Come out and play!

Prairie Fest Debuts New Old Look This Weekend

Star-Telegram gives away free advertising

If your name is Tim Love.

No wonder the restaurant’s in Fort Worth are pissed.  What happens when they do the same to YOUR type of business?

Apparently Mitch doesn’t read the comments from readers on his own paper, or he’d know the kind of reviews the locals give the Woodshed.  You know, the folks that actually live here.

What’s the going rate for kickbacks in the “news”-paper industry?

We will warn you, this may be one of the most nauseating views we have yet to read from the Trinity River Vision cheerleader, AKA, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Almost as nauseating as the “news”paper  even mentioning tubing on the river after the known findings of fecal matter, etc. were released last year, after the tubing events, of course.

So tell us, what is the real purpose of a “news” paper?  WHEN will Fort Worth get one?  How will we ever wait?

Just a reminder for those of you who don’t know, summer is coming…

If the Woodshed Smokehouse is any indication of what's ahead for the Trinity River Vision, maybe they could start digging that bypass channel a few years early. How will Fort Worth ever wait?

The Woodshed is so good, so soon, that it gives the river project a jolt of new energy and even gives government a good name.

The TRV aims to move a river, reclaim acres of waterfront land near downtown and attract the development to pay for it. Celebrity chef Tim Love sees the Woodshed as an iconic venue unlike any in North Texas, and a place that stirs a love affair with the river.

The Tarrant Regional Water District, which opted to go large and all-in, spent almost $1 million to build the pavilion-style structure (designed by Bennett Benner Pettit of Fort Worth).  AKA – Gideon Toal

Granger didn't have the option of selling the Woodshed's tiny parcel to Love. It had to remain in government hands for potential flood control. Rather than a simple lease, Granger and Love worked out a risk-sharing deal, with 4 to 6 percent of gross revenue going to the water district, depending on sales volume.

How do you figure?

The editorial in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram left us shaking our heads, again.  The editor says this is the only Private/ Public Partnership (P3) that won't work.  Although, it is a project that is a direct result of their fist-pumping, paper-loving Trinity River Vision (a completely taxpayer funded project). 

They go on to say a good thing about P3's is "no bond election needed".  An election concerning a project in Fort Worth?  Not building something until you have the money?  YOUR own money?  Foreign concept around these parts.  (See the accompanying article," Fort Worth working to find $3.3 million dollars to redevelop Hunter Plaza" . )

A citizen commented on the way the Police and Fire Training Academy could be funded.  They get it.

They may try to get "Junior" Granger and "Mama" to front the deal as the citizens will pay when they're through with "Mama's Legacy"!!!!

Of all the capital projects on Cowtown's ever-expansive list of wants, this is the only one with a clock ticking.

The city sold the fire and police training building and the firing range at 1000 Calvert St. in 2011 to the Tarrant Regional Water District. Both departments still have access to those facilities under leases, but the contract on the firing range runs out Dec. 31, 2013. (The lease for the training building doesn't expire until the end of 2019.)

Waitin' on Water

Well, waiting to sue our neighbors again for theirs.

Politex explains WHY Irving and their current mayor have jumped on board. Now, WHY would the Supreme Court need another week? 

WHAT happens when the water is gone?  WHO will come to Texas then?  WHERE will you get water?

The U.S 10th Circuit and a lower federal court ruled in favor of Oklahoma in the lawsuit, in which the water district seeks to obtain water from north of the Red River to serve as part of the Metroplex's future water supply.

"The Supreme Court today decided to take another week to consider Tarrant’s certiorari petition challenging Oklahoma laws barring the export of water to Texas – indicating that the Justices are interested in Tarrant’s arguments and intend to study the case more deeply," said attorney Timothy S. Bishop.

"The Court will discuss whether to grant Tarrant’s petition again on March 30."

Last week, the Supreme declined to hear another case involving water being moved from Oklahoma to Texas. Hugo, Okla., had an agreement to sell water to Irving and the lower courts had ruled that Hugo couldn't sell water without Oklahoma's permission.

How do YOU protect your property?

Like that.

Good work, Texans.  Keep it up.  If YOU don't, WHO will?

A BIG moment has arrived...

Proposal to fix key segments of FREEways in San Antonio WITHOUT tolls! 

After 7 years of controversy, San Antonio elected officials come together to snag some of that $2 billion to fix 281 & 1604 without tolls (as YOU asked them to). MPO to vote on resolution tomorrow, Monday, March 26 @ 1:30 PM!

