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#4421 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:59 pm

Police ask for help to ID murder suspect

DALLAS, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) - Police are seeking the public’s help to identify a suspect in the January murder of a 28-year-old Dallas man.

Carlos Casanova, Jr. was shot multiple times around 3:30 p.m. Jan. 20 in the 1000 block of Gallagher Street in West Dallas.

After leaving the scene on foot, the suspect escaped in a vehicle that was parked nearby at Winnetka Avenue and Shaw Street. Police said another man was waiting in the vehicle.

The suspect is described as a Hispanic male in his 20s, five feet, six or seven inches tall with a thin build. He has light skin with short dark hair, sideburns and a birthmark or scar under his right eye.

Anyone with any information regarding the identity of this suspect is asked to call 214-671-3661.
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#4422 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:45 pm

Lewisville official uses cafe to test smoking ban

By KARIN KELLY / WFAA ABC 8

LEWISVILLE, Texas - Greg Tierney's jobs as mayor pro tem of Lewisville and restaurant owner may effect resident smokers.

He decided to use his restaurant, Mill Street Cafe, as a testing ground for the hot issue if smokers should light up or not while eating out.

Tierney banned smoking in his 30-year-old restaurant after frequent complaints by non-smokers.

"I think people when they go out to eat have a right to breathe clean air," he said.

However, Tierney isn't just fighting the battle in his own restaurant. He also brought the battle to his other job at city hall.

"Our little cafe is kind of a testing ground for the City of Lewisville and I'm all ears," he said.

The Texas Dept of Health said 238 Texas cities have enacted some sort of anti- smoking ordinance. El Paso and Austin have even enacted what health officials call the gold standard, which bans smoking everywhere indoors but in a home.

In some cases, it isn't only non-smokers who agree with the cafe's non-smoking policy.

"If people want to make a big deal and not come here anymore it's their loss," said smoker Sharon Barford.

However, there are those non-smokers who disagree.

"I think it's an infringement on people's rights," said non-smoker Patricia Sanders.

One Lewisville competitor called Tierney and thanked him for the new smoking customers, but in the long run he said he believes it will be better for his business and his health.

"I believe within 10 years 90 percent of the country will be non-smoking," he said.
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#4423 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:45 pm

Two children hurt in Arlington traffic crash

ARLINGTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Two children have been hurt in a traffic accident in Arlington.

The accident occurred near the Cooper and Sublett Road junction, just before 5:00 p.m.

One child was taken to hospital by ambulance, while the other was taken to the hospital by CareFlite.

There is no word yet on the extent of the injuries or what caused the accident.
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#4424 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:47 pm

Online puppy sales lead to problems

By JEFF BRADY / WFAA ABC 8

GRANBURY, Texas - Laurell Hand has 19 purebred yellow labs at her home in Granbury, plus a litter of puppies.

She's an A-K-C registered breeder of champions, and she sells her dogs on-line.

"My website has been up for 7 years, and in that time, my sales have increased dramatically!" says Hand.

For $800, the Hands will sell a purebred puppy like this one to just about anyone, anywhere... the dog goes on a plane for delivery, with a lifetime guarantee. And by now, about 95 percent of this kennel's sales involve the internet.

"Each time you hit on one, it takes you to her pedigree," says Hand of her website.

On the website - the kennel can advertise, answer questions and follow up with customers.

Natalie Snowden recently used the internet to find a Yorkshire puppy. She paid $1,600 but was very disappointed with the dog on arrival.

"And I said, 'this isn't my dog!' They sent me the wrong dog," said Natalie Snowden.

The terrier needed major surgery.

She couldn't return the dog or get a refund from the website Anypets.com.

"Now imagine a little 12-week-old puppy, that's about half this size being shipped in cargo. It's just too stressful on them," said Betty Grubbs, a Yorkshire breeder.

Betty Grubbs breeds purebred Yorkshire Terriers at her kennel near McKinney. She does not run a website, and says she never will.

"I think it's a horrible idea... and the reason I think it's a horrible idea is that breeders should see who they're selling to... they should meet the people," she says.

In the end, it's up to each breeder and buyer to decide on the transaction.

Whether picking a puppy in person or using point-and-click.
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#4425 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:11 am

Probe looks at salon accused of fatal pedicure

By BRAD WATSON / WFAA ABC 8

State inspectors said they will now investigate the Fort Worth salon where Kimberly Jackson received a pedicure that News 8 reported her family believes resulted in her Feb. 12 death.

The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation said it will inspect the Angel Nails salon in the 6200 block of Mccart Avenue, which according to friend and neighbor Patricia Mathis Jackson regularly visited.

"...I asked her myself if this was just a salon that you picked [or] was this a first time visit, and she said no this was a place that she had been using for a long time," Mathis said.

