Sleepless in Midland

West Texas dodged a hurricane

Yesterday evening one of the local TV station's weather people predicted area storms and wind gusts in nearby Big Spring, Texas, of up to 74 mph.

Now that's a powerful wind! Did it happen? My link to historical weather at NOAA.gov no longer works. The best I can find for historical data is this one which showed a gusts of 32 mph at MAF. That was outside the area covered by the storm clouds, and there isn't an easy way for the arm chair weather observer to get that particular bit of historical data for that location.

However, if there were sustained winds of 74 mph, then that is a hurricane by definition. Residents along the Gulf Coast would have cleared the store shelves. Whew! We dodged a hurricane.

Zika virus is a big deal at blood donor centers

I donated blood the other day and experienced the new Vika virus protocol. It's a pretty big deal for donor centers. Open this PDF to see very long list of countries where a visit will ban you from blood donations for 28 days.

In addition to Atlantic, Pacific and Caribbean Islands, the list includes what looks like every country in Central and South America as well as Mexico. That's a lot of territory.

They are being overly fearful, but they have to be. And fear is contagious.

Furthermore, check this out:

You should NOT donate today if in the PAST 4 WEEKS:
You have had sex with a man who:

Had a known case of Zika in the past 3 months
Has been in an area where Zika is present in the past 3 months (see list)

Those Americans in the Obama Cuban entourage would fit that category if in the unlikely event any of them were blood donors. As for having sex with any of the men, well, you're own your own.

Meanwhile, as our fair city of Midland, Texas, is experiencing rain today, mosquitoes will be breeding soon. Hopefully, the city will exercise very aggressive mosquito control, starting soon.

Winter's last gasp in west Texas

The temperature here in Midland, Texas, this afternoon is a pleasant 55F after an evening in the 30s. This could well be the last taste of winter we have this season. And it is so pleasant.

Spring here lasts about five minutes, and the first 100F day typically occurs in the month of May. So by golly, I'm going to enjoy this cool air while I can. Too bad there's not some way to store cool air and issue it into the house in the summer. Oh well.

Midland City Council members want to spend like its 2011

Back when the price of oil was bouncing either side of $100 per barrel the sales tax revenue was pouring in, and the city council was licking its lips over the prospect of playing Santa Claus with all that money for them to spend.

Fast forward. Now the price of a barrel of oil is bouncing around $30, and the tax collectors are looking at steep declines in revenue. For the tax spenders, it's complicated by the upcoming expiration of a portion of the local sales tax. Read all about it in this morning paper article which describes the council's confusing and desperate effort to get voters to approve the extension of the tax.

Unfortunately, all they seem concerned about is keeping the tax in place for another 10 to 25 years. They never considered the possibility that the voters could benefit from keeping the money themselves. Are the voters in Midland, Texas, fiscally liberal even in hard times? We shall see.

BTW, isn't it interesting that they didn't plan the vote to occur at the same time as the presidential primary? What a loss for taxpayers. Wouldn't it be grand if all those Donald Trump supporters showed up at the polls and put a big kibosh on the tax? Yes. Yes it would.

Midland needs a cartographer who can map the city's neighborhoods with accurate yet satirical labels

Map making used to be a profession that employed a lot of talented people in the energy exploration business. Maybe it still is, but a computer has probably replaced the drafting table, and technology has probably replaced the tools and labor involved in the practice.

In any event, there are probably some cartographers in town who could accomplish what someone did in Austin. Seems that some poor Austin city employee used an unauthorized map in a presentation and got put on admin leave for the effort. See Tolerant Austin, TX will not tolerate being made fun of. Check it out:

Midland needs a map like that -- a city map with labels that describe the people in those neighborhoods. After all, there's a universal tendency of people to congregate in communities and neighborhoods comprised of people like them. But forget ethnic labels -- that's so last century, and it's not worth the aggravation.

For starters, here are a few suggestions for neighborhood labels:

Old money
Wannabe ranchers
Cowboy boot camp
Industry bosses
Jet Rink land
Teacherville
The help
Roughneck country
Cookie cutters
Smart houses -- (smarter than the owners?)
Oil company camp town
Paid too much
Tomorrow land -- (the hanger where the Xcor mockup is stored)

Surely there is a draftsman who can produce something accurate enough to get a laugh. We'll show Austin how to take a joke.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

It was a snow day in Midland, Texas, today, with most businesses closing. It didn't actually snow today, though. It all came down yesterday, 12/27/15. And it was beautiful!

