News from the Lone Star State

[TexasStooge]

Drug sweep nets arrests in NE Dallas

By CYNTHIA VEGA / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Dallas police narcotics officers, tactical squads and gang units swept through apartments in Northeast Dallas early Tuesday, breaking through windows and breaking down doors to make arrests.

Many were handcuffed and later released following the rude awakening, but a number of people were taken downtown to police headquarters to be booked.

Police said most of the arrests were on drug charges at complexes in the vicinity of Abrams Road and Forest Lane.

[TexasStooge]

Suspect nabbed after chase

By CYNTHIA VEGA / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - An overnight police chase ended with the arrest of a man wanted for felony weapons possession.

The suspect wrecked his car at Hartsdale Drive and Eddystone Street in West Dallas around 2:15 a.m. Tuesday.

Police found a man sitting on the front porch of a house nearby belonging to a soldier who had recently returned from Iraq. A neighbor alerted police that the man on the porch was not the man who lived there.

Police said they found a gun and ammunition in the suspect's car, along with contraband believed to be illegal drugs and possibly stolen property, including CDs and video games.

The name of the suspect was not released. He was held on weapons and narcotics charges.

[TexasStooge]

T-Mobile plans 1,200 jobs for Frisco

FRISCO, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/WFAA.com) - Wireless phone company T-Mobile USA Inc. has big plans for Frisco and the North Texas economy.

The company said Gov. Rick Perry will announce Wednesday that the company will build a technology campus in the fast-growing Dallas suburb, initially providing more than 850 new jobs.

T-Mobile said it eventually expects to employ more than 1,200 at the new facility, making it the city's biggest employer that isn't a shopping center.

Construction is already in progress at the site in the 7600 block of Warren Parkway. The company said it expects to begin operations next summer.

T-Mobile, based in Bellevue, Washington, is the U.S. affiliate of the T-Mobile International Group, a subsidiary of German communications giant Deutsche Telekom AG. The company currently employs more than 26,000 and has 20 million wireless subscribers in the U.S.

Frisco, with a population of 74,000, is one of the area's fastest-growing communities. Other large employers include Stonebriar Centre, EADS Telecom North America, Fujitsu Transactions and Tenet Texas.

[TexasStooge]

Bank thief demands cash via note

FORT WORTH, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Police have issued a description of a man who robbed a Fort Worth bank on Thursday.

The man of thin build, who is thought to be in his 40s, demanded money at the Worth National Bank on Camp Bowie Boulevard via a note.

No weapon was brandished during the theft.

The suspect was last seen fleeing the bank on foot.

The suspect has sandy brown hair and a mustache. He was wearing a baseball cap and white tennis shoes at the time of the robbery.

[TexasStooge]

Killer apologizes to family before execution

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - Convicted killer Robert Dale Rowell apologized to the families of his victims before he was executed Tuesday in Huntsville.

The 50-year-old prisoner was condemned over the 1993 slayings of two people at a Houston crack house.

The shooting victims were 38-year-old Raymond Mata and 52-year-old Irvin Wright.

Rowell already had done a prison stretch and allegedly killed a fellow inmate when the bloody crack den rampage happened.

Rowell, who had a history of drug abuse, was the 18th Texas death row inmate to have his punishment carried out this year.

In his final statement he said,"I would like to apologize to the victims' family and all the grief I have caused them."

"I would like to say I love the girls next to them," he said, referring to six women he selected to watch him die. Several of them sobbed.

Then Rowell said, "Praise the Lord. Let's go warden. That's it."

[TexasStooge]

Dallas doctor transforms disfigured child

By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Li Ying, 6, can't seem to get enough of her reflected image these days after a Dallas doctor not only transformed her face, but her future as well.

A few weeks ago, she shielded away from her own reflection.

Dr. Craig Hobar, who kept a picture of the child on his desk, said her disfigurement was one of the worst cleft palates he had ever seen, and was too extreme for less sophisticated operating rooms.

"The cleft goes right through the center of the face, nicks the eye socket over the right," said Dr. Hobar, a craniofacial surgeon. "There is no nose [and] there are four segments of the nose."

