News from the Lone Star State

[rainstorm]

High-speed chase ends in arrest of Dallas officer

DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - An off-duty Dallas police officer is hospitalized after leading authorities on a high speed chase.

It started late this afternoon at a house in Arlington and from there the chase went south on Highway 287 into Mansfield. It then moved back north to Interstate 20 and west to 287. The chase ended at Rosedale Street in Fort Worth.

The woman hit a guardrail and stopped but did not get out. Police approached slowly using a patrol car for protection. They then punched out the driver's side window and pulled her from the pickup.

The officer, 33-year-old Tracey Nichols, is a six-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department. Nichols' mother, who feared her daughter was suicidal, had called police to check on her daughter.

Nichols was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital with an injured leg.


WFAA ABC 8
A swarm of officers take an off-duty policewoman into custody.

i hope everyone is ok

[TexasStooge]

Two Dallas officers on leave, under probe

REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Two Dallas Police Department officers are under federal investigation, on administrative leave and have alleged ties to a suspected drug dealer.

The two female officers worked at the Southeast Operations Division and have been ordered to testify before a grand jury next month in Arkansas in connection with a federal narcotics investigation.

Federal subpoenas arrived last week at the Southeast police substation for officers Kesha Thomas and Roshonda Parker. Sources said Officer Thomas had been dating alleged drug dealer 30-year-old Fred Green Jr.

Federal authorities had a wire tap on Green's phone and learned from a recording that Officer Thomas allegedly checked a law enforcement database and tipped off her boyfriend about a warrant out for his arrest.

Now, officers Thomas and Parker are under orders to testify to a federal grand jury about what they know.

"I'm not going to talk to you about that," Thomas told News 8.

But sources said officer Thomas told authorities she did not know Green was an alleged drug dealer when she started dating him and only discovered it when she found out he had an arrest warrant.

Sources said Green was a wanted fugitive from Arkansas. Officers arrested him in Dallas on state drug delivery charges and he is being held on a $1 million bond.

Federal authorities said when Green was arrested he had four firearms, 1/2 kilogram of cocaine, 145 grams of methamphetamine and more than 200 rounds of ammunition.

Deputy Chief Patricia Paulhill - the commanding officer at Southeast - said she could not discuss the federal investigation. But she did confirm the two officers are on administrative leave for checking on a suspect and not arresting him.

Southeast Operation Division has had its share of troubled officers, but Chief Paulhill said the problems didn't just start. She said the problems are now just coming to light and the department has finally identified and dealt with some of those problems.

[TexasStooge]

Police: Serial rapist on the loose

By GARY REAVES / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Dallas police said a serial rapist is on the loose in Dallas and he has attacked five women since April.

The rapist struck once near Central Expressway and Walnut Hill and once near Midway and Frankford. He then struck again on Spring Valley near Valley View Mall and attacked two women at different times near Fitzhugh and Central Expressway.

The attacks all occurred between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. as women were getting into or out of their cars. Twice they happened at single family homes and three times at apartment complexes. In most of the cases he put a gun to the victim's head.

Police said his approach of the woman was the same in each case. He would walk up to their car, ask for a cigarette and then brandish a pistol and demand sex.

"With each of the offenses he's become progressively worse with regard to what he's required the females to do," said Sr. Cpl. Mack Geeron.

Police described the suspect as a dark skinned black man, 5-foot-10 to 6-feet and weighing somewhere between 180 to 200 lbs. He is also described as either bald or with very short black hair.

"It sounds like these women were caught totally by surprise," said Dr. Ellen Elliston, with the Rape Crisis Center.

Elliston said crisis calls are on the increase and she said she wants to remind women how to avoid becoming a victim.

"When you walk to the car have your keys ready," she said. "Don't fumble in your purse to find a key - have it ready. Get in the car, lock the door and drive away as quickly as you can from wherever you are."

The Dallas Police Department said women should be aware of their surroundings. Officers also said if a woman sees a suspicious man to drive away and call 911. They said they would rather get a call about a possible false alarm than have to deal with another real sexual assault.

[TexasStooge]

Service takes the wheel for drinkers

Fledgling business drives partiers – and their cars – home

By PAUL MEYER / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - At 12:02 a.m., the weekend's first call rings at Wingman dispatch. A tipsy twenty-something needs a lift from a McKinney Avenue bar.

Chris Strange, call name Grizzly, mounts a miniature motor scooter and jets into the night.

Within minutes, he's hoisting the collapsible scooter into the trunk of Chip Douglas' red Volkswagen Jetta and driving him safely a few miles away. Grizzly rides his bike back to dispatch.

"The word is spreading without me even spreading it," says Brad Relander, following behind.

Mr. Relander – a lanky 25-year-old entrepreneur with shag-chic hair and a goatee – wants to change the way Dallas drinkers get home safely.

Three weeks ago, he opened Wingman Designated Driver Service, billed as a socially responsible alternative to driving drunk or hiring a cab and abandoning your car overnight outside a bar.

