With a Bullet

Last September, Bruce Udolf and his wife, Sheryl, were in the living room of their Southwest Ranches home watching the news. A report came on about disgraced Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne, who had just resigned after entering a guilty plea to mail fraud and tax evasion based on pocketing some $86,000 in illegal payments.

In the annals of Broward County politics, Jenne's was an epic collapse. Before taking over as sheriff in 1998, he'd represented the region for 18 years in the state legislature. His career in public service had started in the '70s — as a state... full story >>

Pitch Perfect

Derek Nicholson throws on a pair of black gym shorts, tucks in a red T-shirt, grabs his iPod and goes for a walk around the ballpark. It's 103 degrees, and the sun is beating down on QuikTrip Park. With three hours left before game time, nothing takes him out of his routine.

In this blistering August heat, the Grand Prairie AirHogs will face the Pensacola Pelicans. But right now, in this newly built $20 million stadium, all is quiet. No fans are in the stands, no kids play in the swimming pool tucked away in right field, no one is puffing away in the cigar bar behind the seats... full story >>

The Flobots rise and shine

One-thirty in the afternoon on a blistering Monday in late July, and the Flobots are hardly forming like Voltron. The tour bus was supposed to leave from this Save-A-Lot off Federal Boulevard at 12 p.m. sharp to make it to a gig tomorrow night in Dallas as part of the group's national tour, but it's nowhere to be seen and we're still missing several bandmembers.

On tour, it's a lot easier. Head down to the lobby, hop on the bus and they're out. Oftentimes, the band will board the bus immediately after a show, simply grab some shut-eye and wake up ready for sound check in a new... full story >>

Gone to Hell: Mental Illness and Harris County Jail

On December 19, 2006, Alexander Hatcher received about $15,000 in disability payments from Social Security. Diagnosed as bipolar and schizophrenic, Hatcher was off his meds and homeless, and the money was a dangerous windfall.

He took two friends, female prostitutes, to buy cigarettes, clothes, booze and drugs. The trio traveled to the Downtowner Inn, a motel on the southwest side of downtown. One of the women took cash and was supposed to pay for a week.

Sometime after sunrise, after a night of smoking crack, Hatcher and his friends left the room to resupply. According... full story >>

Morrison’s Mistress

Linda Carter summoned her inner circle to her fifth-floor office in the Johnson County Courthouse. It was fall 2006, and Carter was the director of administration for then-District Attorney Paul Morrison. She wanted to play show and tell with her girlfriends — Brenda Albright, Shawna Chambless, Shelly Hartman and Stacey Trumbly. They all reported to Carter. They were also supervisors in the District Attorney's Office.

Carter named her group of gossip girls the Doll Club. She came up with the name after seeing a production of Valley of the Dolls in December 2005 during a... full story >>

Clifton Childree's Craziness

Since learning he won the Hilger Artist Project Award last December, Clifton Childree has been hoarding discarded wood, ornate headboards, piles of fabric, and sundry cast-off junk from the curbs that line the homes on the outskirts of Miami's Design District.

"I live a few blocks from Churchill's," he says, referring to the legendary Second Avenue bar, "and every Monday I drive my truck around the neighborhood, looking for old wood and stuff in the bulk trash people put out for pickup."

The 37-year-old visual artist and filmmaker has become a celebrity among the... full story >>

Minnesota's largest shelter killed more than 14,000 animals last year. How many were unnecessary?

When Amber was a little girl she would save her allowance to buy cat food for the strays roaming her neighborhood behind the Animal Humane Society's St. Paul location, a place still plagued by feral cats today. As a child, Amber made friends with the cats, begging neighbors and friends to take them in. Every once in a while she would go inside the shelter to watch the dogs in their cages. "I loved the dogs," says Amber, who is now a 28-year-old kindergarten teacher.

When Amber was in college at Concordia University, she and a friend decided to volunteer at the humane society.... full story >>

A severely diabetic Valley woman faces criminal charges over her "service animal": a chimpanzee named Joey

Playing the perfect host, he jumps into his guest's arms and lays a big kiss on his cheek before showing the visitor around the well-appointed, spotless 5,300-square-foot residence.

Joey's wearing light-blue pajamas colorfully adorned with space ships, planets, and the words, "Out of This World." But it's early on a balmy August morning, so why stand on ceremony?

He leads the way up to the second story, and steps over to a pool table, next to which a hairy, 20-year-old tree... full story >>

Room with a Few

It wasn't meant to be one of those damned open houses.

They — the innumerable aspiring Tiger House roommates — were supposed to come for their appointments at 30-minute intervals. During his years in the coveted seven-bedroom Cole Valley party house, Dan Nazarian, aka the Danlord, had been able to keep auditions under control. But this time, some folks showed up late and some early and then some imbecile sewed his ass to the couch and everybody refused to leave.

It's a symptom of a rampant strategy known as be-the-new-housemate. If you can look as though you... full story >>

Out-of-control shoplifting at the St. Louis Galleria. Violent attacks in the Delmar Loop. Is MetroLink a vehicle for crime?

St. Peters alderman Don Aytes remembers well the fears some of his constituents expressed back in 1998, the year MetroLink supporters tried to bring light rail into suburban St. Charles County.

"I thought for sure it would pass, and then someone on the MetroLink campaign made the decision to advertise that the train would connect Mid Rivers Mall with East St. Louis," Aytes recalls. "That pretty much killed it right there. Soon you had people saying MetroLink riders would come to St. Charles by train and leave by car — stolen car."

Ten years later and a growing... full story >>