If this doesn't scare you...

Read the comments.  93 of them on an article posted today on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

WHAT'S more important to YOU? Quality or growth?  What's more important to YOUR elected officials?

Do YOUR leaders really think lawn watering is the reason we're in the shape we're in?  We have reports of dead grass and trees from here to the Red River.

Remember earlier this week when a nonprofit did an investigation on Congress and their family connections.  WHAT do you think they are they paid to say?

WHO controls YOUR water?  What will the other cities do?  Like always, wait and see what Fort Worth does.  No offense, guys, but you need to pick another role model.

Guess the latest Irving Mayor has been brought into the game.  The last one tried to get water for the city instead of waiting on the Tarrant Regional Water District. All the way to the Supreme Court to get water from Oklahoma. 

"Mayor Price and I have been talking about lots of initiatives together, and water is one of them," Rawlings said. "I think water conservation is probably the most important issue we have in the next three decades. We cannot continue to grow without water, and I want to continue to grow."

The district provides raw water to 98 percent of residents in Tarrant County, including Fort Worth, Arlington and Mansfield.

"The goal is to reduce excessive outdoor watering and water waste, especially during peak summer months when rain is scarce and demands are high," said Linda Christie, the district's government and community relations director.

The (Tarrant Regional Water) district provides raw water to 98 percent of residents in Tarrant County, including Fort Worth, Arlington and Mansfield.

Officials with Colleyville and North Richland Hills said they haven't discussed the issue. North Richland Hills spokeswoman Mary Peters said the city will likely follow the lead of Fort Worth and the authority on the issue since it buys water from both entities.

The Fort Worth Water Department has 30 wholesale customers, including Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, Southlake, Hurst, Burleson and Crowley. Its contract requires customers to follow whatever rules the city implements itself.

The mayor of Irving, which tried unsuccessfully to broker its own water deal with Hugo, Okla., said the city is ready to work with others.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to hear a lawsuit that resulted from the proposed deal, upholding a lower court's ruling that Hugo couldn't sell water without Oklahoma's permission.
The people say:

Ok, I can understand wanting to conserve water and even using the  twice a week plan. BUT... what about all the Government buildings, Commercial properties & City landscapes that (even when "WE" were in restrictions last year) continue to water on a daily basis, not only in the heat of the day (outside of City required times) but also over watering to the point that there is a large stream running down the road.

What's required for us should be required for the Government and Commercial properties also.
"We cannot continue to grow without water, and I want to continue to grow."

Sounds like a mindless comment to me.  At what point does growth reduce the quality of your life?
Maybe if Rawlings stopped and thought about it, he would realize that the lack of water ITSELF is trying to tell him something, that growth only works when there are reasonable resources to sustain it.
Promoting growth with one hand, while restricting resources with the other, is a bad idea.  There has to be a balance.

"We cannot continue to grow without water, and I want to continue to grow."  Why must we continue to grow?  If you are conserving water, only to expand your growth, then you are just delaying the problem.  If we are under water restrictions, then there should be building restrictions as well.  No new house without the destruction of an equivalent number of sq ft.  7 billion people.  Just stop already.Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2...

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Duh...

A new study called Family Affair, details the rampant nepotism in Congress.  Which isn't "technically" illegal, but how to YOU feel about paying for it? 

Recently there was the article about how much YOUR Congressperson is bringing home.  Now here's one about how much of YOUR money they are funnelling to their family. 

Guess WHO made the list? 

Even the Fort Worth Star-Telegram gave it a little notice.  YOUR billion dollars got a two sentence mention. 

Two-thirds of the Texans serving in the U.S. House of Representatives -- including three from North Texas -- have relatives who financially benefited from having a legislator in the family over the past four years, according to a report released this week.

The report, titled "Family Affair," was released by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which reviewed documents for nine months. It shows that relatives of 248 members received payments or otherwise benefited because of the lawmaker in their family.

Some payments were not made directly to relatives but may have come through federal funds earmarked to institutions or nonprofit organizations where they work. Or family members may have served as lobbyists or in government relations, actions that are "not illegal, but ripe for abuse," according to the report by the nonprofit ethics group.

Granger was named because she earmarked $30 million in federal funds for a river redevelopment plan in Fort Worth. Her son, J.D. Granger, heads the Trinity River Vision Authority, which is working to make Kay Granger's vision a reality.

