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CorridorWatch, a Fayette County-based group that has been active in opposing the Trans-Texas Corridor plan, wants to go beyond the Sunset Advisory Commission’s recommended shakeup of state transportation leadership. The group, led by David and Linda Stall, recommends that TxDOT answer to an elected six-member board led by a chairman appointed by the governor. CorridorWatch makes it recommendation, along with various other reactions to the Sunset commission staff’s recent report on TxDOT, in written comments submitted as part of the sunset process. TxDOT, like all state agencies, “sunsets” after 12 years unless the Legislature acts to keep it alive. As...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry wants to build a big highway through the Lone Star State. No, make that a really big highway, as in a monstrously big highway. The exact route hasn't been determined. The mega-highway would run roughly from Laredo on the Rio Grande River through the Hill Country and the Piney Woods and then through Texarkana in that tiny portion of the state that borders Arkansas. Imagine for a moment if that thoroughfare would be pointed in the other direction - from the Valley, through the South Plains and then through the heart of the Panhandle, right past...

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,"...

AUSTIN - When it comes to road improvement and maintenance, by most accounts, the South Plains and Panhandle are fortunate. Despite a $1.1 billion accounting error, the Texas Department of Transportation recently reported no projects in the region have been canceled or delayed while cities like Dallas, Houston and Laredo had at least a half dozen highway projects delayed. But the $1.1 billion-error, which occurred because TxDOT inadvertently counted some bond money twice and consequently allocated more funding than it had, is just the latest problem plaguing the beleaguered agency. For months, TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz and other transportation...

Austin, Tex. – The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) announced it will form a working group to develop a financial master plan a Ports-to-Plains Corridor, which would create new jobs and economic opportunity for West Texas. Ports-to-Plains is a proposed divided highway corridor stretching from Laredo on the Mexican border, through Midland/Odessa, Lubbock, and Amarillo in West Texas north to Denver, Colorado. Designated as a High Priority Corridor by Congress in 1998, the Ports-to-Plains corridor is intended to expand economic opportunity and serve international trade from Mexico to Canada. Despite the congressional designation, adequate federal funding has not been provided...

The state's ability to develop public-private partnerships - as envisioned with the Trans-Texas Corridor - is critical to complete long-sought transportation improvements and economic development from Laredo to north of Amarillo, according to the Ports-to-Plains Corridor Coalition. "Partnerships that pool federal, state, local and private sector resources will be needed to make Ports-to-Plains a reality and there are several opportunities for that to occur," said Michael Reeves, president of the Lubbock-based coalition. A new study prepared by Cambridge Systematics, Inc. for the Texas Department of Transportation concludes that enhancements to rail, electric transmission lines and highways would improve mobility, safety...

THERE'S GOOD NEWS in the latest Ports-to-Plains progress report for Lubbock and West Texas residents who recognize the evolving trade route's potential economic benefit to our area. Extending from the most active U.S.-Mexico border port, Laredo, through Lubbock and West Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Colorado, the Ports-to-Plains Corridor links the nation's plains states to the border centers of commerce. The Texas Department of Transportation is analyzing funding alternatives including opportunities for private investment and partnerships to pay for moving freight and utilities along the trade route. Using Ports-to-Plains as a case study, TxDOT will research the best potential applications...

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...

Tommy Lee Jones hosted a fundraising reception and screening of his new movie, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, on Wednesday to benefit a local border group. Jones, who directed and stars in the film loosely based on the 1997 shooting death of an 18-year-old high school student by a U.S. Marine stationed at the border to help curb drug smuggling, said his goal was to show the human side of a culture bisected by an international border. In the movie, an illegal immigrant tending to a herd of goats is shot to death by a rogue U.S. Border Patrol...

WASHINGTON - David Miller looked relieved. After weeks of preparing slides, videos and speeches for this moment, the work was finally done - at least for now. In front of President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, advisers Karl Rove and Harriet Miers and even the president's brother Marvin, Miller and 19 West Texas representatives finally had the opportunity on Wednesday morning to make the case about why Texas Tech should be home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library. In the 21/2-hour presentation at the prominent Washington hotel The Mayflower, Tech Chancellor David Smith, President Jon Whitmore and others...

Early voting for on site alcohol sales is underway in Wolfforth. Residents will decide if they want to legalize the sale of alcohol inside the city limits. We spoke with some Wolfforth citizens and while there is no organized opposition, some say a dry town is more safe. Others say alcohol sales bring money into the economy. The group, 'Responsible Citizens For Economic Development' says alcohol sales will bring a minor league baseball team to the town. The election is the result of a petition started by the group. Citizens begin early voting Wednesday morning at 8 through September sixth....

Round two of a familiar debate is brewing in Littlefield over alcohol sales. Citizens will battle it out at a November 8th election. The controversy is whether or not to allow packaged liquor sales in the city. Littielfield residents are no stranger to this issue, you'll recall a similar election failed by only 27 votes last September. Now that another election is set opinions from both sides are circulating. Proponents say it comes down to driving and money. You may only see poker chips and decks of cards at Chad Wright's poker hall, but look closer and you could see...

PAMPA, Texas — A former West Texas district attorney awaiting sentencing on a federal drug-related weapons charge was indicted Tuesday on state charges alleging he intended to sell methamphetamine and cocaine. The indictment against Rick Roach stems from his Jan. 11 arrest at the Gray County Courthouse in Pampa where federal agents found two guns in his briefcase. The indictment alleges he had methamphetamine and cocaine with him that day and that he intended to sell the drugs. Each charge carries a sentence of 10 to 99 years or life in prison. Roach, who ran on a tough-on-drugs campaign in...