It's one of a handful of similar services that have popped up across the nation in recent years since first appearing in Europe. There are the Autopilots and Home James in Los Angeles, NightRiders in Colorado and CityScoot in Louisville, Ky., among others.

Mr. Relander hopes to expand Wingman across Texas and into Florida.

For now, with $150,000 in start-up money and a small team of drivers, the Dallas company uses five toy-size, Italian-made Di Blasi bikes, each weighing about 65 pounds. The bikes, with a price tag of about $2,000, top out at about 30 mph and fit into almost any trunk.

"The biggest thing is having your car there in the morning," Mr. Relander says of the service.

Equally important, he says, is curtailing drunken-driving deaths and appealing to young professionals with too much to lose from a DWI charge. Texas led the nation in alcohol-related traffic deaths last year, according to fatality statistics released this week. That number, however, is down from 2003. Still, this remains a car-centric town with limited options after a night of revelry.

"I think because of the work that we do, people are much more aware," said Mary Kardell, who heads MADD's metroplex chapter. "They don't want a ticket from law enforcement."

It's a message that resonates with Mike Hardin, an off-duty police officer working security Friday night outside a trendy Addison pub.

"Anything to keep people safe and out of jail, I'm for it," he says, visibly amused when Everett Reed, code name Mellow Yellow, rounds the corner on his bike, wearing a helmet, goggles and a backpack.

Outside the bar, a patron is drunk and waiting. It's closing time.

"Wingman, taketh," he says, handing over his car keys and shouting at cab drivers.

"You're losing your business. We've got Wingman. He brings my car home."

Mellow Yellow drives the man's Honda Accord to an Allen residence before he and Mr. Relander are asked to come inside and sing karaoke.

They politely decline, driving back off into the night.

"People have been so cool, man," Mr. Relander says. "I mean, so cool."


NATHAN HUNSINGER / Dallas Morning News
Wingman Designated Driver service employee Everett Reed arrives on a miniature motor scooter that can be kept in the client's car while Mr. Reed drives the client home.

[TexasStooge]

Miller ponders fines for panhandlers aid

By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - A shabby-looking man approaches you on the street and asks for a dollar.

Moments after you give him one, a police officer hands you – not the panhandler – a ticket.

Impossible? Maybe not. Dallas Mayor Laura Miller floated the idea of penalizing the givers instead of the takers on Tuesday night at a city budget information meeting in Oak Cliff.

"If that happened a couple of times, and it got on TV a couple of times, I think people would just say, 'It's not worth it to give that money,' " Ms. Miller said.

The mayor said she is neither advocating nor opposing the idea, only soliciting residents' opinions on it.

The city's two-year-old no-panhandling ordinance – Ms. Miller fought for its passage during her 2003 mayoral campaign – isn't properly enforced or very effective, so other options should be explored to combat what has become a chronic nuisance, the mayor said.

The audience's immediate reaction: icy. Ms. Miller asked the about 50 residents in the audience to raise their hands if they supported the idea. One man did.

"You're brave," the mayor said jokingly.

But several people grumbled later about aggressive solicitations at southern sector intersections.

City Manager Mary Suhm, who attended the meeting hosted by City Council member Maxine Thornton-Reese, said she had only just heard of the idea and hadn't formed an opinion or considered the logistics of such an ordinance.

Dr. Thornton-Reese said the council would not approve the idea.

"It doesn't make sense that we ticket people for being compassionate," she said.

The mayor said she would present the idea at other budget information meetings through mid-September.

"What the police officers on the streets are telling me is the only way you're going to get rid of the problem at this point with the hard-core panhandlers is to ticket the people who are giving the money," Ms. Miller said. "If everyone says it's a terrible idea, we won't do it."

Dorothy Roberson, one of Dr. Thornton-Reese's constituents who attended the meeting, said: "You never, never know who's really in need. It'd be wrong to outlaw giving."

Michael Linz, a Dallas attorney and member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said Tuesday that he hadn't heard of a similar measure elsewhere.

"It seems Orwellian to me that we're going to not only continue to punish poor people just trying to subsist ... but now we're going to try to punish people who out of the goodness of their heart are giving to people who need help," he said.

Staff writer Paul Meyer contributed to this report.

[TexasStooge]

Happy ending for boy forced off bus

Little Elm 6-year-old left by driver is picked up on busy street

By JAY PARSONS / The Dallas Morning News

LITTLE ELM, Texas - Tyler Synatschk's parents have drilled their 6-year-old on safety basics: Don't cross busy streets alone and don't accept rides from strangers.

When Tyler did both after his first day of school Monday, Gary and Denise Synatschk had to assure the Little Elm first-grader he did nothing wrong. He did good.

It's the bus driver who forced Tyler off the bus at the wrong stop they're upset with.

A rookie driver, who has since been suspended, drove past Tyler's stop and continued more than a mile before instructing him to get out, Mrs. Synatschk said.

"I was trying to tell her to get me back to my school," Tyler said. "She didn't listen to me. She said, 'Get off the bus.' "

Tyler obeyed. He got off the bus and started walking.

