Free Republic

A manhunt for a corrections officer who disappeared last month with an inmate accused of murder in Alabama ended Monday with the two in custody after a police pursuit resulted in a crash in Indiana, the authorities said. The officer, Vicky White, had been on the run with the inmate, Casey White, since April 29, when they left the Lauderdale County Jail in Florence, Ala., for a courthouse appointment that was later revealed to be a fabrication. The two, who are not related, had last been seen on that day in Rogersville, Ala., about 24 miles east of Florence, Marty...

Our constitutional system assumes that federal courts serve to remedy an injustice created by officials in the legislative and executive branches. Unfortunately, federal courts, even the Supreme Court, sometimes are responsible for creating an injustice. Thirty years ago, the Supreme Court did that for property owners in Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City. On Friday, in Knick v. Township of Scott, the court ended that injustice by overruling Williamson County by a 5-4 vote. For more than 30 years, people with claims under the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause have been told, “Get in the back of the...

A Tennessee school district apologized Thursday after a homework assignment asked students to pretend their “family owns slaves.” Dr. Mike Looney, director of Williamson County schools, called the assignment “insensitive” and “wholly inappropriate,” in an apology he issued on Twitter...The assignment, which dealt with issues of slavery, immigration and child labor, was given to 8th-grade social studies students at Sunset Middle School in Williamson County. Part of the homework asked students to imagine that their family owns slaves and then “create a list of expectations” for those slaves, FOX17 Nashville reported.

The morning of September 22, 2017, Cristopher Precopia went to work at a lumber yard in Georgetown. By the end of the day, he was in jail facing 99 years in prison... She said he broke into her home in Temple. She said he sliced an "X" into her chest with a box cutter... On the night of the alleged attack, he was with his mother, Erin, at a Northwest Austin hotel about 65 miles from the accuser's home... There were pictures to prove it, and they were posted on Facebook. Timestamped. Geo-located.

A police detective who never followed all the leads, a conflicted defense attorney who cried so uncontrollably she did not discuss appeal options after the “midnight verdict” of guilt, and a jury who convicted without any physical evidence at all. Greg Kelley, a young man in Texas convicted of sexually molesting a toddler in 2014, had a lot of things going against him that led to his spending more than three years in prison for a crime he did not commit. But Kelley had one thing to start his reversal of fortune that led to his release from prison last...

AUSTIN (KXAN) - KXAN Austin News has uncovered dozens of cases in which unpaid tolls have turned into bills as high as tens of thousands of dollars. Toll roads first came to Central Texas four years ago. There are now a total of five tollways, including Texas Toll 130 in East Travis and Williamson counties. The bottom line is the toll bills were not paid, and they ended up becoming criminal cases. Although drivers can pay with cash at most tolls, use their TxTag or Pay by Mail as the signs say, some drivers contend the last option poses a...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To ensure there will be enough resources to provide for its own legal residents Williamson County Texas has started requiring any indigent person seeking County paid for medical services to produce a valid Social Security number. The County’s Commissioners suspected their local government has been taken advantage of by illegals, and the statistics from the first five months of its fiscal year have proved they were right. Their investigation showed just under 23% of the 1153 indigent people it provided medical services to did not have a valid Social Security number; all but assuring they are not in America...

In an interview with the Taylor Daily Press, State Sen. Steve Ogden revealed a possible new course for the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor. Instead of building superhighways across the state, Ogden said, the state may opt to augment the Texas Trunk System, a web of rural highways that includes U.S. 79. The plan would expand those highways to four-lane divided highways, while expanding urban infrastructure with toll roads. “We need to limit that concept to existing highways,” Ogden said of the proposed network of superhighways and tiered rail systems. “I passed a bill last session that did that, but [Gov. Rick...

Taylor used to be a player in Williamson County, with it and Georgetown vying for funds and the attention of passers-through. But no more, and despite what many city officials will tell you, it will not be a player unless something is done to counteract the rapid growth of surrounding communities. What needs to be done is, Taylor needs to forget its past and embrace something residents see as so vile, that when I first arrived here I thought its mere mention was a dirty word. I am speaking of Rick Perry’s Trans-Texas Corridor. The Texas Department of Transportation (another...

