Free Republic

FORT WORTH -- Nine men, all thought to be illegal immigrants, were arrested last week after a six-month investigation into an operation making fake government documents, a police spokesman said Monday. Investigators found that the men were making the documents -- mainly resident alien cards, drivers’ licenses and Social Security cards -- using low-end computer equipment. SNIP They face charges of engaging in organized crime/tampering with government records. They were in the Mansfield jail Monday with bail set at $25,000 each. But all were also on immigration holds, which means they will not be allowed to post bail and leave...

By MIKE LEE mikelee@star-telegram.com FORT WORTH — The City Council voted 6-3 late Tuesday to expand its anti-discrimination ordinance to include transgender people, capping a marathon debate over a series of gay-rights proposals that were forwarded after a controversial inspection of a gay bar. A majority of council members spoke in favor of the proposal when it was introduced last week. The inspection at the Rainbow Lounge in June left a man injured and sparked protests in the city. Fort Worth officials appointed a task force to recommend ways to mend fences with the gay community shortly afterward. The vote...

Were any Freepers at the March in Fort Worth? I'm looking for some pictures because I forgot my camera.

FORT WORTH — A man shot by police Monday after they said he repeatedly stabbed a UPS driver on her delivery route was one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan" refugees who came to Fort Worth this decade, a minister said Tuesday.

FORT WORTH -- Five months ago, the Star-Telegram reported that a Fort Worth bicyclist made a smart-aleck remark to some officers he passed on the street. "Did y’all read them their rights first?" Reid Sullivan, then 23, quipped, according to a police report, as he pedaled past some Fort Worth officers who had detained five people during a traffic stop in the 3900 block of White Settlement Road. His ride-by remark that night in February didn’t garner laughs but did grab the attention of one of the officers, who noted that Sullivan’s bike didn’t have a headlight -- a violation...

The head of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said two agents violated policy by raiding a Fort Worth gay bar on June 28, and that their supervisor has announced his retirement. "I don't think we have to dig very deep to figure out that TABC has violated some of their policies," Commissioner Alan Steen said in an interview with The Dallas Voice, a newspaper that focuses on matters of particular interest to gay readers. "We know that and I apologize for that." Steen reaffirmed his comments to The Dallas Morning News this morning. He said state agents did not have...

Some members of a gay rights group were thrown out of the Fort Worth City Council meeting Tuesday night after interrupting the proceeding. An overflow crowd attended the meeting to protest the June 28 raid on the Rainbow Lounge in which one man was seriously injured. Several members of Queer LiberAction didn't want to wait until the the end of the meeting to comment and interrupted the mayor. Commenting on the Rainbow Lounge incident, one man shouted they shouldn't have to wait until the end of the meeting to be heard. "It's been over two weeks," one person said. "We...

Fort Worth police are searching for a 72-year-old man who was last seen at his home Sunday evening. Homer Johns was last seen in his garage in the 4700 block of Ardenwood Drive. His car and cellphone were found at his home. Police said he was not diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or any other serious medical condition. He does take medication for high blood pressure. Johns is 5-feet, 8-inches tall and weighs about 170 pounds. He has short brown, graying hair and hazel eyes. He was wearing a dark gray shirt with the “Dell” logo, tan pants and flip-flops. Anyone with...

12:24 AM CDT on Monday, June 29, 2009 By DARLA MILES / WFAA-TV WFAA-TV FORT WORTH - A Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission inspection sparked a series of protests in Fort Worth Sunday. Seven people were arrested during a planned inspection by the TABC and the Fort Worth Police Department at about 1 a.m. Sunday at the Rainbow Lounge on South Jennings in Fort Worth. Two TABC officers and six Fort Worth police officers went into the bar to observe how the bar was serving alcohol. The inspection at the Rainbow Room, which recently opened, was one of three checks conducted...

FORT WORTH, Texas—Authorities say they are investigating a natural gas explosion at the Fort Worth, Texas, home of megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes. Fort Worth fire spokesman Lt. Kent Worley says the blast Sunday in the sunroom of the home appears to have been an accident. Authorities say no one was injured and there was no fire. The sunroom was heavily damaged. Worley says the room had a gas-fed pool heater and a large gas-fed barbecue grill.

A U.S. soldier serving in Afghanistan has become a media sensation after he was photographed fighting Taliban forces while stripped down to his skivvies. Army Spc. Zachary Boyd, 19, who hails from Fort Worth, Texas, said he was in his sleeping quarters at Firebase Restrepo in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar province when the Taliban attacked, forcing him to take up a defensive position while clad only in his helmet, protective vest, a T-shirt and his pink "I Love NY" boxer shorts, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Thursday.

