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#3541 Postby TexasStooge » Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:45 pm

Man arrested in mom, nephew's fatal stabbing

By CAROL CAVAZOS / WFAA ABC 8

FORT WORTH, Texas - The father of the Forth Worth man accused of fatally stabbing his mother and nephew said his son didn't mean to do it and is bipolar.

The attack happened Saturday night in the 4100 block of South Edgewood Terrace, and for Lamar Clay Senior that is where he said the unimaginable happened.

Clay Sr. lost his wife, lost his grandchild and his son was arrested and sits in the Mansfield Jail on a $1.1 million bond for their murder.

"Well, I'm here and I'm basically, I am making it," Clay Sr. said. "And I know I'm going to be okay, but this is a tough situation."

Fort Worth police have charged Lamar Clay Junior, 21, with the murder of 46-year-old Charlotte Lollar, the capital murder of his 18-month-old Kevyon Lyons and the attempted murder of a family friend, 44-year-old Cheryl Tomlin.

"This is a tough situation that I'm going through right now," Clay Sr. said. "And, I know it's going to be okay, but just right now with the situation and the things that has happened, it is real tough."
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#3542 Postby TexasStooge » Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:46 pm

Images capture 'persons of interest' in fatal robbery

ARLINGTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Arlington police are searching for two masked gunmen involved in a deadly robbery.

Investigators said the men robbed a group of people in the parking lot of the Brandon Oaks apartments early Sunday morning and fatally shot Baldomera Orta, 32, who died at the scene.

Police said they hope surveillance pictures will help solve the crime.

Officials provided a video surveillance image that contained two people they described as possible persons of interest in the case.

The Arlington Police Department has not named any suspects yet.
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#3543 Postby TexasStooge » Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:48 pm

Hit-and-run driver kills Good Samaritan

By BERT LOZANO / WFAA ABC 8

FORT WORTH, Texas — Donald Bell didn't have to stop, but he did because someone was in trouble.

He died as a result.

Whoever hit the 20-year-old Burleson man on Interstate 30 near Bridgewood Drive in Fort Worth early Saturday morning did not stop.

"I just don't understand why people would do that and then run off," said Erin Bell, one of the victim's sisters.

"All they had to do was pull over, and they didn't," said Chastity Lopez, another sister also grieving the sudden loss. "Now it's murder to me."

Donald Bell and his cousin pulled off I-30 at 3 a.m. to try and help the victims in an overturned car. Fort Worth police said the two passengers had already fled on foot.

Investigators said Bell attempted to run across the highway to put traffic cones around the wreckage to prevent another accident.

That's when he was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver.

"He was a good person who didn't deserve this," Erin Bell said. "He was just getting his life together, engaged, moved out, got a great job," Chastity Lopez added.

Fort Worth police said the only description of the vehicle involved in the hit-and-run accident is a small compact car. Family members are now pleading for someone to come forward to help police make an arrest.

They said Donald Bell was always a person willing to help someone in need.

"Christmas is not going to be the same," Lopez said. "We were going to celebrate it next Friday, but now we're going to be going to a funeral instead."
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#3544 Postby TexasStooge » Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:50 pm

Farmer's dying wish for park may be fulfilled

By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News

FRISCO, Texas – It's impossible to tell if a man could be more beloved by a neighborhood than Otis Newman was in Westfalls Village.

Mr. Newman died nearly two years ago, but the children and parents who adopted him as their grandpa still think about him daily. He's no longer there to regale kids with tales of old Frisco and how he grew cotton and maize where their houses stand. Parents no longer stop by his white farmhouse for coffee and leave with homegrown tomatoes.

He forever left a mark on their hearts.

Soon Mr. Newman's remaining land could become part of a park named for his family – a permanent reminder of his presence in their lives. The city is poised to buy Mr. Newman's remaining 1 ½ acres for $200,000 and incorporate it into a park named after his father, J.R. Newman.

The Newman family arrived by covered wagon in 1841, long before Frisco existed. They couldn't have imagined that the isolated farmland would give way to city-style neighborhoods.

Mr. Newman was like many North Texas farmers who sold their land to developers.

But he was different, too. Most farm families sold out and left. He stayed and embraced the future as much as he cherished his past.

Mr. Newman talked to the city about his land. He also pestered officials to name something for his father until the day he died in March 2004 at age 86.

"I think he would think it's wonderful. He loved that land," said his niece, Anita Roach. "He wanted his parents to be recognized."

A playground and a sprayground – a playground with water – will spring up on the land in a little over a year if the city stays on schedule. No plans have been made for his house and outbuildings.

Before he died, Mr. Newman gave The Dallas Morning News an interview as he relaxed in a recliner in his home.

The tan cowboy hat he would be buried with rested on his knee. He said he harbored no illusions that his house and what was left of his farm would remain intact.

"I'd imagine the city will end up with it and bulldoze it down and what's left of the shed, where I kept my combine and farm equipment," he said.

Mr. Newman lived in the middle of $300,000 brick homes on tiny suburban lots. He had no children and loved that so many neighborhood children came to see him.

"I'm proud of all these houses around here," Mr. Newman said in his slow-talking, thick drawl. "My wife died three years ago. It would have been lonesome as hell. Now we've got all these women and children around. ... The children, I love them like they was my own."

The children and parents in the neighborhood call him the "grandfather of Westfalls Village." One couple even named their daughter after his late wife, Allie B. Newman.

He and his wife sold off almost all of the 200 acres they owned at prices ranging from $1,350 to $8,000 an acre over about 30 years. After working hard on a farm their entire lives, they used the money to travel to Europe, Alaska and Hawaii.

At first glance, it looks like Mr. Newman still lives in the wood house.

