In Fort Worth The Public Can Not Look At Public Records Without Special Permission From The Ruling Oligarchy

On the left you are looking at this afternoon's version of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's front page, online version.

This morning when I did my daily check of the Star-Telegram to see if anyone has been arrested yet in any of the local corruption scandals I saw a headline link to a report about Monday's Tarrant Regional Water District board meeting.

I read the Star-Telegram article. What I read did not much match what I'd been told happened at that meeting. The Star-Telegram reporter seemed fixated on the absurd defensive assertions, made mostly by board member, Jim Lane, regarding the TRWD's private hunting preserve. And the TRWD's luxury helicopter.

Then this afternoon I read this week's Fort Worth Weekly's take on Monday's meeting.

Fort Worth Weekly's version matched what I'd been told about the meeting.

I then went back to the Star-Telegram to re-read their article about the TRWD meeting. The link on the front page is no where to be seen. I could not find the article anywhere.

Did someone like Jim Oliver or J.D. Granger or Jim Lane have one of their foot stomping episodes, demanding the Star-Telegram get back in sync with the party line, hence the article deletion?

Below is what Fort Worth Weekly had to say about Monday's meeting, in Fort Worth's only real newspaper, in its weekly Static column....

Damming Up Public Records

The Tarrant Regional Water District’s newest board member is learning what Fort Worth Weekly and many others have learned over the years: Getting information from this secretive bunch isn’t easy.

Mary Kelleher was sworn in on June 18, and that same day she requested the water district counsel’s legal opinion on whether the board has been meeting in compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act.

“It was ignored,” she said.

Later that month, she asked for public records from a staff member. When she returned for the information, Keller said water district general manager Jim Oliver met her and gave her a red-faced tongue-lashing. (He describes it differently.) Any future requests for information, he said, would have to come through him. She responded by suggesting the water board should ask for his resignation or at least require him to take anger-management training. That request went nowhere.

On July 5, she made a motion that the board seek an independent legal opinion on whether it was complying with requirements for open meetings. She wanted an outside opinion because “I don’t have much faith in our counsel,” she told Static. She was referring to the water district’s lawsuit against Oklahoma over water rights, which was tossed out in June by the U.S. Supreme Court after six years and $6 million in legal costs. Her request went nowhere.

At this week’s meeting, the board discussed a new and convoluted policy that prohibits individual board members from asking district employees for public information. The new policy requires a board majority to justify asking district staff to prepare reports derived from district records. Kelleher is the only challenger who won a seat in the May election, and she now serves with four long-tenured incumbents who are not the least bit hesitant to butt heads with her while resisting her attempts to make the agency more transparent.

“Given the public perception of the secrecy at the Tarrant Regional Water District, denying a board member access to records does nothing to dispel that perception,” she said.

Water district board meetings have been sparsely attended in recent years. Residents describe them as rubber-stamped dog-and-pony shows with little insight or discussion. That’s changing, thanks to Kelleher’s dogged attempts to shed light on this powerful agency with about $160 million in its general fund. The water district is charged with making sure this region has plenty of water in the future. However, it has become known more for using its eminent domain powers to push the Trinity River Vision project, which seems to be aimed mostly at making money for already-rich people while doing little for flood control or any other truly public purpose.

I am Woman Hear Me Roar

After a long cold tiring day, I decided to succumb once again to my cathode ray addiction and sit down for some TV viewing, intending to watch my favorite nonsensical show, Prison Break, and then catch the last half the South Carolina Democrat Presidential Primary Debate.

But, before I get to the debate, and what a debate it was, I must mention Prison Break. For the most part the show is filmed here in the D/FW zone of Texas. Currently most of the show takes place in a prison in Panama. I discovered after going for Tex-Mex for lunch at Esperanza's in the Stockyards that a part of Fort Worth's history was being used as a prison. I was surprised I had not read mention of this in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram because that paper never misses a chance to brag about anything remotely brag-worthy. Like if at any point in their life a person somehow touched Fort Worth or its environs that newspaper will say something like "Fort Worth Native, Bill Paxton", or like yesterday the Seattle band Foo Fighters was in town. One of the band members lived in Fort Worth for a short time when he was a toddler. The article labeled the guy (I can't remember his name) a Fort Worth native. They actually interviewed him and asked what he remembered of Fort Worth. "Nothing" was his reply.

So, it was surprising to me that the Star-Telegram did not have a big article talking about Fort Worth becoming a mecca for major Hollywood productions, with cities far and wide Green with Envy. Ironically, the one and only reference to the Stockyard Ruins being used as a TV set was a little blurb that said something like "The Fox TV Show, Prison Break, is using an abandoned Dallas area meat processing plant as a prison." Now if you knew how obsessed many Fort Worthers are over Dallas, referring to something taking place in Fort Worth as being in the "Dallas area" is pretty much a misdemeanor here, maybe a felony.

I remember reading the reference to the show using a Dallas area abandoned meat processing plant and wondering where it was. So, I was quite surprised to be driving in the Stockyards zone, driving by the old Swift-Armor meat plant that I call the Stockyard Ruins and seeing a guard tower where none existed before. And then it dawned on me what it might be. I Parked and made my way to a viewing point through a gate and was looking right at the Sona Prison in Panama, complete with palm trees that died in our first freeze here of the year.