* All Fort Worth schools closed amid flu concerns 10:12 PM Superintendent Melody Johnson said only necessary staff at central administration will work through the closing period -- until at least May 8. » More Top Stories * Confirmed flu cases in Texas rise to 16 10:12 PM

80,000 students, 180 campuses SHUT DOWN through May 8th

NEWS ALERT The Fort Worth Independent School District has just announced it is closing all schools until May 8.

Beverly Smith looked like a movie star Thursday afternoon, surrounded not by body guards but by the four Mormon missionaries she credits with getting her to safety during a three-alarm fire. The 83-year-old woman was among several residents forced from their homes when a blaze destroyed a 16-unit building at the River Ranch apartments in southwest Fort Worth, behind Hulen Mall. At least 40 people were displaced, and five apartments in a nearby building were damaged, officials said No injuries were reported. "I was screaming for help, but no one heard me," said Smith, who has lived at the complex...

FORT WORTH, TX-Q-Edge has selected Hillwood's Alliance Global Logistics Hub as the site for its newest strategic assembly and distribution center. The company will lease 365,440 square feet in the 423,992-square-foot Alliance Gateway 2 building. Fort Worth City Council is meeting this morning to hear details about a proposed incentive package connected with Q-Edge's expansion in the building at 5650 Alliance Gateway Freeway. An update will follow, but according to a press release from the Forth Worth Chamber of Commerce and Hillwood, Q-Edge's assembly and distribution center will create 500 jobs for the region, while providing a $700 million economic...

A 65-year-old Texas grandmother says she chased down a man who had just snatched her purse, hit him with her car and held him until police arrived. “I was madder than hell is what I was,“ Val Renfro said. “I didn’t think about anything else except, ‘He’s not going to get away with this.‘“ Renfro had just finished shopping at Office Depot in East Fort Worth on Sunday afternoon and was getting in her car when Ricky Lee Sample stole her purse. “The next thing I know, somebody just blindsided me,“ Renfro said. She grabbed her cell phone, which...

Another terrorist attack could hit the United States in the next five years — and North Texas could be a key target next time. By 2013, the U.S. “more likely than not” could be hit by another deadly attack, this time using something possibly like anthrax, according to the new report, World at Risk. And some fear that North Texas, with its population, sports and entertainment venues and businesses — not to mention the fact that President George W. Bush is moving back here after he leaves office in January — could be a target next time. “Everybody should be...

Wondering if anyone in the Fort Worth area knows of any debate-watching parties...my husband's politically apathetic (voting for mccain, but not interested in talking with me about it anymore), and I wanted to join a group of like-minded individuals for moral support during the debate. Anything like that going on?

Gasoline supplies are tight in Dallas-Fort Worth08:39 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 24, 2008By ZACHARY WARMBRODT / The Dallas Morning News zwarmbrodt@dallasnews.com Hurricane Ike is hitting North Texas gasoline stations hard this week – causing delays in fuel shipments and spot shortages. Drivers should expect more frequent shortages in the next two weeks as the Texas Gulf Coast's refining capacity continues to come back online, fuel distributors said Tuesday. But after that, supplies should be back to normal, distributors said. And prices should remain stable, as the major brands of oil locked in their prices before Ike made landfall. Retail...

St. Hedwig has homes on large lots and a longtime tradition of rural living. And folks there want to keep it that way. “We want to be able to maintain as best we can the reason we moved out here in the first place,” said Kathy Palmer, the city’s planning and zoning commissioner. But a new master plan and recently updated zoning maps are no match for a proposed route of Trans-Texas Corridor 35 that would slice straight through the city of about 2,000 people and create headaches for several city departments, officials said. With neighboring Wilson County, St. Hedwig...

Member of the Texas Sunset Commission today recommended 'radical' changes in the administration of the Texas Department of Transportation, including placing the troubled and controversial agency into a four year legislative 'receivership' and abolishing the Texas Transportation Commission, which runs TexDOT, and appointment of a Transportation Commissioner who would be answerable to the Legislature, 1200 WOAI news reports. But Sunset Commission member Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon (D-San Antonio) suggested going one step further. "What I am hearing form the public is that they are wanting to see an elected commissioner," she said to loud applause from the TexDOT opponents who...

