Friday, April 20, 2007

"IN THE KNOW": Remember The Crime Stoppers "Vandalism" of the Corpus Christi Country Club Golf Coursehigh powered members who control our nation’s eco

"IN THE KNOW": Remember The Crime Stoppers "Vandalism" of the Corpus Christi Country Club Golf Course? Were there not high powered CCCC members who control our nation’s economy & industry. This work of fiction written by Hal Bray set here in Corpus Christi; I just thought you guys might like it. BTW, cant find that particular Crime Stoppers announcement. They tore up the CCCC Golf Course. Who is they?
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, April 16, 2007

Corpus Christi All American City Council Runnoff Election. If Alberto Gonzalez can Purge his Staff; so can Corpus Christi Purge our Staff.

1) Purge the 16 or more Attorneys and Fire Skip Noe.

2) Joe Obrien has very valid points that have been repeatedly ignored by the City and County. (The City of Corpus Christi is habitually tardy filing their reports and the Crime Control District is being misused).

3) Corpus Christi PD needs a certified ballistics lab. (We will let Skip Noe and the Incumbent explain that one).

Who will make a contract with their constituents no excuses & NO OVERRUNS & No Cert$ of obligation
Posted on April 16, 2007 at 01:23:10 PM by Jaime Kenedeno




District 3


Priscilla Leal
vs
Jesse Noyola*


District 4

Mike McCutchon
vs
James Duerr



District 5

Larry Elizondo
vs
Kendra Kinnison





As a City Councilman; What can you do for the Taxpayers of Corpus Christi?
Posted on April 16, 2007 at 01:56:34 PM by Jaime Kenedeno

What will you do?

Oversight Watchdog Committee with Teeth?

One Committee Assignment per person, spread the formation of policy around.


As a runner up of City Councilman; What can you do for the Taxpayers of Corpus Christi?
Posted on April 16, 2007 at 02:08:41 PM by dannoynted1

Will Chad Magill still conduct his "meeting" on thursday?

or fade away like all the previous candidates who promise to "advocate for the
average citizen" but yet acts it only at election time?

Can a "contender" actually conduct himself the same or use defeat as an excuse?


Re(1): Who will Purge the 16 or more Attorneys and Fire Skip Noe.
Posted on April 16, 2007 at 01:40:02 PM by Jaime Kenedeno

1) Purge the 16 or more Attorneys and Fire Skip Noe.

2) Joe Obrien has very valid points that have been repeatedly ignored by the City and County. (The City of Corpus Christi is habitually tardy filing their reports and the Crime Control District is being misused).

3) Corpus Christi PD needs a certified ballistics lab. (We will let Skip Noe and the Incumbent explain that one).


Re(2): Who will skip to the looT
Posted on April 16, 2007 at 02:00:26 PM by dannoynted1

yeah mr. noe answer that or will you live up to yuor name and "SKIP" the d'bate?

hey now your an all star get your game on lets play.....

remember......winners never cheat and cheaters never win.... and if you doubt what i say... wiley coyote thought the same thing...... so do you got the balls to do the right thing?

do ya?

sea sea & CC i. s.d. sittin a tree

k i ss i n g.......first comes

GOD then the TRUTH


Ready or Not............
Posted on April 16, 2007 at 01:51:46 PM by Jaime Kenedeno

here we come



"And I hope that you are having the time of your life
But think twice, that's my only advice

Come on now, who do you, who do you, who do you, who do you think you are,
Ha ha ha bless your soul
You really think you're in control

Well, I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
Just like me"

Posted by at 1 comment:

Monday, April 02, 2007

"Information Systems, U.S. House of Representatives" in Washington, D.C. and provides a contact of "Joseph Adams"

Joe S. Adams, Jr. is a private investigator and former mercenary who trained the forces of, and acted as a bodyguard for, Adolfo Calero, one of the leaders of the Contra rebellion in Nicaragua. In his 1988 trial in Florida for violations of the Neutrality Act, Adams was accused of having done so on behalf of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Adams was the first person indicted in Iran-Contra, was convicted, sentenced to one day of unsupervised probation and a $50.00 fine, and then pardoned. Adams has been the subject of over 100 newspaper articles as well as November 3, 1986 Newsweek article. Adams has also been featured in mercenary magazines such as Eagle and Soldier of Fortune.