VAN HORN, Texas - Even skeptical locals, who've become wary over the years of city slickers with big ideas for their town, perked up when Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos made his pitch — a spaceport for commercial travel into the beyond. Bezos flew into this West Texas town a few weeks ago to tell key leaders how he planned to use his newly acquired 165,000 acres of desolate ranch land. He also gave his only interview so far on the spaceport to the Van Horn Advocate, the weekly newspaper Larry Simpson runs from the back of his Radio Shack store....

61 arrested in ‘Healing Touch’ case Warrants out for 13 others in prostitution roundup By David J. Lee Odessa American Sixty-one area residents — including prominent attorneys, business owners and a senior editor for the Odessa American — slogged into rain-soaked Salinas Park throughout the morning Tuesday to surrender as suspects in a yearlong prostitution investigation. Warrants remained outstanding Tuesday night for another 13 suspects who didn’t show up at the Odessa Police Department’s makeshift booking station in the park — including one for a former ECISD board member. In all, the 74 people — seven women and 67 men...

Neugebauer, Stenholm agree to face off in series of three debates this autumn BY P. CHRISTINE SMITH AVALANCHE-JOURNAL U.S Reps. Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, and Charlie Stenholm, D-Abilene, have agreed to three debates in the fall. The freshman Republican is facing the 25-year Democratic veteran in the District 19 congressional race in November. The only caveat Stenholm issued is that he sees no need to stop at just three debates, said Robert Hinkle, Stenholm's campaign communications director. "We want to debate those three times, plus 10 more times, 20 more times," Hinkle said. The three proposed dates for the debates are...

Cheney extols Neugebauer on Stenholm's turf By JOHN FUQUAY AVALANCHE-JOURNAL ABILENE — Vice President Dick Cheney was in the hometown of an incumbent Democrat on Friday touting the president's record and urging voters to support Republican Rep. Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock. Cheney's appearance at a fund-raiser for the freshman representative was a brazen campaign move on turf represented for the past 24 years by U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm, D-Abilene. Stenholm and Neugebauer were thrown into the same congressional district during this year's raucous redistricting battle initiated by GOP members to increase Republican seats in Washington. "My main concern is to...

Following the leader? What leader? Thursday, September 25, 2003 The Democratic senators are back in the Capitol. But congressional redistricting isn't a done deal — this time because of the Republicans. They might have a tougher time agreeing on a map than they did getting the Democrats to return. Perry, who declined to call a special session after the Legislature couldn't agree on a map in 2001, could have escaped involvement had redistricting happened in the regular session last spring. But once House Democrats shut that down by heading to Oklahoma, Perry's job forced his involvement — if he considered...

Perry offers a lone piece for district map puzzle Gov. Rick Perry on Monday offered sparsely populated West Texas a new congressional district to help settle a fight between Republicans in that region, only to anger or confuse several Senate Republicans. The governor's partial map left the eastern half of the state blank and several Senate Republicans disturbed because they think the governor's solution to the West Texas squabble could steal a seat in Congress from the more populous regions of the state, including Central Texas. The governor's partial map underscores the problem of rearranging the state's 32 congressional districts:...

Map gets third thumbs up House passes plan weakening area representation Associated Press AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas House voted to accept a Republican-drawn congressional redistricting map Tuesday that weakens West Texas farm representation in Congress. For the third time this summer, the House approved the map sponsored by Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, that would likely give Texas Republicans an edge over Democrats in Congress. The vote was 77-60 with four present but not voting. Delwin Jones and Carl Isett, both Lubbock Republicans, voted against the plan. The map also gives House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, a congressional district separate...

GOP's new map stirs uprising in West Texas By SEBASTIAN KITCHEN AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Many West Texas entities appear to be leading a charge and a public information campaign against congressional redistricting plans before the Legislature. The Lubbock Chamber of Commerce believes the Republican-backed plan would hurt business and representation in West Texas and all of rural Texas. Plains Cotton Growers also is opposed to the plan based on the loss of representation in agriculture and loss of rural representation. State Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, voted against the plan this week because his constituents, Republican and Democrat, were against it and believe...

Monday, October 14, 2002 Last modified at 11:44 p.m. on Sunday, October 13, 2002 © 2002 - The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal GMorales to make Lubbock stop to endorse Perry campaign Following last week's surprise endorsement of Gov. Rick Perry, former Democrat gubernatorial candidate Dan Morales will be in the Hub City today stumping for Perry. He will appear at La Fiesta Restaurant, 1519 34th St., at 12:35 p.m., according to a release from the Democrats for Perry organization. In his appearance, Morales will explain why he crossed party lines to support Perry, the release said. He also will be making campaign...

Heritage works against Sanchez in some regions Associated Press AUSTIN (AP) - Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez says being Hispanic is working against him in some regions, particularly in parts of North and West Texas. "It's just that north part, when you get past Dallas County to those northern counties, they are just very conservative, and I think my name 'Sanchez' will have some adverse effect. I don't think I'm accepted there," Sanchez was quoted as saying in Wednesday's Austin American-Statesman. "There are pockets of West Texas where I don't think I'm going to do well because of that," he...