Fort Worth Firebomb

It's being reported that Wendy Davis' office was firebombed this afternoon. 

Luckily, Wendy wasn't present and no one was hurt. 

WHO would do such a thing? 

What's the ETA on karma?

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People keep asking

Why did I learn about this in the New York Times?

Read the letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  So, what's the answer?

Seeking full disclosure\

A warm, nostalgic article in Friday's Texas editions of The New York Times informed me that the Star-Telegram is shuttering its fabled Austin bureau, once the workplace of Molly Ivins, Ken Bunting, Sam Kinch and Karen Potter, who broke important news stories on state politics. The bureau's end apparently means the departure of Davey Joe Montgomery, who has covered politics from the nation's capital to the Texas Legislature. Farewell to another fabled journalist.

Why did I learn about this from The New York Times? Earlier last week, the Star-Telegram informed subscribers it was eliminating several syndicated advice columns and squeezing the comics onto fewer pages. Belatedly, Executive Editor Jim Witt, in a Sunday column, glossed over the bureau closing.
I also learned, from an associate at a nonprofit that Melinda Mason's duties were being eliminated. Mason writes the Fort Worth Social Eyes column and during more than three decades at the newspaper helped the Star-Telegram team with community groups on events. Is the newspaper dropping this function as well?

How about full disclosure to better prepare readers as the daily newspaper we faithfully subscribe to continues its gradual and inevitable decline into the digital age?

-- Hollace Ava Weiner, Fort Worth

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It's all fun and games

Till someone gets hurt, or goes broke.

Read about the Party in Fort Worth, sponsored by Chesapeake, on Durango.  Tickets were $200.00 for individuals and up to $25,000 for a table.  WHO paid for YOUR elected leaders to attend?

There were several in attendance, from Mayor Price to Queen Earmark. 

How much did that cost YOU?

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"BS responses"

Coming from Fort Worth.  How fitting. 

The subject today?  Injection wells.  Seems we aren't the only ones who noticed the "citizen input" meetings are similiar to those supposed "citizen input" meetings for other Fort Worth projects.  You remember, the ones where when the citizens started giving their input, the city shut the meeting down? 

Read the latest in the Fort Worth Weekly.  YOU can't afford to miss it.  Take note of the players, YOU need to know WHO they are.  

It sounds if the city is most concerned about "truck traffic".  Really?  That's your biggest concern?  And WHY would earthquakes need to be discussed on a national level when they are being felt in Fort Worth?

“You can tell the Planning Department has instructions to make this [lifting of the current disposal well moratorium] happen,” the longtime statehouse Democrat said. He’s clearly angry over how the disposal well issue has been presented. City staffers, he said, are giving “bullshit responses” to what he believes are very real concerns.

The league is not opposed to “safe drilling that respects the environment,” Wood said. “We are, however, opposed to the destruction of our most valuable and increasingly threatened natural resource — water — by its contamination and injection into disposal wells.”

Hogan said the weakness of the setback requirement is evident in the frequency with which the council has waived similar requirements for gas wells. In a substantial percentage of cases, he said, the council has allowed the standard 600-foot setback for gas wells to be  reduced even when drillers produced waivers from less than half the affected property owners.

The city staff presentation notes that having disposal wells in the city, served by pipelines, would cut down on the traffic of heavy trucks that damages city roadways and results in surface spills, including accidents involving tanker trucks.

Trice acknowledged that allowing injection wells within the city won’t stop operators from drilling other wells in the surrounding county. And it’s correct, he said, that having disposal wells in the city would reduce truck traffic only if the wells are served by pipelines.

Asked about the city staff’s views on seismic dangers, Trice said, “I’m not sure we have a take [on that issue].” The staff is concerned, he said, but “that dialogue is more appropriate at a state or national level.”

“We would hope if there is a dire safety question,” the Texas Railroad Commission or Environmental Protection Agency would address it, he said.

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Two Fort Worth's...

Downtown.

And everywhere else.

Way back in 2008, the Mayor and a council member stood on the side of the road and promised to fix streets in north Fort Worth if voters passed the combined bond.   

In 2010, residents were still asking WHEN?