A former member of the United States Marine Corps, Adams has also worked as a mercenary and security consultant in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe. He currently operates Adams Investigations in St. Louis, Missouri and has worked numerous high-profile cases there, including the capture of an FBI Top Ten Most-Wanted Fugitive.

Adams is a former bodybuilder and powerlifter who appeared in several of Joe Weider's publications in the 1970s, and appeared in shoots with current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In the 1980s, Adams was the subject of controversy in the St. Louis area when, acting as a bounty hunter, a prisoner in his custody died from the effects of a stun gun.

In 2002 he enrolled at Oakwood College to study Theology in preparation for the ministry.

References

  • Bainerman, J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (42-3)
  • Christic Institute. Sheehan Affidavit. 1988-03-25 (125, 128, 138-9)
  • Marshall, J. The Iran-Contra Connection. 1987 (271)
  • Newsweek 1986-11-03 (35)
  • Scott, P.D. and Marshall, J. Cocaine Politics. 1991 (152, 158)
  • Sklar, H. Washington's War on Nicaragua. 1988 (286-7)
  • Terrell, J. Disposable Patriot. 1992 (160-1, 410)
  • The Progressive, March 1987


Wikipedia:Requests for comment/United States Congress

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

In order to remain listed at Wikipedia:Requests for comment, at least two people need to show that they tried to resolve a dispute with this user and have failed. This must involve the same dispute with a single user, not different disputes or multiple users. The persons complaining must provide evidence of their efforts, and each of them must certify it by signing this page with ~~~~. If this does not happen within 48 hours of the creation of this dispute page (which was: 08:06, 30 January 2006 (UTC)), the page will be deleted. The current date and time is: 02:49, 28 March 2007 (UTC).

This RFC concerns the behavior of editors from the United States Congress

Specific IP Addresses

United States House of Representatives

NOTE: Jon Brandt, spokesman for the Committee on House Administration confirmed House ownership of the IP [1] . —This user has left wikipedia 18:06 2006-01-30

United States Senate

  • Senatorial IP range is 156.33.0.0/16. Contributions from IP's from this range may also be similar.

Users should only edit one summary or view, other than to endorse.

Contents

[show]

[edit] Statement of the dispute

[edit] Description

This RFC is being opened in order to further a centralized discussion concerning actions to be taken against US Congressional staffers and possibly other federal employees who have engaged in unethical and possibly libelous behavior in violation of Wikipedia policies (WP:NPOV, WP:CIV). The editors from these IP ranges have been rude, abrasive, immature, and show disregard for Wikipedia policy. The editors have frequently tried to censor the history of elected officials, often replacing community articles with censored biographies despite other users' attempts to dispute these violations. They also violate Wikipedia:Verifiability, by deleting verified reports, while adding flattering things about members of Congress that are unverified.

The offending editors have been blocked. This RFC is needed to gather community comments. It is proposed that a one week block is not enough. The block was lifted January 30, 2006. A new block for additional vandalism was enforced for three hours February 1, 2006 at 14:59.

[edit] Evidence of disputed behavior

A full list of details can be found at Wikipedia:Congressional Staffer Edits.

Key:

G - represents good faith contributors
P - represents POV (point of view) pushers
V - represents vandals

[edit] United States Congress

[edit] United States House of Representatives

[edit] Range: 143.228.0.0/16
This list contains 1 IP that originated from this range. This list is complete.

[edit] Range: 143.231.0.0/16
This list contains 1 IP that originated from this range. This list is complete.
  • 143.231.249.141 (talk • contribs) - Already blocked. The original IP address, possibly used by staff of Congressman Meehan and possibly other House of Representatives staff members, registering over 1000 edits over hundreds of articles.
Note: IP has been unblocked. —This user has left wikipedia 17:38 2006-01-30

[edit] United States Senate

[edit] Range: 156.33.0.0/16
This list contains the offending users of 175 IPs that originated from this range and edited Wikipedia.

[edit] Additional background

(Link no longer valid)

The following policy violations are documented:

[edit] Continuing Violations

In the article for Congressman Thad McCotter (R-MI) removing references[2] to Tom DeLay:

"In 2005, he has come under srutiny for accepting campaign contributions from embattled former house leader Tom Delay"

This violation occurred 19:39, 31 January 2006.

IP was blocked for 3 hours, see the noticeboard. ~Cheers —This user has left wikipedia 16:53 2006-02-01

In the article for Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) removing references[3] to Tom DeLay:

"Musgrave received $30,000 in campaign contributions from former majority leader Tom DeLay's ARMPAC."

