Rangers Ride into Kerr County Flood Deaths

Texas Rangers need to broaden the scope of their investigation to include Kerr County officials responsible for disaster planning/response.  Kerr County officials are zero for four regarding flash flooding.

One, they did not drill for the highest risk disaster facing their community.  

Two, they did not participate in state disaster preparations for potential flash flooding for that July 4th holiday.

Three, they did not respond to the flash flood disaster as it unfolded.

Four, they did not evaluate their disaster response.

A team failed the 130 people who died (including the 27 at Camp Mystic) and added to the trauma of so many in Kerr County.  They should all be investigated and held accountable.  The State of Texas is purposely choosing to do otherwise.

Mysterious 3rd Data Center Finally Comes Forward

Cipher Digital, the company behind the Colchis Data Center, would not put San Angelo on its map.  This morning Cipher makes its first public appearance at Tom Green County Commissioners Court.  It's item #8 on the agenda.

San Angelo Mayor Tom Thompson steered me to Cipher in June.  Lots has happened in the interim.  Cipher Digital received conditional base load designation for their project just outside city limits on City Farm Road (adjacent to the Skybox/Emergent Data Center site).

The Mayor feared this would happen.  Months ago he wrote:

"ERCOT and AEP appear to be prioritizing the non-city property project for power allotments."

Wall Street took note of Cipher's ERCOT base load designation for Colchis.

Emerging from the shadows is Lee Bratcher, Cipher Digital’s head of policy and government affairs.  He of the silver tongue will likely be effusive in his praise of local collaboration and extoll the virtues of their Colchis site.  

Expect no real details.  This is the beginning of an effort to obtain public subsidies, significant public subsidies.  Tom Green County has been very generous with tax abatements for prior solar/energy project.  The State of Texas has a giant pocketbook for economic development. TechGods have tapped that before and will do so again.

Cipher Digital is a former bitcoin mining company that is repurposing everything for AI.  The public is not supportive of handouts to companies chasing obscene wealth at their expense.  Cipher just needs to convince a majority of Commissioners and that process begins today.

Update:  The silver tongue is flowing for those watching Commissioners' Court live.  Lee Bratcher joined Cipher in early 2026.  The press release for his hiring noted:

Mr. Bratcher worked closely with policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders in the energy and data center spaces, contributing to the research and development of two pieces of legislation passed during the 87th Texas Legislative Session, as well as two additional bills enacted during the 88th Session and signed into law.

Bratcher dropped the name Bill Blevins, Cipher's Head of Grid Strategies:

Blevins joins Cipher from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (“ERCOT”), where he served as Director of Grid Coordination.

That announcement came in June.

The project is yet to be approved but Cipher already gave AEP $17 million to prepare their grid connection.  Yes, things are coming into focus.    

Beacon Offers Mapslop

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I found an error on Beacon Data Centers campus map in early August.  After checking back mid-September, it was still there.  I used their contact form to directly inform them.  

I received a form e-mail thanking me for my support.  That seemed a bit excessive, shifting a "simple FYI/you might want to correct that" into full blown backing for their monstrous Westline data center/power plant.  

I can only hope our country's bad relations with Canada has Beacon looking at home for new data centers.  Otherwise, Canadian geography isn't what I expected.  

Texas is not Alabama and never has been, just as a simple message is anything but full support.  Take your errors elsewhere gentlemen.  Please.

Update 9-22-26:  What's with data centers and maps?  Cipher Digital wouldn't put San Angelo on its map at all.  Cipher has finally emerged from the shadows and will meet with Tom Green County Commissioners Court today.

Update 9-24-26:  Commissioners' Court showed a video of Texas state Senator Charles Perry calling Beacon Data Centers a "bad actor" and that he will oppose their doing business in Texas.

Cipher Digital's Colchis (San Angelo) Gets Base Power Nod from ERCOT

Proactive reported: 

Under the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’s Batch Zero procedure, Cipher Digital said 1.1 gigawatts received conditional base-load status, comprising Stingray’s 100 megawatts and Colchis’s one gigawatt. 

That status means ERCOT’s grid study treats the capacity as established.

Power connections still need to be authorized. 

The Colchis site is a joint venture where Cipher Digital expects to own 95 of the equity.  Cipher has been growing its equity stake since it first announced the project in November 2025.  

Cipher Digital essentially beat the competition to the punch around their grid connection.  

Colchis site includes fully executed direct interconnection agreement with American Electric Power for dual interconnection facility.  

The joint venture partner has never been identified.  These guys don't like revealing anything.  Cipher Digital didn't put San Angelo or Tom Green County on their map.  Their description of the project places it in "West Texas."

San Angelo Mayor Tom Thompson thought Colchis might leapfrog the Skybox/Emergent Data Center as the two applications targeted the same power source, the Red Creek substation.  

Colchis, despite being proximate to the Skybox/Emergent site, is not in City limits.  They will need to negotiate access to water, sewage, fire and police services.  I can't imagine they would provide all that themselves.  

Cryptobrifeing noted:

The company is also developing natural-gas laterals capable of supporting up to 2.5 GW of on-site generation. That behind-the-meter generation capacity gives Cipher the ability to power facilities with its own gas-fired generation when grid power is unavailable or uneconomical.

Residents of Northeast San Angelo could have both a data center and power plant near them.

Cipher recently raised $810 million through Stingray Compute LLC secured notes.  Fitch Ratings noted:

Stingray Compute LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cipher Digital, is issuing approximately $810 million of senior secured notes to fund construction of a 70 MW critical IT load (100 MW gross) purpose-built HPC data center in Andrews, TX. The total budgeted project cost is approximately $826 million, including about $735 million of capex, $38 million of capitalized interest during construction, a $45 million DSRA and $8 million in fees and expenses. Sources and uses reflect a 98% loan-to-cost ratio, resulting in $810 million in debt and $16 million in equity contribution net of $64 million of capex reimbursement. 

