Friday, February 26, 2010

People Paying Attention

hucau    12:51 PM    No comments
Another great Letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Maybe the elected officials should start paying attention.

What budget priorities?

Mayor Mike Moncrief and some city staff spent $31,000 on a Super Bowl vacation. Are you kidding me? Yet the city of Fort Worth is furloughing staff and laying off others, city land is not being kept clean and Code Compliance is gutted among other harsh measures adopted by Moncrief and the City Council to balance the budget.

This is despicable. Why does Fort Worth need to spend more money than the host city of Arlington? For the Star-Telegram to write about this junket without noting that we are in a budget crisis is irresponsible.

This mayor and council always seem to find money when they need it, but what about the taxpayers? Enough with pork-barrel spending!

-- Cissy Hernandez, Fort Worth

Where's Mike?

hucau    12:48 PM    No comments
Last week community "leaders" held a Transportation Summit in Grapevine to discuss the many upcoming area freeway projects. We didn't see Mayor Moncrief in the standing room only crowd. Today he is in the Fort Worth Star Telegram saying we need money for transportation and the Trinity River Vision.

Read the comments left by real citizens living in the real world.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Disposal Well Hell

hucau    1:33 PM    No comments
Read about it in the FW Weekly. They do good work! Everyone needs to read the entire article. We'll give you a couple of incentives below. Don't miss WHERE the Fort Worth disposal well is or Louis McBee's question...it's an important one.

"There is no protection for the citizens," said Tim Lane, a University of North Texas psychologist who is dealing with fumes, noise, lights, runoff, and other concerns from a disposal well next to his small ranch in Cooke County. "From everything we see, their [the Railroad Commission's] purpose is to protect the oil and gas industry from the public."

If there is fear of the big companies, there's an even bigger fear of the unknown - about whether it's safe to drink the water, to breathe the air, and what the company on the other side of the fence is putting into the ground.

On East First Street in Fort Worth, in the Trinity River bottoms and not far from city ball fields and Gateway Park, a line of trucks leads the way to the city's only current disposal well. The trucks could eventually be replaced, at least in part, by a "significant" pipeline to carry the so-called "saltwater" from up to a hundred Chesapeake Energy gas wells strung out along the Trinity from Beach Street east to Arlington.

"How do you fix an aquifer" if it becomes contaminated, asked Louis McBee. "What are we going to do, react after it happens?"

By then it will be too late...

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Lovin the Letters

hucau    7:38 AM    No comments
We love when the citizens speak. Tells you what is really going on in the Wild West. See today's Letters to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Is anyone listening?
A man in Ohio bulldozes his home, believing his bank has treated him unjustly in upcoming foreclosure proceedings, while a man in Austin takes extreme measures with his issues with the IRS.

Our own institutions are not working. The government will bail out Wall Street without blinking an eye, but the common man receives no break or relief on his mortgage. Meanwhile, we have one of the most inequitable and burdensome tax codes anywhere. It must benefit the government or someone, as no politician makes any real effort to overhaul its complexity and make it more reasonable and fair.

Regardless of human behavior and emotions, in tough times like these, coupled with an unresponsive government and do-nothing politicians, these kind of actions may likely increase since no one is listening.

-- Michael E. Holland, Fort Worth

The new EPA regional administrator, Al Armendariz, brings science to his job, with a doctorate in environmental engineering. Another advantage is that President Barack Obama favors reducing pollution, unlike George W. Bush, who hampered cleanup efforts.

Texas produces more carbon dioxide, which is a major greenhouse gas, than any other state.

However, Gov. Rick Perry is squandering Texans' tax dollars in a lawsuit to keep the EPA from forcing him to reduce our emissions. Perry has a misguided belief that global warming is a myth. Despite the recent record snow, the last decade was warmer than any other since records have been kept.

I hope that the next governor, whoever she may be, will recognize the existence and danger of carbon dioxide and work with the EPA to reduce our output.

-- Ann Chambers, Fort Worth

Pipelines Everywhere

hucau    7:10 AM    No comments
This one along Big Fossil Creek. Goodbye trees.

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

City officials are essentially powerless to regulate where the pipelines go because gas companies are considered utilities, just like Oncor and Atmos Energy, which means they have the power to condemn private property.

