Search this site

Thanks to SAWDF, you can take action on these important water bills. But do it now, y'all! This special water alert is courtesy of the Simsboro Aquifer Water Defense Fund Water Alert: May 1, 2025 89(R) HB 1633  - Sponsor: Senator Lois Kolkhorst : Relating to the Criteria Considered by Groundwater Conservation Districts in Permitting Decisions   HB 1633 clarifies and expands the criteria that Groundwater Conservation Districts (GCDs) must consider when evaluating applications for permits or permit amendments. The bill adds “unreasonable impacts to registered exempt wells” to the list of factors that must be considered before granting or denying a permit. Most exempt wells are domestic/livestock wells. This is the first time in history that this legislation is being considered in the Senate! Can you help make history and be present? You do not have to testify. If you are there in person, you can officially register in support of the bill. Your presence will make a huge impression on the committee. We’ll have lanyards you can wear to show your support. If you cannot make it in-person, you can send written testimony to awier.tx@gmail.com . Andy will print and include your testimony in the packet he gives to the committee. Please visit the SAWDF website for the remaining instructions for taking action HERE :

City Council Member Kevin Plunkett's transfers of developer contributions to John Kirkland, who is up for reelection: partners in the recall Lyle lie. Bastrop's City Election is rife with campaign finance violations and developer influence and not getting the attention -- and accuracy -- in the local media that it really deserves. Today, Bastrop blogger, Carol   Spencer , did a great report on campaign finance violations by several candidates. In short, two of the three mayoral candidates -- Harris and DeLaRosa -- have serious campaign finance violations. Spencer also diagrams and provides lots more on Council Member John Kirkland's help from Council Member Kevin Plunkett, who are making it clear why they were so hot-to-trot (on the City's time and dime) to recall Lyle Nelson based on a lie that Nelson was involved in "misuse of funds." Please visit the Facebook page for Independent Texans HERE  to share this news item or, if you live in Bastrop, you may see news posted on NextDoor. There's another doozy coming soon! Not on Facebook? Go directly to Spencer's blog post " Follow the Money ." Thank you, Carol.

The only beat Lyle missed was to tell Kirkland to move over for the seat. Watch, laugh and get people out to dump this dude, John. Watch this video and click on the link below for the full newsletter. https://livtx.org/so/35PPuSFDC?languageTag=en In this Edition: We will discuss this News alert tomorrow night. Please read, share and hop on Zoom! Monday, April 28 @ 8 pm! (Sign in at our Events Page)   • FROM SAWDF, our best water legislation advisors!  Four important water bills were passed by the House of Representatives last week. Now, our focus turns to the Senate. SAWDF executive director. Andy Wie r spoke with staff in Senator Charles Schwertner ’s office [Bastrop, Milam, Robertson, Brazos, Freestone, Leon, and Madison counties]. The staff member stated Senator Schwertner will stand with his constituents. So, we need to let Senator Schwertner know what legislation we support and what we oppose. Make your contacts with legislators right away after you see SAWDF's full report HERE .   •  Former Bastrop Mayor Lyle Nelson  was denied the right to speak in Citizen Comments at the latest Bastrop City Council meeting by Councilman John Kirkland.  Kirkland tried to recall Nelson based on a lie. This is almost funny as Kirkland ignores the City Attorney's advice. (Watch the video above.) Is your city experiencing a growth surge? We can learn together how to stop politicians looking to cash in by squashing open government. Get the facts. Closed Government is No Government   • We have a 46-second truly funny video asking Bastrop voters to " Flush the John ." Do us a favor -- share it from the LIV Facebook page HERE  to help us reach more unsuspecting Bastrop voters. •  We have an excellent update from Move the Gas Plant  that's relevant to all Texans concerned about their property rights, land protections, and clean air forged by the fast-tracking of gas plants. Please read and share this with other Texans from HERE .   Thank you from LIV!

