Link to article here. Notice the contradictions just among the 3 stories below. Gillespie County Republican Party Chairwoman Pauline Cusack admits to speaking with Representative Nathan Macias’ former opponent Carter Casteel in one account, then says she hasn’t spoken to her since 2006 in another. It’s fair to say, every fact the pollwatchers alleged (which was the basis of our concerns) has been confirmed by the independent news sources below, despite these officials’ best effort at denying any wrongdoing.

The most OUTRAGEOUS admission other than the fact that Doug Miller’s relative counted ballots (can’t get much worse than that) is that these election officials allowed any Tom, Dick, and Harry to “volunteer” to count ballots. That’s got to be against the law! Don’t election workers have to be sworn in and sign statements of impartiality? This election stinks to high heaven!

TAKE ACTION!
DEMAND SECRETARY OF STATE INVESTIGATE!
Send a fax to the Secretary of State at 512-475-2811 or send an email to elections@sos.state.tx.us.

Photo by Miranda Laine
Terri Hall, of the San Antonio Toll Party, leads a press conference calling on the Secretary of State’s office to investigate alleged election fraud in the District 73 race.

Macias backer demanding investigation
By Mitzie Stelte
Herald-Zeitung
March 8, 2008

Supporters of State Rep. Nathan Macias, R- Bulverde, are demanding that the Texas Secretary of State’s office investigate alleged election fraud in Gillespie County involving the District 73 race.

In Tuesday’s primary, challenger Doug Miller unseated Macias by a scant 38 votes; Macias said Wednesday that he plans to call for a recount.

The heated race came down to Gillespie County, which did not complete its vote count until 4 a.m., Wednesday because emergency paper ballots issued on election day had to be counted by hand.

Spring Branch resident Terri Hall, director of the San Antonio Toll Party, a group that opposes expansion of toll roads and supports Macias, held a press conference Friday morning in New Braunfels alleging that family members of Miller were involved in the ballot counting in Gillespie County (see accompanying story). Hall also said that Gillespie Republican Chairperson Pauline Cusack, whom she claims openly opposed Macias, was on the phone repeatedly with former State Rep. Carter Casteel, whom Macias narrowly beat to win the District 73 nomination in the 2006 Republican primary.

Hall, flanked by about 25 Macias supporters, claimed that the counting team in Gillespie took more than four hours to hand-count 160 ballots, which changed the outcome of the election from a 58-vote win for Macias to a 38-vote win for Miller. According to Gillespie County election reports, the Republican vote in Precinct 5, which includes the west Gillespie community of Harper, was 306 votes — 201 for Miller and 105 for Macias.

Dist. 73 includes Comal, Gillespie, Kendall and Bandera counties. Gillespie is the only county that Miller carried.

Hall, who watched result numbers come in at Macias’ election night headquarters in Bulverde, said she and other supporters don’t know first-hand what went on in Gillespie County, but she had heard several reports of what sounded like voter irregularities.

“At a minimum, in this election, there were voter irregularities,” said Hall. “At worst, dare we say, voter fraud.”

But according to Gillespie County Clerk Mary Lynn Rusche, everything was done under the code of the Secretary of State’s office.

Rusche said it is true that Miller’s sister-in-law, Denise Mund, was at one point involved in ballot counting. However, as soon as her identity was realized, the counting stopped and she was asked to leave, said Rusche.

Election administration staff then stepped in and started the count over from the beginning, and the results ended up being exactly the same, said Rusche.

Miller’s brother-in-law, Jeff Mund, was also at the county courthouse, but according to Mund, he was there to wait for results and was never part of the ballot-counting process.

Craig Murphy, Miller’s political consultant, declined to comment on the happenings in Gillespie County during the ballot counting because he said that it is all second-hand information.

But Murphy did say that the Miller campaign is absolutely confident that the ballots were counted correctly.

“It was done fairly,” added Murphy. “That’s all that really matters.”

Cater Casteel denied that she contacted Gillespie Republican Chairman Pauline Cusack, saying, “You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s ridiculous.”

Casteel said that she called people in Kendall and Gillespie County who were there listening for results, but was never on the phone with Cusack.

