Tranny Regret

For the first time since he packed Michelle's things away, Michael Berke tugs the cord of the attic door above his garage. Surrounding him in the suburban Delray Beach garage are power tools, bicycles, sandpaper, and a lawn mower, though Berke's prized possession — a Harley — is in the shop at the moment.

Berke, who is 43, looks the biker-dude part. He's a solid six-footer in a black cutoff T-shirt, Harley jeans, the beginnings of a Fu Manchu, tattoos, and a freckled, clean-shaven head. He climbs the wooden ladder and, in one final, creak-inducing impetus,... full story »

Hollow Victory

This was it -- the moment Hawthorne Heights had been waiting for.

It was 2003 and the five Dayton natives were about to take the stage for a Victory Records showcase in Chicago. Over the previous two years, Hawthorne Heights had been living like most fledgling bands, working minimum-wage convenience-store jobs between grueling tours in a battered van, barely compensated for performing their emo anthems in basements and half-empty clubs across the country. They would return to Ohio tired and broke, without a nibble of interest from record labels, agents, or managers.

After months... full story »

Ghosts in the Machine

Rock 'n' roll is dead.

It was crushed under the leathery $400 heel of a record exec as he blithely made his way out of a Los Angeles restaurant. Or, ravaged by cancer, it succumbed with Joey Ramone at 3:21 a.m. on April 15, 2001. Or it blew its own head off with a shotgun.

Of course, we already knew this. We knew this on March 18, 2002, when the Ramones were inducted into the sterile Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, the Hard Rock Cafe of all such halls. Or maybe we knew it whenever it was that MTV stopped showing videos. Or maybe before that, when haircuts became more... full story »

Denver's Bike Messengers Are a Union Divided

House of J-Bone, July

"I'm Father Time," Jason Abernethy says with a crooked smile. "Others can talk to you about the bike-messenger scene, I suppose, but they sent you over here because I have an increased vision of bike messengers and time."

Seated in his cramped Capitol Hill apartment, surrounded by stacks of papers and magazines, art pieces that he refers to as "sculptures," and plates and platters of silver and gold to be melted down in the event of economic collapse, Abernethy, aka J-Bone, does indeed seem to have an augmented mastery of time. For starters,... full story »

Eli's Experiment

Vince Matthews needed to rehabilitate his reputation. He had quit his post as an Oakland school principal after just a few months on the job, and a for-profit charter school he ran in San Francisco nearly lost its license after allegations of discrimination. With that kind of résumé, Matthews had little chance of ever fulfilling his dream of becoming a school district superintendent. That is, until he enrolled in the Broad Academy.

Indeed, Matthews was passed over for a midlevel management job with Oakland Unified not long ago due to lack of qualifications. But now he's... full story »

Fighting for Air: Drowning and the Heimlich Maneuver

The first time John Hunsucker performed CPR was on some poor schmuck who dropped dead in his driveway.

The young college professor was driving home from work late one evening back in the early 1970s when he spotted a ­middle-aged man lying motionless beneath a bicycle. He hopped out of his car, tossed the bike aside and spent the next hour performing chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth ventilation.

The guy vomited profusely, but never regained consciousness.

"There are foods I don't eat today because of that," says Hunsucker, pausing for effect before biting... full story »

The Real Mrs. Semler

Television cameras and newspaper photographers crowd the front row for a packed mid-September meeting of the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Board of Commissioners. But they aren't aiming their lenses at Frances Semler. Today, the controversy is over a proposed dog park in Waldo.

Outside, reporters interview supporters of the off-leash play space and opponents who don't want dogs overrunning the park. Inside, plastic fans labor to stir the air in a cramped conference room where every chair is taken and the walls are lined with anxious dog owners.

The biggest controversy... full story »

War on Hugo Chávez

Siomara Alonso flipped through Reader's Digest one humid May night in 2004. The 50-year-old natural beauty with caramel hair sat alone on a suburban back patio.

She couldn't see the stars or sky.

She longed for the space of her mountain farm in Venezuela and the high-ceilinged home she had left behind. Suddenly her cousin Yoli shouted from inside the cramped three-bedroom Kendall house: "Hurry! Come quick!" Siomara bolted to the living room, where she had been crashing on a sofa bed since late February.

The 11:00 news flashed to the South American home... full story »

Maimed Brothers Flee San Francisco Violence

Lela Jones said her son Devron could invite friends over while she was gone, as long as he followed one rule: No hanging outside. Her Visitacion Valley block was a hot spot for guys hustling drugs and oftentimes using, and she didn't want her sons associated with any of it. And Devron, the most social and mischievous of her three boys, was the one who she knew needed reminding on that Labor Day weekend in 2005.

Lela delivered the ultimatum with the same authority that banned explicit rap until age 16, that refused to buy gold teeth grills from Mr. Bling Bling she considered... full story »

Double Down

Never one to bet on football games or squander time and money at the track, Gary Kaplan was still one serious gambling man. In fewer than five years' time, the 48-year-old high school dropout from Brooklyn, New York, turned a pipe dream for an offshore sports book into a billion-dollar Internet empire: the Costa Rica-based BETonSPORTS.

Famous for its aggressive advertising and extravagant parties, the firm came to employ more than 2,000 people, occupying nine floors in a San José office tower. Bettors, mostly American, wagered on everything from pro basketball to university... full story »