authors

Jim Atkinson

Jim Atkinson, a contributing editor of TEXAS MONTHLY, has been a working journalist in Texas for over 25 years. He was a courthouse reporter for the Dallas Times Herald and a political correspondent for Dallas’ KERA-TV Channel 13’s newsroom during the 1970’s. In l974, he helped to found D Magazine, the city magazine of Dallas, and worked there as an editor and writer. In l980, he began writing for TEXAS MONTHLY and other publications including Playboy and National Review. He has won numerous awards for reporting and is the author of two books.

For most of this career, Atkinson has written about crime and the criminal justice system. Five years ago, he decided to turn his energies to reporting on health and medical science, primarily in the pages of TEXAS MONTHLY. Since then, he has written about everything from the flu to cardiac surgery to sexual addiction, and has won seven awards for medical reporting.

Atkinson lives in Dallas with his wife, Ann.

Features

The Pedophile Next Door

How do you know when a child molester is cured? Are you willing to take his word for it? David Wayne Jones hopes so. Thirteen years ago he was convicted of preying on little boys at the East Dallas YMCA, but he could soon be out of jail and back on the street. Your street. March 2004

Who's Next?

San Antonio's Marshevet Hooker is not just any old high school sprinter; she's an Olympic gold medalist in the making. Meet her and nine other women we're betting will lead the new Texas—and the world. February 2003

Death and the Matrons

July 2002

Sober

\More than a decade ago I wrote about the virtues of the drinking life and the comforts of what I called a “bar bar.” Then I hit rock bottom. It’s been eight years now since I took my last drink—and I’m finally ready to tell the rest of the story. July 2001

Medicine • Wayne Isom

He's all hearts. September 2000

Health • Lance Armstrong

The ride of his life. September 1999

A Strike Against You

If your family has a history of cancer, are you doomed? Even though many of his relatives—including his famous father—succumbed to the disease, Mickey Mantle, Jr., didn’t think so. Then he got sick. February 1999

Addicted to Sex?

Even if you’re not, many Texans are: Sex Addicts Anonymous has 61 chapters across the state, tending to the tattered psyches of exhibitionists and other tormented souls. December 1998

State of the Heart

Bypass surgery with almost no pain, and you get to go home three days later? Don’t have a coronary: It’s happening right now, in Texas. June 1998

Health • Eric Moon-shong Tang

Smoking out the truth. September 1997

Blowin’ in the Wind

Itchy eyes, sore throat, runny nose: It must be allergy season. But what causes allergies? How do you pick a doctor? And what’s the best treatment? An in-depth look at an affliction that’s nothing to sneeze at. April 1997

So Much to Learn, So Little Time

Today students at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas are expected to master more hard-core science than ever before. Yet after graduation, they’ll have to keep studying, and be counselors and business experts too. A hard look at the way we teach our doctors—and why it has had to change. January 1997

The Race of His Life

When a world-class athlete like Austin’s Lance Armstrong gets cancer, it’s a shock—for him, and for every man who has ever considered himself invincible. December 1996

Thrill Killers

Now that the crack epidemic has leveled off and gang violence is down, urban Texas is being terrorized by a new type of criminal: the superpredator. He murders without motive, feels no remorse, and worst of all, seldom gets caught. November 1996

Death and the Matrons

What could drive a suburban housewife to murder? The bizarre cases of Rowlett’s Darlie Routier and Fairview’s Candy Montgomery hint at the answer, and it may be closer to home than we’d like to think. October 1996

Texas Primer: The Wishbone Offense

Darrell Royal’s supremely simple invention took Texas teams to the top and kept them there. October 1985

The 89 Greatest Texas Bars

No Matter where you are, there’s someplace to be nowhere. May 1983

The Bar Bar

It’s a noble institution, especially if you can master all its subtle skills: not being there, the second call, holding forth, and another thing... May 1983

Columns | Miscellany

The Infirmation Age

Many Texans are woefully unprepared for what has become our fastest-growing health care problem: taking care of Mom and Dad. December 2003

Bad Air Days

Historically, Southeast Texas and cancer have gone together like, well, pollution and disease. I wish I could say things were different today. August 2003

Mold Age

Are the toxic fungi that launched a thousand lawsuits really as dangerous as everyone says? Don't believe the hype. April 2003

Wrongful Life?

