This Should Be Fun....

We can barely stand the wait to hear JD Granger give us an update on his Trinity River Vision with its river walk, pond and waterfront neighborhood...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Behind the Woodshed

It's opening, again.  Or so they say, again.

The taxpayer funded restaurant in a flood plain is set to open in February.  If you're one of those that think it's cool to go eat at a restaurant you paid to build for a "celebrity", you might want to go before the next storm comes.  You saw what happened to the other "flood control" attraction you paid to build.

It's all just a matter of time.

Wanna Wakeboard?

The Cowtown Wakeboard park, part of the Trinity River Vision "flood" control project in Fort Worth, failed to save anyone from flooding today.  Apparently, it couldn't even save itself.

The Trinity River took back the wakeboard park.  And left a sign of just how clean the river is.  Remember that when they invite you to Tube the Trinity during the Rockin' the River events brought to you by the Trinity River Vision Authority and the Tarrant Regional Water District.

With all the flooding footage today, WHY did you not see any of the wakeboard park?  Ask.

While you're at it, ask what it cost YOU and what it's going to cost YOU to repair it.  After all, it's YOUR money.

When you're about to lose an election....POSTPONE IT !!!

"A politician thinks of the next election.  A statesman, of the next generation".  James Freeman Clarke

Seems we're not the only ones paying attention.  Check out the Whited Sepulchre concerning the Tarrant Regional Water District voting to extend their terms in office.  WHO does that?  And WHY?

Was the TRWD worried the Trinity River Improvement Partnership had the candidates to send them packing?  Maybe they should worry that TRIP has another year to inform voters.  

Had this happened to any reasonably alert group of voters, the hardware stores would already be sold out of pitchforks and torches.  Good Lord in heaven.  When are we going to wake up ????

Resolutions?

We were catching up on the incoming emails from the New Year and came across this little gem from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  As usual, a double edged sword.  The brightest gem and the dullest bulb all in the same box.

This comes from a list of resolutions they listed for others.  One made us applaud, one made us scratch our heads.

The Tarrant Regional Water District and the Trinity River Vision Authority resolve to clearly explain how county residents can tell when J.D. Granger is working on behalf of the water district and when he's working in his capacity as executive director of the TRVA, because it's really confusing to keep it straight.

The Fort Worth council resolves to reach a logical decision about injection wells to dispose of natural gas drilling waste. The current method -- trucking the waste away to be buried in somebody else's back yard -- is not logical.

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

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. 

Pulitzers and Pickets

Incoming from a local taxpayer concerning the JD Granger, Tim Love, Trinity River Vision, Tarrant Regional Water District, Woodshed Boondoggle...

I'm boycotting....I hope it fails HUGE...The Business Press should get a Pulitzer for this cover up....
Not only am I boycotting, I'm looking forward to picketing, too.  Every restaurant owner in town should be out there in force. Businesses in Fort Worth need to get a clue.  Don't they know they are next?

Remember when

We said Place your bets on WHO will end up with LaGrave field?

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, your bet is about to pay off.  Notice there is always a "but".  The taxpayers will then own a restaurant and a ball field.

J.D. Granger, executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority, reiterated that the authority and the water district have no interest in running a team or owning a stadium. But he said the agencies might consider buying the property if it is auctioned on the courthouse steps.

That wasn't even in the article about the Cats and LaGrave field.  That was in the article about the contaminated site clean up.

The environmental director for the TRWD talks about long term health risks.  Is this the same one WHO forgot to test the water in the Trinity River before promoting to the citizens to float with filth?

How much was budgeted for environmental clean up, again?

As part of a "dig and haul" project, crews are loading heavy metals buried years ago at the site of the former American Cyanamid chemical plant and trucking them to a landfill in the Hill County town of Itasca.

For the Tarrant Regional Water District and its political subdivision, the Trinity River Vision Authority, this is the first of at least 15 environmental projects that are expected to be completed within five years to make room for the $909 million flood control and economic development project.

"If you want to have residential use, then you need to clean it up to higher level so that long-term risk at the site is minimized," said Woody Frossard, the water district's environmental director.

J.D. Granger, executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority, reiterated that the authority and the water district have no interest in running a team or owning a stadium. But he said the agencies might consider buying the property if it is auctioned on the courthouse steps.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/12/05/3573053/contaminated-soil-being-removed.html#storylink=cpy

Fort Worth has a new owner

"Time to get to Fort Worth. Tim Love owns this town. It’s a great honky-tonk town."

So. In the world of celebrity chefs, apparently, it is known that Tim Love owns Fort Worth.

This is the best explanation yet as to how it was Tim Love got his sweetheart restaurant deal for his new Woodshed restaurant, courtesy of the generosity of his drinking buddy. J.D. Granger, the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and the Tarrant Regional Water District.

Read all about it on Durango.

WHO's your daddy?

As previously mentioned, we keep it in the family in Fort Worth.  Literally.