Please share the real story behind a fantasy made up by a Bastrop City Council member named John. He's on the ballot in the local city council election. This entire newsletter is also parked under this link . Early voting in local elections is through April 29th. No voting on the weekend, but it will kick up again on Monday and Tuesday, April 28th and 29th Election Day is Saturday, May 3rd. There's a test case local election going on in the City of Bastrop. Will the citizens get a chance to save their city from those looking to cash in on Bastrop's growth?   Take a 40-second look at this farcical (and hilarious) video going viral in Bastrop.   If advocates for open government have anything to say about it, we will see positive results from a year of hard labor that resulted in a hotly contested election with some great candidates:   Cecilia Serna (Pl. 1) Cheryl Lee (Pl. 5) Ward Northcutt for Bastrop Mayor   Visit Independent Texans PAC, the poorest little pac in Texas, NOT a political whorehouse! Straight from Andy Wier, SAWDF Support HB 1633   House Bill 1633 -- for consideration of exempt domestic/livestock wells -- is on the House General calendar on Wednesday.   Read this flier about HB 1633.   Please contact your Texas Houser representative to vote passage!   Find Your Legislators here. Move the Gas Plant!   Check out the April 19 blog to see how easy it is to make online comments to TCEQ, opposing locating a 1200 megawatt natural-gas fired power plant in the midst of the Blue community in northwest Lee county.   This is the fastest growing residential community in Lee County.   A public meeting sponsored by TCEQ will be held Thursday, April 24 at 7 pm. Lexington American Legion Hall at 304 Rockdale Street.TCEQ will hear public comments on the official record, and TCEQ or Sandow Lakes Energy will hear questions about the project from the public.   Move the Gas Plant has already requested a contested case hearing on the permit, and requests tax-deductible donations, big or small, on the website’s DONATE page or send a check to MTGP, P.O. Box 286, Lexington, TX 78947.MTGP is a 501c3 tax-exempt organization, see the website for more info. Send information requests to info@movethegasplant.org   Go to Move the Gas Plant News!

Bastrop Election Events Wed • Fundraiser on the River Thurs! • Let the people vote on vouchers! A Special Campaign Event   Early voting starts on April 22. Election Day is May 3 . Independents are playing an important role in this election and working with great folks across party lines in this nonpartisan election.   Join us! Wed. 6 to 8 pm, First National Bank of Bastrop Community Room.   6 to 7 pm :  What About Bastrop’s Development Code with Cecilia & Pablo Serna .   7 to 8 pm :  We will announce our support for candidates in Place 1, Place 5 and Mayor • They will be there.   Read: "Get the Facts: Without open government, there is NO government. Thursday Night, 7 to 9 pm Colorado River Fundraiser Neighbor's in Bastrop   Join us for this lovely event that includes an auction, raffle, photo contest and wonderful live music smack dab on the Colorado.   Lots more details here at Environmental Stewardship Holy Moly! Way to go Texas House Dems Best News all Lege Session! Let the people vote on vouchers!   The Dems could force a public vote on vouchers.   Read this Texas Tribune article!

Hot off the Quorum Report 's press is this piece by Scott Braddock about House Speaker Burrows and Lt. Governor Patrick dynamics. What's hidden in the headline about Rep. Harrison 's antics is at the very end of the article. It says it's possible that vouchers could collapse without a public school funding plan. Oops! Read and share . With permission from and thanks to the very local newspaper, the Elgin Courier , read the commentary by Chap Ambrose , the well-known neighbor to Elon Musk-industries and one of the organizers of the Colorado River Fundraiser for Environmental Stewardship next Thursday night. (More below and y'all come!) "Musk’s businesses now border three sides of my homestead west of the Bastrop city limits. In our neighborhood, SpaceX has built a 1-million- square-foot factory. The Boring Company has drilled two tunnels and constructed a boring machine manufacturing facility. X, formerly Twitter, has offcially moved its headquarters nearby—and a few weeks ago, Gov. Greg Abbott announced $17 million in grants to further expand SpaceX here..."   click here for the full article . Live Music • Photo Contest • kids welcome! Judith McGeary and the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance are well-known for getting things done at the TX Lege and in DC. Please read these two timely alerts and take action for local foods and farms: • TX Alert HERE : Register for FARFA's May 6th Lobby Day • Federal Alert HERE : The LOCAL Foods Act (Livestock Owned by Communities to Advance Local Foods Act) has just been reintroduced in the U.S. Senate as S.1212 — a powerful bipartisan step toward restoring control to small farmers and local communities! Do you live in the City of Bastrop? Are you worried about growth? Don't lose sleep over it! Take the Bastrop City Election survey and share it with others. Click HERE for the survey or on the picture. PS We really DO want your opinion. Take the survey and you'll see. Click on the picture for the video. Cecilia Serna is NOT running scared for Bastrop City Council, Place 1. She's running for all the right reasons and turned some heads at last week's Bastrop Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum. Watch this 40-second clip and see what you think. You can donate directly to Cecilia on her website and learn more about her HERE : In a small city race, all donations really do make a difference.