"We've seen in the past that if a pipeline bisects a major property, it can be difficult to redevelop it," Pitstick said.

"We're fairly happy with the alignment, based on our lack of control over the situation."

Monday, February 22, 2010

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Kudos!

hucau    9:27 PM    No comments
Thanks to the organizers of the High Noon in Cowtown event and to those who came out!

And thank you, Anonymous...we agree.
Anonymous said...

We went to the event not expecting too much or stay too long, but ended up staying the whole time because it was so well organized, efficient, informative, and inspirational. Whoever managed to keep all those lawyers, judges, and politicians within their alotted time for speech making should help run some form of our government. Seriously, lawyers and politicians in the heat of campaigning making their points in under TWO MINUTES is incredible--if we didn't actually witness it ourselves. This was Americanism at its peak, with families, flags,AND ESP. IMMIGRANTS AND/OR VETERANS WHO HAD PUT THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE TO MAKE SURE WE CAN HAVE OUR FREEDOM AND RIGHTS (ERODING!!). Glen Bucy's speech brought tears to our eyes--tears of pride (for his service and vision), anger (for the waste and corruption by our elected officials and government/s), and shame (for not being more involved and vigilant which allowed the corruption and waste to occur--robbing us of our liberty and our children's future). Despite its being overwhelmingly Republican candidates, the message was not left or right---just about what's right for all Americans.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Keep 'em Coming

hucau    6:22 AM    No comments
Two letters to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram today that you shouldn't miss. We love when the residents tell it like it is.

J.R. Labbe's Jan. 13 column, "So many budget demands, so little money," asserted that Fort Worth might have to raise taxes to balance the budget. Yet just a few days later, we taxpayers learned that the mayor and his entourage were going on a junket to the Super Bowl at a cost of $31,000. This is the same mayor and council that want to raise our taxes, take away homestead exemptions and bring us yet more fees.
They tell us we need to live within our means. How about Mayor Mike Moncrief and the Fort Worth City Council live within theirs?
--Jesse Carr, Fort Worth

Missing in action
Glad the Editorial Board is happy with "our" representative. (See: "North Texas needs Granger," Sunday)
A few years back, Fort Worth attempted to annex unincorporated Tarrant County. We had involvement from county commissioners, the Fort Worth Police and Fire Departments, Texas legislators, even the governor. Where was Kay? Ducking us. Why? Because of her tax-abatement giveaway to Alliance and Texas Motor Speedway -- the reason Fort Worth was desperate to increase the property tax base. We won without her!
In recent years, Interstate 35 grows to six and eight lanes wide north and south of Austin and just about everywhere -- with one exception: north of downtown Fort Worth. Where is Kay? Ducking us!
Granger's support of defense jobs is a given for this part of the world. She only does what serves her interest.
What has she done for the thousands of folks who live in her district and have to park, daily, on Interstate 35W? Not much.
-- Jim Munkittrick, Fort Worth

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Right and Wrong

hucau    1:17 PM    No comments

It seems when we post something from our friends, we tend to get comments from the "other side". We tried to clear this up before, we will try again.

Some of us at Lone Star Telegraph are Republicans, some are Democrats, some still wouldn't (and may never) claim either party. We all have friends on both the right and the left (we don't tend to make that an issue when making new friends). Those of us who are on a side do all agree we wouldn't vote a straight party ticket.

What we do know is we all have some common goals as well as the really important things such as being human and needing air and water to live. We'd also like to do away with the corruption and greed that has taken hold of Tarrant and the surrounding counties.

Like a friend of our says, "It's not about Right or Left, it's about Right and Wrong".

Make some noise, fix the wrongs, work together. We're in this mess together, we should use that to our advantage. No matter what side you're on.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Senator Speaks..the Truth?

hucau    2:47 PM    No comments
As you all know, we usually stay local, but couldn't pass this up -

Retiring Senator Bayh is fed up with the American political system. He ain't the only one, though he may be the only one speaking up. If the Senators are fed up, how do you think THE PEOPLE feel?

Voting against things that will help THE PEOPLE for political reasons is only one of the issues he points out. There are several...

He noted that the need for constant fundraising made it nearly impossible to focus on passing legislation.

Read all about Senator Bayh's disillusionment with the dysfunction.

Monday, February 15, 2010

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