What Stalled World's First Bridges Built Over Dry Land Connecting To An Imaginary Island?

I saw that which you see here in the Sunday Seattle Times online, and it seemed to fit the category of things I read in west coast online news sources which I would not be expecting to read in a Texas news source about a similar thing in Texas.

Or, in this case, Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Seattle Times article titled World’s first light rail on a floating bridge: For I-90, Sound Transit had to invent ‘a brilliant solution’ is something one would likely not read in the Star-Telegram about something happening in Fort Worth for a variety of reasons.

Has Fort Worth ever been the world's first at anything? Or invented a brilliant solution for anything? Or built a big bridge over a deep body of water?

I guess the Fort Worth Star-Telegram could have an article with a somewhat similar headline to the Seattle Times headline, something like this...

World's first bridges built over dry land connecting to an imaginary island: Stalled because Fort Worth can't invent 'a simple solution'.

How can one part of America manage to build multiple massively big floating bridges over deep water, in a time span of less than four years, whilst another part of America (Fort Worth) can't manage to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island?

With a four year project timeline.

That is no longer in existence because the project has been stalled for over a year.

Stalled for over a year. With no explanation as to what the problem is. And no local newspaper able to task journalists with the job of investigating what is causing a relatively simple pseudo public works project to become known as America's Biggest  Boondoggle?

Those floating bridges you see above connect to an actual island.

Mercer Island.

Site of some of the world's most expensive real estate. Fort Worth's bridges were being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, which is currently an industrial wasteland, not an island.

Read the article about engineers figuring out how to build the world's first light rail over a floating bridge. Make note of the open transparency. Ask yourself why you never read an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the stalled bridges which has any semblance of the detail you read in this article in the Seattle Times.

I'll copy a few paragraphs from the Seattle Times World’s first light rail on a floating bridge: For I-90, Sound Transit had to invent ‘a brilliant solution’ article to illustrate what I am talking about...

Sound Transit will soon try something unprecedented — building and operating train tracks on a floating bridge.

The work begins June 3 in the center express lanes of Interstate 90, after carpools, buses and Mercer Island motorists are kicked out to make room for light-rail contractors. Passenger service between Seattle, Bellevue and Overlake is scheduled to begin in 2023.

The technical challenges are daunting.

Engineers have to ensure the bridge will remain buoyant when a pair of 300-ton trains pass each other, and that the high-voltage current that powers the trains won’t stray into the bridge’s pontoons and corrode its steel rebar. They spent $53 million just to design the section across Lake Washington.

The most difficult task is adapting the rails to the movements of the bridge.

___________________

Okay, Fort Worth Star-Telegram readers, in the above few paragraphs you have read more detailed facts about a bridge being built than you have ever read in the Star-Telegram about those three simple little bridges which have been stalled, with no explanation as to why, for over a year.

Pitiful. just pitiful....

Mother's Day Visit With Wichita Falls Mothers In Prairie Dog Town

A long time had passed since I'd last visited my neighborhood Prairie Dog Town.

And, so, what with it being Mother's Day, and what with Prairie Dog Town having a lot of mothers in residence, I decided to pay them a visit today.

I did not arrive at Prairie Dog Town empty handed. I had a bag full of flour tortillas, corn tortillas and whole wheat bread.

Upon arrival I quickly saw that Prairie Dog Town has expanded since my last visit, with many new burrows sprouted at locations quite a distance from the walled city which makes up Prairie Dog Town proper.

As I pulled into a parking space multiple Prairie Dogs scurried for home from their sunning location on the pavement. I was not quick enough with my camera to photo document the Prairie Dogs on the road.  But I did manage to do some photo documenting of the Prairie Dogs inside Dog Town.

Above you are looking at a couple Prairie Dog babies.  They came out of their home hole when they heard their relatives making their "there's food"  squeal.

Eventually I was able to toss some bread product to a pair of the babies. Their mom was not evident. Unless she was one of the Prairie Dogs who did not fear getting close to me in order to get vittles.

Below we see one of the potential Prairie Dog Mother candidates, securing a chunk of flour tortilla with her left paw. Maybe she is contemplating taking the chunk to her babies.

No. She decided to have it all to herself.

Has anyone ever domesticated one of these cute critters?

The little Prairie Dog feller below seems to be quite devout, praying before he partakes of a chunk of whole wheat bread.

I do not understand why Wichita Falls does not make a big deal out of its Prairie Dog Town. Such as promoting it as the Biggest Prairie Dog Town in the World (in an urban setting) or some such thing.