The Texas Department of Public Safety is withholding trooper dashboard camera video taken during the arrest of Texas representative Mike Krusee. Using the Texas Public Information Act, KXAN requested the video after the state lawmaker from Williamson County was arrested for DWI earlier this month. A state trooper pulled him over after he noticed him driving erratically in northwest Austin. The license plate on his vehicle also had expired last December. Elected state officials all have personalized license plates. Therefore, the trooper would have known he was pulling over a state official before asking for identification. A spokeswoman for the...

Taylor-area residents Dan and Margaret Byfield hope to become the Trans-Texas Corridor’s worst nightmare. The married couple head up two land rights organizations, the American Land Foundation and Stewards of the Range, that aim to keep rural communities from having land encroached upon by state and federal agencies through eminent domain. Both organizations operate across the U.S., in Wyoming, California, Colorado, South Dakota and Nebraska, but their current main goal is to challenge TxDOT in hopes of completely eliminating proposals for the quarter-mile wide superhighway. Currently they offer advice to residents of small towns and rural communities on how to...

GEORGETOWN, Texas (AP/KXAN) -- A state lawmaker who helped pave the way for major toll road projects and stiffer drunken driving penalties now faces a DWI charge. Rep. Mike Krusee of Williamson County is the Republican chairman of the House Transportation Committee. He was charged with first-offense driving while intoxicated after a state trooper noticed his car moving erratically in northwest Austin Wednesday night. The license plate on the vehicle also had expired last December. Elected state officials all have personalized license plates. Therefore, the trooper would have known he was pulling over a state official before asking for identification....

Lufkin Mayor Jack Gorden has been selected by the Texas Transportation Committee to serve on a citizens' advisory committee for putting together information regarding the proposed Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor. According to Texas Department of Transportation officials, advisory committee members represent a cross-section of community and business leaders, landowners, local transportation experts and others. "Our goal is to enhance the public dialogue and meaningfully involve more Texans in transportation decisions," said Texas Transportation Commission Chair Hope Andrade. "These committees will have an important seat at the table as we work together to shape the future of transportation for our state." Gorden...

WASHINGTON – Only exports stand between the economy and recession, setting up another national argument about how to handle the rising flow of goods in and out of the country. Transportation fights are usually about who pays to build the roads and transit systems, with little said about trade. The Bush administration and Gov. Rick Perry have supported tolls and steadfastly opposed higher gasoline taxes. A new national study urges paying for desperately needed improvements any way we can, but one thing it specifically recommends is an increase in the federal gas tax of 40 cents a gallon over the...

Williamson County Republican reshaped Austin area's transportation system State Rep. Mike Krusee, a Williamson County Republican who reshaped the Austin area's transportation system and, with Gov. Rick Perry, turned Texas toward a toll-centric approach to highway building, will not seek re-election next year. Krusee, 48, is not leaving the public stage right away. He will serve out his term, which runs through January 2009; will continue serving on national panels on transportation and urban planning; and could return to a statewide post after he retires from the Legislature. Talk around the Capitol is that Krusee, who has served in the...

Neighborhood protests proposed water treatment plant Brushy Creek facility would take 24 acres of longtime resident's property By Sarah Coppola AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Sunday, November 9, 2003 ROUND ROCK -- Dan McFall's 95-year-old grandfather, Garland Walsh, has lived on the same parcel of land since 1938. Walsh loves its open spaces, occupied by big oak trees, cattle and a clan of wild turkeys. So his grandfather was stunned, McFall said, when utility district officials told him a year ago that they planned to build a water treatment facility on the land. "He's been living out his remaining years there," McFall said....

GEORGETOWN — David Bryan Ballard got a life sentence because he didn't sign on the dotted line. Ballard, who failed to register as a convicted sex offender when he moved to Williamson County last year, was convicted for that omission Tuesday and sentenced Wednesday to life in prison. Ballard faced from 25 years to life because he had already been to prison twice, for sexual assault of a child and possession of a prohibited substance in prison. The 45-year-old had rejected a plea agreement in which he would have received an eight-year prison sentence. He is the first sex offender...