Is Fort Worth Star-Telegram Finally Truthfully Reporting About Panther Island Boondoggle?

I was in the midst of writing a relating blog post somewhat about this subject, and then this came in, which seemed more timely.

Apparently what you see here is the front page of the Sunday, March 3, 2019 edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Moments ago Elsie Hotpepper text messaged this to me via my phone.

Seconds later I saw myself flagged on Facebook via Mr. Wayneman. I went to Facebook to see this is also appearing on Facebook's "Panther Island Boondoggle" page.

I am not sure I remember if I knew there was such a Facebook page.

On that Panther Island Boondoggle Facebook page, regarding Sunday's Star-Telegram, Mr. Wayneman had this to say...

WOW did a journalist wake up from a coma to report some real news at the Star Telegram? It's been ages since I've bought an edition, but I might actually go out and get this one.

I was able to read the part of the article which is on the front page. At my current location I do not have access to the hard copy Star-Telegram.

From what I was able to read I am not sure if a journalist has actually woken from a coma to actually honestly, accurately report about this ridiculous absurdity which has been boondoggling along most of this century.

With no end in sight.

Does the article make mention of the Star-Telegram's complicity in this debacle? Starting with that long ago, early in this century, Sunday edition headline trumpeting "Trinity Uptown to turn Fort Worth Into Vancouver of the South?"

And all the following years of not accurately reporting on all the various aspects of this, which in the end may end up being some sort of criminal conspiracy of the RICO racketeering sort.

Will the Star-Telegram now report on all the dozens upon dozens of instances of eminent domain abuse which have left hundreds hurt by this project? With their property taken years ago, their land gone, some of which is now covered by those pitiful little bridges stuck in slow motion construction, over dry land?

Will the Stat-Telegram finally accurately report about those bridges? About what the construction problems are?

Will the Star-Telegram finally point out that it is a lie to claim those bridges are being built over dry land in order to save time and money.

When there was no option but to build them over dry land.

Because the funds to dig the ditch to go under the bridges do not exist. And if being built over dry land in order to save time, why has the construction now been going on for over four years? With the new completion dates being in the next decade?

Is the Star-Telegram answering those questions? If not, I think their reporter is still in a coma...

Going Around In Circles In Chilly Wichita Falls

March seems to be in roar in like a lion mode at my location in North Texas.

If all goes to current plan I will be in Arizona til the day the winter of 2019 ends, with the eagerly anticipated spring arriving the next day.

I am hoping March will be in lamb mode by the time I get back to Texas.

I do not recollect ever being so offput by offputting weather any year previous, as I have been this year.

Tomorrow, that being the first Sunday of March, possible snow is on the menu. Along with a wind chill nearing zero.

Arizona is going to feel so HOT. I hope.

So, early this morning when I looked out my kitchen window, whilst pouring coffee, I was surprised to see groups of people running and walking on the Circle Trail, heading south towards Lake Wichita.

Such a sight would be unusual on a pleasantly warmed morning, and so seemed extremely unusual considering the current drizzly chill.

And then I saw a group of three who appeared to be attired as Indians. Of the Native American sort, not of the nation of India sort. One was in a robe which reached the ground, all three were carrying what looked to be sticks covered with feathers.

A short while later I looked out the window again and saw a group of two with one carrying a sign, upside down, the message on which I was not able to read.

All quite mysterious.

Then, around 11 this morning, I decided to layer on the outer wear and make my way to the Circle Trail. When I reached the Circle Trail I headed north and soon came upon a chalked message on the cement informing me I needed a green bracelet.

Soon after that I came to the message you see above telling me to "KEEP GOING".

I followed the instruction to keep going, and then after I kept going for a couple hundred feet I came upon the perplexing instruction you see below.

I did as instructed, turned around and headed south, awaiting further instructions which I expected to see after passing the sign which had told me to keep going.