Join us for...
Press Conference prior to the MPO vote
1:00 PM Monday, March 26
Via Metro Center
1021 San Pedro
San Antonio, TX

Despite recent developments for a non-toll proposal for a few segments in San Antonio, there are still 500 other toll projects planned statewide...

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...

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.

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?

Do no harm

Isn't that the oath doctor's take?

Seems the industry does not share the sentiment. 

What if something was making your child sick and your doctor was forbidden to tell you about it?  WHAT would you do?

Truth-out has a three part gas drilling series YOU must see.  YOUR life may depend on it.

Fracking: Pennsylvania gags Physicians

Fluids used in fracking include those that are “potentially hazardous,” including volatile organic compounds, according to Christopher Portier, director of the National Center for Environmental Health, a part of the federal Centers for Disease Control. In an email to the Associated Press in January 2012, Portier noted that waste water, in addition to bring up several elements, may be radioactive. Fracking is also believed to have been the cause of hundreds of small earthquakes in Ohio and other states.

The law, an amendment to Title 52 (Oil and Gas) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, requires that companies provide to a state-maintained registry the names of chemicals and gases used in fracking. Physicians and others who work with citizen health issues may request specific information, but the company doesn’t have to provide that information if it claims it is a trade secret or proprietary information, nor does it have to reveal how the chemicals and gases used in fracking interact with natural compounds. If a company does release information about what is used, health care professionals are bound by a non-disclosure agreement that not only forbids them from warning the community of water and air pollution that may be caused by fracking, but which also forbids them from telling their own patients what the physician believes may have led to their health problems. A strict interpretation of the law would also forbid general practitioners and family practice physicians who sign the non-disclosure agreement and learn the contents of the “trade secrets” from notifying a specialist about the chemicals or compounds, thus delaying medical treatment.

The clauses are buried on pages 98 and 99 of the 174-page bill, which was initiated and passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly and signed into law in February by Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.

“I have never seen anything like this in my 37 years of practice,” says Dr. Helen Podgainy, a pediatrician from Coraopolis, Pa.

WHO are you voting for?

Be there Thursday to learn about the candidates, one of which, will end up voting for YOU. 

Looking at the line up, it should be fun.

TX House District 91 Candidate Debate
Stephanie Klick vs Ken Sapp vs Charles Scoma vs Theresa Thombs
Thursday, March 22 7:00-8:00pm
Foster Village Recreation Building
6600 Starnes Rd, Watauga 

Make it stop. Your kids can't afford it.

Right now, members of Congress officially earn $174,000 a year. Officially. But that's not their real salary. As numerous media reports and first-hand accounts have shown, the way that many elected officials really make money is to secure high-paying lobbying jobs after leaving Congress, often with the very firms or companies for whom they have done legislative favors while still in office.

It's what you might call Backdoor Bribery—and we need your help to stop it.

So for instance, former Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd got a 762% raise after he retired from the Senate to work at the movie industry association.  Based on available information, the average raise for a member of Congress who becomes an influence-peddler is 1452%.

It's so bad that some current members of Congress, whose retirement is still 10 months away, are already negotiating with lobbyists right now for jobs.

This is outrageous. There are 34 current members of Congress who have announced they are leaving office. We're sending a letter to each of them, asking them to tell the public who is offering them jobs and who they are negotiating with. The American people have the right to know: Who are members of Congress really working for?

Sign the letter here, addressed to the retiring members of Congress, and we'll deliver the petition with your name on it to their offices. Over the course of the next few weeks, we'll be doing follow-up work to get them to tell us who might be offering them backdoor bribes. And forward this email to your friends. Facebook it. Tweet it out.

It's supposed to be our government, not the lobbyists. Let's make it ours. Click here to sign the letter.

Sincerely,
Lee Fang
Republic Report

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.

Protect YOUR Turf

From YOUR policitians. Help TURF do just that.....

HUTCHISON PULLS BAN ON TOLLING EXISTING FREE LANES

-- Highway Bill passes Senate without ban. Anti-toll, pro-toll amendments both pulled. All eyes on the House...

>> Call (202) 224-3121 to STOP tolls on existing FREEways

--Ask your member of Congress to support the Canseco Amendment to prohibit tolls on existing free lanes in HR 7.