Read about the court connections on PoliTex.  And keep in mind, that ain't nothin.

This is Texas, we do it up big.

They’re the latest in a long line of notable offspring to be hired by the Tarrant County district attorney’s office.

Others who have branched out on the district attorney’s family tree include:

--J.D. Granger, son of U.S. Rep. (and former Fort Worth mayor) Kay Granger. J.D. Granger is now executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority.

And the Winner is...

Ms. Hopkins.  Again.

The Loser?  YOU.

Read Ms. Hopkins latest letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  It's got everything from tragedy to comedy, from the Trinity River to Santa Claus.

Bravo, ma'am.

TRV lease

"I'm shocked, shocked!" that anyone is shocked that J.D. Granger granted a no-bid lease on the might-as-well-be-a-million-dollar Woodshed Smokehouse restaurant that his "fiefdom," the Trinity River Vision, has built. (See: "Eatery deal is debated," Sunday) Remember that's how "Mama's Boy" Granger got his own "no-bid" job? Granger, the Trinity River Vision's executive director, is nepotism's biggest beneficiary since the Borgias.

What does the Tarrant Regional Water District get in this $970,000 sweetheart deal? A mention of the proposed restaurant on a television cooking demonstration. Plus -- in lieu of paying rent -- the Woodshed will "ensure ... a specified number of beers ... on tap" and a promise that cyclists and joggers can use the restroom. Plus, if the Woodshed closes before the end of its lease, "the district would get some $400,000 of restaurant equipment."

Used restaurant equipment should come in handy; water board members can become short-order cooks when our 50-year drought dries up the river. Meanwhile, who's minding the store? It took a Star-Telegram Texas Public Information Act request to find out anything about this boondoggle. There's more going around in the dark than Santa Claus.
-- Guelma B. Hopkins, Fort Worth

Front page "news"?

By the time the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article about the Trinity River Tim Love Woodshed restaurant appeared on the front page, it already had 50+ comments online.

So what are THE PEOPLE saying about YOUR elected officials allowing their unelected friends and family to gamble with YOUR money?

We received a couple of questions such as, How do you agree "in principle" to make a building smaller than it is?  And how much did Granger and Love drink that neither of them know WHO asked WHO?  WHY did it take the paper till now to start asking questions? 

Landslide left a comment here.

And the comments keep pouring in on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, when it rains it pours.

So I suppose we have to assume this is a sweetheart deal courtesy of Kay Granger by way of Granger Junior? Business as usual for those two and for Fort Worth insiders.

I think the celebrity title may have been added by the S-T writers as window dressing- designed to put lip stick on a pig and sell it to us as a great idea.

It kind of shows who really pull the strings at the S-T.

Kay Granger decries crony capitalism and the evil and dangers of the government helping citizens with anything including healthcare for children (She has voted against it everytime). But then she appoints her son to a 6 figure job for which he has no qualifications and then her son decides to appropriate $1 million dollars of taxpayer dollars to a very wealthy businessman just because. If that isn't corporate welfare for the very rich and crony capitalism than somebody tell me what it is. Who elected Kay Granger's son JD to hand out my tax dollars to his buddies. (other than his mother)

This is just the beginning of the Trinity River flood control project turned private development boondoggle.  After the by-pass channel is cut and the people of Fort Worth are all assured of being flood-free, the leeves along the river are scheduled to be leveled.  What's the Tarrant Regional Water District going to do with all that nice new river edge real estate they own or control?!  Figure it out.

This is an outrage to every person that pays taxes. It is bad enough that Granger was given this job by his mother despite the fact that he had absolutely no experience. He makes a huge 6 figure salary, (your taxes) to transfer your hard earned tax payer money to his mothers political cronies. This whole "Vision" is nothing more than very rich people appropriating the working mans tax dollars for their own gain. They support corrupt politicians like Kay Granger that will do anything to keep her job and get one for her unqualified son. We have the highest taxes in Texas right here in Fort Worth and as long as every "chosen" one can dip their hand in for a scoop of tax payer money it is going to stay that way.

This is the first of many shady transactions involving the Trinity boondoogle.

Citizens have already seen that this sweetheart deal short changes the tax system that was supposed to help the city.

I, like an earlier commenter, smell a rat in the kitchen

Rumor has it....

Since May, we've been posting about the long rumored Tim Love Woodshed restaurant on the banks of the Trinity River.  As we told you recently, nine times out of ten, rumors in Cowtown usually turn out to be true.  Lots of people have been asking questions about the Woodshed for awhile now, seems our "news" finally decided to play too.

Read the article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, don't miss the comments from THE PEOPLE.  Seems we aren't the only ones who suspect WHO's next. 

I suspect one day we'll turn on the news and see the video of the FBI raid on their offices, carting out box after box after box of documents not unlike what has been happening in Dallas with their crooked South Dallas politicians.

