Dallas police investigate sex assault
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Dallas police were investigating a Wednesday morning home invasion and sexual assault at an East Dallas apartment complex.
A male suspect entered an apartment in the 2600 block of John West Road through an unlocked door or window about 4:50 a.m. He took cash from the 28-year-old resident and then sexually assaulted her, Dallas police Lt. Jan Easterling said.
It appears that the crime was not connected to a recent string of sexual assaults, home invasions and carjackings that police believe may be related. Investigators have said that 10 attacks in Dallas, Coppell, Richardson, Garland and Plano might be linked to the same man.
The task force investigating that series of offenses had been notified about Wednesday’s case.
“Based on what they have right now, they’re treating it as a separate incident,” Cpl. Jamie Kimbrough said.
News from the Lone Star State
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Spa surveillance leads to officer inquiry
Dallas: 3 on restricted duty days after making prostitution arrests
By JASON TRAHAN and HOLLY YAN / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Three Dallas police vice officers have been placed on restricted duty after police reviewed surveillance tapes that show questionable activity at a northwest Dallas spa.
The officers, who had been working undercover, arrested several women on suspicion of prostitution May 17 at the Acapulco Spa in the 2900 block of Walnut Hill Lane.
Ten days later, investigators seized a surveillance system from the spa that recorded undercover officers there. The footage raised commanders' concerns, Dallas police Lt. Jan Easterling said.
"It was determined that there needs to be an investigation to determine if the contact on the recordings was inappropriate and if any policy violations were committed," Lt. Easterling said.
Investigators scrutinized the tapes after one of the arrested women filed a complaint June 2 against one of the officers.
"We don't want to identify those policy violations because it could compromise future undercover operations," she said. "But we want to make sure what our officers are doing out there is according to policy."
The officers are not accused of criminal conduct or of having sex with the women, Lt. Easterling said. Sexual contact is not necessary to make a prostitution case, she said.
Lt. Easterling declined to identify the officers because they work undercover.
The manager of Acapulco Spa, who declined to give his full name, said three of his employees were arrested May 17.
The manager said he was arrested on suspicion of promoting prostitution the day police seized the surveillance footage. He said he was released from jail after posting bond.
He said that a day or two before the officers' visit, he began videotaping in a massage room when he suspected an employee was engaging in illegal activities.
The three officers will begin restricted duty immediately. Instead of working on undercover investigations, the officers will be assigned to clerical work, pending the outcome of each officer's internal investigation.
Rebecca Lopez of WFAA ABC 8 contributed to this report.
Dallas: 3 on restricted duty days after making prostitution arrests
By JASON TRAHAN and HOLLY YAN / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Three Dallas police vice officers have been placed on restricted duty after police reviewed surveillance tapes that show questionable activity at a northwest Dallas spa.
The officers, who had been working undercover, arrested several women on suspicion of prostitution May 17 at the Acapulco Spa in the 2900 block of Walnut Hill Lane.
Ten days later, investigators seized a surveillance system from the spa that recorded undercover officers there. The footage raised commanders' concerns, Dallas police Lt. Jan Easterling said.
"It was determined that there needs to be an investigation to determine if the contact on the recordings was inappropriate and if any policy violations were committed," Lt. Easterling said.
Investigators scrutinized the tapes after one of the arrested women filed a complaint June 2 against one of the officers.
"We don't want to identify those policy violations because it could compromise future undercover operations," she said. "But we want to make sure what our officers are doing out there is according to policy."
The officers are not accused of criminal conduct or of having sex with the women, Lt. Easterling said. Sexual contact is not necessary to make a prostitution case, she said.
Lt. Easterling declined to identify the officers because they work undercover.
The manager of Acapulco Spa, who declined to give his full name, said three of his employees were arrested May 17.
The manager said he was arrested on suspicion of promoting prostitution the day police seized the surveillance footage. He said he was released from jail after posting bond.
He said that a day or two before the officers' visit, he began videotaping in a massage room when he suspected an employee was engaging in illegal activities.
The three officers will begin restricted duty immediately. Instead of working on undercover investigations, the officers will be assigned to clerical work, pending the outcome of each officer's internal investigation.
Rebecca Lopez of WFAA ABC 8 contributed to this report.
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Ex-trooper faults DPS boxing drill
Decorated lawman still feels bad about hurting female recruit in 1978
By PETE SLOVER / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, Texas – To this day, retired state Trooper Tim Mollenkopf feels guilty about a punch he delivered to a fellow DPS recruit during a 1978 training exercise.
Mr. Mollenkopf, who went on to be a highly decorated lawman, says that the drill – a rite of passage for new troopers for decades – was dangerous, unnecessary, and put him in the regrettable position of having to throw a devastating right to the chin of a woman whose law-enforcement future ended as a result.
And, he said, those taking the blows aren't the only ones who suffer.
"I've felt bad about it my whole career. I still think about her," said Mr. Mollenkopf, 48, who retired from the Department of Public Safety in 2000 but said he has paid close attention to recent news accounts about a death and injuries attributable to the boxing exercise. "I'm not really for that kind of drill. You need to think not only about what it does to the people getting hit, but what it does to the people doing the hitting."
The woman he hit, 21-year-old Belinda Macias, returned to El Paso, where she worked for 16 years as a DPS driver's license technician. She left the agency to work in real estate in 1994, after earning a college degree and real estate sales and brokers licenses, records show.
Ms. Macias, now 48, could not be reached for comment and did not respond to messages left with relatives in El Paso.
"I'd just like to tell her I'm sorry," said Mr. Mollenkopf, one of only 22 DPS troopers or Texas Rangers to have been awarded the Medal of Valor, the department's highest citation. He was honored for a daring 1998 floodwater rescue of two people.
He said this week that the fighting exercise runs counter to another major theme of trooper training: avoid hand-to-hand brawling – and potential police brutality charges – by using the other tools at your disposal, such as pepper spray, a baton and a gun. He termed the exercise a "dogfight" that exerts too much pressure on recruits to battle beyond when it's safe or sensible for them to do so.
The head of a statewide DPS officers group said Mr. Mollenkopf's views do not represent most of those who have been through the training.
"I'd say 90 to 95 percent of the troopers and Texas Rangers find it is positive and worthwhile," said Sgt. Brian Hawthorne, president of the DPS Officers Association.
He said officers widely credit the drill with helping a female trooper survive a brutal beating by three large men during a roadside stop several years ago, and they fear it will be eliminated as an overreaction to the death in May of recruit Jimmy Ray Carty Jr.
Impressed by drill
Sgt. Hawthorne, who went through the academy in 1984, said he was impressed by the level of professionalism and strict supervision over the exercise that he saw during a temporary assignment as a supervisor of trainees in 2002.
"If my son grows up to be a state trooper, I hope they still have the same program," he said.
The Dallas Morning News has obtained video clips of several rounds of fighting from last year. The clips show a circle of cadets holding training pads and forming a ring on a gym mat. A pair of classmates kicked and pounded at each other with varying levels of finesse.
In several instances, cadets were knocked down and were unable to rise. Two other cadets apparently led the effort to tend to them, shining flashlights in their eyes, asking questions to gauge mental alertness and helping them rise and walk.
DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said she could not determine whether the two trainees providing care were certified providers of emergency services. When asked whether protocol called for medical personnel to be on hand, she said trainee classes often include people licensed as emergency medical technicians. And, she said, the training academy has EMTs among its regular staff members.
DPS officials have emphasized that the exercise in question is not strictly boxing, because it is designed to prepare troopers – some of whom might never have faced so much as a schoolyard fight – for the reality of hand-to-hand fighting. Cadets in pads are pitted against each other for three 30-second rounds.
Mr. Mollenkopf said that in his day, the drill was a fight-till-you-drop brawl with no headgear. He outweighed Ms. Macias by 40 pounds. DPS officials say that nowadays recruits are closely matched in size and fights are monitored by experts who will stop them when needed.
Mr. Carty's death has placed the drill in the spotlight, but the grueling fisticuffs – and resulting injuries – go back decades. The DPS spokeswoman said some variation of the fighting drill has been used since the agency was created in the 1930s.
A 1965 newspaper report about the small percentage of applicants who made it as troopers noted, "Another period of high dropout is during the boxing course ... "
"They have to stay in the ring and box for two to four minutes a day," a DPS training expert said then. "That's a long time when somebody is swinging at you. But we have to train the men to defend themselves and this is one of the ways."
Protective padding
At some point, headgear was used but discarded because of cadet complaints of scratched ears and ill-fitting gear, according to one report. It was re-adopted after Ms. Macias' injury, though recruits still complain of poor fits and impaired vision. Now, trainees also wear pads for shins, forearms and chests, along with mouth protectors and boxing gloves.
And in 1978, long before anybody had died from injuries suffered in the drill, a concussion or two wasn't enough to derail a tradition.
"Seldom have we had a class where we did not have two men have broken collarbones or concussions," DPS Director Wilson Speir told reporters in 1978. "Two or three years from now, it won't be mentioned."
Decorated lawman still feels bad about hurting female recruit in 1978
By PETE SLOVER / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, Texas – To this day, retired state Trooper Tim Mollenkopf feels guilty about a punch he delivered to a fellow DPS recruit during a 1978 training exercise.
Mr. Mollenkopf, who went on to be a highly decorated lawman, says that the drill – a rite of passage for new troopers for decades – was dangerous, unnecessary, and put him in the regrettable position of having to throw a devastating right to the chin of a woman whose law-enforcement future ended as a result.
And, he said, those taking the blows aren't the only ones who suffer.
"I've felt bad about it my whole career. I still think about her," said Mr. Mollenkopf, 48, who retired from the Department of Public Safety in 2000 but said he has paid close attention to recent news accounts about a death and injuries attributable to the boxing exercise. "I'm not really for that kind of drill. You need to think not only about what it does to the people getting hit, but what it does to the people doing the hitting."
The woman he hit, 21-year-old Belinda Macias, returned to El Paso, where she worked for 16 years as a DPS driver's license technician. She left the agency to work in real estate in 1994, after earning a college degree and real estate sales and brokers licenses, records show.
Ms. Macias, now 48, could not be reached for comment and did not respond to messages left with relatives in El Paso.
"I'd just like to tell her I'm sorry," said Mr. Mollenkopf, one of only 22 DPS troopers or Texas Rangers to have been awarded the Medal of Valor, the department's highest citation. He was honored for a daring 1998 floodwater rescue of two people.
He said this week that the fighting exercise runs counter to another major theme of trooper training: avoid hand-to-hand brawling – and potential police brutality charges – by using the other tools at your disposal, such as pepper spray, a baton and a gun. He termed the exercise a "dogfight" that exerts too much pressure on recruits to battle beyond when it's safe or sensible for them to do so.
The head of a statewide DPS officers group said Mr. Mollenkopf's views do not represent most of those who have been through the training.
"I'd say 90 to 95 percent of the troopers and Texas Rangers find it is positive and worthwhile," said Sgt. Brian Hawthorne, president of the DPS Officers Association.
He said officers widely credit the drill with helping a female trooper survive a brutal beating by three large men during a roadside stop several years ago, and they fear it will be eliminated as an overreaction to the death in May of recruit Jimmy Ray Carty Jr.
