A place for birds to live, as long as they don’t breath the polluted air. A year ago this month, before the brouhaha surrounding TXU’s coal-fired power plans peaked last month in a buyout of the company, the utility made more environmentally friendly headlines. In one of the stories, an…
A woman should ask a man’s advice about clothes? In what universe? What an easy, breezy digital society we live in. E-mails and e-cards are composed without a second thought, off to their destination before we can say “bare minimum effort required.” Nobody sends real, live letters anymore — nobody…
Just a programming note: Beginning tomorrow, Unfair Park will be the host site for extensive South by Southwest Music Festival coverage, with contributions from many of the estimable writers in the Village Voice Media … uh… empire? As a bonus, it’s also serving as a sneek peak at what Unfair…
It’s not a good morning for TXU, and the opening graf of this subscription-only Wall Street Journal piece says it all: “TXU Corp. may face tougher scrutiny of its proposed $32 billion buyout by private-equity interests including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. as a result of a finding it has…
So, Sunday, my partner in dining and I were about to tuck into some deliciously bad for us brunch at our neighborhood’s pride, the Gold Rush Cafe. As is the case for most meals at the Gold Rush, we ran into five people we knew, including our own Jim Schutze…
Zac Crain, who apparently used to work here, turned in his paperwork today, which means he’s now (almost) an official candidate for mayor. Our pal Zac Crain just called from the car — on his way back from City Hall, where he dropped off his paperwork to git himself on…
Jamie Beck, first assistant to Denton County District Attorney Paul Johnson, sheds some light on the “hate crime” trial that took place last week in Denton. On Friday, a jury acquitted George Clifton Young of assault under the Texas hate crime statute. “We believed it was a hate crime,” says…
So after six months in Texas, last week I officially had my strangest experience yet. Dallas Observer business took me to the Panhandle, where I got to stay in the lovely little highway town of Dumas. Like nearby Sunray, home to the world’s largest grain elevator (holds 7 million bushels,…
Well, if nothing else we found a different pic of Lone Star Funds’ honcho John Grayken. For months, Dallas-based Lone Star Funds has insisted it did nothing wrong when it bought at a low, low price of $1.5 billion the Korean Exchange Bank, which it intended to offload to South…
Is that a light saber in your pocket, or is this your wedding night? Busy this Saturday? I know it’s St. Patrick’s Day and all, but who really wants to go run around on Lower Greenville, downing pints in broad daylight with a bunch of other drunks wearing green? You…
The perfect man. OK, Miss Lonelyhearts, this one’s for you. Men’s Health magazine did all the work for you in your quest to find Mr. Right by analyzing the single-women to single-men ratio of 101 cities across the nation, and your man is out there somewhere. Criteria also included divorce…
I went to the Texas Film Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Austin on Friday night; turns out they’ve run out of people to put in that thing. (Which is where again? Oh, a Web site. How fancy. Least the rent’s cheap.) Actually, not so much: There’s still Dallas native…
We always forget Greg Ostertag went to Duncanville. Then, we always forget Greg Ostertag. Teardrop. In December, Cedar Hill and Southlake Carroll swept the high school football championships in the state’s two largest classes. Last week Fort Worth Dunbar and Rockwall nabbed the girls’ two biggest classes in basketball. And…
On Monday, a case goes to trial in Denton County that might answer a question brought up last year: Can a crime against a homosexual be successfully prosecuted there? The case involves Christopher McKee, a mental health caseworker who, on December 3, 2005, was badly beaten outside a Denton club…
Have you heard? Tom Leppert is a businessman. There is the glamourous and consequential side of journalism: Covering a presidential race, writing about a war, detailing the side effects of a new cancer drug, profiling Maggie Gyllenhaal. And there is this: Attending a debate for Dallas mayor at 7:30 in…
Pastor Sherman Allen of Shiloh Institutional Church of God in Christ offered advice on proper sex techniques, a source says. In what kind of church atmosphere would a woman submit to the unthinkable — allowing her pastor to paddle her repeatedly in various states of undress, sometimes causing bruises and…
Anyone seen Deadspin today — by which I mean this particular item about Texas Rangers reliever C.J. Wilson and the photo he (allegedly, since we’re so into covering our asses) posted to his pal Brandon McCarthy’s MySpace page? (It’s the February 1 posting, if you’re so inclined.) Yeah, just checking…
Sandra just doesn’t get Bible Girl. We know the feeling. Seems as if our very own Bible Girl is becoming a celeb’s celeb. Well, maybe that’s overstating it, but she’s on at least one celeb’s radar: None other than queer icon Sandra Bernhard brought Bible Girl up during my recent…
Folk singer/songwriter Tom Brosseau grew up in Grand Forks, North Dakota, a city devastated by the massive Red River (not ours, theirs) flood of 1997. Though it’s taken him a solid decade, Brosseau’s newest album — simply titled Grand Forks — gives a voice to the once struggling residents of…
So, he’ll be on the list, right? Right. In case you’re interested, yesterday’s posting concerning the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “Definitive 200” list — argh — has turned into a “Definitive Dallas” discussion. So join us, if you’re interested, in determining the most essential albums recorded by local…
The kid’s off on spring break. Wife’s got a four-day weekend. Par. Tee. Right? “Dude,” exclaims the giddy guy watering the adjacent urinal. He’s addressing no one in particular. “I haven’t been in a place in a long time where I was sure I could drag something home with me!”…
I finally talked to Jack Gosnell, the broker handling the Hard Rock Cafe sale on behalf of Brett Landes, and he could not have been more insightful concerning the battle over the fate of the 97-year-old former church on McKinney Avenue. Turns out, our Friend who attended Monday’s Landmark Commission…
