No Take Back's

Well, then again, it is Fort Worth.  What did you expect?

Do something already, before it's done to YOU.

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Just say NO

Many people have been asking about voting on the amendments in Texas.  Here's an interesting read we were forwarded.  WHY would some of these be coming right out of Tarrant County?  Where's that Attorney General when you need him?

This amendment will allow bonds to be sold to be used for a private commercial real estate development project and to pocket the profits. Public monies should not be used for private development. And it is highly questionable how the public can benefit from a developer building condominiums. It hasn't worked very well in the past--many big promises were made as to how the tifs would benefit us but it hasn't worked out that way.

This amendment allows counties to use eminent domain to take property and use for commercial interest. The sponsor of the amendment says it is to allow counties to build roads. But it also allows most anything else they can think of---just as happened which began the boondogle TRV project.

Voters already voted down a transportation bill for extensive rail projects that weren't liked and the same people who brought that item to the ballot are strongly supporting this--- so they can do an end-around the voters and decide to plan a rail project without public support. If this amendment passes, they can take private land without paying a fair price,  sell bonds without voter approval, and build whatever rail project they want,  then sell extra land to private developers to finish out project..... all without your approval and/or participation in the process.

Funding also provided by complicated tax refinancing similar to TIF'S. As you know some tifs have been a financial drain on taxpayers--they only help the private developer and big business, and not fulfilling the big promises of increased jobs and increasing tax base. They were also originally designed to use "blighted" areas for redevelopment but have turned out to be anything but that. The process has been abused in our area many times but voters are without recourse, once they unwittingly give up that power.

And the whole process depends entirely on the expectation that future property values will increase. If they don't the govt. entities must cough up the money somehow... so who do you think will pay if they are in danger of defaulting on their bonds?

I'm all for adding more rail projects but don't believe this is the way to do it after the TRV was shoved down our throat, leaving us with no recourse.

I'm voting no on all amendments,except maybe the first one.

Please join me in voting NO to prop 4 on Nov. 8

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Are Smart Meters mandatory?

We received an invitation and were asked to pass it along, be there November 5th.  And check out their website below.  Power to the people!

I have become aware of the Electrical Smart Meter (and on the water too!), deployment in parts of Texas (I live in NRHills), as well as other parts of the US and the world.  The installation is being treated as if it were mandatory by Oncor, Centerpoint and other distributors in Texas.  This is wrong!  There are many controversial aspects having to do with Privacy, personal freedom of choice, Health Concerns (serious), Over-billing, Ruined Appliances, House Fires…to name a few.

As a result – In an effort to get the word out to the public about the dangers and the infringements on their ‘choice’ and privacy, I created an event called “DFW Community Smart Meter Forum” which is taking place Nov. 5^th, 7-9 pm, at the HURST PUBLIC LIBRARY.

I wanted to know if your online blog/paper would be able to feature or insert a post about the smart meter issue and/or sharing also the upcoming meeting.

A friend and I have also created a website (still kinda new) called www.bantexassmartmeters.com where people can go to sign several petitions, read about Texas happenings etc.

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Dear Texas Attorney General

It seems some in Tarrant County might need to be taken out behind the Woodshed...

The citizens have taken a special interest in the new Tim Love restaurant on the banks of the Trinity River. They seem to have issue with WHERE all this public money for private profit is coming from.  THEM.

Check out the latest on Durango.  Then, sit tight, more to come.

Beale also told me that the Woodshed cost $1.2 million and that currently three entities, (Tim Love, Tarrant Regional Water District and Trinity River Vision Authority) are at odds over something, which is why the Woodshed sits on the bank of the Trinity River, unopened.

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Jeers to you know WHO

A jeer in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram caught our eye this weekend. We hear there's more to this jeer...stay tuned.

Jeers: To the people who encourage us to tube, swim, wakeboard and otherwise recreate in a river that is known to have contaminated fish and fecal matter in it, as shown on WFAA last month. Is the Trinity clean now? If so, who cleaned it?

-- Debbie L. Sheffield, North Richland Hills

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Proposition 2 - Texas Water

Our first sign something was wrong was the commercial on the radio.  A commercial about saving tax payers money.  It sounds like a joke.  It is.  Read the $6 billion dollar fine print.

The second sign was the email from Lon where the Proposition numbers were wrong.


We have to agree with this statement though...

I appreciate and respect why many of you distrust this because of our experiences with the Trinity Vision Project.

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Drilling Down

Contrary to what the industry says, there are down sides to drilling... and if you can believe this, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram mentions some.  Of course the article came from the Associated Press.

One of our regular contributors told us of a recent family trip out of state.  They stopped to stay the night in a small town but hotel after hotel had no rooms available.  When they finally found one with an opening, the clerk told them, "Get your family, get back in your car and get on the highway.  Drive to the next town and stay there.  They don't call these boys, "Oil Field Trash" for nothing..."

Now we aren't painting all the industry with the same brush, but when a hotel passes on revenue for a night, something's up.  Sounds like the crime rate.

Make note in the article of the difference in what happens in Texas.

In a modern-day echo of the raucous Old West, small towns enjoying a boom in oil and gas drilling are seeing a sharp increase in drunken driving, bar fights and other hell-raising, blamed largely on an influx of young men who find themselves with lots of money in their pockets and nothing to do after they get off work.

Authorities in Pennsylvania and other states are quick to point out that the vast majority of workers streaming in are law-abiding. But they also say the drilling industry has brought with it a hard-working, hard-drinking, rough-and-tumble element that, in some places, threatens to overwhelm law enforcement.

But he said that many in the industry obey the law and that authorities in Pennsylvania have less tolerance for troublemakers than police in small-town Texas, where rig workers are used to raising hell and getting a pass from law enforcement.

"You can do that [stuff] and get away with it," Bourque said. In Pennsylvania, "they look at it totally different."

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