This morning as I tried to walk in the yard my feet sank into the snow a couple of inches above my ankles. It looked like one of those reality shows from Alaska. Down here in the west Texas desert we don't see blizzards like these too often. (Don't get ahead of me here -- I'm not blaming global warming or its young progeny, "climate change," this was just an extraordinarily wet cold front that produced a plentiful quantity of snow.)

And it was close enough to Christmas that we may even be able to say it was a white Christmas.

Meanwhile, someone has a storm story to tell.

All he left were his tracks.

The real losers were the school kids. They're still out of school for the holidays, so a get-out-of-school-free card was spent uselessly.

With the sizzle XCOR provided, Midland could probably live without the steak

Many of us were skeptical when the Midland Development Corp. made such a generous offer to XCOR Aerospace to put an office at the Midland, Texas, airport. But when that generated such a tremendous amount of favorable nationwide publicity for the city, we had to acknowledge that there was indeed a payoff. Maybe that's all there will be. Then again, maybe it was worth it.

The MRT print edition reported on the front page *Sunday about a management shakeup at XCOR. What that means for the company isn't clear, but it's probably significant.

The company itself had convinced the investors that it was going to build a vehicle that would take paying passengers into low orbit. Not to take them somewhere, but just to give them the ride and the experience.

It seems almost crazy to think that people would pay a six figure number to ride in a spacecraft for a few minutes. Sure, the view would probably be spectacular, but that could hardly justify the expense. And it's hard to ignore all that high profile competition for those same dollars.

Well, we had the sizzle with the initial announcement. My thought was that that was going to be the payoff, not any business investment spurred by the venture or money brought in by space tourists. We may have to settle for the sizzle without the steak. But the sizzle was so good it might have been worth it.

*Now online.

Another great sports photo from James Durbin

He's good. We talked about him before, see previously, James Durbin's airborne athletes. And he's still cranking out those extraordinary photos of athletes in action.

Take a look at the one below from print edition of the 10/24/2015 Midland Reporter-Telegram. The tackler has his arms outreached for the runner, and the photo was taken at just the right moment.

According to the text, the tackle was unsuccessful, but what a great shot it made.

I assume Mr. Durbin uses a camera with a processor fast enough so that he can snap, snap, snap, and get lots of photos of a sequence of movement within a play. Then he can pick the one that captures the moment. But that's not to take anything away from his obvious talent. He's got a good eye, and he had to be at the right place at the right time.

Peace Officer Memorial in Midland Texas -- 5-14-2015

In normal times the job of a law enforcement officer is fraught with danger. And these days the arrests reports in the local newspaper are full of incidents in which someone assaulted an arresting officer.

Sometimes those encounters get deadly. Law enforcement officers are on the job by choice, and they assumed the risk when they signed on. Nevertheless, that doesn't matter much when a deadly encounter occurs. Then there are those hot spots where it seems as if residents have drawn bulls eyes on police officers to satisfy racial grievances. It's a dangerous job.

Today in Midland, Texas, the Midland Police Department conducted its annual memorial ceremony. And it was a touching ceremony.

Here are a few photos.

The main speaker was Judge Robin Darr who remarked that police officers who died in the line of duty gave their lives so that we might live. What a burden we carry. How could we ever repay such a sacrifice? About all we can do is honor their memory.

This PDF is a scan of the program where you can see the list of the 15 Texas officers killed in the past 12 months. That's 15 too many.

P.S. It was 16 if you count the Pepper, the dog from the Wise County Sheriff's office.

Boom town man camps are dwindling away

Midland, Texas, one of the country's many oil boom towns, saw it population rise and unemployment rate drop over the past few years as the fracking boom brought workers in from around the country.

Inevitably, housing became short in supply as apartments filled and hotels and motels hung out their modern day equivalents of "No vacancy" signs.