A Houston couple says a hospital is responsible for their daughter's severe disabilities. Should Texas' highest court agree, the case will change health care as we know it. December 2002

Burning Questions

What is the safest way to dispose of a diseased cow carcass—and what does it have to do with the Ames strain of anthrax? August 2002

Perilously Plump

Texans love to say that everything’s bigger here, but when it comes to the waistlines in one in four of our largest cities, that’s nothing to brag about. April 2002

Bioterrified?

If you think your flulike symptoms could be anthrax, don't call your HMO—call your doctor. And other advice the television "experts" should have told you. February 2002

Death and Texas

Why does Potter County have the state's highest mortality rate? Poverty is only one answer. January 2002

My Grief, and Ours

When I lost my father to cancer this summer, the greatest comfort I found was in understanding how to grieve. That came in handy on September 11. November 2001

Battle Plan

A Dallas epidemiologist has made it his mission to learn the truth about Gulf War Syndrome, even if he has to fight the government. July 2001

Killer Bugs

I learned a shocking lesson when I visited San Antonio's "hot lab," where some of the world's deadliest microbes are studied. The germs are winning. June 2001

Curing the Colonias

The prescription to treat the sickest areas in Texas isn't what you think. April 2001

Vocal Heroes

The doctors at Abilene’s Voice Institute of West Texas can treat all manner of problems with the way you talk? Speech, speech! July 2000

Saving Face

When a dog chewed off a toddler's nose, cheeks, and lips, the doctors at Dallas' Children's Medical Center sprang into action. March 2000

Eyes on the Prize

The noble—and Nobel—efforts of a Houston pharmacology professor could someday help in the treatment of cancer. December 1999

Playing for Keeps

The truth—what we can discern, anyway—about Tom Landry’s leukemia. July 1999

Bad Blood

You can’t call it a Texas disease, but meningococcemia—a blood-borne form of meningitis—afflicts a fair number of the state’s children. And if the FDA will let him, a Dallas pediatrician thinks he can treat it. April 1999

Killer C

If you had a blood transfusion before 1992 or have ever shared a needle, you could have hepatitis C. You may feel fine, but it could be killing you. December 1998

The Eyes Have It

An anxious, alcoholic, stressed, and depressed Dallasite. A suicidal San Antonian. For each, a seemingly visionary treatment. September 1998

No Show

Cash-poor PBS stations can’t seem to come up with innovative new ideas, so they ought to resurrect an innovative old one: Newsroom, the best local public- affairs program in Texas history. September 1997

Food Fright

Eating a peanut shouldn’t be a particularly memorable experience, but for Dallasite Mona Cain and countless other allergic Americans, it’s a matter of life and death. August 1997

Making Headway

At the Texas Woman’s University Aphasia Center in Dallas, a promising new treatment is helping stroke victims learn to read, write, and speak again. March 1997

Spin Control

Vertigo isn’t just the stuff of Hitchcock thrillers—it’s a debilitating disease, as Dallas radio talk show host Kevin McCarthy found out the hard way. August 1996

Pale by Comparison

“Michael Jackson’s disease” sounds like a punch line, but the pigment-robbing skin disorder is no joke. Just ask Dallas County commissioner John Wiley Price. March 1996

Smooth Operator

You might say Tarek Souryal is the most important Dallas Maverick: He doesn’t score or rebound, but he reconstructs million-dollar ankles and knees, and that makes him a real team player. January 1996

Altered State

A year after a grand mal seizure left me convulsing on the floor, I’m still finding my way back into everyday life. September 1993

Report from Washington I (Sun Jul 20 at 9:01 AM)
"We're [Rhymes With Plucked]!" (Sat Jul 19 at 1:45 PM)
Pit Happens (Sat Jul 19 at 11:08 AM)

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authors

Jim Atkinson

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