>> We've found a NEW avenue for a lawsuit to STOP tolls across Texas

-- We need YOUR financial help to help us prepare litigation that will send SHOCKWAVES across the state!

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

More Startlegram Censorship

The Fort Worth Weekly gives you the scoop. 

Good thing there's a real paper in town.

If a city has 16 candidates....

There's a reason. Be there Thursday and find out what it is.

City Council Candidates will attend first forum Thursday at 7:00 PM

By D. J. Zitko

Sixteen challengers for five seats on the City Council!

It is an extremely rare occurrence to have five seats in contention. Two seats are open due to resignations and three of the incumbents are up for re-election. In total, nineteen candidates are listed in the City Council races.

Fourteen of the challengers will take part in the first city council candidate forum this Thursday night, March 15th. This free event is open to the public and gives citizens an opportunity to meet the challengers and listen as they give timed responses to questions on the issues that face our city. The event will be held at the Odis Pharr Community Center, 3535 Marathon,Pantego, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The event is hosted by the Arlington Tea Party.

The organizer of the event, Kelly Canon, a former candidate for City Council herself, spoke with the Arlington Voice about the forum’s format, “Due to the large number of candidates this year, we will keep answers to timed, one-minute responses. Each candidate will be given an opportunity to briefly introduce themselves and talk about the issues that are most important to them as a potential/future council member.”

Read the full story at the Arlington Voice.

Dear Fort Worth Earthquake Experts,

A letter from a voter, everyone should read.

FORT WORTH CITY COUNCIL

Please read the latest S-T article on earthquakes in Ohio.

Ohio has seen it's share of adverse effects from gas drilling and devoted a great deal of time to research various problems associated with it, including Injection wells.  After many earthquakes, the State of Ohio has taken the position they need to know more before moving into the unknown.  Unlike certain Council members in Fort Worth, Ohio believes in protecting its citizens even if it means putting the residents ahead of industry.

As usual, after numerous earthquakes the industry wants more studies before putting a hold on additional injection wells despite repeated earthquakes near their injection wells. They appears to believe that if they deny the correlation enough, there will be those gullible enough to think it must be true.  Don't be among that group.  Look at the mounting evidence.  Earthquakes at DFW Airport, Cleburne, San Antonio and in Oklahoma have occurred and seem to be on the increase.

Fort Worth is not prepared to determine where Injection Wells may or may not be safe and the Railroad Commission certainly has not provided the needed protection or testing that is needed.  Fort worth residents should no longer to be guinea pigs for pilot or experimental projects.

Concerned Shale Citizen

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

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.

No response

No surprise.

This attorney wouldn't call the FW Weekly back.  WHY not?

Call and ask him.  Check on the status of YOUR First Amendment rights.

And back up a Texas Hero while you're at it. 

Is there an attorney in the house?

Read about TXSharon and Range Resources on the Fort Worth Weekly.com.  They have the digits.

In the long run

Is it worth it?

It's rhetorical.

It's Fort Worth.

Shepherd knows drilling accidents happen, but the nature center needs the money. So, he hopes gas companies can find the value in the wildlife not just the gas reserves below.

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.

Bursting their bubble

As soon as the Rolling Stone article hit the street, the standard responses from the industry started rolling in. 

We've seen it before. 

What's different about this "news"?  The Rolling Stone chose to answer back.  Point by point.  Read the entire article.  The closing is not to be missed.  Bravo.

Keep on rockin'.

The company entirely dodges the article’s central point: that Chesapeake is highly-leveraged firm operated by a corporate gambler who engaged in complex scheme to profit off the illusion that America has a virtually unlimited supply of cheap natural gas.
But when it came time to answer more substantial questions, all traces of transparency vanished. A quick example: I asked Chesapeake three times to provide me with a statistic for the total volume of dirty flowback water the company handled in the Marcellus Shale region last year. I got no answer.

Even more disturbing, when I asked McClendon directly if he or his company had contributed any money to presidential candidates or their PACs during the current campaign, he said flatly that they had not. This was curious to me, because McClendon has a long history of making campaign donations, and often encourages others in the industry to give to PACs as a way to make sure their voices are heard.   So I asked him again in email a few days later: The answer was still "no." A week later, a researcher at Rolling Stone discovered that Chesapeake had indeed contributed $250,000 to Rick Perry's campaign last fall. When I asked Kehs about this, he admitted it was true. Apparently McClendon operates in a world where a quarter million dollar campaign contribution can just slip one’s mind. 

