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St. Hedwig has homes on large lots and a longtime tradition of rural living. And folks there want to keep it that way. “We want to be able to maintain as best we can the reason we moved out here in the first place,” said Kathy Palmer, the city’s planning and zoning commissioner. But a new master plan and recently updated zoning maps are no match for a proposed route of Trans-Texas Corridor 35 that would slice straight through the city of about 2,000 people and create headaches for several city departments, officials said. With neighboring Wilson County, St. Hedwig...

Dallas/Fort Worth Airport may serve as a key landing point for hundreds of medical patients airlifted from New Orleans to Metroplex hospitals beginning Sunday, as Hurricane Gustav moves into the Gulf of Mexico.Additionally, if Gustav hits New Orleans, the former Delta Air Lines satellite facility near Terminal E would end up serving as temporary living quarters for 800 federal relief employees who were stationed at New Orleans' Louis Armstrong Airport as the storm approached, officials said."This is going to be a huge team effort," said Brian Magana, D/FW spokesman.The first patients are tentatively scheduled to arrive early Sunday -- D/FW...

Officials at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport may consider closing one of the airport’s terminals as they grapple to keep costs down in coming months. Airport officials are putting the final touches on its budget for fiscal 2009, which begins in October, and they’re planning a lot of belt-tightening, thanks to an estimated 7 percent decrease in airline traffic. American Airlines, which operates a hub at D/FW and accounts for more than 80 percent of the facility’s flights, is reducing its capacity later this year because of record fuel prices.

Member of the Texas Sunset Commission today recommended 'radical' changes in the administration of the Texas Department of Transportation, including placing the troubled and controversial agency into a four year legislative 'receivership' and abolishing the Texas Transportation Commission, which runs TexDOT, and appointment of a Transportation Commissioner who would be answerable to the Legislature, 1200 WOAI news reports. But Sunset Commission member Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon (D-San Antonio) suggested going one step further. "What I am hearing form the public is that they are wanting to see an elected commissioner," she said to loud applause from the TexDOT opponents who...

Drivers who get safely off Interstate 35E after arriving in Dallas from Austin or San Antonio have a certain look of relief – like they just outran a buffalo stampede. Only on I-35, the stampede is trucks. The white-knuckle experience helps make the case for some kind of reliever road, even a tolled one. Making that same case has been a harder sell for U.S. highways along the Gulf Coast and East Texas. Drivers there can judge their own level of congestion, and they have insisted that their mostly rural corridor doesn't warrant the major undertaking of a parallel turnpike....

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORT WORTH TX 726 PM CDT WED APR 23 2008 TXZ118-133-240100- TARRANT TX-JOHNSON TX- 726 PM CDT WED APR 23 2008 ...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY FOR... NORTHERN JOHNSON COUNTY SOUTHWESTERN TARRANT COUNTY AT 726 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE METEOROLOGISTS DETECTED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WITH A HISTORY OF TORNADOES AND LARGE HAIL 10 MILES NORTHWEST OF GRANBURY...MOVING EAST AT 25 MPH. ON ITS PRESENT COURSE...THIS STORM WILL MOVE INTO NORTHWEST JOHNSON AND SOUTHWEST TARRANT COUNTIES AFTER 8 PM. A SEVERE WEATHER WARNING IS LIKELY AS THIS STORM APPROACHES TARRANT AND JOHNSON COUNTIES. CITIES IN THE PATH...

President, Laura Bush going back to Dallas By WacoTrib.com staff | Thursday, April 10, 2008, 03:11 PM Laura Bush announced today that she and her husband will move from their Crawford ranch back to the D/FW area after a 14-year absence, according to this Dallas Morning News story. In the “who-didn’t-see-that-coming-department,” the DMN’s political blog uses the opportunity to take a potshot at Waco. Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Around Central Texas, Around the state, National news, Politics Comments By Whew April 10, 2008 3:35 PM | Link to this Does this mean we...

FORT WORTH -- The Trans-Texas Corridor is now so controversial, merely uttering the words in most political circles is taboo. "We're calling it a 'regional loop' because you can't say 'Trans-Texas Corridor' in the state of Texas anymore," said Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. "The Trans-Texas Corridor is a lightning rod," he told visiting state representatives this week while explaining how the corridor would connect to regional highways by 2030. Opposition to the proposed construction of a $184 billion network of toll roads during the next 50 years is so strong statewide that...

