration at the Austin Convention Center. (Buzz will refrain…

I shall whine no more forever Noisy activist-type guy Lee Alcorn gets to stay in the race for president of the NAACP’s Dallas chapter–for now, anyway. But the stage is set for a potentially nasty dispute if he manages to win the November 21 election. The national NAACP has been…

That’s entertainment Forget the cheesy haunted houses, skip the costume parties. If you’re looking for some real Halloween fun, wash your face, comb your hair, and head to church this weekend in Irving and Fort Worth. Bob Larson, described in his press release as a “lecturer, author, and radio and…

See no evil, etc. Regular readers of Buzz–both of you–may have noticed that former Dallas Observer columnist and current city council member Laura Miller appears fairly frequently in this space. This is not a conspiracy. We swear it. It’s just that, with the exception of Miller and Mayor Ron Kirk,…

Smells like Victory What do Albert Einstein, Jesse Owens, and the freedom fighters of Tiananmen Square have in common? Beats us. Maybe they all liked to shop at the Gap, which, Buzz suspects, one day will be one of the many stores at Hillwood Development Corp.’s arena-retail-office-entertainment complex. Al, Jesse,…

Old times best forgotten First, City Councilwoman Laura Miller made people cry when she suggested the city might have something better to spend $50,000 on than a Veterans Day parade. Now the city is the target of righteous anger by Confederate history buffs. It’s becoming clear why the city hasn’t…