A Fort Worth pastor was released on bond Thursday after he was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl he met at his church. Pastor James "Jay" Virtue Robinson IV is the pastor at Southwood Baptist Church in Tarrant County. He is also at the center of a sexual assault scandal that might have never come to light if it were not for a phone call. The father of the alleged victim told authorities he heard his teenage daughter having a sexually explicit phone conversation. "That of course led to a lot of questions for her father," said Lt....

Drivers who get safely off Interstate 35E after arriving in Dallas from Austin or San Antonio have a certain look of relief – like they just outran a buffalo stampede. Only on I-35, the stampede is trucks. The white-knuckle experience helps make the case for some kind of reliever road, even a tolled one. Making that same case has been a harder sell for U.S. highways along the Gulf Coast and East Texas. Drivers there can judge their own level of congestion, and they have insisted that their mostly rural corridor doesn't warrant the major undertaking of a parallel turnpike....

Last week's story about the uncertainties endured by people who live in or near the route of the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor prompted many messages of support. But I wish there had been room in the story to quote Steve Huber, a University of Houston law professor who spoke at a January meeting in Bellville on the project. Huber opposed the corridor plan without taking the position — adopted, for instance, by U.S. Rep. John Culberson toward rail on Richmond — that the people most directly affected deserve the most consideration when a route is chosen. "My position carefully avoided the sort...

County commissioners reaffirmed their stance against the Trans-Texas Corridor, and they took another step toward keeping county government transparent when they met Tuesday. First up on the court's agenda, commissioners heard a presentation by Connie Fogle on behalf of the newly formed Pineywoods Sub-Regional Planning Commission. According to Fogle, the Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 391, requires state agencies to coordinate with local commissions to "ensure effective and orderly implementation of state programs at the regional level." "Critical in the code is the word 'coordinate,'" she said. "This does not mean the commission has to cooperate. The intent is to...

Hey Freepers - I'll be moving to Fort Worth Texas next year and need advice on where to live? I have family in North Dallas (Lewisville) and was wondering what Ft Worth is like? Safe? Crime ridden? Trashy? etc. etc. btw, I tried to ping a texas chapter but since the revisions to the site I dont know where the option is to post on a Texas forum. thanks

FORT WORTH -- The Trans-Texas Corridor is now so controversial, merely uttering the words in most political circles is taboo. "We're calling it a 'regional loop' because you can't say 'Trans-Texas Corridor' in the state of Texas anymore," said Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. "The Trans-Texas Corridor is a lightning rod," he told visiting state representatives this week while explaining how the corridor would connect to regional highways by 2030. Opposition to the proposed construction of a $184 billion network of toll roads during the next 50 years is so strong statewide that...

State Rep. Jim McReynolds has sent a letter to the Texas Department of Transportation saying he thinks TxDOT should drop the idea of tying the Trans-Texas Corridor in with plans for routing Interstate 69 through East Texas. McReynolds says tremendous negative outcry from his constituents and other East Texas residents has made it clear to him no one wants infrastructure that massive and disruptive to the quality of life to be built, taking big swaths out of the Pineywoods countryside. "Within the past several weeks, I have personally attended every TxDOT hearing held in my district regarding this proposed corridor,"...

Driving down to Austin lately has become a real trip. I-35 is usually packed for most of the 185 miles, and what used to take three or four hours now can take five or six. Flying down can take almost as long, when you figure in airline security delays, more flight delays, and the time it takes getting into and out of crowded airports. But what if it took 45 minutes to travel from the Metroplex to Austin by train or an hour to make a trip to Houston? Advocates of high-speed rail lines are floating these ideas once again...

IRVING, Texas --- A crowd of friends, family, and Marines applaud and cheer as Marines from Detachment A, Marine Air Control Squadron 24, Marine Air Control Group 48, walk into the terminal at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Feb. 15. The Marines returned from a 7-month deployment to Iraq. GySgt. Steven Allemang, an air traffic controller with Det A, MACS-24, holds his 6-year-old daughter, Samantha, while reuniting with his family at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Feb. 15 after returning from Fallujah, Iraq. Allemang deployed as the team leader for the Marine Mobile Team from the detachment that deployed...

HOUSTON -- It did not take long Tuesday for the Texas Department of Transportation to find out what the Houstonians at a public hearing thought about the proposed 600-mile Trans-Texas Corridor, KPRC Local 2 reported. "George Washington, Sam Houston would vomit on you people," one attendee said. Chris Zora, who opposes the plan, attended the hearing at the Arabia Shrine Center in Southwest Houston. "I'd like to see a show of hands here of anybody that approves of this corridor," Zora said. "Is there anyone in this room who approves of this corridor? Raise your hands if you approve of...