Far north Fort Worth residents aren't so sure. They point out that downtown projects have already gotten their share of funding, while roads for their area have languished.

"I pretty much guarantee it went to the Trinity River Vision bridges, which is exactly what we said would happen," said Shirley Gansser, who analyzed the city's financial data for the North Fort Worth Alliance.

Residents' concerns about the Trinity River project prompted Moncrief to make his appeal in 2008.

The alliance wanted the city to split the bond election into two propositions, one for roads and one for the Trinity River bridges. Moncrief appealed to voters to support the whole package, and it passed with 68 percent of the vote.

The expansion of North Fort Worth in the Alliance area and beyond has caused many issues for those citizens.  Last year, THE PEOPLE informed us all of the lack of emergency response to that area.

In this week's Star-Telegram, seems the story is still the same.  What happens when you do nothing?  It just gets worse. 

As usual, the comments tell the story. 

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Dear Fort Worth,

WHO's in charge?

Read a letter to the City of Fort Worth from a concerned taxpayer.  All taxpayers should be so concerned. 

Attend the Fort Worth City Council meeting February 14th, to find out what exactly what YOU are paying for. And remember that next election.

I would like to bring to the attention all in Fort Worth another atrocity by the Fort worth City Council and perhaps our State leaders.  It appears that a pipeline and a distribution facility by Devon Energy was allowed to be placed in the way of a runway at Alliance Airport.  In order to correct this blunder, Devon will be paid up to $3.66 million tax dollars.  Fort worth's portion will be 5% or $180,000.  Since Alliance is a Fort Worth project, why would the City allow this to happen?  Did they not know there were plans or might be plans for a runway?  If not, why didn't they.  Even though Fort Worth's portion is $180,000, the remaining 3.5 million is taxpayer dollars, of which we individually will end up paying part of that too.

This is similar to another blunder recently, when Fort Worth allowed a gas drilling facility to be placed in a location along I-35 in the Northern part of Fort Worth.  For a number of years the Highway Department and the City of Fort Worth worked on a plan to widen a highly congested portion of highway, I-35.  While this project was in the works, neighborhoods along the route had been assured the highway would not be relocated closer to their neighborhoods.  Someplace along the way in the City's need and greed or lack of concern, a gas drilling facility was permitted and allowed to be drilled in the location needed for the highway.  Despite the previous assurances to local residences, the highway now must be rerouted closer to the neighborhoods resulting in more traffic noise, pollution and hazards as a result of the high volume traffic being nearer to their homes.  How many tax dollars will be lost  as a result over the years, because residential property located closer to busy highways always loses value.  The well site will never produce enough to off-set the neighborhoods lost value.   The drilling facility could be moved, but the the price to do so is staggering. 

In a matter somewhat related, the City wants to place an injection well and place pipelines onto the Alliance Airport now, how stupid is that?  What happens when another expansion or runway for the Alliance Airport is needed, will the Injection Well or the pipelines be a hinderance or danger?  How much does it cost to move pipelines or an injection well?  Guess who will bear that entire amount?  

  Some of these things could be prevented if the City had a Comprehensive Zoning Plan.  Wait, they do, but the City Attorney's Office claims the Gas Drilling Ordinance regulates gas drilling and not the Comprehensive Zoning Plan, in essence the gas drilling is exempt from the the Comprehensive Zoning Plan.  My question is, since when does a City Ordinance overrule State Law?  It doesn't.  The State of Texas mandates all Home Rule Cities have a Comprehensive Zoning Plan that must be followed, with very few exceptions.  The City has no authority to disregard State Law and exempt the gas drilling industry from the Comprehensive Zoning Plan, but Fort Worth for some reason is placing itself above State Law.

The reason for a Comprehensive Zoning Plan is to protect the citizens from stupid or intentional blunders by individuals that seem to have an agenda or a City that doesn't seem to be able to plan or think past its nose.

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Fort Worth's Top 15 List

Read Durango's Top 15 list.  Sad, but true. 

Do something about it. 

We won't give you the whole list, because YOU should read the whole post, but here are a few of our favorites.

I don't know if I can come up with 15 reasons Fort Worth is a strange city, but I will try...