Make the wall around Prairie Dog Town more attractive. Not a Donald Trump type wall paid for by the Mexicans, but a real wall serving a real purpose. And somehow wall off the Prairie Dog Town suburbs which have sprung up on the town's outskirts.

There is not even signage pointing people to Prairie Dog Town. One has to know Prairie Dog Town is located in Kiwanis Park, on the north side of Southwest Parkway, with the entry a short distance west of McDonalds and the Post Office, to know where to go to visit the Wichita Falls Prairie Dogs.

I think the next time I visit Prairie Dog Town I'm bringing brownies. I'm thinking those little critters will really like brownies...

Happy Mother's Day To All My Favorite Mothers

That would be my mom you are looking at here, holding her first born baby boy, which would be me. I am pretty much 100% certain this photo was taken in Eugene, Oregon, since that is where I was born and in the photo it does not appear I am big enough to be doing much traveling.

I hope all my favorite moms will be having themselves a mighty fine Mother's Day today.

Such as my #1 Mom, currently in  Arizona, who I will be calling later today.

And, also in Arizona, my favorite sister, Jackie, mother of my favorite nephews, Christopher and Jeremy.

And all my favorite moms in Washington, such as Aunts Arlene and Alice. My favorite ex-sister-in-law, Cindy, who also happens to be Spencer Jack's grandma and the mother of my favorite nephews, Jason and Joey.

And then there is Jenny, the mother of Spencer Jack.

And my other favorite sister, Michele, along with Kristin, the mothers of my favorite nephews, David and Theo and my one and only favorite niece, Ruby.

I almost forgot the Washington mothers of Macie, Chris and Sheila.

In Texas the only mother I can think of (other than Kay Granger) is Alma, mother of Viggo. Happy Mother's Day, Alma, hope you and Viggo have yourselves a good day....

UPDATE: I am shocked and appalled that when I was thinking of Texas mothers whose mothering I have been privileged  to witness that I forgot that regular Mother of the Year candidate, Miss Martha. Sorry Martha. Happy Mother's Day!

Feeling Safe From Ransomware Wanna Cry Surrounded By Pillars Of Holliday

Today for my regularly scheduled salubrious Saturday outdoor excursion I opted to walk to my favorite neighborhood art space, which always puts me in a good mood, which you see documented here in a rare selfie photo documenting me being in a rare good mood.

I call this art installation the Pillars of Holliday, what with Holliday Creek being that water you see reflecting behind me and multiple Pillars.

The Pillars of Holliday are located under the Southwest Parkway bridge over Holliday Creek.

A short distance north, maybe half a mile, on the campus of Midwestern State University, visible as one drives by on Taft Boulevard, one sees the Pillars of Hercules art installation.

I prefer the Pillars of Holliday to the Pillars of Hercules for several reasons.

Such as there are only four Pillars of Hercules, while Holliday has way more Pillars, both behind me and in front of me, from the vantage point of the above photo.

The Pillars of Holliday are shaded,  whilst the Pillars of Hercules are out in the open, with no shady protection.

The Pillars of Holliday are more easily accessed than the Pillars of Hercules, what with the Circle Trail running under the bridge, between the Pillars, with a comfortable swinging bench upon which one can sit and admire the Pillars of Holliday.

Today I had a good reason to put myself in a good mood by surrounding myself with art due to the stress I have had getting my new computer to cooperate in updating itself to protect it from the nefarious Ransomware Wanna Cry attack.

I am almost 100% certain I am now somewhat safe from having my computer held for ransom. I probably should not be tempting fate by making such a claim...

Can You Solve The Green Mystery Of The TRWD Election Bar Graph?

Yesterday, after I mentioned that I had learned that Apparently I Got To Vote Because I Am A Stakeholding TRWD Founder, Elsie Hotpepper sent me the chart you see above, charting the results of the most recent Tarrant Regional Water District Board of Directors Election.

The chart charts the results of the election with each of the five bars in the graph representing one of the five candidates, starting with Leah King at the top, followed by Andra Beatty, Mary Kelleher, Jack Stevens, with James Hill at the bottom.

The bars show the vote breakdown, with the Absentee Vote being green, the Early Voting being brown and the Election Day Vote being purple.

Do you notice anything unusual?

Charts like this can be a revealing way to reveal data.

Have you noticed anything unusual yet?

Okay, I will give you a hint.

In the previous TRWD Board Election, the one where Marty Leonard and Jim Lane beat Craig Bickley and Miki Von Luckner, the results triggered the biggest election fraud investigation in Texas history.

