Another Freezing Sunday March Morning In Texas

Looking out my viewing portal on the world this first Sunday of March you can see I am up well past the arrival of the sun.

What you can not see is the sun has not been able to warm it up out there past the above freezing point.

It is two degrees below freezing out there this morning.

I am currently of the opinion that I will not try to go swimming this morning.

I am up way later than my norm due to being kept up way later than my norm due to going to that TRIP event in Fort Worth's Botanic Garden last night.

I remember, way back before I became a virtual elderly person, being easily able to stay up past 2am, topping the evening off with an early breakfast at places like IHOP or Denny's or the Old South Pancake House. Apparently, those days are long gone.

I wish I could say I'm going swimming now. But I can't.

I TRIPPED Up In The Botanic Gardens In Fort Worth Tonight Without Elsie Hotpepper

I lasted longer at the TRIP meeting tonight than I thought I would. I made it through the meet and greet part.

Then I made it part way into the main show, before my Adult Attention Deficit Disorder kicked in, which had me thinking I could be doing something else, until the impulse to leave could be resisted no longer.

It would have helped if Elsie Hotpepper had showed up, as expected, at Fort Worth's Botanic Gardens tonight.

The promised hors d’oeuvres turned out to be a buffet table laden with tasty goodies. Waiting in the line reminded me of good times in Las Vegas and Reno waiting in a slow buffet line behind people older than me.

I was deathly afraid someone at this thing might recognize me. I hate it when that happens. So, I went in Clark Kent mode, with glasses. It worked. No one recognized me.

After about a half hour of sitting solo, eating hors d’oeuvres, this nice lady in a slinky black dress indicated I should come to her. I did so. She told me the show was about to begin. And that I could go get myself a good seat.

Good seat, to me, means a seat located in the back near an exit.

Well.

Imagine my surprise when the show starts up and the nice lady in the slinky black dress was introduced as, and I hope I get the name right, Layla Caraway.

Like the seeds, I think.

Miss Caraway gave a good introduction as to what TRIP is all about. As in sane management of the Trinity River. As opposed to the current insane management of the Trinity River.

Miss Caraway ended her speech introducing a documentary, produced by KERA in Dallas, about the Trinity River. It is a good documentary.

But.

I had already seen it.

This was when my AADD started kicking in.

So, I decided to slink away in the dark and return to my present moment, free of something I'd already seen.

Imagine my shock, as I exited, to literally bump into Miss Caraway. It was very awkward. I explained that having seen that documentary had caused my AADD to kick in. Miss Caraway explained that the documentary would soon be over and speakers would be speaking.

But.

Once the AADD kicks in, there is no turning back. It really is a difficult condition to live with.

I must say, the Trinity River Improvement People have put together a rather impressive operation. It obviously is more reality based than the Trinity River Vision. TRIP seems to be wanting to actually solve actual real problems, rather than build Wakeboard Parks and unneeded flood diversion channels and a little pond pretending to be a lake.

It seems to me that if TRIP gets its message right and accurately aims that message at the Trinity River Vision, that the people in the rest of America, who are helping pay for the Trinity River Vision, will join with TRIP in demanding that the Vision to Nowhere be permanently blinded.

Before it hurts people.

An XTO Energy Gas Site Blows Frac While I See My First Tandy Wildflower Of The Year & Contemplate Taking A Trip To TRIP

The arrival of the first wildflowers coloring up the Tandy Hills was a good indication today that spring is almost here.

Only 15 days until we can say goodbye to the worst winter I've experienced in all the years of my Texas exile.

Yesterday I blogged about a potential gas leak at an XTO Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Operation next to Pappy Elkins Lake in Dalworthington Gardens.

Today, the source of the potential gas leak information, Kim, followed up with what she's found out about what happened at the XTO site next to a lake and apartments and Veterans Park, in Arlington....