1. The downtown park that celebrates Fort Worth's Heritage, and beginnings, is a boarded up, cyclone fence surrounded eyesore.
2. A billion dollars is being spent on a public works project to build a little lake, some canals, an un-needed flood diversion channel and other nonsensical things, in a Boondoggle called the Trinity River Vision that the public has not voted on.
3. The freeway exits to Fort Worth's top tourist attraction, the Fort Worth Stockyards, are un-landscaped, littered, weed infested eyesores.
9. Fort Worth is the world's experimental test tube for urban natural gas shale drilling, with more holes poked than any other city in the world.
12. Fort Worth allows Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the Trinity River in which raw sewage is known to flow.

Instead the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has not devoted any ink to doing any investigative reporting of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, the nepotism that gave J.D. Granger the job of running the project, J.D.'s mother Kay's use of earmarks to get federal funds for the project that gave her son a job or any of the other questionable aspects of the TRV Boondoggle that would be questioned by the newspaper in a town with a real newspaper.

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Disposal Wells Needed

That's what the note from the Fort Worth Planning Department says.  Due to truck traffic.  What about all that truck traffic to frack a well?  Or do they only damage the roads when they are leaving?

One of THE PEOPLE wrote a letter to the Mayor and Council, any takers betting on an actual response?

Fort Worth City Council and Mayor & others

I have been sent a copy of a flyer being put out by the the City of Fort Worth that I object it's use. 

I strongly object to the City sending out flyers endorsing any increased gas drilling related activities.  This is especially true when the flyer is endorsed showing biased intentions.  In this case, "Gas drilling has increased the need for saltwater disposal wells."  The truth is, there needs to be more recycling, and not more injection wells.  By recycling, I mean reusing the water that is now being wasted, like when using injection wells.  This does not include the evaporation of the toxic waste water into the air that some companies try to pass off as recycling.

At a time when there is no doubt injection wells have caused or contributed to increased earthquakes near injection wells, why would City leaders even consider putting the citizens at risk?.  The DFW international airport allowed an injection well on the airport property several years ago, using this same logic the City is using now.  Shortly after it went into operation, there was an earthquake at DFW International that most experts agree was caused by that injection well.  Even the owner of that injection well ceased operation because they knew what caused the earthquake.  Even though many earthquakes are classified as small, they still cause damage such as bricks walls falling, cracked patios, damaged streets and overpasses, if it was your house, you would not consider it small.  Major damage is only reported as such when there are buildings literally destroyed.  Why would the City consider bringing them into a populated area like Fort Worth?  You have to wonder?

The industry told us many times there is no danger from injection wells, now they only say they are regulated.  Unfortunately, they are regulated by those who have heavy ties to the industry.

"Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me."   How stupid have we become?

Someplace along the way it appears Fort Worth has lost sight of what happens to the people.

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Fort Worth Vision

Or lack thereof. 

Which do you think would make the "news" in Fort Worth?

Durango watched a mother struggle with a stroller and no sidewalks and reported on it, and then tells you about the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporting on people pushing strollers at the Stock Show. 

THAT is news? Really?

Fort Worth does not have what most city's in America have, that being a major newspaper of record that acts as the community's watchdog.

What Fort Worth has is this pseudo newspaper that calls itself the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, but should more accurately be called the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce Pravda-Like Star-Telegram.

How can a city be so blind that it can have a vision wasting millions of dollars to build a river diversion channel that is not needed, a little lake that will cause giggles, non-signature bridges to nowhere and whatever else it is that is currently being seen by the myopic Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, when its city sidewalks, or lack of, are something one might expect to see in a town in a Third World country?

Where is the vision for the rest of Fort Worth? The part not seen by the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

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"On the other hand, sometimes well-intentioned, government-initiated projects do not go as planned."

 The Fort Worth Star-Telegram got a tip from THE PEOPLE - one at City Hall, about the $50,000 the city is spending to add showers so workers can bike to work.  The tipster is bothered with the cutting of employees and  forced furlough days while adding showers for the few that ride. 

WHAT is the "funding source"? WHAT "designation" is the city seeking?

"I have nothing against riding a bike to work," the tipster wrote. "What I do take issue with is the city, in such dire straits, on a dead run to spend money to build showers so that folks can ride bicycles to work at City Hall.

