Hurricane evacuation, job creation, less gridlock all benefit from better roads

AUSTIN -- Better roads and rail infrastructure, and the new tools to get them built more quickly, will dramatically improve our state’s hurricane and disaster response, job creation and traffic situation. That’s the message of a coalition of Texas business and civic leaders forming Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation, a new statewide public education organization established to highlight transportation challenges, solutions, and successes.

Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation aims to build a broad-based coalition of Texas commuters, civic leaders and businesses – those in the transportation sector and those who rely on a world-class transportation infrastructure to get their product to market and their employees to work.

“Much of the recent transportation debate has been dominated by anti-road, anti-growth, and anti-commuter activists working to misinform, mislead and scare people,” said TSRT Chairman Joe Krier. “Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation aims to bring greater reason and rationality to the debate, and highlight the disaster response, job creation, and quality of life benefits of better transportation.”

“In the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Texans need to know that better roads and highways – including toll roads – really can mean the difference between life and death. Better roads and rail also mean better Texas jobs and less traffic gridlock.”

TSRT is raising funds to build a pro-transportation coalition and conduct grassroots and paid media efforts. The group’s board of directors includes Joe Krier, the president of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, Lawrence Olsen of the Texas Good Roads Association, and Donna Williams, vice president of Parsons Infrastructure & Technology Inc.

Among the transportation solutions advocated by TSRT are:

• Fiscally sound public, private and user-generated transportation funding
• State and local toll partnerships
• Private sector capital investment
• Regional Mobility Authorities and other locally-driven transportation authorities
• Rail relocation and improvement

Three major facts are driving Texas policy-makers to new transportation policies: a roaring Texas economy, fast state population growth, and record high oil prices. Economic and population growth make our crowded roads and railways even worse. High oil prices make the public less receptive to higher gasoline taxes to pay for road construction and maintenance.  

Texas’s population is expected to grow 65 percent in the next 25 years while road usage is projected to increase 214 percent. Unless Texans change their approach to transportation, road capacity will grow by only six percent.  

“Texas is on a collision course to more traffic gridlock, more traffic deaths, and economic and environmental damage unless we change the way we address transportation needs,” Krier continued. “Private sector investment, tolls, and other non-traditional funding sources can get safer roadways built years sooner without new taxes. Modern toll-tag technology means no more stopping at tollbooths and a safer, speedier commute.

Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation looks forward to being a rational voice in the transportation debate and part of the solution to Texas traffic gridlock.”

Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation (TSRT) is building a broad-based coalition of Texas commuters, civic leaders and businesses dedicated to improving transportation in Texas.  Our goal is to improve our state’s hurricane and disaster response, job creation and quality of life by getting needed roads, rail, public transportation and other infrastructure built and operating years sooner than expected – without massive tax increases. On the web at www.BetterTexasRoads.org
 

Read the article here about how the highway lobby, instead of citizens have been pushing this NAFTA corridor and the privatizing and tolling of our public freeways.

Tolling authority chair thinks taxpayer input is "mob rule"

Chairman of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (ARMA) Bill Thornton thinks citizen input on how government uses OUR tax dollars is "mob rule." He considers heeding the will of the voters and allowing the taxpayers a say in how their hard-earned money is spent is 'mob rule'.

It’s hardly progress to levy a toll tax on freeways and rights of way we’ve already built and paid for! Last I checked, our Republic was founded on the principles of representative government of the people, by the people, for the people. We have EVERY right and, in fact, it’s our duty to redress our government for grievances! Thornton’s total contempt for the public and for citizen input that’s contrary to his opinions, give plenty of reason to call for his resignation from the Board. That’s why an unelected tolling authority board is not only unwise, it threatens our democratic form of government.

Also of note, the RMA is flat BROKE!  Its assets equal $113,670 and its liabilities are also $113,670. They’ve blown through at least $10 million in YOUR tax money, mostly loans they have no way of repaying except by tolls, in just over two short years. The RMA hasn’t built a single project in that time and has spent nearly all of its money on bureaucracy and trying to sell the public something they clearly don’t want: tolls.

