Free Republic

A Bellville, Illinois man was arrested this week for sticking needles into meat packages at the local Shop-n-Save. The criminal complaint filed Wednesday against Ronald Avers said one buyer of boneless chuck roast at the Shop `n Save store in Belleville just east of St. Louis later bit into one of the needles, and a needle slipped into a steak stuck another customer.

Five people — including a child — were found dead inside a Bellville home Sunday afternoon, authorities said. Deputies discovered the bodies in a home in the 8400 block of FM 1456 around 2:15 p.m., said Austin County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Paul Faircloth. Investigators have taken one person — reportedly the son of a victim — into custody for questioning. Authorities were not releasing any further information about the slayings.

BELLVILLE, Texas (AP) — Authorities say five people have been found dead in a home in southeast Texas. Sgt. Paul Faircloth with the Austin County Sheriff's Department says in a news release that one person was in custody Sunday night and was being questioned in connection with the homicides. Faircloth said those found dead at the Bellville home included four adults and one child.

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...

Plots by Communists to infiltrate America. The disintegration of borders and rural areas. Citizens mobilizing and rising up against government agencies and big business. It all sounds like the plot for a summer blockbuster, but it's something that could be happening in your own backyard. These were just a few of the topics addressed in the "How to fight the TTC" workshop, held Monday at the Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin. The conference served as an informational meeting aimed at informing citizens and local government officials how they can unite in trying to stop the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor project....

Waller County officials are calling for the Texas Department of Transportation to hold another public meeting in their county on a proposed “superhighway,” after a Jan. 22 meeting was so packed that some people couldn’t squeeze into the meeting hall. TxDOT held a public meeting in Hempstead to gather public input on the Trans Texas Corridor’s proposed I-69 leg which could bring it through Waller and Austin counties, and small portion of Washington County. More than 800 people surged into the Knights of Columbus Hall in Hempstead. Officials said the hall is located on a narrow, dead end road that...

The majority of residents from Walker and area counties made it clear Wednesday night how they feel about the proposed I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor. They are strongly opposed to it. An estimated 800 people took action on the controversial issue. The second town hall meeting in Huntsville, offering a chance for open dialogue between residents and the Texas Department of Transportation, took on a different tone than the initial meeting Jan. 23 at the Walker Education Center. With the main building at the Walker County Fairgrounds able to accommodate the large crowd, property owners and other residents expressed their dissatisfaction with Gov....

Some Texans are afraid of losing their land to the Trans-Texas Corridor while others loathe the thought of a quarter-mile-wide swath of toll roads and railway lines transforming the countryside into a superhighway. People continue to turn out in droves at public meetings concerning the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor proposal, specifically the portion known as the TTC-69 proposed from Brownsville to Texarkana. A meeting Monday, Jan. 28, at the fairgrounds in Austin County was no exception, drawing more than 1,000 people. Opposition to the proposed corridor has come from people in all walks of life, said Chris Steinbach, chief of staff...

BELLVILLE — In what is becoming a regular occurrence in Southeast Texas, more than 1,000 Austin County residents and interested outsiders jammed a county fairgrounds exhibit hall Monday night to let a panel of state transportation officials know that the Trans-Texas Corridor was not welcome here. State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, opened the public remarks to thunderous applause when she told the panel, "You all thought I was crazy in Austin when I said my people don't want it and I don't want it." The panel, which included Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director Amadeo Saenz and Deputy Executive Director...

Austin County residents get their chance Monday to comment on a massive “superhighway” that could be coming through their county. And if the public meeting in Bellville is anything like those already held by the Texas Department of Transportation, it will include hundreds of angry property owners lining up for a chance to lambast the proposed project, called the Trans Texas Corridor. Gov. Rick Perry first proposed the TTC six years ago. If completed as much as 50 years from now, it would roughly parallel interstate highways with up to a quarter-mile-wide stretch of toll roads, rail lines, pipelines and...

It was Bush supporter, John Smith! This pic was taken by a Mansfield News Journal (lib rag) photographer, but SOMEHOW didn't make it into the paper. Kerry tried to shake John's hand, but he declined as he pointed his thumb down at his sign.