Free Republic

Story last updated at 4:20 a.m. Sunday, August 27, 2006 Candidates log West Texas miles in race for House seat BY D. LANCE LUNSFORD AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Across 15,104 square miles, House District 85 covers 16 counties and a population of more than 145,000 West Texans. It's 275 miles from the district's northern point to its southern. Reaching the edges of Abilene with its borders a few miles from Lubbock's and San Angelo's outskirts, the district's most metropolitan centers are Plainview and Big Spring. The two candidates looking to replace retiring state Rep. Pete Laney, D-Hale Center, have burned a path between...

Brownfield church loses precious links to past in fire BY P. CHRISTINE SMITH AVALANCHE-JOURNAL A day after a raging fire destroyed the Brownfield church that many called their second home, a small group gathered to watch firefighters try to knock down a smoldering resurgence of the blaze before it got worse. The 54-year-old Brownfield Church of Christ building at 502 Lubbock Hwy. is a mere shell of its former self, but it is the loss of fragments of the past that so many mourn. "We had a lot of history in the library," said Debra Graham, the church's building and...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - A key element of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign plank for new growth in older cities may be on the ropes, potentially leaving California farther behind national efforts to redevelop blighted industrial sites.</p> <p>Environmentalists aim Monday to block a developer bill that would relax standards to build new housing and stores on dormant industrial sites, typically in older neighborhoods. The bill is one of three on the Legislature's agenda Monday and Tuesday regarding an estimated 90,000-100,000 such sites in California.</p>