He was supposed to get off about a mile earlier near his baby sitter's house. Anuschka Gallagher was waiting outside when the bus drove by without stopping.

"The bus kept going too fast to do anything about it," Ms. Gallagher said. "I ran after it and tried to flag it down, but it kept going."

Ms. Gallagher, with Tyler's 11-week-old sister and her own 6-month-old son in tow, couldn't keep up with the bus. So she called Mrs. Synatschk at her North Dallas office.

"It shot my heart into my feet," Mrs. Synatschk said. "There was a little girl killed on the Fourth of July on my street, and all I can picture was my son lying in the street."

Mrs. Synatschk called Durham School Services, the contractor that operates Little Elm's buses. Busy signal. She called her friend Stefanie Haverkamp, a teacher. Ms. Haverkamp chased down two buses, but neither had Tyler.

She finally got hold of a bus supervisor, who told her Tyler was still on the bus.

"Where's the next bus stop?" Ms. Haverkamp asked.

"I don't know," the supervisor replied.

"How come?" she asked.

"We can't get hold of the bus driver on the radio," he said.

"How can you confirm he's on the bus if you can't get him on the radio?" Ms. Haverkamp pressed.

No response.

By now, Tyler had been out of school for almost an hour. He attends Chavez Elementary, but the bus driver left him across town behind King Elementary.

Tyler found his way to nearby FM720. With no stoplight or crosswalk in sight, he stepped onto Little Elm's busiest street.

"I was crying for Mom and Dad," Tyler said. "I missed them."

That's when Deborah Manley, a former Little Elm teacher, spotted him. She thought of her own son, now in high school, who a decade ago got lost when he wandered off after school. A good Samaritan found him.

This was her turn to be the good Samaritan.

"I see this little boy crossing 720 ahead of me," Mrs. Manley said. "There was no stoplight. After he crossed, he was walking on the grass crying."

She did a U-turn and pulled into an auto repair shop near the boy.

"Come here," Mrs. Manley called to him.

Tyler looked up.

"Are you someone's grandmother?" he asked.

"I could be," she replied.

That was enough to convince Tyler she was OK. He dried his eyes and hopped into the car.

"It was just a miracle that put me in the right place," Mrs. Manley said. "He was a sweet, brave little guy."

She took him back to Chavez Elementary, where a secretary called Mr. Synatschk. He called his wife.

"That would be the first time I probably breathed in 30 minutes," she said. "He could have been killed. But by the grace of God, a good Samaritan rather than an ax murderer found him. I don't know where he'd be if she didn't grab him."

Durham School Services, an Austin-based company that operates buses in Little Elm and 260 other districts across 21 states, suspended the driver on Tuesday. Little Elm school district officials went further, banning the woman from driving buses in its district.

"It's a horrible scenario," said Sandra Carpenter, a Durham spokeswoman. "Safety is our No. 1 priority, so we take it very seriously."

Ms. Carpenter would not identify the driver, who drove Tuesday morning but was replaced before her after-school route. She could be reinstated pending an investigation, Ms. Carpenter said.

In 2004, a Durham bus driver was fired for leaving a 5-year-old asleep in the back of a bus after completing a route in the Lewisville district.

Little Elm school district officials have asked Durham to add phone lines so parents like Mrs. Synatschk don't get a busy signal. Durham has two local phone lines serving the 4,100-student district.

Mrs. Synatschk, who took Tyler to school Tuesday, said the driver's suspension wasn't enough.

"I'm relieved she won't be on the bus with our children," she said. "But she can still do in another district the same thing to somebody else's child."

[TexasStooge]

Parkland mulls family-planning program

Dallas County: UT Southwestern doesn't want to challenge law

By SHERRY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Parkland Memorial Hospital would face a major baby boom if a long-standing family-planning program for low-income women in Dallas County goes out of business next year, officials from UT Southwestern Medical Center warned yesterday.

UT Southwestern officials are pleading with Parkland to take over the program, which they are dropping rather than challenging a state law that prohibits using public money for such services when an agency also provides elective abortions. While Parkland officials indicated that they would bid next month on a contract to run the program, the hospital board was not willing to make a final commitment until it was clear that the funding would cover operational costs.

The medical center receives about $10 million to provide family planning for 35,000 low-income women in the county.

Although no hospital affiliated with UT Southwestern – Zale Lipshy, St. Paul or Parkland – offers elective abortions, officials said they feared they could be construed as breaking the law, which took effect in June.

Lawyers have advised the medical center that it might be vulnerable because the doctors who supervise the training of UT Southwestern residents in Wichita Falls and Waco hospitals may perform abortions in their private practices.

And some faculty members of Southwestern Medical School practice at hospitals that offer elective abortions.

"We also don't want to risk having to pay back the government funds if someone challenged us," Dr. Kern Wildenthal, UT Southwestern president, said after a meeting with the Parkland Board of Managers.

Dr. Steve Hartwell, who has overseen the family-planning program for more than 30 years, said the state law, passed in 2003, was intended to target Planned Parenthood clinics that provide both family planning and abortions.

However, that agency won a court fight to keep its funding by separating those services.