A Frisco newspaper and two giant blue trash cans lie at the end of his driveway. His dog's white food bowl sits close to the front door. His goats, more pets than farm animals, frolic in the backyard.

But the plants and flowers Mr. Newman tenderly cared for are dead or overgrown. The broken birdbath basin is in pieces in his front yard.

"It's just not as clean and as manicured as he would have had it. But other than that, it's like he's still living there," said Caren Graves, 41, who used to stop by almost daily for coffee.

Her children still talk about Mr. Newman, his goats, and the cotton he planted so the children could see what once grew on the land where their homes sit. The goats now belong to a doctor, a friend of the family. They'll likely find a new home if the land becomes a park.

"I don't think anybody in the neighborhood has forgotten him," Ms. Graves said. "Because of him, we all have a place to live. He's part of the family of the neighborhood."

Her son, Blake Graves, is 10 now. He said Mr. Newman taught him important things, like how a baby goat is born and how to fish goldfish from a bathtub.

"I don't know how big a legend he was," Blake said. "But he was a legend."
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#3545 Postby TexasStooge » Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:51 pm

Teacher shortage quick fix fails

State program turns out 1 certified person; rules killed plan, districts say

By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN, Texas – The quick fix for the teacher shortage in Texas has been anything but.

The state has gained just one certified teacher in the year and a half since officials agreed to let school districts instantly certify college graduates as teachers to ease shortages in certain subject areas, such as math and science, in eighth through 12th grades.

Approved by the State Board for Educator Certification in spring 2004, the proposal pitted teacher leaders against board appointees of Gov. Rick Perry. Teachers argued that the instant certificate demeaned their profession, while advocates said it would ease shortages and help meet new federal requirements on teacher quality.

The program's failure seems to stem from a lack of interest, not a lack of need. Of the state's 1,037 school districts, only two small districts have been authorized to offer the so-called Temporary Teacher Certificate to individuals who have a college degree in the needed subject area and pass a state competency test, Texas Education Agency officials said.

But of the nearly 300,000 classroom teachers in state schools, at least 32,000 – more than one in 10 – are not certified in the subjects they teach, according to recent estimates. The biggest shortages are in math, science, foreign languages, bilingual education, special education and computer science.

Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the education agency, said one person has been granted a state certificate under the program and is teaching at the Richard Milburn Academy, an independent charter school in Midland. Ironically, the law doesn't even require that charter school teachers be certified.

An estimated 1,640 people have applied for the Temporary Teacher Certificate, but all the rest have been denied a state certification because they didn't have a job offer from a school district or had not met all the requirements, such as passing the state competency exam for new teachers.

"Apparently, most school districts don't want to be responsible for instantly certifying folks as teachers," said Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association, a union that vigorously opposed the instant certification plan.

"This was an idea that never addressed the real problem of why we can't get enough certified teachers into our classrooms," he said. "We believe the answer is improved working conditions and improved compensation."

School district representatives said the requirements for the new program were too onerous and costly, and that killed interest in the idea.

"It doesn't make sense for a school district to do this to hire a few new teachers," said Catherine Clark, associate executive director of the Texas Association of School Boards. "You would have to be certifying a lot of people for this approach to be cost-effective."

Aides to Mr. Perry say the program can still help school districts fill vacancies with qualified individuals.

"The governor still believes this is a worthwhile program that is worth pursuing, and that it could be very beneficial for school districts," said press secretary Kathy Walt, suggesting it may take more time for districts to see the advantages of the approach. Though touted as a quick fix for an immediate problem, the program included no targets for time or number of new teachers when it was created.

Mary Charley, the education agency's director of field services for educator certification, said several districts had contacted her office about the program. But only two submitted proposals to start hiring teachers with the new certificate.

Most districts are instead filling vacancies either from the ranks of recent college graduates with teacher training or through alternative certification programs, which allow people with no teacher preparation or experience to become certified by taking courses offered through a school district, university, education service center or private entity.

Those seeking alternative certification must have a college degree and undergo extensive training before they enter the classroom and during their first year, when they are issued a probationary license.

Districts already familiar with the alternative certification process might have found it easier to stick with it than create a program for instant certification, Ms. Charley said.

"When a district seeks to set up a Temporary Teacher Certificate program, they are responsible for everything – mentoring, supervising and training. Many districts lack the resources to do all that," she said.

Another big factor is that candidates for alternative certification pay for their training and preparation, while school districts pick up the tab for those entering the instant certification program – which includes mentoring, training and support for the two years the teacher retains the temporary certificate.

When the instant certification was pushed two years ago, it was touted as a way to help reach new standards for teachers under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. School districts must employ only "highly qualified" teachers in all core subjects by the end of this school year.

"Highly qualified" generally means the teacher must hold a regular state license and demonstrate competency in the subjects they teach. States are given leeway in deciding how teachers must prove knowledge of their subject areas, but by next year, districts are not supposed to use teachers with no background in their subjects – a common practice in Texas and other states.

Superintendents across the state have worried about meeting the federal mandate, but state education officials said that based on initial surveys, most Texas districts are close to compliance with the law.
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#3546 Postby TexasStooge » Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:59 pm

With bid to run Los Alamos, UT picks a hot potato

Nuclear aspect angers critics; officials say benefits outweigh risks

By HOLLY K. HACKER / The Dallas Morning News

Los Alamos National Laboratory is best known as the birthplace of the atomic bomb. But lately, the New Mexico weapons lab has been known more for a string of safety and management problems, from missing classified data to employee credit card abuses.

So why does the University of Texas System want to step in and help run Los Alamos?

Any day now UT will learn whether it, together with aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, has won a contract to manage the lab. The University of California has run Los Alamos since 1943, when the lab was secretly created under the Manhattan Project.