State Rep. Jim McReynolds has sent a letter to the Texas Department of Transportation saying he thinks TxDOT should drop the idea of tying the Trans-Texas Corridor in with plans for routing Interstate 69 through East Texas. McReynolds says tremendous negative outcry from his constituents and other East Texas residents has made it clear to him no one wants infrastructure that massive and disruptive to the quality of life to be built, taking big swaths out of the Pineywoods countryside. "Within the past several weeks, I have personally attended every TxDOT hearing held in my district regarding this proposed corridor,"...

Driving down to Austin lately has become a real trip. I-35 is usually packed for most of the 185 miles, and what used to take three or four hours now can take five or six. Flying down can take almost as long, when you figure in airline security delays, more flight delays, and the time it takes getting into and out of crowded airports. But what if it took 45 minutes to travel from the Metroplex to Austin by train or an hour to make a trip to Houston? Advocates of high-speed rail lines are floating these ideas once again...

... "It ain't over until Texas says it's over," Huckabee said of his long-shot campaign. "We win Texas and it all changes." Huckabee told a crowd of about 1,000 at Collin County Community College in suburban Dallas that he is the best choice for conservative voters in "the largest Republican state in the country." He promised to ban abortions and gay marriage and reform the tax code, prompting the loudest applause lines of his 50-minute speech. ... His pitch found a receptive audience among Texas conservatives, but Huckabee has struggled to win endorsements and votes from what he called the...

Push for higher gas tax could follow chief's death The death of Ric Williamson, the fiery, whip-smart chairman of the state transportation commission, could upend the still-roiling debate over toll roads in Texas in the new year. Mr. Williamson died Saturday of a heart attack at age 55, sending shock waves through the nearly 15,000-employee department he led as well as the political and policy circles where his combative style and pro-toll-road agenda had engendered enormous change – and criticism. Always careful to credit Gov. Rick Perry, a close friend and former roommate, Mr. Williamson emerged as a lightning rod...

Dallas/Fort Worth Airport has been shut down this morning because of technical problems during one of the busiest times of day in what is typically one of the busiest weeks of the year.A communications glitch shut down traffic shortly after 7 a.m. West side communications have been restored, airport spokesman Ken Capps told WBAP radio at 7:50 a.m. Ground stops were still in place on all flights departing for the airport, according to the FAA and flightstats.com. "Gate holds" and "taxi delays" are still in place on flights departing from D/FW, the FAA said on its site."Hopefully, East side communications...

At least two people were injured after a tanker truck exploded on Interstate 35E near Swisher Road in Lake Dallas on Thursday. The fire caused the interstate to shut down in both directions about 2 p.m. in the 1000 block of I-35E, Lake Dallas police said. The truck was heading northbound on I-35E when it hit a median and spilled gas onto the southbound lanes, TxDOT said.

Many North Texas Verizon customers had trouble using their wireless devices Friday afternoon. The company's wireless service crashed affecting most of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The Interstate 69 corridor, a Mexico-to-Canada concept discussed since 1991, has received government recognition as a "corridor of the future," a designation that immediately means $800,000 in federal money for studies. Local officials say it could mean more trade in South Texas. The corridor -- a 2,680-mile international trade route from Mexico to Canada also known as the Trans-Texas Corridor-69 -- was one of two designated Tuesday as corridors of the future. Interstate 10 from California to Florida also received recognition. Hailed as a route that would facilitate trade resulting from the North American Free Trade Agreement, I-69's Texas portion...

DALLAS — A new Texas law went into effect at midnight Friday that could put dog owners behind bars for up to 20 years if their pet fatally attacks someone. Just hours before earlier, a six-year-old Dallas boy was mauled to death by his family's dog. The mother of Scott Warren said the family had had the pit bull since Scott was a baby. Kressie Warren said Friday's attack was the first time the dog had snapped at anyone. But, she says, with a young daughter in the house, now her only child, it will be the last. "It's going...

Could high-speed rail service with a stop in the Hillsboro area be a reality by 2020? That is the goal set by the Texas High-Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation (THSRTC) following the final planning and design charrette in Fort Worth. The charrette preceded the 10th annual Transportation Summit held in Irving Tuesday through Friday, August 7-10. THSRTC board members met in Houston in May at the Continental Airlines headquarters for the first of the charrettes. Attending were eight international suppliers of high-speed rail for nine different systems in France, Germany, Korea and Spain. In addition, 14 consulting firms of varying...

Texas needs the Trans-Texas Corridor because of its surging population, a representative for Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday while speaking in Cleburne. Plans are to build the multi-lane highway and rail system parallel to Interstate 35, north-south through the center of the state. Kris Heckmann, deputy director of Perry’s Legislative Division spoke at the Cleburne Civic Center at the invitation of the Johnson County Republican Women for their monthly meeting. Every decade since World War II, Texas’ population has increased by at least 20 percent, Heckmann said. In 1990, the state’s population was 16.5 million, and today the population is...

