Business
July 31, 1990
Venus Behind Bars
A new private prison brought a belated boom to tiny Venus, but the state contends that the jailhouse is a bust.
Business
Reporting and commentary on Texas businesses and the trends and innovation happening in our state
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Business
May 31, 1990
A Ride On the Wild Side
Conquering Arlington’s Texas Giant.
Business
May 1, 1990
Jeff Reynolds, Zillionaire
The mysterious Texan who tried to take over australia’s mighty Bond Corporation last January looked good on paper—but paper was about all he had.
Feature
April 30, 1990
Wouldn’t You Like To Be a Pepper Too?
A Dublin bottler is the only one in Texas who’s still sweet on traditional Dr. Pepper.
Business
April 30, 1990
A Bridge Too Far?
Laredo initially hated Monterrey’s plan for a new border crossing but had second thoughts when it realized that there was money to be made.
Business
March 1, 1990
Boom and Bust
When oil and real estate boomed, a lot of Texans rode the tiger. But the beast turned, and those who weren’t devoured faced the prospect of limping back. It has been a long but not uninteresting trip.
Music
March 1, 1990
Strike Up The Bands
The bands play on and on and on in Austin.
Business
February 1, 1990
The $76 Million Divorce
The eldest son of Trammell Crow used his money for drugs, guns, and high living. His wife spent a fortune on personal trainers and self-promotion. Now they’re squaring off in an L.A. divorce court.
Business
February 1, 1990
The Price of Peace
With the cold war fading into history, Fort Worth’s General Dynamics now has to regard peace as not merely an ideal but an economic reality.
Business
February 1, 1990
Chalk Talk
Horizontal drilling has not only hit pay dirt in South Texas-it has also revived oil-patch wheeling and dealing.
True Crime
November 1, 1989
Billie Sol Estes Has a Deal for You
The guy whose name is synonymous with swindling is finally a free man—but it may not last.
Business
November 1, 1989
TV Guides
Daytime television isn’t just for housewives anymore; car salesmen, cops, and stockbrokers are tuning in to business networks.
Business
September 30, 1989
The Day Leroy Died
When a small private bank was closed on August 7, depositors lost all of their money, a pillar of the community came tumbling down, and the town’s trusting way of life was shattered.
Business
August 1, 1989
The Texas 100
Wealthy Texans have been heard to say that money is just a way of keeping score. Here's the scoreboard.
Business
June 30, 1989
Greed is Good
Having a billion dollars isn’t everything, unless you’re Harold Simmons.
Business
June 1, 1989
The Long, Strange Trip of Ed Bass
Interesting things can happen when a man with an unusual vision also has an unusual amount of money.
Business
June 1, 1989
Rock Bottom
A series of terrible decisions and bad breaks ruined Gibraltar Savings. Is rescuing it another mistake?
Business
April 30, 1989
Masa Marketing
In most Texas cities, tortilla making is an endangered family business; in Austin, it’s a thriving family rivalry.
Business
February 1, 1989
The Wooing of Chairman Wang
The decision by a Chinese plastics company to build a billion-dollar plant in Texas proves that economic development works—but it comes at a high price.
Business
February 1, 1989
Chip Ahoy
A new gambling-cruise-ship enterprise out of Port Isabel makes it possible to spend an evening in a casino while going nowhere in the Gulf.
Business
February 1, 1989
A Dirty, Rotten Mess
Every day each of us contributes five pounds to the growing mountain of garbage. Now the mountain looks like a volcano that’s threatening to erupt.
Business
January 1, 1989
Bringing It All Back Home
Through shrewd buying and aggressive marketing, Fort Worth-based Pier 1 has transcended its old head-for-the-home image and emerged into the new age a more profitable company.
Business
December 1, 1988
Zoom at the Top
What kind of woman gets her own skin-care company, a place in Nouvelle Society, and the second-most-eligible bachelor in the world? Meet Georgette Mosbacher.
Business
December 1, 1988
The Battle of the Bubbles
One man’s obsession with kicking Perrier in the derriere.
Business
December 1, 1988
$3,000,000,000
Now that he’s got it, what does Ross Perot plan to do with it?
Politics & Policy
December 1, 1988
Can Ross Perot Save America?
One day in 1962 Ross Perot read Thoreau’s insight that the “mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” The country hasn’t been the same since.