Impressed by drill
Sgt. Hawthorne, who went through the academy in 1984, said he was impressed by the level of professionalism and strict supervision over the exercise that he saw during a temporary assignment as a supervisor of trainees in 2002.
"If my son grows up to be a state trooper, I hope they still have the same program," he said.
The Dallas Morning News has obtained video clips of several rounds of fighting from last year. The clips show a circle of cadets holding training pads and forming a ring on a gym mat. A pair of classmates kicked and pounded at each other with varying levels of finesse.
In several instances, cadets were knocked down and were unable to rise. Two other cadets apparently led the effort to tend to them, shining flashlights in their eyes, asking questions to gauge mental alertness and helping them rise and walk.
DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said she could not determine whether the two trainees providing care were certified providers of emergency services. When asked whether protocol called for medical personnel to be on hand, she said trainee classes often include people licensed as emergency medical technicians. And, she said, the training academy has EMTs among its regular staff members.
DPS officials have emphasized that the exercise in question is not strictly boxing, because it is designed to prepare troopers – some of whom might never have faced so much as a schoolyard fight – for the reality of hand-to-hand fighting. Cadets in pads are pitted against each other for three 30-second rounds.
Mr. Mollenkopf said that in his day, the drill was a fight-till-you-drop brawl with no headgear. He outweighed Ms. Macias by 40 pounds. DPS officials say that nowadays recruits are closely matched in size and fights are monitored by experts who will stop them when needed.
Mr. Carty's death has placed the drill in the spotlight, but the grueling fisticuffs – and resulting injuries – go back decades. The DPS spokeswoman said some variation of the fighting drill has been used since the agency was created in the 1930s.
A 1965 newspaper report about the small percentage of applicants who made it as troopers noted, "Another period of high dropout is during the boxing course ... "
"They have to stay in the ring and box for two to four minutes a day," a DPS training expert said then. "That's a long time when somebody is swinging at you. But we have to train the men to defend themselves and this is one of the ways."
Protective padding
At some point, headgear was used but discarded because of cadet complaints of scratched ears and ill-fitting gear, according to one report. It was re-adopted after Ms. Macias' injury, though recruits still complain of poor fits and impaired vision. Now, trainees also wear pads for shins, forearms and chests, along with mouth protectors and boxing gloves.
And in 1978, long before anybody had died from injuries suffered in the drill, a concussion or two wasn't enough to derail a tradition.
"Seldom have we had a class where we did not have two men have broken collarbones or concussions," DPS Director Wilson Speir told reporters in 1978. "Two or three years from now, it won't be mentioned."
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Lake Worth abuzz over road mishap
LAKE WORTH, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) - The buzz in Lake Worth on Wednesday was about hundreds of thousands of bees that had spilled onto State Highway 199 on Tuesday night after a truck lost part of its cargo.
After spraying the swarm with water and foam, crews scooped up most of the winged escapees with the help of beekeepers. Police Lt. Charles Wallace said there were no serious injuries, though several firefighters and police officers were stung.
He said, "It just bees that way sometimes."
LAKE WORTH, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) - The buzz in Lake Worth on Wednesday was about hundreds of thousands of bees that had spilled onto State Highway 199 on Tuesday night after a truck lost part of its cargo.
After spraying the swarm with water and foam, crews scooped up most of the winged escapees with the help of beekeepers. Police Lt. Charles Wallace said there were no serious injuries, though several firefighters and police officers were stung.
He said, "It just bees that way sometimes."
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Lakeside housing worries 2 cities
Irving, Coppell: Dallas' neighbors fear impact of North Lake proposal
By ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING, Texas – Irving City Council members are joining Coppell officials in expressing concerns about a proposed residential development near North Lake that some worry will overcrowd schools and congest streets.
Council members on Wednesday instructed city staffers to send a letter to Dallas officials outlining Irving's position on the Billingsley Co. development, just north of LBJ Freeway. The proposed project is in Dallas, but the property borders Irving and Coppell, and most of the land is in the Coppell Independent School District.
Council members also want to hold a public meeting this summer to give residents information about the development.
Mayor Herbert Gears plans to send a letter to Coppell Mayor Doug Stover this week to foster more communication between the two cities regarding the Billingsley project.
"It's obvious that everyone wants to send some communication," Mr. Gears said Wednesday during a council meeting. "We need to state our position."
Mr. Gears wants Irving and Coppell to share information about Billingsley's plans so that both cities "address our shared issues and concerns," according to a draft of the letter.
In the letter, Mr. Gears writes, "I believe it is critical that we keep each other informed as new developments involving this project come to our attention."
The Dallas Plan Commission and City Council haven't voted on Billingsley's zoning request. A vote hasn't been scheduled, and city officials are still reviewing the request, Dallas senior planner David Whitley said Wednesday.
Billingsley wants to fill about 325 acres south of the lake with housing and shops in a project called Cypress Waters. The land is attractive, developer Lucy Billingsley has said, because it's near the lake and has access to LBJ Freeway.
Ms. Billingsley said in May that she wants to create a neighborhood that attracts "a fabulous mixture of people – small homes next to larger homes."
Irving is concerned about traffic congestion and whether the city would be asked to service the area with water and sewer lines or fire protection.
Cypress Waters could significantly affect the quality of life in north Irving, Mr. Gears wrote in the letter to Mr. Stover. The Irving mayor expects Cypress Waters to generate "considerable demand" for city programs, including parks and libraries. Mr. Stover has said the effects on Coppell's resources – including the school district – would be "staggering."
Ms. Billingsley has said that Coppell officials should have considered North Lake development in their master plan. But she's said she's willing to add neighborhood amenities, including a school, community center, trails and parks.
Irving council member Beth Van Duyne, who says she's fielded numerous phone calls from concerned residents about Cypress Waters, supports a town hall meeting. Coppell held a similar meeting in May. Ms. Van Duyne also wants Irving officials to post updated information on the city's Web site.
"[Residents] have a lot of questions," she said. "They want to know what's going on. ... We're going to do everything we can to keep ourselves educated and up-to-date on this project."
During Wednesday's meeting, Irving council member Lewis Patrick wondered whether the city might have to offer fire protection to Cypress Waters residents.
"That could put the burden on us," he said.
But Irving officials haven't received such a request from Dallas officials, City Manager Steve McCullough said. Dallas also hasn't requested an engineering study regarding Irving's sewer or water systems, he said.
Mr. McCullough said city staff has informed Dallas that Irving probably wouldn't be willing to provide utility services to Cypress Waters.
Irving, Coppell: Dallas' neighbors fear impact of North Lake proposal
By ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING, Texas – Irving City Council members are joining Coppell officials in expressing concerns about a proposed residential development near North Lake that some worry will overcrowd schools and congest streets.
Council members on Wednesday instructed city staffers to send a letter to Dallas officials outlining Irving's position on the Billingsley Co. development, just north of LBJ Freeway. The proposed project is in Dallas, but the property borders Irving and Coppell, and most of the land is in the Coppell Independent School District.
Council members also want to hold a public meeting this summer to give residents information about the development.
Mayor Herbert Gears plans to send a letter to Coppell Mayor Doug Stover this week to foster more communication between the two cities regarding the Billingsley project.
"It's obvious that everyone wants to send some communication," Mr. Gears said Wednesday during a council meeting. "We need to state our position."
Mr. Gears wants Irving and Coppell to share information about Billingsley's plans so that both cities "address our shared issues and concerns," according to a draft of the letter.
In the letter, Mr. Gears writes, "I believe it is critical that we keep each other informed as new developments involving this project come to our attention."
The Dallas Plan Commission and City Council haven't voted on Billingsley's zoning request. A vote hasn't been scheduled, and city officials are still reviewing the request, Dallas senior planner David Whitley said Wednesday.
Billingsley wants to fill about 325 acres south of the lake with housing and shops in a project called Cypress Waters. The land is attractive, developer Lucy Billingsley has said, because it's near the lake and has access to LBJ Freeway.
Ms. Billingsley said in May that she wants to create a neighborhood that attracts "a fabulous mixture of people – small homes next to larger homes."
Irving is concerned about traffic congestion and whether the city would be asked to service the area with water and sewer lines or fire protection.
Cypress Waters could significantly affect the quality of life in north Irving, Mr. Gears wrote in the letter to Mr. Stover. The Irving mayor expects Cypress Waters to generate "considerable demand" for city programs, including parks and libraries. Mr. Stover has said the effects on Coppell's resources – including the school district – would be "staggering."
Ms. Billingsley has said that Coppell officials should have considered North Lake development in their master plan. But she's said she's willing to add neighborhood amenities, including a school, community center, trails and parks.
Irving council member Beth Van Duyne, who says she's fielded numerous phone calls from concerned residents about Cypress Waters, supports a town hall meeting. Coppell held a similar meeting in May. Ms. Van Duyne also wants Irving officials to post updated information on the city's Web site.
"[Residents] have a lot of questions," she said. "They want to know what's going on. ... We're going to do everything we can to keep ourselves educated and up-to-date on this project."
During Wednesday's meeting, Irving council member Lewis Patrick wondered whether the city might have to offer fire protection to Cypress Waters residents.
"That could put the burden on us," he said.
But Irving officials haven't received such a request from Dallas officials, City Manager Steve McCullough said. Dallas also hasn't requested an engineering study regarding Irving's sewer or water systems, he said.
Mr. McCullough said city staff has informed Dallas that Irving probably wouldn't be willing to provide utility services to Cypress Waters.
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Frisco boy dies in freak golf accident
CUNNINGHAM, Ky./FRISCO, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - A 12-year-old Texas boy died in western Kentucky in a bizarre accident with a golf club.
Chandler Hugh Jackson of Frisco, Texas, died Wednesday night after apparently falling onto a broken golf club at Dogwood Hill club in Cunningham, Carlisle County Coroner Wayne Floyd said.
A broken piece of the club's shaft went through Jackson's chest and pierced his aorta, McCracken County Coroner Dan Sims said. The boy died at 9:30 p.m. CDT after being airlifted to a Paducah hospital.
The boy's father, Carlisle County native Rick Jackson, said he wasn't sure what happened on the course Wednesday night.
Rick Jackson said he heard Chandler yelling for help and found that the club iron his son was using had snapped and struck Chandler in the chest.
Rick Jackson said Chandler, who was named after former baseball commissioner and Kentucky governor A.B. "Happy" Chandler, loved visiting western Kentucky.
"He always said the best day of his life was every Fourth of July when we would come to Kentucky" for the family get-togethers, Rick Jackson said. "He may have lived near the big city of Dallas, but he was a country boy at heart."
CUNNINGHAM, Ky./FRISCO, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - A 12-year-old Texas boy died in western Kentucky in a bizarre accident with a golf club.
Chandler Hugh Jackson of Frisco, Texas, died Wednesday night after apparently falling onto a broken golf club at Dogwood Hill club in Cunningham, Carlisle County Coroner Wayne Floyd said.
A broken piece of the club's shaft went through Jackson's chest and pierced his aorta, McCracken County Coroner Dan Sims said. The boy died at 9:30 p.m. CDT after being airlifted to a Paducah hospital.