It was just too much for me to process, what with the Circle Trail basically having me going in circles, and so I made my way back to the relatively warm comfort of my interior space...

Sensuous Prairie Note Of Fort Worth's Mountain Range

That which you see above showed up in my email inbox this morning, March 1, 2019, part of the monthly Prairie Notes. This issue being Prairie Notes #147, titled "The Sensuous Prairie".

You can view the entire March Prairie Notes on the Tandy Hills official website by clicking on The Sensuous Prairie.

Looking at the Sensuous Prairie you will see a plethora of photos documenting the best scenic location in all of Fort Worth.

Seems like eons ago I was a regular hiker on the Tandy Hills, with those hills being my primary location to attain aerobically induced endorphins.

I do not do complex math calculations with any degree of reliable accuracy, but, near as I can count it has been at least three years since I have set foot on any one of the Tandy Hills hills.

I can't really say I miss hiking the Tandy Hills, unless I think about it, and then I do sort of miss it. Just like I miss hiking a Cascade Mountain trail if I think about, which I usually don't.

If I remember correctly I have sort of hiked Cascade Mountain type hills since I've hiked the Tandy Hills, that is if hiking and biking the hills of Tacoma counts, which it should, since the hills of Tacoma are more hilly than the Tandy Hills of Fort Worth, which are rather puny hills if you want to be truthful about it.

But, as we all know, Fort Worth is prone to exaggerating, which is a more polite way of saying untruthful.

Calling something a square before there was any semblance of such. Or a public market when such bore little resemblance to an actual public market. Or referring to an industrial wasteland as an island, when no sane person would ever refer to it as such. Or promoting a sporting goods store as becoming the #1 Texas tourist attraction, when anyone with even minimal functioning mental capacity knew was ridiculous. Or propagandizing that Fort Worth is one of America's economic powerhouses.

One can go on and on listing instances of Fort Worth exaggerations.

So, referring to a collection of knobby knolls as hills is extremely minor exaggerating when one considers the Fort Worth norm for exaggerating, which if the pattern were accurately followed the Tandy Hills would be known as the Tandy Mountain Range...

Toast & Jam With Mary Kelleher And A Fort Worth Prince

Now this is gonna be in the isn't that a strange coincidence category.

Earlier today I had reason to look for a long ago blog post from way back in 2014, looking for photo documentation of J.D. Granger with his children holding embarrassing, inappropriate signs.

I found that and then noticed two blog comments I had long forgotten, both mentioning someone named Jeff Prince.

I do not remember the incident, but, apparently I spoke to this Jeff Prince person. Following is one of the two comments mentioning Jeff Prince...

Bob has left a new comment on your post "Today We Learn How TRWD Nepotism Can Lead To Tacky Cheesy Signs":

The great Jeff Prince is a reader of your blog? Wow, he must really enjoy keeping up with your daily schedules and weather reports.

_______________

I read a comment like the one from Bob and wonder why Bob himself keeps up with my daily schedules and weather reports, since knowing such makes obvious Bob must regularly read this blog and thus able to make such an apropos comment.

Okay, avoiding the daily schedule and weather reports and back to the aforementioned coincidence.

So, a couple hours after reading the blog post and comments about Jeff Prince I get a new comment to a blog post from a couple days ago, also mentioning Jeff Prince...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Huge No Moat Transparency Accountability Reward Re-Electing Mary Kelleher":

Mary Kelleher and Fort Worth Weekly's Jeff Prince singing Proud Mary for Prince's Toast & Jam piece. 

_________________

The above was seen via FW Weekly's Toast & Jam, which I assume must be a new feature which has arrived since I lost access to Fort Worth's closest thing to a real newspaper.

In the video you get a look at Mary Kelleher's farm. I had a look at Mary Kelleher's farm a few years ago. I ended up with an ostrich egg from the visit. I had no idea Miss Mary is so melodious til I listened to her duet with the legendary Jeff Prince.

Best duet chemistry since Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga...

