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Houston-area transportation officials are not going to lose southern segments of the Grand Parkway without a lot of fuss. Members of the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s Transportation Policy Council on Friday unanimously approved a resolution urging the Texas Transportation Commission to keep Grand Parkway segments B and C and other related projects in Texas’ 10-year transportation plan. The segments represent the southern portion of the Houston area’s third ring road, carrying the tollway from Interstate 69 near Sugar Land south through Fort Bend, Brazoria and Galveston counties, intersecting with Texas 288 and Interstate 45 near League City. Texas Department of Transportation...

A retreat from the Texas Department of Transportation's plan to build a new multi-lane toll road through East Texas is a clear victory for Angelina County and Diboll, local officials said last week. "I'm glad they went back to the original plan," Diboll Mayor Bill Brown said. Instead of a new Trans-Texas Corridor toll road paralleling U.S. 59, Tx- DOT now plans to widen 59 with a new bypass around Diboll and Lufkin. The planned 59 bypass, needed to avoid the signalized intersections in Diboll and Lufkin, provides in the original plan four exits for Diboll. That will be good...

As the state's population continues to grow in its urban centers, expansion plans for the highway system continue to be the focus for transportation improvements. The Trans Texas Corridor proposal is aimed to alleviate traffic congestion, improve air quality and provide safer traveling for drivers, among other goals. In 2002, Texas Governor Rick Perry released the plan to create the passageway, which spans northeast from Laredo to Oklahoma and is set to total 4,000 miles in the next 50 years. The $140 billion project calls for the incorporation of new toll roads, commuter railways, power lines and gas pipelines, while...

With more than 1,000 people moving to Texas on a daily basis, a top state transportation official told an audience in Rosenberg Wednesday the I-69 portion of the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) will bring not only economic development, it will bring much-needed funds to Fort Bend County. Texas Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton told business leaders attending the Fort Bend Regional Infrastructure Conference the TTC will act as a funding mechanism to allow construction and maintenance along the U.S. 59 corridor, as I-69 will incorporate the existing highway's “footprint”, drawing new highways, railways and utility rights of way along the route. “The...

For years, Fort Bend County officials enthusiastically supported the proposed I-69 highway, which would replace what is now U.S. 59. A promise of added lanes to the highway - and international trade - has been the driving force behind this initiative. Growing discontent over the direction of the project, however, led the county last year to decide against renewing membership with the non-profit, intergovernmental group that is pushing Interstate 69. And recently that same group was dealt a major blow with Harris County's decision to withdraw. County Judge Bob Hebert said the county pulled out not because of disagreement over...

Campbell, Turner Throw Support Behind Sekula-Gibbs Campaign by Bob Dunn, Aug 21, 2006, 07 13 am Tom Campbell and Tim Turner, two Republicans who each campaigned to replace Tom DeLay in the race for Congressional District 22, have endorsed Houston Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs as a write-in candidate for that seat. Campbell, who made his endorsement on Saturday, came in a distant second to DeLay in the March primary, then ran as a replacement candidate after DeLay announced he was leaving Congress. “Shelley Sekula-Gibbs is honorable and competitive and worthy of my support,” Campbell said on Saturday. Turner, a Houston businessman,...

Sugar Land police and volunteers with search and rescue organization Texas EquuSearch are looking for a 16-year-old Sugar Land girl missing since Friday night. Ashton Glover was last seen at 11 p.m. Friday at University and Commonwealth boulevards, “seen leaving with an unknown male in a white Toyota pickup truck,” according to information from Texas EquuSearch. EquuSearch spokeswoman Barbara Gibson said Glover’s family contacted the Dickinson-based non-profit group Friday night, and when they began a search, Sugar Land police already were on the scene looking for the missing girl. “The biggest thing is her truck hasn’t been found, either,” Gibson...

Steve Stockman won’t be running as an independent in the race for retired former congressman Tom DeLay’s District 22 seat. Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams ruled Thursday that although Stockman had gathered more than 600 signatures in petitions aimed at putting him on the ballot, fewer than the required 500 signatures were valid. Stockman is a one-term Republican congressman narrowly defeated by Democrat Nick Lampson in 1994. Lampson went on to serve three terms in Congress, then was defeated by Republican Ted Poe, a former judge from Harris County, after Lampson’s district was dramatically altered in a 2004 redistricting....

Spotlight on DeLay shifts from Austin to D.C. Jurisdiction issues make it hard for Austin prosecutors to pursue DeLay By Laylan Copelin AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Saturday, April 02, 2005 In last month's edition, Esquire magazine asked, "Who the hell is Ronnie Earle?" Texas Monthly named the Travis County district attorney the second most powerful Texan. And CBS' "60 Minutes" pitted Earle, a Democrat, against another powerful Texan, U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, in a piece entitled, "The DA and Tom DeLay." That comes with the territory when a prosecutor has been investigating DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority...

Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday called his plan for a multi-billion dollar transportation corridor the only solution to the growing transportation needs of Texas. The Trans Texas Corridor proposal has been met with skepticism, and Perry addressed the issue before approximately 1,000 guests at a luncheon in the Sugar Land conference center on Thursday. The Trans Texas Corridor would run throughout the state in largely rural areas, possibly including Fort Bend County along the proposed I-69 corridor. The Trans Texas Corridor would include rail lines, tolled highways and utility lines, running adjacent to each other. Some have expressed concern at...

Father, son fired by FBISD (Anti gun nuts are at it again)By: JAMIE MOCK, Reporter November 04, 2003  (Sugar Land, Texas a relatively affluent western suburb of Houston)  The Fort Bend Independent School District employee grievance appeal process has hit the end of the road for former FBISD bus drivers Larry and Erik Danna. Both were fired by the district last year due to an incident involving a weapon brought on board a school bus. Both Dannas, father Larry and his son Erik, appealed the termination, and for the last year have been seeking reinstatement. FBISD Board heard their fourth...

News Release: Monday, September 29, 2003 CONTACT: Jimmy Kilpatrick: 281-687-6728 or George Scott: 281-703-2163 Academic Preparation & Performance Audits Monday, September 29, 2003 EducationNews.org (HOUSTON, TEXAS) - The owner of EducationNews.org – an influential internet publication – announced today that it has identified the Fort Bend I.S.D. as the subject of its first independent, comprehensive audit evaluating the effectiveness of the district’s curriculum strategies in the academic preparation and performance of its students. “EducationNews.org has assembled an impressive team of certified teachers, administrators and academic experts to assist us in developing a model process that will serve as a national...

Day care operator accused of having sex with 14-year-old boy Mandy Skarpa is accused of having consensual sex with a 14-year-old boy. By Andy Cerota ABC13 Eyewitness News (6/19/03 - ROSENBERG) — A Rosenberg woman who runs a day care out of her home has been charged with indecency involving a teenage boy. Now it's up to the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Department to investigate, but she's married to one of their own. Although her husband works for the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Department, Mandy Skarpa's husband is not involved in the investigation at all. Neighbors describe her as...