The boy's father, Carlisle County native Rick Jackson, said he wasn't sure what happened on the course Wednesday night.
Rick Jackson said he heard Chandler yelling for help and found that the club iron his son was using had snapped and struck Chandler in the chest.
Rick Jackson said Chandler, who was named after former baseball commissioner and Kentucky governor A.B. "Happy" Chandler, loved visiting western Kentucky.
"He always said the best day of his life was every Fourth of July when we would come to Kentucky" for the family get-togethers, Rick Jackson said. "He may have lived near the big city of Dallas, but he was a country boy at heart."
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Defendant pleads guilty in Tyler abduction, murder
TYLER, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - East Texas prosecutors wanted the death penalty for Johnny Lee Williams Junior for the abduction and murder of Tyler Wal-Mart clerk Megan LeAnn Holden.
But the victim's mother said it was more important to know what her daughter's final hours were like.
So prosecutors agreed to a capital murder plea deal for Williams, calling for consecutive life sentences.
But first, Williams had to tell everything about his crime.
Security video captured the 25-year-old former Marine's abduction of Holden from the Wal-Mart parking lot after her January 19 night shift.
For five hours Thursday, the victim's mother, father and sister questioned Williams - and he answered each of their questions.
He told of why he chose Holden for abduction, raped her twice, killed her, bought a cheeseburger, then dumped her body 400 miles from home.
Williams was arrested January 21 at a hospital in Willcox, Arizona, while seeking treatment for a gunshot wound.
TYLER, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - East Texas prosecutors wanted the death penalty for Johnny Lee Williams Junior for the abduction and murder of Tyler Wal-Mart clerk Megan LeAnn Holden.
But the victim's mother said it was more important to know what her daughter's final hours were like.
So prosecutors agreed to a capital murder plea deal for Williams, calling for consecutive life sentences.
But first, Williams had to tell everything about his crime.
Security video captured the 25-year-old former Marine's abduction of Holden from the Wal-Mart parking lot after her January 19 night shift.
For five hours Thursday, the victim's mother, father and sister questioned Williams - and he answered each of their questions.
He told of why he chose Holden for abduction, raped her twice, killed her, bought a cheeseburger, then dumped her body 400 miles from home.
Williams was arrested January 21 at a hospital in Willcox, Arizona, while seeking treatment for a gunshot wound.
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House passes property tax relief
AUSTIN, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - The Texas House gave final approval Thursday to a measure that would change the way Texans pay for public schools, replacing some property taxes with new consumer and business taxes.
The tax bill, which sharply divided the House, was approved by a 70-69 vote. House officials changed the vote count after it was initially announced, saying electronic voting machines malfunctioned. The bill now moves to the Senate. Tax measures approved by the two chambers will likely end up before a panel from each side that would try to come up with a compromise.
The House bill would lower property taxes to $1.23 in 2006 and $1.12 the following year, but would replace that money by increasing the state sales tax from 6.25 percent to 7.25 percent and by closing loopholes in the state's main business tax.
The sales tax base would expand to include bottled water, auto repair, and certain computer goods and services. The bill would increase the cigarette tax by $1 from its current 41 cents per pack. Money from the new taxes would only go to property tax reduction, not to schools.
On Thursday, before the final vote, House members also voted to tack a $4 tax onto admissions to nude entertainment shows.
The House measure won preliminary passage Wednesday after a back-and-forth vote tally that initially showed two absent Democrats had cast votes, with fellow lawmakers pushing their voting buttons. A verification of the vote gave it the successful outcome, 73-72, once the absent lawmakers' votes were removed.
Many Democrats have criticized the measure because the only segment of Texas residents who will receive a net tax cut from the measure are those who earn more than $140,000 a year. Middle-income Texans would foot most of the tax increases.
"The middle-class has a lot to say about the future of Texas," said Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, urging a vote against the bill. But Republican supporters of the legislation hailed it for what it will do for property owners.
"This is the largest tax cut in the history of the state of Texas," said Rep. Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington.
Wednesday marked the halfway point in the 30-day special legislative session Republican Gov. Rick Perry called on school finance.
Earlier in the day, attorneys for hundreds of school districts told Texas Supreme Court justices that the state has abdicated its obligation to educate its children. Lawyers for the state argued that the Legislature, not the courts, should repair Texas' troubled school finance system.
The justices weren't expected to rule for several weeks or months on the appeal the state brought of last year's ruling. State District Judge John Dietz sided with more than 300 districts that sued Texas, saying the way Texas funds public education is unconstitutional. The districts argued Texas doesn't spend enough money on schools to provide a "general diffusion of knowledge."
But, attorneys for the state, led by Attorney General Greg Abbott, argued the duty to craft education policy belongs to the Legislature. He said both sides agreed Texas' 4.3 million public school children deserve a first-rate education.
"Where we differ is who determines the amount of money that is to be paid for that education and how schools are to go about the process of providing that education," Abbott said. "The state of Texas makes very clear in its arguments today that the Texas Constitution is unequivocal that that obligation falls upon the Texas Legislature."
Much of the argument centered on how the state should define an adequate education.
"Is the state providing a general diffusion of knowledge to its students when over 30 percent of its students never graduated from high school?" asked attorney Buck Wood, who represents several districts.
The state, which quibbled with that dropout figure, argued the plaintiff districts failed to prove that the amount of money spent impacted student achievement.
Many districts, which now tax property owners at the maximum legal amount -- $1.50 per $100 of property value -- don't have room to raise more money and still don't have enough money to meet basic educational needs. Plaintiff districts argued that the school property tax cap amounts to a statewide property tax, which is unconstitutional in Texas.
AUSTIN, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - The Texas House gave final approval Thursday to a measure that would change the way Texans pay for public schools, replacing some property taxes with new consumer and business taxes.
The tax bill, which sharply divided the House, was approved by a 70-69 vote. House officials changed the vote count after it was initially announced, saying electronic voting machines malfunctioned. The bill now moves to the Senate. Tax measures approved by the two chambers will likely end up before a panel from each side that would try to come up with a compromise.
The House bill would lower property taxes to $1.23 in 2006 and $1.12 the following year, but would replace that money by increasing the state sales tax from 6.25 percent to 7.25 percent and by closing loopholes in the state's main business tax.
The sales tax base would expand to include bottled water, auto repair, and certain computer goods and services. The bill would increase the cigarette tax by $1 from its current 41 cents per pack. Money from the new taxes would only go to property tax reduction, not to schools.
On Thursday, before the final vote, House members also voted to tack a $4 tax onto admissions to nude entertainment shows.
The House measure won preliminary passage Wednesday after a back-and-forth vote tally that initially showed two absent Democrats had cast votes, with fellow lawmakers pushing their voting buttons. A verification of the vote gave it the successful outcome, 73-72, once the absent lawmakers' votes were removed.
Many Democrats have criticized the measure because the only segment of Texas residents who will receive a net tax cut from the measure are those who earn more than $140,000 a year. Middle-income Texans would foot most of the tax increases.
"The middle-class has a lot to say about the future of Texas," said Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, urging a vote against the bill. But Republican supporters of the legislation hailed it for what it will do for property owners.
"This is the largest tax cut in the history of the state of Texas," said Rep. Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington.
Wednesday marked the halfway point in the 30-day special legislative session Republican Gov. Rick Perry called on school finance.
Earlier in the day, attorneys for hundreds of school districts told Texas Supreme Court justices that the state has abdicated its obligation to educate its children. Lawyers for the state argued that the Legislature, not the courts, should repair Texas' troubled school finance system.
The justices weren't expected to rule for several weeks or months on the appeal the state brought of last year's ruling. State District Judge John Dietz sided with more than 300 districts that sued Texas, saying the way Texas funds public education is unconstitutional. The districts argued Texas doesn't spend enough money on schools to provide a "general diffusion of knowledge."
But, attorneys for the state, led by Attorney General Greg Abbott, argued the duty to craft education policy belongs to the Legislature. He said both sides agreed Texas' 4.3 million public school children deserve a first-rate education.
"Where we differ is who determines the amount of money that is to be paid for that education and how schools are to go about the process of providing that education," Abbott said. "The state of Texas makes very clear in its arguments today that the Texas Constitution is unequivocal that that obligation falls upon the Texas Legislature."
Much of the argument centered on how the state should define an adequate education.
"Is the state providing a general diffusion of knowledge to its students when over 30 percent of its students never graduated from high school?" asked attorney Buck Wood, who represents several districts.
The state, which quibbled with that dropout figure, argued the plaintiff districts failed to prove that the amount of money spent impacted student achievement.
Many districts, which now tax property owners at the maximum legal amount -- $1.50 per $100 of property value -- don't have room to raise more money and still don't have enough money to meet basic educational needs. Plaintiff districts argued that the school property tax cap amounts to a statewide property tax, which is unconstitutional in Texas.
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TexasStooge
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Amber Alert issued for missing S. Texas girl
From KHOU CBS 11 in Houston
Liberty County authorities say a missing 14-year-old knows the man someone saw her with on June 30th.
Krista Dorsey was last seen in Cleveland, Texas. Her family is worried because they haven't heard from her since Saturday.
The sheriff's department said she was with 27-year-old Alfredo Tristan, who is a relative. She was wearing a black shirt, blue jeans and black and white flip-flops.
They were driving a white Ford F-250 four-door truck.
She did make a phone call to someone on July 2, but no one has heard from her since then.
Authorities said they have reason to believe that they may be making their way to the Houston area, but she could be in another part of Texas.
If you have any information, you are asked to contact the Liberty County Sheriff's Department at 936-336-4500.
Krista Leigh Dorsey
Alfredo Tristan
Photos Courtesy of KHOU-TV.
From KHOU CBS 11 in Houston
Liberty County authorities say a missing 14-year-old knows the man someone saw her with on June 30th.
Krista Dorsey was last seen in Cleveland, Texas. Her family is worried because they haven't heard from her since Saturday.
The sheriff's department said she was with 27-year-old Alfredo Tristan, who is a relative. She was wearing a black shirt, blue jeans and black and white flip-flops.
They were driving a white Ford F-250 four-door truck.
She did make a phone call to someone on July 2, but no one has heard from her since then.
Authorities said they have reason to believe that they may be making their way to the Houston area, but she could be in another part of Texas.
If you have any information, you are asked to contact the Liberty County Sheriff's Department at 936-336-4500.
Krista Leigh Dorsey
Alfredo Tristan
Photos Courtesy of KHOU-TV.
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TexasStooge
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- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
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Woman alleges Dallas officer raped her
By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - A North Texas woman claimed that a Dallas police officer raped her around midnight Tuesday. The 20-year-old woman, who did not want to be identified, said the officer ordered her to have sex with him or go to jail.
Dallas police are looking into the woman's allegation. Police sources said the department's Public Integrity Unit was out in the Southeast division and they took finger prints from several of the vehicles Wednesday.
The accuser said a Dallas officer confronted her and some friends at store near her home and accused her of selling dope. She then told him that she was not selling dope, but she said he continued to accuse her.
She alleges the officer told her to get in the back of his squad car and drove her several miles to an abandoned church near Roosevelt High School. She said there, he told her to get out of the car.
"He was like, 'do you want to have sex with me or go to jail,'" the woman said.
