Fort Worth Weekly Asks If You Can Spare A Billion For America's Biggest Boondoggle

A couple days ago I mentioned the fact I thought it was time to Let Us See The Texas Attorney General TRWD Criminal File.

The mentioning of that fact ended up on Facebook, generating some interesting comments, including the following two..

Clyde Picht: Remind me sometime to tell you about the 2006 water board election where 6 precincts in minority neighborhoods suddenly got so interested in the election that they produced 50-70 mail ballots each. Enough to tilt the outcome of the election. Yet two years later when Barack Obama was on the ballot no one voted by mail in one of those precincts.

Aaron Harris: I'll say this....this is a good time for Durango to stock up on ink....the next month or two are going to be interesting.

I need to stock up on ink? What fresh hell is about to descend upon us?

Meanwhile, the closest thing Fort Worth has to a legitimate newspaper of record, Fort Worth Weekly, has gotten on board with the 20/20 sight see-ers seeing the Trinity River Vision for what it is, or isn't.

The first paragraph of some FW Weekly Static about what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle...

Fort Worth officials and Tarrant Regional Water District personnel have more nerve than a bum tooth, or else they don’t realize the gall it takes to seek a $250 million bond referendum to pay for “flood control.” The election is May 5, and approval means the bond money is expected to go to the Trinity River Vision plan, now referred to as Panther Island. This could raise the total cost of that project to more than $1 billion.

Read the entire Buddy, Can You Spare A Billion? article...

Texas Wildflowers In Bloom Including Pink Evening Primroses In Wichita Falls

It was decades ago.

Well, the next to last year of the last century, when I first saw the pink Texas beauties of the type you see here.

It was early May, heading towards DFW from the northwest, driving southeast on Highway 287, somewhere between Amarillo and Wichita Falls I started to see patches of pink along side the road.

After a few miles of seeing this I felt the need to stop for an up close look at the delicate flowers.

This was my introduction to Texas wildflowers.

I do not remember when it was I learned these wildflowers were called something like Evening Primroses.

The patch of pink I stopped and photo documented today were one patch among many one rolls by whilst biking around Sikes Lakes.

Windy today, extremely so. I was happy the Evening Primroses were able to rigidly pose long enough to take their picture...

Let Us See The Texas Attorney General TRWD Criminal File

Interesting incoming information came in late Monday afternoon.

Source?

Let's call this source Deep Moat II.

Deep Moat was the name used by a person who, years ago, emailed me information from inside the offices of what was then known as the Trinity River Vision, which years later is now known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, or, more commonly, America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The interesting info from Deep Moat II is also about America's Biggest Boondoggle, specifically the parent which birthed that ongoing fraud, the Tarrant Regional Water District.

Deep Moat II has been doing some Open Records requesting with the Texas Office of the Attorney General Law Enforcement Division.

Among the Open Records requested and received are email exchanges between a notorious Fort Worth politician, up for re-election, and her son who was given a special job for which he had zero qualifications.

Among the Open Records requested, which were denied, was an Open Records request requesting the records of the Texas Attorney General Law Enforcement Division investigation into criminal activity of the aforementioned TRWD (Tarrant Regional Water District). Supposedly, this Open Records request was denied because this is an open, ongoing criminal investigation.

A paragraph from the Open Records request denial...

On 3/23/16, Texas Attorney General (OAG) SERGEANT (SGT.) WAYNE RUBIO was assigned this investigation. This investigation was referred by the Texas Secretary of State's Office and involves multiple allegations of election code violations, including, but not limited to; Illegal Voting, Unlawful Assistance, Carrier Envelope Action by Person Other than Voter, Method of Returning Marked Ballot, Assisting Voter, Assisting Applicant, and Providing False Information on Application. Specifically, it is believed several suspects committed the various election code violations on or around the May 9, 2015 Tarrant County Joint Elections and the March 2016 Primary Election.

I am assuming the election being investigated is the TRWD Board Election with results so obviously fraudulent it was astonishing the results did not instantly erupt into a scandal, with an outraged outcry from Fort Worth's responsible newspaper of record. Unfortunately Fort Worth does not have one of those.

And so crooks get away with stealing elections, because, apparently, or so I have been told, that has long been the Fort Worth Way.

And now, in 2018, in the coming month of May, there will be another TRWD sponsored election, likely with shenanigans and fraud involved, so desperate is the TRWD to get their hands on a quarter billion bucks to try and rescue the sinking mess which is now known as America's Biggest Boondoggle....

Warm Wichita Falls Ride To Hamilton Park Playground Art

No, that is not some sort of hang glider flying type contraption you see my bike looking at here.

What you are seeing is the new playground installation in the Wichita Falls park named Hamilton.

This looks more like some sort of art installation than something for kids to play on.

I have yet to see any kids playing on this. I have seen kids crawling around on the padded ground cover upon which the playground installation sits.

I think maybe kids are not able to figure out how they are supposed to play on this. Maybe there should be a sign with instructions.