It's not the least bit hard to describe the choice that Texas Transportation Commission members will face Thursday at their meeting in Austin: (1) Agree with the overwhelming preference of this region's elected officials and allow the North Texas Tollway Authority to build the Texas 121 toll road in Denton and Collin counties, or (2) award the lucrative project to the apparent favorite among state toll road devotees, the Spanish company Cintra.From here, it's an easy decision: Pick NTTA.But there is reason to worry that in the boiling pot of Austin politics, the commission may see things differently. Because of...

But compromise doesn't affect six projects slated for Harris County AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry on Monday signed legislation that slows down his ambitious plans for building toll roads but does not halt them completely. Perry and the Legislature got into a stare-down last month when lawmakers sent him a bill that put serious restrictions on building toll roads in Texas and constrained policy set by the Texas Transportation Commission, which is run by the governor's appointees. Perry said he would veto the bill and threatened to call a special legislative session if lawmakers did not send him compromise legislation....

AUSTIN – Lawmakers broke camp Monday, taking it on faith that Gov. Rick Perry won't slam the brakes on a compromise toll road bill. Monday's session finale came and went without Mr. Perry signing the bill, which imposes a partial two-year freeze on private toll road deals. Lawmakers did not try to override his veto on their initial bill to overhaul the state's toll policies. Many involved in the contentious toll road debate were expecting Mr. Perry to approve the bill by now because his office was closely involved in hammering out the compromise. Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody said the...

House, Senate passage seem likely The careening vehicle that has been this legislative session's toll road overhaul appeared to pull into the garage about 4:35 p.m. Thursday. At that moment, Republican state Sen. Robert Nichols of Jacksonville, after spending several moments huddling on the floor with Sen. Tommy Williams, sponsor of Senate Bill 792, affixed his signature to a compromise version of the bill, and the two shook hands. "We've got a deal now," Williams, R-The Woodlands, said about an hour later. "This is really going to move transportation issues forward, particularly in large metropolitan areas." The deal was among...

AUSTIN -- Key negotiators were still working Wednesday night to hammer out a compromise version of a toll-road moratorium bill that Gov. Rick Perry won't veto. Earlier Wednesday, Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, said a compromise between the House and Senate versions of a transportation bill had been negotiated, but key House members quickly insisted that a deal had not been reached. The compromise version would require both chambers' approval. Perry vetoed a toll-road moratorium bill last week, citing concerns that it would cost the state federal funding of transportation projects. Different versions of a second moratorium passed both chambers last...

Toll road compromise reached By Ben Wear | Monday, May 14, 2007, 08:10 AM Lawmakers, representatives from the Texas Department of Transportation and others have reached agreement on major toll road legislation that will be laid out this morning in a meeting of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee. But there could be a backlash. Many legislators had said this session that what they didn’t want was to be presented with a large “agreed-upon” transportation bill late in the session with little or no time to absorb it. That’s exactly what they’re getting, however. The bill, in this instance,...

Our colleagues at The Dallas Morning News offered this advice to lawmakers fighting to keep intact complex regional plans to deal with transportation issues in Dallas, Fort Worth and the surrounding counties: "Keep Up the Fight." Good advice. Both the Dallas paper and the Star-Telegram have felt some ownership of this issue since we combined on a joint editorial project in 2003, calling for a regionwide effort to link area cities by rail. But rail is only part of the solution to the serious problem of traffic congestion that is approaching gridlock during parts of the day. Officials in North...

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry doesn't like a transportation bill Texas lawmakers sent him and threatened Wednesday to call them back to address the issue if no solution is reached before the legislative session ends May 28. "The good news is, there's still time to fix it .... if not, I have no other option as the leader of this state than to bring the Legislature back until we address these issues and we get Texas back to where it can have a vibrant transportation infrastructure," Perry said. Though a two-year moratorium on private toll road contracts is a major...

The Texas House voted 139-1 Wednesday, May 2, to give final approval to a bill that is intended to buy the state more time to review the effects of handing over roadways to private groups. The vote cleared the way for the bill to move to Gov. Rick Perry’s desk. The bill – HB1892 – would place a two-year moratorium on toll road leases with private groups. It also would require a study of the long-term effects of public-private partnerships. Perry, who has touted the benefits of his proposed Trans-Texas Corridor project, had urged lawmakers to reject the freeze but...

he Texas state auditor has concluded that transportation officials used inflated numbers when they reported an $86 billion funding gap for highways and transportation projects. The audit released April 30 has a familiar ring to it because it is the second scathing review of transportation funding estimates this year in the state. State Auditor John Keel said the $86 billion estimate by Texas Department of Transportation officials should be more like $77.4 billion, but that’s not all. Nearly $38 billion of that estimate took into account undocumented cost estimates from city officials competing for shared transportation dollars. Keel’s team of...