“I’m sorry they’re grasping for straws,” added Casteel. “But for crying out loud, don’t make stuff up.”

Cusack denied the rumors that she openly opposed Macias.

“I did not take sides in this battle at all,” said Cusack. “I did not endorse anyone; I deliberately didn’t.”

Hall also made accusations that Comal County Commissioner Jan Kennady was on the phone with Cusack repeatedly Tuesday night during the ballot counting and said that it sounded unethical.

While Kennady does not deny having spoken to Cusack on the phone, she said that she did not receive any information that was not public record at the time.

“He’s my representative,” said Kennady. “I’m a public official and I’m interested in all races.”

Kennady also said that she and Cusack had been friends for 25 years, and Cusack did call her after the vote was started over because of Mund’s involvement because Cusack was upset, but again, nothing was ever divulged that wasn’t public record.

In response to the issue of the time it took to count the ballots, Rusche said that ballot counting was delayed for several reasons.

Because of the high voter turnout, many of the precincts ran out of the type of paper that ballot machines will accept and they ended up having to use plain Xerox paper for ballots. Rusche said there were between 300 and 400 paper ballots. Also, Precinct 5, the last one to be counted, did not get their votes to the courthouse until hours after the polls closed at 7 p.m.

Precinct 5 had a very long ballot, added Rusche. The counters had to go through them column by column, race by race.

Secretary of State spokesman Scott Haywood said that his agency generally reviews reports from citizens regarding allegations or complaints about voter irregularities, and then decides whether to send them to the attorney general for an investigation.

Haywood said that the agency received numerous complaints regarding the District 73 Republican race Friday morning and was reviewing them.

Macias’ campaign director, Adam Bell, declined several requests for comment Friday.

__________________________________

Link to article here.

Candidate’s sister-in-law helped count votes
By Mitzie Stelte
Herald-Zeitung
March 8, 2008

Gillespie County Clerk Mary Lynn Rusche confirmed Friday that a relative of District 73 candidate Doug Miller was counting ballots for a short time Tuesday night.

But Rusche said that as soon as election officials realized that Miller’s sister-in-law, Denise Mund, was among the counters, she was asked to leave and the count was started over from the beginning.

Gillespie County already had fallen behind in reporting precinct numbers after having to issue emergency paper ballots which had to be hand-counted. One precinct didn’t turn in its ballots until hours after the polls had closed. The county didn’t finalize its totals until 4 a.m.

As Tuesday night stretched into Wednesday morning, election officials began running low on volunteers willing to stay and count ballots, said Gillespie County Republican Chairperson Pauline Cusack. When it came time to count the last precinct’s ballots, at around 11 p.m., all the volunteer counters who had been at the courthouse had left.

“I was pleading for volunteers,” said Cusack.

Then two people she knew volunteered to help, followed by another woman Cusack didn’t know, who very meekly volunteered.

“I didn’t know anyone at the courthouse was a relative,” said Cusack. “No one introduced themselves to me.”

About an hour and fifteen minutes into the counting, Cusack said a deputy clerk came in and handed her the phone with someone on the other end who was very upset that a Miller relative was helping with the count.

“That was the first time I knew about this,” said Cusack. “It was innocent.”

The count was stopped, and new counters made up of election administration staff started the count over from the beginning, said Rusche. And all tabulations of all candidates were exactly the same on the second count.

The tabulations were done professionally and everything was done up to code of the Secretary of State, said Rusche.

Denise Mund could not be reached for comment Friday.

______________________________________

Link to article here.

Toll Party cries foul in GOP’s Dist. 73
By Roger Croteau
Express-News
03/07/2008

NEW BRAUNFELS — The San Antonio Toll Party is calling for an investigation into what it calls voting irregularities in the Texas House District 73 Republican primary in Gillespie County, where the final box swung the victory from incumbent Rep. Nathan Macias to challenger Doug Miller.

But party and election officials said they are confident the votes were counted accurately.

Macias was ahead by 58 votes until the final box, Precinct 5 in Gillespie County, was counted in the early morning hours Wednesday. Miller won the box by 96 votes — 201 to 105 — and the entire contest by 38 votes.