Speaking of dying in a big freeze, back to last night's debate. So, I was watching Prison Break, came to the first commercial, switched over to CNN to see if the debate was being interesting. I never went back to Prison Break. I got to the debate right when Hillary and Barack started their now infamous verbal battle. I believe this was the wildest debate I've ever seen and I pretty much watch them all. Usually the crowd is told to be quiet, not to applaud, not to boo, warned that violators of this policy might be removed.

Well, last night apparently there was no such warning, that, or the moderator, Wolf Blitzer, realized that what started as a debate had turned into a World Federation of Wrestling Match and crowd participation only helped with the spectacle. So we had loud cheering, clapping, booing, hissing. And a lot of laughing.

There has been sniping between the Clinton and Obama camps for a couple weeks now. Last night was the first time the pair directly shot barbs at each other, rather than through their surrogates, like Mr. Bill. The best zingers where when Barack accused Hillary of being a lackey for Wal-Mart to which Hillary accused Barack of working for Chicago slumlords.

All in all, I think John Edwards won this debate. Obama seemed a bit shell-shocked, like he was being hen-pecked. Hillary once more seemed to be the toughest of the three. And not in a good way.

This morning I finished Dick Morris's book "Because He Could" where he pretty much shreds Bill and Hillary. One part of the book details the Clinton's epic fights that many witnessed over the years. Another part pretty much made a real good case that it was Hillary who caused the worst of the Clinton scandals, the worse being refusing to let Bill settle the Paula Jones case out of court, which then led to Bill committing perjury, which then led to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Hillary was completely the cause of Travelgate, as well, despite the Clinton denials. Anyway, it is a good book. I recommend it.

Update: I liked the Morris book I finished this morning so much that this afternoon I got his latest book, the one where he counters Hillary's "Living History" book. His is called "Rewriting History". So far I'm only a few pages in and there's some good stuff. Like a section of Hillary's more bizarre bouts of getting caught in really weird lies. Like when she claimed to be named after Sir Edmund Hillary, he being the recently deceased first climber of Mount Everest. Trouble is Sir Edmund became a known name well after Hillary Clinton was born. And then there was the incident where Hillary made up a bizarre story on the Today Show, telling Katie Couric that Chelsea had been jogging around the Twin Towers when they were struck on 9/11. Trouble is Chelsea said later that she was miles away on the other side of Manhattan watching the nightmare unfold on TV, just like most of us experienced it.

America's Team Post Mortem

Well, I said yesterday that I'd make note of anything goofy in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram regarding the Dallas Cowboys losing on their first step to the Super Bowl.

I am disappointed to report that I read nothing that even came close to the air-headed goofiness that I told you about on Saturday. The paper did have an entire section devoted to the disastrous sudden death of America's Team, with the big headline on the front page being "THEY'RE HISTORY".

The headline on one of the front page columns today is "TITLE HOPES WASTING AWAY--AGAIN--IN LOSERVILLE". In the column, the writer, Randy Galloway, did come up with a slight bit of goofy overwroughtness regarding Tony Romo in which Galloway wrote "Tell me again that what Tony Romo does with his personal life on his own free time should not be held against him. Tony is about to receive a harsh and negative lesson in the power of public perception. His otherwise harmless Mexico beach trip just became toxic. It will haunt him through the next season, if not forever."

In case you missed it, Terrell Owens, I think that's his name, covered the expenses for a short vacation in Cabo San Lucas for Tony Romo and a few of his friends, like Jessica Simpson. I really don't see what this has to do with the football team losing a game, but it's been an issue here ever since the tabloid's paparazzi got some pics of Tony and Jessica. Now Jessica Simpson is a sweet cute Dallas girl. It isn't like he was down in Mexico canoodling with someone unsavory like Britney Spears.

Reporters asking Terrell Owens about Tony Romo and the Mexico trip, after the game, apparently drove Mr. Owens to tears while he defended his quarterback.

The Cowboys did not play during the first week of the playoffs, apparently the team was told to relax, have fun. What was the guy supposed to do? Toss footballs every day to keep in shape for the big game? I would think going swimming with Jessica Simpson would be great training.

Startlegram

That's what the locals call the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Startlegram. So, yesterday I verbalized my slight umbrage at the Star-Telegram's purple prose regarding America's Team: The Dallas Cowboys. I said something about how that paper regularly annoys me.

And then I got feedback via email from my Eyes on Texas website and the page I added yesterday about "America's Team" about my amusement at the articles in the Startlegram. A couple of the feedback emails asked what other examples of goofiness I've seen in that notorious paper.

Well.

Probably the worst was when downtown Fort Worth opened a food court called the Sante Fe Rail Market. The Star-Telegram turned Chamber of Commerce propaganda booster and repeated in article after article that this lame little market was the first public market in Texas, that it was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and markets in Europe. Of course, being from the Seattle zone that set up some high expectations for me. When it opened I visited the Santa Fe Rail Market and webpaged what I saw. I could not believe a newspaper would so misrepresent something to this extent. Had no one on that paper been to Seattle? Did they not realize that some of their readers may have been to or were from Seattle and would know how ridiculous it was to say this little food court type thing was modeled after Pike Place? Even after this was pointed out to the Star-Telegram the erroneous propaganda continued to be repeated.