The data center comprises two phases — a 10 MW Network Hall and a 60 MW Data Hall — with rent commencing for each phase upon its completion. The campus is 100% pre-leased to Amazon Data Services, Inc. under a 15-year triple-net lease with rent payments and operating expenses unconditionally guaranteed by Amazon.com, Inc. (AA-/Stable). The assets, rights, responsibilities, and cash flows of the project are ring-fenced within a bankruptcy-remote special purpose entity.

Colchis may have power in its sights, however financing will be the next big hurdle.  The State of Texas, despite its talk, remains accommodative to data center development.  Locals effectively have no say.

Town Hall Concerns Reporting: Crickets

I wondered why there were no news stories on the specific town hall meetings held in various City of San Angelo Districts.  After attending one, I understood why.

The first part of the program involved personalizing the respective City Council representative.  The second had new City Manager Phillip Urrutia give essentially a state of the City update.  The third "took the hall" out of the town hall meeting as citizens did not get to hear one another.  

The format had attendees wander to different areas to share their concerns with Urrutia or various Assistant City Managers/Department Heads.  

It harkened back to the Animal Services Open Houses held by former Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden in early 2024.  Those were held in response to a series of complaints citizens made to their City Council representatives.  I wrote at the time:

San Angelo is five years into programming that kept unwanted dogs out of the shelter. It should be no surprise that they fill the streets. 

Councilman Harry Thomas said just that at the Council's last meeting. “There are more dogs on the streets than there’s ever been.” 

Yes there are. It's from years of "letting them roam unaltered."

I attended the specific Town Hall meeting to share an animal related concern.  It dealt with an irresponsible citizen who'd abandoned over 40 cats and two dogs.  The City claimed this person was a "cat colony manager" even though they'd never fixed their pets, did not consistently provide food/water, nor provide veterinary care for any sick or injured pets.  Numerous pets were poisoned on their watch.  

This owner was reported many times for poor treatment of their animals and consistently failing to follow city ordinances  (spay/neuter, microchip, animal cruelty).

I did not get to share my concern as I needed to leave the meeting at 6:45 pm to care for some of our critters and the City Manager was still presenting.   

This also happened to me relative to Mayor Thompson's Data Center Town Hall but that was available to watch later on video. 

Time will reveal if City Council hears a report as to common constituent concerns across districts and any plans to address those at a high level.   

Six meetings, one video and no opportunity to hear specifics as to why people attended.  Did someone did not want to get lectured by a 92 year old lady, like Rep. August Pfluger?

Texas Energy: Expensive Only One Way

Texans who invested in home solar generation have not gotten a return on their investment as Texas' energy grid added fees while electricity providers dropped the price they paid generators for their power.

Contrast this with power devouring data centers, who have their hand out for giant tax breaks (sales, property) and direct economic development subsidies.  

Part of the reason for buying a solar system came from being left out in the bitter cold for five days in February 2021.  No one apologized to us them.  We are back there once again, economically.  No one is listening to us now.

Data centers that generate their own power stand to advance in our political climate.  Beacon Data Center's Westline Energy Infrastructure plans to install 240 gas fired generators and 40 diesel generators to power their data center complex.  Their "hot economic opportunity" stands to further heat and dry out our natural ecosystem.

A 5,000 gallon diesel spill in Spring Creek or Dove Creek would be disastrous.  That very thing just happened in New Jersey.  

Small person investment is rapidly eroded while the big boys rake it in.  Citizens are tired of getting the short end of every deal.  

Businesses and elected officials should take note.  There is little evidence that is happening.  

Trump II Wants Data to Reign

 Trump II recently wrote "Let data reign" on Truth Social.

"If you want to pay lower taxes, if you want to create tremendous wealth, if you want your house to be more valuable and everything else, you're going to want a data center," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "If you want to go through poverty, crime and squalor, I would say don't approve data centers." 

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick chalked up opposition to "propaganda by our adversaries" and said the benefits to communities are "obvious." 

Trump's former AI czar, David Sacks, asserted that "misinformation" was to blame for the  backlash and said "no one is trying to force these data centers down anyone's throats."

Actually a collection of someones is trying to just that, Mr. Sacks.  It's a combination of elected and unelected government officials, TechGods and their financiers (private equity underwriters (PEU)),  Sacks knows them well. 

Surely data exists on home valuations in close proximity to data centers.  I can't imagine it supports Trump II's assertions (which often are not fact based).  That said, if homes across from data centers become unsellable then that data could be missing.  Abandoned homes often become magnets for poverty, crime and squalor.  

The benefits of data centers to billionaires Trump II, Howard Lutnick and David Sacks are obvious.  The investor class has multiple ways to profit from data center proliferation.  They can front run government policy and federal budget priorities.  Annual financial disclosures will indicate how these "public servants" are profiting from their private holdings.

Also, Mr. Lutnick's getting a multimillion dollar house from Jeffrey Epstein for $10 is not available to common folk.

Trump II and his kingly court want data to reign.

 

Data cannot be a sovereign power.  It should not be chief of state or have the authority of a monarch.

TechGods's social media usurped children's brains, their physical/emotional safety, social development and individual autonomy.  With AI they are shooting to distort whole societies.  

Data is incapable of reigning.  It's purveyors have shown their ability to feign to maximize their financial position and personal power.  "Everyone can have a penthouse" and "AI will cure cancer."  