Universities and local health departments became "an unintended target" of the law, which took effect in June, he said. Only UT Southwestern and the health department in Travis County chose to drop their family-planning programs because of the law.

Dr. Steven Bloom, UT Southwestern's interim chairman of obstetrics and gynecology, warned that Parkland, which already has the busiest maternity wards in the nation, would experience a baby boom without the family-planning program.

"We're currently handling 16,000 births a year," he told the hospital board. "In the void of this program ... can we handle 18,000 or 19,000 births? That's a scary thought."

Dr. Hartwell told the Parkland board "it would be a tragedy if the program is not continued."

The 36-year-old family-planning program annually receives about $10.5 million, mostly federal funds distributed by the state, which pays for annual physicals, birth-control supplies and pregnancy tests for low-income women.

Last year, about 35,000 women used UT Southwestern's seven family-planning clinics, five of which are in Dallas. The others are in Garland and Grand Prairie. An additional 10,000 women received specialized medical care.

The family-planning service was the second program dropped on the public hospital in recent weeks. In July, Dallas County Commissioners Court announced that Parkland would begin providing health care in the county jail.

This year, the state Legislature voted to siphon away about 20 percent of the family-planning funds for next year, ostensibly hoping to hurt Planned Parenthood.

Dr. Ron Anderson, Parkland's president and chief executive officer, tried to assure the board that the family-planning program's size could be adjusted to fit the available funds.

"It's still so much in our favor to do this," he said.

[TexasStooge]

Long live the BabySitters club

By JANELLE STECKLEIN / DallasNews.com

DALLAS, Texas - About four years ago, Sharlene Baker needed to find a sitter for her two young daughters, but she preferred someone older and more responsible than the typical teen.

Baker’s husband pulled out the phonebook and came across an advertisement for BabySitters of Dallas.

“I was reluctant to call baby-sitters into our home that I don’t know,” recalls Baker, 47, a systems engineer who lives in Dallas.

Baker spoke with the agency’s owner, Shari Hallauer, about her misgivings. Hallauer spent almost an hour helping Baker feel comfortable.

To this day, Baker still uses BabySitters of Dallas two or three times a month. And Hallauer, 63, makes an effort to match Baker with the more experienced sitters she prefers.

“I have more mothers telling me, ‘I’ve never left my child with anybody but a family member or I’ve never left my child since she’s been born,’” Hallauer said. “They’re extremely apprehensive.”

That compassion for clients may be one reason that BabySitters of Dallas is celebrating its 50th year in business. Founded in 1955, the agency contracts with sitters to watch children at a variety of places, including churches, hotels, parties and private homes.

Hallauer describes her roster of about 150 as women who like being with children and are honest, decent, dependable and loyal. Most are middle age to elderly. Each is an independent contractor, responsible for providing her own transportation and paying her own taxes.

“They have the human qualities to work with distressed children and parents that the parents are looking for,” Hallauer said.

Each sitter undergoes a background check that looks into national pedophile records and other data from any state and county where the sitter has lived in the past seven to 10 years.

According to three years of Better Business Bureau data, the agency has no reported complaints on record.

For years, BabySitters of Dallas was run from Dallas. But after longtime owner Audrey Festinger died in 2000, new owner Hallauer sought to cut costs and moved it to her Bedford home, where she and occasional assistants run the agency from a small office.

Five decades in business is a significant achievement. In the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce, for example, only about 115 of 3,000 members have belonged for 50 years.

“Corporate longevity is the backbone of the region’s business climate. Businesses who celebrate 50 or more years, without a doubt, add to our workforce opportunities and add economic vitality to the region,” said Patti Clapp, vice president of education and workforce development.

BabySitters of Dallas serves as the liaison between clients and sitters. Parents call a central number to communicate their needs. BabySitters of Dallas quickly finds a sitter and calls them back.

In return, customers pay a one-time $25 registration fee. BabySitters of Dallas gets a $10 agency fee each time the recommended baby sitter is used. In addition, the sitter charges $10 per hour with a minimum four-hour guarantee.

“Most of these sitters are very motivated to work, if not to supplement their income, then they’re just committed to doing it,” Hallauer said. “They like doing it. They have a following of customers. I encourage that and they find it hard to let a parent down. I want them to have a following the same way a hairdresser would.”

In fact, Belle Barrett, 32, an accountant who lives in Plano, tends to use the same sitter every time.

She said her son really likes a retired attorney affectionately nicknamed “Grandma Betty,” who works for the Barretts about 20 hours each week. Betty picks her son up several days a week after school, helps around the house and assists with homework, drawing on her own experience with dyslexia to help him overcome similar struggles.

“If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t have found her,” Barrett said.

Permanent placements are rare, Hallauer said. She said the agency steers away from nanny-type assignments because they take a lot of time and finding sitters who mesh well with the families on a permanent basis is difficult.

Hallauer isn’t just cautious about sitters. In fact, she reserves the right to turn down potential clients for any reason. She does this politely on occasion by saying that she cannot meet their needs.