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You can't make this up.

Richland Hills wants to ban cameras in City Hall.  WHO paid for City Hall?

Who's taking bets this will speed up the process of Richland Hills becoming part of North Richland Hills?

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Go down to Richland Hills City Council tomorrow and see it in person.

"Basically what it is, we've had folks come in and do video on the city secretary," Mayor David Ragan said. "That kind of made her nervous."

Gerrit Spieker, treasurer of Consolidate Now, believes that he, Michael Logan and David White inspired the city to consider the proposal. In January, they delivered a petition to City Secretary Linda Cantu requesting that a proposition to consolidate Richland Hills with North Richland Hills be placed on the May 12 ballot.

"We were in the lobby and videotaped delivering the petition to the city secretary," Spieker said. "I think [the proposed recording ban] is trumped-up paranoia."

If the proposal is approved, violators will not only be fined up to $2,000 but also be deemed trespassers and subject to immediate removal.

Officials in North Richland Hills, Haltom City, Hurst, Euless, Bedford and Colleyville said those cities have no similar ordinances.

"Nor have we contemplated one," Euless City Manager Gary McKamie said.

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Downtown District

A Letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram makes an excellent point.  Downtown Fort Worth isn't a congressional district.  It's part of one.  Don't show up in the rest of the district asking for our money to dump into our river.  Pay attention. 

Seeking attention

The Sunday article about Rep. Kay Granger gave much information about her international activities. I wish she would do as much in her own district, which is not just Fort Worth. The Tarrant County portion of her district, before redistricting, has 14 percent of the area and 79 percent of the population.

If you go by her own claim for appropriations in 2010, 61 percent was spent in Fort Worth and 4 percent in Parker County, with the rest being national or regional. Most of the Parker County spending went to a company that does business outside the county. Wise County got nothing. I got appropriations information from her website but can no longer find that link.

Granger does come to Parker County to raise money. With 86 percent of the area and 21 percent of the population, Parker and Wise counties would like to have more than 4 percent of the attention.

-- Darrel Behrens, Aledo

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Typical

Both the TIF and the reporting.

Read the article about TIF's not living up to their hype or promises.  The article that then goes on to tell you how much the TIF's should make.  Wait, what??  Typical Fort Worth Way in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

It talks about the developers taking risks with TIF's, it doesn't say much about those that fund the TIF.  Yes, it's YOU.

Notice how when they tell you about the Trinity River Vision TIF, they leave out the 40 years it spans (so far).

Does that mean YOUR kids will be sheep too?

Many projections for valuation growth were wildly overoptimistic.

For example, the tax increment finance district, or TIF, that covers east Fort Worth's Woodhaven neighborhood has lost overall property value for two years in a row. And a TIF that was started to attract a Cabela's sporting goods store to far north Fort Worth doesn't generate enough revenue to reimburse the retailer for bond payments tied to the development.

They typically stay in place for 20 years.

But he added, "Nobody predicted the loss of tax base two years in a row," referring to Woodhaven.

Cabela's was touted as a destination that would attract other development and millions of visitors. But there has been no other building.

The TIF, which was challenged in court by a citizens group, was set up to attract the Cabela's project at the northeast corner of I-35W and Texas 170. Cabela's said it wouldn't come to Fort Worth without it.

One of the more ambitious TIFs in terms of funding development is the Trinity River Vision TIF, which spans 3,980 acres from Northeast 23rd Street on the north and West Lancaster Avenue to the south, and includes Gateway Park to the east. The TIF proposes $320 million in spending.

The TIF currently carries costs associated with the Trinity River Vision project and has raised $8.4 million but spent only $2.5 million, the report says.

It started in 2003 with a base property value of $130.7 million.

That grew to $334.8 million in 2010, but expectations are that it could have a taxable value of $2.6 billion by 2044.

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Don't you just Love it?

The Woodshed is back in the spotlight.  Or rather, Tim Love is. 

The DFW.com article goes on and on.  While it did discuss the Tim Love restaurants that didn't survive, (New York City didn't quite love Love) it reminded us of an infomercial.  Well, Love did say he loves to be on TV. You can read it on DFW.com. 

We found a few notes of interest, other than that, more of the Fort Worth Way. 