Hot & Cold Drive To DFW With Possible Fort Worth Outhouse Invasion

What a delightful day my monthly drive to and back from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metro Zone has been, so far.

Temperature barely above freezing exiting Wichita Falls at 8 this morning. Dense drizzly clouds severely diminishing visibility.

Temperature above 60 on DFW arrival, and when exiting for the regularly scheduled restroom break prior to reaching the regular final destination.

That regularly scheduled restroom break takes place at a park called Whites Branch Park.

One comes to the entry to this park soon after Western Center Boulevard changes its name to Watauga Road.

I do not know why the name switches from the pretentious boulevard nomenclature to the more accurate road nomenclature.

When I think of a boulevard I think of a broad road, with multiple lanes, a landscaped median, landscaping on both sides of the boulevard, along with sidewalks. Such does not describe White Center Boulevard. Or Watauga Road.

But, calling it a road works.

Whites Branch Park I have long thought was in Haltom City. Not Watauga. Not in Fort Worth. I do not know why I thought Whites Branch Park is in Haltom City. It probably is in Haltom City, but today I had reason to wonder.

With that wondering caused by an outhouse of the Fort Worth city park signature type sitting on the parking lot near the restrooms which have previously been functional, and unlocked. Which is what you see photo documented above.

I do not make use of outhouses when I am in an urban modern American location. And so it was on to Fuel City, which is for certain in Haltom City and which has no outhouses but does have modern facilities. And tacos.

So, with that unseemly outhouse stuck on a park's parking lot, is it the sad reality that Whites Branch Park is actually in Fort Worth? Maybe Fort Worth made one of its storied annexing moves and took over this park, thus its diminished quality.

Perplexing.

The drive back to Wichita Falls started with the temperature being near 70 when exiting WinCo. And then when I stopped to get gas in Decatur, an hour, and 30 miles north, later, the temperature had dropped to 36. With wind and drizzle.

A few dozen miles more, somewhere northwest of Bowie, the temperature dropped below freezing. The windshield wipers soon began having sweeping woes due to ice freezing on the windshield. Switching the interior heat higher and in defrost mode soon somewhat abated that windshield wiper woe.

A few miles from Wichita Falls the temperature dropped to 29. And road signs warned of "Ice Removal Equipment Ahead". Or some such thing. I never saw any ice getting removed by any equipment by the time I parked under my ice-free carport roof.

And, one more thing.

I was non-plussed when I realized I would be away from a TV whilst Michael Cohen testified today. I did read his opening statement before departing.

I tried to get the hearing on the radio, but I only found one station which seemed to be covering it, and that was a hate speech radio station, with the hate speecher being a right wing nut job idiot from the town I used to live in. Mount Vernon, Washington. Glenn Beck. I thought he had been taken off the air due to mental health issues.

I got a couple phone calls from west coasters whilst in DFW today. Both were surprised I was not in front of a TV watching the spectacle. Both thought Cohen came across credible, that the Republicans were embarrassing themselves. And that hopefully this marks the point when finally Trump is toast. I suspect that hope is in vain. I also hope I am wrong...

Huge No Moat Transparency Accountability Reward Re-Electing Mary Kelleher

That which you see here arrived on my phone last night, sent by the Hotpepper Coalition of Concerned Citizens.

There was no text accompanying that which you see here, other than two of those emoticon things which I usually am unable to tell what is being emoted. As was the case in this case.

I am assuming what we see here is a political advertisement which arrived in the mailboxes of those few who are allowed to vote in a Tarrant Regional Water District board election.

Apparently there was a drawing to determine ballot placement, and Gary Moates came in last place, as in, as the advertisement advises us, at "THE BOTTOM OF THE TRWD BOARD CANDIDATES".

I do not know what to think of the line which says "JUST THINK OF "MOATS" AROUND PANTHER ISLAND AND GO TO THE BOTTOM..."