Terri Hall, the Toll Party director, said Miller’s relatives helped count emergency paper ballots used in that precinct when it ran out of regular ballots. She said the GOP county chairwoman, Pauline Cusack, repeatedly spoke on the phone with Carter Casteel, who held the District 73 seat until Macias beat her in a heated race in the 2006 GOP primary.

Finally, Hall said it suspiciously took hours for that final box of votes to arrive at the Gillespie County Courthouse and then it took four hours to count its ballots.

“We were getting direct word on the ground from Nathan Macias’ poll watchers,” Hall said. “I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ It was so blatant. How can it be a legitimate election with all this going on?”

Hall said the Toll Party is especially concerned because Macias is “a stalwart hero on the issue of toll roads.”

Cusack said she did not speak with Casteel on the telephone at all that night, and has not spoken with her since Casteel lost in 2006. It may have taken a while for the Precinct 5 box to get to the courthouse, but there was no evidence the box was tampered with, nor did it take an unusually long time to count, she said.

Cusack said one of Miller’s family members was involved in the hand count of the emergency paper ballots, but the woman volunteered to help “innocently,” and once it was called to Cusack’s attention, the vote count was halted. She got new volunteers and they started the count over again from scratch.

“I was so upset being accused of doing something wrong, I was almost in tears,” Cusack said.

The precinct is in the Harper area of Gillespie County, where Miller owns a small ranch. Miller won 13 of the 14 boxes in Gillespie County, with the Harper box having the largest margin.

“You would expect his neighbors to support him,” said Miller campaign spokesman Craig Murphy. “This is basically just sour grapes. It’s a little silly and a little sad.”

Gillespie County Clerk Mary Rusche said the turnout in the Harper area was much larger than usual and the precinct ran out of ballots. She made copies of the ballots for voters to use, and those 163 “emergency” ballots were not on the same heavy paper stock and could not be counted by optical scanner with the others. They had to be counted by hand, a process overseen by Republican Party officials.

Cusack said she was “pleading” for volunteers in the courthouse to help with the count.

“This woman volunteered,” she said. “I didn’t even know her name and I did not ask anyone who they support. She was not screaming to get in front and exclude someone else. Let’s not pummel her. She was innocently trying to help out.”

Cusack said she does not know what the relationship is between the woman and Miller. When she got a call from the Macias campaign complaining about her, 90 minutes into the process, the count was restarted with new volunteers, Cusack said.

Hall said she plans to ask the Texas Secretary of State’s office to investigate the Gillespie vote count, with her complaints to be lodged personally, as a voter, and on behalf of the Toll Party.

Scott Haywood, a spokesman for the office, said it would review the complaints and decide whether they warrant being forwarded to the Attorney General’s office for further review.

There’s a reason why they call it “dirty politics.” Tollers Frank Corte and Chico Rodriguez had to lie to voters and tell them they never voted for toll roads in order to get re-elected. To take a line from Frank Corte’s ads, I guess if you tell a lie long enough, people believe it. Corte didn’t just vote for one or two toll road bills, but MANY toll road bills, yet his radio ads, mailers, and phone calls all told the voters of District 122 the LIE that he had not voted for toll roads. He also said he voted for a moratorium on all toll roads, even though it was moratorium only on private toll contracts, and NOTHING has stopped TxDOT’s toll road frenzy since they announced 87 toll projects following the moratorium’s passage!

Then, Commissioner Chico Rodriguez who voted to toll at the MPO at least twice, in January of 2007 and December of 2007, also lied to voters telling them he’s never voted for toll roads. Both Lyle Larson and Quico Canseco said they were anti-toll, and the same was true in the Nathan Macias vs. Doug Miller race (though Miller took money from Zachry and was fine with the RMA tolling our existing highway 281 as long as it was “local control”).

So there can be no doubt that the toll issue shaped the debate and even became the center of the debate in all the hottest races in our region. Even though the candidates we endorsed lost, the issue itself (if you listened to what the politicians told the public), WON! All the candidates had to say they were anti-toll to win (even though, sadly, the liars won). Our message has gotten out: no one wants these toll roads, especially with gas prices rising unabated, the middle class disappearing, and wages stagnant for a decade.