Trump II, Lutnick and Sacks are selling something.  It's called their own book.  Normally, those come with disclosures but we are in a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) world.  Leon Black is telling us that very thing with his non-testimony.

The only data that rains is what they want us to see.

--cross posted at PEUReport as private equity plays a key role in data center rollout

Beacon to Bypass Gov. Abbott's Approval?

Beacon Data Centers is yet to commit to Governor Gregg Abbott's data center requirements.  They may not need to given their project is not requesting access to the Texas electrical grid according to the Concho Observer.

Skybox committed.  Emergent committed, as did Cipher Digital.  These three names are associated with two planned data centers in northeast San Angelo.  

Emergent and Cipher Digital are competing for grid power in this ERCOT application round.

Beacon is counting on ERCOT to approach them for connection.  Beacon's power plant of 280 generators (240 gas & 40 diesel) will need to avoid Spring Creek's floodplain.

Financing will be the big hurdle for all three projects.  Cipher Digital already inked several major customers.  Emergent and Beacon are currently marketing their wares to various TechGods.

All three could make and conversely, none could come to fruition.  That's not reassuring to residents of Dove Creek or northeast San Angelo neighborhoods.

State government does not have our backs.  That said, Rep. Drew Darby has asked Beacon Data Centers to be more forthcoming regarding its air emission plans.  Future issues to address include water (which shifted from surface only to drilling wells), noise, the project's heat signature and traffic.  

Beacon executives said "we wouldn't be a good neighbor if we did that."  The next time he showed up "that" was in their plans.  No wonder they don't want more public meetings given they plan to be a bad neighbor.

Update 8-25-26:  It remains to be seen if TCEQ holds a public meeting on Beacon's air emissions application.

Residents have until Friday, Aug. 14, to file a written protest with the TCEQ about Beacon Data Centers' air quality permit applications. The TCEQ will make a decision about whether to hold a public hearing on the company's air quality permit applications based on community input.

Update 8-26-26:  InsideClimateNews wrote about emissions from numerous Texas data centers, including Westline.

George P. Bush indicated two of the three possible data centers may come to fruition at a Chamber of Commerce sponsored event.

Update 9-4-26:  Trump II is likely in favor of Beacon's data center approach for Dove Creek, that is until he learns they are a Canadian company sponsored by a Canadian private equity underwriter (PEU).

Trump said that he’s letting companies build their own power plants so they don’t have to use the grid, which would mean lower energy costs for residents. He didn’t mention, however, that would also mean excess pollution and smog for communities that would have the additional power plants in their backyards.

Update 9-5-26:  Who knew data center wastewater might introduce potentially deadly pathogens.  

Meta Cheyenne Datacenter CHY1-2 discharge contained Cupriavidus gilardii.

It came from their closed loop cooling system, currently under construction. 

Camp Mystic Shuffled Funds to Insiders before Bankruptcy

A bankruptcy filing shed light on Camp Mystic's finances according to KERA News:

....filing also shows Camp Mystic reported about $774,000 in payments or transfers benefiting company insiders between June 2025 and April 2026. That category includes managers of the company, their relatives and affiliated businesses. 

The largest share — $480,000 — went to Natural Fountains Properties Inc., an affiliated company that owns property used by the camp. Camp Mystic paid the company $80,000 a month in rent from July through December 2025. 

Edward Eastland, a manager of Camp Mystic, received about $69,800 during the period covered by the filing. 

George Eastland received about $60,300, while Richard Eastland Jr. received about $59,200. Together with compensation paid to their spouses, the six members of the Eastland family received nearly $300,000 since June 30, 2025.

More than 130 people died across the region, including 25 campers and two counselors at Camp Mystic, along with camp owner and executive director Dick Eastland.

Siphoning cash before a bankruptcy is a common move in the financial world.  Private equity underwriters (PEU) are infamous for bleeding affiliates prior to an insolvency.  

PEUs also utilize interrelated corporate entities to maximize profits and ring fence liability.

Twenty seven people died in the hands of Camp Mystic.  Officially 119 people died in Kerr County from the July 4th floods. 

Kerr County is yet to conduct an evaluation of its disaster response on July 4, 2025.  They've had ample time but lack the will to do an emergency management basic.  So far, the state of Texas has given Kerr County officials an undeserved pass.   This too has a PEU ring and echoes the Bush White House Lessons Learned report on Hurricane Katrina which never mentioned the hospitals with the highest death toll in Katrina's aftermath.  One was PEU owned, the other other landed a Bush on its corporate board.  

Texas has more in common with Louisiana than I thought.  Political connections, so canaille (mischievous; sneaky, wily). 

Beacon's San Angelo, Alabama

Beacon Data Centers has more than one San Angelo in its sites for a future data center.  In July Beacon shared its intent to build in Mobile County, Alabama.

Oddly, their map mislabeled their new Mobile County location.

Someday Beacon's Canadian and Irish executives will learn the difference between West Texas and the Redneck Riviera.  Until then, it's Beacon AI, garbage in, garbage out.  

Update 9-5-26:  Beacon's campus map shows the Alabama site as San Angelo, Texas.  I checked from multiple browsers just to make sure.  Maybe someday, their marketing folks or an AI product will find and correct the error.

Beacon's Pollution Application is Clear Warning

Beacon Data Centers listed a number of entities in its air emissions application with Texas Council for Environmental Quality, a state department that schedules polluters and water table depleters.  Entities include Beacon Data Centers, Beacon Services USA LLC and Westline TX Holdings LLC.  All use a Texas corporate registration agent in Austin.  

The application indicates the site will become a major electrical generation facility with hundreds of generators, both natural gas and diesel.  It also will be able to pump huge volumes of water.

It states "100 hours per fire water pump" times 60 pumps times 3,528 gallons per hour equals 21.2 million gallons.