Last night, the Dalworington Gardens XTO site had a failed valve and loudly blew (radioactive?) frac sand all in the air near an apt. complex and never called the incident in to the RRC. Since I called this in (thanks to an email tip), the RRC rep called me back and told me that the choke valve leaked into their cellar and blew frac sand out of the well. XTO shut in the well and made the repair. While there was "wash out" in the area, no chlorides or effluents came off the pad into Pappy Elkins Lake. I do not know if any evacuations of the nearby apartments were attempted.  Also unknown is if any people were exposed to any gas or other effluents that the frac sand was under pressure from. 

On a different incident, the drilling spill at Lake Arlington last summer was reported by the Star Telegram as a small water spill, but a report I received today states that at least 95 barrels of produced water was recovered. The five barrels is what they estimate made its way into the lake which is the drinking source for over 500,000 souls.

My next door Chesapeake Energy drilling site has erupted with loud noises a couple times, loud popping noises. I did not know about the Lake Arlington spill. Lake Arlington is fairly close to my abode.

Change of subject. Back to the Tandy Hills. In the picture we are looking west at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. As you can see it was a bit overcast in the noon time frame. It has since brightened up a bit.

I may be taking a TRIP to the west side of beautiful downtown Fort Worth in a couple hours.

The Cold First Saturday Of March Thinking Of A TRIP & Swimming

The view is steamy looking out my viewing portal on the world on the first Saturday of March.

There may be various reasons for the steamy window, but I think the primary cause is the temperature outdoors has plummeted to a measly 7 degrees above freezing.

39 degrees may wreak havoc with my plan to go swimming this morning.

In addition to the cold temperature, gusty winds are blowing with a steady pace of around 20 mph, making it feel like 25 degrees out there.

Tonight, starting at 6, TRIP has its first event. TRIP is the short way of saying Trinity River Improvement Project. Near as I can tell TRIP is an adult version of the infantile Trinity River Vision, known as TRV.

With TRIP you get no Inner Tube Trinity River Happy Hours. And no Cowtown Wakeboard Park. And no un-needed, unnecessary flood diversion channels.

I don't know if I'm going TRIP up tonight. With my go with the flow nature it is too early in the day to commit myself to something as far away as 6 o'clock.

In the meantime I think I'll put on my long underwear and go swimming. Or try to.

County Commission Gal Explains Fort Worth's MHMR-GATE SCANDAL In Detail

The Paradise Center Scandal now has a blog covering the ongoing scandal.

A few days ago in response to a blogging about the Paradise Center Scandal, which I had renamed the MHMR-Gate Scandal, someone Anonymous hoped that I knew what I was talking about. And that the public needed and deserved to know about this "so-called scandal."

Wikipedia's definition of "Scandal"....

A scandal is a widely publicized allegation or set of allegations that damages (or tries to damage) the reputation of an institution, individual or creed. A scandal may be based on true or false allegations or a mixture of both. From the Greek σκάνδαλον, a trap or stumbling-block. The metaphor is that wrong conduct can impede or "trip" people's trust or faith. Some scandals are broken by whistleblowers who reveal wrongdoing within organizations or groups.  Sometimes an attempt to cover up a possible scandal ignites a greater scandal when the cover-up fails.

This afternoon I heard from someone calling herself County Commission Gal. Read what County Commission Gal has to say about the MHMR-Gate Scandal and you will easily see that the MHMR Tarrant County shenanigans clearly are a scandal. And those shenanigans are scandalous.

From County Commissioner Gal...

I don't want to risk losing my job, especially as retirement nears, so I won't use my real name.  I heard talk last week around the county administration offices about Paradise Center and like many people wanting to know more about this interesting but disturbing story I was forced to use a search engine to find some kind of reporting.  I was rather shocked to see only the brief piece in the FW Weekly about the protest. And the posts on your blog. 

Again I don't want to have problems with my job as a County employee, with extensive experience in government operations and analytical work.  But I want to honor my brother's shortened life and memory by sharing with the only information dissemination source about this scandal--yes, from all my years of experience and from reading the evidence presented to the County Executive and the Commissioners, it looks like a pretty major and costly scandal.