So, his non-profit LEAP foundation brought Li Ying to North Texas.

Last month, he and a group of volunteers at Children's Medical Center performed the dangerous surgery and closed the gaps in Li Ying's face by moving the eye sockets closer and rebuilding the nose.

Three weeks later, her mother said she couldn't believe her own child had perfect lips and never imagined how beautiful the transformation would be.

"Her worry, nightmare, everything is gone," said the mother's translator.

In the poor Chinese village where the mother and daughter live, Li Ying would have been discouraged from attending elementary school.

Now, with a new face, the little girl's goal of going to college is a real possibility.

"And she's going to make a lot of money, and get rich and give her mom all the money," her mother joked.

For the first time in her life, Li Ying can truly smile.

[TexasStooge]

California man accused of Mesquite murder

MESQUITE, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A California man faces capital murder charges in North Texas for the beating to death of a woman last month.

Charmennia Hall, 25, died in her Mesquite apartment on Oct. 4. She was pregnant at the time.

Investigators say DNA evidence links James Javance Davenport, 36, to the crime.

Davenport lived near Hall at the time of the crime.

Mesquite police arrested him days after the killings for a parole violation warrant out of California. He is now being held in Chino State Prison.

Witnesses told police they had seen him talking to Hall the day she was killed.

[TexasStooge]

Mentally disabled patient abused at state school

By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA ABC 8

DENTON, Texas - The most expensive schools in Texas may have the least recognizable names, but Texas spends $50 million a year on so-called state schools for mentally disabled people.

But some residents may actually be hurt, not helped by the institutions.

The possible victims live on the residential campuses of state schools, and the residents aren't always capable of talking about the quality of care they get.

For the last four months, News 8 has been looking into one troubling case of abuse.

It was a shocking and mysterious injury. Hassib Chisty lay in a coma in a hospital bed. His intestine was ruptured and his abdomen severely bruised.

In the last three years, he has undergone four surgeries. More than three years later, neither he nor his family have recovered from what they believe were injuries inflicted by the Denton State School.

"I honestly think they should be put behind bars," said brother Samir Chisty.

Chisty, now 32-years-old, has been mentally handicapped his whole life. However, he was physically healthy until his family brought him to the Denton State School in August of 2002 to improve his behavioral and eating skills.

Chisty was assigned to a residential unit called 528 D.

At the school, Chisty went from being a playful resident to a comatose victim.

Kevin Miller, a caregiver at the school, has confessed to victimizing Chisty. However, he also blames a culture of negligence and drug use on the job, which Miller said some supervisors condoned.

"The employees on that shift did either crack, powder cocaine, marijuana, Oxycontin, hydrocodone, valium....," he said in sworn taped testimony.

Miller was a former drug addict who said he was clean when he began working at Denton State School in 2001. Once he was assigned the night shift, he said he discovered three coworkers were using drugs on duty.

He said he soon joined them.

"We would each take turns going into the bathroom, and you know snorting," he said.

This is the environment Chisty entered. Like other clients at state schools, he was a mentally handicapped full grown adult. He was not always gentle and potentially hard to handle.

"It's a hard job," said Elyse Mitchell, an attorney for Advocacy Inc., which protects the rights of disabled people in Texas. "Nobody says it's not a hard job."

On September 26, the client and the confessed drug addicted caregiver collided.

"Most people, they called me fiend because I did all of my share of the drugs within a few minutes, and theirs lasted all day," Miller said. "And then I was begging them to give me some because I was hurting."

As Chisty and other clients settled in for the evening, Miller was hurting and coming down from a drug high. It was when he was in Chisty's room he snapped.

"I almost killed him," he said.

He said he kicked and punched Chisty at least twenty times.

When Chisty's mother arrived for her evening visit, she was shocked to find her son in terrible pain.

"His hand was icy cold," said Farhat Chisty. "His skin was really pale."

This was when the Chisty's said they believe a cover-up had begun.

