In a series of purchases, one company has quietly been buying up extensive land around Travis Air Force Base since 2018, amassing nearly $1 billion worth of property. But the identity of the buyer, known as Flannery Associates, remains shrouded in mystery, raising concerns for government officials about national security.

The investment group Flannery Associates has become the largest landowner in Solano County, securing a staggering 52,000 acres of land surrounding the base, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation published this month. Travis Air Force Base serves as a major cargo and troop transport hub on the West Coast, and is the largest employer in Solano County. Reportedly, Flannery Associates' strategic land grabs mean that they own many properties aside the base, and even more into the marshy regions near the Sacramento River in Rio Vista, far from Fairfield's urban center.

But little is known about the company. As SFGATE reported, public records reveal that the company is registered in Delaware, allowing it to withhold information about its business partners — an approach often employed by LLCs.

The local congressman, John Garamendi, who represents California's 8th District, told ABC7 that there’s “reason to be concerned.”

"Literally three sides of that base are totally controlled by the Flannery group," Garamendi said in an interview.

According to ABC7 and WSJ, the lawyer representing the company described the firm as a group of almost all American families who are trying to diversify their investments into agricultural land. But Garamendi is reportedly not sure if that’s true, and questioned the company's intentions and financial backing.

"Who are these people?" he added. "Where did they get the money where they could pay five to ten times the normal value that others would pay for this farmland?"

Garamendi also reportedly said that Flannery is suing nearby landowners, accusing them of scheming to prevent the company from buying their land.

The government and military are continuing to actively investigate, according to the WSJ.

Take the jump to see what we thought of the concert, with videos...

This week, our picks are Travis who are playing with Maximo Park at the Fillmore tomorrow night. Friday night at the Fillmore, The Drones (listen to "Shark Fin Blues" here) are opening for Band of Horses, an indie-rock band based out of Seattle. Saturday night is where it gets good - Miggs (pictured above), based out of San Francisco, will be headlining at Cafe du Nord. Miggs have been singled out as "the next big thing outta the San Francisco Bay Area," it seems. You don't want to miss that show.

Full listings after the jump.

Braves 7 Giants 5- Man, can you believe it's the 20th Anniversary of Guns n' Roses' "Appetite for Destruction?" Twenty years. We can still remember when that album (yes, album) came out and being totally gobsmacked the first time we saw the video for "Sweet Child O' Mine" at like 2 in the morning on MTV. God, we're old. And speaking of old, the Giants celebrated the Barry's birthday by playing a long, 13 inning baseball game. You gotta hand it to the old men, despite being closer to 100 losses than 100 wins, they do still play hard. Case in point last night where they had a four run ninth inning to tie the game and send the game into extra innings. Of course, they still. We were so sure the Giants would eventually lose this game that we wrote this post a few innings before the game ended.

A's 4 Angels 3- Could this be start of the patented second half A's run? Or is this just a mere illusion of a blip on the way to the mirage? Regardless, the A's have now taken two from the division leading Halos as Lenny DiNardo did the pitching and Travis Buck did the hitting, to the tune of four hits in five at bats. Buck also had a big diving catch in the eighth with runners on to save the game. The A's are still 9 1/2 back and four games under .500.

It was a typical day on the front. A battle was brewing, but people continued to live their lives, knowing that the day might well be their last. Women in hoop skirts made meals while the men practiced battalion maneuvers and cleaned their bayonets. No really. This was yesterday in California. SFist decided to celebrate Memorial Day by hitting the Civil War re-enactment at Roaring Camp in the Santa Cruz Hills. We were curious about this event for several reasons, the first being our certainty that there were no battles of the Civil War fought in California (turns out our public education was correct on that point). We also have always been fascinated by extreme hobbies, especially those that involve re-creating stuff. We’ve always sort of shied away from Renaissance Faires (in all honesty they kind of creep us out), but decided that the Civil War was one re-creation we could get behind. Besides, since we already knew the outcome of the war, there wasn’t too much to worry about.

Photos by Travis Cripps

SFist Chris:On paper, in my opinion, the Junior Circuit is clearly the stronger league, so I'm looking for a team with a DH to win it all this year.

SFist Jon's pick, the Tribe, is a feelgood pick to win it all -- who wouldn't want the Indians to win -- but I've never really forgiven them for bailing on the Cactus League. Their strong finish last year was impressive, but what, uh, impressed me most was that during the last week of the season, after they had battled all the way back to catch up with the ChiSox, the Wahoos went 1-6 to finish six games out. C.C. Sabathia is a legitimate ace, and Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore are tough, but losing Kevin Millwood and Coco Crisp will hurt more than adding Paul Byrd and Jason Michaels will help. Cleveland looks good to dethrone Chicago in the Central, but doesn't quite have enough to go all the way this year.