She said he then took out a condom and put it on. The accuser said she didn't do anything wrong and didn't want to go to jail, so she complied.
"They're supposed to serve you and save you," she said. "But you can't even trust the police."
She did not get the officer's name, however she said she did get a partial squad car number.
Sources said the department's Public Integrity Unit not only took fingerprints from several vehicles, but also went back to the crime scene to gather physical evidence. They also said the PIU had some names, but they had not narrowed down the list and they do not have a suspect at this time.
By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - A North Texas woman claimed that a Dallas police officer raped her around midnight Tuesday. The 20-year-old woman, who did not want to be identified, said the officer ordered her to have sex with him or go to jail.
Dallas police are looking into the woman's allegation. Police sources said the department's Public Integrity Unit was out in the Southeast division and they took finger prints from several of the vehicles Wednesday.
The accuser said a Dallas officer confronted her and some friends at store near her home and accused her of selling dope. She then told him that she was not selling dope, but she said he continued to accuse her.
She alleges the officer told her to get in the back of his squad car and drove her several miles to an abandoned church near Roosevelt High School. She said there, he told her to get out of the car.
"He was like, 'do you want to have sex with me or go to jail,'" the woman said.
She said he then took out a condom and put it on. The accuser said she didn't do anything wrong and didn't want to go to jail, so she complied.
"They're supposed to serve you and save you," she said. "But you can't even trust the police."
She did not get the officer's name, however she said she did get a partial squad car number.
Sources said the department's Public Integrity Unit not only took fingerprints from several vehicles, but also went back to the crime scene to gather physical evidence. They also said the PIU had some names, but they had not narrowed down the list and they do not have a suspect at this time.
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TexasStooge
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- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
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Wylie recruiters meet their quotas
Team never lets Guard down
By GRETEL C. KOVACH / The Dallas Morning News
WYLIE, Texas – Their day starts at 7:30 in the morning with wind sprints from tree to tree beside the armory.
It never really ends. The soldiers on this award-winning Army National Guard recruiting team, one of the few nationwide that routinely meet quotas, are on a nonstop mission. They scour Collin and Rockwall counties, battling recruit by recruit to fill the ranks of America's all-volunteer armed forces in the uncertain shadow of terrorism and war.
After the morning run, the station commander for the Wylie-based crew swapped his sweaty T-shirt and shorts for a crisp, green camouflage uniform.
Sgt. 1st Class Gerald Lorance, 34, is the top recruiter on the team. He spent the Fourth of July holiday in Washington, D.C., at a reward party with the National Guard's head of recruiting. And he recently won trips to Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., to share his best recruiting practices.
His cellphone rang with the first promising lead of the day.
Other branches of the military have different approaches, but Sgt. Lorance said he doesn't waste time on the unwilling with harassing phone calls.
In this case, it's the prospective recruit who keeps calling the recruiter.
"Did you go to McKinney High School? Yeah, I think I remember you," Sgt. Lorance said. "So, let me ask you a few questions. You ever been in the military before? Where were you born? Native Texan, all right!"
They met back when Billy Ellis Jr., a 22-year-old community college dropout, was in high school. He was interested in joining the National Guard, Sgt. Lorance recalled, but his parents thought he was too young.
Now, Mr. Ellis is ready to serve. He called Sgt. Lorance twice while he was in D.C. But there was one little problem.
"Oh, no," Sgt. Lorance said in a hushed tone into his cellphone. "What's it for?"
Mr. Ellis told the recruiter he was facing a theft-by-check charge in connection with a purchase of about $20. Sgt. Lorance checked the regulations book and said it shouldn't be a problem.
But the young man's story would change.
The Wylie team recently was lauded in Austin for being the only National Guard team in the state to have each recruiter on the team hit his or her recruiting goal.
In June, the Pentagon announced that the Army National Guard is 24 percent behind its recruiting target through May, the Army Reserve and the Air National Guard 20 percent behind, and the Navy Reserve 12 percent.
To a point, it's a numbers game, said Master Sgt. Gregory Eggleston, the head of the 13-member team that works out of offices throughout North Texas.
For every 100 they speak to, they'll recruit about three. "It's a lot of hours, a lot of work," Sgt. Eggleston said.
They put in 80-hour weeks visiting schools, malls and parks. Their cellphones are always ringing, and even a romantic dinner with a spouse can become an opportunity to recruit the waitress.
A $10,000 enlistment bonus, full tuition and monthly education-assistance payments are major selling points for the National Guard. It is the only service that accepts single mothers, and recruits can enlist for three years now instead of the traditional six.
But recruiters from all branches of the armed forces face a minefield of obstacles to meeting their quota. They battle reluctant parents and skittish friends. They must overcome the recent bad publicity about a few unscrupulous Army recruiters. Body fat, age, tattoos, criminal records and mental problems can disqualify a potential recruit.
"People don't understand how hard it is to get people in. Look at all these disqualifiers," Sgt. Lorance said, running his finger down the application.
Above all, there is the fear of being sent to Iraq.
Later that morning, Sgt. Lorance sat down at the Collin County Community College library with Mr. Ellis.
The 6-foot-4 recruiter with the blond flattop – the sides shaved high and tight – has a jovial personality that puts people at ease.
Mr. Ellis said he thought he was ready to enlist. "It's something I've wanted to do a long time. But I was always one foot in, one foot out," he said.
But first the question: "What's the chance – this has been on my mind, and on my mom's mind – what's the chance of going over there to Iraq?"
"It's there," Sgt. Lorance said. "But I've been in the infantry 14 years, and I've never been."
Then the hot-check charge comes up again. It might have been for about $200, Mr. Ellis said.
"I'm going to go run the police record check, then we'll see what we can do," Sgt. Lorance said.
Sgt. Jennifer Trentham spent almost two months wooing her latest enlistee, an 18-year-old recent high school graduate.
The girl called the day before she was to enlist while Sgt. Trentham was visiting another potential recruit in Plano.
"There's no reason to freak out," Sgt. Trentham told her in a motherly voice, pacing the floor while the Plano man finished a military entry practice test on her laptop.
"I would not put you somewhere that wouldn't be good for you," she told the girl over the phone.
The young bucks on the team call her "Ma." Sgt. Trentham, 36, left her career as a math teacher last year to return full time to the military. She approaches the job like a school counselor.
Her potential recruit was living at home with her parents and had no job. "If I thought you had a better option, I would leave you alone," she told the girl.
After she flipped her cellphone shut, Sgt. Trentham sat down on the couch next to Sgt. Joey Mongognia, 20, and put her face in her hands. When she looked up, her eyes were red and damp.
"I put a lot of time in with this one," Sgt. Trentham told him. "I don't understand the choice to do nothing."
The young man from Plano wanted to know how soon he could enlist.
"I want to have a better country, to protect against terrorism," said Christian Ibarvo, 19, a U.S. citizen who attended high school in Mexico.
After she left his house, Sgt. Trentham didn't want to take any chances on her other recruit. She picked the girl up in Royse City that afternoon, checked her into a downtown Dallas hotel and met her as she got off a bus at 5:30 the next morning in front of the enlistment office.
After a long day shuttling her around the processing center, the National Guard had one more new soldier.
Sgt. Lorance printed out Mr. Ellis' criminal record and brought it back to the armory.
Sitting at his desk in front of more than a dozen framed certificates of recognition on the wall, Sgt. Lorance called him back with the bad news: Uncle Sam doesn't want him after all.
Unless the charge is dropped, a five-day hot-check-writing spree just before Christmas 2003 could cost the young man $1,700 in restitution and court fees – and a career in the National Guard.
"I'm sorry to tell you we can't help you at this time with the current regulations," Sgt. Lorance said.
"But hey, I really appreciate your interest and if you know anyone else ... I'd appreciate your help."
Team never lets Guard down
By GRETEL C. KOVACH / The Dallas Morning News
WYLIE, Texas – Their day starts at 7:30 in the morning with wind sprints from tree to tree beside the armory.
It never really ends. The soldiers on this award-winning Army National Guard recruiting team, one of the few nationwide that routinely meet quotas, are on a nonstop mission. They scour Collin and Rockwall counties, battling recruit by recruit to fill the ranks of America's all-volunteer armed forces in the uncertain shadow of terrorism and war.
After the morning run, the station commander for the Wylie-based crew swapped his sweaty T-shirt and shorts for a crisp, green camouflage uniform.
Sgt. 1st Class Gerald Lorance, 34, is the top recruiter on the team. He spent the Fourth of July holiday in Washington, D.C., at a reward party with the National Guard's head of recruiting. And he recently won trips to Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., to share his best recruiting practices.
His cellphone rang with the first promising lead of the day.
Other branches of the military have different approaches, but Sgt. Lorance said he doesn't waste time on the unwilling with harassing phone calls.
In this case, it's the prospective recruit who keeps calling the recruiter.
"Did you go to McKinney High School? Yeah, I think I remember you," Sgt. Lorance said. "So, let me ask you a few questions. You ever been in the military before? Where were you born? Native Texan, all right!"
They met back when Billy Ellis Jr., a 22-year-old community college dropout, was in high school. He was interested in joining the National Guard, Sgt. Lorance recalled, but his parents thought he was too young.
Now, Mr. Ellis is ready to serve. He called Sgt. Lorance twice while he was in D.C. But there was one little problem.
"Oh, no," Sgt. Lorance said in a hushed tone into his cellphone. "What's it for?"
Mr. Ellis told the recruiter he was facing a theft-by-check charge in connection with a purchase of about $20. Sgt. Lorance checked the regulations book and said it shouldn't be a problem.
But the young man's story would change.
The Wylie team recently was lauded in Austin for being the only National Guard team in the state to have each recruiter on the team hit his or her recruiting goal.
In June, the Pentagon announced that the Army National Guard is 24 percent behind its recruiting target through May, the Army Reserve and the Air National Guard 20 percent behind, and the Navy Reserve 12 percent.
To a point, it's a numbers game, said Master Sgt. Gregory Eggleston, the head of the 13-member team that works out of offices throughout North Texas.
For every 100 they speak to, they'll recruit about three. "It's a lot of hours, a lot of work," Sgt. Eggleston said.
They put in 80-hour weeks visiting schools, malls and parks. Their cellphones are always ringing, and even a romantic dinner with a spouse can become an opportunity to recruit the waitress.
A $10,000 enlistment bonus, full tuition and monthly education-assistance payments are major selling points for the National Guard. It is the only service that accepts single mothers, and recruits can enlist for three years now instead of the traditional six.
But recruiters from all branches of the armed forces face a minefield of obstacles to meeting their quota. They battle reluctant parents and skittish friends. They must overcome the recent bad publicity about a few unscrupulous Army recruiters. Body fat, age, tattoos, criminal records and mental problems can disqualify a potential recruit.
"People don't understand how hard it is to get people in. Look at all these disqualifiers," Sgt. Lorance said, running his finger down the application.
Above all, there is the fear of being sent to Iraq.
Later that morning, Sgt. Lorance sat down at the Collin County Community College library with Mr. Ellis.
The 6-foot-4 recruiter with the blond flattop – the sides shaved high and tight – has a jovial personality that puts people at ease.