Recent security lapses and other troubles led the Department of Energy, which owns Los Alamos, to hold its first-ever competition for the contract.

UC is fighting to keep the job. Just as UT has teamed with Lockheed, so UC has found an industrial partner, San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp.

For the UT System, the potential benefits are Texas-sized. The system would gain prestige from co-managing a crown jewel of the nation's research laboratories. It would have a stronger voice in discussions on national science policy. Los Alamos would give UT an edge in recruiting scientists, professors and students, and UT could tap into millions more in federal research dollars.

UT System officials call their pursuit of the Los Alamos contract a historic opportunity.

"The work of Los Alamos is fundamental to our national security. As one of the finest institutions in the country, we have a duty to pursue this proposal," James Huffines, chairman of the governing Board of Regents, said in May, when the system decided to team up with Lockheed.

But with the rewards come risks. The University of California's image has suffered from the run of problems at Los Alamos. Security breaches last year – including reports of two lost computer disks that, it turns out, never existed – led to a seven-month shutdown of the lab. The government gave UC an unsatisfactory rating, and, as a result, UC received only a third of its normal $9 million annual management fee.

"It's still possible to receive those benefits of collaboration. However, the bottom line is that place is a mess," said Doug Roberts, a computer scientist who retired from Los Alamos in July. He runs a popular Web log, or blog, for employees called "LANL: The Real Story."

Academic side

UT officials say they would oversee the academic side of the lab, while Lockheed Martin would handle security and day-to-day operations, which have been the problem areas for UC. Some national lab experts, however, note that UT still faces risks because science and safety go hand in hand. For instance, a lab employee can be injured while doing research.

There are also concerns about an industrial-academic team running a national lab. Corporate involvement is certainly nothing new to major universities – consider all the company-sponsored funding on campuses for research, buildings and the like. But some professors and students wonder how academic and scientific freedom – cherished values in higher education – would be respected by a for-profit partner.

Then, corporate partnership or not, some professors, students and others say a university system shouldn't be in the nuclear weapons business at all.

"We don't like the idea of the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and we attend a public university that wants to run one of the largest makers of nuclear weapons in the world," said Jim Spangler, a UT-Austin senior who is spokesman of a student watchdog group, UT Watch.

The UT System says it would oversee the research side of Los Alamos, which does both classified and unclassified work. UT would be in charge of peer review – scrutinizing the research methods and findings of Los Alamos scientists – and doing some research itself.

Toward that goal, the UT System has formed a network with 18 other universities and systems across the country to help with research. If Los Alamos has a project related to, say, metallurgy, it could ask the Colorado School of Mines (one of the university partners) to do the research. Such research could take place at the universities or at Los Alamos.

UT campuses and other schools in the network would mentor junior scientists. Students, faculty and scientists would also have the chance to do research at Los Alamos. And scientists at Los Alamos might spend a few months at a campus to conduct research and teach.

The work stands to benefit UT immensely, some say.

"The University of Texas has a tremendous opportunity of having its name associated with, in my opinion, one of the greatest scientific institutions in the world," said Warren F. Miller, a former deputy director at Los Alamos who is now an administrator at the University of New Mexico. "I think it will definitely improve the science and research and prestige of the University of Texas."

Money for research

Then there's the money. The new managers will earn up to $79 million a year, almost nine times what UC now earns. (UT says its share of the fee would go back into research at Los Alamos.) UT would also have access to millions more dollars in federal research – something that big research universities rely upon.

Government watchdogs say there's also a benefit to having different contractors run the nation's two nuclear weapons design labs – Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore. The UC System now runs both, although the Livermore contract will also be put out to bid in the future.

But the prestige would not come without hazards. Misplaced computer drives, unauthorized spending, accidents – these are the headaches that UC has had to deal with. There's also the famous 1999 case involving scientist Wen Ho Lee, who was wrongly accused of selling secrets. Investigators in the case found management problems at the lab.

Last year, the lab was shut down for seven months after reports of missing computer disks (which, it turns out, never existed) and a laser accident that injured an intern.

The lab also needs environmental cleanup after its 60-plus years of operation.

UT officials say the problems at Los Alamos concern areas that they wouldn't manage – the job would fall to Lockheed.

Chancellor Mark Yudof has said: "Our legal liability is no more than we assume every day in the operation of our campuses. In contrast with these limited risks, the potential benefits are immense."

Plus, UT is not entirely new to the nuclear arena. The flagship, UT-Austin, is home to a research nuclear reactor. UT has also done research before at Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratory, also in New Mexico.

But Peter Stockton, an investigator with the Project on Government Oversight, a federal government watchdog group, says that just being associated with Los Alamos would be liability enough.

"They do risk the fact they're talking over kind of a broken system there, and if they don't get it up and running, then they can get their reputation tarnished," said Mr. Stockton, who was an adviser to former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.

Mr. Roberts, the former Los Alamos employee, said the lab is "in dire need of an overhaul," at least on the operations side. But there's also a problem of low morale and high turnover, he said.

Retirements are up at the lab, due to an aging work force and concerns about the lab's future, including the pension system and other benefits.

Dr. Miller, the lab's former deputy director, said it's impossible to promise there will never be another accident or missing piece of classified data. "The risk is always associated as to whether some unknown, unpredicted controversy might come along," he said, adding, "I happen to think the benefit is greater than the risk."

Some groups in Texas and California have protested any university involvement with a nuclear weapons lab.

'Immoral alliance'

Universities should pursue research for the greater good, said Karen Hadden, chairwoman of Peace Action Texas. "This completely flies in the face of that more noble undertaking. It is inappropriate for a university to pursue research that leads to the building of nuclear bombs."