First, the school would not admit he was hurt and that night the staff wouldn't wake up the on-call physician.

Chisty wasn't transferred to a hospital for more than a day, even though his condition worsened.

As Chisty fought for his life from a hospital bed, the school declined to investigate the incident and said he had been injured by a seatbelt in a van.

"There was a dramatic change in this patient's condition overnight, and the only explanation that this family is given for many months is that maybe it was a seat belt that caused this abdominal injury, which is clearly preposterous," said Kelly Reddel, the family's attorney.

As a result of the beating, Chisty was nearly paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.

He can't eat or drink, which was two of the few pleasures he ever had.

"I could never imagine," said sister Yufra Chisty. "I couldn't believe it for a long time."

The Department of Aging and Disability Services, which runs the school, won't talk about the case because it's in court.

"We're against any kind of abuse and neglect," said Don Rogers, with the department.

The department said employees like Miller are tested for drugs when they are hired and later if they are suspected of drug use.

DADS abuse cases are investigated by another state agency. In 2004, nearly nine out of ten charges of abuse were determined to be unfounded.

Miller's supervisor was transferred to another department and declined to talk to News 8.

However, Miller said in 2002 there was a pattern of patient mistreatment at Denton where caregivers used rubber gloves to abuse patients.

"But if you have like rubber gloves on, you can grab, like if they have a hairy back or something, you can grab the hair and you can pretty much grab a great deal of it," Miller said.

According the Miller, metal serving spoons became fearsome weapons used to whack patients on the head.

"This is the tip of the iceberg of some of the examples of abuse here," Miller said on the taped testimony.

Mitchell examined records at the Denton State School for a three month period that included Chisty's case.

"The abuse incidents were to me the most serious because those would typically involve an injury," she said.

She found 20 confirmed incidents of neglect, 12 confirmed incidents of abuse and 50 medication errors.

"If there were people who were working with the residents and using recreational drugs, I think that would be highly inappropriate," Mitchell said.

Three years after the incident, the state of Texas no longer maintains Chisty was injured by a seat belt. Just two months ago, his mother got a letter from the state admitting her son had been abused.

But the court case over the abuse is not resolved. Miller has been indicted by a Denton County grand jury and charged with reckless bodily injury to a disabled person.

As for the Denton State School where the incident occurred, Advocacy Inc, which inspects all state schools, said Denton is one of the best in the state.

[TexasStooge]

Ten ways to cut energy costs

By BRAD WATSON / WFAA ABC 8

Energy costs have been on the rise as the mercury drops.

However, there are ten tips that can save customers hundreds of dollars during the winter season.

Meridith Manning is one of the many searching for ways to save. One of her first steps is searching for lights to turn off.

"If you know that it's going to cost more to heat your house and to have the lights on, then you do what you can to try to turn the lights off," she said.

But, the Edison Electric Institute said there are many more ways to save.

The idea of cleaning light bulbs may not have occurred to many people, but it can save money. Dust can reduce the light by as much as 25 percent.

Also, replace incandescent bulbs with fluorescent bulbs because they use two thirds less energy and can last five years.

There are also ways to save while using big appliances.

Turning the water heater down from 140 degrees to 120 degrees can also save money by cutting heating costs up to 15 percent.

Also, most dishwashers feature booster heaters and don't need the hotter water.

When you do the dishes, wash only full loads and turn off the heat and let them air dry.

"I think there are some good ideas, I wouldn't have thought to dust the light bulbs before," Manning said.

However, there are still more ways to save.

Always do full loads in the washer and dryer, wash in cold water and clean the dryer lint screen.

On the stove, use the smallest pans possible since they heat using less energy.

Cooking as much food as possible in the microwave also saves money because it uses 40 percent less power than the oven.

[TexasStooge]

Miller, Fantroy clash over Executive Airport

Dallas: Mayor, council member differ on idea to divert loudest jets from Love

By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Mayor Laura Miller and City Council member James Fantroy are at odds again – this time over what role Dallas Executive Airport should play in the city's aviation future.