Prepared by Simsboro Aquifer Water Defense Fund, March 2025 • click on it for 3 additional graphs. Folks, your first question is why are we telling you that Texas is risking its water and not your state officials? It's partisan poisoning of our water policy at its worst. In this case, however, it's that both parties agree on dragging their feet for fear their feet will get cut off by the water. real estate, oil and gas, chemical, and other self-interested lobby hogs at our trough. It's possible this see no evil, speak no evil approach to water policy in Texas is about to turn around . OK, we like playing Polyannas on occasion, so play along with us and try to do what we're asking of you. But, get this. We can argue the finer points about water management. Water loss is really about gross mismanagement that can no longer be tolerated as our state continues to move into increased drought and serious contamination threats, including the biosolid problem we wrote about on Sunday HERE . And then there's the contamination that's been going on in the Permian Basin about which our friend Sarah Stogner continues to seek a resolution. A private company in Comal County is wisely holding back on new projects due to drought concerns. And, a groundwater war is on and in court between the fastest growing city in the U.S. -- Georgetown -- and the home of Texas A&M, Bryan-College Station. Read the Texas Tribune about it HERE . TEXAS WATER LOSS. WHAT ARE WE DOING? San Antonio Water System (SAWS), a public utility with a voracious lobby is engaged in simultaneous abject loss of ratepayer dollars and groundwater. See last Sunday's LIV article on HB 29 seeks a reasonable remedy . Now comes the moment of truth. On Monday, April 7, the powerful Sen. C harles Perry (R-Lubbock), chair of the Senate Committee on Water, Agricultural and Rural Affairs will deliberate on his own bill on water loss, SB 1190, a companion to HB 29. You have to attend to testify. The hearing starts at 8 a.m. Notice here . If you live in San Antonio, reach out to Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio) who serves on this important committee. If these two Senators cannot get it together on SAWS and water loss, there is -- effectively -- no way out to protect our most precious resource, other than through the development of the independent political movement in Texas. That's no guarantee either because the problems emerging in water and energy demand a huge reorientation of our misplaced priorities. Our headline is an obviously bad joke. We DO want you to share this with any and all Texans and reach out to the committee members for now. We will be following this legislation closely. Get after it, Texas independents!

On May 3rd there are local elections across the state. In some cities, there are real contests. Can you figure out who this imaginary Bastrop Growth Machine politician is? He is trying to hide behind the skirts of the City Manager who sees her job as dismantling years of careful crafting of the city's development code, aka "B3." We got news for ya, Bastrop. The B3 code needed a scalpel, not a hatchet. If you live in the City of Bastrop, a big contest is happening. If you live in the city, please take the LIV Bastrop survey HERE . If you live anywhere in Texas, please take the LIV Survey HERE . Join us online most Monday nights at 8 pm. LIV has written lots about the political madness overtaking the City of Bastrop. It's not because we live here or that Elon Musk has made Bastrop famous. It's not about partisanship either. Truth is, most of the bigwigs in both parties view growth as always good. Residents do not share this view because they know they pay for the costs of growth, while their quality of life is diminished. The choice of eating a bagel v. clean and available water is a no-brainer. All we ask of you is that you do your homework and ask others to do the same. Start with: The LIV Survey for the Bastrop City Election The recent candidate forum held by the Bastrop Chamber of Commerce with Place 1 and Place 5 candidates is now available on YouTube HERE . Note: In this forum, John Kirkland made plain that those wielding the hatchet on the "B3" code will finish the job after the election. Hint, hint. PS If you call yourself an "independent" -- you vote for the person, not the party -- we hope you will also become a member of LIV today. Visit our "Join" page. And hop on Zoom most Monday nights at 8 pm. Got questions? Use our Contact page or email us at contact@livtx.org . Over, but not out! ________________ *Note: We wrote this article for background about the B3 code, and Strong Towns founder, traffic engineer Chuck Marone, when we helped citizens defeat the Gateway Project in May 2024. It will be back again likely just after this May election.

