Free Republic

A former member of the far-right Oath Keepers organization testified on Thursday that the founder of the group was in contact with the Trump administration’s Secret Service in the months leading up to the November 2020 presidential election. John Zimmerman, who appeared before a jury at the seditious conspiracy trial of five members of the Oath Keepers, including the organization’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, said he witnessed a phone call between the group’s leader and someone he thought belonged to the Secret Service in September 2020. Zimmerman also said that Rhodes told him he had been in contact with the agency.

AUSTIN – It's the Trans-Texas Corridor's size that sets it apart. While the state has amassed thousands of miles of land for roadways since the early 1900s, never has it sought to clear a path as wide as 7 football fields. Texas Department of Transportation officials laid out the framework for how the department will appraise and acquire land for the proposed tollway project at a Wednesday meeting of the Trans-Texas Corridor Citizen's Advisory Committee. “We are talking about a significant amount of land and how it's going to impact landowners,” said John Zimmerman, head of the department's acquisition section....