Can an old bush-league ballplayer take Cleveland wrestling to the big time?

The Masonic temple might be Lakewood's most beautiful building: a Grecian-style landmark overlooking Detroit Avenue, built in 1916 and sporting a facade of white limestone columns. And it hosts the appropriately grandiose traditions of the Freemasons — that male-only, not-so-secret society known for elaborate headgear, occult handshakes, and the membership of 15 American presidents.

But even for a clan with that kind of pedigree, maintaining a mammoth, 92-year-old building has a tendency to cut into the robe budget. So the temple is available nightly to any tenant who can... full story»

Bless Us, Oh Lard

The soft cheese taco I got with the "Special Mexican Dinner" at El Fenix on McKinney Avenue in downtown Dallas a couple of months ago mystified me. It was stuffed with cheddar and onions like a cheese enchilada, but the tortilla was steamed instead of fried and covered with chile con queso instead of chili gravy. It tasted sort of like a soggy Tex-Mex grilled cheese sandwich. It's long been a signature item at El Fenix—but why?

Susan Martinez, the former marketing manager of El Fenix, once explained to me over lunch that Dallasites like their salsa mild and their enchiladas... full story»

Denver's Own Royal Tenenbaums

There's always room for one more at the Tillemann-Dicks' dinner table.

Armed with fine silver and blue china, Shiloh Benson Tillemann-Dick, eighteen, carefully sets the lace-draped table, which is large enough for a corporate boardroom. His eleven-year-old brother, Zenith Wisdom, meanwhile, wrestles Nordik, the family's Great Pyrenees, into a side room where the volatile beast can't wreak so much havoc.

Out from the kitchen glides Charity Sunshine, their 24-year-old sister, holding aloft a heaping serving bowl of pasta she just pulled together. Under the soft glow of the... full story»

Houston Has a Bad Reputation with Touring Indie Bands

For lovers of modern indie rock, Houston has its very own Pearl Harbor Day — October 13, 2006. The battle took place at the Rice Military nightclub Walter's on Washington, when, early in the set of San Francisco punk-folk-blues band Two Gallants, all hell broke loose.

It all started with that new bane of live music in a rapidly infilling Inner Loop — a noise complaint from a neighbor who evidently was unduly disturbed by the strummings of the two-piece, acoustic guitar and drums band.

Before it was all over, burly Gabriel M. Rodriguez of the Houston... full story»

Angry parents say the Lee’s Summit School District leaves its autistic students behind

Sam Lindsey didn't have therapy that morning, so the day began more leisurely than usual. The 3-year-old was up with his mother, Joyce Lindsey. By 7 a.m. he'd bathed, had breakfast and watched videos. Interactive time was especially important since he'd been diagnosed with the learning disorder apraxia; on this day, they used a Finding Nemo children's book about the little blue fish's day at school.

It was late September 2006. Sam had been going to his Lee's Summit preschool program for a month. He hadn't yet been diagnosed with autism, though he would be one year later.... full story»

Hialeah Man Wrongly Convicted of Murder

Around 2 p.m. December 12, 2002, Mercedes Hernandez dialed her son George Collazo's cell phone. It went straight to voicemail. That was odd. He always answered. Then the 60-year-old, blond, brown-eyed mortgage broker tried to reach her nephew, Michel Aleman, who was with George. Again, no answer. So she drove about 1.5 miles to the auto parts store where George worked and his cousin hung out.

A co-worker said they had left about noon. They hadn't returned.

About an hour later, at 3:41, Hialeah firefighters received a call about smoke billowing from a 1995 white... full story»

Mesa Police Chief George Gascón stares down Sheriff Joe Arpaio

The police chief had stolen the spotlight, and the sheriff was furious.

It was a scorching hot day in late June, and dozens of demonstrators had turned up at a Maricopa County services complex in Mesa to protest the sheriff's immigration-enforcement tactics. Dozens more Mesa police officers monitored the situation, with most exploiting the shade of a nearby parking garage.

For Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed tough guy seeking his fifth term in office, it was supposed to be a banner day. For two months, Arpaio had threatened that he would ram one of his so-called... full story»

The Principal Matter

Around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 11, a graduating eighth grader on the honor roll took the podium to speak at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Middle School's graduation ceremony.

Standing proud in her red satin cap and gown, the girl thanked her mom, her classmates, her teachers, and, finally, the school's controversial principal Gilbert Cho, who had recently been transferred to a new school by the Board of Education.

"I know MLK will miss him next year," she said, and congratulated Cho for being "a hands-on principal."

She meant it as a compliment, but after... full story»

Earl Mullins has liftoff. Years in the making, his space museum in Bonne Terre has taken flight.

Stepping from the quiet streets of Bonne Terre into Earl Mullins' space museum is like bringing one's eye to a telescope and being struck dizzy with stars. A rocket engine, two feet of sleek metal tubes and chambers, sits on a pedestal near the front door. It's the real deal, an LR-64 that delivers 1,000 pounds of thrust. To the right of it reclines a wooden model of the F-86 Saber jet built by Mercury astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom, not far from the life-size statue of a space traveler's puffy white suit.

In this old lead-mining town an hour's drive south of St. Louis, Mullins... full story»