Free Republic

In the pitch-black, storm-lashed hours before dawn on Independence Day, surging floodwaters ravaged Hunt and Kerr County in central Texas, including the summer camp filled with sleeping children. The catastrophic flooding killed 27 girls and counselors at Camp Mystic. The court filings accuse the camp of failing to move cabins out of flood-prone areas, responding poorly to the emergency, and putting profits ahead of the safety of the girls in their care.. Most of the cabins had been located in FEMA’s 100-year “Special Flood Hazard Area” up until 2013. That’s when the camp petitioned FEMA to remove most of the...

Going to the gun show in Fredericksburg this weekend?

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...

SOLDIER'S FUNERAL, TEXAS STYLE Specialist James Kiehl, age 22, from Comfort, Texas, was killed, along with six other soldiers at the same place and the same day that Jessica Lynch was taken prisoner. His body was one of those that our special forces heroes dug up with their bare hands near the hospital in Iraq. They held the funeral service in Comfort at the Baptist Church, and then took him ten miles to Center Point, Texas, and buried him. A friend visited his grave July 4th, and it was a moving experience. He was compelled to offer a salute, and...

Rural communities divided by redistricting BY APRIL CASTRO Associated Press Writer SONORA, Texas - To folks in this hamlet on the western edge of the Texas Hill Country, redistricting seemed an issue for cities such as Houston, Dallas or San Antonio. That was until state lawmakers divided Sutton County between two U.S. congressmen, splitting a place where natural gas fuels the economy and where hunters fill the main drag each autumn. "It's an absolute absurdity," said John Tedford, the Republican party chairman for Sutton County. "With just 3,000 people here, it's just absurd." The Texas Legislature approved in October a...

Here we go again.....A line of tunderstorms has formed SE of the city moving slowly NW..they are training over the same area dropping 1-3 inches per hour and will move into the city within the next hour. scattered heavy rain showers are developing throughout the area dropping brief heavy rain.. The situation is very critical on local rivers at record levels and any rain that falls will runoff and cause widespread flooding everywhere. I hope they weaken before they move into the city..but they are actully getting stronger..the band isn't very wide maybe 15-20 miles but it 30 miles long...