A flow rate of 84 BPH (Barrels Per Hour) translates to roughly 58.8 gallons per minute (GPM) or 3,528 gallons per hour (GPH)

That is for one aspect of a giant operation.  Beacon already dropped its promise not to drill wells and avoid using groundwater.

The generators need to be in a climate controlled area as their maximum operating air temperature is 100 degrees.   So cooling is needed for both the data center side and the electrical generation side of the massive operation.

As for pollutants Westline is seeking TCEQ's stamp of approval for increased emission thresholds for seven pollutants:

Beacon started by calling the project Dove Creek Technology Campus but their public meeting at the Four56 Church did not as planned.  

After encountering significant local opposition Beacon instituted a name change.  It can be seen in their Delaware corporate registration (the week after the public meeting).

Concho Observer ran a piece suggesting pollution from the site would be minor relative to other uses.  That should not be a surprise as their owner represented Beacon at the Tom Green County Commissioners' Court in May and is a prominent attorney and leading member of the political Blue Team.

Beacon is backed by private equity firm Nadia Partners.  An interruption of capital flows could quickly derail this project.  Citizens will find out if Nadia has the goods to bring this abomination to life.  

Outside finances there is little to nothing standing in their way in permissive, already hot & drought prone Texas.  Beacon paid an extra $20,000 on top of the $75,000 fee to have their pollution request expedited.

Longtime San Angelo residents recall the West Texas Utilities Power Plant on Lake Nasworthy.  

The first pre-engineered combined-cycle power plant installed by the West Texas Utilities Company at its power station in San Angelo, Texas. The Westinghouse Electric gas turbine used for that application was a supercharged model W301, nominally rated at 25MW. The rating on the steam turbine was 85MW, for an overall combined-cycle plant power rating of 110MW, and Thermal efficiency achieved was more than 39 percent, the record for gas-fired power plants in the U.S. for quite some time.

Hot Water Slough got its name from discharged water from that plant.  How much hot air and water will Westline be discharging into our environment from its various heavy commercial operations?  

Add additional hot air every time Beacon executives visit...

Update 8-11-26:  A number of developers and tech giants agreed to Governor Greg Abbott's data center standards.  Skybox is one of those.  Beacon is yet to do so.

Rep. Drew Darby requested TCEQ hold public meetings on Beacon's proposed Westline data center and power generation project.  He also made a number of requests to Beacon on behalf of his constituents in the Dove Creek area.

Beacon's Westline Now 2.4 MW Project, Major Polluter

The neighborly Beacon Data Center team plans to foul West Texas air with their onsite power plant. 

The Texas Commission for Environmental Quality received an application from Beacon's Westline project for permission to launch contaminants into the air.  They've determined it is complete.

Beacon would begin construction January 1, 2027.  New Year's Day must not be a holiday in Canada.

The application indicates Beacon's Westline would be a significant generator of electricity as well as a major polluter.  Some details from the submission are reproduced below.

I have a different name for TCEQ.  It is the:

Texas Commission for Scheduling Pollution Emissions & Water Table Drawdowns (TC-SPEW-TD).  

I hope someday they prove me wrong.  

Capital markets may not be as permissive as Texas "regulators."

Update:  Beacon Services USA LLC paid TCEQ $95,000, which includes $20,000 to expedite the application..  

Update 7-12-26:  Concho Observer ran a story on Beacon's lack of communication with County officials as it applied to TCEQ for air emissions.  CO's owner represented Beacon at the company's last appearance before Tom Green County Commissioners Court.  CO ran a piece on the requested emissions which failed to illuminate the massive electrical generation operation that is planned.

Update 8-11-26:  A number of developers and tech giants agreed to Governor Greg Abbott's data center standards.  Skybox is one of those.  Beacon is yet to do so.

Rep. Drew Darby requested TCEQ hold public meetings on Beacon's proposed Westline data center and power generation project.  He also made a number of requests to Beacon on behalf of his constituents in the Dove Creek area.

DOE to Fund Colchis over Skybox/Emergent?

Fox West Texas reported the U.S. Department of Energy will loan AEP $3.26 billion for electrical infrastructure upgrades and expansion:

The agency said the financing will support about 100 transmission projects across Texas, including rebuilding or reconductoring existing transmission lines and constructing new transmission infrastructure spanning roughly 2,800 miles. 

Officials said the projects are intended to improve grid reliability, reduce power interruptions and help connect new sources of baseload generation to the system. 

The department said the transmission upgrades are also aimed at meeting growing electricity demand from data centers, advanced manufacturing and oil and natural gas development in the Permian Basin.

AEP has an agreement with Cipher Digital's Colchis Data Center project in just outside of city limits in Northeast San Angelo.  It is basically across the street from the proposed Skybox/Emergent Data Center.

ERCOT's Batch Zero competition will determine which data center projects get the necessary power.   

July 10, 2026 — Deadline for projects wanting to be part of Batch Zero to submit required technical studies and documentation.

Cipher Digital previously noted in a press release:

The Colchis site includes a fully executed 1-GW Direct Connect Agreement with American Electric Power (“AEP”), under which AEP will construct the necessary dual interconnection facility for a targeted energization in 2028. Construction of the interconnection facility will proceed in parallel with ERCOT's final review and approval.

If the DOE is funding AEP's Direct Connect interconnection facility with Colchis, is that not a thumb on the scale for that project over Skybox/Emergent, which leads us back to my original comment: 

I wonder if AEP's dual interconnection facility garners them an equity stake in Colchis. It seems strange that AEP would pick one data center over another at this stage. Shouldn't they work with whichever was approved by ERCOT via Batch Zero? It feels like a thumb on the scale. 

