Identifying Steve Doeung's Mysterious Phantom Lawyer Ed Fitzgerald

My West Fort Worth Investigator, CD, believes this to be a photograph of the mysterious lawyer who calls himself Ed Fitzgerald.

In the picture, Fitzgerald is making the peace sign in the now defunct JJ's Hideaway. This was reportedly Fitzgerald's favorite watering hole until he moved on to Oscar's Pub on Camp Bowie Boulevard.

Ed Fitzgerald is the lawyer who was acting as Steve Doeung's lawyer in the Carter Avenue/Chesapeake Energy Abuse of Eminent Domain Case, without Steve Doeung having engaged this guy as his lawyer.

To this day, Steve Doeung has not met Ed Fitzgerald. We have yet to figure out how it is someone came to represent Steve Doeung without Steve Doeung's permission.

Or without Steve Doeung being informed that someone was acting as his lawyer.

The closest we have gotten to an explanation is to be told that this is "The Fort Worth Way."

The Raging Storm Over At Miss Puerto Rico's

That is the Stormy Friday view from Miss Puerto Rico's, looking north at a menacing 4 in the afternoon Spring Sky in Texas.

I was able to get in an early morning swim before inclement weather arrived. The incoming wetness put a halt to any further salubrious aerobicizing.

Consequently, I am currently suffering severely from endorphin withdrawal.

Acute crankiness will likely soon arrive.

I may have to dodge the puddles of water to make a return to the big puddle of water to try and work up some endorphins via swimming.

Elsie Hotpepper is being in slight umbrage mode this afternoon. Something to do with Elsie thinking I somehow suggested she was too skinny. I vehemently deny ever making such an erroneous suggestion.

Meanwhile, the Queen of Wink told me I was a piece of candy. What? Sweet and sticky? Empty calories? I am very perplexed.

A Stormy Fort Worth Friday In Texas

I sat down to eat lunch, windows open, a nice breeze blowing. And then it hit. Heavy rain and heavy wind.

You're looking at trees blowing in the wind outside my patio.

Rain was being blown indoors, so the windows had to be closed.

About a half hour into the rain I started hearing thunder in the distance. I had a cable station on on the TV, I think it was the Military History Channel. One of those incoming nuclear bomb type warnings went off, you know, that dire, this is a test of the Emergency Broadcasting System type warning.

Only it was a warning for an incoming Severe Thunderstorm. I'd never seen this type warning on the cable stations before. I'd assumed that if I weren't watching network TV that I was safe from localized Weather Drama Queening.

Apparently that is yet one more of my many erroneous assumptions.

The Severe Thunderstorm Watch is now over. For now.

I have no idea if the inclement weather is wreaking havoc with the big American Idol event that starts about 4 this afternoon in the Fort Worth Stockyards. I do know that Casey James is making his way across the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and that this morning he was at a Meet & Greet at an AT&T Store in Grapevine, where he got a text message with the extremely exciting news that he'd be singing John Mayer's "Daughters" on Tuesday.

I don't care for that song.

GASLAND, Fort Worth's Museum of Modern Art, Elsie Hotpepper & Me

Yesterday. Or was it the day before? I mentioned the gala GASLAND the movie event, Wednesday, at Fort Worth's Museum of Modern Art.

I said...

"It was a gala affair. I can not remember the last affair I've attended that was more gala. I also do not recollect seeing Elsie Hotpepper attired in red carpet worthy fashion, before last night, nor myself, with a bow tie. Like I said. Gala affair."

This morning I was asked if there were any pictures of myself in a bow tie and Elsie Hotpepper being all red carpet worthy.

Then, this afternoon, the Queen of Wink commented on the bow tie.

Thus, obliging sort that I am, I felt compelled to find a picture of myself and Elsie Hotpepper in our movie going duds.

I have to tell you, I find wearing a suit and a bow tie to be very annoying. I am not used to wearing that much clothing or having something choking me around my neck. Bow ties do not last long, on me, before being loosened.

I am scheduled to go to a wedding, tomorrow, at a church in downtown Fort Worth. It is the first wedding I will have attended since a disastrous one in Washington in April of 2006, where I was severely criticized for my wedding attire, one element of which was brown cargo pants.

I will not be wearing cargo pants to a Fort Worth wedding. I also will not be wearing a bow tie. And I do not believe Elsie Hotpepper will be in attendance.

Flash Flood Watches & Levee Inspections In Fort Worth Texas

WeatherBug went off with a chirping warning from the National Weather Service about a Flash Flood Watch in effect til Saturday, just as I was reading an incoming email from Elsie Hotpepper, telling me about something flood related.