The JPS Health Network doctor who signed her death certificate listed the cause as a heart attack from a blood infection brought on by a staph infection on her foot.

Mathis filed a complaint with the state after her friend's death, which Mathis and others said they believe was caused after her foot was bathed in a whirlpool spa.

Jackson's bank records showed she last made a check card purchase at Angel Nails July 5, and while state records indicate there are 22 salons named Angel Nails in Texas, there was but just one in Fort Worth on Mccart Avenue.

Mathis said Jackson, who was a paraplegic, told her she went to the salon for a pedicure and put her feet in a whirlpool foot spa while seated in her wheelchair.

Spas, such as the one Jackson used, can breed bacteria if not disinfected correctly, and Mathis said on Jackson's visit the nail technician drew blood with a pumice stone.

"She left the salon with an open cut on her foot," she said.

A doctor and nurse at a JPS clinic started treating Jackson in early August for infected sores on her feet, and records read the "patient thinks these may be related to rubbing during pedicure."

The owner of Angel Nails wasn't in, but a nail technician who said she worked at the location two years said they don't recall ever seeing Jackson and claimed they run a sanitary salon.

"We're very clean here so I don't think she would get infected," said Kim Chi Do, the Nail technician.
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#4426 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:20 am

Procedure said to rid wrinkles by growing skin

By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA ABC 8

An innovative anti-aging technology only available two places in North Texas is said to erase wrinkles and smooth the skin's surface with no knives, needles or pain.

Doctors say plasma technology carries virtually no chance of permanent skin discoloration, works on people of color and runs between $1,000 to $4,000 depending on the level of treatment needed.

"It looks great," said patient Kimber McJunkin after a treatment. "I mean, it's not bleeding at all."

Rather than using light or chemicals, the newly FDA approved Portrait Skin Regeneration uses highly energized nitrogen plasma gas to regenerate skin.

Each millisecond pulse produces heat below the skin's surface that prompts new tissue tightening collagen to form, which is exactly what patient Jennifer Simonsen said she is looking for.

"...Gravity is beginning and I'd like to see that tighten up a bit and I'd like to see my complexion even out," Simonsen said.

Dr. Michael Maris said plasma technology is different from other anti-aging treatments and can help patients like Simonsen.

"Especially the lasers tend to just vaporize the surface, and they leave them raw so that you've got this bad wound that you have to deal with," Maris said of other procedures.

Maris said plasma leaves the skin's surface intact, which speeds healing and patients typically only need a mild anesthetic creme.

The entire process takes about half an hour, often requires only one treatment and Maris said takes a weekend to heal with usually a small amount of discoloration he compared to a sunburn.

Two weeks ago McJunkin had crow's feet and lip lines, but now she said she has seen a difference since she went through the procedure.

"There's a lot less lines all through here this area, a lot less" she said. "...I'm thrilled, I'm thrilled. And the fact that it didn't hurt, I would go back and do it again."

If plasma works like clinical studies show, her skin will continue to improve over time and 40-something-year-olds won't need another cosmetic treatment for years.
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#4427 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:25 am

Priest accused of abuse in Fort Worth Diocese is suspended

Catholic officials change course on cleric in molestation inquiry

By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News

FORT WORTH, Texas - Catholic Church officials have reversed course and suspended a priest who is accused of molesting at least three girls and three young women in the Fort Worth Diocese.

The Rev. Joseph Tu – cited as an example of U.S. bishops' failure to fully enforce "zero tolerance" discipline reforms – is on leave while his superiors investigate the latest child abuse allegation to come to light.

"Father Tu continues to deny the allegations, and this is not an admission of guilt," Galveston-Houston Archdiocese spokeswoman Annette Gonzales Taylor said Monday. She said that his religious order, the Dominicans, made the suspension after hearing concerns from her boss, Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza.

Father Tu has been working in a Houston parish since leaving Fort Worth in 1994, after molestation allegations got him sent to a treatment center and diagnosed with "a very underdeveloped psycho-sexual personality."

The priest answered the phone Monday at Holy Rosary Church and referred a reporter to Regina Wedig, a Louisiana attorney who represents him and the Dominicans. She said that the order's policy provides for suspension while abuse allegations are investigated.

"We have no information that this was ever reported or investigated" before, she said.

But the woman making the allegation said church officials have known about it since 1977, when she was 13 or 14. She said that Father Tu, against her instructions, visited her Arlington home and fondled her breasts.

She said she reported the incident promptly to her mother, who then alerted another priest. Soon, she said, church officials sent Father Tu to Iowa.

Fort Worth diocesan records say that he was in Iowa from 1977 to 1979 for a "study leave."

Ms. Wedig cautioned: "I don't think it's proper to say that he was sent. He went off to finish his master's in theology."