Moats in olden times were water barriers around castles, filled with disgustingly dirty water, thus providing a barrier against those who wanted to storm the castle.

So, in this instance are we being advised to think voting for this Moates guy will somehow affect the moat around the industrial wasteland known as Panther Island? That being an imaginary island which may one day have a cement lined ditch filled with polluted Trinity River water, and thus, surrounding that industrial wasteland with water.

I do not think any of those who built castles surrounded by a moat thought the moat turned their castle into an island.

So, is this Gary Moates guy in favor of continuing with that which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision? Or is he in favor of literally draining the moat and firing J.D. Granger?

And what has become of the biggest Texas investigation ever conducted into election fraud, triggered in part by the bizarre results the last time TRWD board members, Jim Lane and Marty Leonard, ran for re-election?

The recent revelations of Republican election fraud in a North Carolina district seemed to be from the same playbook as the Tarrant County election fraud allegations.

There is someone else on the May 4 TRWD board election ballot.

Mary Kelleher.

I saw this WANTED poster wanting Mary Kelleher this morning on Facebook.

The Mary Kelleher poster does not explicitly indicate if she is in favor of pulling the plug on America's Biggest Boondoggle, and firing J.D. Granger.

But, I think we can assume with the reference to "TRANSPARENCY" and "ACCOUNTABILITY" that neither the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, or J.D. Granger could survive either transparency or accountability...

Missing Aslan From Wichita Falls Caribbean Neighborhood

This last Monday of February the outer world was warm enough to warrant a bike ride without needing multiple layers of outer wear.

And so I had myself a mighty fine time rolling down the Circle Trail, rolling around Sikes Lake, rolling through the MSU campus, along with rolling through the Wichita Falls version of Beverly Hills.

The past week I have noticed at various locations when I am out and about posters posted on various posts.

Today I finally stopped my rolling at one of those posts with a posted poster.

For 20 days ASLAN pronounced AZ-LYNN has been missing.

I do not know if all those posters I have been seeing have been about Aslan.

If not, are we having some sort of dognapping epidemic in Wichita Falls?

This above poster was posted on the Circle Trail near where Haiti Drive meets the road which runs alongside the Circle Trail. According to the poster Aslan's residence is on Tobago Drive, a short distance west, as in the next road one comes to on Haiti after one passes Barbados.

I have yet to learn why this neighborhood is Caribbean themed with its road names.

This Aslan poster had a poignant line near the bottom, above the phone numbers, "Missed by his Mommy and his Grandma (who is gravely ill).

I have no way of knowing if Mommy and Grandma are Aslan's birth mother and grandma, or if we are talking about his human Mommy and Grandma.

I suspect the latter...

Under Reported Explosive Growth In Fort Worth Star-Telegram Propaganda

 At the end of last year, if I remember correctly, I think I told Elsie Hotpepper that one of my few New Year Resolutions was to let go of pointing out the obvious regarding J.D. Granger and the epic incompetence  which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, and to also cease with making fun of Fort Worth and the town's non-existent newspaper of record known as the Star-Telegram, which of late some wags have taken to calling the Star-Telesham.

And then I see something in the Star-Telegram, like you see here, and my New Year Resolution melts away due to an appalled reaction to the severe stupidity of the propaganda I am reading in this pitiful newspaper.

Now, I have been asked a time or two by people I know from my previous life on the west coast if Fort Worth is really as bad as I make it out to be. And why does it vex me so?

I do have some really good answers to that question, but for now, in this blog post, let's just look at this State of Fort Worth is good; here’s one way to make it better article as an egregious example of this pseudo newspaper's bizarre tendency to act as some sort of Chamber of Commerce propaganda spewer.

You can click the link to read the entire piece of propaganda, but for example purposes let us just look at the first few paragraphs...

State of Fort Worth is good; here’s one way to make it better

Fort Worth’s explosive growth — near the top nationally — means plenty of transplants who could share stories of dysfunctional, even incompetent political leadership and underperforming communities where they used to live.