With that investigation triggered by the way out of the norm number of absentee ballots cast for Marty Leonard and  Jim Lane. Somewhere around 10,000 absentee ballots. Receiving 10,000 votes used to be enough votes to give a candidate the win in a TRWD Board Election.

Do you notice anything unusual with those bars in the graph yet?

Well, let me just point it out to you, if you've not already noticed the suspicious oddity.

Leah King, Jack Stevens and James Hill were the candidates favored by the TRWD insiders, just like Marty Leonard and Jim Lane were the candidates favored with "extra help" the previous TRWD Board Election.

And now, two years later, in this most recent TRWD Board Election, once again the number of Absentee ballots cast for the favored candidates raises a red flag of suspicion.

First off, in the fraudulent previous TRWD Board Election around 10,000 absentee ballots were cast for the winners. In this most recent TRWD Board Election that number shrunk to a little over 2.000.

So, clearly this time the TRWD favored candidates did not benefit from fraudulent absentee ballots.

Or did they?

Look at the bar graph again. The green part of the bar graphs. The Absentee Ballot totals for Leah King, Jack Stevens and James Hill are virtually identical. How did that happen? Their vote totals for Early Voting and Election Day Voting are not virtually identical, but the Absentee Ballot totals are virtually the same for all three.

Once again, not confident of winning legitimately, were shenanigans in play to pad the vote total for the favored TRWD candidates?

Maybe there is some perfectly understandable explanation for what you see demonstrated in green above. But, I suspect Occam's Razor is the most logical explanation, as in the simplest, most obvious explanation is the answer.

As in this most recent TRWD Board of Directors Election once again had its results skewed by fraud...

Apparently I Got To Vote Because I Am A Stakeholding TRWD Founder

I saw that which you see here a day or two ago on Facebook. The following paragraph of explanatory text explains that which you see here...

Newcomers Leah McCloe King (green) and James Hill (red) dominated TRWD - Tarrant Regional Water District election. Incumbent Mary Kelleher (aqua) carried only Ryan Place and Handley.

Yes, this map shows you who won each precinct in the recent TRWD Board Election.

The results this time are very similar to the results of the previous TRWD Board Election. In that previous election the map was dominated by Jim Lane and Marty Leonard, whose domination was brought courtesy of what is believed to be the biggest election fraud ballot theft in Texas election history, with a statistically impossible high number of absentee ballots giving Lane and Leonard the win.

Of course, since that election  took place in what is now known as Crookedtown, Lane and Leonard were allowed to keep their ill gotten seats.

In the most recent TRWD Board Election the results map is dominated by Leah King and James Hill, whose domination was bought courtesy of hundreds of thousands of dollars, many of which came from Dallas, with that flood of money funding an unscrupulous campaign of lies and misinformation attacking Mary Kelleher and Andra Beatty.

This TRWD Board Election Map posting on Facebook generated an extremely interesting, extremely bizarre, short discussion which I shall share in its entirety, with the names of the posters not altered....

Marla Senter Morris: Some of us aren't allowed to vote!! Did you know north Fort Worth folks who live in the city don't get to vote on the water board?

Bud Kennedy: Only the stakeholders of the district -- the taxpayers who founded, established and funded it -- get to vote. Not new parts of town. That is how it should be.

Pam Humphrey: Really?

Thomas Torlincasi: But the new parts of town ....such as the Alliance Corridor mean millions of dollars in valuation changes for corporate or big money interests.....why aren't people in the water shed stakeholders?

Marla Senter Morris: Doesn't our water come from there? Do we pay taxes to the water district?

Bud Kennedy: No. Those outside the district are customers. Those inside the district are taxpayers, investors and stakeholders.

Thomas Torlincasi: Anyone impacted by the water district has a stake in its decisions. They're stakeholders by association.

Bud Kennedy: If I dine in your restaurant, I don't own the restaurant.

_______________

Oh, I see, according to the TRWD expert, Bud Kennedy, only the taxpayers who founded, established and funded the TRWD get to vote in a TRWD Board Election.

Well.  prior to escaping Fort Worth I voted in multiple TRWD Board Elections. I had no idea I was able to do so because I was a TRWD stakeholder who founded, established and funded the TRWD.

Lifelong Texans who have owned property for decades in the TRWD water shed are not allowed to vote in a TRWD election, whilst I, a Yankee newcomer, who has never owned property in Texas, was allowed to vote in TRWD Board Elections.

Yeah, that really makes a lot of sense.

I have no idea what point this Bud Kennedy person thinks he is making when he says he does not own the restaurants he dines in.

