My Girlfriend Flicka

On a recent Saturday afternoon in a chilly Sheraton Suites conference room in Fort Lauderdale, Carolina Lainez is about to become a new pony.

She has never met the cowboy at the front of the room, but there´s something about him. Maybe it´s the way he parts and braids his gray beard, or the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes that have deepened from decades of smiling. Maybe it´s the full cowboy getup -- brown suede hat with the metal rim, black button-up with cow-skull designs and a preacher collar, spurred boots. Anyway, there´s something about this man that must... full story »

The Human Grenade

They describe him with words that a young, violent man might secretly appreciate: He's an assassin, a grenade, they say. A reckless kamikaze.

But Jason Short makes his living playing football, a game of plotted precision, where even improvisation is diagrammed. Recklessness may be its ultimate sin.

So with training camp a month away, Browns coaches must decide what to do with the man known as "Full Throttle." In years past, placing him at linebacker was a risky proposition. When your urge to hit people is so strong that you often abandon your post, there's no room for you in a... full story »

Dark Horse

It's the second race at Lone Star Park, and the trainers are saddling their horses. A jockey dressed in black silks is boosted atop the long shot, a bay filly with a dab of white between her eyes. The horse is fit but looks skinny and fragile: Her ankles are taped and her ribs are visible beneath her coat, which glistens in the sprinkling rain.

The jockey playfully twirls his whip and smiles at the crowd. They lean against the waist-high fence, hoping to get a closer look at the filly as she slowly circles the paddock. They are an assorted lot—cowboys in snakeskin boots, chain... full story »

You Do the Meth

Someone was at the front door. Miranda's two-year-old daughter rushed toward it, figuring that her father was home. But then the door burst open, narrowly missing her, and the toddler saw that it wasn't Daddy after all.

It was a SWAT team.

Armor-clad police officers stormed inside, weapons drawn. They pushed a shocked Miranda to the floor and fastened her hands behind her back with zip ties. While her three children — her daughter and five- and nine-year-old sons — sat beside her, the SWAT team quickly scouted the rest of the two-bedroom basement apartment. After... full story »

God vs. Country

On a clear spring evening in Berkeley, Ying, a former atheist, goes to church. Inside the building's fluorescent-lit dining room, she sets out folding chairs for a dinner that will precede the evening's Bible study. Not quite five feet tall and carrying herself with a mixture of nervous reserve and childlike joy, she pauses from chatting with friends in Mandarin to whisper conspiratorially: This friend is a new believer, too, Ying says in her soft, self-conscious English; that girl doesn't believe at all, but she comes to learn about the Bible anyway.

Eight months ago when... full story »

Sports talk radio stations fight for listeners in Houston

There's an intense battle going on here in Houston, one that's baffling national observers, one that's resulted in unprecedented upheaval in an industry that rakes in millions, a life-or-death struggle that will likely see at least one huge company stagger out of town with its tail between its legs.

And if you're female, chances are pretty good you know nothing about it, because no one in this fight gives a damn about you.

It's the world of sports-talk radio, a place where people wait on line for an hour to talk about who should be hitting sixth in the Astros lineup.

Every... full story »

The Housing Authority

Even seated in her wheelchair, Lizzie Brown has a swagger. She?ll lean forward, cock her head and raise her eyebrows as though some kid just tried to shortchange her at 7-Eleven. The look crosses her face when she remembers how a man was gunned down in her apartment complex last fall.

On October 1, four men sat outside a three-story brick building in Chouteau Courts, a public housing complex on Independence Avenue. It was still midmorning, but the men drank cans of Budweiser as they played dice. A little before noon, an argument broke out. One man refused to make good on a wager.... full story »

My Girlfriend Flicka

On a recent Saturday afternoon in a chilly Sheraton Suites conference room in Fort Lauderdale, Carolina Lainez is about to become a new pony.

She has never met the cowboy at the front of the room, but there's something about him. Maybe it's the way he parts and braids his gray beard, or the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes that have deepened from decades of smiling. Maybe it's the full cowboy getup -- brown suede hat with the metal rim, black buttonup with cow-skull designs and a preacher collar, spurred boots. Anyway, there's something about this man that must be saying trust... full story »

The Day the Music Dies

Elise Nordling answers the door to SomaFM's warehouse headquarters in the Mission District wearing blue hair, a studded belt, blue jeans, and black slip-on flats. She glides up three flights of stairs and into an art-filled workspace the Internet radio station rents for $600. Near the east-facing windows, natural light streams in through big, gridded panes and ignites her business partner Rusty Hodge's frizzy, fiery-red, shoulder-length hair and scruffy beard.

The 44-year-old Hodge is a big dude who obviously likes beer. He sits at his desk and wears a kid's smile, Hawaiian... full story »

The Story of Stagger Lee

The Story of Stagger Lee originates from a shooting that occurred on Christmas night, 1895, near the Third ward, also known as "Chestnut Valley" or the "Bloody Third district." The central character was a main named Lee Shelton, variously referred to in legend as Stagger Lee, Stagolee, Stack-A-Lee, and Stack O'Lee.

On Dec. 28, 1895, the Globe-Democrat described him as a cab driver, identifying him as "Lee Sheldon" — also known as "Stag." Newspaper reports and death certificates refer to him as "Stag," "Stack" or "Stock" lee.

Shelton, it's said, owned a nightclub... full story »