WHO's next?

WFAA reported the Feds intercepted a cash payment being made to John Wiley Price for a land deal.

So how much cash you think is floating around the Trinity River in Tarrant County? Time will tell, or the Feds will.

Rolling in the Dough

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has an article on how much our 'leaders' are raking in.

WHERE does that money come from? YOU guessed it.

Buried in the article is the point that there's no way to tell what all they really bring home. WHY would that be?

North Texas congressional members' estimated net worths include: U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, $548,007, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Dallas, $392.506; and U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, $81,002.

What's the Difference in Dallas and Fort Worth?

Some would say 'news', money or vision.  Some would say, the Fort Worth Way.

Read a prime example of this on a comment left on Durango's blog.

Anonymous said...

Brantley Hargrove of the Dallas Observer wrote about the Rolling Stone article on Friday.

Saturday or yesterday Mitchell Schnurman of the Star-Telegram wrote that the Barnett Shale still thrives despite downturn.

That is the Fort Worth way in case you haven't noticed.

WHO'd have thought...

It's brilliant, really.  A music magazine doing news.  A real article on fracking.  The Rolling Stone doesn't need campaign donations and gas drillers wouldn't be their typical advertisers.  We'll be buying a subscription.  Rock on. 

If you read nothing else today, read this article.  YOU can't afford not to.

According to Arthur Berman, a respected energy consultant in Texas who has spent years studying the industry, Chesapeake and its lesser competitors resemble a Ponzi scheme, overhyping the promise of shale gas in an effort to recoup their huge investments in leases and drilling. When the wells don't pay off, the firms wind up scrambling to mask their financial troubles with convoluted off-book accounting methods. "This is an industry that is caught in the grip of magical thinking," Berman says. "In fact, when you look at the level of debt some of these companies are carrying, and the questionable value of their gas reserves, there is a lot in common with the subprime mortgage market just before it melted down." Like generations of energy kingpins before him, it would seem, McClendon's primary goal is not to solve America's energy problems, but to build a pipeline directly from your wallet into his.

"...the shale-gas boom could turn out to be an economic and environmental disaster."

"Our approach is to go in early, quietly and big," says Henry Hood, who directs Chesapeake's land purchases. "We like to get our deals signed before anybody knows what we're up to and tries to run up prices."

New laws in Pennsylvania now prohibit companies from discharging flowback into rivers and streams. Instead, operators like Chesapeake either "recycle" their water by running it through a filtration system, or haul it off to Ohio and inject it underground – a process which, some seismologists now suspect, is the reason Ohio was hit by an uncharacteristically large number of earthquakes last year.

I ask her how she feels about the promise of fracking now. "I think the industry is destroying our water resource to extract a gas resource," she says. "And in the long run, I don't think that's a very smart trade."

Hey, Local 'News'

Why is the fact that our water bills could go up several hundred dollars a year (each) not news here?

We hear KLIF called the TARRANT Regional Water District to get their take, they agreed. Yep, it's going up.

We're surprised they know that much, all we hear from them in our local 'news' paper is TRV. The flood control project, featuring Wakeboard parks, restaurants, ball teams and drive-ins.

What's that costing YOU? WHY doesn't the 'news' tell you? Ask.

Get schooled

So you don't get schooled.

Hurry the first 118 get a free parking pass...

Tarrant Regional Transportation Coalition Candidates’ Forum 

In our area, 34 candidates are running for three Senate and 12 House seats in the Texas Legislature. What do they know about the transportation issues facing North Texas and our state? Do they see transportation as a priority issue? What revenue(s) would they like to see fund transportation improvements? Come to the March 1 candidates' forum and learn the answers to these and other important questions posed to the candidates.

Thursday, March 1, 2012 
7 - 9 p.m. 
Tarrant County College, Trinity River East Campus 
245 E. Belknap St., Fort Worth 76102
TRHA Building, Room 1050 (Auditorium)

This is an important opportunity for us to participate in the electoral process. We need to understand what candidates know and think about transportation and they need to know that we care about sustaining mobility and see transportation as a priority issue.

Ben Loughry, chairman of the Fort Worth Real Estate Council, will moderate the forum. Each candidate will be given an opportunity to make a brief statement and to answer questions from forum attendees.

Seating is limited 
RSVP to vic@trtcmobility.org 
The first 118 people will be provided detailed instructions and a parking pass.