 However it is Texas where there are lots of thumbs and even more scales.

Spring 2027 is the timeframe for ERCOT to " provides each Batch Zero large user with the amount of electricity that can reliably be allocated for their project."  Losers can then enter Batch One.  

As for lowering energy prices, that remains to be seen.   Our prices continue to go up while Texas electrical providers pay us 50% of the rate they did just 15 months ago for our solar power.  

Individual generators get less and less for the power we produce, while delivery fees and base fees continue to eat us up.  Having solar with battery backup hasn't been a zero, but it's nowhere near the projections made when we installed the system.  And we have ERCOT to thank for that. 

Yes, the people who left us without power for five days in frigid conditions in February 2021 continue to deliver us a bad hand.  The DOE loan to AEP may soften that just a tad.  Time will tell.

Update 8-19-26:  Texas Governor Gregg Abbott revealed Cipher Digital committed to meeting his requirements for data center development.

Emergent Data Centers committed as well.  Both sites plan to use power from ERCOT and are proximate to each other in Northeast San Angelo.

Beacon Data Centers has not been mentioned by the Governor but their plans do not include a grid connection, at least initially.

Update 9-1-26:  ERCOT's Batch Zero process moved the date it will issue reports to December 10, 2026.  The City of San Angelo is no longer projecting capital investment from data centers for 2026.

Retiring City Manager Valenzuela is Model for Endurance

San Angelo City Council recognized retiring City Manager Daniel Valenzuela in this morning's meeting.  Mayor Tom Thompson shared a number of adjectives regarding his experience with Daniel.  I attended with the intention of speaking during public comment but changed my mind after hearing Valenzuela speak.  He said "I've fall short every day, fall flat on my face."  

My public comment highlighted a few of those shortfalls and face plants and I decided it would work just fine in print.  It is below:

Mayor, Council members, City Manager Valenzuela and city staff.  I wish to highlight a few things as this is Mr. Valenzuela’s last council meeting. Mr. Valenzuela has been a role model for his ability to endure. He joined the city in 2012 and immediately faced several trials brought on by staff. Water Chief Will Wilde purchased over $100,000 of new furniture without the approval of Assistant City Managers Elizabeth Grindstaff and Interim City Manager Michael Dane. I obtained a copy of the internal investigation which was undated and unsigned. 

The City then eliminated its Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic, parked the staff in other departments so it could get Medicare 1115 Waiver funding to reinstate, improve and expand services in a new facility. Medicare took back money for the new building but forgave the city for not fulfilling its promises to increase clinical staff, extend hours or conduct clinics in outreach locations. Medicare looked the other way when the city closed its critical public health clinic for fifteen months due to COVID. Meanwhile, another part of the federal government gave the city millions. 

The city had roughly $640,000 remaining in 1115 Waiver funds as of early March. That is over twelve years of annual rent. I find it odd that an initial three-year program to increase local healthcare access can fund the same STD program that existed months prior in the same physical space for well over several decades. It’s the Feds money and apparently, they like funding long term rent. 

Early in Mr. Valenzuela’s job city economic development staff characterized Mayor Alvin New as an advisory board member for MedHab. This was a misrepresentation. Mayor New was full member of the company’s board of directors with full fiduciary duties. City leaders changed economic development rules to fund MedHab’s production site. Those 400 promised jobs never arrived. 

City Manager Valenzuela handled all these events with decorum, aplomb and endurance. 

Texans need endurance given the economic landscape that faces us. Many recall the Shale boom and its impact. A potential data center boom looms with demands on water, infrastructure, housing, and the electrical grid. That grid failed millions in February 2021. We were reduced to frigid pioneers with texting capabilities for five days. 

As a result, we installed a solar system with battery backup. Nearly all the initial projections have not been realized. The state added delivery charges and Reliant Energy now pays us half of the amount for power that they did 15 months ago, while charging us more. There is no competition for our power in the Texas Electrical Cartel. 

Mr. Valenzuela, in your retirement may you avoid governments telling you to enjoy the creekless creek, to put up with the humless hum, to not smell the gasless gas emissions and to proudly pay the billless bill for ever increasing rent, insurance, water and electricity.

Promises are made, projections offered and assumptions shared.  Reality occurs.  It is rare that there is an accounting of gaps between and responsibility taken.  

San Angelo and the Concho Valley are entering a new phase and I recommend everyone buckle up.  The big money boys have found us and they don't like to share.

Citizens will need more than Valenzuela's ability to endure.  We will need "Booger Red's" legendary riding skills.  Frankly, it's now ride or be ridden. 

Government is supposed to be the counterbalance to runaway exploitation of people, resources and the public commons.  I understand our new City Manager has unique skills.  I hope that includes dealing with the big money boys.  

Update 7-10-26:  The City held a reception for retiring City Manager Daniel Valenzuela.

Update 8-10-26:  Solar power generation saved the Texas Grid during record July electrical use.

Tax Abatement for Technology Tower Returns

San Angelo City Council will conduct a public hearing on a proposal to offer a 75% tax abatement to Technology Tower for its $7.5 million investment in major building improvements.  The site is the former Sitel building on Loop 306.  

Three years ago the City provided $250,000 to support the renovations.  

Just over two years ago the Development Corporation Board addressed a tax abatement for up to $5.1 million in improvements.  The meeting packet stated:

COSADC also recommended Council consider extending a tax abatement of City property tax on the property. This item was approved by COSADC at their meeting on May 24, 2023 and ratified by City Council at their meeting on June 6, 2023. 

At their meeting on October 3, 2023 CIty Council approved the renewal of Chapter 1 “General Provisions”, Article 1.09 “Taxation”, Division 3 “Uniform Tax Abatement Policy”, of the CIty Code of Ordinances. 