Mr. Ellis said he thought he was ready to enlist. "It's something I've wanted to do a long time. But I was always one foot in, one foot out," he said.
But first the question: "What's the chance – this has been on my mind, and on my mom's mind – what's the chance of going over there to Iraq?"
"It's there," Sgt. Lorance said. "But I've been in the infantry 14 years, and I've never been."
Then the hot-check charge comes up again. It might have been for about $200, Mr. Ellis said.
"I'm going to go run the police record check, then we'll see what we can do," Sgt. Lorance said.
Sgt. Jennifer Trentham spent almost two months wooing her latest enlistee, an 18-year-old recent high school graduate.
The girl called the day before she was to enlist while Sgt. Trentham was visiting another potential recruit in Plano.
"There's no reason to freak out," Sgt. Trentham told her in a motherly voice, pacing the floor while the Plano man finished a military entry practice test on her laptop.
"I would not put you somewhere that wouldn't be good for you," she told the girl over the phone.
The young bucks on the team call her "Ma." Sgt. Trentham, 36, left her career as a math teacher last year to return full time to the military. She approaches the job like a school counselor.
Her potential recruit was living at home with her parents and had no job. "If I thought you had a better option, I would leave you alone," she told the girl.
After she flipped her cellphone shut, Sgt. Trentham sat down on the couch next to Sgt. Joey Mongognia, 20, and put her face in her hands. When she looked up, her eyes were red and damp.
"I put a lot of time in with this one," Sgt. Trentham told him. "I don't understand the choice to do nothing."
The young man from Plano wanted to know how soon he could enlist.
"I want to have a better country, to protect against terrorism," said Christian Ibarvo, 19, a U.S. citizen who attended high school in Mexico.
After she left his house, Sgt. Trentham didn't want to take any chances on her other recruit. She picked the girl up in Royse City that afternoon, checked her into a downtown Dallas hotel and met her as she got off a bus at 5:30 the next morning in front of the enlistment office.
After a long day shuttling her around the processing center, the National Guard had one more new soldier.
Sgt. Lorance printed out Mr. Ellis' criminal record and brought it back to the armory.
Sitting at his desk in front of more than a dozen framed certificates of recognition on the wall, Sgt. Lorance called him back with the bad news: Uncle Sam doesn't want him after all.
Unless the charge is dropped, a five-day hot-check-writing spree just before Christmas 2003 could cost the young man $1,700 in restitution and court fees – and a career in the National Guard.
"I'm sorry to tell you we can't help you at this time with the current regulations," Sgt. Lorance said.
"But hey, I really appreciate your interest and if you know anyone else ... I'd appreciate your help."
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TexasStooge
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D/FW aims to woo the Love out of Southwest
By ERIC TORBENSON / The Dallas Morning News
DFW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Texas - Officials at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Friday launched a charm offensive aimed at getting Southwest Airlines Co. to move some or all its operations to D/FW.
Using a sign towed behind an airplane reading “Travelers want Southwest at DFW Now”, the airport is beginning an advertising campaign that urges Southwest to stop its fight to repeal the Wright amendment and to instead launch service from D/FW.
The airport polled 2,700 travelers at D/FW over the Fourth of July weekend, and 62 percent of them wanted Southwest to serve D/FW. Southwest serves Dallas Love Field, where the Wright amendment limits how far flights can travel. Southwest wants the law repealed so it can fly anywhere from Love Field, where it has its headquarters.
Southwest has adamantly said it has no interest in going to D/FW, though it examined the possibility last fall before concluding that its strategy was to repeal the 25-year-old Wright amendment.
“We’re not fighters, we’re lovers,” said Joe Lopano, vice president of marketing for D/FW, to several hundred D/FW employees who rode employee shuttle buses to the Frontiers of Flight museum across Love Field from Southwest’s headquarters. D/FW officials say they’ll do practically anything to get Southwest to add service there.
By ERIC TORBENSON / The Dallas Morning News
DFW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Texas - Officials at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Friday launched a charm offensive aimed at getting Southwest Airlines Co. to move some or all its operations to D/FW.
Using a sign towed behind an airplane reading “Travelers want Southwest at DFW Now”, the airport is beginning an advertising campaign that urges Southwest to stop its fight to repeal the Wright amendment and to instead launch service from D/FW.
The airport polled 2,700 travelers at D/FW over the Fourth of July weekend, and 62 percent of them wanted Southwest to serve D/FW. Southwest serves Dallas Love Field, where the Wright amendment limits how far flights can travel. Southwest wants the law repealed so it can fly anywhere from Love Field, where it has its headquarters.
Southwest has adamantly said it has no interest in going to D/FW, though it examined the possibility last fall before concluding that its strategy was to repeal the 25-year-old Wright amendment.
“We’re not fighters, we’re lovers,” said Joe Lopano, vice president of marketing for D/FW, to several hundred D/FW employees who rode employee shuttle buses to the Frontiers of Flight museum across Love Field from Southwest’s headquarters. D/FW officials say they’ll do practically anything to get Southwest to add service there.
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TexasStooge
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- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Divorcee gets garden visitation rights
By MARIANA GREENE / The Dallas Morning News
GARLAND, Texas - What becomes of a garden, and the gardener, when it is no longer hers?
A garden may be an inanimate object, but try convincing someone who has enriched the soil with energy, inspiration, income and exasperation that this is so. To the passionate gardener, one's garden is a work of art, a physical symbol of creative expression and hard work.
How does one say goodbye?
As if divorce weren't crushing enough, Delores Cullivan had to sell her beloved house and garden in Forest Hills, a genteel, dignified neighborhood across Garland Road from White Rock Lake. She had devoted 12 years to creating a sylvan spot out of overgrown bushes, wisteria gone wild and long-fallow land. In the process, Ms. Cullivan, 53, learned her gardens were as much about making others happy as they were about self-gratification.
Those who practice gardening will attest that it is an exercise in optimism, and Ms. Cullivan is no different. When the sale of her home was finalized in May, she walked away with an agreement to perform regular maintenance on the grounds, three-quarters of an acre planted property line to property line with shady and sunny gardens. She has bought a house on a half-acre in a nearby neighborhood that she calls "a new blank canvas." She will still be the official hostess when her former garden is on the National Garden Conservancy's "Open Gardens" tour Sept. 24. "And I'm five minutes away from my old garden. It will always be my garden," she says. "I can drive by any time."
She will join the throngs who, over the years, have basked in the beauty of the sun-loving perennial border that stretches across the breadth of the lot, near the street. In the mornings and evenings, especially in mild seasons when gardens are in bloom, the neighborhood is lively with walkers, baby strollers, joggers and dogs. Residents noticed her gardening successes and thanked her for beautifying the street; with the nurturing compliments, she bloomed. One day she found a letter from a stranger asking her to share the name of her garden designer.
"And this was from a master gardener," Ms. Cullivan marvels. "She knew more than I did at the time."
By then, Ms. Cullivan had reached a stage in her life where she wanted to follow her passion. When she began to plant in 1993, gardening was Ms. Cullivan's "weekend therapy session," a respite from business travel for an international consumer products company that took her "from one end of the country to the other." She was ready to quit the high-pressure national sales job, end the perpetual business trips, be at home in the afternoons with her young son.
She completed the county's master gardener certification, enrolled in horticulture classes at Richland College and, in 1999, incorporated Artistic Gardenscapes. Her college roommate was her first paying client.
Ms. Cullivan employs the same principles for commissions that she relies on for her own garden spaces. She prefers perennials to annuals and bulbs because they are a smarter investment (they get bigger and bigger each year) and because one should factor in time to enjoy a garden. To sit and enjoy the garden. Planting, removing and replanting seasonal color several times a year, she says, takes time and energy added to the basic requirements of mulching, fertilizing, dead-heading and grooming perennial beds and caring for a lawn.
To perennials, this garden designer always adds shrubs and trees, and not only blooming specimens. "I think gardens should have something to look at that's interesting year-round. Leaf color and texture are even more important than flowers," she believes, to the overall design.
Her new lot, too, will benefit from schooling and experience in ways her first garden did not. "These new gardens are going to require less maintenance," she says, thinking of lessons learned. "I'm busy. Plants have to perform."
By MARIANA GREENE / The Dallas Morning News
GARLAND, Texas - What becomes of a garden, and the gardener, when it is no longer hers?
A garden may be an inanimate object, but try convincing someone who has enriched the soil with energy, inspiration, income and exasperation that this is so. To the passionate gardener, one's garden is a work of art, a physical symbol of creative expression and hard work.
How does one say goodbye?
As if divorce weren't crushing enough, Delores Cullivan had to sell her beloved house and garden in Forest Hills, a genteel, dignified neighborhood across Garland Road from White Rock Lake. She had devoted 12 years to creating a sylvan spot out of overgrown bushes, wisteria gone wild and long-fallow land. In the process, Ms. Cullivan, 53, learned her gardens were as much about making others happy as they were about self-gratification.
Those who practice gardening will attest that it is an exercise in optimism, and Ms. Cullivan is no different. When the sale of her home was finalized in May, she walked away with an agreement to perform regular maintenance on the grounds, three-quarters of an acre planted property line to property line with shady and sunny gardens. She has bought a house on a half-acre in a nearby neighborhood that she calls "a new blank canvas." She will still be the official hostess when her former garden is on the National Garden Conservancy's "Open Gardens" tour Sept. 24. "And I'm five minutes away from my old garden. It will always be my garden," she says. "I can drive by any time."
She will join the throngs who, over the years, have basked in the beauty of the sun-loving perennial border that stretches across the breadth of the lot, near the street. In the mornings and evenings, especially in mild seasons when gardens are in bloom, the neighborhood is lively with walkers, baby strollers, joggers and dogs. Residents noticed her gardening successes and thanked her for beautifying the street; with the nurturing compliments, she bloomed. One day she found a letter from a stranger asking her to share the name of her garden designer.
"And this was from a master gardener," Ms. Cullivan marvels. "She knew more than I did at the time."
By then, Ms. Cullivan had reached a stage in her life where she wanted to follow her passion. When she began to plant in 1993, gardening was Ms. Cullivan's "weekend therapy session," a respite from business travel for an international consumer products company that took her "from one end of the country to the other." She was ready to quit the high-pressure national sales job, end the perpetual business trips, be at home in the afternoons with her young son.
She completed the county's master gardener certification, enrolled in horticulture classes at Richland College and, in 1999, incorporated Artistic Gardenscapes. Her college roommate was her first paying client.
Ms. Cullivan employs the same principles for commissions that she relies on for her own garden spaces. She prefers perennials to annuals and bulbs because they are a smarter investment (they get bigger and bigger each year) and because one should factor in time to enjoy a garden. To sit and enjoy the garden. Planting, removing and replanting seasonal color several times a year, she says, takes time and energy added to the basic requirements of mulching, fertilizing, dead-heading and grooming perennial beds and caring for a lawn.
To perennials, this garden designer always adds shrubs and trees, and not only blooming specimens. "I think gardens should have something to look at that's interesting year-round. Leaf color and texture are even more important than flowers," she believes, to the overall design.
Her new lot, too, will benefit from schooling and experience in ways her first garden did not. "These new gardens are going to require less maintenance," she says, thinking of lessons learned. "I'm busy. Plants have to perform."