This violation occurred 14:16, 1 February 2006.

In the article for Congressman Dan Lungren (R-CA) removing references[4] to percentage of vote received in defeat for Governor of California:

"Lungren received 38% of the vote."

This violation occurred 01:05, 2 February 2006.

[edit] POV-pushing

The Congressional staffers constantly push their unverified point of view (POV) and have no regard with editing policy.

Marty Meehan

  1. "whitewashing" Marty Meehan
    "Meehan is also known nationally as one of the tobacco industry’s toughest critics" - where is the evidence for this?
  2. Removing legitimate content again.

Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users

  1. Saying "criticism" of the act is silly

[edit] Personal attacks through vandalism

Congressional staffers behind this IP have constantly made personal attacks against other politicians through vandalism.

Douche

  1. Adding Scott McClellan's name as a personal attack

[edit] Applicable policies

{list the policies that apply to the disputed conduct}

  1. Wikipedia:Neutral point of view
  2. Wikipedia:Civility
  3. Wikipedia:Vandalism
  4. Wikipedia:Don't disrupt Wikipedia to prove a point
  5. Wikipedia:Biography
  6. Wikipedia:Ownership of articles
  7. Wikipedia:Libel
  8. Wikipedia:Editing policy
  9. Wikipedia:Assume good faith

[edit] Evidence of trying and failing to resolve the dispute

(provide diffs and links)

  1. User:MC MasterChef tries to inform the Congressional staffers about policy [5]
  2. User:Ryan Delaney tries to reason with the Congressional staffers not to break the 3RR and why it goes against policy [6]
  3. User:Geo Swan attempts to reason with the staffers about POV-pushing. [7]

There are also attempts to reason with a whole host of IP ranges from the Senate; discussed in talk page. Some diffs as example

  1. [8]

It's also apparent from the talk page that many people from the community are exasperated with the Congressional staffers.

Despite attempts from the community to reason with these users, they have failed to respond. This shows their dissonance and disharmony with the community.

[edit] Users certifying the basis for this dispute

{Users who tried and failed to resolve the dispute}

(sign with ~~~~)

  1. 68.50.103.212 05:36, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
  2. Elle vécut heureuse à jamais (Be eudaimonic!)
  3. Ryan Delaney talk 11:34, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
  4. Geo Swan 13:06, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other users who endorse this summary

(sign with ~~~~)

  1. clearly if we dont punish this, its just going to egg on more public figures to hire PR firms to regularly POV push on WP. ALKIVAR™ 08:25, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
  2. agree with ALKIVAR as per above —akghetto talk 09:21, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
  3. I agree. Mushroom 09:23, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
  4. I agree as well. We need to make every effort to point out these disinformationists, embarrass them and their employers publicly, and point out how terribly wrong their actions are. A side question - How many good edits have come from this IP block? Any? If not, maybe we should block ALL editing from .gov computers for a year or so. Sukiari 09:34, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
    • Don't forget folks like nasa.gov . It's not all evil :-) Kim Bruning 04:15, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
  5. I found it a bit disconcerting that no evidence that this IP is actually from the House [had] been presented, so I dug it up. This indicates that it's registered to "Information Systems, U.S. House of Representatives" in Washington, D.C. and provides a contact of "Joseph Adams". This, however, traces it to New York, not Washington. Anyway, regardless of who is behind this, it's definitely wrong. Johnleemk | Talk 11:03, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
    • The 'geographic trace' is effectively meaningless. ARIN is authoritative for who the IP block has been assigned to, and ARIN's record says its assigned to the House. Anyone using that network does so only becuase the IT Dept at the House (or whoever they outsource that function to) allows them to. Some of them may or may not be in New York, but even the geobytes site says their info comes from users self-providing the information. Also, I suspect the 'Joe Adams' listed is a different one than the one the WP link refers to. 68.188.220.62 15:15, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
    • The first footnote provides an authoritative source confirming ownership. And it's obvious.
Posted by at No comments:

Joe S. Adams, Jr. is a private investigator and former mercenary who trained the forces of, and acted as a bodyguard for, Adolfo Calero, one of the leaders of the Contra rebellion in Nicaragua. In his 1988 trial in Florida for violations of the Neutrality Act, Adams was accused of having done so on behalf of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Adams was the first person indicted in Iran-Contra, was convicted, sentenced to one day of unsupervised probation and a $50.00 fine, and then pardoned. Adams has been the subject of over 100 newspaper articles as well as November 3, 1986 Newsweek article. Adams has also been featured in mercenary magazines such as Eagle and Soldier of Fortune.

