The Lost Season

It looked bad. The 13-year-old QB clutched his right wrist, the one connected to his throwing hand. He seemed to be in more than great pain; he looked terrified.

The Plantation Wildcats were already down 7-0 to the Pembroke Pines Optimist Bengals in a big semifinal game. We really couldn't afford to have our quarterback coming up from the bottom of the pile screaming. One of our well-weathered coaches got a look at his mangled bones and came back to the sideline muttering, "Oh, that's ugly."

We didn't know it then, but he had broken both wrists. His right one was... full story >>

With Dallas Republicans in Pain, One Local Leader Believes He Has the Cure

Just an hour remains before the polls close on Election Day, but Dallas County Republican Party chair Jonathan Neerman seems remarkably calm. Maybe exhaustion has finally set in after working 13 hours straight, then making last-minute preparations for the Republican Election Night Watch Party at the Radisson Hotel on Central Expressway. This evening represents the culmination of a year's worth of hard work and the committed efforts of thousands of volunteers, donors and candidates attempting to yank the emergency brake on a runaway trend: The county that launched the political fortunes... full story >>

Sharles Johnson is a hero to his children -- and the arch-enemy of Jefferson County.

Sharles Johnson was on the phone with his mother when the doorbell rang at his home in Bolingbrook, Illinois. It was a Tuesday afternoon, and the stay-at-home dad was tending to his four youngest kids while the other two were finishing the school day and their mother was working at Target. He went to the door and saw three cops standing on the porch. One was holding a photo that looked like a blown-up version of Sharles's Colorado driver's license.

"Are you Sharles Johnson?" the cop asked. "There's an arrest warrant out for you in Colorado."

Sharles didn't have to hear... full story >>

Crime Doesn’t Pay(back): A Houston Press Special Report on Court-Ordered Restitutions in Texas

$120. That's what crack dealer Gregory "Little Greg" Stewart was trying to collect as he repeatedly beat customer Rick Galloway in the head seven years ago on a Houston street corner.

Injured, Galloway scrambled into a friend's nearby home to try to get away, but Stewart crept inside the house and delivered a final sucker punch to the back of Galloway's skull, bursting a blood vessel inside his brain. Galloway stumbled back outside, where he collapsed and started to convulse.

Four days later, Galloway's sister, Regina Cleggs, pulled the plug on her brother, who lay... full story >>

Merriam-based Lee Jeans is a proud maker of “mom jeans”

Lee Jeans' biggest day of the year was finally here.

On the first Friday in October, Lee spearheaded the annual Lee National Denim Day. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of employees at various companies paid $5 to wear jeans to work, raising about $5 million for breast-cancer research and women's cancer programs.

At Lee's headquarters, about a hundred staffers, clad in varying shades of pink, filtered into a conference room for a special lunch. They lined up for a buffet catered by Garozzo's, filling pink-plastic plates with lasagna, pasta, meatballs and salad.... full story >>

Budget Ballin'

Raul Regalado, the wide-eyed 25-year-old son of a Venezuelan textile executive, turns to a passenger as he pilots a $235,000 pumpkin-orange Lamborghini Gallardo south on Ocean Drive. "If I pick up a bitch," he declares, his voice wheezing with excitement, "you need to get out!"

He pushes a button controlling the vehicle's hydraulic system and jolts with surprise as the car lifts a few additional inches from the street. "Gangsta!" he declares.

But Raul is about as gangsta as Enrique Iglesias. He's a prep-school product who spent his childhood in English-speaking private... full story >>

Minneapolis hip-hop heavies Heiruspecs end their hiatus

You wouldn't know it from looking at the outside of the building, but inside an old warehouse in northeast Minneapolis, down a giant white hallway and tucked away behind an old, heavy metal door, lies the most active and influential hip-hop studio in town. An array of albums greets visitors, a physical representation of the work accomplished inside these walls: Atmosphere's entire catalog, most of Doomtree's solo and collective efforts, Brother Ali, Eyedea & Abilities, I Self Devine.

The Hideaway Studio is producer Joe Mabbott's playground, and the work he has done for local... full story >>

Nation’s Oldest Death Row Inmate Will Never Be Executed

"Now that our stubborn President Bush is about to leave office," Nash wrote in a shaky hand, "it appears that our overly tenacious state prosecutors won't be so brazen as to actually push Congress around in order to demonstrate their egregious power."

He went on, "There are obviously many weird people in our world, with twisted minds, that have a tendency to not only kill helpless people, but often do it in a despicable manner. Often, psychos turn into insane serial... full story >>

Car Alarm

Standing across the highway from the Altamont Landfill, which receives more than 80 percent of the garbage produced by San Francisco, Rick Lymp waits for a dump truck to roll by. He's not looking for any old dump truck. Lymp brought me here last spring hoping to spot one carrying the toxic leftovers of dismantled cars and old home appliances.

In the metal recycling business, these leftovers are known as shredder waste. California disposes of 700,000 tons of it every year, making it the biggest toxic waste stream in the state.

Few people outside the recycling industry... full story >>

Prized Fighter: Boxing in St. Louis will never die — not as long as Kenny Loehr has a kid in the ring

But man, they were good. They were dedicated. I had so many kids I didn't know what to do with them. But they worked. They had heart. And they all listened to me. Today they don't want to train! And I tell 'em, "You ain't training, I ain't taking... full story >>