If the Wright amendment is repealed, Ms. Miller says, corporate and private jets should be diverted to the Red Bird-area airport. Doing so would reduce traffic at Dallas Love Field and drum up business at "underutilized" Executive Airport, she said.

But Mr. Fantroy, the council's lead advocate for more than $10 million in recent upgrades at the facility, says he can read between the lines.

He believes Ms. Miller wants the noisiest planes rerouted to Executive Airport, quieting the skies for frustrated Love Field neighbors.

"That don't cut [the] mustard," argued Mr. Fantroy, who spent the last week in the hospital with bone deterioration, which he said was caused by his kidney dialysis treatments. "My constituents will say, 'Mayor Miller, you are allowing noisier jets to come into our community when you don't want them at Love Field.' "

Ms. Miller said the intent is not to make the Red Bird area noisier, although Mr. Fantroy and the rest of the City Council have been working for years to attract more planes to Executive Airport. It's to realign traffic from Love Field in the most natural – and financially beneficial – way, she said.

"Mr. Fantroy has done a very good job ... talking about getting more business and more economic development" at Executive Airport, Ms. Miller said. "I thought we were all moving toward increasing flights at the airport."

The hubbub began Thursday, when Mr. Fantroy watched a TV broadcast where Ms. Miller said she supported lifting the Wright amendment gradually and offering financial incentives for private jets to operate out of Executive Airport.

"Half of the air traffic at Love Field is private jets," Ms. Miller told reporters. "They happen to be the noisiest jets. So if you divert some of that traffic to Executive, then you can increase commercial flights and not have a lot more traffic out of Love Field."

Mr. Fantroy sent a memo to his City Council colleagues Friday, saying that "noisier jets" at Executive Airport could adversely affect his district and others.

"We will not sit back and allow noisier jets to be placed in the middle of our communities," he wrote. "If an attempt is made to disrupt our communities, we will fight it. I wanted each of you to be aware of what is going on so that you won't be blindsided by this issue."

Ms. Miller said she's the one who was blindsided. She thought Mr. Fantroy wanted Executive Airport to grow, she said.

In a memo sent to the council on Monday, she wrote: "We have spent $10 million to date on new facilities [at Dallas Executive] and have great capacity to be the kind of economic engine for the southern sector that council member Fantroy has always envisioned. The Wright amendment issue can create opportunity for Dallas Executive."

Airport background

City officials took over the lease of the southern Dallas airport in 1999. By 2004, they had broken ground on a $5.6 million terminal and air traffic control tower, secured millions more in city, state and federal funds, and attracted nearly $9 million in private investments.

Major runway improvements and a $2 million access road are complete, said Terry Mitchell, the city's assistant director of aviation. The air traffic control tower is expected to be in operation by early December. City officials hope these improvements will make Executive Airport a business travel competitor for Addison Airport, McKinney Municipal Airport and Alliance Airport in Fort Worth.

"The idea is to turn that into a premier general aviation facility, in an effort to bring economic growth to the southern sector," Mr. Mitchell said. "Usually when you have a first-rate general-aviation airport, business and other enterprises tend to follow."

Mr. Fantroy said he has nothing against relieving pressure at Love Field and bringing more planes to Executive Airport. He just doesn't want them to be the noisy kind.

"I want them as quiet as they can get," he said.

And he said he wishes the mayor had talked to him or scheduled a town hall meeting with his constituents before offering up the southern sector airport as part of a Wright amendment deal. He already has had to meet with local residents over air traffic noise complaints, he said.

The rules on noise

Commercial planes face strict federal noise rules and are often quieted with "hush kits" that dampen sound on takeoff. Private jets face no such restrictions, and since they have extremely powerful engines that let them take off from short runways, they can create twice as much noise as the most modern commercial planes.

Dallas political consultant Rufus Shaw Jr. lives three blocks from Executive Airport and said he and his neighbors have been fighting noise pollution for five years. The private jets that Ms. Miller would like to move to the airport are by far the loudest, he said.

"It's really a slap in our face," he said. "We haven't gotten the same publicity the Love Field neighbors have gotten. But we do have the same concerns."