JoAnn Walsh, former Executive Director of the MPO, was in attendance at the RMA Board Meeting on July 12 in her new role with Parsons-Brinkerhoff, a highway engineering firm now most known for its association with the failures of the tunnels on Boston’s Big Dig that cost a woman her life this week. Walsh went right from her role in allocating tax dollars to toll roads to a lucrative private sector job that will profit from her government connections and from toll roads (read about it here).

Commissioner Tommy Adkisson’s appointee to the Board, Mr. Jess Jenkins, tried to speak out and asked if the Board would take into consideration the opposition to tolling Bandera Rd that’s been expressed in Leon Valley. Thornton and Brechtel’s answers were bureaucratic gobbledygook saying that a “no-build” option is always on the table. Thornton tried to bring up the idea that if the people try to reject an elevated toll way, they’d have to pay for 17 overpasses to keep the project on the ground. What boloney! No one is asking for that. Bandera Rd. is perfectly suited for a parkway type of design with a possible bus rapid transit down the middle. What we hear residents saying is they don’t want their city street turned into a highway, period. Synchronize lights, perhaps streamline the traffic flow, especially during rush hour, but highway…NO! 

Other options are considered “impossible” or laughable by the RMA, which is what the Board did when they contemplated 17 overpasses on Bandera…laughed. So much for respecting fellow Board members and their wishes to heed the will of area residents and businesses! So those are the ultimate “options” in a world according to the RMA and its partner, TxDOT. It’s do it their way, or “no build.”

Tired of arrogant bureaucrats and "government of the few" operating solely for the benefit of special interests?

Join the revolution at http://www.SATollParty.com.
 

By John Merrifield,
Professor of Economics
Director, Entrepreneurial Conservatism Institute (This is the new think tank established by South Texas Republicans.)
July 17, 2006

Apparently, state law allows only that wacky approach to tolls. The state mandated choice is between ‘free’ lanes and toll lanes. Sounds great, right? You don’t have to pay the toll until the traffic gets bad enough that the toll seems a better choice. But think what that means! The toll lanes will sit empty until the free lane traffic slows; something that happens on even the most heavily traveled roads only about six hours a day. Because of the toll cost, the users of the free lanes will still suffer significant congestion costs.

To pay for the toll lanes out of only six hours of daily use by a fraction of the total motorists, the toll will have to be quite high. I doubt that the 12-18 cents per mile estimated toll charge will be enough to pay for the toll lanes with just six hours of use/day by a fraction of the total motorists, but even that toll rate will cost toll lane users about $500/year. That assumes a 10-mile, one-way commute 200 days per year. So, in the name of ‘choice’ – normally a concept I strongly endorse – state law mandates congested ‘free’ lanes alongside expensive toll lanes that will sit there unused roughly 18 hours per day. It’s the same kind of absurd, limited choice we have now for schools: a ‘Nation-at-Risk’-quality free public school system (pre-paid by taxes you must pay) or better, expensive (tuition on top of school taxes) private schools.  I’m not against that choice, but we can and must do a lot better. Likewise, having the toll lanes next to the free lanes is better than having just the free lanes, but there are much better strategies.

100 percent reliance on gasoline taxes makes as little sense as toll lanes alongside free lanes. It would take a massive tax increase to pay for enough road capacity to avoid persistent rush hour congestion. Note that Atlanta’s proposal to expand IH-75 from fifteen to twenty-three lanes epitomizes the result of the latter.

Fortunately, a better approach already exists in the mainstream economics literature. It needs to be thought of as a third side to the debate about how to minimize traffic jams. It entails a toll for peak period use of congested road segments; yes ‘tolls,’ but only during rush hours where travel demand is high. It’s not double taxation. The congestion period tolls fund additional lanes. Since the economic science basis for a toll during peak traffic periods is that each motorist imposes a cost on other motorists, every rush hour traveler must be charged. With everyone paying, it takes a lot smaller toll to pay for additional lanes, and every motorist benefits all day long. It also avoids the obvious waste of building roads that no one uses most of the time, and just a few people use when the free lanes clog.

Toll payers get two direct benefits from the congestion fee: less traffic when they pay, and more lanes to keep traffic down as the city grows. Congestion tolls also have enormous indirect benefits, including less auto maintenance, fewer accidents, and reduced air pollution.