So the oil companies moved into residential neighborhoods by leasing homes in which to house their workers. The city code enforcement office was probably flooded with complaints from long time residents seeking ways to rid their neighborhoods of these transient workers. And the police probably got their share of complaints about noisy shift workers letting off steam with tail gate parties in the driveways.

But the party's over. Now that the price of oil is half what it was at the peak and oil and gas exploration is declining, the workers are no longer needed. So the boom town man camps are drying up.

It's not just Midland. Bloomberg.com says it's happening throughout the oil producing areas. See The Oil Industry’s ‘Man Camps’ Are Dying. Excerpt:

America’s oilfield “man camps”—as the industry calls them—are turning into ghost towns as drillers cut back the free housing, food, and air travel once used to lure shale boom workers. The mini-settlements that sprang up throughout drilling regions in Texas, North Dakota, and Colorado are fading away as energy companies look to slash as much as $114 billion in spending this year, says a Cowen Group survey, and lay off tens of thousands of employees.

Post Script: The oil industry goes through periodic booms and busts. The cycle has repeated numerous times, and it will be repeated again. You can bank on it. In the next up cycle someone will inevitably say, "It's different this time." Don't you believe them.

The oil bubble has burst

Although no one could have predicted the exact date, the graphs showing meteoric oil production increases over the past few years were the handwriting on the wall. The law of supply and demand can't be repealed by wishful thinking.

Forbes paints an ugly picture:

Prof. Bill Gilmer of the University of Houston has crunched the numbers on some worst-case scenarios for Houston. Assume an average 33% reduction in oil company capital spending this year, followed by 5% growth in 2016. That, figures Gilmer, would result in the loss of 75,000 Houston jobs. This would be an enormous shock considering that Houston has added 100,000 new jobs every year since 2011.

And it’s not just Houston. In North America, Midland, San Antonio, Sweetwater, Oklahoma City, Williston, Pittsburgh, Alberta, Mexico City, and even Bakersfield, Calif. will feel the pain. The layoffs have started, with about 15,000 cuts announced so far from the likes of Shell, BP , Pemex, Halliburton HAL +0.13%, Suncor and more (full list compiled at the end of this piece) and they will only get worse.

The oil and gas business is cyclical, and the cycles are long. We appear to have entered the downside of this particular cycle.

Christmas time for the lawn jockey

OK, the term "lawn jockey" probably doesn't do the little guy justice. But he's so cute with his little stocking cap. It's a lawn sculpture with the Christmas spirit.

Denny Haskew is the sculpture, and if you want one for your own lawn snatch it up for a mere $20,000 here.

Previously on these pages.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Developers end downtown tower project -- so without gov incentives will they move it to the burbs like they said?

The morning paper tell us that the developers have dropped out of the Energy Tower proposal that would have put one or two skyscrapers in the spot where the abandoned courthouse now sits in downtown Midland, Texas. See Energy Tower developers announce end of project.

There was huge citizen opposition to this project especially since the project viability seemed to depend on government incentives. Listeners to Robert and Kurt's morning radio show on KCRS heard the developer say last year that the government incentives weren't that important. If they didn't get them they would simply move the project to another part of town.

"Yeah, right," was the response many citizens had as it seemed that this was a project that couldn't happen without help from the government. So now we'll see.

If the plan wasn't dependent on taxpayer help then should go forward somewhere other than downtown, just like the developer said. But let's not hold our breath.

Editor's note: I'm holding my breath. Robo-ed.  |  Duh. Robots don't breathe.  Sleepless.

MRT needs to do its homework before calling out citizen group for not doing their homework

It wasn't too awfully long ago that the morning paper's editorial board seemed gung ho over the Energy Tower -- the downtown skyscraper that was slated to occupy the space where the empty courthouse now sits in Midland, Texas. The newspaper folks have always had their ear to the ground and seldom strayed too far from the general consensus on issues. But this time and were a little slow coming around.

This brings us to Voice of Midland, the grass roots organization telling truth to power and giving the average citizens a much needed voice in the whole thing.

As recently as last March the morning paper editorial board was chiding VoM for its campaign to petition the city council to reverse the decision. The MRT.com editorializers parroted the city position that it was a done deal and that it was too late to do anything about it.