The issue has been divisive within the University of California, and the subject of several forums and debates. UC's Academic Senate has polled members every few years. Last year, two-thirds said they favored UC competing for contracts at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore. But most faculty did not want UC to delegate the business, security and environmental safety aspects of the labs to an industrial partner.

Some politicians, professors and students question whether UT or UC could stay independent in a partnership with industry.

"It's a totally unholy, immoral alliance," said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, who has asked the UT System regents to abandon the bid. "University systems should not be going to bed as partners with the nuclear weapons complex."

Case for universities

The government is already using university/industry teams at national labs that do not focus on nuclear weapons. The thinking is that while universities excel at research, they're not experts in management and safety.

This year, the contract to run Idaho National Laboratory went to a consortium led by Battelle Memorial Institute, a nonprofit company, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (The Texas A&M University System lost its bid for the contract and was on a team with Bechtel and two other companies.)

There's a strong case for getting universities involved and not leaving the labs to contractors, said Michael Witherell, former director of Fermi National Laboratory in Illinois.

"As a nation, do we really want the development of nuclear weapons to be done by those who have a financial interest in what is being developed? Do we want military contractors making those decisions?"

Dr. Witherell added, "I think it actually is important for universities to maintain a relationship with the national laboratories. It's important for the nation."

The growing trend of university/business partnerships – outside the national labs – is a hot potato on campuses, and has raised questions among academics and ethicists.

One early controversial deal was UC-Berkeley's $25 million agreement in 1998 with a biotechnology company called Novartis. The company funded research in an entire biology department in return for first dibs on licensing promising inventions. Critics said the arrangement jeopardized the department's academic freedom and integrity. An external review found the deal did not cause great harm, but that similar ones should be avoided in the future.

But a Berkeley/Novartis situation can't be compared to Los Alamos and its bidders, according to Sheldon Krimsky, a Tufts University professor who studies corporate research conflicts on campuses.

With a national lab where there's federal oversight, Dr. Krimsky said. "It's such a different entity we cannot apply the same standards. It's truly difficult to know how the arrangement is going to work. Is this kind of partnership going to affect other aspects of the university?"

That is, would the relationship with Lockheed encourage UT to take on other confidential research projects? Will a culture of secrecy seep into other areas of the university system?

Daniel Levine, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, said he's not familiar with the Los Alamos details, but that the issue raises more universal concerns.

"Certainly, universities should not be apart from the world and need to be tied into other institutions," Dr. Levine said. "But if the corporations push them too far so they don't feel independent, and the researchers can't play an advisory role ... that's not good."

Dr. Krimsky suggests that if UT wins the contract, it should build a firewall between the work at Los Alamos and the work on its campuses. That would give some protection, he said, so that "secrecy won't flow from [Los Alamos] to other parts of the university."

Both the UT-Lockheed and UC-Bechtel partnerships have created new corporations that would run Los Alamos. UT's university network is also a separate entity and would not overlap with the other programs and departments within the UT System, officials say.

"Those safeguards have been addressed very vigorously with Lockheed Martin," UT spokesman Michael Warden said.

The man who would run Los Alamos for the UT-Lockheed team, C. Paul Robinson, has said he would seek assurance from Lockheed that science and the national interest, not corporate interests, come first. Dr. Robinson had such an agreement when he was the director of Sandia lab, which is also run by Lockheed Martin.

Back in May, when UT decided to pursue the bid, Chancellor Yudof expressed deep confidence about the system's prospects.

"We wouldn't be entering," he said, "if we didn't think we would be successful."
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#3547 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:44 am

Dad supports son arrested in family's murder

By CAROL CAVAZOS / WFAA ABC 8

FORT WORTH, Texas - The father of the Fort Worth man accused of fatally stabbing his mother and nephew said his son didn't mean to do it and is bipolar.

The attack happened Saturday night in the 4100 block of South Edgewood Terrace, and that was where Lamar Clay Senior said the unimaginable happened.

Clay Sr. lost his wife, lost his grandchild and his son was arrested and sits in the Mansfield Jail on a $1.1 million bond for their murder.

Clay Sr.'s daughter, Clay Jr.'s sister and the mother of the fatally stabbed infant managed to run, escape the attack and call for help.

"Well, I'm here and I'm basically, I am making it," Clay Sr. said. "And I know I'm going to be okay, but this is a tough situation."

Fort Worth police have charged Lamar Clay Junior, 21, with the murder of 46-year-old Charlotte Lollar, the capital murder of 18-month-old Kevyon Lyons and the attempted murder of a family friend, 44-year-old Cheryl Tomlin.

"This is a tough situation that I'm going through right now," Clay Sr. said. "And I know it's going to be okay, but just right now with the situation and the things that have happened, it is real tough."

Despite the pain he feels for the loss of two of his family members, Clay Sr. said he still wants to be there for his son.

"I mean, I love him like I did my wife," he said. "And I'm going to do whatever I need to do to try and help him get the help that he needs."

Clay Sr. said his son has had mental problems and refused to take his medication.

"We had him committed three times...," he said. "Well, they said [he had] bipolar and he had a chemical imbalance. He had been smoking that weed."

While Clay Sr. said he will work to help find mental help for his son, he will also have to find time to heal himself.

"[Charlotte] was the glue that held the family together," he said. "And that's what's hurting me so bad. I don't know what I'm going to do."

Clay Sr. said police took his sons medications when they arrested him.
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#3548 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:46 am

A 'surprise' White Rock winner

Canadian Kortchaguina wins women's race

By DEBBIE FETTERMAN / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Lioudmila Kortchaguina of Canada did more than win Sunday's Dallas White Rock Marathon women's title. She beat the men in the Cooper Complete Challenge, presented by Hummer. She also accomplished her goal of setting a women's race record.