Certainly it is true that much of the gas tax revenue has been diverted to non-highway uses, and for highways in other places. But even with the additional highway capacity that the diverted money would have funded, congestion tolling would still be appropriate for some road segments to manage demand, and to fund additional lanes at key places. We have market-determined prices well above zero for most things because it isn’t smart to keep up with demand at a price of zero. During rush hours, highway use costs more than construction and maintenance. Each additional motorist slows down everyone else. Failure to charge for that creates shortages (traffic jams).

Changing the law that impedes this common sense, ECO 101 approach is a leadership imperative, and an entrepreneurial leadership challenge. Tolls are not popular, but wisely applied they are enormously beneficial.
 

This event will feature national speakers like Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family; Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center; Reverend Don Wildmon of the American Family Association; Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council; Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation and many more! As part of the entertainment, “Mr. President” Steve Bridges will be on hand doing his impersonation of President George W. Bush.

My goals for this trip are 4-fold:

1. Recruit nationally recognized speakers for our Rough Riders of Bexar County Educational Series

2. Build new relationships with national conservative organizations and individuals for South Texas Republicans, P.A.C.

3. Utilize these contacts to gain support in terms of resources and finances for the P.A.C., and our South Texas Candidates at the state and federal levels

4. Demonstrate the strength of the Republican Party in South Texas at the grassroots level

As a result of my most recent trip to D.C. in May for the Jesse Helms Communications in Foreign Policy School, I developed a relationship with Peter Brookes, Senior Fellow of National Security Affairs with the Heritage Foundation. Because of that relationship, South Texas Republicans is in talks with Peter about speaking to grassroots activists here in San Antonio in the fall!

The costs to attend the ‘Washington Briefing’ in D.C. will be about $1,800. The package to attend all 3 conference days and gain admittance to the exhibit halls/book signings will cost $550. The hotel room on location (Omni Shoreham in D.C.) will cost $550 for 3 nights (needed by August 15th!!). Roundtrip airfare is expected to run about $400-600 (plus tax).

All work I do for South Texas Republicans, P.A.C. is as a volunteer. I live strictly on my disability income, which only amounts to $500 a month.

Ideally, to get whatever price breaks I can for travel, and the conference, I need the funds available by August 30, 2006. This would allow for plenty of time planning arrival and transportation while in our nation’s capitol.

Checks/Money Orders can be made out to me, and mailed to:

Schuylar Crist

9570 Autumn Shade

San Antonio, Texas

78254

You may also reach me by phone at (210) 663-6093 or via e-mail at skyskyrider@hotmail.com

You can also check out conference information at www.frcaction.org

Thank you in advance for your prayerful and thoughtful consideration.
 

As Hispanics continue to assimilate into American culture, they are learning to speak English, advancing economically, and voting their conservative values – politicos need to take note. Whether one analyzes the support President George W. Bush received in the 2004 election from Hispanic voters or the ever-growing number of evangelical Hispanics immigrating into the country, it is clear that family values based on religious principles should bring greater support to the GOP. Director of the Pew Hispanic Center, Roberto Suro, notes, “Many evangelical communities are greatly identified with the Hispanic community,” and considering 51% of red state voters stated that they attended religious services once a week or more, Republicans should continue to garner the Hispanic vote.

Richard Hoffmann points out that Hispanic Americans have a strong sense of intense religiosity, culture, and community, which is overwhelmingly Christian. Dr. Jesse Miranda, a professor at Vanguard University and leader of the National Evangelical Hispanic Association (AMEN), also comments, “The moral and social values they bring to America [are] already a major contribution, resulting in a wave of spirituality in the U.S.”

On key planks such as school prayer, homosexual marriage, and pro-life issues, the Hispanic culture supports Republican values, and as the Bush-Cheney team learned in 2004, getting that message out requires ingenuity.  As Newsweek reported, it was Lionel Sosa, Hispanic marketing guru and veteran of 6 presidential campaigns, who helped Bush coin the theme “Nos conocemos,” or “We know each other.” 