Funding source: "The scheduled replacement of an air-conditioning system at the Animal Care and Control Center will be deferred until next fiscal year to allow this shower facility to be constructed now," a spokesman said.

Did the city do a survey on need?
No. Mayor Betsy Price, an avid cyclist, told The Watchdog: "Then we would have had to spend money on surveys. ..".

Downtown bike racks are mostly empty, and the lanes are not filled with bicyclists.

City officials say they hope to attain the designation Bicycle Friendly Community through the League of American Bicyclists.

On the other hand, sometimes well-intentioned, government-initiated projects do not go as planned.

Example: North Richland Hills used part of a $2 million federal grant awarded in 1999 to develop its Walker's Creek Park trail. That included money to install lockers under a large canopy near the water park for bicycle commuters to stow their belongings.

In 2009, the lockers were removed because officials feared they could be vandalized or someone could get locked inside. Those lockers remain in storage today.

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Water Boarding 3-2

Earlier we told you the Tarrant Regional Water District held a vote to give them themselves another year in office.

Wouldn't it be a conflict of interest for someone to vote on extending their own term?  You know, even in Fort Worth?

Kudos to Jim Lane and Hal Sparks for possibly making history on a TRWD vote.  Even the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noticed.

But the water board, which historically has been known for casting unanimous votes, was split on the issue.

Sparks said he felt like he made an agreement with voters to serve four years when he was elected and voted his conscience on the issue.

Does that mean the other board members don't have one?

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Rumors

As they usually do in Fort Worth, the rumors concerning parking at Montgomery Plaza this weekend turned out to be true.  Yes, the same Plaza with foreclosed units and money problems.

Customers were being towed left and right. If you visited an establishment and your car was towed, would you return?

The Fort Worth Weekly has the scoop.  It ain't pretty.  And it ain't the first time for parking troubles on West 7th.  WHAT company was doing the towing?  WHO initiated the "spotter" and the towing?  How did the "spotter" know WHO was visiting WHAT establishment?  Inquiring minds want to know. 

On Friday and Saturday nights, sources say, more than 100 cars were towed from Montgomery Plaza’s parking lot for illegal parking.

Keely witnessed most of the action on Friday and nearly all of the action on Saturday. A “spotter,” Keely said, was patrolling the plaza’s parking lot, stealthily watching for violators and photographing their vehicles’ license plate numbers. A fleet of about a half-dozen tow-trucks, Keely estimated, was at the spotter’s call. The wreckers, said Eric Tschetter, owner of The Pour House on West 7th Street, “would pull [illegally parked] cars two wheels up, drive a block away, and then put them up on the truck. I mean, people had their parking breaks on. Cars were screeching all the way down the street. It was not a pretty sight.”

At one point, Keely confronted a wrecker. “I told him, ‘You’re raping people for three-hundred bucks,’ ” Keely said. “He said, ‘No, it’s actually $293.30.’ ”

Jimmy Moore, owner of the 7th Haven on West 7th Street, witnessed a tow-truck driver employing a “Slim Jim” to break into a car to release the parking break. “I called him out, and he said it was perfectly legal,” Moore recalled. “The car turned out to belong to the mom of Girl Scouts selling cookies on my back deck.”

Even Montgomery Plaza customers weren’t safe. Keely said that a couple of his customers who had visited establishments located in the plaza earlier in the evening were victimized by the tow-trucks later.

UPDATES :  Thanks to THE PEOPLE, the Fort Worth Weekly now has pictures of the wrecker drivers on their site.
And Facebook now has a boycott Montgomery Plaza page. 

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More Culture of Corruption

From the Tarrant County breeding ground.  Via Watchdog Nation.

And in the Watchdog's column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth retirees double dipping is described as "common".  Well, these folks learn from the best. 

UPDATE: In January 2012, federal prosecutors announced that Spencer Barasch, formerly chief enforcement officer in the Fort Worth, Texas office of the Securities and Exchange Commission, had agreed to pay $50,000 to settle charges that he violated federal conflict-of-interest standards by providing representation for financier R. Allen Stanford, the Associated Press reported.