I am using my own computer and time to share with the public what appears to be the hard truths about disturbing issues surrounding this scandal, which is so ugly that it appears even the County government is trying to dismiss it and hoping that it just goes away.  Because these courageous Paradise Center folks are weak and powerless in almost every way. Their main powers are their resolve to demand that they not be exploited and treated as second or third class citizens. Their hope of holding on to their hard earned resolve and rights as citizens rests in the truth getting out (hello, media/journalists) and the public raising a chorus of questions and protests until the wrongdoers are held accountable.

Because I am convinced that this is so very important for our friends and neighbors suffering from severe mental illness and that it serves the public interest, I will share some selected facts I know about this scandal.  Based on written material I've seen and from discussions I've heard (plus some of my own research of publicly available information, the essence of this scandal is that MHMR Trustees approved of the CEO and his executive team's scheme to bring in needed "revenue" (vs. funding, which are from grants or government budgets) by cleverly exploiting the well established community center operated by the "consumer-run" non-profit organization Paradise Center Inc. in the following main ways:

-- MHMR signed a contract with the private profit-driven HMO group called Bravo Health  to begin enlisting MHMR clients who qualify for Medicaid. 

--Medicaid pays pretty good for services that help people with severe and persistent mental illness recover from their disabling illness and to reintegrate back into society (e.g. classes or training groups to learn how to take care of their hygiene needs, paying their bills so they won't lose their housing and end back up on the streets as homeless people, managing their medical and pharmaceutical needs such as making and keeping appointments and getting prescriptions filled and organizaing their many medications in pill boxes to ensure that they follow the psychiatrist's treatment plan and control the negative symptoms of their mental illness, how to budget their limited income, buy groceries and eating healthy meals, making friends and a support network like most people have and take for granted, etc.).   

--Bravo and MHMR would "share" employees and infrastructures in order to maximize profit for the company and revenue for the taxpayer-funded government agency.

--The executives told their "bosses" the Board of Trustees, who are appointed by the Commissioners Court to be their surrogates in overseeing a governmental agency under the "sponsorship" (see their websites) of Tarrant County government, in meetings last summer that this business agreement/contract "is projected to bring over $600,000 of revenue in the first year".  That's not small change any way you look at it, especially if MHMR doesn't have to provide the costly outlays to set up such a state-approved "program" to help their very sickest/debilitated clients increase their likelihood of staying in their own place in the community instead of on the streets, in shelters, or the most costly inpatient hospitalizations or in the criminal justice system.

--The reason that MHMR could expect to gain such a large "revenue" and not really having to do much of the work was the assumption that the extremely low overhead would continue by using the 8,000 man hours of volunteer work by the Paradise Center team to operate a well-known and well-loved community center for the people with chronic and severe mental illness. 

--The "foundational grant" that MHMR had signed contracts to provide for the most basic operational needs of Paradise Center the organization and its community center is a shockingly low $150,000 per year, which covers the paltry salary package of the well-educated (two masters degrees from the world's largest and most influential seminary) and extremely competent professional staff whose decades of unblemished record working with the sickest of the sick (i.e. the psych hospital or "ward") made her 9 and 1/2 year work a success that produced significant and very positive results for many people who participate in the array of services, programs, and opportunities offered by Paradise Center.

--Apparently due to her personal and professional ethics, Teresa Davis resisted 5 months of harsh and really shameful pressure tactics by the MHMR executive team, including holding toilet paper and other products for the Center's four bathrooms that serve the 80 or so average unique people who attend the tiny community center as ransom to force her to attend another two hour long meeting where 3 or more MHMR executives would gang up on her using verbal and emotional assaults to break down her will and ethical stance,  to go along with their false representation (to Bravo Health and the state agency that oversees Medicaid/HMO) that "Paradise Center is just another one of our many programs" and that she was just another one of their 1,300 employees subject to their complete control and domination.