In bringing the Republican message to these swing voters, Republicans should use unconventional means to do so. Take for example the new cable channel “Si TV,” whose motto is “Speak English. Live Latin.” According to Si TV’s market research, as Newsweek’s Jennifer Ordonez reports, “Hispanic-Americans, particularly young spenders between the ages of 14 and 34, want to be spoken to in English.” 

No longer may either party take the Hispanic vote for granted, but it does appear that Republicans have an advantage. Republicans, moreover, should cultivate the advantage. Many Hispanics support Republican values, and together on Election Day, Republicans and Hispanics can vote for those candidates who share their values and their future.
 

2006 is a critical year for our candidates, officials and party. Please help us today with a $10, $25, $100 or $500 donation so we can continue to cover our basic operating expenses. Every donation is recycled in support of our grassroots activities. Thank you in advance for your consideration. We thank you for your ongoing support.

Joe Solis/Founder and Director/South Texas Republicans

Secured credit/debit card payments can be made at this link:

STR Donations Link

This is our mailing address: 

South Texas Republicans/10004 Wurzbach, Suite 269, San Antonio, Texas 78230. Please include the name of your occupation. 
 

Jul 15 12:43 PM US/Eastern
By LESLIE MILLER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/07/15/D8ISHMO00.html

AP; Roads and bridges built by U.S. taxpayers are starting to be sold off, and so far foreign-owned companies are doing the buying.

On a single day in June, an Australian-Spanish partnership paid $3.8 billion to lease the Indiana Toll Road. An Australian company bought a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway, and Texas officials decided to let a Spanish-American partnership build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for 50 years.

Few people know that the tolls from the U.S. side of the tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Canada, go to a subsidiary of an Australian company - which also owns a bridge in Alabama.

Some experts welcome the trend. Robert Poole, transportation director for the conservative think tank Reason Foundation, said private investors can raise more money than politicians to build new roads because these kind of owners are willing to raise tolls.

"They depoliticize the tolling decision," Poole said. Besides, he said, foreign companies have purchased infrastructure in Europe for years; only now are U.S. companies beginning to get into the business of buying roads and bridges.

Gas taxes and user fees have fueled the expansion of the nation's highway system. Thousands of miles of roads built since the 1950s changed the landscape, accelerating the growth of suburbia and creating a reliance on motor vehicles to move freight, get to work and take vacations.

In 1956, President Eisenhower pushed to create the interstate highway system for a different: to move troops and tanks and evacuate civilians.

The Bush administration's plan to let a foreign company manage U.S. ports met a storm of protest in February. But plans to sell or lease highways to companies outside the United States have not met such resistance.

John Foote, senior fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said the government can take over a highway in an emergency. But he objects to selling roads to raise cash.

But that is just what Chicago has done.

Last year, the city sold a 99-year lease on the eight-mile Chicago Skyway for $1.83 billion. The buyer was the same consortium that leased the Indiana Toll Road - Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Sydney, Australia, and Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte of Madrid, Spain.

Chicago used the money to pay off debt and fund road projects. Skyway tolls rose 50 cents, to $2.50; By 2017, they will reach $5.

The Indiana Toll Road lease is a better deal, Foote thinks, because the proceeds will pay for urgent projects such as road and bridge improvements.

That need is precisely why cities and states have begun to look to foreign investors.

Between 1980 and 2004, people drove 94 percent more highway miles, according to Federal Highway Administration statistics. But the number of new highway lane miles rose by only 6 percent.

Washington is not likely to produce more money to build roads. The federal highway fund - which will have a balance of about $16 billion by the end of 2006 - will run out in 2009 or 2010, according to White House and congressional estimates.

About half the states now let companies build and operate roads. Many changed their laws recently to do so.

So Illinois lawmakers are examining privatizing the Illinois Toll-way, New Jersey lawmakers are considering selling 49 percent of the state's two big toll roads and a gubernatorial candidate in Ohio wants to sell the turnpike.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who championed his state's toll road deal, now wants investors to build and operate a toll road from Indianapolis to Evansville.

Patrick Bauer, the Indiana House's Democratic leader, says such deals are taxpayer rip-offs.