We do love THE PEOPLE in Fort Worth, their comments are usually right on the money. 

Too many good BBQ places in FTW to be wasting your time with wanna be BBQ at the Woodshed.  The only reason why people go there is to check out the TCU hotties.  Once the hotties move on to the next new place to be seen, the Woodshed will fold.

Timeline:  2011  Star Telegram's  "Battle Of The Burgers"
Timeline:  2012  Star Telegram's  "Battle Of The Barbecue"

And take note of WHO is mentioned in the story.   WHO's money is that?

In early 2000, Love ran into Star-Telegram Eats Beat columnist Bud Kennedy in Milano's, the Seventh Street pizza-and-pasta restaurant not far from Michaels. He told Kennedy that he was a chef and that he was about to open a great new restaurant. Kennedy shrugged it off as a random encounter with a stranger. Six months later, he wrote that Lonesome Dove Western Bistro might be the best of several new restaurants that opened in Fort Worth that year.

The TRVA may have provided nearly a million dollars toward building the structure, but Love points out that he still put a lot of his own money into the project and he feels confident that, in the long run, Woodshed will be seen as a trailblazer along the river.

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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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Give it up

Instead of saying, “we can’t add”, the Star-Telegram chooses to call the call out on them “grumbling”. 

And don't miss the comments on Durango's boondoggle post.  They keep getting better.

Drive-in grumbling

A "back to the future" drive-in movie theater promises to reap a profit of $1.7 million over a 10-year contract with the Tarrant Regional Water District. The enlightened Star-Telegram Editorial Board says this "sounds like a way to jump-start activity along the Trinity River -- and at no risk to the taxpayer."

A 1.8 percent return on $909 million may sound like a good deal to the dim bulbs at the water district, Trinity River Vision Authority and Star-Telegram, but it sounds to me like yet another departure from a flawed Trinity Uptown plan that includes a flooded wakeboard park (what is the profit from that?), and a no-bid, one-time good-deal restaurant lease. And at no risk to the taxpayer, you say?

A couple hundred million to remediate flood potential caused by a half-billion-dollar rechanneling of the river, all to return far less than it costs. That's visionary?

-- Clyde Picht, Fort Worth

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Fort Worth Drive-In

Has everybody talking. 

Durango does it again.  YOU don't want to miss it, or the comments.

Yes. That sounds like a good plan, lease land to a startup business starting up a new business they've not started up before. Sounds like a recipe for success. Sort of like building the world's premiere wakeboard park where it can get wiped out by a flood.

The TRV Boondoggle Drive-In propaganda promoters are saying they anticipate around 300,000 TRVBDIT (Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Drive-In Theater) movie goers a year.

That works out to about 822 paying customers a day.

That sounds believable. Sort of like how the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and its propaganda co-horts claimed 7 to 8 million visitors a year to the Fort Worth Cabela's sporting goods store would make Cabela's the top tourist attraction in Texas. With apparently no one doing the math to see how unlikely was a daily average of around 22,000 visitors to a sporting goods store.

Three screens with up to 500 cars each? That'd be 1,500 cars running their A/Cs to keep cool on a HOT Texas summer night. That does not sound very eco-friendly to me.

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Of course they did

The Tarrant Regional Water District voted to open a drive-in theatre as part of the Trinity River Vision, you know, that "flood control" project downtown.

Don't worry, there is finally one aspect of this billion plus dollar boondoggle they say you aren't paying for.

You should read the comments from THE PEOPLE on some of these articles and Facebook. 

Priceless.

Don't kid yourself, YOU are still paying. 

 What a crock.  In June 2010, as Carl Bell faced foreclosure on LaGrave Field, the TRWD sweeps to his rescue with a $17.5 million gift by buying his parking lot.  His parking lot!  Of course, according to the always reliably forthright TRWD board, these 42 acres were direly needed for flood control for the futuristic boondoggle known as Trinity River Vision. 

Now stuck with a bankrupt LaGrave Field and FW Cats, the TRWD is saddled with a $17.5 million environmentally contaminated parking lot.  What can you do with a contaminated parking lot?  Why, put up a few screens and call it a drive-in theater.  Surely there will be enough suckers brave enough to shell out a few bucks to experience the thrill of making it home alive after spending a few hours after dark huddled in a car in this neighborhood, feasting on breakfast burritos from the handy dandy food truck. 