--MHMR knew that it was critical for this influential person to go along with this falsehood since the contract, and the detailed proposal to the state for approving their partnership to provide Medicaid billable services with the profit-driven HMO, had stated that everything about Paradise Center and its operations (i.e. legal status as an independent 501/c/3 non-profit organization, it's Charter and By-laws which vests the authority for its operations and other important issues in the all-volunteer Board of Directors) was under the direct control of MHMR.  

--Contract law experts could see the problems easily: we have three separate legal entities/organizations here and two of them had entered into a contractual business partnership but intentionally not letting the other, smaller and weaker, legal entity Paradise Center Inc. know about their deal. Very serious legal and financial consequences would jump out, to all three parties and the state agency overseeing Medicaid/HMO, when the Bravo Health team comes in and takes over most of the internal operations of the community center operated by Paradise Center Inc. with the complete assurance that it is "a program of MHMR" their business partner.

--Paradise Center Inc. leadership team and their 500+ official members would surely raise objections and whip out their legal documents and contracts that would expose the lie concocted by MHMR's leadership team and Trustees.  Bravo Health, a major HMO who is new to this market, would then likely ask MHMR's team to do some serious explaining, privately and/or in the courts since lawyers with knowledge of this scheme said it would be a basic fraud case.

--Paradise Center and its well-loved community center is crucial to the calculation of the projected profit and revenue by the two business partners because most of the people with mental illness do not like to attend required meetings, classes, or training sessions because they remind them of their time locked up in restricted institutions like psych hospitals/wards and even prison where "the mental patients" or "inmates" were under complete control of those in power over them.  

--A major factor in Paradise Center's success and "popularity" (80 people choosing to walk for miles or take tedious 1-2 hour long bus rides in all kinds of weather  to come be around friends and participate in fun and helpful activities daily is extraordinary) is the warm atmosphere and "culture of acceptance and support" that Teresa Davis had worked over her 9 and 1/2 years to promote and inculcate, which had become an expected characteristic as new people come asking to join and participate based on recommendations by friends, family, and various professionals.  THIS IS A KEY PART OF THE SCHEME: unwitting people who come to their community center were seen as "fish in the barrel" for the Medicaid-billable rehab services as "the authority" pulls those qualified for such financially profitable activities in to nearby meeting rooms for 30-minutes or longer rehab services.

--This is a clear case of arrogance, bullying, as well as deceptive and exploitive behavior.

--For MHMR's leadership team, the expected easy money and the potential consequences of the legal issues just described, made it imperative that Ms. Davis be gotten out of the way, whatever it took. The community center and organization operating successfully out of 505 S. Jennings had to be successfully passed off as completely MHMR's by a date certain, knowing that the already delayed enrolling period was quickly approaching on 05/01/11. If they could convince the state agency that everything is kosher and thus their business enterprise was now "operationally ready" to start doing business and billing Medicaid.

--Thus Ms. Davis's resiliency and principled stance had to be overcome somehow: the shockingly devastating and extremely foolish act by MHMR's Trustees, CEO, executive team, and legal counsel in "terminating your employment immediately" on 02/17/11.  

--The very next morning the MHMR-Bravo team took over the community center and busily walked around looking at their design plans for the facility, discussing how to keep people coming in such large numbers (bought pizzas and gave out free drinks all days to the 30 or so unknowing people who showed up), and more importantly trying to figure out how to find people to replace the exiled Paradise Center Inc. leadership team and their 8,000+ hours of volunteer work to make THEIR community center and organization the "jewel of the community" and an "easy" prey for their scheme to exploit the name/reputation, "warmth"/culture, and free labor of the people with serious mental illness in order to maximize the HMO's profit margin and to empower and enrich the executives of MHMR. Trustees praise and give them raises for such a "creative" business solution, especially in this budget-reducing era.