Technology Towers, LLC has requested a tax abatement in accordance with the ordinance. According to the approved Tax Abatement Policy, a capital investment of $2.5M -$5M (the proposed increase in value) would receive a 60% tax abatement for a period of up to 7 years, limited, however, "no more than five tax years next following the timely and successful completion of the project." 

Assuming current tax rates and a 7 year rebate at 60% of the increase in appraised value, the total tax rebate would be approximately $89,484.00 over the seven year period of the abatement.  

The building renovation cost went up $2.4 million in the interim, as did the abatement percentage which rose 15%.  The former $90,000 abatement could rise to $223,000, depending on the city's ability to increase the property value under new state law.

Staff may or may not share this history as they are known for their minimalist approach in providing elected officials information.  Will a new City Manager be able to change that longstanding oddity?  I offer no predictions.

State of Texas Report on Deadly July 4th Floods

Five days ago the Texas State legislature released a report focused on the deaths at Camp Mystic.  

No governmental organization has evaluated Kerr County's disaster response to the July 4th flash flooding that killed 119 people in 2025.  Kerr County has not done so and neither has the State of Texas despite their charge:

Senate Resolution 2 includes:

House Resolution 177 is even more specific as to its charge:

The report indicates a flash flood warning was issued at 1:14 am on July 4, 2025 and that should have triggered a Kerr County response, per their disaster plan.

Local authorities did not respond per their plan.  A headline from August 1, 2025 leads the graphic below which includes text from the State Legislative report underneath.

The state report does not include any efforts made by local 911 operators and public safety officials to reach responsible Kerr County officials, the county judge, county sheriff and emergency management coordinator.  

Camp Mystic warranted a timeline, maps and pictures but Kerr County did not.

It remains to be seen if the Joint Legislative Committee's work is done or if they will tackle Kerr County directly with maps showing the 119 deaths, the specific actions taken by local 911 operators to mobilize an official disaster response via a timeline and any supporting audiovisuals.

Someone needs to evaluate Kerr County's response, otherwise the most basic responsibility of disaster planning/management will be abdicated.  That's evaluating what actually happened.

Update 7-8-26:  KXAN reported on the one year anniversary of the deadly disaster and efforts to prevent a future nightmare.  

Kerr County received an initial grant award on Dec. 16 for $1 million to help fund the sirens, according to public records obtained by KXAN Investigates. The UGRA is expected to ask for an additional $250,000 from the state — an amount still “anticipated to be insufficient” to install “all desired flood warning system components,” records show.

Disaster response - insufficient, disaster evaluation - nonexistent, future intervention to address unevaluated deficiencies - insufficient. 

Kerr County emergency management is a fractal of insufficiency.  

Update 7-16-26:

The State of Texas continues to not hold Kerr County officials responsible for their abject public safety failures in the July 4th flood.

July 4th 2025 Texas Floods: So Much Loss & So Little Information

Vanity Fair ran a timely story on last year's flash flood in the Texas Hill County.  It's a disaster where some public officials clearly failed to prepare, to effectively respond and to take proper account for their actions/non-actions.  

On June 3rd Kerr County's Assistant County Attorney responded to my public information request for documents indicating the county evaluated their disaster response to the July 4th flooding that killed 139 people, 119 in Kerr County.   His message is below:

On May 28, 2026, Kerr County received via email a request from you pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act (TPIA), Chapter 552 of the Texas Government Code. Your request states: 

Please provide copies of any disaster evaluation/ after action report regarding Kerr County's emergency management response on July 4, 2025. This request is being submitted for all County Commissioners, all department heads (including Information Technology) and the County Attorney’s Office. 

In partial response, Kerr County has completed its search for records responsive to your request for the Sheriff’s Office, all County Commissioners, Information Technology, Road & Bridge, Engineering, and the County Attorney’s Office. 

After a diligent search of files, records, and information systems reasonably likely to contain responsive materials, these departments and/or department heads have no records responsive to your request. 

We will provide you with an updated response once all other departments have concluded their searches for responsive documents. 

Notice of Obligations Under the Act, a governmental body is not required to create new information, perform legal research, or answer questions in response to a request. A governmental body is only required to provide information that is already in existence at the time the request is received. (See Tex. Att'y Gen. Op. Nos. JM-672 (1987), OR2014-04746). 

Status As no responsive records exist in these offices and/or maintained by these department heads, those departments consider this request fulfilled and closed.

Last fall I'd submitted a public information request for documents indicating Kerr County's conducting disaster drills under the tenure of Emergency Management Coordinator William "Dub" Thomas.  That request also had no records responsive to the request.

Kerr County did not drill for a flash flood disaster and it did not evaluate its response to the deadly July 4th flash flood event.  These are basic competencies in the disaster response world.  

I await Kerr County's response from all other departments and reached out to the Assistant County Attorney several days ago.  He may not have appreciated my question on June 3rd:

As Assistant County Attorney do you find it odd that your organization never conducted a review of its response for the flash flood disaster that occurred on 7-4-25?

There is another oddity, the strange way Kerr County does not have one public information official but one per County Department and County Commissioner.  I learned this when I submitted the May 28, 2026 public information request.  

Kerr County does not have a general county-wide TPIA officer, but rather each elected official and department maintains their own TPIA officer. Please clarify to which department or elected official that you are directing this TPIA request. Please be aware that if we do not receive a written response from you within 61 days, then this request will be deemed withdrawn.

The Texas Attorney General's Office under Ken Paxton shows "no results" for Kerr County in their Public Information Coordinator database.

Local elected officials and County staff were charged with and paid to effectively respond when disasters strike.  That did not happen.  