How many will come?  Well, according to the mathematically challenged scion of that truth in government pinup girl, Congresswoman Kay Granger, over 300,000 annually.  Really now?  That's over 800 a night every night all year.  Even when it's 110 in July and August.  Even when it's 32 in March.  But never mind.  JD said it so it must be true and the ST dutifully reports it as Gospel.  Welcome to the future of Fort Worth and the bold Trinity River Vision: environmentally contaminated drive-in theaters!  Please turn off your headlights.  You'll be glowing in the dark anyway.

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The Latest in Flood Control

A drive-in.  On a river full of feces.

So far the Trinity River Vision flood control pork project has produced a wakeboard park (which flooded), Rockin' on the River (where you float in said feces filled river), a risk free taxpayer funded restaurant in the flood path of said river (built specifically for celebrity chef Tim Love), and a newly created LLC named after said project, purchased the Fort Worth Cats bankrupt baseball team, and now a drive-in theater in Fort Worth.

What does any of that have to do with flood control??    

An article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram actually makes some interesting points.  Not necessarily about the billion dollar, completely taxpayer funded, without a vote, earmarked, eminent domain, nepotism-laden, "flood control" project known as the Trinity River Vision, but interesting, just the same. 

The Tarrant Regional Water District next week will consider entering into a lease with Dallas-based Coyote Theaters for a drive-in theater on vacant land near LaGrave Field.

The drive-in would be there for about 10 years, potentially drawing 300,000 patrons a year to Trinity Uptown. It would also net the water district about $1.7 million in rent, according to information filed with the district.

The drive-in would be called Coyote Theater in Trinity Uptown and would be on part of the 34 acres that the water district bought in 2010 from LaGrave Field owner Carl Bell. The site is near North Calhoun and Northeast Fifth streets, north of downtown Fort Worth.

J.D. Granger, Trinity River development director for the water district, could not be reached for comment Friday. The district is scheduled to consider the proposal Tuesday.

Not much is known about Coyote Theaters, but the Fort Worth site will apparently be its first location. The company does not have a listed phone number.

Coyote Theaters filed incorporation papers with the Texas secretary of state's office Aug. 2 and lists its management as Todd Minnis, Brady Wood, Scott Wilson and Glenn Solomon.

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To Preserve Our Rights, We Must Stand Up For Them

by Josh Fox on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 

This morning, the charge of "unlawful entry" brought against me was dismissed without condition.   The US Attorney dropped the case, finding it baseless and without merit.  Although this is a personal victory and I am very grateful and relieved at the US Attorney's decision, it serves as a painful reminder that we do not have rights unless we exercise them .

On February 1st, I was arrested, briefly jailed, and charged with "unlawful entry" for attempting to film a public hearing in the Science, Space and Technology committee.  I did not enter unlawfully, I lined up outside just as everyone else did and walked in when the room opened.  I set up my tripod and camera where cameras normally are set up in that particular hearing room and I was calm and peaceful.  I did not disrupt the hearing nor did I intend to do so.   I believed I was within my first amendment rights, as a journalist and filmmaker.  I was reporting on a case that is intensely personal to me, that I have been following for 3 years. 

The House had convened a hearing in the House Energy and Environment subcommittee to challenge EPAs findings that hydraulic fracturing fluids had contaminated groundwater in the town of Pavillion, Wyoming. I have a long history with the town of Pavillion and its residents who have maintained since 2008 that fracking has contaminated their water supply. I featured the stories of residents John Fenton, Louis Meeks and Jeff Locker in GASLAND and I have continued to document the catastrophic water contamination in Pavillion for the upcoming sequel GASLAND 2. It was clear that Republican leadership, including Chairman Andy Harris of Maryland, who ordered my arrest, was using this hearing to attack the three year Region 8 EPA investigation involving hundreds of samples and extensive water testing which ruled that Pavillion’s groundwater was a health hazard, contaminated by benzene at 50x the safe level and numerous other contaminants associated with gas drilling. Most importantly, EPA stated in this case that fracking was the likely cause.

