Fearless Leader: Rubber Gloves’ Josh Baish

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. Josh Baish is the head honcho at Denton’s Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios, perhaps one of the most important venues in DFW’s music scene since opening in 1997. Baish owes its success…

In the Sorority Rape Case, Trying to Help Hits a Dead End

Here’s something scary. There’s a guy I have bumped into several times who looks like the artist’s rendering of the suspect in the sorority rapist case. I mean sort of. It’s not like, “Oh, look, it’s the guy!” But it could be. When I saw the picture in the paper…

A Christmas Gift Guide for the Mexi or Mexi-Curious in You Life

Dear Readers: In between your 15th tamale and sixth spiked cup of ponche, you’re going to have to buy regalos for Christmas or whatever pinche holiday you celebrate. OK, you don’t have to, but you should, to support all those great indie businesses suffering during this Great Recession. Behold, then,…

Bicycle Advocates Win a Game of Chicken

City Hall starts off last week giving one of its typical bureaucratic blow-offs to plans for bike lanes throughout the city. At a briefing before a city council committee, staff experts tell the council members that bike lanes would be hugely expensive. Sorta can’t be done. Big legal headache. Maybe…

Annie Karundethu, Proud Momma of Local Euphoria

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. Annie Karundethu runs a small but passionate organization called Local Euphoria, comprised of a couple folks who want to expose local talent and contribute to charity at the same time. She’s…

To Save the Trees, Start by Saving Poor People

Maybe we need some context for this week’s debate on Wal-Mart Stores Inc. vs. the tree canopy. After a not-very-uplifting debate yesterday including the line, “Trees do not vote,” our esteemed city council voted to allow a developer to decimate a vast swath of the urban forest for a new…

Cartels and conquistadors — who are worse?

Dear Mexican: Much has been said about the terrible things happening to the United States and its citizens at the hands of Mexican drug cartels. But what’s the difference between the modern-day cartels and the Big Four of the period between 1492 and 1775? I refer you to the kings…

The Black Police Association’s Disappearing Money

Dallas Police Sergeant Preston Gilstrap, recent former president of the Black Police Association of Dallas, has made serious allegations of financial wrongdoing against his own organization in reports he has taken to the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office…

Vince and Dawn Barnhill Have Seen a Million Faces, Rocked Them All

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. Vince and Dawn Barnhill have been running Universal Rehearsal since 1987, five years before they tied the knot. Over that time, they’ve hosted rehearsals by Erykah Badu, The Dixie Chicks, Miranda…

Dangers on a Train: Crime Goes Down Everywhere Except on DART

Wait a minute. The Dallas Morning News today publishes a story in which the top cop in the local transit agency gets away with blaming the economy and too much bling for a sharp increase in robberies and other crimes on the light rail system. Did anybody think to point…

Is Mexico’s Narco War a Revolution?

Dear Mexican: I read in your book that Mexico is due for a revolution about every 100 years or so. Do you think the drug war presently being fought between the cartels and the Mexican government is actually just a revolution being funded by drug money? —The Ugly American Dear…