The message is also clear that politicians can expect opponents and a massive motivated grassroots uprising if they choose the wrong side of the toll issue. Change is coming and the politicians can choose the easy way or the hard way to listen to the citizens (easy way: stop toll roads in office; hard way: face organized opposition in your next campaign for re-election).

Even though elections come and go, this issue will not die! We will not tolerate the conversion of our freeways to tollways, the loss of our freedom to travel, corrupt politicians and lobbyists, nor the misuse of our taxpayer money to push the MOST EXPENSIVE transportation tax….TOLLS!

Link to article here. In case anyone needs reminding, with gas prices this high, toll roads are no longer financially viable. People just plain don’t have the extra money to pay tolls to get to work. Can’t squeeze blood from a turnip!

AP
Oil Jumps to New Record on Dollar’s Fall
Monday, March 3
By John Wilen, AP Business Writer

Oil Jumps to a New Record Above $103 As the Dollar Declines to a New Low Against the Euro

NEW YORK (AP) — The surging price of oil reached another milestone Monday, jumping to an inflation adjusted record high of $103.95.The weaker dollar that has propelled oil and other commodities prices higher sent light, sweet crude for April delivery past $103.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That’s the level many analysts consider to be the true record high for oil, after its $38 barrel price from 1980 is translated into 2008 dollars.

Futures later retreated from that high to settle up 61 cents at $102.45 after Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it would resume oil shipments from Nigeria that had been disrupted by rebel attacks.

Oil’s most recent run into record territory has been driven by the greenback’s slump against other world currencies. Crude futures offer a hedge against a falling dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the dollar is falling.

Gold, copper and wheat are among the other commodities that have rallied as the dollar has fallen.

“It’s coming down to another commodity price rally,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp., in Chicago.

The dollar has been weighed down by concerns about the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cutting campaign. Lower interest rates tend to weaken the dollar, which fell Monday to a new low of $1.5275 against the euro.

The struggling dollar has prompted a wave of speculative buying by oil investors seeking a safe haven from the ongoing volatility of the stock market. Such speculation can become self-perpetuating, driving prices higher and attracting even more speculators.

Many analysts believe oil prices aren’t justified by crude’s underlying supply and demand fundamentals, and are due to fall at some point. While supply disruptions in Nigeria and the prospect of supply cutoffs from Iraq and Venezuela helped boost oil prices last year, domestic oil inventories are now rising even as a number of forecasters are cutting their demand growth predictions due to the slowing economy.

Late in Monday’s session Shell said it would resume oil shipments from two of its Nigerian facilities that had been suspended under a declaration of force majeure, in which a company says it can’t meet contractual delivery obligations due to events beyond its control, Dow Jones Newswires reported. It was unclear how much oil the facilities will pump. The news fed some of the late pullback in oil.

Investors are keeping an eye on OPEC, which meets Wednesday to consider production levels. Most expect the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to hold output steady.

“Unless there’s a surprise … I think it’s a non-factor at this time,” said Linda Rafield, senior oil analyst at Platts, the energy research arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., of OPEC’s impact on trading Monday.

As for where oil goes from here, analyst estimates vary widely, with some predicting an eventual decline to the $65 or $70 range as supplies continue to grow and demand falls, and others seeing oil rising as high as $120 as investment capital continues to flow into oil markets from overseas.

For its part, the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration’s latest prediction is that oil will average $86 a barrel in 2008, up 19 percent from 2007, when oil averaged $72 a barrel.

Surging oil prices are boosting prices at the pump. The average price of a gallon of gas stood at $3.165 Monday, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That’s down 0.1 cent overnight, but up nearly 70 cents from a year ago. The Energy Department expects gas prices to peak near $3.40 this spring, well above May’s record of $3.227, but some analysts predict prices could rise to nearly $4 a gallon.

Diesel prices, used to transport the vast majority of the nation’s goods, are also surging. Diesel prices hit another new record of $3.674 a gallon Monday.

In other Nymex trading, April heating oil futures rose 3.39 cents to settle at $2.8408 a gallon, and April gasoline futures rose 0.21 cent to settle at $2.672 a gallon. April natural gas futures fell 2 cents to settle at $9.346 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude futures rose 38 cents to settle at $100.48 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Link to article here.