When I was being led out of Congress in handcuffs, Representative Paul Tonko, Democracy of New York shouted out "This is the People's House!" in disgust.  Representative Brad Miller of North Carolina, moved to suspend the rules so that we could continue to film the proceedings stating "All god's children should be allowed to film this hearing!"  It was a surreal moment.   Later that day, Congressman Maurice Hinchey would write, "This is blatant censorship and a shameful stain on this Congress."

 But if it is not now the "People's House", it is now, more than ever the "people's media".  I was able to watch my own arrest on youtube because members of the audience filmed it and posted their videos.  It was the citizen journalism that first documented people lighting their water on fire in gas fracking areas.  It was citizen journalism that posted videos of the recent mass arrest of peaceful protestors in New York and in California.  The people's media is our system of accountability and transparency and we must continue to practice it.

 The First Amendment to the Constitution states explicitly “Congress shall make no law…that infringes on the Freedom of the Press”. Which means that no subcommittee rule or regulation should prohibit a respectful journalist or citizen from recording a public hearing.

I have huge respect for those who make the immense personal sacrifice to do public service and represent their constituents and the American people.  I believe we elect our representatives with good will and trust and the hopes that they serve us honestly and respectfully and I believe that we, as citizens, send them to Congress with love, pride and well wishes for the future of the nation.  However, I have no respect for or deference to those who would misuse the power granted them by the American people to upend the institutions of democratic government and the rights of the citizenship they have ben sworn to uphold for private gain, political leverage or because they are beholden to corporate influence or corrosive ideology.

The people of Pavillion deserve better. The thousands across the US who have documented cases of water contamination in fracking areas deserve their own hearing on Capitol Hill. They deserve the chance to testify before Congress. The truth that fracking contaminates groundwater is out, and no amount of intimidation tactics –either outright challenges to science or the arrest of journalists –will put the genie back in the bottle. Such a brazen attempt to discredit and silence the EPA, the citizens of Pavillion and documentary filmmaking will ultimately fail and it is an affront to the health and integrity of Americans.

We cannot take our democracy and the rights of our citizenship for granted.  Democracy is not handed to us from on high or guaranteed to us by battles fought by our ancestors.  It is perpetually under siege by those with power, money and influence who would rather our nation of laws becomes a nation of affiliation.  It is clear to me that I was arrested to serve the interests of oil and gas companies, whose interests often run counter to those of ordinary American citizens.

I was arrested because I refused to turn off my camera at a public hearing in the US congress.  I have filmed hundreds of public hearings around the country and the first amendment guarantees my ability to report on what happens in public. 

And I continue to refuse.  I refuse to let Congressmen blatantly attack science in the the Science committee without the light of the media shining out their transgressions.  I refuse to be silenced and not report on the misdeeds of those representatives who are clearly influenced by oil and gas companies beyond loyalty to their own citizen's health.  I refuse to stand down and let oil and gas companies lie about what they are injecting into the ground and emitting into the air.  I refuse to let the bill of rights collapse under the weight of a 250 million dollar lobbying campaign.  I refuse to let money, power and influence define the next American century over the will of the people.  I refuse to turn of my camera and sit idly by as huge areas in 34 states become sacrificial drilling zones.  I refuse to turn my back on the good and great people that have entrusted me with their stories of oil and gas contamination and walk away from the fight they have inspired me to wage on their behalf.  I refuse to let the oil and gas industry bury their cancerous secrets for us to unwittingly drink.  I refuse to bow and walk out of congress leaving it to the influence of those with money to peddle in its halls.  I refuse to relinquish my understanding of the law and of justice. I refuse to surrender my citizenship and my dignity, head bowed in submission, to the influence of corporate power. I refuse to forsake the American dream of the many for the financial gain of the nationless few.  I refuse to walk away, from my home and my country.

The fact that my case was dismissed so readily only attests to the ridiculousness and unfairness of my arrest, the US attorney has refused to pursue it.

I woke up one morning and declared myself a journalist.  I had to.  My home was under siege by the gas fracking industry.  I felt that I had to not only seek out the true effects of the largest natural gas drilling campaign in history on public health and the environment but also to report what I found to my community. 