My last bike ride was on Friday, when the outer world was heated to nearly the 80 degree zone. Then later that day a cold front arrived, dropping the outer world temperature to below freezing for most of the next two days.

That return to winter left by this morning. Let us hope this past weekend was finally the death rattle of the coldest winter since I have been in Texas.

If I remember right it was in December of 1998 I arrived in Texas. I left Washington in a heavy rainstorm and six days later arrived at my new Texas location in an even heavier rainstorm. With flooding. My weather intro to Texas was harsh. That wet entry was followed two weeks later by the first Ice Storm I've ever slipped in.

I moved to my first Texas domicile without having previously seen it in person. I only saw multiple photos. I remember when I first saw the pool I was appalled by how small it looked, not realizing my perspective made it look smaller than it actually was, which turned out to be plenty big, with a deep end and a diving board.

Currently there is an operation underway to find me a new domicile, in a state out west called Arizona. I am heading to Arizona, again, in a couple weeks.

There is a fairly good chance Durango Texas will soon become Durango Arizona.

Time will tell....

Will April Freeze Kill The Flowers Of May?

Yesterday when I went waving to the summit of Mount Wichita I was rolling my wheels against a balmy wind heated to somewhere in the high 70s low 80s zone.

That semi-hot bike ride was to be the hot highpoint of the last 24 hours.

Friday as the afternoon progressed the outer air chilled cooler and cooler, til eventually it became as cold as a frigid winter day.

And overnight we froze, as you can see via the screencap. Freezing with the wind making the air feel as if it as 16 degrees.

So, I won't be doing any bike riding. Or swimming. Today.

I do not recollect this type chill happening any April previous during the years of my Texas exile.

Will this freeze wreak havoc of the blooming buds and the wildflowers starting to sprout? And my tomato plants? What will happen to my tomato plants?

UPDATE: As this Saturday morning has progressed, the temperature continues to fall...

Waving To Mount Wichita Summit

With thunderstorming on the menu for today, and with a good strong warm wind blowing I decided to risk dodging lightning bolts to take myself on a multi-mile rolling of my bike's wheels.

As you can see via the view of the Mount Wichita mini-volcano, Lake Wichita was doing some white cap wave rocking and rolling when it came into view.

The waves do not look to be quite surfing worthy, but getting close.

I can not remember the last time, if ever, I went surfing. I do recollect doing what is known as body surfing in the Pacific Ocean.

I am currently thinking about locating myself closer to that aforementioned Pacific Ocean.

I am also currently thinking about getting myself in better shape in anticipation of hiking to the summit of Camelback Mountain with my Sister Jackie and Brother Jake, of course with the caveat that their various hiking issues are in full abatement.

With that getting in better shape concept in mind when I reached Mount Wichita I decided to park my bike and take a quick run to the summit of the highest mountain within miles, though not nearly as high as Camelback Mountain.

In the view above we are at the summit of Mount Wichita, looking southeast at Lake Wichita, and my bike being that small dot at the bottom of the mountain.

So far today I have seen zero lightning bolts and have hear no thunder rumbling.

Almost Freezing April In Texas

The outer world at my location was chilled to only a few degrees above freezing this morning when the sun arrived.

The outer world was a little warmer when I layered up and ventured forth on my non-mechanized wheeled transport device.

I do not remember it taking so long in the new year for warm air to arrive in Texas. It seems, if my memory is serving me correctly, that previous years a few cold days were always followed by non-cold days.

And don't get me started on the wind.

I am blogging for the first time on a new computer. Windows 10 is not as vexing as I thought it would be, but there has been a vexation or two or three.

I forgot to mention, in the photo documentation, above, my bike and I stopped at one of the sculpture works of art one finds on the west side of Sikes Lake.

Vote NO On TRWD Fraudulent Water Control Bond

In February whilst I was not in Texas I thought my gullibility was being tested when a well known Tarrant County-ite emailed me that America's Biggest Boondoggle was putting a bond proposition before those few voters in Tarrant County who are allowed to vote in a Tarrant Regional Water District election.

When I lived in Tarrant County I was included in the zone of those allowed to vote on TRWD issues.

I've never had it sensibly explained to me why all those effected by what the TRWD does are not allowed to vote on TRWD issues. Such as those Tarrant County voters who vote in Haltom City.

Haltom City is a town which has had some deadly flooding issues.

Unlike the area being disturbed by America's Biggest Boondoggle, that being an area which has not flooded for well over half a century, due to levees preventing the river from misbehaving.

That which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle has never directly been put to a vote where voters approve or disapprove.

How a town's landscape can be so drastically altered without the town's citizens voting to approve of the landscape alteration has long seemed bizarre to me, what with such shenanigans not being anything I ever witnessed whilst living out west in modern America, where no public agency would dare to do something so stupid as hire the totally unqualified son of a local politician so as to motivate that politician to secure federal funding.

Apparently that federal money has not been flowing into Fort Worth fast enough. And so on May 5 those few who are allowed to vote in a TRWD election are being asked to approve a $250,000,000 bond proposition.

The wording on the ballot seems like it would be considered fraudulent in a sane location in America...

