Warning Shot

"We'll never know"

That's the comment a reader left on an article about the sexual harassment lawsuit against Joe Shannon, the Tarrant County District Attorney.  (It was "settled" for $375,000 taxpayer dollars).

The comment made some of us laugh.  Hard. 

Every woman in Fort Worth knows.  (Well, not "every", but you get the point).  We're not referring to the District Attorney, we don't personally know the man.  However, we do know many in the political arena in Tarrant County. That "journal of harassment" could have been written by any of these women.  The story is the same.

By the way, what ever happened the "wrongful termination" suit filed against the Tarrant Regional Water District?  (It included obscene photos.) WHY would the media not be all over the opportunity to fill you in on another Tarrant County office scandal that's costing YOU money?

Are there reasons, other than money, not to go to court?

The republic of dirty old men holding office, or court, in Tarrant County, might want to consider something...

The women around here have had enough.

WHO's next?

Well, what do ya know?

The Tarrant County Tax Accessor, Ron Wright, has called for the resignation of Tarrant County District Attorney, Joe Shannon. 

WHAT?

Did a high ranking Tarrant County Republican just call another high ranking Tarrant County Republican out? 

REALLY?  It will be interesting to see WHO takes WHO's side. 

And what else will come to light.  Tarrant County's a big place, with lots of people. 

You know how people are. 

They talk.

And if that wasn't enough, they take notes.  Read it in the Dallas Morning News. 

Funny, we've always thought Dallas should report on politics in Tarrant County.  National awards, ripe for the picking.

Fracking Colleyville

Welcome to our world.

The Colleyviller Courier has the scoop.  We're glad someone does.

Fracking could become a regular occurrence for the next 16 months at a drill site on Pleasant Run Road unless Colleyville officials agree to allow a gas company to tap into city water.

City Council members were surprised to learn at a recent work session that Atlas Barnett plans to frack every 45 days starting in April and continuing until August, 2014.

"That's a hell of a lot of disruption for a long time," said Councilman Michael Muhm.

Every 45 days, Atlas Barnett will inject water, chemicals and sand into the ground to break up shale and release gas. A portion of each of the seven wells will be fracked until the 2.95-million-gallon storage pond runs out of water. When all the water is gone, crews will leave the site to give the water well time to refill the pond, returning about a month and a half later to repeat the process, said Ron Ruthven, Colleyville's development director.

Colleyville's drilling regulations require gas companies to find their own water sources to protect the city's water supply.

Some council members said they are having second thoughts because they never imagined a gas company would need to come out 10 times because of water limitations.

However, a "pre-fracking activity" will take place this week that will close the intersection for about 15 minutes.

Lease obligations require Atlas Barnett to perforate the wells by dropping explosives down the well bore, Ruthven said.
Hear that??

Do YOU see a pattern here?

In the past couple of weeks we've received several emails on the same subject...Water.

YOU may want to start paying attention.  YOU really can't afford not to.

Heck, even the CIA is -

So with fresh water running out, it is supposed to become more precious than oil. According to the CIA, future wars will be fought over it.

Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Someday Need to Drink

As ProPublica has reported in an ongoing investigation about America's management of its underground water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued more than 1,500 permits for companies to pollute such aquifers in some of the driest regions. Frequently, the reason was that the water lies too deep to be worth protecting.

Injection Wells

The Hidden Risks of Pumping Waste Underground

Poisoning the Well: How the Feds Let Industry Pollute the Nation’s Underground Water Supply 

The Race to privitize our water article spends a great deal of time talking about T. Boone Pickens 

A recent episode of the hit TruTV investigative program, "Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura," has literally tapped into a water scandal that most of the US public has no idea about. Multi-national corporations and unscrupulous wealthy individuals are buying up water rights for some of the largest aquifers in the US and the world. With water predicted to become a scarcity within 20 years, it would appear that some of the elite wealthy are trying to corner the market on the earth's most precious life-giving resource, water.

If that wasn't enough, check out the article on MSN.com about the Colorado river running dry.

"States cooked the books to show higher demand for water consumption to set up a federal bailout on expensive water projects," said Molly Mugglestone, director of the advocacy group Protect the Flows. "Meanwhile, the states failed to account for river flow that will be required to sustain our multi-billion dollar recreation economy."

