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AUSTIN - When it comes to road improvement and maintenance, by most accounts, the South Plains and Panhandle are fortunate. Despite a $1.1 billion accounting error, the Texas Department of Transportation recently reported no projects in the region have been canceled or delayed while cities like Dallas, Houston and Laredo had at least a half dozen highway projects delayed. But the $1.1 billion-error, which occurred because TxDOT inadvertently counted some bond money twice and consequently allocated more funding than it had, is just the latest problem plaguing the beleaguered agency. For months, TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz and other transportation...

HOUSTON -- It did not take long Tuesday for the Texas Department of Transportation to find out what the Houstonians at a public hearing thought about the proposed 600-mile Trans-Texas Corridor, KPRC Local 2 reported. "George Washington, Sam Houston would vomit on you people," one attendee said. Chris Zora, who opposes the plan, attended the hearing at the Arabia Shrine Center in Southwest Houston. "I'd like to see a show of hands here of anybody that approves of this corridor," Zora said. "Is there anyone in this room who approves of this corridor? Raise your hands if you approve of...

BARTOW, Fla. -- A Central Florida teacher has been fired because he kept a handgun in his truck in the school parking lot. The Polk County school board voted unanimously Tuesday to fire 51-year-old Phillip Bradley. He taught truck mechanics at the Ridge Career Center in Winter Haven when the 9 mm handgun was found in his truck in the school lot last spring. A hearing officer had recommended just a 90-day suspension, but school board members said that would have set a bad example for students. Bradley said he was sorry for his students. He also said he felt...

Trucks hauling everything from cars to produce use Southeast Texas roads to deliver their goods, and when a proposed Interstate 69/Trans Texas Corridor is completed, local drivers could see even more of them, local transportation officials said. The proposed I-69 corridor stretches from Michigan down to Texas. Once in Texas, the corridor goes about 650 miles from Texarkana to Brownsville and Laredo and includes separate lanes for cars and semis and areas for trains and utilities. It doesn't cut through Beaumont, but local arteries like U.S. 69 and Interstate 10 would connect to it. Travelers and truckers just need to...

lakeland shoplifting was first break Gang stole $100 million from stores, sheriff says LAKELAND | A multiagency investigation that began with a single shoplifting incident about seven months ago has revealed an 18-person crime ring that may be responsible for the theft of up to $100 million worth of medicine and health and beauty goods from convenience and grocery stores statewide, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Thursday. The investigation started with two shoplifters at a Publix supermarket on Shepherd Road in Lakeland on June 26, Judd said at a news conference in Lakeland on Thursday afternoon. Rita Maddox and...

POLK CITY - Smoke and fog are causing a surreal scene in Polk County that's forced the closure of a stretch of Interstate 4, and contributed to a massive pile-up. All lanes of I-4 are closed between the Polk Parkway and U.S. 27. That's roughly from Polk City to the Osceola County line. The lingering smoke combined with the morning fog has brought visibility down to near zero, and deputies say at least 50 vehicles are involved in the massive wreck, and 20 of those are semi-trucks. Several vehicles caught fire, though most of the blazes seemed to be out...

The future of an interstate planned to run through Victoria appears murkier than ever. Harris County, a key point along the proposed Interstate 69 route, pulled out of the I-69 Alliance in mid-May. In an article in the May 15 Houston Chronicle, Bill Murphy and Rad Sallee wrote that Harris County pulled out of the I-69 Alliance after county commissioners decided too much was spent annually in membership costs. The county hopes that a bill in legislation right now is passed, because it would give them access to build a toll road as part of the Trans-Texas Corridor parallel to...

The state's ability to develop public-private partnerships - as envisioned with the Trans-Texas Corridor - is critical to complete long-sought transportation improvements and economic development from Laredo to north of Amarillo, according to the Ports-to-Plains Corridor Coalition. "Partnerships that pool federal, state, local and private sector resources will be needed to make Ports-to-Plains a reality and there are several opportunities for that to occur," said Michael Reeves, president of the Lubbock-based coalition. A new study prepared by Cambridge Systematics, Inc. for the Texas Department of Transportation concludes that enhancements to rail, electric transmission lines and highways would improve mobility, safety...