Disney's Pinocchio (1940) stopped lying and his wish to become a real boy came true. We wish John Kirkland would stop lying and become a real man. LIV and Independent Texans PAC (during the election periods) have written extensively about the problems of "politics, not policy" in the city of Bastrop since May 2024. Local Bastrop news is in a fix when it comes to local politics. Community Impact News has repeatedly missed the story, favoring the status quo. Below are all the articles for you to read from the latest to the earliest of our perspective on these matters. Don't BOG transparency down! Don't have time to read all this stuff? Read those articles that we have highlighted and please take the Bastropians for Open Government Survey here or click on the icon ==> We will keep adding new content as we go. If you would like to submit your own article, reach out to us at 512.213.4511 or contact@livtx.org . • > Posted March 11, 2025:   This is about YOU, Bastrop. It never was about Lyle Nelson . • > Posted March 3, 2025: Citizen Lyle: You can't protect your property rights without open government. • > Posted January 14, 2025 : Bastrop Mayor Lyle Nelson Resigns • > Posted December 23, 2024: 'Twas the week before Christmas and throughout City Hall, City Manager Sylvia made sure to appall:   The silencing of Cheryl Lee   •> MOST IMPORTANT, Posted December 12, 2024 : Why Did Bastrop City Attorney Alan Bojorquez Resign? Buckle Up, Buttercups • > MOST IMPORTANT, Posted December 6, 2024   All I Want for Christmas if Open Government, an end to mob rule and a serious review of Bastrop City Manager Sylvia Carrillo   A crew of unruly people shouted down Mayor Lyle Nelson and Cheryl Lee at this City Council Meeting as the City Manager conducted her own performance review! • > Posted November 10, 2024 : The Little City That Could and Did; Bastrop City Manager up for review • > Posted October 28, 2024: Bastrop City and County Ballot Propositions • > Posted September 24, 2024: Breaking: Nelson Finally Filed Suit • > Posted September 19, 2024: Bastrop Recall enabled by top management, City Manager Sylvia Carrillo and her handpicked Interim City Secretary Irma Parker: Special thanks to Council Member Cheryl Lee •> MOST IMPORTANT, Posted September 17, 2024 : Breaking! News Bastrop Recall House of Cards in Collapse   The recall should have ended here when a Grand Jury came up with NO misuse of funds by anyone! • > Posted September 1, 2024: B astrop Politician Recall Update • > Posted August 19, 2024: The Right to Petition is Not for Politicians in Texas • > Posted August 11, 2024: Mob Rule or Citizen's Right to Petition Come to Bastrop  (Independent Texans PAC) • > Posted July 22, 2024: Recalling the Recallers of Bastrop Mayor Lyle Nelson (Independent Texans PAC) •> Posted May 6, 2024: Fossler Bastrop's Big Win Onward to Defeat the Gateway  (Independent Texans PAC) • > Posted April 26, 2024 : Bastrop Recall: Mob Rule or Keystone Cops; Crouch Spills Beans on NextDoo r (Independent Texans PAC)

