Winning friends, influencing people It sounds like such a good idea: a big, wealthy, downtown law firm opens up a storefront office in South Dallas to serve the black community gratis. You know, noblesse oblige…among lawyers, no less. Nice plan, but its execution by the firm of Bickel & Brewer…
Belo bashing Burl Osborne’s interference in the News’ reporting on the Trinity River plan as recounted by Jim Schutze is disgraceful, but it is not surprising [“Unfairness doctrine”, May 14]. The leopard has not really changed its spots. I have never subscribed to the News in my 29 years living…
If boys could fly, the world would look like Eisenbergs. Scores of boys on in-line skates, skateboards, and BMX bikes are perched atop enormous plywood ramps like crows on a cliff. The place reeks of young men, slick with sweat, ostentatiously stoical in their Teutonic skate helmets and gladiator pads…
Venable ego-watch Washington at Valley Forge. Travis at the Alamo. Venable at DISD. That’s right, history buffs. Dallas’ own education gadfly Don Venable is the Man with the Stand on the Dallas school board, sacrificing himself and standing by his principles. At least, that’s his story. According to Venable, he…
The spectacle that took place two weeks ago at the home of Charlotte Parkhurst, a.k.a. the Mulch Lady, was awe-inspiring. An army of city officials–representing code enforcement, streets, sanitation, fire, and neighborhood services–occupied the 7200 block of Eccles drive in Pleasant Grove as part of a five-day blitzkrieg designed to…
A mini-revolt is brewing among Dallas Morning News reporters who believe the paper’s coverage of the Trinity River bond election was dishonest. At an angry newsroom meeting last week, reporters told top editors they felt the News’ so-called “fairness” policy had become a “euphemism for watered-down coverage and kowtowing to…
“This was a masterpiece, wasn’t it?” Steven Russell says with a laugh, on the phone from a Florida jail. He is referring to his latest escape. A fast-talking pathological liar, Russell recently pulled off his fourth illegal exit from a Texas prison or jail. This spring, for the second time…
Buzz off Regarding the “Buzz” last week about NAACP [leader] Lee Alcorn: Your suggestion that Lee Alcorn “staged” his “painful-to-watch” appearance at the City Council meeting on April 22 was not paranoid but absurd and mean-spirited, and reflects laziness on the part of your staff. First, having watched his speech,…
The classroom signs promote happy thoughts, visions of love and work and well-being. “Wanted,” one poster says. “Someone to love me for me.” The teacher, Wanda Evans, a middle-aged Lockheed Martin worker, has even tacked up one of her own messages: “A lot of good things will come out of…
As he speaks, it is easy to forget that Carnell Johnson is sitting inside the north tower of the Lew Sterrett jail, caught safely in the hands of the Dallas County sheriff. On this Monday afternoon, Johnson is remarkably happy and, for just a moment, the white brick cell doesn’t…
Discussing gang presence in Deep Ellum with Dallas police or a merchant from that area is a dance of verbal negotiation and qualification. They will use the “g” word only if pushed. They will only reluctantly admit that the Deep Ellum Association has paid to redirect traffic on Friday and…
One born every minute Buzz isn’t quite sure what possessed us to stop by last week’s book signing for self-professed medium James Van Praagh, whose book of happy talk about the afterlife–Talking to Heaven–is a bestseller. Maybe it’s his claim that he can chat with the departed spirits of animals…
You lose some About the article on the Trinity River Plan [“Flood money,” January 22]: Are you guys biased very much? Is that what you call responsible journalism? Well, at this point it does not really matter: The Trinity Plan has been passed by the voters, and Dallas is well…
Behind a glass wall in the high-tech North Dallas offices of ABC Radio Networks is what pretends to be a live broadcast featuring a large cast of characters all interacting with each other in the same studio. But the radio players who are doing political commentary, comedy sketches, running gags,…
The Dallas Observer does not exist to create a local music scene, not even to foster one: It’s survival of the fittest out there, baby, and audiences will pony up the dough regardless of a few kind or harsh words in a newspaper. (After all, Deep Blue Something and Jackopierce…
Ron’s pal If Buzz were conspiracy-minded, here’s one we could peddle with the Kennedy assassination freaks: Lee Alcorn’s opposition to the Trinity River plan is all a scam, a setup he arranged with Mayor Ron Kirk to actually sell the project. A touch paranoid, you say? Well, how else to…
It’s a long way to the 21st century when you’re trying to get there with a 286 personal computer, a clicking, grinding beast consigned to obsolescence sometime in the late 1980s. A 286 is too slow to support Microsoft Windows, the operating system that’s become the universal standard. And because…
Dallas Observer staff writer Christine Biederman has won a 1998 Gavel Award for her October 2 story “Temper, temper” about the troubles afflicting U.S. District Judge John Henry McBryde of Fort Worth. Biederman was one of 14 reporters in 11 categories to win Gavel Awards, given by the Public Affairs…
Al Lipscomb’s betrayal I lived in Denton for most of my life, and I’m still amazed at the control exerted by the downtown businesses in Dallas. I now live in Boston, where politics is a bit more confrontational. I didn’t always agree with the stands that Al [Lipscomb] took, but…
Josh Alan Nominated for: Blues, Folk/Acoustic Who knew what to make of Alan’s 1997 Blacks ‘n’ Jews? The title track was a work of absolute genius and chutzpah, the history of black-Jewish relations rolled up into one glib, sharp statement: “Marchin’ two-by-two down in Mississippi/One was a Panther when the…
They spot the truck in the gathering light of 7 a.m., way down a ragged, weedy back street in blue-collar Balch Springs. “That’ll be him,” says Mike Armstrong, spotting at impossible range the little details that distinguish the suspected drug runner’s Ford pickup–the dark blue tint, the Mag wheels, the…
Even now, more than a year later, the kids at school taunt him. They call him liar, say he’s arrogant, full of shit. Hey, when ya gonna get your own video game? They pull up to his pickup truck at stoplights and ridicule him, holding up signs on which they…