If the head of the Trinity River Vision Authority was hired without a proper job search, and the contractors and PR firms are too, what makes local restaurant owners think the River Shack would be any different?  Wake up, people.  No wonder Love didn't know how much it costs now to open a restaurant.  And don't forget, the former Gideon Toal who received many no bid TRV and Tarrant County contracts gave the Woodshed an award.  How cozy. 

Remember, this is the same water district that can't figure out how to supply us water for the future.  But they serve one hell of a barbeque, with a side of BS at no charge.

Without open bidding, the Trinity River Vision Authority signed a 10-year lease with Tim Love and spent $970,000 building a restaurant structure at the most popular riverbank trailhead, hoping that the celebrity chef's Woodshed Smokehouse will generate hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in a profit-sharing rent arrangement.

Unlike municipal lease deals, those offered by water districts do not require competitive bidding under Texas law, said Anthony Magee, a Dallas attorney with Gruber Hurst Johansen Hail Shank who is familiar with such issues.

"Gosh, I wish we had an opportunity to bid on this," said Shannon Wynne, CEO of Dallas-based 8.0 Management, which operates three Fort Worth restaurants, Flying Saucer, Flying Fish and the downtown open-air 8.0. "I had been looking up and down the river for a location like that for 18 months.

"I don't know how Tim got the call, but he's a lucky guy to get it," Wynne said. "We weren't asked and so I was upset. I asked J.D., 'Who did you all ask?'"

"I think there would be other people interested if they had known about it," said Shaw, who is on the board of the state restaurant owners association. "I just can't believe Tim was the only one interested. Who did [Granger] approach? Did he send out letters? Did he just sit in a bar and talk about that?"

Neither Love nor Granger recalls who approached whom first about the site.

Because of its location, on the bank of a narrow section of the Trinity River's Clear Fork, the site was extremely difficult to develop, and the Army Corps of Engineers made clear that it could only be rented, not sold, Granger said.

In the end, Granger said, he reviewed two proposals and selected Love's. One thing that the high-profile chef -- who owns Lonesome Dove, White Elephant Saloon and Love Shack -- could bring to the table is an ability to generate interest in North Texas and beyond, he said, noting that Love had mentioned the Woodshed on national television.

Last week, Love agreed in principle to cut back slightly on interior space so that the structure is small enough not to require ceiling sprinklers, said David Hall, the city's assistant director of planning and development. Originally, the leased premises measured 10,295 square feet of enclosed and unenclosed areas.

The lease agreement, made available to the Star-Telegram after a Texas Public Information Act request, has the Woodshed paying 6 percent on the first $500,000 of sales, 5 percent on the next $500,000, and then 4 percent on sales over $1,000,001.

"If it goes south, the tenant is in a better situation than the water district," he added. "It was stupid on the water district's part not to bid it out because I think they could have gotten a lot more favorable lease.

Turkey's Ready

Fort Worth Weekly serves up another round of Turkey's.  While Chesapeake takes the cake, there were others we couldn't help but applaud.  Check out the list of WHO made the cut here. 

Virtual Turkey

Last month, the Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP) sponsored a forum at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden to discuss the merits of the $900 million Trinity River Vision project and ask questions about where that money will come from, what the justification for the project is, and what it has to do with flooding and water quality issues. About 125 people showed up, but it was one person missing that stirred the ire of the citizens. J. D. Granger, executive director of TRV, had promised to sit on the panel and give direct answers to those important questions. But at the last minute, he cancelled. The only one to show up on the “pro-TRV” side was a gutsy Jim Lane, a board member of the Tarrant Regional Water District. Lane did his best to answer some of the questions, but the water district is handling only part of the project. The reason given for Granger’s backpedaling was that he realized the event would involve discussing policy, and, shucks, he’s just the hired hand (although he’d known about the format of the event for weeks). But the fact is that Granger is in charge and is one of the few people who can sort out where this multi-agency project is going. Canceling at the last minute just doesn’t cut it. Maybe voters should drop him from their holiday invitation list. Oh, wait. That’s right. He’s not an elected official.

Eww, Don’t Talk About That at Dinner

This past summer, the Trinity River Vision produced several concerts on the river, with the audience floating on inner tubes while listening to the music. TRV also promoted a wakeboard park, where boarders would be pulled around a retention pond on the river by a whirling cable. It was all part of an effort to get Cowtowners more comfortable using the river, which many thought of as a big ditch full of debris and bacteria. But did TRV test the water to see if it was safe? No, they said they were relying on state-provided data. Journalists at WFAA-TV/Channel 8 decided to do the testing themselves. They found that several sections of the river –– including the concert area for the tubers –– had double to triple the amount of harmful bacteria that the EPA considered a safe level.

Most notable was the presence of E. coli, which comes from, um, human waste.

TRV officials never really explained why they didn’t test before they urged people to jump in but indicated they would get to it at a later date. Warning: Don’t eat any turkey served up by these folks.