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TexasStooge
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New weapon against Texas sex offenders
By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Texas has a new weapon to keep violent sexual predators from getting out and committing new crimes even after they're released from prison.
It's the result of a long personal crusade by two working moms determined to close loopholes in the justice system.
Until now, even the worst of predatory killers could walk out of Texas prisons after serving their time - but two women on a tireless crusade found a way to build a barrier between sexual predators and their would-be victims.
Rona Smith's sister Retha was murdered in 1982 by Wesley Wayne Miller. Police believe Miller also raped several women; Lisa Gabbert said she's one of them.
Smith and Gabbert fought nearly a quarter-century to keep Miller from slipping back into society. But in December 2007, he'll walk out of prison - and there's nothing they can do about that.
Said Smith, "How can you turn your back on this when you know it's happening?"
So, Smith and Gabbert worked for a civil commitment law to force sexual predators into monitored treatment programs after their release.
"We have to do this," Gabbert said. "It's a social obligation; it's a moral obligation; it's a personal obligation."
The problem? That law - passed in 1999 - didn't cover killers unless they were specifically convicted of sex crimes.
"These horrible, horrible, horrible deviant people were not even eligible to be considered," Gabbert said.
Smith and Gabbert just won the battle to close that loophole. As a result, when Miller finishes his prison term, he'll be assessed for civil commitment. So will other murderers, such as Hank Worley, a co-defendant of notorious serial killer Kenneth McDuff.
"You're going to get the worst of the worst of the worst," Smith said.
By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Texas has a new weapon to keep violent sexual predators from getting out and committing new crimes even after they're released from prison.
It's the result of a long personal crusade by two working moms determined to close loopholes in the justice system.
Until now, even the worst of predatory killers could walk out of Texas prisons after serving their time - but two women on a tireless crusade found a way to build a barrier between sexual predators and their would-be victims.
Rona Smith's sister Retha was murdered in 1982 by Wesley Wayne Miller. Police believe Miller also raped several women; Lisa Gabbert said she's one of them.
Smith and Gabbert fought nearly a quarter-century to keep Miller from slipping back into society. But in December 2007, he'll walk out of prison - and there's nothing they can do about that.
Said Smith, "How can you turn your back on this when you know it's happening?"
So, Smith and Gabbert worked for a civil commitment law to force sexual predators into monitored treatment programs after their release.
"We have to do this," Gabbert said. "It's a social obligation; it's a moral obligation; it's a personal obligation."
The problem? That law - passed in 1999 - didn't cover killers unless they were specifically convicted of sex crimes.
"These horrible, horrible, horrible deviant people were not even eligible to be considered," Gabbert said.
Smith and Gabbert just won the battle to close that loophole. As a result, when Miller finishes his prison term, he'll be assessed for civil commitment. So will other murderers, such as Hank Worley, a co-defendant of notorious serial killer Kenneth McDuff.
"You're going to get the worst of the worst of the worst," Smith said.
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TexasStooge
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Two are suspects in death of woman
Grapevine: Police say Mississippi pair may be linked to several killings
By DEBRA DENNIS / The Dallas Morning News
GRAPEVINE, Texas – A Mississippi trucker and his girlfriend may be responsible for the serial killings of women in at least three states, including an Oklahoma woman whose body was found in Grapevine last year.
Grapevine police traveled to Mississippi to question John Robert Williams and Rachel Cumberland about the slaying of Casey Jo Pipestem, who was last seen Jan. 28, 2004, at a truck stop in Oklahoma City. The prostitute's nude body was found three days later in Big Bear Creek just off State Highway 360 in Grapevine.
Police believe the two may be sexual predators who took turns assaulting their victims.
"I feel confident we have the right people," said Grapevine police Sgt. Bob Murphy. "We feel he has extensive knowledge in these cases."
Mr. Williams and Ms. Cumberland pleaded guilty earlier this week in the death of a Mississippi woman and have been charged with murder in the death of another woman. Oklahoma authorities are considering charging the pair with the 2002 killing of a Yukon, Okla., woman.
Sgt. Murphy said Ms. Cumberland denied involvement in Ms. Pipestem's death, but police are looking at her as a suspect after Mr. Williams implicated her.
Ms. Pipestem's uncle, Ted Underwood, said the family is encouraged about the new developments.
"It's been a real roller coaster," Mr. Underwood said. " We are really elated that law enforcement has worked so well together on this case. It would have been easy to dismiss Casey like so many others. We knew the trail was getting cold."
The first break case came last month when Ms. Pipestem's slaying was featured on the television show America's Most Wanted.
"A family member of Mr. Williams indicated that when she saw the episode, she got cold chills and knew it was him," Sgt. Murphy said.
Over four days last month, Mr. Williams gave Grapevine investigators extensive details about Ms. Pipestem's slaying that only the killer would know, Sgt. Murphy said.
Police have not charged either in the slaying and said they are looking for physical evidence that may tie them to the case.
Mr. Williams, 29, was a long-distance truck driver for several companies over the last few years, hauling various cargo such as chickens and steel, police said.
Ms. Cumberland, police said, often accompanied him.
Police believe the two may be sexual predators who took turns assaulting their victims.
Mr. Williams pleaded guilty Tuesday to kidnapping and murder charges in the death of a Mississippi woman, said Warren Strain, spokesman for the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Williams was sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison.
Nikki Hill, 28, of Shuqualak, Miss., was found July 18, 2004 off a Neshoba County road near Philadelphia, Miss.
Ms. Cumberland, 35, pleaded guilty Tuesday to manslaughter in the death of Ms. Hill and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Mr. Williams and Ms. Cumberland, both of Carthage, Miss., will be in court next week for an initial appearance on charges of kidnapping and murder in the death of Jennifer Hyman of Oklahoma City. Ms. Hyman's body was found Aug. 20, 2003, off the Tallahatchie River Bridge in Lafayette County, Miss.
The two are also suspects in the slaying of Samantha P. Patrick, 22, of Oklahoma.
Ms. Patrick's body was found behind a grocery store on Sept. 12, 2002, in Yukon, Okla.
Jessica Brown, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said Oklahoma authorities will travel to Mississippi to interview Mr. Williams and Mr. Cumberland.
"This is very encouraging," Brown said. "... We're hopeful this man can give us some answers to the cases we're investigating from Oklahoma and others."
But authorities believe more than one person is responsible for the string of killings.
"We've never thought it was just one person," she said.
Law enforcement officials have been investigating killings that date back to 2002 in which truck stops were the common thread.
Authorities said six of seven victims included in the investigation were prostitutes. The prostitutes were found nude or only partially clothed.
At least four victims were last seen at a truck stop, and at least three were strangled, authorities said. The bodies were found near highways and creeks in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Grapevine: Police say Mississippi pair may be linked to several killings
By DEBRA DENNIS / The Dallas Morning News
GRAPEVINE, Texas – A Mississippi trucker and his girlfriend may be responsible for the serial killings of women in at least three states, including an Oklahoma woman whose body was found in Grapevine last year.
Grapevine police traveled to Mississippi to question John Robert Williams and Rachel Cumberland about the slaying of Casey Jo Pipestem, who was last seen Jan. 28, 2004, at a truck stop in Oklahoma City. The prostitute's nude body was found three days later in Big Bear Creek just off State Highway 360 in Grapevine.
Police believe the two may be sexual predators who took turns assaulting their victims.
"I feel confident we have the right people," said Grapevine police Sgt. Bob Murphy. "We feel he has extensive knowledge in these cases."
Mr. Williams and Ms. Cumberland pleaded guilty earlier this week in the death of a Mississippi woman and have been charged with murder in the death of another woman. Oklahoma authorities are considering charging the pair with the 2002 killing of a Yukon, Okla., woman.
Sgt. Murphy said Ms. Cumberland denied involvement in Ms. Pipestem's death, but police are looking at her as a suspect after Mr. Williams implicated her.
Ms. Pipestem's uncle, Ted Underwood, said the family is encouraged about the new developments.
"It's been a real roller coaster," Mr. Underwood said. " We are really elated that law enforcement has worked so well together on this case. It would have been easy to dismiss Casey like so many others. We knew the trail was getting cold."
The first break case came last month when Ms. Pipestem's slaying was featured on the television show America's Most Wanted.
"A family member of Mr. Williams indicated that when she saw the episode, she got cold chills and knew it was him," Sgt. Murphy said.
Over four days last month, Mr. Williams gave Grapevine investigators extensive details about Ms. Pipestem's slaying that only the killer would know, Sgt. Murphy said.
Police have not charged either in the slaying and said they are looking for physical evidence that may tie them to the case.
Mr. Williams, 29, was a long-distance truck driver for several companies over the last few years, hauling various cargo such as chickens and steel, police said.
Ms. Cumberland, police said, often accompanied him.
Police believe the two may be sexual predators who took turns assaulting their victims.
Mr. Williams pleaded guilty Tuesday to kidnapping and murder charges in the death of a Mississippi woman, said Warren Strain, spokesman for the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Williams was sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison.
Nikki Hill, 28, of Shuqualak, Miss., was found July 18, 2004 off a Neshoba County road near Philadelphia, Miss.
Ms. Cumberland, 35, pleaded guilty Tuesday to manslaughter in the death of Ms. Hill and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Mr. Williams and Ms. Cumberland, both of Carthage, Miss., will be in court next week for an initial appearance on charges of kidnapping and murder in the death of Jennifer Hyman of Oklahoma City. Ms. Hyman's body was found Aug. 20, 2003, off the Tallahatchie River Bridge in Lafayette County, Miss.
The two are also suspects in the slaying of Samantha P. Patrick, 22, of Oklahoma.
Ms. Patrick's body was found behind a grocery store on Sept. 12, 2002, in Yukon, Okla.
Jessica Brown, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said Oklahoma authorities will travel to Mississippi to interview Mr. Williams and Mr. Cumberland.
"This is very encouraging," Brown said. "... We're hopeful this man can give us some answers to the cases we're investigating from Oklahoma and others."
But authorities believe more than one person is responsible for the string of killings.
"We've never thought it was just one person," she said.
Law enforcement officials have been investigating killings that date back to 2002 in which truck stops were the common thread.
Authorities said six of seven victims included in the investigation were prostitutes. The prostitutes were found nude or only partially clothed.
At least four victims were last seen at a truck stop, and at least three were strangled, authorities said. The bodies were found near highways and creeks in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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TexasStooge
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Fatal wreck damages I-35E overpass
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A fatal wreck on Interstate 35E south of Dallas on Thursday caused major structural damage to an overpass, leading to the bridge's closure.
An 18-wheeler slammed into the bridge support of the Highway 77 overpass in Red Oak around 4 p.m. The impact was so severe that the truck's driver was killed.
The highway was closed for hours while crews worked to clean up the wreckage; both north and southbound lanes are now open and flowing smoothly.
Texas Department of Transportation officials are trying to determine if the bridge can be repaired, or if it must be demolished.
WFAA ABC 8
Serious damage was done to the Highway 77 bridge support.
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A fatal wreck on Interstate 35E south of Dallas on Thursday caused major structural damage to an overpass, leading to the bridge's closure.