On March 6, 2014 the editorialists said this about Voice of Midland:

However, their effort to gather signatures to force a charter election to stop public assistance for the Energy Tower project appears to be flawed. According to a city official, a charter election cannot invalidate existing contracts or commitments properly executed by the city. On the surface, it appears the Voice of Midland didn’t do their homework before taking its message and protest to Midland. It could be an opportunity lost considering how much opposition Energy Tower has in this community.

Emphasis mine.

VoM's petition was addressed to the city council requesting that it call for an election to amend the city charter to stop the project. The MRT editorial dutifully relayed the city's answer, but that answer addressed something else entirely. Was there really an "existing contract" that bound both parties instead of an agreement to agree? Was the Energy Tower arrangement a done deal? Apparently not.

The MRT itself said the other day that the whole thing could be scrapped by the city council. See headline below:

So who didn't do their homework? Voice of Midland did theirs.

--------------
Editor's note: How disrespectful. How would you like it if someone pointed out all your mistakes? -- Robo-ed | I'd hire them! -- Sleepless.

Other cities around the world not in such a rush to demolish the old, unlike here

The mayor and the city council here in Midland, Texas, are falling all over themselves in anticipation of the demolition of the old courthouse and construction of a new skyscraper. It's not as if we're on an island with nowhere else to go. Midland is in the middle of nowhere. There's a lot of unused land all around available for office buildings.

Maybe it's a distaste for old buildings. Other cities around the globe cherish their old building. But not here.

This came to mind as I ran across a series of then and now photos showing the area and communities near Normandy Beach. There was a pretty big war that took place in the early and mid forties. You may have heard.

These two are good examples of before and after.

One photo shows battle damage. Note the mortar hole in the roof. The next photo shows the same building in the present. Just because something suffers a little bit of wear and tear and brutal warfare doesn't mean it's ready for demolition.

See the whole photo set at Scenes From D-Day, Then and Now. Too bad our local government can't see the value in preserving the old.

Midland, Texas, city council can't resist meddling in local businesses

The news came to us last night via CBS7.com that the Midland, Texas, city council voted unanimously to implement new, harsher, regulations for pay day lenders.

It's true that American citizens and their governments at every level are too much in love with debt for their own good. But a city level regulation on an already heavily regulated industry seem like overkill. This is a matter for the state, and just because it makes council members feel good doesn't make it good for either the lender or the borrower.

But here's the worst part from the above linked article:

[City mayor Jerry] Morales says the city expects and is prepared for any litigation.

If he and the others who voted for this could be held individually liable for the legal fees and any damages resulting from an adverse verdict there's no way they would have voted for it. Ah, but that's the joy of government. You not only get to meddle in the economy and pile on regulations for businesses not in favor, but it's other people's money at risk.

So is the Lost and Found the best way to get rid of unwanted bees?

You can find some interesting items in the lost and found section of the classified ads. A few years ago a friend alerted me to an ad for a lost Glock -- the owner had placed it on the roof of a car, got in, and drove off. Buh bye Glock.

Yesterday (Friday) there was an ad saying some bees were found in a tree. Would the owner please come get them.

It sounds almost like one of those first world problems that pop up at joke websites.

So was it a joke? Or did the homeowner come up with a clever way to game the classified ad system of no charge for "found" items? I'm going with the latter. But who knows? Maybe a beekeeper showed up and said, "Yup, those are my bees. Now get along home, boys."

Midland Reporter Telegram confesses code violations on front page

Regular Sleepless in Midland readers know all about the Midland, Texas, city code prohibition against the use of police radio scanner traffic.

So it was interesting to see a front page article in the Midland Reporter Telegram, aka the morning paper, about scanner usage by news media, including themselves. They've been doing it for years in flagrant violation of local code. Meanwhile, their editorial writers serve as public scolds.

To be fair, they say in the article that they're trying to do better and won't actually publish "scanner reports online and in the newspaper." Here's the excerpt:

The Reporter-Telegram’s has a policy against publishing local scanner reports.

“At one time, the Reporter-Telegram was one of the biggest offenders, but this is information that has not been confirmed by law enforcement authorities or journalists, which is why we stopped using scanner reports online and in the newspaper,” said Editor Stewart Doreen.