A former member of the United States Marine Corps, Adams has also worked as a mercenary and security consultant in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe. He currently operates Adams Investigations in St. Louis, Missouri and has worked numerous high-profile cases there, including the capture of an FBI Top Ten Most-Wanted Fugitive.

Adams is a former bodybuilder and powerlifter who appeared in several of Joe Weider's publications in the 1970s, and appeared in shoots with current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In the 1980s, Adams was the subject of controversy in the St. Louis area when, acting as a bounty hunter, a prisoner in his custody died from the effects of a stun gun.

In 2002 he enrolled at Oakwood College to study Theology in preparation for the ministry.

References

  • Bainerman, J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (42-3)
  • Christic Institute. Sheehan Affidavit. 1988-03-25 (125, 128, 138-9)
  • Marshall, J. The Iran-Contra Connection. 1987 (271)
  • Newsweek 1986-11-03 (35)
  • Scott, P.D. and Marshall, J. Cocaine Politics. 1991 (152, 158)
  • Sklar, H. Washington's War on Nicaragua. 1988 (286-7)
  • Terrell, J. Disposable Patriot. 1992 (160-1, 410)
  • The Progressive, March 1987


Wikipedia:Requests for comment/United States Congress

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

In order to remain listed at Wikipedia:Requests for comment, at least two people need to show that they tried to resolve a dispute with this user and have failed. This must involve the same dispute with a single user, not different disputes or multiple users. The persons complaining must provide evidence of their efforts, and each of them must certify it by signing this page with ~~~~. If this does not happen within 48 hours of the creation of this dispute page (which was: 08:06, 30 January 2006 (UTC)), the page will be deleted. The current date and time is: 02:49, 28 March 2007 (UTC).

This RFC concerns the behavior of editors from the United States Congress

Specific IP Addresses

United States House of Representatives

NOTE: Jon Brandt, spokesman for the Committee on House Administration confirmed House ownership of the IP [1] . —This user has left wikipedia 18:06 2006-01-30

United States Senate

  • Senatorial IP range is 156.33.0.0/16. Contributions from IP's from this range may also be similar.

Users should only edit one summary or view, other than to endorse.

Contents

[show]

[edit] Statement of the dispute

[edit] Description

This RFC is being opened in order to further a centralized discussion concerning actions to be taken against US Congressional staffers and possibly other federal employees who have engaged in unethical and possibly libelous behavior in violation of Wikipedia policies (WP:NPOV, WP:CIV). The editors from these IP ranges have been rude, abrasive, immature, and show disregard for Wikipedia policy. The editors have frequently tried to censor the history of elected officials, often replacing community articles with censored biographies despite other users' attempts to dispute these violations. They also violate Wikipedia:Verifiability, by deleting verified reports, while adding flattering things about members of Congress that are unverified.

The offending editors have been blocked. This RFC is needed to gather community comments. It is proposed that a one week block is not enough. The block was lifted January 30, 2006. A new block for additional vandalism was enforced for three hours February 1, 2006 at 14:59.

[edit] Evidence of disputed behavior

A full list of details can be found at Wikipedia:Congressional Staffer Edits.

Key:

G - represents good faith contributors
P - represents POV (point of view) pushers
V - represents vandals

[edit] United States Congress

[edit] United States House of Representatives

[edit] Range: 143.228.0.0/16
This list contains 1 IP that originated from this range. This list is complete.

[edit] Range: 143.231.0.0/16
This list contains 1 IP that originated from this range. This list is complete.
  • 143.231.249.141 (talk • contribs) - Already blocked. The original IP address, possibly used by staff of Congressman Meehan and possibly other House of Representatives staff members, registering over 1000 edits over hundreds of articles.
Note: IP has been unblocked. —This user has left wikipedia 17:38 2006-01-30

[edit] United States Senate

[edit] Range: 156.33.0.0/16
This list contains the offending users of 175 IPs that originated from this range and edited Wikipedia.