The water loss bill was a result of Vista Ridge impacted Lee County Landowner, Nancy McKee, who kept pushing. Scroll to 32 minutes 16 seconds to watch. LIV congratulates Lee County landowner Nancy McKee, Andy Wier of Simsboro Aquifer Water Defense Fund, Rep. Stan Gerdes, and House Speaker Burrows for House Bill 29. HB 29, the "water loss" bill, is now a Speaker priority! Keep reading to see what Ted Boriak of the Water Protection Association of Gonzales County says about it. And get ready for some water action, y'all. LIV supports all legislation backed by SAWDF  SEEN HERE . On March 10, Andy Wier, Executive Director of Simsboro Aquifer Water Defense Fund also shared these materials on water legislation.  Here is a flier  And,  here is the SAWDF slide show . This and more are all on our TX Lege Page HERE . ​ More ON HB 29 -- Texas Water Loss: Water loss due to leaky pipes is HUGE. We wrote about it in 2023 here recognizing McKee's efforts. The worst offender is guess who? San Antonio Water System -- SAWS -- because they waste MORE water than they pump for Vista Ridge, out from underneath communities 142 miles from San Antonio. And, yes, they are hosing their own ratepayers by making them pay for this travesty. Scroll to  32 minutes and 16 seconds  to watch the testimony HB 29. We'll send you one of these when you join LIV. Thanks to Ted Boriak of the Water Protection Association of Gonzales County for saying the unsayable. Vista Ridge should be cut off until they stop wasting all of the water they're pumping from Vista Ridge! This is not a provision in the bill. But the bill does, sensibly, insist that fines be used to directly pay for repairs not sent to the general fund. Why don't you call your legislators and tell them to cut off Vista Ridge and get SAWS on a leash? As Boriak points out, that's the quickest way to get some action. Make sure you read our other post on Land Contamination Warning HERE . And read all about it on our TX Lege page too.

Where's the Governor on land contamination disaster form PFAS? WFAA report We have a big problem, Texas. It's the same problem that faces the entire nation. Forever land contamination warnings about forever chemicals (aka "PFAS") from biosolid-based fertilizers, are seen on NextDoor from informed citizens, but what are our state and federal governments doing about it? A Johnson County Commissioner reluctantly called it "Chernobyl." That might sound like an overstatement to you, but it isn't given how long our "corporate captured" federal (EPA) and state agency (TCEQ) knew about this problem and did nothing. On February 12, Johnson County declared a countywide disaster and asked the Governor to support it. So far, the Governor has remained mute. Thank you, Ft. Worth for suing to get the feds and state to own up! What Can We Do? First, educate ourselves. Check out the Newsweek Report, including video, we have posted for you here ==>. Ft. Worth just filed suit against the Department of Defense and chemical companies for $400 million to mitigate the disaster on their water supply. Ft. Worth serves Johnson County and many others across the area. Then, please review our TX Lege page and take action by reaching all your officials -- state and county. The Legislative Session is in full swing until sine die, the last day of the session, June 2. Last, get involved with LIV if you believe that we need more electoral competition to bring Texans policy, not politics. LIV meets almost every Monday night at 8 pm. Sign in on our Events page. Become a member at our Join page. Over but not out, y'all.

Dallas 2006 Thanks to the Texas Tribune for this article  about Carole Keeton Strayhorn . We appreciate that they didn't write us -- the independent movement -- out of history, Carole's and ours . I got to work with Carole when she made the boldest decision of her long and successful political career. In 2006, she bolted from the GOP to run as an independent for Governor. She was disappointed -- and were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Texans -- that she came in third in a 4-way race. But had we been able to convince Kinky Friedman to switch to run for Lt. Governor, I believe to this very day that Carole could have become the first independent Governor since Sam Houston . We published an analysis after the race, including our discussions with Kinky and his campaign manager, Dean Barklay , in " Divided We Stood ". We were calling for a way forward to build off of Carole and Kinky's combined vote totals of 1.3 million Texans. But, like Perot, Carole left the building. We don't blame her or Perot. It was what it was. Rick Perry , one of the luckiest politicians on the planet, eked out a victory with 39%. But Strayhorn's candidacy ensured that Perry's destructive and grandiose Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), aka the "NAFTA Highway," was defeated in the next legislative session. That was because Carole made it a top-three issue in the race. Here's why Carole's decision to go independent was her boldest. She knew she would never be able to go back. That is also true for the independent movement today. We cannot go back. But we can, and and we must, look at all the failures to move to the next experiment. More than ever, voters want a break-out from the two-party madness. Join us on Monday nights at 8 pm to figure this out together. Go to our Events page to sign in. Farewell, One Tough Grandma. Our condolences to the entire family. Your independent legacy will live on.