That doesn't get them off the hook. They seem only concerned with publishing the actual words heard through the scanner. However, if they use the information in any way for their benefit  -- to get a lead, to further a story, to get a jump on the competition, etc. --  they've violated the code.

Here's the actual code language:

6-1-9. Police radio; interception of communications.
No solicitor, or other person, not being authorized by the City, shall intercept any communication and divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purpose, effect or meaning of such intercepted communication, and no solicitor or other person, not being entitled thereto, shall receive or assist in receiving any message emanating through the medium of KKA-662, and use the same or any information therein contained for his own benefit, or for the benefit of another solicitor or person.
(Ord. of 3-24-1953)

We've had fun with this in previous blog posts. It's a pretty good example of an antiquated law that no one has the courage to repeal. But the news media maintain a cozy relationship with government. And just like David Gregory gets away with brandishing an illegal rifle magazine on national TV, they know the government won't touch them. Laws are for the little people.

Editor's note: Could this be a prelude to an announcement that the emergency services are going to hit up city coffers for a high tech radio system that bypasses scanners? Robo-ed. | Hmm. We'll have to keep an eye out for that. Sleepless.

Washington Free Beacon's Tale of Two Cities contrasts Midland, TX, and Yuma, AZ

Fracking has been very good for Midland, TX, as well as many other cities in the vicinity of fields where the process is in use. Populations have grown. Incomes have gone up. And jobs have been plentiful. That's old news, but less well know is what's happening in the energy city of Yuma.

Washington Free Beacon contrasts the two cities:

As a result of Midland’s fracking-induced oil glut, the town’s increasing population is also enjoying a boost in personal incomes. Per capita income in the city increased by 25 percent between 2009 and 2011. ...

“Every state with shale development across the nation is outpacing the national average in terms job growth,” Energy in Depth spokesman Joe Massaro wrote on Thursday.

In contrast to the successes of those oil and gas boomtowns, Yuma, Ariz., is facing the highest unemployment rate of any U.S. metro area at a whopping 26.1 percent.

Yuma is the site of the Agua Caliente solar plant—the largest photovoltaic solar generation facility in the world.

Agua Caliente received a $967 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy (DOE) in 2011. According to DOE, federal financing helped create 10 permanent jobs.

The money came by way of the same loan guarantee program that financed the notorious—and now bankrupt—solar company Solyndra. ...

“It represents the difference between an industry which exists of its own accord, by providing goods and services that people actually want to buy, and an industry that exists only by the grace of government, which acts to mandate demand and subsidize supply,” said William Yeatman, an energy policy expert with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in an email.

Will voters wake up to the fact that central government planning isn't a viable economic arrangement? Larry Kudlow is right: free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity.

Why would an establishment post a 30.06 sign?

It has to be more than politics. And if they've done any research at all they know concealed carry license holders are very safe. So why do some stores, businesses, malls etc., have no-gun policies?

Maybe their liability insurance premiums are cheaper if they post the signs. Or maybe the company lawyer advised them to do it.  Here's the scenario. A crazy person goes into a mall, starts shooting, and kills some customers. The mall owner's defense would be that the incident was unforeseeable, and they thought their security system was adequate. So the mall owner's liability would be minimal.

However, in that same scenario, if a sane person with a concealed carry license pulled his/her weapon and neutralized the crazy person but also accidentally shot a bystander, then the liability would arise because the mall owner could have prevented that bystander from getting shot if they only had put up some 30.06 signs.

OK, I know. That theory is so weak I can't even convince myself. It has to be political.

Meanwhile, 30.06 refers to the Texas Penal Code statute which provides that a business may post a notice at its entrances, which if honored by concealed carry license holders, would prevent them from carrying a weapon into the establishment. And we're talking about this because the morning paper seems to be trying to gin up news stories about the recent posting of 30.06 signs at Midland Park Mall here in Midland, Texas. (See a thumb of the mall sign on the right.)

Most concealed carry license holders will honor the sign, and that presents another problem. Vehicle burglars will know that many of the license holders will leave their guns in their vehicles in the parking lot. An ordinary break-in might yield a $600 gun. So the mall parking lot becomes a prime target.