She normally tries to avoid serving high-profile figures. But she recalled that celebrity chef Dean Fearing shared some barbecue with the sitter watching his children, while a professional football player once stiffed the agency, she said.

Joe Caldwell, who is in her 70s, began working for the agency in 1965 until she quit about six years ago to care for her husband. She originally took the job because of the high pay: $1.25 per hour.

Many of her clients were Highland Park parents.

“I met a lot of people and I learned a lot about Dallas and I just learned a lot from it about how to live and how the rest of the world live,” she said. “Especially how the rich and the famous live.”

Caldwell recalls the evening she was caring for a young child whose parents decided to take a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip to Las Vegas. Initially, she didn’t even know they had left the state. Caldwell eventually took the child home until the parents returned.

“I like to get out,” Caldwell said about her love of the job. “When you sit at home all day, every day, you kind of want a change.”

Today, the business has expanded to include senior citizen care and a traveling escort service. But children remain the top priority.

“Audrey (Festinger) always said, ‘The most important thing was to love children, because doing this, you got burned out very quickly if you didn’t,’” Hallauer said.

[TexasStooge]

D/FW puts items on the auction block

By BRAD HAWKINS / WFAA ABC 8

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport administrators are inviting potential buyers to "kick the tires" before making bids as part of a large online auction of surplus items.

They're selling train cars - which saw a mere 97 million cumulative miles of use - and that's not all. Consider it a yard sale of sorts for the world's third-busiest airport.

Jason Van is among those who see promise and possible profit in the castoffs, which he came to look over Tuesday. He said some of the items you just can't find secondhand anywhere else.

"All this stuff can be repaired - it's all minor wear," Van said. "It's all nice stuff."

The airport is unloading more than 200 items, from exhaust fans and heavy loaders to computers to SUVs, buses and even emergency equipment.

"We've got some ambulances, some heavy equipment, (and) 14 Kawasaki police motorcycles," said John White, D/FW's vice president of procurement materials management.

White's job is to, as he puts it, "buy everything at the airport that doesn't say 'airline' on the side of it."

The big find for collectors or museums are 60 cars from the old AirTran system, which was replaced by the SkyLink train this summer; one person has already bid on all 60 of them. Other interested parties can see the items online, or check them out in person during weekday business hours over the next week.

Online auctions have brought in big bucks for D/FW over the past couple of years as the airport has spent billions on new projects.

"We netted over $500,000, which is phenomenal when you consider that this is all material that, as far as the airport is concerned, has reached the end of its useful life," White said.

[TexasStooge]

Arlington teen struck during run

By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News

ARLINGTON, Texas - A freshman at Juan Seguin High School was struck by a car Wednesday morning during cross-country track practice.

The 14-year-old, whose name was not released, was taken by helicopter to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, said Veronica Sopher, an Arlington school district spokeswoman.

“His family said his condition was improving and that he was talking to them,” Sopher said.

A police spokesman was not immediately available, but Sopher said authorities told her that the driver was not ticketed or arrested.

Five members of the track team were running in a pack about 6:15 a.m. when four of them stopped at the intersection of Sublett and Silo roads. For unknown reasons, the fifth teen failed to stop and was struck by a car driving through the intersection.

Ms. Sopher said that district officials would re-examine the cross-country track routes for safety, and also emphasize to students the importance of obeying traffic signals and signs.

[TexasStooge]

New driving laws to take effect soon

DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Several new laws take effect September 1 that will have an impact on Texas drivers.

One law will prohibit teenagers from using cell phones in their cars for the first six months after getting their driver's license.

In another new law, Texas drivers will have their license revoked for six months if convicted of providing alcohol to a minor. The penalty goes up to a year for a second offense.

And all children under the age of five, and less than 36" tall, must ride in a child safety seat. The previous law covered children under four.

Here's a look at the other laws that will take effect:

• HB 51 requires an ignition interlock device if a driver's blood alcohol level is determined to be 0.15 or more.

• HB 1481 makes it a Class B misdemeanor if a person drives around a barricade where a warning sign or barricade has been placed because water is over any portion of a road, street or highway. It also specifically creates a traffic violation for driving around a barricade put in the roadway because of dangerous conditions.

• SB 1005 provides that if a driver younger than 25 years of age commits a traffic offense classified as a moving violation, the judge must require the driver to complete a driving safety course-and, if the driver holds a provisional driver license (under 18 years of age), submit to a DPS road test. Failure by the driver to meet this requirement will result in a final conviction for that traffic offense.

• HB 1484 specifies that a person commits a traffic offense if they are involved in a crash on the main lane, ramp, shoulder, median or adjacent area of a freeway and don't move their vehicle to an area that minimizes interference with freeway traffic, if the vehicle is driveable.

• HB 1596 clarifies the definition of neighborhood electric vehicles and motor assisted scooters and allows municipalities to regulate the use of motor assisted scooters on roadways and sidewalks.

• SB 1257 disqualifies a person from operating a commercial motor vehicle if the person's driving is determined to constitute an imminent hazard.

• HB 754 allows fines up to $500 for violating the laws for transporting loose material in commercial vehicles.

