Free Republic

Ric Williamson, a former state legislator and longtime pal of Gov. Rick Perry, runs the monthly meetings of the Texas Transportation Commission like a traffic cop. Staff members give brisk status reports before Williamson dismisses them so the next bureaucrat can take the podium. If members of the public embark on a diatribe, Williamson will let them prattle on with an air of friendly indulgence. Then, rounding his shoulders and leaning forward—using body language no doubt perfected when he and Perry were freshmen state representatives harrying their elders—he’ll pleasantly announce that their time is up. As commission chairman, Williamson sits...

AUSTIN, Tex., Dec. 31 (AP) - Texas has embarked on a project to build superhighways so large and so complex that they will make ordinary Interstates look like cowpaths. As envisioned by Gov. Rick Perry, the project, the Trans-Texas Corridor, would be a 4,000-mile transportation network costing $175 billion over 50 years and financed mostly, if not entirely, with private money. The builders would then charge motorists tolls. These would be megahighways: corridors up to a quarter-mile across, consisting of as many as six lanes for cars and four for trucks, plus railroad tracks, oil and gas pipelines, water and...