"You can't tell the black community that you're going to send the noisiest airplanes there – not when they feel the way they do about Laura Miller," Mr. Fantroy said. "I can't afford for her to put anything negative in my area that she don't want in Love Field."

The City Council will take a formal position on the Wright amendment early next year.

Ms. Miller supports a compromise that would lift the Wright restrictions over time. She suggests limiting flight activity to 26 gates, prohibiting international routes and establishing a curfew to keep night-time noise down.

"If [the Wright amendment] is lifted without any planning, then Dallas Executive Airport may not benefit," she said. "It's been an airport for a long time. If we didn't want [Executive Airport] to grow, we wouldn't have spent $10 million on it."

Staff writer Eric Torbenson contributed to this report.

[TexasStooge]

Sheriff gets pressure to fire deputy

Dallas County: Suspension for slur isn't enough, commissioners say

By JAMES M. O'NEILL / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Dallas County commissioners and a local civil rights leader said Tuesday that the 20-day suspension Sheriff Lupe Valdez imposed on a top deputy for using a racial slur was insufficient, and they called for the man's removal.

Sheriff Valdez said she will work with the community and the top aide involved to smooth things over. But she said she was open to more drastic options if the community does not think the situation will improve.

Sheriff Valdez last week announced she had suspended Assistant Chief Deputy Greg Leveling for 20 days and ordered him to attend diversity training after he referred to hurricane evacuees as "knuckle draggers" in a staff meeting.

County Commissioner John Wiley Price, the lone minority member of the Commissioners Court and, like the sheriff, a Democrat, said he talked with her about the incident and his contention that her punishment was not severe enough.

"I'm not retreating on this. He needs to be gone," Mr. Price said. "This is certainly something that shouldn't be tolerated. It sends the wrong message."

Commissioner Maurine Dickey agreed. "There's no place for people with that kind of attitude in any level of government," she said. Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield said his first reaction was that he "probably would have fired the individual and not suspended him."

County Judge Margaret Keliher also said the punishment was insufficient. "I don't know that taking one course [on diversity] is adequate to fix an issue as serious as this," she said after Tuesday's Commissioners Court meeting.

Commissioner Mike Cantrell said "a person in that position should be held to a higher standard."

The Rev. Peter Johnson, an organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1969 and a vocal critic of racial bias, punctuated his report to the commissioners on a gun buyback program he organized in cooperation with the Sheriff's Department by expressing his dismay at Deputy Leveling's comments. He asked the commissioners to ensure that he be fired.

"I'm deeply disappointed that someone in the Sheriff's Department with that kind of authority" would use such a term, Mr. Johnson said. He called the attitude that would cause someone to use the term "not a problem of diversity. It's a problem of the heart."

After Mr. Johnson's comments, Sheriff Valdez talked with him for 15 to 20 minutes in the lobby as the meeting continued inside.

Deputy Leveling is a top assistant and is not subject to civil service rules, so he serves at the sheriff's pleasure. As a result, she could review her suspension and decide to take more stringent measures. For now, she said, she wants to try to work with the community and Deputy Leveling on making amends.

"If the community feels he's not responding, we'll need to do something else," she said. "I think we'll be able to work together. It will take the chief, me and the community to come up with a final solution for this. It will take all of us to make it right."

She said that Deputy Leveling had performed well prior to making the comments. He supervises the housing of more than 8,000 inmates at several facilities, including the Decker Detention Center. Decker has been used in recent weeks to house hurricane evacuees, and some have complained publicly about conditions there.

During an Oct. 18 meeting with subordinates, Deputy Leveling's frustration with the complaints boiled over, and he used the terms "knuckle draggers" and "knee walkers" when referring to the evacuees. He was Sheriff Valdez's first top administrative hire after she took office in January.

"He apologized profusely to me and everyone in the room," Sheriff Valdez said. "I know he feels badly about it. He embarrassed himself and the Sheriff's Department."