The gun owner has a dilemma. Does he/she risk becoming a Class A misdemeanant or risk losing a gun?

A friend has a solution. He uses a cable lock to secure his gun to the structure under the vehicle seat. Smart. A burglar with a bolt cutter could get it. But it's a game of odds, and odds are the typical smash and grab artist won't be carrying one.

Link: Texas DPS concealed carry PAMPHLET.

Is that all the police mischief they could find?

Last week two days in a row the morning paper had front page headlines about police malfeasance they learned about through their open records requests.

The state gives sworn officers a tremendous amount of power over citizens, and we rightly hold them to the highest standard. For that the morning paper here in Midland, Texas,  is doing its job.

But the worst police officer offense they uncovered was the confiscation of panhandlers' signs and not turning them into the evidence room. The citizens were left thinking: "If that's all they could find, the cops must be pretty well behaved." No beatings, no blatant abuse of authority, just confiscation of panhandler signs.

The TV news picked up on it and ran it as news. See channel 9 and channel 7 where both use the word "homeless" without any indication they inquired as to the panhandlers' living quarters.

Now it's true that with sky high home prices and hotel room shortages there could be quite a few residents living in a van down by the river. But equating panhandling with homelessness is an assumption that may not be accurate.

In fact, there are rumors about people who do it because they make more money than they would at a job. It makes sense, especially if the individual is on public assistance that would vanish if he/she were officially employed.

There was also apparently one police officer who kept a set of brass knuckles for himself. That's not too good, but the Internal Affairs office dispensed its own punishment to the officer. And best of all, the other officers weren't afraid to report misdeeds they observed in the department.

In any case, it looks like we've got a pretty good police department. If you don't believe me, just ask the oil companies that are hiring away the experienced officers.

One Square Mile in Midland TV documentary -- watch sneak preview online

A year ago we got word that Carl and Elisabeth Crum were going to make a "One Square Mile" documentary to air on PBS featuring our humble community of Midland, Texas.

Well, they did it. And it came out quite nice. It's supposed to be broadcast on February 27th at 7:30pm on Basin PBS in Midland/Odessa. But why wait? Watch a sneak preview right now right here!

Here's a quote from one of the interviewees who summed up Midland rather succinctly.

I heard a report not too long ago that Midland has the lowest unemployment rate in the whole nation. But there's really not a lot to see. Pretty deserty. Uh, pretty dry. Really windy. I can't imagine anyone coming here other than work. I really enjoy it here; this is where I call home.

Well, we have a very large beach but without the inconvenience of an ocean.

They built a better mousetrap

How does that old saw go? Build a better mousetrap and they will come? Something like that. Anyway, someone did build a better mousetrap.

Mice problems come and go, but there's nothing like a cold snap to bring them indoors. How they get in is a question for Houdini. And getting rid of them is another challenge. The old fashioned snap traps work great. Poisons work very well too, but neither are safe when there are small children or pets around.

So Woodstream Corp came up with the Victor Electronic Mousetrap. It uses four AA batteries, and when a mouse touches both metal pads it closes the circuit. The charge must stop the rodent's heart. Because it works!

The thumbnails below are photos showing what the device looks like on the outside and the inside including a bonus photo of the first casualty.

I bought mine for $19 plus tax at Amazon.com.

I think I'll call it "Lil Old Sparky."

Utilities trying to stay ahead of the weather

A recent storm produced some freezing rain which caused ice buildup on tree limbs. And many of those limbs couldn't hold up under the added weight. And when they fell some of them pulled the electric lines down with them leaving many Midland, Texas, residents without electricity.

So it's refreshing to see tree trimming contractors remove limbs from vulnerable places. And it's on a Saturday! We, as electric utility customers will bear the cost, of course. But it's money well spent.

A modest post in which I request the local paper to do some reporting on how the unwanted Energy Tower got to this point

Someone called me a couple of hours ago dunning me for payment for my morning paper subscription. Hey, it's in the mail. Or more precisely, it was in the electronic banking system, which for a payment to the Midland Reporter Telegram takes longer than it does for the other payees. But each year it raises the same question: Why am I paying so much money for this?