Barasch is now a partner with the Dallas law firm, Andres Kurth LLP.

Malcolm Bales, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, said the fine, the maximum amount allowed under law, shows that the government is serious about cracking down on former federal officials who attempt to us their influence in the private sector, the AP reported.

Bales said, “There should be zero tolerance for people who serve the public and then go into the private sector and use [that service] for personal benefit,” he said, according to the AP.

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To whom it may concern -

A letter and a video from a Fort Worth citizen.

Mayor and City Council

Gas wells are being drilled on regular basis in the City of Fort Worth. The Fort Worth Gas Drilling Ordinance requires the gas drilling companies to provide an emergency response plan with each well permit request.  In reviewing the information provided by Chesapeake Energy for the Rutherford 1H Gas Well, their emergency response was a Xerox copy of the area with a line drawn from the fire station to the well site location and nothing else.  There was nothing provided about what their plans were or what procedures were in place to inform the nearby apartment residences or businesses in case of an emergency.  There was nothing provided that would protect the public or what actions they should take to protect themselves or even if there was anything in place about who should call the fire department.

I find this rather frightening considering many of the apartments nearby (less than 600 feet) house elderly and children as well as the adult human beings that rely on the City offering some sort of protection.  I know I do.  As we know, or you should know, the City Fire Department is not equipped to respond and take action in the event of any sort of gas well site emergency.  There sole responsibility is to cordon off the area and keep spectators at a safe distance.  They do not fight the fire or even go on the gas property.

Fires and other tragedies occur as a result of gas drilling, it is a high risk industrial operation.  A few days ago there was such a fire at a gas drilling rig in Oklahoma and was expected to burn for several days.  I assume they had some sort of plan in place for a gas fire or emergency.  What ever plan that was in place did not work and they were apparently not prepared.

In watching this fire burn, several things were apparent, the crews were off to the side doing nothing and there was a great deal of smoke, heat and toxic fumes being sent into the air.  The crews were obviously more than 200 or 300 feet from the site and probably more than a 1000 feet.  I assume the crews were trained about what to do in the event of an emergency.  Local citizens and children, like in Fort worth are not trained and this could lead to disastrous results.  

The Gas Well Ordinance requires there to a setback of 300 feet, except in the case of grandfathering which is 200 feet, which the Council seems to still improperly allow.  The setback is to the protected use or the house.  Most houses in my neighborhood have trees or bushes in their yard and in that event, the distance now becomes much closer, in the event there are no trees, dried grass will do.  The fire and the heat from the well fire would catch the trees or grass on fire and eventually lead to the nearby houses being destroyed also.  This possibility is more likely than not at some time and will happen in Fort Worth.  I think this is irresponsible on the City's part.  The citizens have a right to reasonable safety in their own home or where they work.  The citizens currently do not have that.

Please note the safety provided by the drilling company, Chesapeake Energy, for the well fire.  It consists of ONE rather small stream of water in the lower left hand side of the video. lol  That is their safety procedure.

These gas well fires are not unique.  There were two in Oklahoma within a matter of a few months.  I have included a video link to the well fire on January 6, 2012.

Another gas well caught fire in Oklahoma on September 20, 2011.  

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WHO owns YOUR town?

WHAT would you say if a foreign government did?

If they owned the water and the roads and the right to eminent domain.

What was Betsy Price doing in China?

Catch up on TURF.  YOU need to protect yours.  No one else will.

Seeking to defuse fears that it might use its massive USD 3.2 trillion in foreign reserves as a "political weapon", China today said it is willing to turn some of its holdings of US debt into investment in America to improve its infrastructure. 
 
It seems like foreign governments and corporations are craving U.S. public assets like toll roads, electrical grids and railways. In the case of our largest creditor, the Chinese government, they don’t want any more U.S. Treasuries, but they do want to own the hard assets that comprise our nation’s infrastructure.

It’s a good stance for our President to encourage foreign investment. But is it such a great idea for foreign firms to own our most vital infrastructure? In 2006 an enormous controversy rocked Washington when a private firm from Dubai was negotiating a deal simply to operate 22 U.S. ports. A bipartisan opposition centering on national security eventually emerged and killed the arrangement.