What the County failed to provide, Vanity Fair did:

Around 2:50 a.m. on July 4, a two-dispatcher team at the Kerr­ville 911 center started getting calls for help. Between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., recordings show that they apparently received 106 frantic life-or-death pleas for rescue. 

The NWS has since released a detailed summary of the night of the floods. The report states that the Austin/San Antonio Weather Forecast Office (WFO) tried calling the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office and the Kerr County emergency coordinator around 3:40 a.m., two and a half hours after the first flash flood warning. (Neither the sheriff nor the emergency management coordinator, who announced his retirement in March, responded to a request for comment.) 

The sheriff didn’t receive a call until 4:20 and didn’t arrive at the sheriff’s office until around 5 a.m. The emergency management coordinator was woken up by his wife around 5:30 a.m.; the WFO couldn’t reach him until 6:19 a.m.

The State of Texas knows exactly what happened as it took over the response effort.  There already is a report card, 119 Kerr County deaths and 139 overall.  

It's hard to see where there has been any accountability for local officials who failed their constituents.  

The State of Texas floods and it tends to flood more in El Nino years.  We enter this potential flood season with a black mark, a significant deficiency, haunted by ineffectiveness and incompetence of the people charged with intervening on our behalf and state officials charged with holding them accountable.

Update 6-18-26:  Several more departments indicated they had no documents relative to a disaster response evaluation or after action report.  The Assistant County Attorney did include a press release on their new siren warning system which states:  

"We are ready to do our part in Emergency Management."

Your part was accounting for Kerr County's action/inaction on July 4, 2025.  It remains unfulfilled.  

Update 6-19-26:  HR and the Auditor had no documents relative to Kerr County's disaster response on July 4, 2025.  Were all departments ordered not to document their actions that day?

Is anyone else puzzled by this level of complexity and inefficiency for something that is a basic in the disaster preparedness/response world?  Surely, deputies were dispatched to the homes of the County Judge, Sheriff and Emergency Management Coordinator early that morning.

"Sirens" will save us.  San Angelo relied on emergency warning sirens for decades.  Maintenance was an issue.  Eighty mile an hour winds impact the way sound carries while having a roar of their own.

If no one is there to activate the siren, what good is it?  Kerr County officials had access to a perfectly good warning system.  They simply did not use it.  

Update 6-22-26:  Add a County Constable and District Clerk to the list of Kerr County departments that did not conduct an evaluation of their disaster response on July 4, 2025.  

Texas Highways reported:

“A big flood is coming,” Scott Towery told the 911 dispatcher from the Kerr County Sheriff’s office at 2:52 a.m. on July 4, 2025. The electronic rain gauge in the River Inn Resort and Conference Center apartment where Towery lives with his wife, Connie, read 5 1/2 inches. He walked out on the deck and saw water 4 feet over the dam. He spoke plainly, “I just wanted to alert y’all.”

 The State of Texas issued their report on the July 4th flash flood.  It goes light on Kerr County's "emergency response."  There is a section on responsibilities but no real evaluation of how the county responded per their emergency preparedness plan to the life threatening flash flood warning on July 4, 2025.  

The plan indicates the following responsibilities in such a case:

"notifying the public about the warning, evacuating low-lying areas, open[ing] shelters to house evacuees, and continuous situation monitoring"

Camp Mystic warranted a timeline in the state report but Kerr County did not even though it was the governmental entity charged with disaster planning/ response and local emergency response.  

Vanity Fair and Texas Highways shared more than the state did about efforts to contact Kerr County officials and information shared with local 911 operators.  

Update 6-23-26:  ABC News shared a timeline of of the flash flood disaster that killed 119 people and did so on August 1. 2025.  KXAN did likewise regarding the National Weather Service's efforts to contact Kerr County officials to mobilize an urgently needed disaster response.

Update 7-16-26:

The State of Texas, headed by Governor Greg Abbott, continues to not hold Kerr County officials responsible for their abject public safety failures in the July 4th flood.  

Shannon Dropping Humana Medicare Advantage

A Shannon MyChart message from CEO Shane Plymell informed me that Shannon Medical Center would no longer participate in Humana Medicare Advantage come June 30, 2026.  

When I look at Humana paperwork (EOBs) showing what little they actually paid for my care, I understand why Shannon would make such a decision.  

Medicare allows me to switch insurance companies in such a situation.  I wanted to know which insurers Shannon accepts in the Medicare Advantage arena and when those contracts expire.  I was told that information is not available.  

I asked that my request be shared with decision makers, simply that someone asked for that information.  The answer?  That's not possible.  One might expect an organization focused on "patient centered" care to at least pass on a patient request.  

Medicare informed me that Shannon accepts Medicare Advantage plans from United Healthcare and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, but could not tell me how long that might last.

Humana is yet to inform me of their looming nonparticipation with my healthcare provider.  

We are in the age of information and no one wants to share.  

Letter to San Angelo City Council re: Data Centers

June 2, 2026

Dear Mayor and Members of City Council,

In December 2025 I filed a public information request re: incentives and subsidies for the Skybox Data Center. It remains with the Texas Attorney General’s office.

The City has partnered with Skybox and its developer, Emergent Data Centers, since early 2025. This “exceptional municipal partnership built for speed”, Emergent’s promotional description, strangely has no documents associated with it from the city side.

Emergent CEO Chris Sumter informed the audience at the April public meeting that he has developed numerous data centers and sold them (making handsome profits). He named several private equity firms, which I will generally refer to as the Lords of Capital for the remainder of this letter. The Lords desire big profits and frequently need public subsidies for those to occur.