Tarrant Regional Water District, A Water Control and Improvement District, Proposition A
The issuance of $250,000,000 bonds for flood control and drainage facilities and the levy of taxes to pay for the bonds.

Flood control? Drainage facilities? Like I already said there has been no flood to control in the area sporting America's Biggest Boondoggle since way back in the 1950s when levees were built to contain a high rising Trinity River.

Former TRWD board member, Mary Kelleher, who has seen the TRWD madness up close, has articulated her concerns about this "election" in Fort Worth Voters Beware of Proposition Propaganda.

I have read it claimed that this quarter billion dollar bond issue won't cost taxpayers anything. Who is getting taxed then to pay for these bonds?

I have read that this bond will be paid for via a TIF.

You know,  "Tax Increment Financing which enables municipalities to self-finance its redevelopment programs. TIF funds can pay for public improvements and other economic development incentives using the increased property tax revenue the improvements generate."

So, apparently the money to pay for these bonds would come from the property taxes accrued from all the valuable property built on America's Biggest Boondoggle's imaginary island.

What responsible developer is going to risk developing anything on that imaginary island, what with its latest project completion date being in 2028?

For what seems years now the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision's project manager, J.D. Granger, has been claiming a Dallas developer is soon going to be building a small apartment complex on the Boondoggle's imaginary island, with the developer also digging a ditch to tie into the imaginary canal system traversing the imaginary island.

Why would any developer develop anything on that imaginary island in its current state? With three simple little bridges being built in ultra slow motion over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to that imaginary island.

And what happens to America's Biggest Boondoggle if those few who are allowed to vote do not get conned into approving this bond proposition? Will the Boondogglers use the bond failure as their excuse for the project failing?

When is 60 Minutes coming to Fort Worth to do a Granger expose?

Adventure Unplugged In Wichita Falls Visitors Guide

Months ago I found myself surprised to learn I had become the Wichita Falls Visitor Bureau Outdoor Adventure Guru.

I learned this when I was asked if use could be made of a blog post about the newly opened Wichita Bluff Nature Area.

I said sure, make whatever use of that blog post you can make of it.

That blog post was then re-configured and turned into what you see above, a couple pages in this year's Wichita Falls Visitors Guide.

I like the heading above the photo of me.

"ADVENTURE UNPLUGGED"

I have no idea what that means, for sure, but I like the sound of it. I basically like anything unplugged.

One of the perks of being the Wichita Falls Outdoor Adventure Guru is I get all the water I can drink any time one of my unplugged outdoor adventures takes me to the Wichita Falls Visitors Center offices.

I have yet to avail myself of this hydration opportunity....

No Tarrant County Election Fraud Criminal Charges While Crystal Mason Gets Five Year Sentence

That should say "Crystal Mason of Tarrant County, Texas voted in 2016 without realizing she was disenfranchised due to a felony."

You know, Tarrant, that county in Texas which recently was nationally, well, internationally embarrassed when a judge ordered an uncooperative witness to get zapped into answering questions.

Tarrant County is also the location of an election which triggered the biggest election fraud investigation in Texas history. With that investigation triggered by the way out of the norm number of absentee Tarrant Regional Water District Board Election 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.

This particular Tarrant County election fraud has been the subject of a number of blog posts....

Evidence Corrupt Tarrant County Political Machine Steals Elections

Tarrant Regional Water District Board Election Fraud

Is The TRWD-Gate Scandal About To Blow Wide Open?

A Noble Look At Probable Election Fraud In The Recent TRWD Board Election

Even though this rather obvious Tarrant County election fraud was so obvious even the world's most oblivious person could see it, nothing has been done, no one has been prosecuted, no charges have been filed, nothing has happened.

Well, there was that next TRWD Board Election which saw Mary Kelleher lose with results which seemed as out of whack as was the previous TRWD Board Election. With again, nothing happening of the righting a wrong sort.

But now, a young Tarrant County woman who was on probation after having served time for a felony, who voted in the 2016 election, has been sentenced to five years in prison for voting when the terms of her probation forbid her from doing so.

When Crystal Mason went to vote she was not on the voting rolls, and so she was given a provisional ballot. You know, the type ballot one is given if ones validity as a voter is in question, so you get to vote with that vote only counting once it is determined you were eligible to vote.

Crystal Mason says she was not aware she was not allowed to vote due to her felony. Like Crystal Mason has said in the press, if she knew she could get in trouble and risk being sent back to prison, once again locked away from her daughter, would she have taken such a risk?

Methinks no. Honest mistake on Crystal Mason's part.

And even if Crystal Mason voted fully aware she was not supposed to be doing so, is doing so really a crime of a level warranting five years in prison?

Methinks, absolutely no.

Due to that provisional ballot thing Crystal Mason's vote did not count. No harm done.

Meanwhile, who is doing time for the Tarrant County ballot shenanigans which triggered the biggest election fraud investigation in Texas history?

I am hoping sanity prevails and a higher court than a corrupt Tarrant County one overturns Crystal Mason's five year prison sentence...