Free Republic

AUSTIN — Rural landowners carrying protest signs and shouting angry slogans gathered at the Capitol to speak their minds. Their goal: Stopping Gov. Rick Perry’s Trans-Texas Corridor. Farmers and ranchers say the huge highway project will gobble thousands of acres of their property only to make money for private toll road companies. “The government is out of control. They’re trying to take our property rights away from us,” said Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, one of the legislators who spoke at the May 3 rally. Republican Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn —one of Perry’s potential GOP primary opponents in 2006 — joined...

WASHINGTON — A political spat erupted Tuesday between Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison when the senator filed an amendment to the $284 billion transportation bill that would ban tolls on existing federal highways. The amendment would repeal existing language in the highway bill that would allow states to erect toll booths on federal highways to pay for transportation projects. "Tolling existing roads to pay for new ones is double taxation," said Hutchison, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Commerce and Transportation Committee. But the amendment was seen as a shot at Perry's proposed $175 billion Trans...

Alan Woodward of Three Rivers shot this rare doe sporting antlers in velvet Saturday in McMullen County near Choke Canyon. From submitted reports - Alan Woodward of Three Rivers had watched a rare doe with velvet antlers for three years before harvesting it Saturday afternoon. Hunting around 3 p.m. on an oat patch near Choke Canyon Reservoir, Woodward finally go his shot at the doe after five days of looking for her. Texas Parks & Wildlife biologist Macy Ledbetter examined the deer before it had been gutted and documented the animal's condition. "I aged the deer at 6.5 years and...