AUSTIN — The Texas Senate on Thursday approved a bill placing a two-year moratorium on private toll road contracts and creating a panel to review the terms of those agreements. Gov. Rick Perry had urged the Legislature to reject the freeze. He said the state's current transportation system, which involves public-private partnerships to build toll roads, needs to continue if Texas is to keep attracting big companies and jobs. But growing opposition to Perry's proposed Trans-Texas Corridor — a combined toll road and rail system that would whisk traffic from the Oklahoma line to Mexico — have made some lawmakers...

AUSTIN — The Texas Senate on Thursday approved a bill placing a two-year moratorium on private toll road contracts and creating a panel to review the terms of those agreements. Gov. Rick Perry had urged the Legislature not to act on the bill. He said the state's current transportation system, which involves public-private partnerships to build toll roads, needs to continue if Texas is to keep attracting big companies and jobs. Critics of Perry's proposed Trans-Texas Corridor and the state's contract with Spanish-American consortium Cintra-Zachry have made some lawmakers nervous about the project. Sen. Robert Nichols supported the corridor as...

Lloyd Christmas says there are literally hundreds of ambulances, police cars, helicopters, etc. stationed on every overpass and blocking traffic at every entrance to the airport. Nothing on the news. Anyone else see this?

AUSTIN — A two-year moratorium on private toll roads that won preliminary approval in the House on Tuesday would put the brakes on the Trans-Texas Corridor, a superhighway that a private firm received a contract for earlier this year. The moratorium also would halt seven near-term projects in the state, said Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, the Brenham Republican who added the proposal to a House bill. "This is us tapping the brakes, looking before we leap ... into contracts that last 50-plus years," Kolkhorst said. Her proposal would require the state to create a commission to study the effects of private...

A two-year ban on long-term toll road leases with private companies, pockmarked with exceptions and thus largely symbolic, cleared a Texas Senate committee Wednesday on a unanimous vote. However, the more meaningful action on toll roads should begin in the next two weeks, when a large bill addressing a wide range of concerns over tollways will be introduced in the Senate. The much-publicized moratorium bill by Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, Senate Bill 1267, has an excellent chance of passing the Senate, given that 29 of 31 senators have either signed on as co-sponsors or voted for it in committee. But despite...

In the political world, rapid change only occurs when the public focuses attention on a specific issue. We have that situation right now in Austin. Public and legislative attention is focused on the Texas Department of Transportation and a proposed moratorium on the Comprehensive Development Agreement process, including the recently announced CDA to construct State Highway 121 in Collin County. This public and legislative attention may offer an opportunity for Texas to reaffirm our commitment to focus government spending on core functions – in this case, transportation. There are many subplots swirling in this complex CDA moratorium issue – reining...

FORT WORTH -- Interstate 35W, Loop 820 and Airport Freeway would not be expanded until 2015 at the earliest if a two-year ban on toll roads is approved by the state Legislature, area leaders say. A bill calling for a two-year ban was filed Tuesday and has strong support in the Senate. North Richland Hills Mayor Oscar Trevino says it’s time to hold the Metroplex’s lawmakers accountable for jumping on the anti-toll road bandwagon and endangering Metroplex road projects. The bill was filed by state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, and cosigned by 25 of 31 Senate members, including Jane Nelson,...

AUSTIN -- Texans who are demanding that the state stop building toll roads may get their wish. But they might not like the alternative: Higher state gas taxes. There is broad support in Austin for increasing the state's 20-cents-a-gallon motor fuel tax , says a lawmaker leading the effort to strip the Texas Department of Transportation's authority to build toll roads and enter into agreements with private companies. The Texas gas tax has not gone up since 1991. "The message is loud and clear. You couldn't not hear it. People want us to build roads, and they're willing to pay...

Hundreds of people angry with the state's toll road contracts sounded off before state senators Thursday. Public hearings on toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor began early Thursday morning. Senators invited public input because state lawmakers will make some important decisions this session about how to pay for highways. So many people showed up that crowds were forced into overflow rooms. The Texas Department of Transportation and toll roads have found many critics, largely because of the private companies hired to build and run them. There are also questions about how much taxpayers pay for the roads. Speakers sounded...