The Russian-born runner won the Rock in 2003, but she wasn't pushed by the field and had no incentive to push herself. Things were drastically different at Sunday's 36th running, which featured more than 10,000 participants in the marathon, the half marathon and a five-person relay.

Kortchaguina, 34, had major money on the line and a pack of elite men chasing her in the inaugural gender challenge. Officials handicapped the men's and women's fields and gave the women a 19-minute, 24-second head start. The first individual to finish earned a $25,000 bonus; also, $12,000 went to the men's and women's champions.

Kortchaguina finished in 2 hours, 30 minutes, 3 seconds – 14:39 slower than men's winner Pavel Andreyev (2:15:24). With the handicap, she beat him by 4:45.

It wasn't easy to capture the $37,000. Kortchaguina trailed runner-up Lyumilda Pushkina through the first 16 miles before finally closing the gap and overtaking her. "I started feeling much better, and I thought I could run much faster," she said. "So I did."

In addition, she knew she had the men to consider. Men's runner-up Moses Kemboi of Kenya had his sights set on overtaking the women as late as Mile 19. Back pain, however, caused him to slow his pace. "My aim," he said, "was to catch the female runners. At 21, I stopped thinking about it."

By Mile 22, his sub-five minute miles had slowed to a 5:30 pace. By Mile 24, Andreyev had overtaken him. Kemboi had to settle for second place and $8,000.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Men's winner: Pavel Andreyev

Age: 35

Born: Russia

Resides: Russia

Time: 2:15:24

Notable: Was considering retiring after this race but said his win will cause him to reconsider.

Women's winner: Lioudmila Kortchaguina

Age: 34

Born: Russia

Resides: Canada

Time: 2:30:03

Notable: Set women's race record, breaking Julie Brown's 1981 time of 2:33:39.
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#3549 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:49 am

Reservists greeted home with tears, hugs

By REBECCA RODRIGUEZ / WFAA ABC 8

FORT WORTH, Texas - A weekend of homecomings for Texas reservists continued during the weekend with a reunion Sunday in Fort Worth.

Reservists from the 301st Fighter Wing wrapped up a tour of duty in Iraq just in time for the holidays.

The welcome home was only minutes away, but it couldn't happen soon enough by the looks of Stacy Sullivan's anxious face. Sullivan was waiting for the return of her boyfriend, Kevin Blodgett.

"I am so excited," she said. "I cannot wait for him to come home. I just want to see him; I just want to see him."

As a plane full of reservists arrived safely from Iraq, the crowd of loved ones cheered and waved welcome home signs.

One by one, the men and women of the 301st Fighter Wing exited the plane and into the arms of loved ones.

"Y'all cry like I'm leaving," said one reservist as she was greeted by her family.

"I am very excited," said her relative Shireana Robinson.

Sullivan waited patiently as she watched loved one reunite around her.

"I told him to sit near the front," she said. "I don't think he listened."

However, it wasn't that much longer that Sullivan spotted her boyfriend.

"I knew he was on that plane," she said as she ran into his arms.

"You have no idea how good it is to be back here," reservist Blodgett said.
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#3550 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:51 am

Gifted programs reaching out

Irving, other districts expand their services for bilingual students

By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH / The Dallas Morning News

IRVING, Texas – Most days, Cathy Earle assigns her 13 students to read several sentences in Latin about the Trojan War. Then they translate them – into Spanish and then English.

Her goal is twofold: challenge them as gifted students but also make these bilingual students at Lee Britain Elementary more fluent in English.

In a district where more than one out of three students has limited English skills, Irving officials have been trying for five years to expand their gifted program to reflect their demographics.

This fall, 27 percent of the district's 1,270 elementary gifted students were also bilingual students, up from about 8 percent in 2000, said Deborah George, director of gifted and talented services.

"Every culture has gifted individuals," said Shelley Wright, director of program development for the bilingual and ESL education program at Southern Methodist University. "One culture does not have a corner on the market."

And last year the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented added a committee to look at such issues.

Rebecca Rendon, chairwoman of the association's dual-language multicultural division, has focused mostly on researching how to identify gifted children in dual-language programs, which, unlike bilingual programs, offer a 50-50 split of learning in English and Spanish in elementary school.

Bilingual programs, on the other hand, are transitional, meaning children begin learning mostly in Spanish in pre-kindergarten and receive more instruction in English every year until they are learning mostly in English by the fifth grade.

Texas Association for Bilingual Education president Leo Gómez has said that dual-language programs are better than bilingual programs at developing child literacy.

But no matter which program the children are in, educators agree that it is more difficult to identify gifted children if they don't speak English well.

In Irving, all kindergartners are screened for the gifted program. In later grades students must be nominated – by a teacher or parent, for example. Ms. George has added nomination forms and information on the gifted program in Spanish to the district's Web site to encourage parents to nominate their children.

Other changes made in recent years to better identify bilingual children as gifted include testing in Spanish, using nonverbal tests and doing portfolio assignments.

Purely bilingual gifted classrooms such as Ms. Earle's are rare. The district usually tries to cluster five to eight gifted children in a classroom mixed with other children and have the teacher give them special assignments.

In Ms. Earle's class, the third-, fourth- and fifth-graders transition easily between English and Spanish, but it's their reading and writing skills that require extra work.

Gustavo Orellana, 10, who emigrated from Honduras a couple of years ago, is more confident with numbers than language skills.

"I love math," Gustavo said. "But I can't read good in English. I'm not good at reading and writing English."

Similarly, his classmate Kenia Rodriguez, 11, lists her favorite subjects as Latin and math and least favorite as reading and writing.

It's not uncommon for students with limited English skills to qualify as gifted in math first.