The Library of Congress is looking for your help adding more information to this and about 40 other photos taken in the early 1940s in Fort Worth. Many are from Meacham Field and Consolidated Aircraft Corp. and feature classic images of student pilots and female factory workers

Downtown developers are parking millions of tax dollars in their garages.___ When downtown Fort Worth was in the doldrums back in the late ’80s, the Sundance Square real estate development group — led by billionaire Ed Bass — knew what the problem was. Parking, pure and simple. It’s not that downtown didn’t have parking, it was just that people had gotten used to free parking in the suburbs. No one charged for parking out at shopping malls or at restaurants or nightclubs, and folks didn’t want to shell out five or 10 bucks to store their cars for a few...

Saenz expands administration to reflect changing role of agency AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Texas Department of Transportation today announced selections for the final three members of Executive Director Amadeo Saenz's leadership team. The new Assistant Executive Director for Engineering Operations is John Barton of Beaumont. The newly-formed office of Assistant Executive Director for District Operations will be lead by David Casteel of San Antonio. The newly-formed office of Assistant Executive Director for Innovative Project Development will be lead by Phil Russell of Austin. "John, David and Phil are all outstanding professionals," said Saenz. "All of them understand...

FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan 3. -- Just before New Year's Eve, a Fort Worth mother was kicked off the public bus for reading the Bible aloud to her children on the way to church. "What kind of person pulls over public transportation and kicks out a mother and her children for reading their Bible on the way to church?" said Kelly Shackelford, Chief Counsel for Liberty Legal Institute, the legal organization representing Christine Lutz. "Freedom of religion exists on public transportation just like anywhere else." Christine Lutz was reading the Bible to her children while on the way to church...

Push for higher gas tax could follow chief's death The death of Ric Williamson, the fiery, whip-smart chairman of the state transportation commission, could upend the still-roiling debate over toll roads in Texas in the new year. Mr. Williamson died Saturday of a heart attack at age 55, sending shock waves through the nearly 15,000-employee department he led as well as the political and policy circles where his combative style and pro-toll-road agenda had engendered enormous change – and criticism. Always careful to credit Gov. Rick Perry, a close friend and former roommate, Mr. Williamson emerged as a lightning rod...

FORT WORTH: A passenger on a Fort Worth bus says the T. Bus Service discriminated against her religion. Christine Lutz says she was reading her Bible to her children when the bus driver asked her to stop or get off the bus

Review: Picturing The Bible http://publicbroadcasting.net/kera/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1193639&sectionID=1 Jerome Weeks. KERA Critic at Large FORT WORTH, TX (2007-12-05) At the first Christmas, the Gospels tell us, the three wise men came from the East to adore the infant Jesus. Except the Gospels never mention their number. It says only that wise men brought three gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. So where did the three men come from? They came from early Bible illustrations and church paintings. In other words, some of what people believe about Christianity isn't derived directly from the Bible; it has been filtered through centuries of artistic interpretations. The number...

FORT WORTH, Texas -- One man is in custody after he said he put a bomb on a DART bus in downtown Dallas early Friday afternoon, police say. Officials said the man boarded the bus near Main and Akard streets and said he had placed a bomb on the bus, officials said. The bus driver immediately evacuated the passengers, and no one was injured The man who claimed to have put the bomb on the bus was taken into custody a short time later, police said. It is not yet clear what the device is. Investigators on the scene are...

It doesn't look like a gravesite.No headstones, no statuary, no designation of any kind.A century-old story from Cowtown's colorful past lay as silent as a secret beneath an unmarked patch of grass in Oakwood Cemetery until recently, when a local amateur sleuth unearthed it.Donna Donnell is fascinated with the characters of Fort Worth's history, females in particular.Among the most intriguing is Mary Porter, an Irish-born woman who became one of the city's best-known madams in the late 1800s. Porter operated a downtown "female boarding house" -- or brothel -- on Rusk Street. In his book about the area, Hell's Half...

The Interstate 69 corridor, a Mexico-to-Canada concept discussed since 1991, has received government recognition as a "corridor of the future," a designation that immediately means $800,000 in federal money for studies. Local officials say it could mean more trade in South Texas. The corridor -- a 2,680-mile international trade route from Mexico to Canada also known as the Trans-Texas Corridor-69 -- was one of two designated Tuesday as corridors of the future. Interstate 10 from California to Florida also received recognition. Hailed as a route that would facilitate trade resulting from the North American Free Trade Agreement, I-69's Texas portion...