• SB 1258 specifies that an original commercial driver license or commercial driver learner's permit expires in five years instead of six years.

• SB 1670 requires the Department of Insurance, in conjunction with TxDOT and other agencies, to establish a verification program for vehicle insurance in order to try and reduce the number of uninsured drivers.

• HB 120 creates an organ donor education and registry program. Eventually, Texans will be able to indicate their wish to become an organ donor when they are issued or renew their driver license or ID card.

• HB 699 increases the penalty for using someone else's DL or ID card to a Class A misdemeanor. It also clarifies that use of a false ID by someone under 21 for purchase of alcohol is a Class C misdemeanor.

[TexasStooge]

City Hall subpoena reveals names, details

By CHRIS HEINBAUGH / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - The subpoena served by FBI agents at Dallas City Hall two weeks ago shows a broader spectrum of names and information investigators are seeking.

Until now, only bits and pieces about the investigation have been released by several sources, but on Wednesday News 8 and The Dallas Morning News obtained a copy of the subpoena, which provides new names and details.

Since the start of the investigation, the probe has mostly surrounded elected city leaders and their appointees, along with two builders of low-income tax credit housing projects.

But the subpoena seeks information on those outside City Hall as well. The subpoena requests records relating to DART Board member Lynn Flint Shaw, D'Angelo Lee's wife Toska Medlock-Lee and DISD Trustee Ron Price.

"I'm clueless on this one," Price said. "This is really bizarre."

The subpoena also asks for letters from State Representative Terri Hodge and State Senator Royce West in support of projects built by Southwest Housing. West said such letters are routine.

"Whatever people read into it, they can read into it," West said. "I don't know why I've been drawn into this."

Another excerpt singles out the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Fund - of which Don Hill is a trustee - as well as several firms connected to D'Angelo Lee.

Hill said the scope of the investigation appears to be wide.

"It doesn't surprise me they'd look in a lot of different places," Hill said. "I guess they're still trying to find some focus."

While the excerpts do not spell out where the FBI is going, the names that appear time after time in the documents indicate the same targets that have been known since the first raids began in June: City Council members Don Hill, James Fantroy and Leo Chaney, and their City Plan Commission appointees D'Angelo Lee, Carol Brandon and Melvyn Traylor.

[TexasStooge]

Irving dispatcher wins statewide award

By DON WALL / WFAA ABC 8

IRVING, Texas - In a job where seconds count, Lydia Prieto stood out. The 911 dispatcher received a call last August that earned Prieto a statewide award for telecommunicator of the year.

The 911 call came from an estranged wife in Oklahoma. She was terrified because her husband, Paul Fortenberry, had called threatening to kill himself and their 8-year-old son.

"Ok, does he have a gun?" asked Prieto in a recording of the 911 call.

"He does in the house," replied the woman. "It's a 12 gauge."

Prieto arranged a conference call with all parties including a police negotiator. From that call, officers were able to hear every step Fortenberry took, including going into his closet to pull the gun out.

"I felt that if we didn't get out there soon enough he could have done it," Prieto said. "He could have killed the child along with himself."

And in the tense emergency where Fortenberry could be heard screaming and his estranged wife began to panic, Prieto remained calm. And because of that conference call, police were able to talk Fortenberry out of the house and the boy was found safe inside.

Now many have called Prieto's action during the 911 call heroic.

"You can't put enough emphasis on how important it is to be able to think in split seconds and make decisions that they make every day," said Irving Officer David Tull.

But Prieto said she doesn't feel like she is a hero, she just did what her job called her to do.

"I don't deserve it," she said. "It's just my job."

[TexasStooge]

Jury still out in child care car crash case

By ROBERT THARP / The Dallas Morning News

PLEASANT GROVE, Texas - Jury deliberations are to resume Thursday in the trial of an underage driver who crashed into a Pleasant Grove child care center injuring several children. They deliberated more than three hours Wednesday without reaching an agreement.

In closing arguments, prosecutor Gina Savage charged that the 14-year-old girl should be found guilty of reckless injury to a child because she disregarded risks and drove without a license. Attorneys for the girl argued that the crash was an accident caused when a passenger in the car grabbed the steering wheel.

At least eight children were injured when the car crashed into the Dream House Learning Center in the 10100 block of Lake June Road in May 2005.

If convicted, the girl faces up to 20 years confinement, spending part of that in a Texas Youth Commission facility until transferred to a prison when she becomes an adult.

[TexasStooge]

City Hall subpoena reveals names, details

DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - The subpoena served by FBI agents at Dallas City Hall two weeks ago shows a broader spectrum of names and information investigators are seeking.

Until now, only bits and pieces about the investigation have been released by several sources, but on Wednesday News 8 and The Dallas Morning News obtained a copy of the subpoena, which provides new names and details.

Speculation has run wild on exactly what the FBI was looking for. But the subpoena showed that FBI has been looking into almost everything having to do with city council members Don Hill, James Fantroy and Leo Cheney. They also are interested in their three planning commission appointees.