[edit] Additional background

(Link no longer valid)

The following policy violations are documented:

[edit] Continuing Violations

In the article for Congressman Thad McCotter (R-MI) removing references[2] to Tom DeLay:

"In 2005, he has come under srutiny for accepting campaign contributions from embattled former house leader Tom Delay"

This violation occurred 19:39, 31 January 2006.

IP was blocked for 3 hours, see the noticeboard. ~Cheers —This user has left wikipedia 16:53 2006-02-01

In the article for Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) removing references[3] to Tom DeLay:

"Musgrave received $30,000 in campaign contributions from former majority leader Tom DeLay's ARMPAC."

This violation occurred 14:16, 1 February 2006.

In the article for Congressman Dan Lungren (R-CA) removing references[4] to percentage of vote received in defeat for Governor of California:

"Lungren received 38% of the vote."

This violation occurred 01:05, 2 February 2006.

[edit] POV-pushing

The Congressional staffers constantly push their unverified point of view (POV) and have no regard with editing policy.

Marty Meehan

  1. "whitewashing" Marty Meehan
    "Meehan is also known nationally as one of the tobacco industry’s toughest critics" - where is the evidence for this?
  2. Removing legitimate content again.

Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users

  1. Saying "criticism" of the act is silly
Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, April 01, 2007

A long line of Kenedeños who have worked for generations as coastal cowboys in S. TX, & the history of the legendary side-by-side Kenedy & King ranch

The King Ranch Wants

http://jaimepowell.blogspot.com/2006/05/also-king-ranch-wants.html


Ill wind divides historic ranches

SARITA — Johnny Vela, among the latest in a long line of Kenedeños who have worked for generations as coastal cowboys in South Texas, knows the friendly history of the legendary side-by-side Kenedy and King ranches.

“That’s what we’ve always thought,” said Vela, standing outside his modest home a couple of blocks from the Kenedy County courthouse.

Vela and other townsfolk also know that nearly a century and a half of peaceful coexistence has been shattered — and not because of rustling, fences or anything else that might have set neighboring ranches to battle in the Texas of yesteryear.

This modern fight is about wind-powered turbines, namely those the Kenedy’s overseers want and the King’s operators don’t. And instead of duking it out on their vast expanses of largely unspoiled range, it’s a war of words mostly waged in office buildings in Houston, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and even Portland, Ore.

“(King Ranch Chief Executive) Jack Hunt goes around telling lies and misquoting information and has no technical skill whatsoever, trying to mislead the public that wind energy doesn’t exist and doesn’t add any value, doesn’t produce much and is a tax debacle,” said John Calaway, whose company plans to build 157 turbines on a plot now owned by the John G. and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation.

Calaway oversees the project from the 40th-floor downtown Houston branch of Babcock & Brown, an Australia-based investment firm.

The mere mention of Hunt’s name might cause smoke to come from his ears if he weren’t so opposed to carbon dioxide emissions.

‘Last great habitat’
Likewise, at the King Ranch’s 16th-floor headquarters in the Galleria area, Hunt gets agitated just thinking about 400-foot-tall turbines picketing the pristine coastal prairie of Kenedy ranch land, which is nearly surrounded by King parcels.

Hunt says Sarita Kenedy East, who until her death in 1961 was the last surviving descendant of ranch founder Mifflin Kenedy, would disapprove.

“People who knew Mrs. Kenedy said she’d be spinning in her grave if she knew these lands were being used for this purpose,” said Hunt. “I don’t think this use is consistent with what the Kenedys had in mind. This area is important environmentally — it’s been called ‘the last great habitat.’ The King Ranch family feels very strongly about stewardship.”

The other wind project is proposed by PPM Energy, which plans to have 267 turbines spinning on another section of the Kenedy Ranch owned by the John G. Kenedy Jr. Trust, which was established upon the death of his childless wife, Elena.

PPM Energy spokeswoman Jan Johnson, lacking the emotion of Calaway, calmly says her company’s project is on course for operation in 2008.

“It’s not uncommon to have a few highly vocal opponents,” said Johnson, whose firm — a subsidiary of Scottish Power — is based on the seventh floor of a Portland building.

Supporting charities
Both the foundation and the trust, while separate entities, give heavily to Catholic charities and see the projects as moneymakers for a variety of causes they support.

“We are satisfied that the proposed wind farm project helps advance Mrs. (Elena) Kenedy’s express wishes to preserve the ranch for the benefit of future generations, both in terms of ensuring continued ranching operations, as well as protecting the environmental sensitivities of the area,” according to a joint statement from the trustees, nephew Pablo Seuss and Frost Bank, which is based in a 21-story building in downtown San Antonio.