Well, there are times when the newspaper hits a homer. For example, on Sunday there was an editorial about the Energy Tower that the city council rammed down our throats. The editorial writer was actually questioning the process by which it came about. Not the result, mind you, just the process.

So if the newspaper is interested in an examination of the process, we can make a few suggestions for reporting.

First, this very same newspaper reported on September 17, 2013, this:

Three council members -- Mayor Wes Perry, at large Councilman Scott Dufford and District 1 Councilman Jeff Sparks -- abstained from voting because of conflicts of interest regarding the property.

Those "conflicts of interest" would be a pretty good starting place.

Second, the newspaper reported on December 29, 2013, this:

He [Mayor Wes Perry] then told the audience that the courthouse was going to be torn down.

The site was going to make way for Energy Tower at City Center, a 53-story skyscraper planned for construction in the heart of downtown.

Perry said at that point he didn’t know the impact his announcement would have. “I had no clue of the extent of the project at that time; the concept wasn’t final yet. But I knew afterward that we had to make an announcement.”

What did the mayor know and how did he know it? Were any other council members privy to this information? The destruction of the courthouse and the construction of a skyscraper is a pretty big deal, and citizens have wondered how it simply popped up out of the blue. How many secret meetings involving elected officials took place in which they discussed this thing? There's a law in Texas prohibiting those, you know.

So please, Midland Reporter Telegram. Prove to us you're worth $208 a year to subscribers. After all, we're the reason you can pull in the big bucks from the advertisers.

Local paper can't resist getting personal about politician they didn't support

Two newspapers for the price of one!

One day they chastise a citizen for providing too much information about the political leanings of one of the mayoral candidates, the candidate the newspaper endorsed. They said,

But if this prevents good candidates from running because they believe their reputation will be smeared, there is reason for concern. We fear that what occurred in the mayoral race will keep needed leaders from running for offices... .

The next day their headline proclaims that the son of the winner, the candidate they did NOT endorse, got arrested for possession of contraband drugs.

 

Way to go, newspaper. There's a clear warning to any potential leader who might have a troubled child -- your kid gets arrested and it's smeared on the front page. That was the front page, mind you, not way back in the police reports.

But let's give the newspaper the benefit of the doubt. It has a tradition of sucking up to politicians who get elected, so maybe they're just trying to correct that.

i-20 Wildlife Preserve

Today the friends of the I-20 Wildlife Preserve at Midland, Texas, invited area residents to visit the premises, look for wildlife, and see work of some artists. And also sign a petition, but more on that later.

With all the people there the wildlife was in deep hiding, however regulars spoke of spotting possum, foxes, coyotes and a bobcat. And it's a favorite spot for bird watchers, too. The reason wildlife is attracted is because it is a low area that holds water long after a rain. Rains have been quite rare around these parts for the past few years.

Here are a couple of photos of the same spot taken from opposite sides of the playa. The dark photo was taken with a polarized filter, but in both you can see the green island out there in the middle of a sea of tall, dead grass.

Let's get political for a sec. Twice while there I was asked to sign a petition pertaining to the owner of a neighboring property. It seems that the neighbor has some junk and equipment on his property that appeared to be about 50 yards away from the nature trail but could be seen from a short section of the trail if the observer looked in that direction. See photo below.

The signature collectors planned to take the petition to the City Counsel and demand that the government require the neighbor to remove it. I declined to sign it and explained that it would be different if they were collecting money to purchase the property or pay to have it cleaned up. But I did not want to use government to force someone to do something. After all, he was there first.

One of the young ladies shook my hand and thanked me for my honesty. The other glared at me with a go-to-hell look that served as a reminder that government is people working together when they want to bully someone, and dammit, why didn't I take a photo of that look?!

Local vehicle crashes - causes and locations

Tailgating, day dreaming, and speeding. These were the top three causes of vehicle crashes in the city of Midland, Texas, between July, August and September of this year, according to a news release from the city information desk.

And it pretty much puts a lie to the theory that red light cameras would contribute to driver safety rather than city coffers. I wish some watchdog would obtain copies of the correspondence among red light camera companies and city staff, mayor and council members. That might shed some light on the reason the idea gets floated so frequently in non-election years.