FAA Says DFW Controllers Retrained Following August 30 IncidentIt's understood when a pilot declares an emergency, they are often permitted to take extraordinary measures to ensure their safe arrival back on terra firma. That apparently wasn't the case when an American Airlines crew declared an emergency last year, and controllers denied the pilot's request to land against traffic at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports on August 30, 2006 the pilot of Flight 489 declared an emergency after gauges indicated the plane was running low on fuel, and requested permission to land on the nearest runway it...

Toll-road financing (SB 256): The growing practice of contracting with private entities to build and operate toll roads calls for hefty upfront payments. For example, the State Highway 121 project, under way in Collin and Denton counties, should produce about $2 billion in advance money that local governments can use for other vital improvements that the state can't fund anytime soon. This bill would outlaw up-front payments, thus inhibiting the ability to start separate projects immediately. It would also put up a roadblock to the proposed, privately operated Trans-Texas Corridor, a reliever turnpike for the overburdened I-35. Neither would be...

Depending on the traffic, it could take quite a while for Parker County residents to make it to one of three transportation meetings slated to take place in local cities next week. Topics up for discussion at the meetings range from Parker County’s long-term transportation needs to finding solutions to the area’s short-term, immediate transportation problems. A discussion of the future roles of passenger rail, bypass routes and safety improvements is also expected. County officials have been asking for public meetings related to the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor for some time. The Corridor, an $8 billion multi-modal transportation plan developed by...

A recent poll posted at KeepTexasMoving.org, shows that visitors to the site consider land acquisition as the most pressing issue needing to be addressed regarding the planned Trans-Texas Corridor. Visitors to the site chose acquisition of property by an overwhelming 64 percent of the vote, with 14,280 votes. The next highest vote was for connectivity to cities with only 12 percent, or 2,659 votes. The Web site is published by the Texas Department of Transportation to release information regarding the planned Trans-Texas Corridor. The Trans-Texas Corridor is a large transportation plan envisioned by Gov. Rick Perry and TxDOT to provide...

Elected officials, business leaders and environmental watchdogs, invited by the editorial board, recently met at The Dallas Morning News to discuss clean air issues. This is the first of three excerpted transcripts from the roundtable. The speakers quoted: Colleen McCain Nelson, editorial writer; Margaret Keliher, Dallas County judge through 2006; Richard Greene, regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency; Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of Public Citizen's Texas office; Jim Schermbeck, Downwinders at Risk board member; Todd Campbell, director of public policy for Clean Energy and mayor of Burbank, Calif.; Al Armendariz, assistant professor, SMU School of Engineering; Robert Cluck, Arlington...

A sad story. This cute little girl will be euthanasized in 5 days- on Christmas Eve- unless someone adopts her.

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...

The controversial Trans-Texas Corridor was a topic of discussion at the Plano Republican Women’s meeting Tuesday morning. The group of politically motivated women listened and asked questions of Gov. Rick Perry’s transportation advisor, Kris Heckman. It was confirmed by Heckman that the TTC’s outer loop will encompass Plano, something for which the Collin County Commissioner’s Court members have been lobbying. There is still much planning before the road is constructed and of use to drivers. “This road is about economic development,” Heckman said. TTC is a proposed multi-use, statewide network of transportation routes in Texas that will incorporate existing and...

Congress repeals Wright Love flights anywhere allowed when bill signed as early as next week 07:50 AM CDT on Saturday, September 30, 2006 By SUDEEP REDDY / The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON – Congress approved legislation late Friday to repeal the Wright amendment, potentially resolving a decades-old battle over the role of Dallas Love Field.

<p>A master plan of the proposed toll road and rail line from the Oklahoma border to San Antonio was unveiled this morning by the Texas Department of Transportation.</p> <p>This summer, critics panned the secrecy of the privately funded deal and called for financial details to be revealed.</p>

A Wise County portion of the planned outer loop for the Metroplex may not be in the initial construction phase. Jeffrey Neal, principal transportation planner for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said funding could be shifted to another project that would at least temporarily keep the loop from passing through Wise County. He made his presentation at Wednesday’s Northwest Communities Partnership meeting at Northwest ISD. The alternative assumes that the planned “outer loop” proposed to encircle the Metroplex will be used in designs for the Trans-Texas Corridor. The outer loop was not included in the original plans for...

Opponents: Trans-Texas Corridor Too Big, Even For Texas DALLAS -- Gov. Rick Perry has proposed the Trans-Texas Corridor, and now his political opponents are making it a big issue in the race for governor. It would cost billions of dollars to build a new highway running across Texas near Interstate 35. I-35 is the only major north-south corridor in the state of Texas. “It’s impossible to widen the highway in some areas,” Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Mark Ball said. “So the alternative is to build a separate corridor.” But the Texas Transportation Corridor is much more than just a...