As in the Army Corps of Engineers is going to be inspecting the 27 miles of levees along the Trinity River that make up the Fort Worth Floodway. Recently Dallas got a failing grade from the inspectors.

Due to levee failures, like what happened in New Orleans, due to Hurricane Katrina, and levee failures elsewhere, tougher standards have been enacted with Congress telling the Corps to check out 14,000 miles of levees across America via the National Levee Safety Program.

The Dallas levee system is going to cost about $150 million to fix.

Fort Worth's massive Trinity River Levees were built following the flood of 1949 which covered much of Fort Worth with way too much water.

Water District officials claim the Fort Worth levees are in good shape. But, we've all learned, of late, how much stock to put in the Water District's veracity.

One aspect of the slow going Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is a flood control bypass channel. This bypass channel will somehow allow the removal of the massive Trinity River levees on the section of the Trinity River that flows by downtown Fort Worth.

That area has not flooded since the massive levees were built, decades ago. It seems counter-intuitive to remove them. But, what do I know?

Well, I do know that it is coming up on noon, this Friday in May in Fort Worth, Texas. The skies are currently darkening. I suspect soon some of that material that causes flash floods will be falling from the sky.

What Has Happened To Fort Worth Weekly This Week?

Has something happened to FW Weekly?

It used to be Fort Worth's only real newspaper, the alternative to the much larger Fort Worth Star-Telegram, but, unlike the Star-Telegram, FW Weekly practiced, at times, actual investigative journalism.

And now, this week, starting on Wednesday, all of the spots I usually find the current edition of FW Weekly are empty. Krogers, the East Regional Library, Holiday Booze Depot. All empty.

Has the fate that has befallen so many print publications befallen FW Weekly? The FW Weekly website is up and running, with new material. But, usually, the FW Weekly website will have a picture of that week's hard copy cover. I could find no such picture, this week.

FW Weekly has a MySpace page. I don't know why FW Weekly has a MySpace page. But, it has not been logged into since 2/17/2010. Why would FW Weekly have a MySpace page while being free of Facebook and Twitter? Very perplexing.

Wikipedia has an entry about FW Weekly, with not a lot of information. No mention is made in the Wikipedia article about the demise of the hard copy print version of Fort Worth's closest thing to a real newspaper.

So, has anyone out there seen the print version of FW Weekly this week?

Hiking The Hot Tandy Hills & Expecting Jesse James Great Great Great Nephew Casey James To Come To Fort Worth Tomorrow

As you can see, by looking at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, it is a bit overcast today. Semi-HOT at 84 and a bit muggy.

I had no giant lizard encounters on the Tandy Hills today.

Today may be the last I am on the Texas Prairie for awhile. BIG STORMS are in our forecast, with a lot of wet stuff, thunderstorms and possible tornado action predicted.

Tomorrow, Jesse James' alleged great great great nephew, Casey James, is coming to town, to the Fort Worth Stockyards, at 4pm to ride in a parade, where all his American Idol fans will, supposedly, scream like rabid fans. On cue. The parade goes down Exchange Avenue, the same route the Fort Worth Herd moves at the exact same time.

Nothing, except for Christmas and extreme weather, stops the Fort Worth Herd from being on the move. Maybe Casey James will be riding with the herd. He did say, on Wednesday, that he was missing Texas. You can't get much more Texas-y than riding with the Fort Worth Herd. He also said he was longin' to be back where he would hear y'all, a lot. And play with his puppy dogs.

I don't know if I'll be fixin' to head to the Stockyards tomorrow to see the manufactured brouhaha over Casey James. Though, I do find that type stuff to be amusing.

Living In GASLAND In Texas With Josh Fox & Others

You are looking at the sort of thing we Citizens of the Shale, as in Barnett Shale, can fear coming out of our water faucets. Unodorized natural gas. That goes to flame.

Of course, the gas drilling industry does not acknowledge that such things happen. No matter who gets burned.

A guy named Josh Fox set out to document what's happening around the world, due to the now wide practice of using new technology, to do this process called fracturing, to a formerly stable layer of shale, in order to release trapped natural gas.

I have one of these fractured operations going on across the street from where I live. So far, no fire has come out of my water faucets.

The Josh Fox documentary, about the Shale Fracturing, GASLAND the movie, has been winning film festival prizes and is now being shown around the globe, including last night at the Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth.

It was a gala affair. I can not remember the last affair I've attended that was more gala. I also do not recollect seeing Elsie Hotpepper attired in red carpet worthy fashion, before last night, nor myself, with a bow tie. Like I said. Gala affair.

Watch the YouTube video below to get an idea of what GASLAND the movie is all about...