Thomas Torlincasi seems to make an excellent point when he suggests it is logical that those who are impacted by the TRWD should be able to vote in TRWD Board Elections.

Then again, the TRWD has quite a storied history of running amok without resorting to asking voters for permission to spend millions of dollars.

Like when the TRWD foisted on the public what was originally known as the Trinity River Vision, with no public vote on a public works project which has been so ill-managed it has evolved into the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, with embarrassments like three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, with the construction stalled for over a year.

With no explanation for the stalled construction.

And, apparently, those few who are allowed to vote on the TRWD's shenanigans, have no problem with the TRWD's inept money wasting management, which in addition to America's Biggest Boondoggle, also includes wasting a lot of money on bogus lawsuits, such as suing to try and take water from Oklahoma.

It seems outrageous, and wrong, to me, that all the Texans affected by the TRWD are not included in who votes for the TRWD.

Such as people who live in Haltom City. Apparently the people of that town are not TRWD "stakeholders" even though the town is impacted by the TRWD's water management.

Haltom City is plagued by flash flooding exacerbated by the TRWD's inept flood plain management.

The Haltom City flash flooding has been deadly.

And caused a lot of property damage, including one locally famous incident where North Texans watched TV coverage, day after day, as a Haltom City home teetered on the brink of toppling into Big Fossil Creek.

Another Haltom City flash flood drowned Ally Collins when Whites Branch Creek rampaged through Ally's home, and many others.

The Haltom City flash flooding problem triggered political activism in some Haltom City citizens, who soon found themselves appalled at the cavalier attitude of the public officials who were supposed to be concerned about issues, like out of control development developing without adequate mitigation of the increased water velocity due to the increased acreage covered by manmade obstacles to adequate, flood slowing, drainage.

Discovering the cavalier attitude of these public officials soon brought the realization of how absurd the TRWD's Trinity River Vision project is. A project projected to spend millions of dollars on unneeded flood control in an area where there has been no flooding for well over a half a century, because federal money was spent way back then to build levees which have kept the Trinity River under control ever since, as it flows through central Fort Worth.

And then there were the flooding issues in east Fort Worth,  east of the area where those levees had been built over a half century ago. This new flooding was also caused by poorly designed development and gas drillers wreaking havoc with the landscape, with no one holding them accountable for the resulting damage.

Mary Kelleher was one of those affected by this "new" flooding and decided to see if she could do something about making the TRWD  more responsible to the actual needs of the people the TRWD is supposed to serve.

Mary Kelleher was elected to the TRWD Board with the biggest vote total in TRWD history.

Mary Kelleher then spent four years trying to get the TRWD to act like a responsible public agency, with some success, along with a lot of maddening frustration.

But, good people, like Mary Kelleher, and the victims in Haltom City, find they are up against a corrupt machine, willing to steal elections, willing to spend incredible amounts of money to attack the character of those trying to shine a light on all the obvious corruption and mismanagement.

Basically, I think one can only conclude that fighting the Fort Worth Machine, the Good Ol' Boy Network, the 7th Street Gang, the Fort Worth Way, whatever you want to call it, is futile, until changes are made.

And one of those obvious changes is to expand who is allowed to vote for TRWD Board Members.

For anyone to say that voting for the TRWD is for "Only the stakeholders of the district -- the taxpayers who founded, established and funded it. Not new parts of town."

And that "That is how it should be" is clearly not only ridiculous, to suggest such is embarrassingly ridiculous, wrongheadedly embarrassingly ridiculous. And, well, just plain stupid....

A Stormy Look At Wichita Falls Circle Trail Water Fountain Space Needles

No, that is not the Wichita Falls Space Needle you are looking at here, with a rotating restaurant and observation deck at its top.

What you are looking at here is one of the many water fountains installed along the Wichita Falls Circle Trail, delivering the drinking pleasure needs of parched Circle Trailers.

This particular Circle Trail water fountain is located a couple hundred feet from my abode. Consequently I have never had the need to avail this particular water fountain of its drink delivery service.

However, I have availed myself of the water delivery service of other fountains along the Circle Trail.

As you can see, via the look at the sky above the Circle Trail Space Needle Water Fountain, clouds have invaded the usual blue space.

Thunderstorms, with hail, heavy rain and possible tornadoes are on the menu today for what is known as the Texoma zone of Texas and Oklahoma.

Currently the outer world is hot, humid and windy, with no lightning flashes, thunder booms, downpours or tornado sirens.