According to the grand jury subpoena, they are interested in "all files, memos, reports, records and other documents," "briefing books, legal memorandums or opinions" and "copies of bylaws and other organizational documents for all committees, boards and commissions."

Most of the requests center around contacts and business dealings with developers Brian Potashnik of Southwest Housing Development Company and Bill Fisher of Odyssey Residential Holdings.

But the subpoena seeks information on those outside City Hall as well. The subpoena requests records relating to DART Board member Lynn Flint Shaw, D'Angelo Lee's wife Toska Medlock-Lee and DISD Trustee Ron Price.

"I think that it is totally unfair," Shaw said. "I think that you can call it whatever you want to call it - racist or whatever. But if you target one group of people, one race of people, I think that that is patently unfair."

The subpoena also asks for letters from State Representative Terri Hodge and State Senator Royce West in support of projects built by Southwest Housing. West said such letters are routine.

"Whatever people read into it, they can read into it," West said. "I don't know why I've been drawn into this."

Dallas Independent School District Board Member Ron Price said he was shocked to see his name listed in the subpoena as a nominee to a city commission.

"If you don't mind me scratching my head, I'm clueless on why my name is on any document regarding being nominated to a position here at the city," he said.

Another excerpt singles out the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Fund - of which Hill is a trustee - as well as several firms connected to Lee.

Hill said the scope of the investigation appears to be wide.

"It doesn't surprise me they'd look in a lot of different places," Hill said. "I guess they're still trying to find some focus."

While the excerpts do not spell out where the FBI is going, the names that appear time after time in the documents indicate the same targets that have been known since the first raids began in June: City Council members Hill, Fantroy and Chaney, and their City Plan Commission appointees Lee, Carol Brandon and Melvyn Traylor.

WFAA-TV Chris Heinbaugh and Brett Shipp contributed to this report.

[TexasStooge]

DART's vanpoolers rave about cash-saving program

By GARY REAVES / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - As almost everyone is looking for ways to save money on gas, there are some who have cut their fuel bill by 90 percent by carpooling. And while many don't carpool because they may not know anyone to carpool with, DART is trying to change that.

Many North Texas drivers have complained about carpool lanes because they get stuck in traffic while the carpool lane traffic cruises by. But DART has a plan to get more people into carpools where they can save both time and money.

Even though she drives 37 miles to work in a suburban, Kathy Meisner is only half as concerned about gas prices since she started carpooling.

"I spend half of what I normally would driving this gas hog of a vehicle," Meisner said.

Another 100 of her coworkers at Texas Instruments are saving as well because they vanpool.

"Say you're getting 13 miles to the gallon, in people miles you're really getting 130 miles per gallon because you're moving 10 people on that same gallon of gas," said Ken Brawley.

As van captain, Brawley rides for free. But for $500 a month, DART supplies a van and provides maintenance and insurance. And when the passengers add in gas costs, the average vanpooler pays only about $70 a month. Texas Instrument employees pay even less because the company subsidizes it.

DART will help most anyone set up their own car or vanpool. Customers can call customer service or visit its website where hits jumped last week by 55 percent.

"We have a database to help us identify people with common trip patterns," said Tim Newby, assistant vice-president of Service Planning & Development for DART.

Brawley said he believes if others took advantage of the DART program, Dallas roads might be a bit more enjoyable.

"Every individual wants to drive their own car and you see that every day on Central," Brawley said. "But as gas prices continue to increase, it's going to force us to change our culture in the state of Texas today."

[TexasStooge]

Some say black politicians unfairly targeted

By GROMER JEFFERS Jr. / The Dallas Morning News

Black leaders in Dallas and across the country are crying foul as a string of federal corruption investigations have targeted black politicians.

"Our leadership is being attacked all over the country," said Dallas Nation of Islam minister Jeffrey Muhammad. "We need to realize this and come together with a local and national agenda for the betterment of our own community."

Most of the people named so far in the FBI's investigation into corruption at Dallas City Hall and the city's tax-credit housing program are black. They include four black City Council members and three black members of the powerful City Plan Commission.

The predominance of blacks named in the investigation has stunned veteran black politicians.

"That's just crazy," said Ron Kirk, who in 1995 was elected the city's first black mayor.

"I'm just not a conspiracy believer, but I'm also not unfamiliar with how unfair these types of investigations can be," he said. "Certainly they [the FBI] are not blind to the way these investigations are going. This cannot be stretched out over a long period of time."

After FBI officials met this week with concerned local civil rights leaders, U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper defended his investigation, saying it was fair and impartial.

"While I will not comment on any particular investigation, grand jury subpoenas are routinely issued in federal investigations," he said in a written statement. "It would be inappropriate to draw any inference from the mere fact that a particular individual's name is, or is not, included in a grand jury subpoena."

'More at play than race'

David Bositis, a senior researcher for the Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, said the targeting of black officials may be based more on politics and demographics than race.

Many black elected officials are most influential in urban areas, which is the starting point for numerous FBI corruption inquiries.

"There may be more at play than race," he said.