The anchor on Fox News was just interviewing the Polk County Sheriff. Suddenly, the Sherrif said there were "hundreds" of shots. Then he said he had to go.

LAKELAND, Fla. - A man suspected of shooting a Polk County sheriff's deputy to death was killed Friday, officials said. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said officials shot the man numerous times in thick brush, a day after Deputy Vernon Matthew Williams was shot in a burst of gunfire. The suspect refused to show his hands, Judd said. The suspect appeared to have the .45-caliber weapon that belonged to Williams, Judd said. He still did not know the man's name.

LAKELAND, Fla. - A man who had been pulled over for a traffic violation shot two sheriff's deputies Thursday, killing one of them and prompting an intensive manhunt that forced a lockdown at three schools, officials said. Authorities told residents to lock themselves in their homes as officers swarmed the rural area. The gunman remained at large. The shooter was first approached during a traffic stop for speeding, officials said. The deputy became suspicious of the man's ID, and the suspect bolted into thick brush. That deputy and another who arrived seconds later with a police dog chased the suspect....

Homeless sex offenders in Polk County would serve out probation in county jail after their release from prison, under a plan before state corrections officials. The proposal from the county comes after a long dispute over what to do with the area's homeless sex offenders who are out on parole, including a rejected offer by Yamhill County District Attorney John Fisher to house them in his residence. Fisher's neighbors rallied against that idea, and county planners went back to the drawing board. Marty Silbernagel, director of Polk County Community Corrections, said transferring homeless sex offenders to the county jail 90...

FORT MEADE -- Polk County's 44 years without a major hurricane ended emphatically Friday when Charley roared in from the south. Roofs disappeared, lights blinked off and trees crashed to the ground as the storm's eye moved in a northeasterly direction across the county. Charley was a raging mix of howling wind and blowing rain. Even for veterans of Hurricane Donna in 1960, Charley was a storm to remember. Fort Meade was the first community in Polk to feel Charley's power. The storm's eye crossed the county line about 6:45 p.m. Bert and Ginger Blackwelder of Fort Meade spoke by...

Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of The New York Times Co. and publisher of The New York Times, will be the guest speaker at the annual Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce meeting Jan. 29 at The Lakeland Center. The event is usually attended by about 1,000 people, and this year will recognize entrepreneurial spirit in Lakeland. Chamber President Kathleen Munson said Sulzberger was a perfect choice for the event. "We're going to recognize all the family-owned businesses in town, and The New York Times is a perfect example of that theme, being a family-owned business for years." The New York Times...

 Wed, Oct 8, 2003       ACLU Flip Flops--Admits Florida Ten Commandments Are ConstitutionalANN ARBOR, MI – Just two days after the Thomas More Law Center publicly vowed to defend Polk County, Florida’s display of the Ten Commandments against a threatened ACLU lawsuit, the ACLU’s Tampa Chapter reversed itself Friday announcing they will not mount a legal challenge. Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center personally addressed a public meeting of the Polk County Commissioners last Wednesday, denouncing threats of a lawsuit by the ACLU. Thompson offered the legal assistance of the Law...

ACLU won't fight monument By Christopher Sherman Sentinel Staff Writer October 3, 2003 The American Civil Liberties Union, which has battled Ten Commandments displays in public buildings across the country, will not challenge a monument bearing that Judeo-Christian symbol installed last month in the Polk County Administration Building. "They knew we were watching," said Darlene Williams, chairwoman of the ACLU's Greater Tampa Chapter. "This is already a victory for civil rights because this would've been a very different monument." The religious document was "essentially secularized" by surrounding it with a number of historical documents on the American Heritage Foundation Rock,...

POLK COUNTY, Fla. -- They're about to unveil a monument and all the controversy that comes with it in Central Florida. It's right at the heart of a national debate.The monument, displaying the Ten Commandments, is now standing in the Polk County Courthouse (photo left). It is making some people wonder why the county, and the pastor sponsoring it, are trying to pick a fight.Experts say, it's sure to spark a lawsuit, especially after a Ten Commandments monument was just moved out of a judicial building in Montgomery, Alabama. Federal justices ruled that monument violated the separation of church and...