Tired of the "news"paper propaganda?

Then you are not alone, Fort Worth.  San Antonio firefighters and residents feel the same about their paper.  So they did something about it. 

Insert all our normal players names into this story and you've got the same old, same old.  They also "glossed over the 35-50 percent hike".  

Doubling down with City Hall on a controversial water project, San Antonio’s daily newspaper delivered a Page One attack on efforts to review the $3.4 billion deal.

Express-News columnist Brian Chasnoff abandoned any pretense of news reporting, writing that a petition drive seeking an independent review by the Texas Public Utilities Commission was designed to“undermine” and “sabotage the pipeline project.”

“You know you are doing the right thing when they attempt to vilify you on the front page for  standing up for the taxpayer and motivating others to do so,” Moody said.

“If this project is so wonderful, why are they scared to let the Texas Public Utilities  Commission review it?”

Greg Brockhouse, a spokesman for the firefighters, said the Express-News was “culpable with its silence — and its attacks on those who are defending the rights of taxpayers. This is a big story on the abdication of responsibility by the media.”

Chasnoff’s snarky column contrasted limply with solid reporting by his colleagues.

Earlier, they broke the story the pipeline contractor had applied for an $885 million low-interest state loan to finance the project.

Around the time of its editorial, the newspaper reported the parent company of Abengoa Vista Ridge had filed for bankruptcy.

Another inconvenient truth surfaced when an environmental consultant for Vista Ridge made a maximum $1,000 contribution to Mayor Ivy Taylor following her vote to support the project.

http://watchdog.org/261407/nuts-water-ratepayers/

Josh Fox arrested...for pancakes??

Academy award nominee Josh Fox was arrested again.  This time for protesting what sounds like the Texas Railroad Commission, on steroids.  It's called FERC. WHY was he arrested?  We're not really sure.  All the pictures show the protestors either making pancakes or sitting.

This story will sound all too familiar to you Fort Worth locals.  From eminent domain to no approval or oversight.

Today’s protest draws specific attention to FERC’s role in using eminent domain to condemn and clearcut a wide swathe of maple trees across the Holleran family maple syrup farm in New Milford, Pennsylvania. The clearcut was ordered to make way for the fracked gas Constitution Pipeline, even though the pipeline has yet to be approved by New York state.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/gasland-director-josh-fox-arrested-pancakes-not-pipelines-protest

A "culture of deviance"

Sound familiar? 

These are the boys up north, in Canada, that are taking land from Texans.  They sound like the ones that are already here...


Occupy Canada

October 1st - A TransCanada pipeline engineer, the man responsible for ensuring that pipelines were constructed safely, has come forward with shocking information about TransCanada’s unscrupulous safety practices. In his own words: "Someone is going die and they just don't know it yet."

"Drawing on examples from the records of Enbridge and Kinder Morgan, Vokes is going public with his concerns about an industry facing unprecedented growth and what even the National Energy Board (NEB) describes as "an increased trend in the number and the severity" of pipeline incidents.

Vokes has stellar company. In particular, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has accused Enbridge, a Canadian company jointly regulated by the NEB and the U.S. Pipeline Hazardous Materials Standard Administration (PHMSA), of nurturing a "culture of deviance" on safety and integrity issues after a dramatic Michigan pipeline rupture in 2010. That debacle caused the largest and most expensive onshore oil spill in U.S. history.

In addition to "multiple findings of non-compliance and non-conformance" with regulations, the NEB also documented that Enbridge didn't have a process for "defining and evaluating the level of qualification and competence of contractors and consultants."

The company also didn't know how valid and effective its assessments of corrosion and cracking were in its pipeline safety program."
 http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/10/01/Cracks-In-Pipeline-System/

-- Kris

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.

Everything is right,

The Lone Star's shining bright,
It's a Texas Christmas tonight.

Merry Christmas to all our friends, supporters, and contributors.
A special Merry Christmas to our troops serving both near and far.

YOU are all stars.

May the New Year bring you all many blessings and an end to the Culture of Corruption.

Anything is possible, if YOU believe.

Peace,
Texas Lone Star

Places please...

The connections in Fort Worth run deep.  Especially in the Culture of Corruption.

A local Chesapeake employee was recently named one of the top "Forty under Forty" by the Fort Worth Business Press.  He was also just added to the Fort Worth Leadership board.

Wonders never cease.  Or do they??

Due West

Seems John Wiley Price isn't the only one the FBI is looking at in Dallas.

The list continues to grow- Politicians, Businesses and their representatives, longtime political consultants, Senators, exes, the list goes on and on of "associates" being investigated.

Read about the search warrant details on WFAA.com.

Some claim the investigation is about race -  over in Cowtown, corruption comes in all colors. 

As for the Feds, turn around, look West. 

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

Tarrant County Culture of Corruption Continues

Read about the latest Melody Johnson, Fort Worth School Superintendent scandal.  WHY is it in Fort Worth there is always more than one scandal with the same folks? 

The story is from the FW Weekly, but we enjoyed reading Durango's introduction.  They are always entertaining.

Welcome to the Eminent Domain capital

Another local business is having another run in with a gas drilling company.  George's Speciality Foods.

WHO's got the scoop?  Durango, who else.

Fort Worth named a most positive city?

As in positively insane?  Who makes these "studies" up, and WHY?  How much did it cost?

Read about it on Durango.  As usual, he tells it like it is.  That is a positive....

"If this is not some sort of apocalyptic warning that the World is in trouble, I don't know what is."

"Fort Worth is the Big Doozy on this list. Fort Worth is one of the world's most positive towns? Fort Worth has a corrupt mayor, on the take to the total tune of millions of dollars to the Barnett Shale gas drillers poking holes in his town. Fort Worth's mayor fired the city's ethics board when they finally had the backbone to stand up against the city's ethics problems."

"Fort Worth positive? This is a town where the city allies with gas drillers against the people to conspire to try and put non-odorized natural gas pipelines under people's homes, using Fascist Gestapo-like raids to intimidate those who fight for their right to speak out against having a dangerous pipeline run under their home."

"Fort Worth positive? This is a town that regularly uproots citizens from their property, using eminent domain in conspiracy with big business, like what was done to get Radio Shack its now defunct corporate headquarters. And is currently being done courtesy of Fort Worth's myopic Trinity River Vision Boondoggle."

The Fort Worth Way

Tarrant County style...in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Seeing Red in Texas

Think Texas is a red state?  Check this out on TXSharon.

How much was YOUR royalty check?  Save it, you'll need it to move somewhere they have clean air and water. 

If YOU are a taxpayer...Part 2

Watch WFAA tonight at 10.  They have more questions.  We love it when the media asks questions.

Durango does it again

Want to know about the corruption in the Shale? Durango lays it out for you in style.

WHO's listening?

Also, check out Durango's pledge. Sad, but true.

Fort Worth Water Shortage

While the Tarrant Regional Water District sues other states to try and take their water and takes private property by eminent domain for Trinity Uptown (instead of doing their job), the City of Fort Worth and those involved with Gateway Park (ahem, the Tarrant Regional Water District) and TCEQ allows gas drillers to take water from the Trinity River. Soon to be, lots of water.

Thanks to Detective Durango for the great shots and blog. You can't afford to miss it!

Ask some questions of your supposed leaders. Hold them accountable.

The Water Board has an election coming up, maybe it's time for some fresh faces.

UPDATE 11/2/2010: Those of you looking for the latest information on the Fort Worth Water Shortage, go here.