Pay attention people, like your life depends on it.

WHO pays?

Fort Worth's parking problems just keep mounting.  You have those that won't return to the Cultural District due to the horrid paid parking garages and patrons not hanging out on West 7th because they are afraid of getting their car towed.

Now it moves inland to downtown.

Check out the story on KVUE.com.

So we were surprised when a delivery driver rolled up and unloaded on us, and on parking officers who've been taking some heat for doing their jobs.

"They're harassing everybody down here in Fort Worth," the driver yelled over two lanes of traffic. "Nobody wants to come down here anymore. They're making it impossible for everybody to deliver. They're not helping!"

As the driver drove away, he screamed, "They're ticketing everybody!"

Scott Timberlake, the manager of P.F. Chang's, picked up the theme.

"All my vendors are getting tickets for parking in the same places when they drop stuff off for deliveries," he said. Timberlake believes strict enforcement will also hurt his carryout business. He said he'll take up the issue with city officials.

Part of the frustration stems from new rules on identifying commercial vehicles. Officials say delivery trucks must have a $75 permit or else be clearly marked with lettering in contrasting color at least 3 inches in height. The goal is to keep loading zones open so trucks won't clog up traffic lanes already squeezed by construction.

In fact, one of the first tickets in the new effort was found tucked beneath the windshield wiper of Mayor Betsy Price's official vehicle.

She wasn't the driver, but she paid the ticket.

Durango says

WTH?

Three little words sure can make a lot of stink.

Trinity River Vision.

Call out

We were glad to see the NE Tarrant Tea Party calling out one of their Congressman.

You should go see it for yourself.

Congressman Michael Burgess is holding a town hall meeting on Thursday evening. The good news is that Burgess is always very available to speak with us and talk about the issues. The bad news is that he recently voted to raise the debt ceiling after promising he would never do that again. Why not show up at the town hall to discuss this and other issues?

Watauga Town Hall Meeting

Thursday, January 31, 2013
7 p.m.- 8 p.m.

The Harvest Church
Auditorium7200 Denton Highway
Fort Worth, Texas

If you are unable to attend the town hall meeting, it is scheduled for a live Internet broadcast at:
burgess.house.gov/TownHall

The boy is on a roll...

We told you about Giovanni Capriglione, rookie legislator, filing the transparency bill so politicians would have to reveal their connections.  Now he's introduced HB 706, which would allow concealed license holders to carry on college campuses.

This guy has been there a few weeks, he's showing those lifetime members as thing or two.

Keep up the good work!

Local boy makes the Big Time

Actually, the New York Times.

Rookie Representative Giovanni Capriglione and a Democrat ally have caused a stir.  With good reason.  Keep up the good work.  Texas needs cleaning up so that you can say Texas and ethics in the same sentence and everyone won't die laughing.

It’s easy to think of a political group — the Legislature, the city council, the school board, the utility district — as inherently corrupt. Sometimes, they do their best to prove it. That is not really the problem here. The problem is that under the current ethics laws, it’s very hard to prove the opposite. It can be difficult to tell an honest lawmaker from a lawmaker who is on the make. 
      

Start, if you can, with the assumption that most people in public office are honest and are serving with the best of intentions, even if you disagree with their politics. Assume they are reasonably intelligent. And think about what happens when you give intelligent people a set of rules. Over time, they figure out the best way to read the rules, to stay within the law while also taking every legal advantage. 

      

Over time, things get out of balance. It might be that most people are following the laws on the books, but that the everyday level of questionable behavior is out of hand.

Read the entire New York Times article here. 

Hey Dallas

We're watching YOU.  Be there February 7th.

It's for YOUR own good, you don't want to end up like Fort Worth, do ya?

What do you do if you’re a gas drilling company and a key vote on whether to allow fracking in parks, near a school and soccer fields and in the Trinity River floodplain doesn’t go your way? Simple: make a back-room deal to undo the vote and get a “do-over” as if it had never happened. That’s what happened this week in Dallas when the City Plan Commission voted to reconsider the failed drilling applications in a move that was both a shame and a sham. Since three Commissioners who had previously voted against gas drilling permits could not be present, the vote to reconsider these applications passed 6-5. Oh, and no public testimony was allowed. Whatever this is, it isn’t democracy.

Read the rest here.