It Was Broken When We Found It

26/05/2025

This is ultimately what happens when citizens speak out, ask questions or redress their local governments. It's called retaliation, which when done by our government by the people and for the people - is straight up tyranny.

No doubt about it - Todd is likely the most outspoken citizen in Wood County. He's also likely responsible for the demise of more elected officials in one county than any other county in Texas. However; he's also brought many questionable items to light - which is called transparency. Although some might not agree with his approach and words (such as calling the assistant DA "W***e of the Week") - It's not illegal and his right to do so. Todds statements are never empty, nor are they made without proof - which generally sheds a very negative light on many with higher powers.

This arrest is baseless and those that have followed Todd knew it would be a matter of time before someone trumped up some charges for no other reason than to shut Todd up (not to scare him - he's not scared, obviously - because he understands the laws likely better than those twisting them). At some point, they were going to put Todd in jail regardless of the fact he that hasn't broken any laws - "Let the judicial system do it's job and determine guilt or innocence". In this case, and many others - it's nothing more a local government weaponizing their power to destroy an outspoken citizen. Violating the rights of an innocent person, when the preponderance of evidence clearly shows no laws broken, searching and seizing property and then jailing individuals on baseless charges far exceeds abuse of power. It's straight up tyranny and people need to start recognizing that when these actions become acceptable - they can come for you too, without warrant or cause, simply because you chose to redress your government.

You could absolutely be the next one should you question the authorities.

20/03/2025

This is completely unacceptable. Hulu, whataburger, Pizza Hut, Amazon, etc.
What is it about small town governments that gives people this false sense of entitlement? Quite positively, they are working overtime trying to come up with a “justified” response. Though I’m not sure how you justify all the Pizza Hut, chuys, whataburger, and other blatantly frivolous spending charges.

This is a prime example of why it’s important to not only know, but question what’s going on in your community.

21/02/2025

Hmmm... after seeing the owners response to this - we'd be curious to see the actual affidavit given to procure the search warrant... ?

So much doesn't add up.

We keep being told by higher officials "You don't have all the details" in everything we do. And then - we get them, we understand exactly why we (and you) don't have all the details.

If you don't want to find snakes, don't turn over stones... or - if you're on the hunt for them, this is the page to visit.

Craziness.

17/02/2025

Taking a break from dissecting the deposition documents in which our ex Chief, now an investigator for VZ County Sheriff's office... used the term "I do not recall" 170 times, "I can't remember" 12 times, I don't know 34 times - all in the span of a 154pg deposition for the Mary Thompson vs City of Van et al suit that is currently in Federal Court. With the County obligations and payroll constantly under fire, I wonder how much they are paying an investigator that clearly has a memory problem? And secondly, how is this investigator not on the Brady list?

From this, and numerous other items - It would appear that maybe the County should be really looking at what they are spending our $$ on right now? Throwing money at something broken is never a great idea until it's been determined what exactly is broken, how it got that way and have there been corrections... Was it broken they found found it? C'mon now.

The entire bond issue was tabled in the last commissioner meeting. We will have the chance to determine bond or no bond come November - WE WILL VOTE ON IT and pleased that the upper powers are going to let the people decide in the bond election. That's plenty of time to get informed.

Get involved and get informed.

16/01/2025

Depositions for the Mary Thompson vs City of Van et al case were filed with the court the other day... There's hundreds of pages between Huff, Davis and Mary Thompson.

There are some very blatant lies being told by at least one of the defendants, Ex Chief Davis which is a very bad deal on a federal deposition, or any deposition - AND BY LAW ENFORCEMENT. Haven't got into Huff or Mary's yet...

Luckily we're here to pull the LIES out for ya'll. The fact that the Ex Chief can't exactly remember who the City Manager was, or the Mayor was at the time... or who was on Council seems odd - especially since one of those council members OPENLY QUESTIONED THE APPOINTMENT internally and publicly.

Van City Council never appointed our Ex Chief. She was appointed by Charles West with 0 input from Council... at least input from council members during any meetings.

Melissa Davis didn't 'forget' this... that Don Smith was the Mayor and the two councilmembers she can't recall are Ryan Hanson and Amanda Davis. That's not by coincidence. Can't wait to see what else can't be recalled or just lied about?