Bauer believes Macquarie-Cintra could make $133 billion over the 75- year life of the Indiana Toll Road lease - for which Indiana got $3.8 billion.

"In five, maybe 10 years, all that money is gone, and the tolls keep rising and the money keeps flowing into the foreign coffers," Bauer said.

Orange County, Calif., got burned by a toll-road lease for a different reason.

The road, part of state Route 91, was built and run for $130 million by California Private Transportation Company, partly owned by France- based Compagnie Financiere et Industrielle des Autoroutes. The toll road opened in 1995.

Seven years later, Orange County was looking at gridlock. But it could not build more roads because of a provision in the lease. So it bought back the lease _ for $207.5 million.

To encourage more domestic investment in highways, former Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta made a pitch to Wall Street on May 23.

"The time is now for United States investors - including our financial, construction and engineering institutions - to get involved in transportation investments," said Mineta, who left office July 7.

U.S. companies are getting the message.

San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Co., along with Cintra, received approval on June 29 for a 50-year lease to build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for $1.3 billion.

That is part of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's vision to attract more than $80 billion in private funds for roads by 2030. He wants a new toll-way from Oklahoma to Mexico and the Gulf Coast, and one from Shreveport, La., and Texarkana to Mexico. Cintra-Zachry reached a $7.2 billion deal last year to develop the project's first phase.

Not everyone in Texas buys the idea. Harris County officials recently voted against selling three toll roads. Also, independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn opposes Perry's toll road plan.

"Texas freeways belong to Texans, not foreign companies," she said.
 

Scheduled for release by Simon and Schuster earlier that month, "Applebee's America" is aimed at business executives, government leaders and the people they seek to influence, and examines the tactics used by two politicians and a groundbreaking company to thrive in an era of immense change. "Applebee's America" has already been named to the Harvard Business Review's 2006 Reading List. AT&T is the Gold Sponsor of the luncheon and book signing, which includes a pre-luncheon reception for The Chamber's Board of Advisor members. For luncheon sponsorship information, contact Communications Vice President Patti Larsen, plarsen@sachamber.org; 210-229-2112. Dowd is the founding partner of ViaNovo, an international management and communications consulting firm with offices in Austin, Washington D.C., Monterrey, Mexico, and Dallas.

For information on how to enjoy the benefits and privileges that come with Chamber Board of Advisor designation, contact Chamber Executive Vice President Frances Collins at 210-229-2111; email fcollins@sachamber.org
 

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott will be joining several other state attorneys general tomorrow in suing several high-profile, high-tech industries in the U.S., Europe and Asia for conspiring to control the price of the widely used “dynamic random access memory” chip.

Commonly known as “DRAM,” the chip is a form of high-speed computer memory universally found in personal computers, servers and other electronic devices.

The domestic and foreign companies, and their subsidiaries, which as a group controlled virtually all DRAM chip manufacturing and were allegedly found violating federal antitrust laws regarding price-fixing, are:

• Hynix Semiconductor Inc. (South Korea)

• Elpida Memory Inc. (Japan)

• Micron Technology Inc (Idaho)

• NEC Electronics America Inc. (California)

• Infineon Technologies AG (Germany)

• Mosel Vitelic Corp. (Taiwan)

• Nanya Technology Corp. (Taiwan)

“Price-fixing will not be tolerated in our free enterprise system,” said Attorney General Abbott. “We believe these companies worked in collusion to manipulate the chip market and drive up the prices of computers sold to consumers, corporations and state institutions.”

The complaint to be filed tomorrow in California and joined by 33 other states contends that high-volume purchasers of computers, such as public schools and state agencies on fixed budgets, paid excessive prices from 1998 to 2002. The suit seeks restitution and penalties, and an order prohibiting the companies from ever again manipulating pricing that harms the public, resulting also in extraordinary profits.