Here's the full text of the city's news release:

News for Release 10/22/13

Quarter 3 Crash Analysis Shows Driver Behavior as Major Factor in Accidents

The Midland Police Department's crash analysis results from the third quarter of 2013 show that driver behavior was the most prominent factor in accidents happening across Midland in the months of July through September. This analysis is regularly pulled from police data to ensure proper distribution of law enforcement resources in Midland.

The top three contribution factors to crashes during these months were:

Following too closely - 174 crashes
Driver inattention - 156 crashes
Failure to control speed - 104 crashes

The five intersections with the highest number of crashes during these months were:

Midkiff Drive and Interstate 20 - 21 crashes
Rankin Highway and Interstate 20 - 17 crashes
Andrews Highway and Loop 250 - 16 crashes
Midland Drive and Loop 250 - 14 crashes
Midkiff Drive and Loop 250 - 12 crashes

Between 15 and 18 percent of the crashes occurred each weekday, with 14 percent of crashes occurring between 7 and 9 a.m. and 26 percent of crashes occurring between 4 and 7 p.m.

Post Script: Click on the thumbnail to see the five hot spots with the accident numbers in red. Note the one thing all five have in common: A street intersects the interstate or the loop. If anyone is serious about reducing the accident rate those intersections need some analysis.

Post Post Script: The morning paper yesterday reported this news release with the byline: From staff reports. So now we know what that phrase really means: Here's a press release someone sent us.

the Texas Size Garage Sale -- My favorite event of the year

Midland Senior Services puts it on each year, and it's a bargain hunter's delight each time. It truly is a Texas Size Garage Sale that fills a large warehouse with cast off merchandise.

Whether its kitchen appliances, computer parts, or possibly rare antiques, this is the place.

It's a great way to get rid of stuff, too. I'm proud to say that a book shelf I donated to them appears to be a fixture there for displaying fine glassware.

Last year I gave them a suit from Neiman Marcus that I bought for my late father. On the first day of the sale I saw it hanging on the shelf with a price of $6.00. I was struck with a bit of nostalgia and regret and decided to come back the next day and buy it back if it was still there. But it wasn't. Some lucky buyer got a nice suit for practically nothing, and I sincerely hope he enjoys it.

As the old saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure. And there were lots and lots of treasures at the Texas Size Garage Sale.

City of Midland -- How about applying some of your tax give back logic to regular tax payers?

The mayor and city council in Midland, Texas, are chomping at the bit to get a skyscraper built where the old court house now stands. It's too bad we don't have a more representative form of local government whereby they would represent the people in the city and their respective districts rather than taking on huge projects to impress the folks in the big cities. I'm probably not the only Midlander wondering what ambition that feeds.

A couple of years ago when they were trying to hike taxes the mayor bragged to some of the tax hike opponents that 60% of the citizens who called him wanted higher taxes. He didn't name any names, but one suspects those callers wanted something from the city. So it follows that they wouldn't be inclined to tell him flat out that they didn't want a tax hike.

In any event, unless I missed it, the politicians are not bragging this time about how the populace is clamoring for a skyscraper. Judging from the letters to the editor published in the local paper those citizens who voice an opinion don't want it.

By the way, one bit of valuable information that got lost in the discussion is the statement from one of the developers that they would build the building anyway in some other part of the city if they couldn't get tax payer money to build it downtown.

Anyway, the city government produced a neat little graphic to try to explain where the $50 million they want to promise to the developers comes from. Click on the thumbnail to get the big picture. There's quite a bit of speculation required to come up with the numbers, but basically they claim that the building will cause to be paid certain sums in sales taxes, hotel/motel taxes, and property taxes. Then they multiply that by 80% to reach the $50 million which will be paid to developers.

They should apply this same logic to those of us out here in the flyover part of the city. But instead of paying us they could simply cut taxes by 80% to achieve the same effect. Unfortunately, those giant subsidies are for the big guys. It's the job of the little people to pay for it all and try to find some comfort in the shadow provided by the monster skyscraper.

The $16 million they want to pay the developer for rebuilding Midland City apparently will come out of hotel/motel tax revenue. That way the city can tell local taxpayers that it was free to them. And return visitors to Midland will be able to look at it and say, "I built that!"