This segment of the parkway, running from Mont Belvieu toward Baytown, is scheduled to open for motorists this week. Out of the parkway’s planned 185 miles, 28 have been built. Opponents say the other segments should be abandoned. GARY FOUNTAIN: FOR THE CHRONICLE
PLAY | BACK | NEXT /*< ![CDATA[*/ everytemplate(); if (document.getElementById("titletemplate")) { document.getElementById("titletemplate").innerHTML=titletemplate.toUpperCase(); } /*]]>*/ March 1, 2008, 9:43PM GRAND PARKWAY Opposition doesn’t detour the next loop The latest segment is ready, but not everyone is excited about the highway’s progress By RAD SALLEE and MIKE SNYDER Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle With fears of $4 gasoline and global warming looming and with the grass roots already in revolt against toll roads, one might think backers of the long-delayed Grand Parkway would be ready to give up. But a spacious, affordable home and a good school in a safe neighborhood still is a strong magnet, even if it comes with a long commute. And just as strong, in Texas anyway, is the ability of developers to build subdivisions on rice fields quickly and get roads built to service them. As the second segment of the parkway opens to traffic this week — a 9-mile-long stretch connecting Interstate 10 at Mont Belvieu to FM 1405 south of Baytown — the long fight over the project shows no signs of abating. Billy Burge, a developer and president of the Grand Parkway Association, is optimistic. Although the parkway plan has been on the books 25 years and only 28 of its planned 185 miles have been built, Burge said last week that he expects to see it completed within a decade. He discounted the opposition increasingly voiced by local elected officials. “Everybody wants it — not in their backyard, but they want it,” he said. “They want to control it, and they want the revenue it generates.” Many of the 180 people who attended a Feb. 20 public forum in Fort Bend County, where design of the parkway’s Segment C is scheduled to begin in September, would strongly disagree. Every candidate for public office who attended pledged to help residents fight the segment, which would run from the Southwest Freeway to Texas 288, passing near Brazos Bend State Park and bridging the Brazos River and its wildlife-rich bottomlands. Opponents included County Commissioner Tom Stavinoha whose precinct includes the planned route, along with both of his challengers in Tuesday’s Republican primary and all five Democratic candidates. “We’re saying, ‘Leave off on the Grand Parkway,’ ” Stavinoha said. The commissioner said he thinks the county’s mobility needs can be met by expanding existing roads. Opposition also has emerged in the Spring area, where the parkway’s segments F2 and G between the North and Eastex freeways would cut through subdivisions; in Brazoria County, where the Grand Parkway Association moved the planned route south because of residents’ concerns; and in Waller County, where environmentalists worry about the impact on the Katy Prairie. Planning ahead Burge replied with what Grand Parkway backers have been saying for years: Growth and roads are inevitable, and it’s better to plan for them. As an example of what the parkway is meant to avoid, the association often cites the hodgepodge of development along Texas 6/FM 1960.”I grew up in Houston and saw the city of Bellaire fight Loop 610 and delay it 12 or 15 years,” Burge said. “And then Beltway 8 — the idea had been out there forever before (County) Judge (Jon) Lindsay really went out and made it happen.” “My point is that because Beltway 8 was so slow in coming, it forced 1960 to be the way you’d travel around Houston, and that’s one reason it’s so tacky,” Burge said. Grass-roots opposition to the parkway may have been increased by the 2003 decision to develop it as a toll project, said Robin Holzer, chairwoman of the Citizens’ Transportation Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group on transportation issues. Early plans for the parkway called for right of way to be donated by landowners who expected to profit by developing adjoining land. That tactic fizzled. Backers then sought tax funding, and the Texas Department of Transportation partially completed one of the 11 planned parkway segments in 1994, an 18-mile-long, four-lane free road linking the Katy and Southwest freeways. For a time, TxDOT kept additional segments on the back burner, saying other roads were more urgently needed. Since the late 1990s, however, most of the parkway segments have been going through the lengthy federal environmental and public outreach process required in selecting a route. Taking toll The idea of financing these segments with tolls has been caught up in the larger debate over long-term tolling contracts between the state and private investors.The foremost example is the Trans-Texas Corridor-35, which involves a proposed 50-year