[TexasStooge]

Students try to mix it up during lunch

Irving: Some classmates remain reluctant to break out of cliques

By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH / The Dallas Morning News

IRVING, Texas – Irving High School senior class president Heather Young, 17, stood in the center of the cafeteria, jumping and waving a sign bearing her birth month, May.

On Tuesday – as part of national Mix It Up at Lunch Day – she urged her classmates to break out of their cliques and not eat together based on their status as athletes or band members or by ethnicity. The idea was to group people by their birthdays during lunch to promote diversity.

But even with the day's special designation, many kids still appeared segregated.

"I guess they're just rebelling against this," said Heather, who thought the underclassmen were more open to the idea than older students.

To prove she was participating, Heather pointed at a boy munching french fries at her table. "Hey, what's your name again?"

That was Robert Munoz, 16, who said he was open to trying something different.

"It's, like, high school, and it doesn't last very long, so they're trying to get us to meet people and have fun," he said.

Counselor Suzanne Serris said she organized the event in part because she wanted to combat segregation, especially after fights among black and Hispanic students at the school. According to Texas Education Agency figures, in 2004 about 11 percent of Irving High's students were black, 60 percent Hispanic and 26 percent white.

Student Council members tried to get others to participate.

Some students exchanged handshakes.

Kylie Smith, 16, a student athletic trainer, met Caleb Queen, 15, a football player.

Shannon Gould, 14, already knew Claudia Rodriguez, 15, but they don't always eat together.

"I learned that she got a boyfriend this weekend; that's about it," Shannon said.

Cassandra Scanlan, 14, met Gabriela Davila, 14, but said, "Nobody's really participating."

Yanira Garcia sat with a small group of girls speaking Spanish and said her limited English skills kept her from participating. She said she moved from El Salvador a couple of months ago.

"I really didn't know about it," she said.

Tuesday was the first time the school tried the event, which is sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The fourth annual event is meant to pull students out of their comfort zones during lunch, one of the most self-segregating places at schools, according to the event's Web site, http://www.tolerance.org.

Ms. Serris said she might try a different way of getting the students to mingle next time.

"I wanted to break down the barriers and walls of social cliques and racial segregation and promote unity," she said. "It was just frustrating to notice even the student leaders sitting together. I said, 'Get up, you're in your clique!' "

[TexasStooge]

6 hospitalized after mystery fumes at FEMA center

DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Emergency officials are still trying to find the source of suspected fumes after six workers got sick today.

All were on the job at a Federal Emergency Management Agency call center, located in the 8700 block of Stemmons Freeway in Dallas, when they became ill.

Authorities say the workers were transported to a hospital to be checked out - as a precaution.

Several hundred people work at the FEMA site in a building near downtown Dallas.

A number complained of fumes.

Authorities are looking into whether a heating system malfunctioned.

Temperatures overnight dipped into the 30s.

FEMA has drawn attention as the response agency to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

There is still no word on when the call center will re-open.

[TexasStooge]

Foods that can help you live longer

By MACIE JEPSON / WFAA ABC 8

What would you think about a meal that could add five years to your life?

Dutch researchers swear by it, and as with so many dietary solutions these days, this meal is really common sense.

But it takes a "plan" to make people actually eat it.

It's the diet that could add something. Healthful foods—eaten once a week—designed not to reduce your waistline, but to decrease the risk of heart disease by 76 percent.

It's a simple meal that begins with a salad—a mixture of fresh spinach leaves and chopped walnuts drizzled with olive oil and vinegar.

We asked Lifetime Fitness dietician Megan Parish to analyze the ingredients. The anti-oxidants in spinach fight disease, but what about the other ingredients?

"Both contain Omega 3 fatty acids, which have been shown to lower cholesterol," Parish said.

The entree is no surprise. Salmon is rich in Omega 3 fatty acids that strengthen your immune system, but it specifically calls for at least two cloves of fresh garlic and one tablespoon of fresh ginger.

"The garlic has a lot of sulphur, which helps with healing properties," Parish said. "The ginger is also going to be a anti-coagulant; keeps blood from sticking."

