Holy handouts

There are complaints, but there's nothing in the works that stands to slow down Reese, who is well-liked in Canton, and his high-tech operation.

"Some people just have their head in the sand and sort of think this will pass," says Hilliard, the former Van Zandt County commissioner. "Nobody knew what they were doing. It wasn't in the local papers. You have to be pretty politically astute to see what they were building.

"We know now it's a powerful thing.