This is only pg 16 and already lies. Pretty interesting.

01/10/2024

Hmmm... That's quite a bit. When people have their rights violated and then are fired wrongfully - it can get very expensive. Small towns need to do better.

20/08/2024

???? forget about the certification levels and "Dollar" differences - does anyone actually work for $100 / day? It's possible that VISD is simply trying to be prudent with your tax dollars... who are they hiring / extorting for these wages? This isn't 1983, which is when, economically speaking, these wages would have acceptable.

Wow -

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16/08/2024

The City of Van has been very lucky to have Jeff... We're not even sure if there was an option as budget deadlines are on the City - but a sincere Thank you to Jeff Hudgens for accepting this.

10/08/2024

Thursday Thunder podcast is published and will be available within 24 hours at all the cool places that you would generally get your podcasts from OR - you can listen to it directly from our website https://iwbwwfi.com/ .

Yes, we do the recording via a FB live session, with video - but the published podcast is much better to listen to as the audio is mastered taking out the sharp noises, static etc. Between the low resolution jerky FB resolution, the bad audio and questionable content - it's a wonder anyone watches / listens to the FB version.

The podcast is MUCH better quality.

IWBWWFI is a podcast that discusses many different topics.  We're not afraid of hard topics or a little humor.  Our hearts are about 'small town' local and with that,  it's election time in Van Texas! We're excited to get into the topics and candidates.  Be watching for more posts on Facebook an...

09/08/2024

Tune In

08/08/2024

Most people don't post lawful interactions, so this is rare to actually get a clip that shows the officer actually exonerated and beyond that - no right's violation. Everyone has the same rights until they don't. Good job Officer James and hopefully you get an apology - you deserve it.

06/08/2024

Yeah... part of the slacking was not showing you the letter to the editor to Van Zant County Van Zandt News from December of last year. It was in response to an "Auditor" that graced the county... They're missing the point. There would be no auditors if the folks in power understood our rights. - No, they did not publish this...

Dear Van Zandt News Editor,

Thank you very much for the coverage and reporting on the "First Amendment Audits discussed during program at VZC Library" in this week's newspaper. Had this not been reported on, people who have and enjoy 1st Amendment rights, such as myself, would have not known that our officials are trying to further repress "we the people" right to free speech, or even freedom of the press.

I'm not surprised that there was not a "1st Amendment Auditor '' onsite to speak, but I was thoroughly disappointed that no one, who has and supports 1st Amendment rights, spoke up during the meeting? "We the People" are SUPPOSED TO ALL BE AUDITORS and it is our responsibility to be sure the government we form understands that we are a 'government by the people and for the people' and the rights that are being audited do indeed belong to every citizen "as they claim" and as reported.

While a lot of assumptions and generalizations were made about "them", the people 'auditing' this particular right, Obviously no one was there to answer the largest question that no one asked: Why are there people publicly testing the limits of their rights? I can assure you it's not for notoriety or clicks. We are testing the boundaries because the amount of ignorance that is put on full display, by a huge majority of the people in charge of protecting our constitutional rights, is absolutely frightening. Although some audits turn up officials well versed in OUR rights, most do not. The common denominator of almost every audit video, regardless of perceived motive or demeanor of the auditor, is that there is always at least one official enforcing a rule that doesn't exist and in doing so is encroaching into your 1st Amendment right. At its core, it's called Tyranny and if left unchecked, can turn into something much worse. The Auditors get away with their actions, because it's not illegal for 'them' to exercise their 1st Amendment right - YET. Although, there are a lot of higher powers that instead of understanding the lines involved with our unalienable rights, would like to further limit them as suggested by various officials at this meeting.

Instead of preparing "...to prevent some of this stuff and talk about the best ways to handle it", Officials, government employees, and anyone else in a position to violate another person's rights, should first thoroughly educate themselves on what our rights are and how the best way is to uphold and protect them. There would be no reason for anyone to conduct an audit if everyone that was in a position to violate the 1st Amendment, fully understood the violations and causes for them.

Until then and until people in higher positions fully understand our rights, to the same extent as the citizens auditing them, they should absolutely not be proposing more restrictive, and possibly illegal, restrictions on them.

Regards,

Ryan Hanson