"In the past I would notice sometimes a child would be so good with math but their language would be nil," said Jackie Swan, a fourth-grade bilingual teacher at Lively Elementary. "I would say, 'Is this child gifted or not?' "

Ms. Earle said she makes students do lots of writing and rewriting in both languages in addition to group work and critical thinking exercises. That helps as they advance to the district's gifted program taught solely in English, which is difficult if they haven't mastered the language.

"There is a gap, and that's our job as teachers to address that," Ms. George said.

Gail Johnstone, a first-grade bilingual teacher at Gilbert Elementary, said that in her 14 years of teaching in the district, attitudes have changed about classifying such children.

"People would say why identify them if we don't have programs for them," she said. "I really think that prejudice or perception isn't hanging around with us anymore."

She said it can be difficult for children to continue to receive gifted instruction if they do not leave the bilingual program by the third grade. That's because the district has fewer bilingual teachers in the upper elementary grades with training in gifted instruction, Ms. George said.

In Irving, Ms. George has worked on educating more bilingual teachers on how to identify children and encouraged more of them to train in gifted education. Rules require at least 30 hours of professional development in gifted services to teach such children.

This fall, 60 of the district's 160 elementary teachers with gifted training were bilingual teachers.

More Hispanic parents are learning about the program, too.

Liliana Salinas Wright, who grew up in Mexico and has taught a gifted bilingual class in Irving, researched the challenges in identifying bilingual gifted children as part of her master's degree.

Her interest in the topic developed after her struggle to get her two daughters identified as gifted. Her oldest daughter, who was classified as gifted in the fifth grade, is now an SMU student.

"My oldest daughter was tested for GT in pre-kindergarten, and they never got back to me," she said.

"My message is, don't deny services to my child because of language issues."
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#3551 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:10 am

Garland police hunt for hit-and-run driver

GARLAND, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Garland police are looking for a driver allegedly involved in a deadly crash overnight which took place near Walnut Street and Jupiter Road.

The driver was reported to have the fled the scene of the crash which killed one man.

The vehicle flipped into a creek near Walnut Street and Jupiter Road, just before 2:00 a.m. this morning.

A woman walked into a police station to report the crash.

She says she and the dead man, identified as Tien Huynhe, were passengers and the driver fled the scene.
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#3552 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Dec 12, 2005 4:45 pm

Six injured in Carrollton rollover accident

By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) -- The White Rock Marathon turned into a wedding for two Dallas-area runners.

Ken Ashby and Linda Kelley were in their running gear when they tied the knot yesterday just past Mile 19.

About 40 other friends -- mainly runners -- were on hand for the ten-minute ceremony along the route that rings White Rock Lake.

Minister and runner Tim Epting officiated.

Ashby ran the first part of the marathon, stopped to get married, then he was joined in the final seven-point-two miles by his veil-wearing bride.

The finish line served a the threshold for the newlyweds, as Ashby picked up Kelley and dashed across to end their ... run for love.
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#3553 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Dec 12, 2005 4:46 pm

Dallas man faces year in jail for kitten abuse

By ROBERT THARP / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - A 33-year-old man who abused kittens in the front yard of his Old East Dallas home was sentenced to one year in jail Monday.

Witnesses said Edward Pinales was throwing the approximately 10-week-old kittens against a concrete drainage ditch in the 4600 block of Manet Street before he was arrested in April 2005.

"He took those kittens and slammed them on the concrete in an effort to kill them,’’ said prosecutor Nancy Mulder.

According to court testimony, Mr. Pinales, a self-described member of a street gang, threatened the neighbor for calling police.

"This defendant is dangerous to the community and any animals he might come in contact with," Ms. Mulder said.

Mr. Pinales pleaded guilty to charges of retaliation and animal cruelty. A district judge sentenced him to five years' probation for the retaliation charge, and one year in a state jail facility for the animal cruelty charge. He was also fined $500.

Animal control officers seized four kittens and two adult cats. Witnesses said Mr. Pinales killed one kitten, but officers were unable to find it.

The adult cats were euthanized, because animal control workers determined they were too unsocialized to be adopted. The four remaining kittens were later adopted.
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#3554 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Dec 12, 2005 4:47 pm

Woman arrested over Garland crash

GARLAND, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A woman who walked into the Garland police station early Monday morning to report a crash has been arrested after admitting she was the car's driver.

Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said around 2 a.m., the woman led officers to a creek near Walnut Street and Jupiter Road, where they located an overturned vehicle and found one man dead inside.

The woman told officers she and the dead man, identified as Tien Huynhe, were passengers, and the male driver fled the scene.

Several hours later, the woman told police she was actually driving, and made up the name of the alleged male driver, Harn said. He said the woman will be charged in connection with the accident.
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#3555 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Dec 12, 2005 4:49 pm

Mercantile tower lights up tonight

By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Downtown Dallas' long-vacant Mercantile Bank complex will be reborn Monday night, as business and government officials are scheduled to celebrate the beginning of its conversion from a shuttered former office building to a bustling retail and residential center.

If you look skyward sometime after 6 p.m., organizers are promising a light show of sorts on the building's site, although they've declined to publicly offer details.

"It'll be something else," said David Levey, executive vice president of Forest City Enterprises, the Cleveland-based developer that's coordinating the quarter-billion-dollar project.

Mr. Levey, along with Mayor Laura Miller and City Council member Angela Hunt, toured the Mercantile this afternoon in preparation for tonight's festivities.

Currently, the complex is cold and dark. Shattered light bulbs and Dr Pepper cans litter its marble floors, and most everything is covered in a thin layer of dust.

The only signs of life in the World War II-era complex - inside which thousands of people once worked - are the gnaw marks of animals and the frozen faces of people depicted in ornate murals set into the complex's walls. How to remove the artwork before Forest City begins demolishing three of the four buildings is of particular concern to some city officials, who rank it among the finest collections of its kind citywide.