If the Chinese government wants to invest in U.S. infrastructure, the best place for them to do so is the municipal or corporate bond market where they can buy bonds in water and sewer systems, among other infrastructure assets. Direct ownership, even through public/private partnerships, shouldn’t be allowed. Again, national security concerns must be paramount when it comes to our infrastructure.

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Well?

That is the question.  Will the Fort Worth gas drilling disposal well moratorium expire?  WHY should you care?  WHEN is the next meeting?

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram actually tells you some reasons YOU should care.

Should the natural gas drillers who have blanketed the city with wells be allowed to discard their millions of gallons of wastewater by forcing it back underground through disposal wells within Fort Worth's boundaries?

Does it matter? Probably not a whole lot, really -- unless a disposal well ends up near your home.

Then you might worry about things like how near it will be, how noisy it will be, what kind of traffic impact it will have and whether it will foul the air in your neighborhood.

Even if none are near your home, you might worry about that much water going to waste when North Texas and the rest of the state are suffering from such a terrible drought.

Or maybe earthquakes worry you. Some people say there's reason to believe these deep disposal wells might be behind increased seismic activity in North Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and other states.

They've been trucking their waste, the leftovers from the 3 million to 5 million gallons of water used on each well to fracture the deep Barnett Shale rock and free up the trapped gas, to disposal wells outside the city.

There are 10 such wells in Tarrant County and 14 in surrounding counties.

But heavy trucks tear up streets and add to local air quality problems. Trucking isn't a good long-term solution.

Now Hillwood Development, the company responsible for the 17,000-acre Alliance industrial, office, retail and residential communities, wants a disposal well for Quicksilver Resources, the company that is drilling for gas on Alliance land.

Maybe the best thing would be if the drillers would recycle or reuse at least some of the water from their wells. But that water is loaded with salt and toxic chemicals. Drilling industry representatives say they've poured a lot of time and money into developing reuse and recycling technologies but with limited success. They haven't come up with one they believe is effective and cost-efficient.

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The Wave of the Future

Or not.

Durango has been on a Tarrant County Transportation boondoggle roll. 

WHO pays for all of this?  YOU do.  All of YOU.  The better question is, WHY?

Fort Worth spent $6.4 million on their fleet of eight 80 passenger futuristic buses. This $6.4 million came from people all over America, courtesy of the Federal Recovery Act.

I assume this is part of what is known as The Stimulus.

The buses were initially bought to provide transport to the Super Bowl.

Has there been any sort of investigation by anyone into how much money was wasted by Fort Worth in that particular Boondoggle? Some of the disaster was weather related, courtesy of ice storms and snow. But some of it was hubris related.

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Good Question

Possibly the best question we have ever seen in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  We're still waiting on the answer.

It's in a column about the Fort Worth retirees and their pension, but it applies to all things Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Way. The sheep have been asking this question for years, if the fox is guarding the hen house...

If most retirement fund board members are beneficiaries of the fund and the fund's executive director is writing guest columns defending their lucrative packages, who the heck is watching out for the taxpayers?

Again, we've been waiting on that answer for years.


With the recent article about the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, this partial comment on the retiree article seems both relevant and timely.

The biggest opponent to Fort Worth city employees is the FW Chamber of Commerce. The city can't give away tax breaks to lure businesses when they have to pay retirees and future retirees a decent retirement.  

The problem isn't the pension. The problem is upper-crust individuals who are "looking out for the taxpayer" want to spend taxpayer money on pork, at the expense of the city employee. 

Speaking of living outside of Tarrant County....  Look at Dallas TAD website and you'll find one of the great opponents of the pension, Mitch Schnurman, lives in Coppell in a $340k house.

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WHO's involved?

WHO bought the Fort Worth Cats?

WHO do you think?

Trinity Vision Partners Llc.  

WHO are THEY??

Read the article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. And check out what the Dallas Observer had to say.  Yeah, Dallas is watching too.

We 'll hold off on saying, we told you so.

Owner Carl Bell has agreed to sell the baseball team to a group led by John Bryant and Byron Pierce, co-founders of United League Baseball. 