Throw wine etiquette to the wind. Drink a glass of red wine (yes, red) with salmon—for your heart.

For dessert, it's a half-cup of fat free yogurt and a half-cup of fresh or frozen blueberries.

The yogurt is an immune booster, a great source of calcium, and protects against colon cancer and other types of tumors.

Blueberries are the number-one source of antioxidants, while helping maintain eyesight and reduce inflammation of blood vessels.

"It's a matter of getting them all in there," Parish said. "I don't think the combination is really as important as the frequency."

She said another key factor is to watch the things you eat on your regular diet.

[TexasStooge]

Woman's body found in burning shed

DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Firefighters and police are investigating the death of a woman in far Southeast Dallas.

When the first units arrived at the 2100 block of Jordan Valley Road, they found a tool shed ablaze.

The woman's body was found inside. She has been identified, but authorities are not yet releasing her name. They say she is about 40 years old.

The cause of the fire seems to be accidental. The woman appeared to have spent the night in the shed, investigators say.

"[We want] to find out whether it was electrical, whether a space heater was involved, whether there was a working smoke detector," said Joel Lavender from the Dallas Fire-Rescue.

The Dallas County Medical Examiner's office was called to the scene to help determine the cause of death.

[TexasStooge]

Fugitive Dallas sex offender found in Arkansas

DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A fugitive from Dallas wanted on charges of sexual crimes committed against children was arrested late last week during a traffic stop in Sherwood, Ark.

Eric Wayne Kelley, 40, had been sought by U.S. marshals since he disappeared two years ago from his residence in the 4400 block of Cranfill in Dallas.

Last Thursday, a Sherwood officer stopped a vehicle driven by Kelley and carrying a 12-year-old male passenger, police said. That passenger provided information to investigators that led officers to obtain a search warrant for Kelley’s Arkansas residence.

A search of the residence conducted Friday resulted in the seizure of computers, cameras, compact discs and DVDs that contained photos of juvenile males unclothed in different poses, police said. The evidence seized from Kelley's residence will be turned over to FBI for further analysis.

"We will spend whatever amount of time and resources necessary to arrest and detain any person who commits such a horrible crime or any crime against children,” Sherwood police Chief Kelvin Nicholson said.

Friday, Kelley was initially charged with failure to register as a sex offender, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, illegally living as a sex offender near a school, obstructing government operations and possession of drug paraphernalia, police said.

Additional charges were filed Tuesday against Kelley, including rape and distribution, possession or viewing of matter depicting sexually-explicit conduct involving a child.

Kelley is being held at the Pulaski County Regional Jail on bond of $250,000.

Dallas County Sheriff's spokesman Don Peritz said Kelley has been wanted by the department on probation violation charges since September 2003.

[TexasStooge]

Radioactive material missing from Texas shipment

From The Dallas Morning News Staff Writers

New Mexico environmental officials are investigating the theft of a box containing two vials of radioactive material from a shipment delivered to East Texas.

The vials contained Antimony-124, a toxic beta- and gamma-emitting material used extensively in the oil and gas recovery industry that can cause significant radiation exposure. They were housed in a World War II-style ammunition box.

The materials were shipped from Albuquerque through Clovis, N.M. and the Texas cities of Abilene, Austin, Dallas, and Tyler with final delivery in Kilgore. Authorities believe the material was stolen in Texas, and New Mexico authorities are now working closely with the shipment's owner, the FBI and the Texas Department of State Health Services to determine what happened to the vials.

"We don't wish to alarm the public, only to ask them to be on the lookout for the ammunition box or vials, and to contact us if they think they may have seen it or have any information on its whereabouts," said NMED Secretary Ron Curry. "The public's knowledge and involvement is often key in these cases."

The licensee and carrier, whose names are not being released for security reasons, have performed extensive searches and inventories of their facilities. The Albuquerque company is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to its recovery.

The green container weighs 80 pounds, contains two 30-milliliter plastic vials labeled "radioactive" and is about 50 percent full of a sand-like substance. If anyone sees an item matching this description, they are asked to not touch or open it. Instead, they are urged to contact the New Mexico Environmental Department at (505) 827-9329.