While details haven't yet been solidified, Ms. Miller said downtown developers are welcome to take the art so long as they pay for its extraction and removal, then use it within their own projects.

Ms. Hunt added that the city will also consider allowing private art connoisseurs access to the pieces, although "that's a last resort -- better than having it destroyed."

Forest City has promised $20,000 toward preserving the artwork, and Dallas government has offered $12,000. Ms. Hunt said she'll use $2,000 from her campaign fund to commission an extraction study by a professional art conservator, but one cost estimate by an architecture firm put the removal cost at more than $200,000.

Built in 1942, the main Mercantile clock tower will live on as an apartment complex. Forest City plans to tear down the three smaller buildings, constructed between 1949 and 1972, to make way for a new apartment tower. Retail space will ring the block, which is bounded by Main, Ervay, Commerce and St. Paul streets.

Mr. Levey expects construction to last between 18 and 24 months. Forest City is also converting the Continental Building across Commerce Street into condominiums, and the former Atmos Energy office complex nearby into either apartments or condominiums.

Earlier this year, the council authorized about $70 million in public incentives to Forest City to spring the project. Several previous attempts to redevelop the Mercantile complex failed.

Without the Mercantile's redevelopment, "fully half of downtown would not be able to develop the way we wanted it to," Ms. Miller said. "It will bring an entirely new feel to downtown Dallas. This had to be done."
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#3556 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Dec 12, 2005 4:52 pm

Stabbings in Fort Worth shatter family

Fort Worth: Relatives say man charged in deaths of mom, baby is bipolar

By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News

FORT WORTH, Texas - In a matter of minutes, Lamar Clay's family was forever changed.

His wife and 1-year-old grandson were fatally stabbed Saturday night in the family home in the 4100 block of South Edgewood Terrace in Fort Worth. A third family member suffered stab wounds and was hospitalized.

Mr. Clay's son, Lamar Clay Jr., 21, is charged with the stabbings and was being held Sunday at the Mansfield jail in lieu of $1.1 million bail.

Fort Worth police said Lamar Clay Jr. stabbed his mother, 46-year-old Charlotte Lollar, in the living room. Police said the man then attacked his sister, who was holding her 1-year-old son at the time, and an aunt. Ms. Lollar died at the scene, and the infant, Keviyon Lyons, died later.

The aunt, 44-year-old Cheryl Tomlin, sustained stab and defense wounds and was in fair condition Sunday at John Peter Smith Hospital.

The sister, whose name was not released, was not injured, police said.

Lamar Clay Sr. said he is in a difficult position.

"This is a tough situation that I'm going through right now, and I know it's going to be OK, but just right now with the situation and the things that has happened, it's really tough," he said.

Lamar Clay Sr.'s brother said the Fort Worth man was grappling with the fallout.

"He's not holding up too good," Joe Clay said. "He just lost three people: his wife, his grandbaby and his son. It's not good."

Police said Sunday they had not determined a motive in the stabbings. But relatives said Lamar Clay Jr. is bipolar and had not taken his medications for several months.

"It's a terrible thing that happened, but I can't say that I'm mad at him," Joe Clay said. "He had bipolar, and I believe that is the reason for this."

Joe Clay said the stabbings sent shock waves through the family.

"He had a small problem, but not a problem that you would ever think would get to this magnitude, that would ever come to this," he said.

He described Ms. Lollar as a kind woman who was a warm wife and mother. "She was a loving person. I loved her. And I love my nephew also. I loved both of them."

He said his niece, the mother of the 1-year-old, was grief-stricken. "She's not doing too good at all. She just lost her baby. That's the only one she had."

WFAA reporter Carol Cavazos contributed to this report.
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#3557 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Dec 12, 2005 9:46 pm

Death steps up fight for school zone

By BRAD HAWKINS / WFAA ABC 8

PILOT POINT, Texas - The location of a new Pilot Point school has proven dangerous after one student was fatally struck by a car Friday and another was injured months earlier in the same area.

Many parents in Pilot Point said there needs to be an expanded school zone to protect the safety of the children.

Eight-year-old Justin Lock never made it home after school Friday afternoon after he was struck by a car.

Lock and a group of friends were walking down US Highway 377 when a driver who was not speeding could not stop in time to avoid the child who darted into the road.

"There was nothing the gentleman driving the vehicle could have done to avoid it," said Chief James Edland, Pilot Point Police Department. "I have looked at it and looked at it, we talked to all the witnesses [and] he couldn't have done anything to avoid it."

Doctors at Children Medical Center of Dallas could not save Lock and removed him life support on Saturday.

The accident was the second car run-in with a child in the same area. An 8-year-old girl was hit and injured just off the same highway where the city has posted several new school zones.

"My heart dropped because that could have been my high school child also," said Tammy Beaty, a Pilot Point parent.

Beaty said she and many other parents cannot understand why more than four months after Pilot Point Intermediate School opened near the highway the school hasn't added a new school zone.

"Because Washington is considered a highway, they are the only ones who can change it," Beaty said. "They have told us no twice."

Grief counselors and clergy were on the campus Monday to help students and parents. Police stepped up after student patrols and the superintendent and a volunteer escorted students across the highway.

"Everybody has to be careful and watch where they are going and look out for the kids," Chief Edland said.

A letter was written to TxDOT in late September to begin the process of creating a school zone and there had been a discussion about the dangers last week.
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#3558 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Dec 12, 2005 9:47 pm

Teens thrown from overturned truck

By MARY ANN RAZZUK / WFAA ABC 8

CARROLLTON, Texas - Six people were rushed to hospitals after several teens were ejected from the bed of a truck Monday afternoon when it overturned behind R.L. Turner High School in the 1700 block of Cox Street in Carrollton.

