Texas Is Fastest Growing State

It looks like Texas is growing faster than any other state in the United States. According to the Texas State Data Center, Texas grew by more than 3,000,000 people between 2000 and 2007. Even California and Florida were unable to match that kind of growth. Texas current population was 23,904,380 in 2007. It is expected that by 2040 the Texas population will be 43,581,928. That's an additional 19,000,000!

In fact, according to U.S. Census data, Texas had four cities in the top ten cities with the most actual growth. These cities are Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin. Texas also had three cities in the top 11 in largest growth percentage. They were McKinney, Denton and Fort Worth, with Fort Worth being the largest city to crack the top twenty (usually percentage growth goes down as a city grows larger). Here are the top 11 cities in growth percentage:

1. New Orleans (13.8 percent)
2. Victorville, Calif. (9.5 percent)
3. McKinney (8 percent)
4. North Las Vegas, Nev. (7.4 percent)
5. Cary, N.C. (7.3 percent)
6. Killeen (6.5 percent)
7. Port St. Lucie, Fla. (6.3 percent)
8. Gilbert, Ariz., (5.8 percent)
9. Clarksville, Tenn. (4.8 percent)
10. Denton (4.7 percent)
11. Fort Worth (4.5 percent)
Source: U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates from July 1, 2006, to July 1, 2007

I suppose that is something to be proud of, but frankly I'm a bit worried. With it's current population, Texas is already starting to experience some water problems. How on earth are we going to have enough water to sustain the enormous predicted growth?

With most of the growth going to the urban centers, are we going to turn West Texas and the Panhandle into uninhabitable deserts by shipping their water to the large cities? There is already talk of piping water from the Ogallala Aquifer to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, in spite of the fact that the aquifer has already shown a 10% depletion just from agriculture irrigation.

The year 2040 is only 32 years away. It is time for the Texas Legislature to seriously address our future water needs. Any delay could have serious reprecussions.

Political Dirty Tricks Hit Fort Worth

Voters will be heading to the polls today all over Texas. In Ft. Worth, there are a couple of elections in addition to the constitutional amendments being voted on statewide. Ft. Worth will also be electing a new member of the city council to replace Wendy Davis, who resigned to run for the state senate. It will also elect a new state representative.

It now looks like someone thinks their candidate needs a little illegal help to get elected. Someone has recently been distributing fake flyers that urge voters to go vote on Saturday, November 10th. The bogus flyers have been distributed in areas of Ft. Worth where there are large numbers of Hispanics, and are printed in both English and Spanish.

No one knows yet who has been distributing the pamphlet. The Tarrant County District Attorney has assigned two investigators to find out. But it looks like someone wants to suppress the Hispanic turnout.

That makes me think it is most likely a Republican doing the dirty work. After all of the anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic rhetoric from Republicans in the last few months, it is very likely that the Hispanic vote would be largely Democratic.

Maybe it's just a racist who thinks this would be a big joke to trick Hispanics into missing the election, but I tend to think someone is trying to help a city council or state representative candidate that is unlikely to get many Hispanic votes. Either way, it is an illegal and very un-American action -- not the action of a person who believes in our democratic system of government.

I hope they find the culprit soon, and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. A fine would not be enough. The criminal needs to get some jail time -- preferably a lot of jail time.

Dallas Rep. Tries To Kill Ft. Worth Project

Fort Worth has plans that would create a lake and park area out of the Trinity River that runs just north of its downtown area. These plans would not affect the Trinity River areas downstream. However, it would be important to Ft. Worth and would help to re-vitalize the near-Northside area of the city -- an area that badly needs re-vitalization.

But U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Dallas) seems to be doing everything that she can to kill the project in her neighboring city. Johnson heads a water resources sub-committee in the House. When that sub-committee sent the House a water bill last summer, she would not include the Ft. Worth project in the bill (even though she included a similar project planned in Dallas for the Trinity River).

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison put the Ft. Worth project into the bill when it reached the Senate. But Johnson demanded and got the project pulled out of the bill in conference. Her actions are leaving Ft. Worth officials to wonder just what they have done to justify her actions.

Ft. Worth and Dallas are only about 30 miles apart, and together make one very large metropolitan area. In the past, there has been some serious rivalry between the two areas. But in the last few years, the cities have cooperated effectively on several things important to the area, such as the DFW Airport.

That's what makes Rep. Johnson's actions so mysterious to Tarrant County residents. They know she's not opposed to Trinity River re-vitalization -- she approved it for Dallas. It's just the Ft. Worth project that she seems to be against.

Like the Ft. Worth officials and residents, I wonder just why Rep. Johnson is doing this. Do you really hate your neighbor to the west that much? Why are you not in favor of making Ft. Worth a better place for its people?

Just what do you have against Ft. Worth, Rep. Johnson?

Ft. Worth To Fight Gangs In Civil Court

Gangs and the violence that they breed are a major problem in all large cities. Until now, cities have had to fight back against the gang violence by taking action against individuals who they could prove had broken a criminal law. This left all the other gang members free to congregate and to terrorize the neighborhoods that they claimed as their own.

Because of this, the honest citizens were forced live in fear of the gangs, and there seemed to be little the police or city officials could do to help them. But now Ft. Worth has a bold new plan to take back the neighborhoods from these gangs. They are now going to civil court instead of criminal court, and they are taking on a gang as a whole rather than one individual at a time.

Officials in Ft. Worth are starting this new kind of battle with the gang they consider to be the most violent -- the Northcide Four Trey Gangsta Crips. Once the city has taken back the neighborhood from this gang, it will go on to do the same with other gangs.

The city has filed suit in the civil court of District Judge David Evans. They are seeking an injunction in the newly created "safety zone" that would prohibit any known gang member from engaging in a wide array of activities including:

* sitting or standing together in public view.

* using gang signs.

* possessing indelible markers or spray paint cans.

* using pagers or cell phones to further criminal activity.

* warning other members that police are approaching.

* violating a 9pm to 6am curfew for gang members.

Once the injunction is in place, these will be criminal violations for members of the gang, and will be prosecuted as such by the District Attorney.

This is a pretty radical departure from the past, and I had to take a couple of days to think it over. After doing so, I have decided that I'm in favor of the new plan, and I believe it has a chance to succeed.

Individually, none of these young punks could terrorize a neighborhood. They derive their power from banding together as a gang. Since the only power they have is group power, they must be fought as a group. The city has the right and the duty to bust up these criminal groups.

I applaud Ft. Worth's action, and I hope it succeeds. The criminal gangs have been a blemish on all our cities for far too long.