A data center power generation project outside of Pecos. Texas is “contingent upon several forms of economic development” to achieve the project’s “attractive returns.” It’s called a hurdle rate and the Lords don’t provide capital funding unless that is achieved.

The economic development agreement with Skybox is under negotiation. Skybox won’t go ahead with the project without ERCOT approval and a committed tenant. Financing for the project depends on those as well. That means three different hurdle rates need to be met, Skybox’s, the tenant’s and the Lords of Capital’s. Blue Owl financed a number of prior Skybox projects.

Time will reveal if there are local incentives or subsidies for Skybox on top of massive State tax breaks. Whoever is negotiating the 380 economic development agreement should have some idea as to the types and size of incentives offered by other Texas communities. The City researched data center zoning and shared that with citizens. It is yet to do so re: incentives.

The tenant gets a state sales tax break on the expensive hardware and many building systems it needs to operate their data center.

https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/data-centers/ 

The following items, if necessary and essential to the operation of a qualifying large data center project, are eligible for the exemption when purchased by a qualifying owner, operator or occupant: 

• electricity;* 

• an electrical system; 

• a cooling system; 

• an emergency generator; 

• hardware or a distributed mainframe computer or server; 

• a data storage device; 

• network connectivity equipment; 

• a rack, cabinet and raised floor system; 

• a peripheral component or system; 

• software; 

• a mechanical, electrical or plumbing system that is necessary to operate any tangible personal property described above; 

• any other item of equipment or system necessary to operate any tangible personal property described above, including a fixture; and 

• a component part of any tangible personal property described above.

Predatory TechGods will occupy this data center. Will it be Meta who allowed child sexual predators seventeen strikes before banning them?  Will it be Microsoft who plotted to make its AI more addictive?

High hurdle rate on profits, low propensity to protect children, tech offerings designed to maximize addiction – these are the organizations you are inviting to set up in San Angelo proper. 

Once the three hurdles are achieved, this project will flood forth as a fait accompli. It will come down from Twin Mountain as a divine offering from the Lords of Capital and their TechGod occupant. And in five years or less it will be sold or refinanced, because that is the real business going on here, the buying and selling of companies. 

It is not unheard of for the Lords of Capital to abandon their liege, to walk away, to not throw good money after bad, to hand the keys back to creditors (who may or may not want them). Thus, the City should be prepared to take possession of such a building. 

It wouldn’t be the first time something with great promise did not pan out. Does anyone remember MedHab, former Mayor Alvin New’s investment and future creator of some 400 San Angelo jobs? That future never arrived. 

Just as the city funds the closure of a landfill cell, it should consider setting aside money to safely manage down the facility and its contents, should both the developer and TechGod occupant walk away. 

As an over twenty year resident of District #1, I currently reside in a community just outside Tom Green County. It happens to be in the impact zone of the proposed Beacon Data Center in Dove Creek. Our water and electricity will be directly impacted and air quality will depend on the wind direction.

We have solar power with battery backup, installed after Winter Storm Uri when we went without power for five days in bitter cold. None of the initial financial projections came true. 

The State of Texas allowed electrical providers to add delivery charges and Reliant pays us half of the amount they did just a year and half ago for power we send to the grid. There is no competition for our solar/battery power.  We take whatever the Texas electrical cartel gives, an ever shrinking amount, while their fees to us soar. 

I imagine the city will be treated likewise by Skybox/Emergent/Lords of Capital. It’s their hurdle rate the State of Texas is subsidizing.  The city may do likewise. 

My prayer is the Lords of Capital lose interest in funding these projects. No financing, no project. 

Thank you for the opportunity to share these thoughts.

Note:  I posted this on my other blog, PEUReport, which focuses on private equity underwriters (PEU), a major category within the Lords of Capital.

Update 6-14-26:  Futurism reported:

John O’Farrell — former general partner at the mammoth investment firm Andreessen Horowitz — chastised his former colleagues in the tech industry for putting AI hype before the common good. 

As the first outside general partner ever hired by Andreessen Horowitz in 2010, O’Farrell’s departure is significant, and his warning for his former colleagues is telling. 

At the core of O’Farrell’s complaint is the fact that tech firms and their financial backers have invested unfathomable sums of money in an attempt to influence top US politicians who should, in a better system, be impartially regulating AI. 

“I believe this attempted political infiltration by the AI industry will fail,” O’Farrell explained. “A backlash is building, and it will become fiercer when voters learn that a handful of billionaires are altogether spending nine figures, apparently in an effort to try to stop debates about regulation from further developing.” 

Continuing, the former partner explained that he’d been approached by groups interested in exposing the tech industry’s effort to “buy political influence,” adding that he “may contribute my own money to these public awareness efforts.”

The Lords of Capital want your retirement savings to fund data center expansion.  

Update 8-10-26:  Solar power generation saved the Texas Grid during record July electrical use.

Update 8-11-26:  A number of developers and tech giants agreed to Governor Greg Abbott's data center standards.  Skybox is one of those.

Rep. Drew Darby requested TCEQ hold public meetings on Beacon's proposed Westline data center and power generation project.  He also made a number of requests to Beacon on behalf of his constituents in the Dove Creek area.

The Lords of Capital joined with NVIDIA to launch massive funding pools for new data center construction (requires use of NVIDIA chips).  

Update 8-19-26:  Regulatory approval and financing are the current hurdles for desired data center projects.

Texas Governor Gregg Abbott revealed Cipher Digital committed to meeting his requirements for data center development.

Emergent Data Centers committed as well.  Both sites plan to use power from ERCOT and are proximate to each other in Northeast San Angelo.

Beacon Data Centers has not been mentioned by the Governor but their plans do not include a grid connection, at least initially.

Financing looked like a nonstarter a few weeks back but TechGods have a history of getting their way.