As a group, the companies were virtually the sole sources for the acquisition of DRAM chips by computer manufacturers such as Dell Corp., a major supplier of computers for Texas public schools, universities and state agencies. The suit alleges the companies’ deliberate scheme to systematically trim production to inflate chip prices caused computer manufacturers to increase their wholesale prices for units, resulting in an inflationary ripple effect in the marketplace. Worldwide sales of these chips jumped from $14 billion in 2001 to $17 billion in 2003, with the U.S. accounting for a significant slice of the market.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which launched its own criminal investigation of the practices in 2002, called the scheme “one of the largest cartels ever discovered.” Micron cooperated with investigators in the federal investigation in exchange for amnesty from criminal charges. Since then, Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, Elpida and 12 individuals have pleaded guilty to criminal price-fixing and together paid more than $730 million in fines.
 

I want to personally thank Judge Richard Price of the 408th District Court for his generosity in invited myself and my mother to his July 4^th fundraiser high atop the Tower of the Americas.

It was a wonderful evening filled with fellowship, great food and a dazzling display of fireworks from all corners of the city! My mother and I were privileged to celebrate Independence Day with such an honorable member of our judicial system.

Thank you Judge Price, that night will forever be cherished in our hearts!

Sincerely,

Schuylar and Rebecca Crist.
 

This is a series by an anonymous political insider in Bexar County. The views of this author do not represent the views of South Texas Republicans. 

On the Democratic side of the coin, apparently I spoke too soon on the disenchantment with Carla Vela, Bexar County Democratic Chair. Last week I mentioned that activists in the Democratic Party were upset because she hadn’t procured a headquarters for the Party.

They groused that two months into her administration there was no headquarters and no fundraising going on. That has abruptly changed. I am told that the Party now has a new home on North St. Mary’s Street across from Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church.

Being near a Christian church might be a good thing. I guess it can’t hurt. Maybe unlike the Northwest Democrats who refuse to recite the pledge and start the meeting with an invocation, the Democratic Party will do so, knowing its closest neighbors attract Christians and patriots to their neighborhood.

Perhaps one of the priests can come over and lead the assembly in prayer. That is unless of course, liberal curmudgeon John MConnell tries to exorcise the priest!

And the other apparent good news for the poverty stricken Democratic Party is that Ms. Vela has scheduled some fundraisers for the very near future. Go girl!

Her numbers are climbing for now with the Party faithful. Like all elected officials, popularity comes and goes. Fickleness comes with the territory.

Another inherent downside to being a woman in charge is that the woman has to do a better than superb job just to get minimal recognition. Men usually get the benefit of the doubt. But then again, it is never easy being woman.

In breaking news, two of my sources in the Tejano Democrats tell me that Judge Paul Canales was observed attending their recent meeting. One source told me that he actually made reference to the Republicrat pointing out his penchant for no-shows at political events.

You may remember he is the Judge who has a history of invisibility except when he files for office and when he is sworn in as Judge. He apparently joked about it at the meeting. At least he has a sense of humor. What a hoot!

Another week has passed and still no response from Genie Wright. You may remember her as the wanna-be Judge who worked behind the scenes to besmirch County Judge Monica Guerrero over a lover’s spat.

Maybe next week she will come out and smell the odious stench she has left in the wake of her egregious behavior. Come out; come out wherever you are hiding Genie and tell us your side of the story on how you manipulated the judicial system to attack your opponent. Helloooo!!

Now that the news of Judge Tom Rickhoff’s two sons’ run-in with the law has made a few headlines, we wait to see what D.A. Susan Reed is going to do about the situation. Now the news is more focused on what the D.A. will do, than the street racing offspring.

Reed has a track record of pursuing and prosecuting drag racers. At least she goes after those on the Southside of town, where kids race down Southwest Military Drive, that is. Will she ignore Rickhoff’s sons because he is a Republican Judge, or go the limit like she is wont to do with the Hispanic community? Only time will tell.

Barbie Scharf-Zeldes the soft-spoken attorney who is challenging Rickoff claims that she is running for Judge to do what is right and not for power. As an aside note, her children are too small to drag race.

Her obvious competence, caring and connection with the people of Bexar County and her understanding of the community will endear her to the voters and put her in the Probate Court  #2 Court in November.

The court primarily addresses the administration of wills and estates, guardianships for those who cannot care for themselves, mental health issues, and an increasingly important point of interest for neighborhoods and property owners – eminent domain cases. We just have to wait and see how it all plays out.

That is the moderate viewpoint. I AM the "Republicrat"!