Info: Blowing smoke Denton residents like Parks and Delores Olmon want to know how a posse of city slickers managed to railroad plans for a lead-belching copper factory in their town By Miriam Rozen These days, Denton folks write dueling versions of history. To some, January 6, 1998, was the…
Things appear to be looking up for Walter Waldhauser Jr. After being convicted of playing a central role in a gruesome triple murder-for-hire in Houston in 1980, he was released from prison in 1990 after serving a third of his plea-bargained sentence. He wound up back behind bars last month,…
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.)…
Wishing you a nasty Christmas Jimmy Fowler’s article titled “Holiday whores” and featuring a picture of 11-year-old Greta Sleeper in the December 17 issue is one of the worst-written criticisms of a theatrical production I have ever read. In my opinion, Mr. Fowler’s article is contradictory, ill-informed, full of generalizations,…
On a Wednesday afternoon in late October, about two weeks before Texas voters went to the polls to re-elect the governor and decide several close state-wide races, the numbers somehow got loose. They were poll numbers, the results of the Texas Poll, the most widely publicized pre-election poll in the…
It’s an unusually warm afternoon for a Texas Saturday in December, but inside the AMS Studios in Addison, the air feels cold enough to hang beef carcasses in. Nobody feels this more than Rusty the TNT Mailgirl, a strawberry-blond waitress at Humperdink’s in Arlington, who remains here all day and…
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…
For decades Dale Robinson has left his Lakewood home and headed over to Tenison Park, golf bag slung over his shoulder. Four times a week every week since he retired from his job as a mechanical contractor 20 years ago, Robinson has risen early in the morning, paid the reduced…
Paving paradise Somebody ought to give Jim Schutze whatever award of excellence you journalists get for his story on the Asian Gardens of East Dallas [“The garden of life,” December 3]. It is a beautiful, moving piece that chronicles the endurance and triumph of valuable refugees-turned-neighbors, brought here from Asia…
One minute, the woman in the clingy, curvy red and black dress makes the rounds as a waitress, taking drink orders from the tables of men at Mike’s El Socio Nightclub. The next moment, she is sitting with a customer in boots and straw hat, talking and laughing with him…
It can be difficult to define precisely what Deep Ellum was. Visual representations of its earliest street life are scant, aside from this 1922 photo of streetcar track being laid on Elm Street, several photos of Jewish shopkeepers, and a couple of images of blacks walking along Central Track. Deep…
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…
According to The Dallas Morning News and its City Hall reporting staff, the news on the Trinity River project over the last three months has been quite exciting. The city, according to the News, has decided to build an even bigger and better lake downtown than previously anticipated. The toll…
A decent man Congratulations to Robert Wilonsky for his fair and accurate portrayal of former chief Jesse Curry and his work [“Officer down,” November 26]. True, Curry made an unforgivable mistake in moving Oswald on November 24 in full view of the international media. Yet, as Wilonsky notes, this event…
The Dream varies according to talent, of course, but also according to circumstance and tradition. Young hoopsters on city street corners may fantasize about a ticket to the NBA, while Canadian boys dream of ice and pucks, and prep-schoolers of glory in tennis, crew, or lacrosse. And for young women…
The act of stepping in off the street through this gate, into this place, is a silent shock to the system, a trick on the soul. You begin at the curb of North Fitzhugh Avenue at Live Oak Street in East Dallas, ankle-deep in fast-food wrappers, awash in racket and…
Late in the morning after he has already put in what would be to most people a full day of chores, Larry Don Keith, a farmer from Como in East Texas, can sound downright philosophical about his predicament. “They’re looking for someone to blame,” says the 48-year-old third-generation dairy farmer…
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…
A kinder, gentler Albertson’s In response to Rose Farley’s article on Albertson’s [“It’s Your Store (Like it or Not),” November 19], I would like to clarify many misconceptions regarding the construction of a new Albertson’s on Live Oak at Collett. First, I’d like to reiterate Albertson’s strong commitment to meeting…
At 4:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, 11 grade-school kids sit quietly at metal desks in a borrowed classroom. The only sounds are the scuffing of pencil on paper and occasional sighs. Heads bent in concentration, the children mow down pages and pages of math problems while their teacher paces unobtrusively…
Until the early afternoon of November 24, 1963, Dallas police chief Jesse Curry had been everything the media asked of him. He was courteous, impossibly patient, willing to answer their questions–every damned one of them. At 50, Curry–a burly, soft-spoken man who looked like the smartest football player in the…
When former Dallas city election manager Jeff Watson announced 14 months ago he had accepted a job as elections administrator for Denton County, he thought the new position was an opportunity he just couldn’t pass up. The new gig came with expanded responsibilities in a considerably larger political arena, which…