Eight people were riding in the bed of the truck when Carrollton police said the truck overturned and slid roughly 60-feet.

"A preliminary investigation indicates the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed, the driver lost control and the vehicle flipped over," said Sgt. Patrick Murphy, a Carrollton officer.

Sedric Flood, a Carrollton resident, said when he rushed to the scene he saw several young people sprawled in the street in front of his house near the high school.

"I heard a big boom, and then it sounded like something was being drug down the street where the truck was sliding," Flood said. "...My daughter said she knew one of the guys, and he was on the wrestling team."

Four of the injured were being treated at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas where officials said the injured were ages 14 and 15-years-old.

R.L. Turner High School officials also rushed to the scene to determine if the people injured were students from their school.

"We don't have any confirmation, other than what the school has told us, that they were students coming down here to the field house," said Asst. Supt. Bobby Burns, Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District.

No information has yet been released on the condition or the identity of the injured.
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#3559 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Dec 12, 2005 9:51 pm

Mercantile tower lights up

By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - They counted down in unison. At zero, they roared. Confetti fluttered above and the beautiful people below in beautiful clothes hugged each other and refilled their empty glasses.

It wasn’t New Year’s, but a new era. No glowing ball dropped down from a skyscraper, but a skyscraper once threatened with the wrecking ball lit up.

After all, downtown’s Mercantile Bank complex has spent a generation empty and crumbling away right there on Main Street Dallas, a 33-story monument to urban decay. So a party to celebrate its rebirth this week as a retail and 400-unit residential center seemed fitting.

“This is the most important, last bowling pin to fall,” said Mayor Laura Miller, perched on Main Street’s Davis Building several blocks away for an unobstructed view of the Mercantile’s clock tower.

Floodlights cast the building’s body in bright white, while its spire glowed in red and green – the first time in 17 years, city officials said. With dignitaries’ flip of a cartoonish switch, Dallas’ goal of revitalizing its downtown became markedly more attainable.

“It’s remarkable to me for us to be on this roof looking at that building and being able to save it,” Ms. Miller said.

The only signs of life in the World War II-era complex – inside which thousands of people once worked – are the gnaw marks of animals and the frozen faces of people depicted in ornate murals set into the complex's walls. How to remove the artwork before Forest City Enterprises, the Cleveland-based developer that's coordinating the quarter-billion-dollar project, begins demolishing three of the four buildings is of particular concern to some city officials.

While details haven't yet been solidified, Ms. Miller said downtown developers are welcome to take the art so long as they pay for its extraction and removal, then use it within their own projects.

City Council member Angela Hunt added that the city will also consider allowing private art connoisseurs access to the pieces, although "that's a last resort – better than having it destroyed."

Forest City has promised $20,000 toward preserving the artwork, and Dallas government has offered $12,000. Ms. Hunt said she'll use $2,000 from her campaign fund to commission an extraction study by a professional art conservator, but one cost estimate by an architecture firm put the removal cost at more than $200,000.

Built in 1942, the main Mercantile clock tower will live on as an apartment complex. Forest City plans to tear down the three smaller buildings, constructed between 1949 and 1972, to make way for a new apartment tower. Retail space will ring the block, which is bounded by Main, Ervay, Commerce and St. Paul streets.

Forest City developer David Levey expects construction to last between 18 and 24 months. Forest City is also converting the Continental Building across Commerce Street into condominiums, and the former Atmos Energy office complex nearby into either apartments or condominiums.

Earlier this year, the council authorized about $70 million in public incentives to Forest City to spring the project. Several previous attempts to redevelop the Mercantile complex failed.

Without the Mercantile's redevelopment, "fully half of downtown would not be able to develop the way we wanted it to," Ms. Miller said. "It will bring an entirely new feel to downtown Dallas. This had to be done."
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#3560 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:52 am

Student remains hospitalized after truck overturns

CARROLLTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - One R.L. Turner High School student remains hospitalized and was in surgery late Monday night after several teens were ejected from the bed of a truck after it overturned behind the school in the 1700 block of Cox Street in Carrollton.

Six of the eight passengers were riding in the bed of the truck during the afternoon when Carrollton police said it flipped and slid roughly 60-feet. Seven of the passengers were rushed to hospitals.

Sedric Flood, a Carrollton resident, said when he rushed to the scene he saw several young people sprawled in the street in front of his house near the high school.

"I heard a big boom, and then it sounded like something was being drug down the street where the truck was sliding," Flood said. "...My daughter said she knew one of the guys, and he was on the wrestling team."

Juan Rangel, 14, said he knows he is lucky to be alive after the accident because he was among those in the back when it flipped.

"We hit the curb...I flipped and I just blacked out," he said. "And then all I heard was a loud scratch going on down the road."

The R.L. Turner High School football players and wrestlers were headed to the field house, which is blocks from the school campus.

Police said the 17-year-old driver lost control because of speed.

"He was swerving like that and hit a curb I guess," Rangel said. "And klunk, like that and the car tilted and we all fell out of the car."

Rangel said he believes the driver was swerving for fun. However, what bus driver Tommy Burns said he saw from the sidewalk wasn't fun.

"Just flipping, everything [was] just flipping," he said. "[I saw] kids in my vision, in my face and everywhere."

Under state law, no one under 18 can ride in the back of a truck on a public street.

Rangel's mother said after her fear dissolved to relief, she set her son straight.

"I had no idea he was riding in the back of a pickup," said Misty Rangel. "But he will not be doing that again."

Carrollton police and the school district are continuing their investigation.

WFAA-TV reporters Mary Ann Razzuk and Brad Watson contributed to this story.
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