TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalA Market Solution To Texas Groundwater Woes?
From Marfa Public Radio:Fracking has dramatically increased the demand for water in the nation’s most productive oil field, Texas’ Permian Basin. Water usage has already risen sixfold since 2011, and according to research firm IHS Markit, demand will double again by the end of this year.
The market for water is booming, but many in west Texas worry about the depletion of groundwater. But there are new market developments that could meet the demand for frack water and mitigate environmental concerns at the same time.
It takes an average of 500,000 barrels of water to frack a single oil well, according to Joshua Adler, the Founder and CEO of a startup called Sourcewater, an online marketplace for frack water.
“We’re a marketplace for water logistics, so it’s kind of like Expedia,” explains Adler.
So, if you’re in the business of fracking and need water, you simply go online, type in your location and browse nearby listings. You can also sell your water. The majority of the budding startup’s users are in west Texas. “Our competition isn’t really other technologies,” says Adler. “It’s the old way of doing things.”
Read more: http://www.texasstandard.org/stories/a-market-solution-to-texas-groundwater-woes/
With Fewer Residents Paying Taxes, Rockport's Financial Future Looks Grim After Harvey
We’ve heard countless stories about the repairs and rebuilding that will continue for untold months to come in Texas cities devastated by Hurricane Harvey, but here’s something that doesn’t get much attention – it’s a kind of downward spiral that’s getting worse and makes the possibly of rebuilding grow more distant.
Andy Uhler, a Marketplace reporter based in Texas, has been looking into the economic impact in Rockport, where Harvey first made landfall. The bottom line is that many people’s homes in Rockport don’t exist anymore, so people have left.
“Officials – the mayor, county judges, whomever – are saying ‘Look, I don’t blame you if you don’t come back, because FEMA has given you money to go somewhere else, to get a hotel, to rent a property, because we don’t have any places for people to stay here in Rockport,’” Uhler says.
There’s no way to know if, or when, Rockport residents might return.
Uhler says Rockport’s mayor C.J. Wax recently told him, “If you have to live as far away as Portland [Texas] to find a place to live and you were working in a restaurant, are you going to drive back here to work in a restaurant or are you going to get a restaurant job in Portland? Especially if the compensation is about the same.”
Read more: http://www.texasstandard.org/stories/with-fewer-residents-paying-taxes-rockports-financial-future-looks-grim-after-harvey/
Texas lawmakers battle with Land Office over transparency in Alamo restoration
by Alex Arriaga, Texas TribuneLawmakers who agreed earlier this year to dedicate tens of millions of dollars to update the Alamo are now asking for greater transparency about how the money is being spent.
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, whose General Land Office is the state agency overseeing the landmark's restoration, was grilled Tuesday by Senate Finance Committee members on what they said was a "convoluted" structure of nonprofits contracted for fundraising, maintenance upkeep and planning the future of the Alamo.
Over the past year, the Land Office, in partnership with the city of San Antonio, has developed a multi-million dollar master plan for the site, which includes preserving the Alamo Church and developing a museum to house a vast collection of Alamo artifacts donated by British rock legend Phil Collins. During their 2017 session, the Legislature allocated $75 million toward the upgrade of the site, in addition to $32.5 million allocated in 2015.
The project is an ambitious one — so ambitious, Bush told committee members Tuesday, that he didn't have the resources to hire enough staff to oversee it when he took office in 2015. Instead, a private, nonprofit endowment called the Alamo Endowment was created — with Bush as chairman of the board of directors — and a subsidiary of that endowment called the Alamo Trust hired nearly 70 staffers to maintain and oversee the site.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/12/05/lawmakers-battle-transparency-alamo-plan/
Texas senators discuss closing youth lockups amid sexual abuse scandal
by Jolie McCullough, Texas TribuneSeveral Texas state senators on Tuesday expressed support for the closure of at least some of the state’s remaining youth lockups.
The lawmakers' comments, made at a Senate Finance Committee hearing, came as the Texas Juvenile Justice Department is entangled in a sexual abuse scandal that has led to a 10-year prison sentence for one guard and the arrest of three women at the Gainesville State School.
The senators sharply criticized the department’s director, who said in the hearing that his department is so understaffed that security cameras aren’t constantly monitored and youth are sometimes left alone with guards.
State Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who has long been critical of the department, said the only reason the department hasn’t completely blown up yet is because the staff let the committed, often violent youth run the five remote lockups still in use throughout the state.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/12/05/texas-senators-discuss-closing-state-lockups-youth-after-sex-scandal/
San Marcos police officer killed while serving warrant, officials say
A San Marcos police officer was fatally shot Monday afternoon while attempting to arrest a man on a warrant.
San Marcos Police Chief Chase Stapp said at a news conference that officer Kenneth Copeland, 58, was fatally shot when he and a small contingent of officers were ambushed at 2:23 p.m. in the El Camino Real subdivision.
"Ken's a hero ... today was his day off," Stapp said before pausing. "He worked just about every day off to provide for his kids because he knows that we're short-handed and that we need help."
Stapp said Copeland is the first San Marcos police officer to be killed in the line of duty.