An 18-wheeler slammed into the bridge support of the Highway 77 overpass in Red Oak around 4 p.m. The impact was so severe that the truck's driver was killed.
The highway was closed for hours while crews worked to clean up the wreckage; both north and southbound lanes are now open and flowing smoothly.
Texas Department of Transportation officials are trying to determine if the bridge can be repaired, or if it must be demolished.
WFAA ABC 8
Serious damage was done to the Highway 77 bridge support.
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TexasStooge
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Texas Lottery director resigns
AUSTIN, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - The executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission resigned Friday, just two weeks after he admitted authorizing advertising lottery jackpots that were higher than ticket sales could support.
Reagan Greer's resignation became effective at 5:30 pm. Friday.
He had overseen day-to-day operations at the nation's third-largest lottery since February 2003.
Greer told the commission he approved an $8 million advertised Lotto Texas jackpot in a June drawing, despite knowing the estimated sales could only cover about $6.5 million.
Click here to read Greer's resignation letter.*
To read his testimony before the lottery commission, click here.*
*=These links are PDF and may require Adobe Acrobat reader to view.
AUSTIN, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - The executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission resigned Friday, just two weeks after he admitted authorizing advertising lottery jackpots that were higher than ticket sales could support.
Reagan Greer's resignation became effective at 5:30 pm. Friday.
He had overseen day-to-day operations at the nation's third-largest lottery since February 2003.
Greer told the commission he approved an $8 million advertised Lotto Texas jackpot in a June drawing, despite knowing the estimated sales could only cover about $6.5 million.
Click here to read Greer's resignation letter.*
To read his testimony before the lottery commission, click here.*
*=These links are PDF and may require Adobe Acrobat reader to view.
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TexasStooge
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How long will downtown housing boom last?
By CHRIS HEINBAUGH / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - On moving day at the old Dallas Power and Light complex downtown, Kathy Zwaska is the first tenant in the second tower.
"It's just a beautiful building from the lobby all the way up," Zwaska said. "It's just wonderful."
She'll soon have plenty more company, both in her building and elsewhere. Thousands of additional apartments are set to be created downtown in the next few years, including 150 at the Gulf States project and 450 at the Mercantile. The target is to have 10,000 units downtown by 2010.
But when it comes to office towers downtown, Dallas has had its share of boom-and-bust building cycles. Now that residential construction here is taking off, some people are worried we may be in for the same thing. Is this boom creating a bubble - and more units than the market can absorb?
"The market can bear it," said Alice Murray of the Central Dallas Association.
Murray and other downtown boosters said the city's core isn't even close to saturation, because as an urban market it's unique.
"We're the only ones that have that stock in the whole city," she said. "People like the idea of having a one-of-a-kind apartment with history to it."
And occupancy rates bear that out. Citywide, it's 90 percent; downtown is four points better at 94 percent.
Developer Ted Hamilton, who restored the Davis Building and the DP&L complex, is so sure of the market that he's started restoring a third building.
"We feel very confident the market is very deep," Hamilton said.
Zwaska's convinced; she sees the urban trend taking off as she and her pups settle in.
And others think Big D can think even bigger: While 10,000 units is the current target for downtown, one experienced urban developer said the market could bear 25,000 units, and the boundaries of downtown should be expanded as well.
By CHRIS HEINBAUGH / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - On moving day at the old Dallas Power and Light complex downtown, Kathy Zwaska is the first tenant in the second tower.
"It's just a beautiful building from the lobby all the way up," Zwaska said. "It's just wonderful."
She'll soon have plenty more company, both in her building and elsewhere. Thousands of additional apartments are set to be created downtown in the next few years, including 150 at the Gulf States project and 450 at the Mercantile. The target is to have 10,000 units downtown by 2010.
But when it comes to office towers downtown, Dallas has had its share of boom-and-bust building cycles. Now that residential construction here is taking off, some people are worried we may be in for the same thing. Is this boom creating a bubble - and more units than the market can absorb?
"The market can bear it," said Alice Murray of the Central Dallas Association.
Murray and other downtown boosters said the city's core isn't even close to saturation, because as an urban market it's unique.
"We're the only ones that have that stock in the whole city," she said. "People like the idea of having a one-of-a-kind apartment with history to it."
And occupancy rates bear that out. Citywide, it's 90 percent; downtown is four points better at 94 percent.
Developer Ted Hamilton, who restored the Davis Building and the DP&L complex, is so sure of the market that he's started restoring a third building.
"We feel very confident the market is very deep," Hamilton said.
Zwaska's convinced; she sees the urban trend taking off as she and her pups settle in.
And others think Big D can think even bigger: While 10,000 units is the current target for downtown, one experienced urban developer said the market could bear 25,000 units, and the boundaries of downtown should be expanded as well.
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TexasStooge
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Complaints of poor care at jail continue
Inmates describe negligence even after scathing report
By JAMES M. O'NEILL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Inmates who enter the Dallas County Jail with physical or medical problems risk losing more than their freedom, say inmates, family members and health-care advocates.
One inmate said he lost sight in one eye because of poor care in jail. And a recent lawsuit filed by the family of an inmate who died in custody contends he was denied medications for serious health ailments including congestive heart failure.
Five months after county commissioners received a scathing report on medical care at the jail, inmates with serious physical illnesses still wait weeks to see a doctor or receive proper care, according to accounts by inmates and their families, staff members and health-care advocates.
And many mentally ill inmates continue to languish for a week or more without receiving the medications that keep them stable, they say.
"People should be up in arms about this, but until it hits them personally, the public just doesn't seem to care," said Vivian Lawrence of the Mental Health Association of Dallas.
After receiving a highly critical report about jail medical care in February, which noted a serious shortage of staff and other problems, Dallas County commissioners created a committee to fix things. The committee met once, in April, but has not met since, as it waits for medical experts to propose specific improvements.
Advocates, however, are growing weary of the wait and say little has changed since the report was completed.
Lawrence Priddy of Advocacy Inc., which monitors mentally ill inmates, said the group learns about new cases every week. Medications are often started once the group looks into a case, but he said at least 10 cases remain open.
"The complaints are all about inmates not getting to see doctors and delays of over a week before mentally ill inmates get their medications," Mr. Priddy said. "They still haven't fixed that problem.
"I'm quite disappointed the commissioners' committee has not met again," he said. "Meanwhile, what happens to the folks with these problems?"
Commissioners Court administrator Allen Clemson said smaller groups have met to discuss the issue every week.
The county's jail system, which houses about 7,000 inmates, is the seventh-largest in the nation.
Federal lawsuits against the county over the issue continue to be filed. Among them:
• James Leroy Johnson, 60, was booked on Oct. 24 on theft and parole violation charges. He suffered from congestive heart failure, diabetes and other ailments. He and his sister, Barbara Stephens, told jail officials about his medical needs at book-in, according to a lawsuit filed in May.
The suit says Mr. Johnson phoned Ms. Stephens repeatedly to say he was not getting his medication, that he was scared and that his body was beginning to swell. Ms. Stephens contacted the jail, and Mr. Johnson submitted requests for treatment. The suit says that after 15 days, he was sent to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he died on Nov. 13.
• Kendrick Deshun Baines, 19, was booked on July 11, 2003. A lawsuit filed last month says that other inmates alerted jail guards on July 23 that Mr. Baines was trying to kill himself.
He was identified as a suicide risk and was supposed to be placed on suicide watch. But the suit says "jail personnel never actually placed Baines on suicide watch." The suit says "he was not promptly seen by a doctor or any other mental health professional." The next day, Mr. Baines was found dead in his cell, a suicide.
• Bryan Posey was arrested Dec. 9, 2002, after his mother complained of verbal abuse. In an affidavit, a Dallas police officer who arrested Mr. Posey noted his "irrational emotional state."
Lawyer Tom Carse, who filed suit on behalf of Mr. Posey's family, obtained a video of Mr. Posey's book-in. During book-in, jail staff are supposed to screen inmates for mental illness or suicide risk by asking a detailed set of questions. In the video and transcript, it appears that the staff never asked Mr. Posey the questions. He was put in a holding cell and soon after was found dead, with the cord of the cell's pay phone around his neck.
No medical training
The February jail study noted the danger of having jail guards with no medical training screen inmates, since they can easily miss symptoms of illness. The University of Texas Medical Branch, which oversees the jail's medical care, proposes having medical staff handle screening.
Peter Harlan of the district attorney's office, who is representing the county in the Johnson, Baines and Posey cases, would not comment on the suits.
Since the February report, inmates and their families continue to describe serious problems with the jail's medical care:
• Bruce McDonald, in an interview, said another inmate hit him in the left eye on April 28, and a few days later his vision started to blur. Despite diagnosis of a torn retina, medical staff comments about the urgent need for surgery, several trips to Parkland and his own requests for medical help, Mr. McDonald did not receive corrective surgery until June 14 – over a month and a half later. He said doctors told him he could be blind in the eye forever. A U.S. Institutes of Health Web site notes that "if not promptly treated, retinal detachment can cause permanent vision loss."
'A hiccup'
Mr. Clemson said Mr. McDonald had frequent contact with the medical staff.
"There was a hiccup in that a pre-operative appointment was not kept, and we don't know why," Mr. Clemson said. "But he was getting care. It's not like he was being ignored.
"I'm not saying we're perfect," Mr. Clemson added. "It needs some work. We're fixing it, but the jail medical care is much better than this might indicate it is."
• Inmate Roy Taylor Jr. said in an interview that before his June 7 book-in, he had cleaned up a shattered light bulb and got a shard of glass stuck in his thumb, causing a severe infection. After book-in, medical staff examined him and noted that his finger was still infected. He requested help for the thumb. He said that a week later a doctor told him he needed to go to Parkland to have the tip of the thumb amputated. He went to the nurse each day to clean the finger but was never sent for surgery.
Finally, on June 24, he asked to see the doctor again. Surprised that the thumb hadn't been addressed, the doctor sent Mr. Taylor to Parkland, where the finger was lanced. Mr. Taylor said he was told he now needed 80 percent of the thumb removed. But on July 1, when The Dallas Morning News interviewed Mr. Taylor in jail, he had not had the surgery. He removed his bandage to show the deteriorated tip of the finger, with the exposed bone. "The bone is turning black. The pain is excruciating," he said. "The care here is almost nonexistent."
Mr. Clemson said Friday that Mr. Taylor arrived at the jail with the bone already exposed, that it had already been lanced at Baylor Hospital, that it was lanced again at Parkland on jail staff orders and that he is being given antibiotics in the jail that seem to be helping.
Families upset
Families of some mentally ill inmates have also described problems.Evelyn Allen said her son, Ronald Combs, an inmate with mental illness, waited for weeks in March to get medication. In the meantime, she said, Mr. Combs received a burn on his chest when another inmate poured hot water on him. He was supposed to get the dressing changed three times a day, she said, but it wasn't even changed every other day.
Robert Perry, 42, an inmate with bipolar disorder, said he did not receive any medications for weeks during a month-long jail stay in April. Finally, he got his meds for a few days before release. But he was released without a treatment plan or medication and later was arrested on a theft charge during a bipolar episode. He found himself back in jail on May 3.