--They don't get or don't care about the cruel irony of their willfull actions and motivations: exploiting and abusing the very people that they righteously declare to the public and taxpayers they are committed to helping "improving quality of life" and dedicated to prevent them from being abused, neglected, or exploited by those with more power and sophistication.

 Tell the truth and the whole truth, Mr. Durango.  Please help me protect my anonymity.

_____________________________________

To protect County Commission Gal's anonymity I edited out her detailing of her personal reason that motivated her to look into the MHMR-Gate Scandal. I thought those details would make her identifiable. Suffice to say, she has a relative who died who would have benefited had he been able to access the type of help provided by the Paradise Center before MHMR destroyed it.

On Top Of Mount Tandy Contemplating Blogging The Details Of Fort Worth's MHMR-Gate Scandal

As you can see, standing on top of Mount Tandy under the Fort Worth Space Needle, looking west at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, it was cloudy at noon, this first Friday of March.

Stutterin' Stu did the hill hiking with me today. I quickly remember why I don't usually go hill hiking with Stutterin' Stu.

Engineer mentality. First it was some purple berries could not possibly be poisonous. Then it was analyzing the Tandy Bamboo Teepee, as if a forensic examination was taking place. Stutterin' Stu did discover some odd cuts in the bamboo that added to the mystery.

As the Stutterin' Stu forensic Bamboo Teepee examination continued, I could take it no more, so I took off solo to get to experience the benefits of being in the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area.

While I was doing my solo hiking and contemplating, I contemplated a blog comment I got a couple days ago from someone calling him or herself "Anonymous." Regarding the Paradise Center Scandal, now known as MHMR-Gate, Anonymous said...

"WOW. This could something BIG. I sure hope you know what you're talking about, Mr. Durango. We the citizens and the general public need and deserve to know more about this so-called scandal because MHMR is a trusted and large public organization. Plus many of the weakest and most vulnerable people in our society are directly affected, for better or worse. Do tell. PLEASE."

Well, anyone who pays attention could tell Anonymous that I rarely know for sure what I'm talking about. I am fairly good at creating the illusion I know what I am talking about. It's a gift.

So.

Regarding MHMR-Gate. This afternoon I got email from someone calling herself  "County Commissioner Gal" detailing the MHMR-Gate Scandal in extremely specific detail.

I am trying to confirm that it is okay for me to blog County Commissioner Gal's email. When or if I get that confirmation I'll hit the publish button. Then Anonymous will have him or herself the details of the MHMR-Gate Scandal.

Was There A Gas Leak Last Night At The XTO Energy Drilling Site In Dalworthington Gardens?

I got email this morning about the XTO Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas drilling site you see in the picture. It is located in Dalworthington Gardens by Pappy Elkins Park and Veterans Park in Arlington.

I have made mention of this drilling operation many times, due to its proximity to an apartment complex and people I've talked to who live in that complex who complained about the noise and pollution.

The email I got this morning was a compilation of email exchanges between various parties which began with the following statement...

"I believe there was some kind of an incident tonight with the gas well in dalworthington gardens (near Arkansas Ln)."

Another emailer in the exchanges spoke with RRC, whatever that is, about the alleged spill, saying...

"Just spoke with RRC and they have the correct site....not a spill (thank goodness cause there is a water body adjacent to that site)...all I know is that there was a gas leak at the DWG XTO site. I'll bring my son to school today after all.  I guess he'll be safe.  Life's a crap shoot these days in the gaspatch? The info I received from a council member for the Pantego site near my son's school is..... "...Frac'g is complete.  Some of the trucks drilled out plugs at the various frac stages. The only issue I heard had to deal with evacuating some frac water from some of the completed wells. When laterals get spaced closed together, sometimes as the shale cracks, frac water migrates to another well lateral so that water has to be pumped out before the well will start producing gas again.  There have been some pressure issues between the distribution pipeline and the well head pressure..."

I think the Pantego site being reference is the one to the northwest of the intersection of Pioneer Parkway and Bowen.