The first amendment states that anyone can do the same.  Anyone can wake up in the morning, declare themselves a journalist and enjoy the protections of the First Amendment.   In the era of instant media, youtube and social networks, this becomes even more relevant and exciting; anyone with an iphone can rock the world.  It was citizen journalists who first posted police pepper spraying peaceful protestors in New York and California and it was citizen distribution that virally spread those horrific videos of police brutality until the whole world was infected with the truth of what is happening in the USA today.  It was citizen journalists who first documented water catching on fire at the kitchen sink as a result of gas fracking.  It was citizen journalists who woke up one morning and decided to show the water contamination and air pollution due to gas drilling in Texas, Wyoming, Pennsylvania and in states across the nation.

This year we have seen severe repression of journalism in America.  Hundreds of journalists have been arrested this year simply trying to do their jobs.  Whether they were covering oil and gas issues or issues of economic inequality during the Occupy demonstrations. 

"Recently, Reporters Without Borders released its 2011–2012 global Press Freedom Index.  Due to journalist arrests and press suppression at Occupy Wall Street-inspired protests, the United States has dropped significantly in the rankings of press freedom, from 27 to 47." Truthout reports.

Having personally witnessed the outrageous police brutality and repression which was an unwarranted response to occupy protests and to citizens who were acting in defense of their towns and neighborhoods against gas fracking and other egregious human rights violations as the result of fossil fuel development, I feel it is necessary to stand with all of those who have had enough of inequality and enough of big business having undue influence over the government.

So please accept my invitation, and the First Amendment's authorization, to declare yourself a member of the Press.  Declare yourself a witness to history and a fighter for transparency and equality under the law.  And if you feel like it, go film a congressional hearing.  Don't bother to ask for permission, permission was just granted to you by the US Attorney.  You don't need credentials, you have your rights.  Assert them.

Josh Fox
2/12/15

p.s. I am very thankful to Reporters Without Borders, The Society of Environmental Journalists and the Independent Documentary Association and to the 30,000 people who signed the Working Families Party petition on my behalf and to all of my supporters for your help well wishes and statements of outrage and strength.  I am also very grateful to all of the reporters, news outlets and journalists who reported on this travesty.

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Going nowhere, fast

THE PEOPLE outside of Tarrant County are standing up.  While the NCTCOG holds more private meetings.

Kudos to those "leaders" in Denton County for looking out for your people and their money.

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The last line below made us laugh, YOU know exactly where they'll get it.

After years of enduring one toll project on top of another, North Texans are striking back and insisting that they get some new free lanes, too.

The county has saved $600 million to contribute to the project, but officials have told the Texas Department of Transportation that they won't play ball unless free lanes are included in the first phase of road work.

The I-35E project is different from other recent road work in North Texas in that there's a concerted effort to include free lanes in the earliest construction phase.

By contrast, in Tarrant County, the $2.5 billion reconstruction of Northeast Loop 820 and Texas 121/183 -- a project known as North Tarrant Express -- includes the addition of four managed toll lanes but no new free lanes until possibly as late as December 2030, according to the state's contract with the developer.

When initial reports surfaced that Denton County's $600 million would be enough to build only managed toll lanes on I-35E, residents revolted. Even elected officials who hadn't been involved in transportation issues began to ask questions.

The Transportation Department and North Central Texas Council of Governments are holding numerous private conversations to determine how much money can be added to the project. By some estimates, Denton County's $600 million could be combined with $300 million in unspecified state transportation funds and $600 million from the council of governments for a total of $1.5 billion.

But for now, state officials are keeping mum about precisely where they'll get the money, although they hope to decide within 30 days.

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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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All that glitters

Letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

Fool's gold

Letter writers and columnists are lambasting the new Museum of Science and History and nostalgically longing for yesterday's old museum. What if after a billion earmark dollars are spent on new-fangled Trinity Vision with its boondoggle of canals, condos and bridges to nowhere, Fort Worthers, suffering buyer's remorse, wake up, tax bills in hand, and long once more for the old nature-carved Trinity and its vanished West Fork-Clear Fork landmark confluence admired by Ripley Arnold, Robert E. Lee and Amon Carter -- the confluence where the deer and the antelope played and Indians pitched their tepees, a picture that no museum artist ere could paint.

An 1898 painting by Frederic Remington portrays Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado on his ill-fated quest in 1541 to find the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola. The expedition, which included hundreds of soldiers and Native American guides, lasted two years and traversed some 4000 miles of the American West. In the end, no cities of gold were found and Coronado returned empty-handed and in debt.

