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S E C O N D   O F   T W O   P A R T S When Kerry Max Cook arrived on death row on July 18, 1978, he was given a haircut, doused with disinfectant, tagged with an execution number, and branded a punk, a fag,…

It’s hard to get on Texas’ death row these days — if you want to interview an inmate there. According to regulations that cover death row visitations — including those by news media — almost any news organization that isn’t considered mainstream is barred from getting face-to-face with inmates at…

citizens group trying to keep Tenison Park in Old East Dallas from becoming a semi-private high-end golf club suffered a defeat recently when an appeals court tossed out their suit. Justice Michael J. O’Neill of the 5th District Texas Court of Appeals said in an opinion July 8 that individuals,…

Two Dallas Observer staff writers and Editor Julie Lyons were winners in two national writing and reporting competitions among alternative newspapers. Reporters Christine Biederman and Thomas Korosec were awarded first place for investigative reporting among newspapers with circulation greater than 54,000 by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. They won for…

Judge not Your mother always warned you, girls. Once you get a bad reputation, you’ll never shake it. Just ask visiting District Judge Candace Tyson, who once again came in dead last in the Dallas Bar Association’s judicial evaluation poll. Every two years, the association quizzes local lawyers about their…

For this kind of decision, Kerry Max Cook needed room to pace, but 5 feet was all he would allow himself: Two steps forward, turn, two steps back, turn. The distance was set in his bones. Pacing that same 5-foot span for hours at a time had been his way…

Just how 2-month-old Eric Hernandez’s femur was broken remains a mystery. Only his 19-year-old mother knows how it happened. But every time she explains herself, her story changes. When Juana Olalde arrived at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas on February 27 with her injured son, she told Donna Mendez, a…

It must have seemed to Robert Crews like that old joke by mystery novelist Kinky Friedman: Whether you’re going to heaven or hell, you always have to change planes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Crews knows of the special purgatory that is DFW. For years, he always wanted one thing:…

Hold these balls Guess it could have been worse. In the NBA draft last week, Dallas Mavericks head coach-general manager Don Nelson picked an 18-year-old kid and a 7-foot-1 Chinese player named Wang Zhi-Zhi. So much for the saying, “He has a [politically incorrect term for Asian’s] chance of playing…

His face is pasty and pale, a sharp contrast to his greasy coal-black hair. His dark eyes are sunken under a low forehead and thick eyebrows; he frequently jabs, mashes, and grinds his eyes with the balls of his thumbs. When he speaks, he rarely makes eye contact. Even while…

He had heard his whole family was dead — slaughtered by Serbs. A few days later, in late April, he heard a radio report from Fort Dix, New Jersey, where the first planeloads of Kosovar refugees were waiting to be resettled. Driving back to his Carrollton home after a day…

Charlott Norman waves her hand over Lower Greenville Avenue from her perch atop the Dragonfly Bar & Restaurant’s roof patio. “The new Dragonfly will be totally different from the old one,” she says to a Channel 5 reporter on a segment that aired June 18. “The management team is going…

Imagine the surprise the people opposed to the Trinity River plan felt recently when they opened their June 27 copies of The Dallas Morning News and saw a story boldly confirming a fact the News had refused to report for more than a year: Dallas’ massive $1 billion-plus flood-control scheme…

The campaign to rename Jefferson Davis Elementary School in Oak Cliff seemed to reach a decisive conclusion when the school board voted 7-1 recently in favor of changing the name. But partisans in the Confederate camp hint the Jeff Davis fight was but a skirmish in what could become a…

Hallelujah Even Buzz isn’t averse to a little prayer when our back is against the wall. This usually happens on Tuesday, long after deadline, when our editor asks us whether this column is ready yet. “Just a minute,” we lie, then dash off a quick prayer, hoping for something –…

In the recent election for mayor and city council, all of the rhetoric was about streets, potholes, and basic repairs for neighborhoods. But hold on to your wallets. Our shop-till-you-drop city council has just seen something shiny it wants to buy. The Dallas City Council is about to commit the…

I’m gonna kill fucking Bill Clinton. Horace Caraker knew exactly what he was doing when, at 1:27 a.m. on October 11, 1995, he walked up to a pay phone on Gaston Avenue, called 911, and uttered those words to the Dallas police officer on the other end of the line…

On a muggy, overcast mid-June morning at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, trainer Dallas Keen sits atop a gray speckled pony called Blue, preparing to exercise the thoroughbreds in his stable. Rain has fallen all morning, and the track looks like so much cold Malt-o-Meal. It’s too muddy for…

On the surface, it looked like just another Monday on the fifth floor of the Frank Crowley Criminal Courts building. Potential jurors warmed the benches, waiting for their chances to do their duty. In one of the four courts on the south wing, a lone TV news cameraman aimed his…

Enough for a ticket? It’s easy to think Fredrick “Lico” Reyes is joking when he tells you he’s suing the Texas Rangers for 35 bucks. Hard to take seriously a man who sends legal documents accompanied by photos of himself dressed as a construction worker (named Manuel Labor) and a…

Walk into the Cathedral of Hope during Sunday services, and the first thing you will likely notice is the number of couples holding hands as they worship together — women locking fingers with women, men with other men. They do so rising and sitting, singing, and approaching the altar to…

Rachel Pantoja — cherubic, strawberry blond, and surprisingly self-possessed for a 12-year-old — whips around in her swivel chair as she awaits her turn at the mike in a recording studio in North Dallas. Rachel, whose idea of a good time is squirting lemonade at her friends from a toy…