The accuser was pleased Monday when told that Father Tu had been suspended.

She said she had been feeling "a bit defeated" by the sense that church officials were discounting her story.

Two weeks ago, the woman and other accusers asked a Tarrant County judge to unseal records of abuse allegations against Father Tu and six other priests who worked in the Fort Worth Diocese.

State District Judge Len Wade agreed Thursday to release some records, which the diocese had surrendered during litigation with alleged victims of another priest.

Judge Wade oversaw that litigation and initially sealed the records at church officials' request, prompting a legal challenge from The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Church officials are expected to appeal his unsealing order, which doesn't apply to Father Tu. Judge Wade said he needed more time to evaluate assertions, made by another attorney for the priest, that the records don't contain abuse allegations.

That attorney, H. Allen Pennington, said the records describe only the kissing of two other girls. The U.S. bishops' reforms, adopted in Dallas in 2002, don't define whether such behavior is sexually abusive.

Ms. Gonzales Taylor, the Galveston-Houston archdiocesan spokeswoman, said this month that Archbishop Fiorenza was leaving Father Tu on duty while waiting for the Dominican order to investigate the latest child abuse allegation.

The archbishop typically leaves accused priests on duty in such circumstances unless the alleged abuse occurred recently, the spokeswoman said then. Father Tu, she said, has not been accused of sexual misconduct by any Houston parishioners.

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said that bishops around the country are suspending priests only when there's public pressure.

"The most fundamental promise the bishops made – to quickly remove accused priests – has been broken," he said. A national spokesman for the bishops recently told The News that they were aggressively enforcing the 2002 reforms. More than 700 priests have been removed from ministry since then, he said.
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#4428 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:26 am

ACS: Bribery allegations won't hinder parking collections

Dallas: Suhm 'satisfied' with company facing accusations in Canada

By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Affiliated Computer Services, the contractor that manages Dallas' parking meter and fine collections, says bribery allegations the company is facing in Canada have no bearing on its work locally.

"I want to personally assure you that the company is taking this matter very seriously," Michael Huerta, ACS senior vice president and managing director for transportation solutions, wrote Monday to Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm. "ACS requires the highest standards of ethics of all of its 55,000 employees, and we are troubled to hear of any alleged violation of ethical principles or legal requirements."

Canadian court documents allege that ACS gave "secret commissions," including free trips, to two Edmonton, Alberta, police officers who helped broker a $90 million contract with the company for photo radar and red-light camera services.

Said Ms. Suhm: "Thus far, they are fulfilling their responsibilities to us. I'm satisfied with their work now. It will be incumbent on us to keep an eye on that contract."

ACS is expected to bid on the city's own red-light camera system, which is slated for installation this year, Ms. Suhm said.

ACS' legal troubles come as Ms. Suhm and the company take new steps to address Dallas' parking ticket collection woes, which follow a Dallas Morning News report revealing that as of November, businesses and individuals owed the city more than $40 million in parking fines from nearly 1 million outstanding tickets and late fees.

Dallas is immediately doubling its staff of "boot officers" from two to four.

These employees are responsible for placing metal boots on the wheels of vehicles with at least several outstanding parking tickets, thereby disabling them until vehicle owners pay their debts.

The city has also ordered 14 new boots – 10 for passenger vehicles and four for larger, commercial vehicles, Ms. Suhm said.

By March 20, ACS will send notices to all parking ticket accounts in collection status with a balance of $100 or more. If debtors don't pay within 30 days, Dallas-based ACS will report the nonpayment to credit bureaus, which could lead to a credit rating reduction.

Last week, Ms. Suhm announced the creation of a task force, led by Assistant City Manager Tommy Gonzalez, to address Dallas' parking management problems.

"These are good initial steps. I suspect there are more to come," said Linda Koop, chairwoman of the City Council's transportation and environment committee.

Dallas hired ACS in July, supplanting the city of Inglewood, Calif. Officials here said Inglewood didn't have the technology to adequately manage Dallas' parking collection needs.

Ms. Suhm reported Monday evening in a memorandum to the council that ACS' collection rate since winning the contract has "exceeded contractual expectations" and is on pace to generate $8.73 million in revenue this year.

Dallas would receive the first $5.9 million in revenue, with ACS collecting the next $2.5 million, according to its contract. Any money collected beyond $8.4 million is shared, with Dallas receiving 80 percent to 88 percent, depending on the amount.

In his letter to Ms. Suhm, Mr. Huerta said the allegations in Canada "are not the way ACS does business ... allow me to also assure you that the Canadian subsidiary has no involvement in our contract with the City of Dallas."

Ms. Suhm's memorandum to the council Monday stated that her staff "will continue to monitor developments within ACS, just as we do with other contracting partners, to assure that the interests of the City of Dallas are safeguarded."