Coronado's Seven Cities of Cibola. Kay Granger's Trinity Vision. All that glitters is not gold.

-- Don Woodard Sr., Fort Worth

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So, which one are YOU?

Truitt campaign spokesman Bryan Eppstein said critics of the Legislature's budget-balancing "fall into the camp of the people that want to support raising taxes or they fall into the group of people that don't know what they're talking about."

So if you didn't agree with the unbalanced budget, you wanted to raise taxes or you don't know what you're talking about?  Says WHO?

Read more on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  YOU can't afford not to.

Empower Texans, an influential conservative group, published a blog post recently, "Fix the Gimmicks."

"Rather than rearrange the furniture, Texans deserve the opportunity to clean up our fiscal house beginning with an honest budget free from smoke, mirrors, gimmicks and tricks," President Michael Quinn Sullivan wrote.

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Hey, Hey, Hey...Goodbye

Mel LeBlanc is no longer an Arlington Council member and he's no longer in the running for the next election. 

Read about it on the ArlingtonVoice.com.

In response to allegations surrounding his recently cleared drug investigation, Councilman Mel LeBlanc submitted his resignation to the Mayor and City Council and will be stepping down effective Tuesday, February 14th.

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WHAT?!

It doesn't matter which side of the aisle you sit on or which side of this particular fight you are on -   If this doesn't outrage you, you might be more like "them" then you think. 

From the Huffington Post:

In a stunning break with First Amendment policy, House Republicans directed Capitol Hill police to detain a highly regarded documentary crew that was attempting to film a Wednesday hearing on a controversial natural gas procurement practice.

Josh Fox, director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary "Gasland" was taken into custody by Capitol Hill police this morning, along with his crew, after Republicans objected to their presence, according to Democratic sources present at the hearing.

"It's an outrageous violation of the First Amendment," Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) told HuffPost. "Here we've got an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, and it's an important subject and the subject that he did his prior film on for HBO. And they put him in handcuffs and hauled him out of there. This is stunning."

"I found it ironic that there was not a flood of cameras there," noted Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.). "There was the one camera and then before that, the ABC camera ... if you have a camera there to bring the issue home to the public, that's a good thing."

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) told HuffPost, “I have served in the House of Representatives since 1992, and I had the privilege of chairing the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. In all that time, I cannot recall a chair of any committee or subcommittee having ever ordered the removal of a person who was filming a committee proceeding and not being disruptive, whether or not that person was accredited. It is a matter of routine that all sorts of people photograph and record our proceedings. Most of them are not accredited. I cannot recall anyone questioning their right to be there."

Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU in Washington, explained that "congressional committees routinely allow professional journalists to record hearings even when they don't have official press credentials, and excluding a journalist because he doesn't share the political views of the committee chair is outrageous. The Supreme Court has explained many times that censorship based on viewpoint is the clearest kind of First Amendment violation, and that seems to be what happened here."

Read the developing story and Josh Fox's response on the Huffington Post.  What was the charge?  Unlawful Entry.  To a public meeting??  How's that? 

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Dallas Fort Worth Media

Please stop reporting on kids being transported at the Stock Show in strollers (duh) and if the Cowboys are still America's team.  Please report on things that affect those you should be serving and things that are going on right under your noses. 

WHAT will the local "news" say when some big city slicker news outfit rolls into town and starts asking WHY no one has reported on these issues?  We can't wait to hear. 

Neither can Durango.

I still have not seen any mention made in the Star-Telegram of the fact that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's flood control project's first completed project, the Cowtown Wakepark, was severely damaged in the first flood of the Trinity River since its completion.

Of course it's not just our local media making a mockery out of themselves, national media was just put in its place by none other than Miss Piggy.  Here's hoping she also comes to see us in Cowtown soon. 

Anyway, during a news conference last week for the U.K. premiere of "The Muppets," Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy were asked about a December segment on Eric Bolling's "Follow the Money" that posed the question, "Are Liberals Trying to Brainwash Your Kids Against Capitalism?" One guest on the segment blasted the Muppets movie, which makes an oil executive (played by Chris Cooper) its villain.

Piggy said of the segment: "It's almost as laughable as accusing Fox News as, you know, being news."

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