Business
November 1, 1988
How Houston Beat the Bust: Branching Out
An entrepreneur captures customers in public rest rooms. A high-tech plant moves from oil to medicine. Space and biomedical manufacturing are finally off the drawing boards. And a former union boss becomes a bingo mogul.
Business
May 31, 1988
Killer Whale Hooks City!
San Antonio is shameless over Shamu and Sea World.
Energy
May 1, 1988
It Stinks
Times are rotten for refineries.
Energy
May 1, 1988
No Wonderland
Once an oil-field service boomtown, Alice doesn’t live well anymore.
Energy
May 1, 1988
The Wait for Deliverance
Despite all the mewling from the oil patch, there are still ways to make money at $15 a barrel. Here’s our guide to surviving the terrible teens.
Business
April 1, 1988
Food Feud
For years Jamail’s was the queen of Houston grocery stores. Now the Jamail family is at odds, and two rival chains are getting ready for a major food fight.
Business
April 1, 1988
What Does H.E.B. Stand For, Anyway?
As the president of Texas’ largest private grocery chain, Charles Butt learned that in order to be nice to his customers he had to be tough on his competitors. And vice versa.
Business
April 1, 1988
Wonder Plane
Up in the sky, it’s a plane, it’s a helicopter—no, it’s a tiltrotor, the Texas hybrid that will soon revolutionize air travel.
Business
April 1, 1988
Eat Crow
Megadeveloper Trammel Crow bought farmland in Louisiana, but can his company’s big-city savvy make it pay?
Business
March 1, 1988
Lifestyles of the Rich and Bankrupt
Going broke is for poor people. Here’s a whole chapter of Texans who have found ways to clear the books without losing their ranches, Rolls, or Rolexes.
Business
January 1, 1988
Break the Bank!
Don Dixon ran Vernon Savings the way the Romans ran orgies, equating excess with success, until his empire collapsed.
Business
December 1, 1987
Go East, Young Man
Texas developers are snapping up land, putting together deals, and building like crazy—in Washington, D.C.
Business
November 1, 1987
Paper Boy
When newspaper entrepreneur William Dean Singleton bought the ailing ‘Dallas Times Herald,’ people thought he was crazy. When he bought the ‘Houston Post,’ they were sure of it.
Business
November 1, 1987
E.Z. Goes Crazy
Houston discount whiz Elias Zinn sees nothing nutty in his big-bucks bid to take over raving high-tech retailer Crazy Eddie.
Business
October 1, 1987
Paradise Lost
Las Colinas was supposed to be Can-Do City. So why couldn’t it?
Business
October 1, 1987
Every Bar but Hershey’s
We have seen the future of Dallas nightlife, and it is called Dallas Alley.
Business
August 31, 1987
The Book Stops Here
For 68 years, Rosengren’s Books in San Antonio gave personal service, sought out both arcane and popular titles, and fostered a love of reading. It wasn’t enough to keep the store in business.
Business
August 1, 1987
Cities in Bondage
When eighty-year-old Decker Jackson gives financial advice to Texas public officials, nothing in life is certain but debt and taxes.
Health
August 1, 1987
The Booming Business of AIDS
For some entrepreneurs, the dark cloud of AIDS has proved to have a silver lining
True Crime
August 1, 1987
The Sleaziest Man in Texas
The rich and eccentric heir to a rich and eccentric Galveston family, Shearn Moody, Jr., craved an empire all his own. But his lack of self-restraint cost him his bank, his insurance company, his fortune, and now, perhaps, his freedom.
Business
July 31, 1987
What’s in a Name?
Maybe as much as $20,000, if Lee Ballard of Dallas has anything to do with it.
Business
June 1, 1987
The Party’s Over
In the early eighties, some Dallas savings and loans reaped profits in real estate investments while land was flipped, appraisals were inflated, and property was developed. Now the land deals have flopped, property values are deflated, and there are empty buildings all over town. And some S&Ls are broke
Business
April 30, 1987
The Old Man and the Vines
My father’s Panhandle grape patch gives him a new cash crop and a new pride as a farmer.
Business
March 1, 1987
Top Gun
Texas Air chief Frank Lorenzo took an airline with no profits and limited prospects and built it into the country’s largest. How? By betting like the sky’s the limit.