contract with a Spanish-led group. Opposition to tolling also was fueled by TxDOT proposals, since abandoned, to make toll roads out of highways already paid for by taxpayers. A legislative revolt against TxDOT’s toll plans last year led to a law giving local governments the first shot at developing toll projects. Under that law, toll authorities in Harris County and surrounding counties have the right of first refusal to complete the Grand Parkway. With help from the Houston-Galveston Area Council and consultants, TxDOT and the Harris County Toll Road Authority are determining the market value of the future completed parkway — a value that would be used in negotiating a contract between TxDOT and HCTRA to develop it. If the parties cannot agree on how the project should be developed, it cannot proceed; if they agree, but the counties decide not to participate, TxDOT may seek private investors to build the parkway or undertake the work itself, said Alan Clark, chief transportation planner of the Houston-Galveston Area Council. Opponents, however, say most remaining segments of the project simply should be abandoned. New way of thinking Rising gasoline prices and concern about air quality and climate change are making the public increasingly wary of massive highway projects serving far-flung, sparsely populated areas, Holzer said. “Since the Grand Parkway was first conceived on the back of an envelope, the world has changed,” Holzer said. “We recognize that how we grow affects our quality of life.” Daryl Howsley, a Spring resident who has been active in opposing the parkway’s Segment F-2, said the project would divert trucks through his community, increasing noise and air quality problems. On the Katy Prairie, which provides important habitat for migratory waterfowl, the parkway and associated development would increase flood risks by paving over areas that absorb and retain water, said Brandt Mannchen, a longtime leader of Houston’s Sierra Club chapter. The federal environmental impact study for this segment says the prairie’s natural depressions and artificial basins used for rice farming may reduce flows by as much as 80 percent. Burge is unfazed. At the grand opening Feb. 19 of the Baytown-area segment, local officials “were really excited,” he says. “They wanted to stay ahead of growth and to say, ‘Hey, we’re here to attract economic development and we welcome you all being out here.’ “ He continued: “I think that if you do your homework and do it right, and if the public officials will stand tall, it will come together. There’s too much future in it if these counties will really work together. “If they don’t, we’ll end up like a Los Angeles or some of those cities that didn’t pull on the same rope.” at loan $300,000 5.7loan $20,000commercial 100 ltv loan401k hardship taxes loanabsolutely free loansacs consolidation loansapproval 99 loans paydayfico loan 500 Map La Entrada de Pacifico, yet another Trans Texas Corridor in the works Posted on March 3, 2008 by Terri Hall Link to article here. The Executive Director of TxDOT, Amadeo Saenz, told TURF under oath that La Entrada is part of the Trans Texas Corridor. Trade route is still a road to nowhere By John MacCormack Express-News 03/02/2008 ALPINE — In most settings, likening a West Texas highway project to a symbol of Cold War oppression and comparing its promoters to terrorists might be a bit of a stretch.But at a public hearing here last week, such hyperbole resonated perfectly with the mood. “Borrowing words spoken in Berlin 20 years ago, ‘Mr. Craddick, Mr. Perry, Mr. Bush, tear down these signs,'” said John Wotowicz of Marfa, prompting a standing ovation from the more than 450 attendees. Another speaker called the state’s mild-mannered transportation consultant a “bloodsucker.” For years, highway signs marking the proposed route of La Entrada al Pacifico have stirred hope, anxiety and perplexity among Big Bend area residents. A NAFTA-era brainchild of businessmen in Midland and Odessa, the project has had the support of heavyweight Austin and Washington elected officials. So far, however, it has received far more study and debate than money. Only a small relief route around Midland is funded. For all the passion it is stirring, it is far from certain its backers will see their vision become a reality. As originally conceived, a divided four-lane highway from the border town of Presidio to Amarillo would allow Mexican trucks loaded with Asian imports more direct access to East Coast markets. But the thought of hundreds of heavy trucks rumbling daily through the quaint downtowns of Marfa, Alpine and Fort Davis has fired broad opposition. Plague or boon Critics say the trucks would bring a plague of congestion, noise and pollution, destroying an ambience that has made tourism an area economic mainstay and Marfa a mecca for wealthy outsiders such as Wotowicz, an investment banker from New