The Cats will be the fifth independent team owned by Bryant and Pierce.  Former Texas Rangers President Mike Stone is also part of the ownership group, Trinity Vision Partners Llc., and will be the team's chairman.

Financial terms were not disclosed, although Bell said he did not profit from the sale. The costs of independent teams vary depending on financial conditions, attendance and other factors.LaGrave Reconstruction Co., which Bell runs, still owns LaGrave Field and the surrounding 131/2 acres.

Bell felt that the proper business decision was to split the two entities. Most professional teams are tenants of the stadiums they play in, and the Cats have a 20-year lease at LaGrave.

Observer:

That said, "I really don't care who our landlord is," Stone says. "We have a 20-year lease. We bought the Cats, the property, the right to do business as the Cats, and that's what crucial to us." When it comes to the land, he explains, "It's a complicated process, a complicated transaction. The Tarrant Regional Water District is involved. Carl is involved. Amegy Bank is involved. We're involved. The bottom line is we end up owning the Cats and the right to play ball as the Cats."

Owner rl Bell has agreed to sell the baseball team to a group led by John Bryant and Byron Pierce, co-founders of United League Baseball. The Cats will be the fifth independent team owned by Bryant and Pierce.Former Texas Rangers President Mike Stone is also part of the ownership group, Trinity Vision Partners Llc., and will be the team's chairman.Financial terms were not disclosed, although Bell said he did not profit from the sale. The costs of independent teams vary depending on financial conditions, attendance and other factors.LaGrave Reconstruction Co., which Bell runs, still owns LaGrave Field and the surrounding 131/2 acres.Bell felt that the proper business decision was to split the two entities. Most professional teams are tenants of the stadiums they play in, and the Cats have a 20-year lease at LaGrave.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/12/21/3611839/fort-worth-cats-sold-will-play.html#storylink=omni_popular#storylink=cpy

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WHO controls YOUR water?

It's a tricky question.  For a reason.  There are many water districts in Texas.  Nine times out of ten, they are above the law, as in they don't have to follow any.

There's been a lot of talk about the Tarrant Regional Water District lately, but it hasn't been due to water.  It's all been about the J.D. Granger and Tim Love Woodshed restaurant sweetheart deal on the Trinity River. A million dollar (give or take a few, again, it's just YOUR money) deal.  Don't you wish YOU could go into business for with no start up cost and if it bombs, you lose nothing?  YOU bet you do, cause you've already lost another million.  And counting.  It's a small price to pay for the billion dollar boondoggle known as the Trinity River Vision. 

The TRWD and the Trinity River Vision Authority, under the leadership of JD Granger, Congresswoman Kay Granger's son, heavily promoted Tubing on Trinity or Rocking on the River this summer to the citizens and taxpayers of Tarrant County.  WHY didn't they test the water?  WHY did the citizens have to pay to have it tested?

The project was touted as flood control, so it would receive federal money.  YOU hear that rest of the country?  YOU'RE paying for this too, so there.  We have to ask again, what does a BBQ shack on the river, a wakeboard park and bridges over dry land do for flood control?  YOU should ask.  After all YOU paid for it.

The TRWD should be reaching out to real water planners of the world and getting their act together before Fort Worth runs out of water.  Instead their reaching out and suing our neighbor, Oklahoma for their water.  The same state those gas drillers using all our water hail from. The same fellas that made our water district rich. Hey, here's a thought, why don't you make them bring their own water and take their waste back with them?  Ever wondered why many drill sites are close to the river and the tributaries? Remember, it flows both ways. Water, too.

If all that weren't enough, then there's fracing.  Even if you don't believe it could ever possibly happen, let's just say, what IF just ONE time it does? Remember the coast? What IF the Trinity aquifer is contaminated?  How do YOU fix it?  What happens then?  WHO is responsible?

If all that isn't enough, we came across the article below.  Which brings us back to the original question, WHO controls YOUR water?

I am in Parker County at a hearing where Range Resources has filed a plea to jurisdiction in the water contamination case where EPA had to step in. If the judge grants this motion, it means the Texas Railroad Commission is the final authority in fracking water contamination cases. It means you can’t sue for damages if the Big Gas Mafia fracks up your water. It would be a disaster for all Texas water drinkers. 

Read the rest here. 

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