And then I found out that not only was this soon to fail lame thing not the first public market in Texas it wasn't even the first one in Fort Worth! It was as if no one on the Star-Telegram had even been to the Dallas Farmers Market, a location that actually does resemble Pike Place.

Let's move on to another example of what a bad newspaper this is.

A sporting goods store named Cabela's wanted to open a store in Fort Worth. Cabela's wanted tax breaks and other incentives. Cabela's PR told the powers that be in Fort Worth, including the Star-Telegram, that Cabela's would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas. This was repeated ad nauseum in the Star-Telegram, which never once questioned the absurdity of the premise. One of their more idiotic columnists, I won't name him, suffice to say he shares a last name with a president who was killed in the big city to the east of here. The number of supposed 'tourists' at Cabela's ranged from 5 million to this bad columnist's high of 8 million. When I pointed out to him how absurd this was, via email, he told me I must hate business. So, Cabela's got its tax break, Fort Worth got snookered and Cabela's is now open and has performed so poorly there have been a lot of layoffs and they had to return incentive money to Fort Worth because Cabela's did not perform as advertised. And Cabela's has opened another store in Austin! Cabela's must have left that planned store out of the info they gave Fort Worth when conning them with the "Top Tourist Attraction in Texas" nonsense.

Another example of this irresponsible newspaper's knack for being a bit lacking with facts---River Legacy Park opened a new section of the park a couple years ago on the north side of the Trinity River. A new pedestrian/bike bridge connected the old trail with the new. The new trail added about 4 miles. The new trail and bridge was open and being used for months before the park declared it done. The Star-Telegram reported this by describing, wrongly, that a final mile of trail had been completed and opened connecting the River Legacy trails to 360. (360 is a highway that bi-sects the D/FW Metroplex). Now, I had already been pedaling to the end of this new trail for months. I knew it did not end at 360.

So, the very day after the Star-Telegram printed this false information, incorrectly describing the River Legacy Trail, I pedaled the new trail. At the end of the trail, at the 7 mile marker, there was a guy. He had jogged to the end. I stopped. He asked me how you get to 360 from there? He said he thought the trail went to 360. I asked him if he read that in the Startlegram. He said yes. I told him you can not trust what you read in that paper, that I highly doubted if they had any reporters who were sufficiently non lard assed enough to actually see a trail for themselves. This guy had told friends that he would be on an overpass on 360 when they returned from the airport. I let him use my cell phone to leave a message for his incoming friends.

Okay, I've got more of these type things in my memory bank, but it is time for Amazing Race.

America's Team

I'm one of the dwindling number of Americans who read a daily hard copy newspaper. My morning ritual is to lay on the floor with a cup of coffee and read the paper. When I lived in Washington my morning paper was the Seattle P-I. In Fort Worth it is the Star-Telegram. To be blunt and to the point, Washington has a much higher high school graduation rate, much higher number of college graduates, Seattle leads the nation in number of book readers and I'll just say that the quality of the P-I reflects the quality of its readers. And so does the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Star-Telegram has recently had a big makeover they touted as an improvement. It wasn't. Basically they are losing subscribers and revenue and had to cut back. So, a lot of columnists were fired and features reduced. Like on Sunday the Weekly Review is now 4 pages long. I think it used to be 8. It used to take me a half hour or so to read the Sunday paper. Now I'm lucky if it takes longer than 15 minutes. Here is one good example of how dumb this newspaper is. Up til the BIG CHANGE Tuesday's were what they called Family Day. When I guess families were supposedly supposed to sit around and read the paper. So, on Family Day, on many an occasion, a Dear Abby column would be altered to say something like "Today's Dear Abby was not considered suitable for Family Day and will run tomorrow." Every time I saw that I'd think to myself have they no consideration for those families who read the paper every day? Shouldn't they be totally protected from the evil Dear Abby letter?

If you want another good example of how bad a newspaper can be, go here and be appalled and amused.

And that brings us to today's Star-Telegram. On the front page of this sad excuse for a major city newspaper, under the headline at the top of the page "Everyone's a Winner" with a sub-heading in large letters saying "The Cowboys are at the top of their game. And that's good for everybody. Their success is felt far and wide and measured in dollars and happiness." And then the rest of the article in normal sized print saying, "Are you feeling good about the Dallas Cowboys this season? You're not alone. The team's success has a real effect on how we go about our lives. The Cowboys can stir emotions and spirits in such a way that individuals, and in many cases businesses, are more productive. And it's not just a local thing, either. When you're 13-3 and in the NFL playoffs and are America's Team, the impact can be far-reaching. Call it success by association."

That was on the front page. The sports page was worse. With a long article under the headline "Cowboys' success makes the world a better place". You may read more of that article and other good stuff about America's Team by going here. Or read the entire Star-Telegram article in all its goofy glory in its online version.