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Police-officer-in-San-Marcos-dies-after-shootout-12404895.php
Ag Commissioner Sid Miller links opponent to Nutella banana crepes
In this crazy, convoluted, contentious, carved-up world in which we live, there sadly is so much that divides so many of us.
But when you get past factors like religion, ethnicity and international borders, and whether you love or hate the Dallas Cowboys, you realize the planet’s 7.5 billion residents are divided into only two major tribes: those who laugh with Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and those who laugh at him.
And today’s subcategory in that split is the political meaning of Nutella banana crepes because Miller is trying to link his opponent to that dish.
Everybody’s favorite current Texas ag commissioner is up for re-election next year after a first term that’s divided us into the laughing-at-him/laughing-with-him camps. It’s clear that Trey Blocker is not laughing with Miller. Blocker recently announced he’s running against Miller in the GOP primary next March.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/other-voices/article188200999.html
Uresti says prosecutors withheld steamy texts that could help criminal case
Lawyers for indicted state Sen. Carlos Uresti say steamy text messages sent between one of his co-defendants and Denise Cantu of Harlingen were wrongfully withheld and cast doubt on her credibility as the government’s star witness in his upcoming criminal trial.
Uresti contends that federal prosecutors failed to obey court rules by timely turning over the text messages, which he believes may help exonerate him. Uresti’s legal team led by Tab Turner filed a court motion Monday to force prosecutors to disclose any other information that might help to his case.
Uresti, Stan Bates and Gary Cain were indicted in May on 22 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and other crimes for their roles in a now-defunct oil field services company called FourWinds Logistics. Uresti served as the company’s outside legal counsel for a short time and recruited Cantu as an investor. She is slated to testify against Uresti, a San Antonio Democrat.
Bates was the company’s CEO and Cain was a consultant. The trio’s trial is scheduled to start Jan. 4.
The "sext" messages between Cantu and Bates are relevant because they raise doubts about Cantu’s credibility, Turner says.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/business/local/article/Uresti-says-prosecutors-withheld-steamy-texts-12407495.php?ipid=hpctp
Malicious-prosecution suit against Joe Arpaio goes to trial
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona jurors who will decide a malicious-prosecution trial against former Sheriff Joe Arpaio were told Tuesday that one of Sen. Jeff Flake's sons suffered from depression as a result of a now-dismissed animal cruelty case that the lawman brought against him.
The jury was told on the opening day of the civil trial that Austin Flake and his ex-wife Logan Brown still suffer emotional distress from the charges they faced when 21 dogs at a kennel operated by the younger Flake's in-laws died from heat exhaustion. The Flakes were watching the dogs while the in-laws were in Florida.
The lawsuit filed by the couple alleges Arpaio pursued charges against them to do political damage to the Republican senator from Arizona and gain publicity for himself. While jurors were told about Arpaio's efforts to publicize the case, the elder Flake was barely mentioned during opening Tuesday's opening statements.
Stephen Montoya, an attorney representing the younger Flake and his ex-wife, said there was no evidence showing his clients intended to hurt the dogs.
Read more: http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/elections/malicious-prosecution-suit-against-joe-arpaio-goes-to-trial/article_c8bf74a5-39d7-585e-a678-6a7109161a75.html
UT-RGV president delivers new message on SACSCOC accreditation
HARLINGEN, RGV – UT-Rio Grande Valley President Guy Bailey has issued a statement regarding the latest developments with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
The SACSCOC gives accreditation to universities and colleges.
In his message, Bailey said UTRGV has successfully addressed the concerns cited in SACSCOC’s probationary letter of January 11, 2017. “UTRGV remains accredited and the academic and administrative operations of the institution will continue as they have in the past,” Bailey said in his statement.
However, Bailey acknowledged UTRGV “remains on probationary status pending a SACSCOC review of the Statewide Single Audit for Fiscal Year 2017.” The Statewide Single Audit for Fiscal Year 2017 is being conducted by the Texas State Auditor’s Office.
Read more: http://riograndeguardian.com/bailey-delivers-new-message-on-sacscoc-accreditation/
SMU Police Looking For White Supremacists Who Hung Banners On Campus
The white supremacists who hung racist banners and fliers around the SMU campus Saturday night wore masks and covered their faces while giving Nazi salutes in the photographs they took to boast of their exploits. This is presumably because these men are cowards, well aware that the disgusting views they share anonymously online have consequences in the real world.
Those consequences include a police investigation, as the SMU Police Department is sharing surveillance images in an effort to identify the five men suspected of putting up the hateful messages over the weekend.
The university this morning sent out an alert with three photos, pulled from Park Cities Plaza surveillance footage, that shows those five men and a pickup truck.
-snip-
A group called Texas Vanguard says it was responsible for the racist messages. The group, the Texas branch of a national white supremacist organization, has papered its fliers on campuses across the state, including SMU, UT-Arlington, and the University of North Texas. Similar racist and homophobic fliers were hung in Deep Ellum earlier this summer.
Read more: https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2017/12/smu-white-supremacists-campus-texas-vanguard/?ref=mpw
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
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