But such sentiments, some say, give little comfort to those who watch as their names are linked to federal investigations in news reports.

"It's them today," said Joyce Foreman, president of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. "It's you tomorrow."

Maxine Thornton-Reese, who has been named in the investigation with fellow council members Don Hill, Leo Chaney and James Fantroy, said the stain of the investigation will be hard to remove.

"I know there is a God," she said. "And there are people in Dallas who will right the wrong."

Others share her views

Dr. Thornton-Reese's attitude is similar to that of black elected officials in other cities.

"Historically, there has been racial targeting of public officials," said Texas A&M political science professor Kenneth Meier. "I've never seen any evidence that black officials are any more or less corrupt than white officials."

Officials being targeted by federal investigations across the country range from big city mayors to civil rights icons.

•In Atlanta, former Mayor Bill Campbell faces trial in September on charges of racketeering, tax evasion and accepting bribes. That probe has netted the convictions of 10 city officials and contractors, most of whom are black.

•The long-running investigation of former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, now president of the Urban League, led to four indictments.

•In Philadelphia, an FBI investigation included the bugging of the office of John Street, the city's second black mayor.

•In Birmingham, former Jefferson County Commissioner Chris McNair, the father of Denise McNair, one of the four young girls killed in the 1963 church bombing, faces trial in a federal investigation into a county sewer program.

Political motivations
Ron Walters, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, said he is convinced such investigations are politically motivated.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, he conducted a study that showed only 8 percent of blacks named in investigations were convicted. Former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy and former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford Sr. were among those charged in federal corruption cases but later acquitted.

"Law enforcement is used as a tactic to destabilize, intimidate and weaken political power, and that's what's happening in Dallas," he said. "Even if there is one rotten egg in the bunch, the people of Dallas shouldn't just stand by and do nothing."

Mr. Kirk said the investigation could make it difficult to revitalize the southern sector, which has become one of the city's top priorities.

He said private businesses will not want to invest in an area perceived to be a haven for crooks and chiselers.

"It would be very difficult to improve the schools and the overall economic climate with this cloud hanging overhead," he said.

[TexasStooge]

Daycare crash driver found guilty

By CYNTHIA VEGA / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - The unlicensed 14-year-old driver of a car that crashed into a Pleasant Grove daycare center last May was found guilty on seven juvenile counts of injury to a child by a Dallas jury Thursday morning.

Immediately after the verdict was returned, jurors at the Henry Wade Juvenile Justice Center went back to work to consider her penalty.

They recommended to Judge John L. Sholden that the girl—whose identity is being withheld by WFAA-TV because of her age—should be sentenced to 10 years' probation. The girl sobbed and clutched her mother's hand as the sentence was read.

"I've been shocked about everything," said Blynthea Washington, owner of the Dreamhouse Learning Center. "I didn't think it would go this far."

Washington said she thought the young driver should have avoided the trauma of a trial by agreeing to a plea bargain.

Judge Sholden ordered the girl to spend the first six months of her probation at a rehabilitation center in Houston, after which she may be able to return home while receiving counseling.

The girl could have faced punishment of up to 20 years in a juvenile and adult prisons.

The teenager faced charges after driving her aunt's white 1995 Kia Sephia through the front of the Dreamhouse Learning Center on Lake June Road.

Eight children were injured, including one girl who was seriously hurt when she was trapped underneath the car.

The convicted driver was ordered to remain in custody at the juvenile center until a September 8 hearing, when Judge Sholden will hear testimony from the parents of injured children who are seeking restitution for medical expenses.

WFAA-TV's Cynthia Vega and The Dallas Morning News contributed to this report.

[TexasStooge]

Mom convicted of prostituting daughter, 14

DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - A suburban Dallas woman has been convicted of prostituting her 14-year-old daughter to finance her own drug habit.

Athena Stoddard was convicted yesterday of compelling prostitution and enabling sexual assault. A Dallas County state

district judge returned the verdict against the 44-year-old Irving woman after hearing testimony from the daughter.

State District Judge Mark Nancarrow sentenced the woman to 20 years in prison on each of two pimping counts and 35 years on each of the three assault charges. He's considering a prosecution request that the sentences be served consecutively.

Prosecutors submitted evidence that the girl suffered internal injuries and sexually transmitted diseases from the assaults. They say the girl was raped by 100 to 150 men over several months -- and that Stoddard charged the men from 20 to 50 dollars, depending on the type of sex demanded.

The girl ran away from home last fall and flagged down a police officer. She's now living with her father.

[TexasStooge]

Driver shot on Airport Freeway

BEDFORD, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Bedford police were looking for a driver who opened fire on another motorist on Airport Freeway late Wednesday night.

Police said at least five shots struck the victim's 1987 Toyota around 10 p.m. The driver, a Dallas resident, was hit by one of the shots in the upper back.

The unidentified man was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas for treatment and was expected to be released on Thursday morning.

Police were lookng for the driver of a tan Ford F-150 pickup truck who may have been involved in the shooting.

Investigators said anyone who witnessed any suspicious activity in the area of the incident should call Bedford police at 817-952-2127.