An entirely different picture emerged Tuesday at the State of the City luncheon hosted by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce.

Aside from a far-reaching onstage interview of Mayor Betsy Price touching on both the city’s accomplishments and challenges, the Chamber highlighted four of Fort Worth’s most dynamic small businesses.

Fittingly enough for a flourishing city, the top emerging business, 6th Avenue Homes, was also named “Grand Forte,” as Small Business of the Year.

Witnessing the energy and enthusiasm of the audience for 6th Avenue Homes — as well as other winners Silver Creek Materials (manufacturing/distribution), Tribe Alive (consumer/retail) and Elements of Architecture Inc. (professional services) — was a reminder of what really makes this city go: a bold, passionate, business community risking everything to fulfill folks’ basic needs and wants, and maybe a few audacious dreams.

_________________

Fort Worth's explosive growth? Near the top of the nation? With newcomers sharing stories of the woeful towns from whence they came? Escaping other towns with a dysfunctional, incompetent leadership of underperforming communities?

Star-Telegram could you please name these other towns which are even more dysfunctional with even more incompetent leadership leading communities even more underperforming than Fort Worth?

I was once a newcomer to Fort Worth. And my reaction almost from the start was that I had no idea there were places of the big city sort so backwards, so poorly developed, so delusional, so in dire need of help in America.

I knew there were pockets of poverty in America, obviously. I knew some towns were more dynamic than others. But I did not know there were cities like Fort Worth.

A modern American city without a real newspaper, where most of the town's few city parks lack modern facilities such as restrooms and running water. But, plenty of outhouses. Where most of the city streets lack sidewalks. Where the downtown is a ghost town on the busiest shopping day of the year, due to few restaurants, few downtown residents and zero grocery or department stores. Where a town of over 800,000 population has no public pools.

A town with a park celebrating the town's heritage, ironically called Heritage Park, sitting at the north end of the downtown, across from the county courthouse, blighted as a boarded up, cyclone fenced, barb wired eyesore which has been closed now for a decade.

If you could still get into Heritage Park you would have a bird's eye view of the most bizarre public works project currently not working in all of America. The Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, more often referred to as America's Biggest Boondoggle, or, simply The Boondoggle.

So, Star-Telegram, take off your propaganda blindfold and look around your own town if you want to find stories of dysfunctional incompetent political leadership and an underperforming community.

Start with showing your few readers the ridiculous propaganda installation on the Star-Telegram building's ground floor. Then send a reporter to tour the vast areas of Fort Worth in dire need of improved flood control, actual needed flood control, not imaginary not needed flood control such as you can find detailed in that bizarre mess cluttering up your ground floor.

I almost forgot to make mention of that one way to make Fort Worth better, which is referenced in this article's State of Fort Worth is good; here’s one way to make it better headline.

You will think I am making this up, read the article and you will see I am not.

So, what is that one way to make Fort Worth better?

Well, that one way to make Fort Worth better is to aim to get all third-graders reading at grade level by 2025.

Oh, yes, that will be a sure fix for all which ails Fort Worth...

Golfing Lake Wichita Dam To Rock and Roll Windy Lake Wichita

Last night, whilst watching my one hour of TV allotment, during the entire hour a wind warning message scrolled across the screen, interrupted every few screen crosses by being replaced with a warning graphic in the upper left corner.

I find this type TV weather warning far less annoying, and far more useful, than the Weather Drama Queen nonsense I used to be subjected to on DFW TV whenever weather got a little dicey.

So, around noon I decided to ignore some of the warnings and drove my motorized means of motion to Lake Wichita Dam, where I hoped to see big waves breaking across the lake.

Above you are looking at the face of the earthen Lake Wichita Dam. I do not recollect having shown this view before. The humans you see on the dam are golfing in the wind on the new Disc Golf Course which has been installed at this location since my last visit.