That's really was all the information I was able to glean from this email. Someone thought there was a leak. Someone else said there wasn't. The subject line was "Dalworthington Gardens XTO Gas Leak Last Night." The email was flagged urgent.

Also in the email was an interesting bit of Texas law...

Texas Administrative Code, Title 30,  Part 1, Chapter 101, Subchapter A, Rule 101.4, Environmental Quality, Nuisance

No person shall discharge from any source whatsoever one or more air contaminants or combinations thereof, in such concentration and of such duration as are or may tend to be injurious to or to adversely affect human health or welfare, animal life, vegetation, or property, or as to interfere with the normal use and enjoyment of animal life, vegetation, or property.

The law in Texas can be so ironic. There should be a law against that.

Texas Is Basking In A Balmy 60 Degree Heat Wave The Morning Of The 4th Day Of March

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell the pool is looking like a blue oasis this 4th morning of March.

It is a balmy 60 degrees out there this morning, which should make for a very pleasant bout in the pool.

We are scheduled for a drop in temperature, arriving tomorrow, with a low of 39.

Other than talking about the weather, I've got nothing to talk about this morning.

So, I'm going swimming and hoping that that stimulates my synapses into firing more creatively.

The Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Speaking Softy & Carrying A Big Stick With Wild Boars & Elsie Hotpepper

You can pretty much tell by how long the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man is today that I was on the hills late in the day. You can't really tell it by the picture, but I was carrying a big stick with me today. My whacking stick.

I came upon nothing that needed whacking.

This morning one of the TRIP Rebels emailed me asking me a question about the TRV Boondoggle. The question had to do with funding for the TRV.

Which, as I was hiking the Tandy Hills today, had me wondering, again, how it is that a public agency, like the Trinity River Vision, does not have to operate with full transparency?

As in, why are the books of the Trinity River Vision not open to public scrutiny?

In other words. I would really like to know how much of the public's money is being spent by J.D. Granger on liquor? On junkets? On restaurants? On valet parking? On cell phones? On laptops? On iPads? On Dallas hotel rooms? On car leases? On airplane tickets?

Just a totally open accounting of what the public's money is being spent on. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so.

Now, on to a totally different subject. A little after five I was driving east on Randol Mill Road with the recently relocated Elsie Hotpepper, when I spotted a big mama wild boar and her little herd of baby wild boars. Elsie told me to turn around and get a picture.

You who do not know Elsie Hotpepper, let me tell you, when Elsie tells you to do something, you do it.

So, I turned around. Got back to the boars. Slowed down. The mama was getting wary. As soon as she saw I was parking the mama wild boar took off running, with her family right behind. I had no chance to get a picture.

Elsie Hotpepper said if I didn't drive like an old lady I could have gotten a picture. I did not point out that me speeding would not have changed the outcome. One treads lightly when one chooses to point anything out to Elsie Hotpepper.

I can't imagine how this herd of wild boars got to this location. River Legacy Park is about 10 miles to the east. Did the mama wild boar lead her family out of the park to this new home? River Legacy Park is the only place I've seen wild boars previously.

It is a little after six.

74 degrees.

I've still got my windows open.

The 3rd Day Of March Dawns Bright & Halfway To 100 Degrees In Texas

Looking out my viewing portal on the world on this third day of March I can see it is yet one more blue sky day in Texas.

Currently heated to 50 degrees.

I think I have somehow acclimated myself to being able to tolerate a level of coldness that may be a few stages past what I should be tolerating.

Yesterday I was in the pool for around a half hour. When I got out the air felt no different than the water. Til I stepped inside, where it felt very warm.

Getting in the shower I did not realize I had the water on cold til it hit a part of me, as in my face, that had not been in the cold water.

When I got out of the shower the shivering began. It was like involuntary exercise. I'm sure it burned a lot of calories.

When the shivering stopped there seemed to be no lingering after effect that I could detect.

So, I guess I'll go swimming again this morning. As in right now. Talk to you later.