I have yet to turn on my air conditioning this year. Today's muggy humidity is tempting me to switch the A/C on. But, the ceiling fans  and open windows seem to be providing sufficient cooling.

For now...

Wichita Falls Caribbean Black Panther Warning Signs

Yesterday I think I mentioned that I had adopted a Black Panther baby who I named Blackie.

After learning about my adopted Black Panther baby someone with the fairly common name of Anonymous suggested that Blackie should visit Planned Parenthood lest I find myself with a herd of little Blackies.

I am almost 100% certain that Blackie is not going to become an unmarried Baby Mama. Planned Parenthood does its job. Well, at least it did before damage done by the Mango Menace.

It had been many days since I have taken a tour of my Caribbean neighborhood, so today I opted to do so.

I was very pleased whilst walking the alley between Tobago and Barbados to see one of my neighbors has installed a sign indicating people should be on the lookout for Blackie making an alley crossing.

But, Blackie is a Black Panther, not an Alley Cat...

Adopting A Wichita Falls Black Panther Baby

Many weeks ago I saw that a small black panther had moved to a secure location under the stairwell of the stairs which lead to the entry to my abode.

After weeks of seeing the small black panther act very skittish when ever she saw me, quickly retreating to her safe place, I decided that, obviously, all black lives matter, and so I took to calling the small black panther, Blackie, and then installed a bowl of water and panther food on the deck outside my patio door.

Blackie now arrives for breakfast every morning soon after the sun comes up for the day. Blackie particularly seems to enjoy her bowl of water. I suspect sourcing water was difficult for Blackie before her current constant supply showed up.

The resident crow, dove and sparrow population also seems to be enjoying Blackie's panther food.

Other than Miss Puerto Rico's cats I have not had much feline contact since way late in the last century. That feline was named Hortense. Hortense moved to Texas about two months before I did. Hortense flew down south. I used ground transport.

Within a year of moving to Texas Hortense had a stroke and died. Hortense was over 21 years old when she meowed her last meow. Hortense is buried in a horse corral in the hamlet of Haslet, located in far north Fort Worth.

Hortense was a house cat. I doubt Blackie will somehow turn into a house panther. But you never know. Blackie is darn cute. not as cute as Hortense was, but darn cute....

Congrats Mary Kelleher For Four Years Of Being An Honest Fort Worth Public Servant

Always a class act, Mary Kelleher graciously thanks those who have supported her efforts these past four years for endeavoring to shine a bright light on shady darkness.

What you see here is a partial screen cap of Mary's message to her FB friends on Facebook.

One of those FB friends thanked Mary for making a difference in Crookedtown.

I had not heard Fort Worth referred to as Crookedtown before. The name fits.

I have read no suggestions that the results of this latest TRWD Board Election are fraudulent, which was quickly the case the previous TRWD Board Election, which saw Craig Bickley and Miki Von Luckner defeated by incumbents Jim Lane and Marty Leonard, whose vote totals broke TRWD election records, with a ridiculous number of absentee ballots.

With that ridiculous number of absentee ballots triggering the biggest election fraud investigation in Texas history.

While so far there have been no allegations of election fraud with this most recent TRWD Board Election, there have been plenty of allegations that Crookedtown's favored trio of candidates, picked by the Fort Worth insiders, were helped by a HUGE amount of money, much of which was donated by Dallas donors.

And, with all that money, Crookedtown's candidates paid for an unseemly smear campaign of mailers besmirching the character of Mary Kelleher and Andra Beatty.

With Fort Worth lacking a real newspaper of record, engaging in anything remotely resembling investigative journalism, the smear tactics by Crookedtown's candidates were not reported.

Fort Worth's sad excuse for a newspaper actually participated in the Crookedtown candidate's smear tactics by publishing an editorial hit piece supposedly written by word challenged retiring TRWD president Vic Henderson, attacking Mary Kelleher, with the hit piece full of distortions, smears and lies.

The Star-Telegram, not subscribing to a doctrine of fairness, refused to publish a reply to the Vic Henderson hit piece.

And now, just as I was typing the above sentence I got a text message telling me that in yesterday's election the TRWD's favored trio received approximately 6,000 fewer mail-in absentee ballot votes than the previous TRWD Board Election, where thousands of ill gotten absentee ballots were used to fraudulently re-elect Jim Lane and Marty Leonard.

Why has there been no demand from anyone insisting Jim Lane  and Marty Leonard resign from their fraudulently obtained TRWD Board positions?

It's all perplexing, and just one more thing which makes Crookedtown so pitiful in so many ways, and so crooked...