York City.”I don’t know one soul in this county who doesn’t oppose it. It’s that simple,” said Brewster County Judge Val Beard. “It’s a concept whose time has passed. It went out the window when everyone thought there would be a huge maquila industry in northern Mexico, but now that has been whacked by the Chinese,” she said. And while many at the Alpine hearing argued for improving rail connections to Mexico through Presidio, the decrepit condition of the line on the U.S. side makes that less likely than a truck route. The Texas Department of Transportation, which owns the now-idle rail line that stretches to San Angelo, estimates it would take more than $150 million to make it commercially viable. Only in needier corners of West Texas — like Presidio, Fort Stockton and Pecos, where the vistas are a bit less inspiring and tourists are fewer — does La Entrada find support as a source of jobs and development. At public hearings last week around the region, a TxDOT consultant gave both sides reason to be unhappy. “We’re not recommending widening anything to a four-lane capacity and we’re also eliminating the new corridor alternatives,” said Brian Swindell of HDR, a Dallas firm. Instead, he said, existing two-lane roads will be able to handle the anticipated growth in truck traffic with the addition of passing zones, relief routes and other improvements. 50 trucks a day About 50 trucks a day now cross the two-lane bridge at Presidio from Ojinaga, Mexico. Until some recent highway improvements, the remote border city was largely isolated from the rest of Mexico by mountains and canyons.By comparison, some 2,500 trucks arrive daily in El Paso from Mexico, and more than twice that many cross over at Laredo. According to Swindell’s study, which will be completed this fall, Presidio can expect between 338 and 739 trucks arriving per day by 2030, depending on numerous variables and uncertainties, almost all on the Mexican side of the equation. Chief among them is how quickly — if ever — Mexico provides a highway link from Ojinaga to the Pacific port of Topolobampo, and how soon it improves the port, which cannot yet handle large ships. The opening or expansion of other commercial border crossings could also affect the Presidio traffic. And while the consultant’s truck numbers were far lower than other estimates, they did not go down well in Alpine. “What I’m hearing sounds like a done deal, with bogus, made-up statistics,” griped Tom Williams of Terlingua. “I’m not hearing anything about moving it all to El Paso,” he added. The next day, Swindell and the TxDOT crew got a warmer reception in Presidio, about one hour south and a cultural giant step from Marfa. One glance at the two cities explains their conflicting takes on La Entrada. Marfa has a majestic courthouse and a manicured, restored downtown, complete with a fine hotel, cultural foundations and a bookstore and art galleries. Hip outsiders arrive from California and New York to reflect on wide-open spaces, shoot cowboy movies and discuss art. ‘West Texas in the raw’ Presidio, by contrast, has small-block houses and low-end retail commerce amid unpaved roads. Alfalfa fields, junked cars and abandoned mobile homes decorate the landscape.And the first thing visitors arriving from Mexico encounter in Presidio is “La Casa de Oro,” a highway flea market spilling over with bicycles, tires and used clothing. There is no doctor, and the nearest hospital is 90 miles away in Alpine. While fewer than 40 people turned out to hear Swindell’s talk at Presidio High School, most locals favored La Entrada. “Presidio is West Texas in the raw. We have to scratch for everything we can get here,” said John Ferguson, a former mayor who is the school bandleader. Years ago, melon and onion harvests produced steady seasonal work, but agriculture is almost entirely gone, leaving only cross-border traffic and public employment, he said. “We’re sensitive to the concerns about the environment and to what the people are saying in Marfa and Alpine, and we empathize, but being on the border, truck traffic is good for Presidio,” he said. Benny Manchett, 75, who works for Bullet Transport in Presidio, scoffs at the notion that a good highway will ever connect Ojinaga with the Pacific. “It’s a joke. You’ve got an 8,000-foot natural barrier between here and Topolobampo,” he said. “It took them 100 years to build a railroad through there. Why would you want to go through the Copper Canyon to come here when you can go straight north over flat land to Nogales?” he said. Others in Presidio are equally skeptical. “You might as well say we’re going to have aliens come through Presidio. It’s a dream. You have to get more realistic to get my attention,” said Jake Giesbrecht, Bullet Transport’s owner. “I’m part of the Mexican government’s planning committee. There is nothing planned in the next 10-15 years for a corridor through here. It’s