Marc Cisneros, a retired Army general who heads the Kenedy Memorial Foundation, rejects Hunt’s claim that he and the trust are willing to sacrifice the unique South Texas environment for a quick payday from wind speculators.

“We at the Kenedy Foundation do not take a back seat to the King Ranch or anyone else in concern for wildlife,” said Cisneros from his 17th-floor office in downtown Corpus Christi, adding that “what wildlife worries about is someone shooting at them,” a swipe at the King Ranch’s prominence as a hunting destination.

“We looked at (the wind proposal) very carefully. We were very cognizant of conserving wildlife. We have quantitative data that show it’s not an issue.”

That data is constantly flowing into Calaway’s offices at Continental Center. A diesel-powered radar site, which sits on the lonesome Jaboncillos Pasture somewhere between U.S. 77 and the coast, has been taking continuous sweeps of the airspace since September, tracking every bird to see if dozens of spinning rotors would pose a threat.

“We’re not seeing the ‘river of birds’ that Jack Hunt talks about,” said Calaway, who holds research predicting minimal impact to bird populations. Plus, he said, the turbines practically stop on a dime if a major influx of birds does pour into the area.

Oversight at issue
Hunt admits he doesn’t know whether the turbines will whack a single bird. His problem is that there’s no regulation of building land-mounted turbines in rural areas, so no government body will vet the project.

And Hunt won’t merely take wind operators at their word.

“We haven’t seen any of that bird data,” he said. “It’s not peer-reviewed. How can you trust it when basically it’s been done by the people they’ve hired to do it? … If I wanted to build a feedlot down there, I’d have to have all kinds of permits.”

The issue has been a struggle for bird advocates such as the Audubon Society, which also supports clean energy.

“On balance, Audubon strongly supports wind power as a clean alternative energy source that reduces the threat of global warming,” Audubon President John Flicker wrote in December, outlining the organization’s position.”Location, however, is important.”

About subsidies
Hunt also needles wind projects about federal, local and ratepayer subsidies they receive and successfully fought to prevent them from getting tax abatements in Kenedy County. In return, supporters of the wind projects note the King Ranch receives generous agriculture subsidies, which Hunt acknowledges.

“That’s irrelevant. We participate in the national farm program, and we have to be competitive,” Hunt said.

He noted that a natural gas-fired plant could be built on a smaller footprint without needing any government help.

Kenedy County Commissioner Anne Armstrong, herself a prominent area rancher, said the abatement issue is closed for now.

“As I understand it, and I’m not on the inner loop, (turbine construction) probably will go ahead anyway,” she said, explaining the projects don’t seem to need county help.

It wasn’t always like this. Florida steamboat pilots Mifflin Kenedy and Richard King migrated to Texas to work the Rio Grande and built a fortune spiriting Confederate cotton through Union blockades in the Civil War.

The empty swath of coastal land they co-owned was amicably split and fenced off in 1868, allowing both men to build their own livestock empires while bringing the world to them via roads and rails.

“They were always friends, (Kenedy) and King,” said Homero S. Vera, coordinator of the Kenedy Ranch Museum at the Kenedy Ranch headquarters in Sarita. “As a matter of fact, when King died, Mifflin was there with him at the Menger Hotel (in San Antonio).”

Ranching and more
The King Ranch remains a vital 825,000-acre cattle and horse operation on the fabled Wild Horse Desert that’s co-owned by an array of descendants with varying surnames, Hunt said.

It has diversified broadly into oil and gas, farming in Texas and Florida, hunting, ecotourism and other interests.

The Kenedy legacy holdings are more modest — if you can call 400,000 or so acres modest — but the foundation and trust distribute millions of dollars to charities across Texas each year.

But Johnny Vela didn’t have time to weigh all the talk of turbines, green energy, bird habitats and tax abatements.

He was more preoccupied with a newly headless chicken hanging by its feet from a nearby tree as it bled out prior to plucking.

The night’s supper was Vela’s main concern, not the people trying to build turbines on the range where generations of Kenedeños once rode.

“They’ve got the money. So if it’s going to get done, it’s going to get done,” he said.

By Mark Babineck
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

mark.babineck@chron.com

chron.com

26 February 2007

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)