Due to the small quantity of Antimony-124, the materials are not considered a terrorist threat. However, unlawful possession of radioactive material is a violation of the New Mexico Radiation Protection Act and the New Mexico Radiation Protection Regulations, and is subject to criminal and civil penalties.

[TexasStooge]

Why was officer's alleged killer not deported?

By DON WALL / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Questions have been raised about the lack of a policy that would have kept the accused murderer of a Dallas police officer from going free two months ago.

If the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement had identified Juan Lizcano as an illegal immigrant, Officer Brian Jackson might still be alive.

ICE missed two opportunities to detain and deport Lizcano. The first came when the suspect was arrested for making a terroristic threat on September 11. It happened again six days later, when Lizcano was arrested for driving while intoxicated.

"We've expressed our frustrations before that we keep arresting the same people over and over again," said Dallas police Chief David Kunkle.

ICE officials and police personnel differ on why Lizcano was not in custody.

ICE has an office in the jail so it can screen inmates and find illegal immigrants. However, immigration officials said they need help from police - help that didn’t come when Lizcano was booked in September.

"It is ‘up to the arresting officer to notify ICE' … and we have no record of Lizcano being referred to us," said ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok.

Dallas police said it's not their job to track illegal immigrants like Lizcano.

"Immigration code does not allow, does not authorize us to enforce immigration law," Dallas police spokesperson Gil Cerda said. “We don't do any kind of enforcement at all as far as immigration is concerned."

And that's the problem. Immigration personnel want police to call them about illegals, but police say they have no authority to do so.

"This makes you a little bit angrier, because you would have liked to have seen some kind of intervention which could have taken him off the streets," Kunkle said.

WFAA was allowed to see the Dallas Police policy that prohibits officers from getting involved in immigration cases.

However, when ICE officials were asked to show the policy detailing the police department's responsibilities, WFAA was told it's an unwritten recommendation.

Both sides said the issue will need to be reviewed.

[TexasStooge]

3 Collin County home invasions in 2 weeks

By MARY ANN RAZZUK / WFAA ABC 8

MCKINNEY, Texas - A 70-year-old man was attacked and robbed Tuesday night in his McKinney home, which makes it the third home invasion in Collin County in less than two weeks.

McKinney police found the victim's stolen car not far from his apartment complex, and hope the find will produce fingerprints to help them find a suspect.

Police said the home invasion robber wore a ball cap with the word sheriff across the front of it. He forced his way into the man's apartment and cut him with a knife before forcing him to hand over his car keys and other valuables.

The elderly man lived alone in a seniors community.

Police are now investigating any possible similarities in a string of home invasion robberies across North Texas, including two in Plano last week.

Managers at the residential facility are alerting residents to the attack, and family members are urging residents who live in the complex not to open their doors to anyone.

"...I told her not to open the door to anybody that she doesn't know," said one relative of a resident. "Even people she does know, I told her to be very concerned."

The victim was released from the hospital Wednesday and police are stepping up patrols around the area.

[TexasStooge]

Convicted killer in Christmas Eve deaths executed

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) – A Houston man was executed Wednesday evening for a Christmas Eve killing spree that left a Baytown man and two of his children dead.

In a final statement, Shannon Charles Thomas repeatedly expressed love for his family.

“I want you to be strong and get through this time,” Thomas said with his sister standing a few feet from him, looking through a window. “Do not fall back. Keep going forward. Don't let this hinder you. Let everybody know I love them.”

Thomas mentioned several people by their first names, telling his sister to tell them he loved them and to stay strong.

“This is kind of hard to put words together. I am nervous and it is hard to put my thoughts together. Sometimes you don't know what to say. I hope these words give you comfort. ... Let everybody know I love them and love is unconditional as mama always told us. I may be gone in flesh but I am always with you in spirit.”

He was pronounced dead at 6:52 p.m., five minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow.

Thomas, 34, was the 19th inmate executed this year and the second in as many nights in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.