a ghost. Everyone is making things up,” he said. Contacted by telephone in Chihuahua City, Mexico, the overseer of the project for Chihuahua state, Armando Correa Nuñez, said great progress has been made on the highway but confirmed the uncertainty of ever cutting a truck route through Copper Canyon. “They will build a road through the canyon someday, but at the beginning it will be a very narrow road for tourism. I just don’t know if they will ever build one for trucks,” he said. “It’s a lot of money and the state doesn’t have it. It would have to come from the federal government, and President Calderón hasn’t designated it as a priority route,” Correa said. With or without good access to the Pacific, truck traffic will increase in Presidio no matter what anyone in the United States does or wants, said Charles Perry of Odessa, who founded the Midland Odessa Transportation Alliance in the early ’90s to promote La Entrada. “The Mexicans have been moving along a lot faster than we have in the United States in getting the corridor open, and that’s astounding everyone,” said Perry, 78. Neither Texas nor Mexico “is in a position to direct traffic on which highway the trucks will take,” he said. “Traffic is like water: It will take the path of least resistance.” “In 10 years, you’ll see traffic sufficient to begin the need for a four-lane highway. Somewhere around 5,000 vehicles a day is the limit for a two-lane. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.” See 281 lawsuit press conference on You Tube! Posted on March 1, 2008 by Terri Hall Read TURF’s full statement here. Read Express-News coverage here. TTC keeps stoking the grassroots angst over eminent domain abuse, foreign control Posted on February 28, 2008 by Terri Hall Trans-Texas corridor stirs controversy Jim Brown – OneNewsNow – 2/26/2008 The debate in Texas over a proposed 4,000-mile network of toll roads that will parallel the state’s existing highway system is heating up More than 10,000 people have attended public hearings across Texas to discuss the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor, which has also been dubbed the “NAFTA superhighway.” It is a project that is expected to cost an estimated $183 billion over 50 years. (hear audio report) Terri Hall with the group Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom warns the project will create widespread eminent domain abuse and involve foreign control of public infrastructure. “They’re taking huge swaths of land, up to a million acres of private Texas farm and ranch land,” warns Hall. “Some of it is prime agriculture land … and they’re going to take that land and hand it over to private entities for commercial gain.” Hall accuses Congress of pulling a “bait and switch” when they promised Texas taxpayers a free interstate. “They designated this corridor route an international trade corridor back in 1995,” argues Hall. “So for Governor Perry, or any of those folks who are trying to push toll roads here in Texas, to try and say that this road stops at the Texas border … that it’s not a NAFTA superhighway … it is an international corridor and it has been designated as such.” Hall alleges that Governor Perry is “representing the interest of private industry over the public good,” noting he has accepted more than $1 million worth of campaign contributions from road contractors and the “road lobby.” But the Republican governor is dismissing the concerns of some state residents who are upset the proposed 4,000-mile Trans-Texas Corridor running from Laredo to Canada will turn operation of the public highway system over to private, if not foreign companies. (hear part two of audio report) Critics of the proposed highway project claim it was never approved by voters, and Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), CNN’s Lou Dobbs, and others call the project a “NAFTA superhighway” and warn it will be part of a “North American Union” between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Governor Perry calls critics of the Trans-Texas Corridor “unenlightened.” “Here’s what’s more important rather than all of the black helicopter … conspiracy theories,” argues Perry. “We have many, many multi-national groups that run various things … in the United States as we do in other countries, and nobody is going to roll up our highways and carry them back to Spain.” According to Perry, there is a reason CEO Magazine selected Texas as the number-one state to do business. “… [U]nderstand you have to have a transportation infrastructure system in place so that people can get from point A to point B, and they don’t spend all their time in gridlock instead of being with their kids at soccer practice or back home with their families,” Perry explains. Governor Perry maintains the controversial transportation network is necessary to “move [the state’s] people and product around” and reduce road congestion. Scroll Up