He said in an interview in mid-June that he had not received medication since his arrival, despite asking jail staff repeatedly. Later, in a letter, he said that soon after The News interview he started receiving some medication, though he hadn't seen a doctor and one of the meds was thorazine, which he had never taken before.
"It's so repetitive," Mr. Perry said wearily of his revolving-door experience at the jail. "I don't want to excuse what I've done. But it's difficult when you can't get the help you need. I'm sick and tired of this."
Mr. Clemson said on Friday that officials still were investigating the Allen and Perry cases and had no immediate response to their charges.
"I don't like that this is still happening," said Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who chairs the county's jail health committee. "I know we will have to increase staff to some extent, but that's not the only issue." He declined to comment on the pending suits.
Sgt. Don Peritz, the sheriff's department spokesman, said Sheriff Lupe Valdez and the department "are extremely concerned about the health and mental health care that inmates receive" and are working with the commissioners and UTMB to "improve and upgrade care."
Hard to fill
Last December, UTMB said it needed at least 50 more staff and more recently increased the estimate to more than 60. The county must pay for and approve any increase. The current staff is 147.
Even existing positions are hard to fill. The mental health unit has three vacant nurse slots. UTMB confirmed that last week no nurse was available for the jail's West Tower, which houses about 1,400, during one night shift. Nurses are able to act immediately on a doctor's verbal order to give medication, so a lack of nurses slows response time.
John Allen, UTMB's executive director for operations, said medication is sometimes sent to an inmate's location, but by then the inmate has been moved to another part of the jail. The inmate then needs to be located, delaying distribution of the medication.
When mentally ill inmates are denied medication, lawyers often seek competency hearings to determine whether they are able to stand trial. Until recently, Dallas County jail inmates found to be incompetent were routinely sent to Terrell State Hospital for treatment.
But often, after Terrell staff restored mentally ill inmates and sent them back to the Dallas County jail, the inmates returned to Terrell in bad shape, saying they hadn't received medication in jail, said Dr. Mitchell Dunne, a Terrell staff psychiatrist.
That required the Terrell staff to go through the process of restoring the inmate all over again, he said.
"We'd send them back to the jail with two weeks of medicine so they could start on it right away, but we were told the jail would put the medications with the inmates' private possessions that were stored away for them until release," Dr. Dunne said. "It happened frequently enough that sheriff's people told one of our nurses, 'Why are you bothering to give them these meds – they're not going to get them in the jail.' It was pretty concerning."
Inmates describe negligence even after scathing report
By JAMES M. O'NEILL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Inmates who enter the Dallas County Jail with physical or medical problems risk losing more than their freedom, say inmates, family members and health-care advocates.
One inmate said he lost sight in one eye because of poor care in jail. And a recent lawsuit filed by the family of an inmate who died in custody contends he was denied medications for serious health ailments including congestive heart failure.
Five months after county commissioners received a scathing report on medical care at the jail, inmates with serious physical illnesses still wait weeks to see a doctor or receive proper care, according to accounts by inmates and their families, staff members and health-care advocates.
And many mentally ill inmates continue to languish for a week or more without receiving the medications that keep them stable, they say.
"People should be up in arms about this, but until it hits them personally, the public just doesn't seem to care," said Vivian Lawrence of the Mental Health Association of Dallas.
After receiving a highly critical report about jail medical care in February, which noted a serious shortage of staff and other problems, Dallas County commissioners created a committee to fix things. The committee met once, in April, but has not met since, as it waits for medical experts to propose specific improvements.
Advocates, however, are growing weary of the wait and say little has changed since the report was completed.
Lawrence Priddy of Advocacy Inc., which monitors mentally ill inmates, said the group learns about new cases every week. Medications are often started once the group looks into a case, but he said at least 10 cases remain open.
"The complaints are all about inmates not getting to see doctors and delays of over a week before mentally ill inmates get their medications," Mr. Priddy said. "They still haven't fixed that problem.
"I'm quite disappointed the commissioners' committee has not met again," he said. "Meanwhile, what happens to the folks with these problems?"
Commissioners Court administrator Allen Clemson said smaller groups have met to discuss the issue every week.
The county's jail system, which houses about 7,000 inmates, is the seventh-largest in the nation.
Federal lawsuits against the county over the issue continue to be filed. Among them:
• James Leroy Johnson, 60, was booked on Oct. 24 on theft and parole violation charges. He suffered from congestive heart failure, diabetes and other ailments. He and his sister, Barbara Stephens, told jail officials about his medical needs at book-in, according to a lawsuit filed in May.
The suit says Mr. Johnson phoned Ms. Stephens repeatedly to say he was not getting his medication, that he was scared and that his body was beginning to swell. Ms. Stephens contacted the jail, and Mr. Johnson submitted requests for treatment. The suit says that after 15 days, he was sent to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he died on Nov. 13.
• Kendrick Deshun Baines, 19, was booked on July 11, 2003. A lawsuit filed last month says that other inmates alerted jail guards on July 23 that Mr. Baines was trying to kill himself.
He was identified as a suicide risk and was supposed to be placed on suicide watch. But the suit says "jail personnel never actually placed Baines on suicide watch." The suit says "he was not promptly seen by a doctor or any other mental health professional." The next day, Mr. Baines was found dead in his cell, a suicide.
• Bryan Posey was arrested Dec. 9, 2002, after his mother complained of verbal abuse. In an affidavit, a Dallas police officer who arrested Mr. Posey noted his "irrational emotional state."
Lawyer Tom Carse, who filed suit on behalf of Mr. Posey's family, obtained a video of Mr. Posey's book-in. During book-in, jail staff are supposed to screen inmates for mental illness or suicide risk by asking a detailed set of questions. In the video and transcript, it appears that the staff never asked Mr. Posey the questions. He was put in a holding cell and soon after was found dead, with the cord of the cell's pay phone around his neck.
No medical training
The February jail study noted the danger of having jail guards with no medical training screen inmates, since they can easily miss symptoms of illness. The University of Texas Medical Branch, which oversees the jail's medical care, proposes having medical staff handle screening.
Peter Harlan of the district attorney's office, who is representing the county in the Johnson, Baines and Posey cases, would not comment on the suits.
Since the February report, inmates and their families continue to describe serious problems with the jail's medical care:
• Bruce McDonald, in an interview, said another inmate hit him in the left eye on April 28, and a few days later his vision started to blur. Despite diagnosis of a torn retina, medical staff comments about the urgent need for surgery, several trips to Parkland and his own requests for medical help, Mr. McDonald did not receive corrective surgery until June 14 – over a month and a half later. He said doctors told him he could be blind in the eye forever. A U.S. Institutes of Health Web site notes that "if not promptly treated, retinal detachment can cause permanent vision loss."
'A hiccup'
Mr. Clemson said Mr. McDonald had frequent contact with the medical staff.
"There was a hiccup in that a pre-operative appointment was not kept, and we don't know why," Mr. Clemson said. "But he was getting care. It's not like he was being ignored.
"I'm not saying we're perfect," Mr. Clemson added. "It needs some work. We're fixing it, but the jail medical care is much better than this might indicate it is."
• Inmate Roy Taylor Jr. said in an interview that before his June 7 book-in, he had cleaned up a shattered light bulb and got a shard of glass stuck in his thumb, causing a severe infection. After book-in, medical staff examined him and noted that his finger was still infected. He requested help for the thumb. He said that a week later a doctor told him he needed to go to Parkland to have the tip of the thumb amputated. He went to the nurse each day to clean the finger but was never sent for surgery.
Finally, on June 24, he asked to see the doctor again. Surprised that the thumb hadn't been addressed, the doctor sent Mr. Taylor to Parkland, where the finger was lanced. Mr. Taylor said he was told he now needed 80 percent of the thumb removed. But on July 1, when The Dallas Morning News interviewed Mr. Taylor in jail, he had not had the surgery. He removed his bandage to show the deteriorated tip of the finger, with the exposed bone. "The bone is turning black. The pain is excruciating," he said. "The care here is almost nonexistent."
Mr. Clemson said Friday that Mr. Taylor arrived at the jail with the bone already exposed, that it had already been lanced at Baylor Hospital, that it was lanced again at Parkland on jail staff orders and that he is being given antibiotics in the jail that seem to be helping.
Families upset
Families of some mentally ill inmates have also described problems.Evelyn Allen said her son, Ronald Combs, an inmate with mental illness, waited for weeks in March to get medication. In the meantime, she said, Mr. Combs received a burn on his chest when another inmate poured hot water on him. He was supposed to get the dressing changed three times a day, she said, but it wasn't even changed every other day.
Robert Perry, 42, an inmate with bipolar disorder, said he did not receive any medications for weeks during a month-long jail stay in April. Finally, he got his meds for a few days before release. But he was released without a treatment plan or medication and later was arrested on a theft charge during a bipolar episode. He found himself back in jail on May 3.
He said in an interview in mid-June that he had not received medication since his arrival, despite asking jail staff repeatedly. Later, in a letter, he said that soon after The News interview he started receiving some medication, though he hadn't seen a doctor and one of the meds was thorazine, which he had never taken before.
"It's so repetitive," Mr. Perry said wearily of his revolving-door experience at the jail. "I don't want to excuse what I've done. But it's difficult when you can't get the help you need. I'm sick and tired of this."
Mr. Clemson said on Friday that officials still were investigating the Allen and Perry cases and had no immediate response to their charges.
"I don't like that this is still happening," said Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who chairs the county's jail health committee. "I know we will have to increase staff to some extent, but that's not the only issue." He declined to comment on the pending suits.
Sgt. Don Peritz, the sheriff's department spokesman, said Sheriff Lupe Valdez and the department "are extremely concerned about the health and mental health care that inmates receive" and are working with the commissioners and UTMB to "improve and upgrade care."
Hard to fill
Last December, UTMB said it needed at least 50 more staff and more recently increased the estimate to more than 60. The county must pay for and approve any increase. The current staff is 147.
Even existing positions are hard to fill. The mental health unit has three vacant nurse slots. UTMB confirmed that last week no nurse was available for the jail's West Tower, which houses about 1,400, during one night shift. Nurses are able to act immediately on a doctor's verbal order to give medication, so a lack of nurses slows response time.
John Allen, UTMB's executive director for operations, said medication is sometimes sent to an inmate's location, but by then the inmate has been moved to another part of the jail. The inmate then needs to be located, delaying distribution of the medication.
When mentally ill inmates are denied medication, lawyers often seek competency hearings to determine whether they are able to stand trial. Until recently, Dallas County jail inmates found to be incompetent were routinely sent to Terrell State Hospital for treatment.
But often, after Terrell staff restored mentally ill inmates and sent them back to the Dallas County jail, the inmates returned to Terrell in bad shape, saying they hadn't received medication in jail, said Dr. Mitchell Dunne, a Terrell staff psychiatrist.
That required the Terrell staff to go through the process of restoring the inmate all over again, he said.
"We'd send them back to the jail with two weeks of medicine so they could start on it right away, but we were told the jail would put the medications with the inmates' private possessions that were stored away for them until release," Dr. Dunne said. "It happened frequently enough that sheriff's people told one of our nurses, 'Why are you bothering to give them these meds – they're not going to get them in the jail.' It was pretty concerning."
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