Sharing Fort Worth's Tandy Hills Trails With Big Lizards

I did not make it on to the Tandy Hills til the late afternoon today. The wind has been in intermittent gust mode all day, again, today. I guess, even though it is warm, the Wind Chill Factor is still in play.

So, at 85 degrees, with winds in the 20-30 mph range, I don't know what the real temperature feels like. I do know, from first hand, eye witness evidence that the Wind Chill Factor was cold enough to cause cold-blooded reptiles to be a bit sluggish, like the Tandy Gator you see in the picture.

He, or she, seemed more interested in staying on the warm rocks than concerned with me getting down on the ground beside him/her to take pictures. As you can see the Tandy Gator was a very willing subject.

I do not know why I have no aversion to the lizard brand of reptile, while the snake brand of reptile unsettles me. I have never seen a snake slithering on the Tandy Hills. Lizards and snakes have the same reptilian head, yet that head looks cute, to me, on a lizard. That same type reptilian head, on someone like Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, does not look cute to me. It's quite a conundrum.

I was not long into hiking today, enjoying the jungle-like foliage along the new Tandy Highway, when I came to one of the Sanitary Sewer Manholes sporting an orange Dunce Cap.

Then I heard a voice ahead shout something like, "the video is stuck." This told me the Fort Worth Water Boys were back playing with their pipeline again. I wondered if they had now crossed Tandy Falls, with dire results for the Falls.

I decided to try and avoid a White Truck encounter, due to my well-earned neurosis regarding Confrontations with White Trucks, and come at Tandy Falls from the north, where I could approach in stealth mode.

A half hour later I was where I could see if the Tandy Falls had been destroyed. I was glad to see, so far, the Falls are fine. Dried up, but fine. The Water Boys were working on the manhole due south of Tandy Falls.

About a half hour later I was again walking down Tandy Highway, heading north, when I heard the rumble of the huge Water Truck. I quickly reversed direction to head up a trail off the highway, to get a vantage point to take a picture of the passing truck.

As you can see, the Water Truck is as big as a plus-sized RV. The jungle shakes as it rumbles by.

I have grown accustomed to sharing the Tandy Hills with heavy equipment. I like some of the results. It is pleasant now, when the trucks are gone, to walk the Tandy Highway, as it is heavily wooded, shady and cooler than the more exposed zones.

Today I noticed that someone has been pruning branches along the various trails. There was one section where I was pleased this had been done. I've been tempted to bring a pruner with me a time or two, but I never remember.

I'll likely have Giant Lizard nightmares tonight. So, I'm thinking I should go for an early evening swim to calm my frazzled nerves.

Is A Day Of Reckoning Coming For The Fort Worth Way & Its Good Ol' Boy Network Of Dirty Dealers?

If I have said it once, I have said it twice, I don't understand why more civil lawsuits do not find their way to a courtroom in this somewhat lawless zone of Texas which I find myself observing.

The City of Fort Worth orders Gestapo Stormtrooper type raids on a citizen because he had the gall to defend himself against the attack on his property. Yet, no legal action is taken to bring the miscreants, and those who gave them their assault orders, to justice.

And, now, today, Wednesday in Fort Worth, I find myself heartened to learn that there is one good citizen of Fort Worth, Adrian Murray, who is mad as hell at what the Ruling Oligarchy and the Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network did to him. And even though, to the Good Ol' Boy Network, what they did was simply The Fort Worth Way, to Adrian Murray it was, and is, a criminal assault on his integrity, livelihood, character and sense of well being.

Adrian Murray is demanding a retraction of the lies stated in a mailer sent to thousands of homes on behalf of the Leonard/Lane campaign, run by the corrupt Eppstein Group of Dirty Tricksters. Murray wants a full and complete retraction sent to those who received the damaging mailing. And unless this is done promptly, legal action will follow against the various perpetrators.

In part, Adrian Murray's retraction demand to John Randolph Thompson, Jr., of the Clean Water Committee (a Tarrant Regional Water District Board Shill Committee), says...

"Your mailer further asserts that I have a “dubious past” and a “lack of financial accountability.” As a respected business owner in Fort Worth with many clients and vendors here, my reputation and by extension that of my company have been seriously damaged due to your malicious and false mailer. I hereby demand a full and complete retraction by mail to the same recipients of the May 7 mailer be immediately made by the Clean Water Committee clearly stating that your allegations were made based upon false information. Failure to promptly do so will leave me no choice but to pursue vigorous legal action against you and your clients."

I am sitting here hoping, hoping hard, that Adrian Murray's feistiness, and willingness to right a wrong, becomes the New Fort Worth Way.