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - California congressman Duncan Hunter has won Texas' first Republican Party Straw Poll. Hunter got 534 votes. Former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson came in second with 266 votes, and Texas congressman Ron Paul came in third with 217 votes. The low-turnout event in Fort Wroth lacked the top-tier presidential candidates. Other candidates attending were Chicago businessman John Cox, counterterrorism expert Hugh Cort of Birmingham, Ala., and tool & die maker Ray McKinney of Savannah, Ga. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona Senator John McCain, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Governor...

Grasping at straws? Speeches, protests and presidential politics, Texas style. That's what will be going on in and around the Fort Worth Convention Center on Friday and Saturday, during the Republican Party of Texas' first-ever GOP Straw Poll. Who is coming? What are they saying? What are they doing? Many presidential hopefuls -- Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, to name a few -- have sent their regrets. But several lesser-known candidates -- U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Surfside, U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Ray McKinney and Hugh Cort -- are still expected to...

I've never seen an alert like this on the weather page .. HEADS UP. ~~~~~~~ URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED CHILD ABDUCTION EMERGENCY TEXAS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY FORT WORTH TEXAS RELAYED BY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORT WORTH TX 1127 PM CDT FRI AUG 17 2007 THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS TRANSMITTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE TEXAS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY. THE TEXAS CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT IS SEARCHING FOR NICHOLAS STROTHER. HE IS A WHITE MALE...1 YEAR OLD...BROWN HAIR...BROWN EYES...AND A HEAVY SET BABY BODY. POLICE ARE LOOKING FOR BRUCE JOHNATHON STROTHER...WHITE MALE...23 YEARS OLD...DATE OF BIRTH 07-02-1984...5 FOOT 8 INCHES...155 POUNDS...BROWN...

Could high-speed rail service with a stop in the Hillsboro area be a reality by 2020? That is the goal set by the Texas High-Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation (THSRTC) following the final planning and design charrette in Fort Worth. The charrette preceded the 10th annual Transportation Summit held in Irving Tuesday through Friday, August 7-10. THSRTC board members met in Houston in May at the Continental Airlines headquarters for the first of the charrettes. Attending were eight international suppliers of high-speed rail for nine different systems in France, Germany, Korea and Spain. In addition, 14 consulting firms of varying...

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Everything from detergent to computer discs is packaged with the Sunday newspaper. So why not Bibles? A Christian ministry wants to deliver custom-designed New Testaments to newspaper subscribers around the country as part of an effort to find innovative ways to spread a Christian message. But even in the Bible Belt, not everyone thinks that's a good idea. International Bible Society-Send the Light is planning on spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to distribute Bibles with 11 newspapers during 2007 and 2008. New Testaments would be packaged in pouches on the outside of newspapers, much...

Texas needs the Trans-Texas Corridor because of its surging population, a representative for Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday while speaking in Cleburne. Plans are to build the multi-lane highway and rail system parallel to Interstate 35, north-south through the center of the state. Kris Heckmann, deputy director of Perry’s Legislative Division spoke at the Cleburne Civic Center at the invitation of the Johnson County Republican Women for their monthly meeting. Every decade since World War II, Texas’ population has increased by at least 20 percent, Heckmann said. In 1990, the state’s population was 16.5 million, and today the population is...

It's not the least bit hard to describe the choice that Texas Transportation Commission members will face Thursday at their meeting in Austin: (1) Agree with the overwhelming preference of this region's elected officials and allow the North Texas Tollway Authority to build the Texas 121 toll road in Denton and Collin counties, or (2) award the lucrative project to the apparent favorite among state toll road devotees, the Spanish company Cintra.From here, it's an easy decision: Pick NTTA.But there is reason to worry that in the boiling pot of Austin politics, the commission may see things differently. Because of...

But compromise doesn't affect six projects slated for Harris County AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry on Monday signed legislation that slows down his ambitious plans for building toll roads but does not halt them completely. Perry and the Legislature got into a stare-down last month when lawmakers sent him a bill that put serious restrictions on building toll roads in Texas and constrained policy set by the Texas Transportation Commission, which is run by the governor's appointees. Perry said he would veto the bill and threatened to call a special legislative session if lawmakers did not send him compromise legislation....