And below you are looking at one of those new Disc Golf installations. And whitecaps on Lake Wichita. The waves do not look quite ready for a surfboard.

I thought video of the walk down to the floating dock might be fun. I figured the wind would be so noisy my pithy commentary would not be able to be heard. So, from the top of the dam all the way to the floating dock I had my camera in video mode.

When I got the video off the camera and onto the computer I quickly saw I wanted to edit out all but the part where I get near the dock and begin getting pummeled by wind and waves.

However, the new version of Windows does not have the easy to use Windows Movie Maker of the quality level I was used to easily using. The video editing program which comes with Windows 10 was able to trim out what which I did not want. But I could not then figure out how to save what remained.

Frustrating.

And Googling for help was no help, other than pointing me to the Microsoft Store where I was able to download the new version of Movie Maker made for Windows 10.

However, I was also unable to figure out how to get the new Movie Maker to trim that which I did not want.

Again. Frustrating. It used to be so easy.

So, I uploaded the whole video to YouTube. Then I tried out the new YouTube Studio and its video editing. I was once again easily able to trim the excess, but was again unable to figure out how to save the result.

Which leaves us with the entire windy noisy video. At about the 54 second mark you come to what I was actually trying to use, and lose all which came before that mark.

When I am out on the floating dock you can actually hear me over the wind. Mostly because I think I was sort of screaming in shock at the rocking and rolling and getting splashed by incoming waves...

Great Google Work On No Policy Violations With Other Nonsense

This week has seen a few things I've not seen before showing up in my email inbox.

The first one was from Google AdSense.

The subject line in that email was instantly disturbing...

Your AdSense Publisher Policy Violation Report for pub-7334641582664711 on Feb 17, 2019

That was just the subject line. The message in the email was a long one, and had me thinking I had committed some sort of egregious crime, well, violation.

It took some link clicking in the email message to figure out the "violation" was on a long ago blog post titled Clothing Optional Hippie Hollow Nude Beach in Austin.

I looked at that ancient blog post, and saw that the only thing which I thought might possibly be objected to was the selfie photo of myself minimally attired. But that seemed totally tasteful, to me.

So, I then clicked the option which allowed me to ask that this "violation" be reviewed, because I believed there to be no problem of the violation sort.

The response to that request told me the review could take up to ten days, and that ad serving to that page would continue whilst it was being reviewed.

In less than 24 hours, as in the next morning, I got another email from Google AdSense telling me that the review of my violation had been completed, and to click a link for more information.

I did so, clicked the link and came to a webpage on which all that was written was....

Keep up the great work

You have no policy violations

Oh my, putting me through this stressful nightmare, and then to be found innocent. What a relief.

And then there was the following email, which you see screen capped above, with the actual email including the partial screen cap of the blog post in question...

________________

Please Remove Post from 2012

Hi Durango,

While I do not find your post offensive the comments are not accurate and I have a career outside American Idol now so I would like it if you could please remove this from your site. 

Thanks, 

Johnny Keyser

Many Viewers Not Happy With The Unexplained Dismissal Of Johnny Keyser

________________

So, I clicked on the link to read the blog post which was written so long ago I had no memory of it, til reminded by re-reading it. Is Google still indexing this blog post? Does it show up if one Googles "Johnny Keyser"?

Just a second, I will go find out...

Well, I went many pages deep without the Many Viewers Not Happy With The Unexplained Dismissal Of Johnny Keyser showing up.

Reading the blog post and the comments I can see why Mr. Keyser did not find the post offensive. But, I don't see what is so inaccurate about any of the comments. And comments are just that, comments, as in someone's opinion. Not necessarily factual.

I can't fathom why someone would be motivated to go to the bother of emailing about this, let alone requesting someone go to the effort of removing a blog post.

Trouble is, I have not logged into the Google account from which that particular blog post sprang in several years. I would gladly delete this post if it took zero effort to do so, even if I do not see any reason to do so...