Bullish on Cow Town Is there no stopping them? First they revitalize their downtown–while ours begins to look like Robocop’s New Detroit. Then they capture the preeminent arts event of last year–the Barnes Collection–for their already thriving arts district. Then, their ballet company renames itself and pirouettes all over our…
I notice we’re having one of those spates of national concern about how dumb we are. “Nation of Nitwits,” “Pervasive Ignorance,” fret the pundits. The latest survey of how dumb we are shows that 60 percent of Americans can’t name the president who ordered the first atomic bomb to be…
Charitable counter-charge Speaking on behalf of the more than 1,000 volunteers in Dallas, we appreciate the opportunity to inform the community about the American Cancer Society and answer some of the questions raised in David Pasztor’s article “Uncharitable Charges” [February 2]. Unfortunately, Mr. Pasztor’s article failed to include the facts…
The earth moved at Dallas City Hall last week. But in more ways than you know. On Monday, Dallas lost the race to build an auto racetrack to Fort Worth. Which was a bad thing. On Friday, First Assistant City Manager Cliff Keheley–the City Hall veteran who has orchestrated much…
Every Tuesday evening, several hundred profoundly disaffected citizens gather in the ballroom of a hotel near Dallas Love Field. Tax protesters, survivalists, anarchists, conspiracy nuts, and Biblical literalists, they are drawn together by a shared conviction. Some force beyond the Ramada lights–the government, bankers, Jews, maybe all three–is relentlessly closing…
If you’ve got a smooth, north-south stretch of two-lane blacktop in your neighborhood, you might want to enter it in the race to be the official “NAFTA Highway.” You’ll join a crowded contest to be the road that will carry billions of dollars worth of goods between Mexico, the United…
Death sentence Continuing in its tradition of giving its readers a twisted version of reality, the Star-Telegram did what not even Judge Lance Ito would dare try–it fired a jury. In this case, it was the celebrated Arlington 10, the group of “ordinary citizens” that the S-T had impaneled to…
Ware must go I want to commend the Dallas Observer and Laura Miller for the excellent coverage on this arena outrage [“Arena stonewalling,” February 23] for which the taxpayers are being asked to subsidize the very rich trio of Ray Hunt, Don Carter, and Norm Green. There is no way…
Wheeee! In the mad, mad, mad, mad world of Nootsville, we’re coming right up on a hairpin turn at 90 mph. No joke–a total 180 in the middle of the road at high speed, such high speed that no one seems to have taken the time to consider just what…
The truth awaits Channel 8’s report on its stormy undercover foray into Sunset High School has been pushed back another week. Station news director John Miller told BeloWatch on Friday that Valeri Williams’ story about security in the Dallas public school–originally scheduled for last week–has been slowed by “the editorial…
Therman Nobles wanted to go home. Instead, he was sitting in the underground parking garage at Dallas City Hall, behind the wheel of tire truck No. 901020, with the engine idling noisily. He sat with his arms cradled around the steering wheel, staring at a set of fire-engine red doors…
Whither Debbie Does Dallas? Manufacturers and distributors of adult video tapes are threatening to pass up the Video Software Dealers Association national convention in Dallas this May. The convention will fill the Dallas Convention Center, welcome 14,000 participants, and, according to organizers, pump as much as $15 million into the…
Louise and Philip Elam spent the first Valentine’s Day of their 10-month-old marriage poring over yet another daily newspaper story that made their hearts sink. But, friends say, they spent their first Valentine’s Day not at a restaurant, nor with wine and flowers–as newly wedded couples like the Elams usually…
How to make room in Reunion Okay, so the Dallas City Council won’t let us vote on whether or not we want a new arena because we “don’t understand the economics of all this” [“Let them cast ballots,” February 9]. Well, here’s a little bit of economic theory that I…
God is their co-pilot It is common for a journalist to wish a colleague heading off for a difficult interview “good luck.” It is less common to commence an investigative project with a request for divine aid. But that, BeloWatch has learned, is precisely how undercover Channel 8 cameraman Darrell…
JaM’s acid test Thousands of North Texans are probably convinced their kids are druggies after seeing a particularly inane news-you-can-use graphic on Channel 5. The helpful advice came as a bonus during a report from Jammin’ Jane McGarry on the Bedford junior high school LSD scandal. McGarry, backed up by…
When Ron and Regina Godbey in January 1992 bought a used charcoal-gray General Motors Silverado pickup, they fell in love. “It was beautiful,” remembers Ron, a skinny 25-year-old insurance salesman. “People used to stop us in the parking lot and ask to look inside.” The Godbeys, who live in a…
The perfect word Thank you for your article on the Dallas Opera [“Building to a crescendo,” February 2], which was quite good and quite enjoyable. One minor point, however, meant in the spirit of edification and better writing: “Build to a crescendo” is one of those phrases that we are…
Channel 8 stung at Sunset Channel 8 got stung during an undercover investigation at a Dallas high school last week–and the embarrassing result raises serious questions about the use of hidden cameras and undercover cameramen by the city’s leading TV news station. It all began last Monday morning, when security…
The unsuspecting members of the Greater Dallas Planning Council had no idea what they were in for. As far as they were concerned, economist Mark Rosentraub was just another distinguished speaker, addressing just another monthly breakfast meeting of the 49-year-old group–one made up of architects, planners, builders, and concerned citizens…
Sometimes I think I made Warren Chisum up for my own amusement. Brother Chisum, the Bible-thumper from Pampa and chairman of the Legislature’s conservative caucus, is opposing a bill to require that caucuses report who gives them money and how the money is spent, even though last session, he headed…
Trying to understand Texas, New York style The esteemed New York Times Magazine on January 22 spotlighted a trend revealed by the letters-to-the-editor pages of the Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. It seems nearly a dozen readers’ letters over the past year–on subjects ranging from women’s rights to…
