The Bicycle Thief

Right now, there are about 300 kids in Tulsa who think Dallas is just about the meanest city ever. Those kids, in middle school and high school, were supposed to get brand-new Schwinns on June 2 so they could use them in a 10-kilometer ride — The Tulsa Ride and…

A Depressing Story About Mel Renfro

On the front page of this morning’s New York Times is a piece about how “clinical depression among retired National Football League players is strongly correlated with the number of concussions they sustained.” The story’s based on a study conducted by the University of North Carolina’s Center for the Study…

For the Birds

You know you’ve made it as a Dallas birder when the guard at the south side sewage ponds knows your name. When you take binoculars on a run around White Rock Lake. When you check the Dallas Audubon Society to see if there have been any new sightings of birds…

Mayor Buzzkill

You know how you know you suck? Your legacy is way worse than the guy who fired Tom Landry. I tried to help Dallas Mayor Laura Miller. No, really. Tried to give her a platform to express her personal regret/jubilation/defiance/pulse over Super Bowl XLV being played in Arlington. Made an…

Funny Girl

This is how the scene must have looked at the Backdoor Comedy Club downtown on the night of February 1: It’s open mike night. In the lobby, a middle-aged woman with a mop of spiral curls is milling around in a blue polyester dress and white sneakers, carrying a boom…

Membership Has Privileges

Membership has privileges: Lucky you. Once again you get to bask in the gloriousness that is Buzz. Please, don’t bother to genuflect. Oh, OK, genuflect. But just a bit. Oops, sorry. We were feeling all Olympian for a moment. Don’t blame us, though; blame the Texas Legislature, which has decided…

Law Briefs

In random legal news… We just received word that five women who were treated at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas for anorexia and bulimia filed a lawsuit today in state district court in which the woman — each a patient in Presbyterian’s Eating Disorder Program — claim “the hospital and doctors…

Breaking Wind

I know right now it looks like you’d be better off investing in earth-friendly rain gear or perhaps an eco-kind Bible made from recycled paper so that you may be as green as possible in the swiftly moving apocalypse that is advancing upon us from the heavens. But someday it’s…

A-Rod = A-Fraud

The worst day ever in Texas Rangers history. Ever. Maybe it’s his cousin’s sister’s friend, or something. Maybe his wife, Cynthia, knows all about it. Maybe it’s harmless, innocent. Or just maybe — like some of us have long been saying — Alex Rodriguez is far from the Boy Scout…

Don’t Let the Screening Process Hit You in the Ass on the Way Out

DFW Airport’s Di Ann Sanchez says a propoed immigration-status screening system just won’t work. According to an Associated Press story that just moved, 16,727 employers verify their workers’ legal-immigration status through a system called the Electronic Employer Verification System. Immigration legislation pending in the Senate, reports the AP, “would require…

Belo Stock: I Wanna Take You Higher

Looks like plenty of folks took Citigroup analyst Eileen Furukawa’s advice yesterday and bought Belo. Trading Markets is reporting that Belo’s stock is at a 52-week high at this very moment, after it “broke out on Tuesday” — hmmm, wonder why. It opened at $21.60 this morning and is already…

Bee the Ball, Samir

Samir Patel’s finished third, 27th, second and 14th in his past four National Spelling Bees. James Maguire, author of the superb book American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds, is currently at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. — because, like, where else…

Mark Cuban Suits Up for Football

Yup — that’s what it’s going to say in Sunday’s New York Times, specifically its PLAY sports magazine. In the June 3 issue, Joe Nocera reports that Wall Street money man Bill Hambrecht and Google executive Tim Armstrong are launching a professional football league to compete with the NFL –…

Ron Paul: The Spoiler?

Ron Paul fascinates us. No idea why, unless it’s just that his brand of crazy sounds relatively sane. That, or we’re just amused by guys with two first names. Last year, I wrote a cover story about Bruce Bartlett’s being fired from the North Dallas-based right-wing think tank National Center…

A Rare Wonder for Your Ears

Stevie Wonder in 1973 — when he was damned near the most powerful live performer around Been trying to find a reason to post a link to the most amazing unreleased concert recording ever — which may be overstating it, but not by much — when it occurred to me…

Summer School

School’s out for summer! Unless you live in McKinney. Or you just like high school girls. Lots of reasons to be proud of living in McKinney these days. Cute little town square. Big green Wal-Mart. One school ranked among Newsweek’s best. Or is it two? But down at the McKinney…

Dallas, Detroit — What’s the Dif?

Former DISD deputy superintendent — and Detroit superintendent — William Coleman is expected to surrender to federal authorities today. Here’s a fascinating sidebar from today’s announcement of federal indictments being handed down for former DISD employees Ruben B. Bohuchot (the district’s former chief technology officer) and William Frederick Coleman III…

Belo Market Value

Regarding that Belo Corp. stock you’ve been eyeing: Buy, buy, buy. So says Citigroup analyst Eileen Furukawa this morning, who’s upgraded the stock from “hold” to “buy” just because it’s so damned cheap — $20.62 at opening bell this a.m. Furukawa says Belo’s stock is worth picking up just for…