ACS had no comment beyond the letter the company sent to Ms. Suhm on Monday, spokesman Joe Barrett said.

"To cast aspersion over the whole company for something that happened in Canada ... seems a bit off the wall," said council member Bill Blaydes, who serves on the council's transportation and environment committee and worked for ACS early in his professional career. "I'm not concerned about doing business with ACS, but I'd be very watchful."
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#4429 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:27 am

Man sought in Dallas shooting arrested near Seattle

SEATTLE, Wash./DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) – A Hurricane Katrina evacuee accused of fatally shooting a man in Texas was arrested Monday in the Seattle area, the U.S. Marshals Service said.

Officers arrested Derrick J. Moffett, 31, of New Orleans, in a drug store parking lot after following a vehicle driven by his sister.

Dallas authorities allege Moffett shot a man named Kelly Burke, whose age and hometown could not immediately be verified, seven times on Feb. 6 in front of Burke's girlfriend and the couple's newborn child.

After issuing an arrest warrant for Moffett, Dallas police learned he had a relative in the Seattle area and asked the Pacific Northwest Fugitive Apprehension Task Force for help on the case.

Task force investigators set up surveillance on a home in the Burien area, south of Seattle, then arrested Moffett around 1 p.m. Monday after verifying that he was a passenger in the vehicle his sister was driving.

Moffett, who authorities said was on parole in Louisiana for a previous manslaughter conviction, was being held in the King County Jail pending extradition to Texas.

The Pacific Northwest Fugitive Apprehension Task Force includes investigators from the King County Sheriff's Office, the Seattle Police Department, the state Department of Corrections, the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service.
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#4430 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:28 am

Lotto Texas bonus ball is dropped

By LIZ AUSTIN / Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (The Dallas Morning News/AP) – Everything old is new again at the Texas lottery, where commissioners voted Monday to ditch the unpopular Lotto Texas bonus ball and return to the style abandoned three years ago because of sagging sales.

Starting in late April, players will choose six numbers between 1 and 54 rather than five numbers between 1 and 44 and one bonus ball from 1 to 44. That will return the odds of winning the jackpot to 1 in 25.8 million, down from 1 in 47.8 million with the bonus ball.

Already sluggish sales fell even more after the bonus ball was added, lottery staff said. So far this fiscal year, a higher percentage of ticket sales have gone to the twice-daily Pick 3 game than to Lotto Texas, which once was by far the state's highest-selling online game, commission chairman C. Thomas Clowe said.

"I think the handwriting's on the wall," Mr. Clowe said. "We've got to do what we can."

Mr. Clowe blamed several factors for the decline in sales, from the growing popularity of Internet gambling to the prevalence of casinos in nearby states. Players also are increasingly drawn to the huge jackpots offered by Mega Millions and Powerball, he said, and are less likely to play for smaller prizes.

In an effort to build big jackpots more quickly – and therefore sell more tickets – the commission will devote a higher percentage of sales to the top prize and pay less to winners matching three, four or five numbers than it did in the old game involving 54 numbers. For example, players matching three of six numbers will win $3 rather than $5.

Lottery watchdog Dawn Nettles opposed the changes adopted Monday, saying that style of play already failed to draw customers and would fail again.

The two-man commission discussed the issue for more than four hours, debating a variety of proposals, including the lottery's original form when players chose six numbers from 1 to 50. That setup would return more money, but that would happen at the expense of the Foundation School Fund, where revenues from lottery games go.
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#4431 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:55 am

Aircraft misses runway in Plano

PLANO, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - An aircraft flying a banner has veered off the runway at Dallas Air Park in Plano after making an emergency landing.

The aircraft is still intact and no injuries were reported.

A cross wind caught the banner as the plane was landing, forcing it off the runway.

The plane's engine stalled after take-off from Dallas Executive Airport.

Firefighters are at Dallas Air Park, located at West Park Blvd and Dallas Parkway.
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#4432 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:59 am

'I just want to wake up and not hurt tomorrow'

2 men who lost so much in fatal crash trying to get on with their lives

By DOUG J. SWANSON and GREGG JONES / The Dallas Morning News

At this stage of his recovery, Mike Martin can confront almost anything but the TV shows his children might have watched.

He has come to accept the stares and whispers he attracts in restaurants. Two months ago he forced himself to look at horrifying police photos from the scene of his family's destruction. He no longer follows blue Ford Expeditions driven by women who resemble his dead wife.

But the remaking of his life still has its traps. "I'm like a freak at the circus," he said. "I'm the guy who lost his whole family."

On Sept. 20, 2004, an 18-wheeler crossed a North Texas highway median and killed Mr. Martin's wife, three sons and mother-in-law. Five men in another vehicle also died.

Since then, Mr. Martin has tried to piece his life together by willing himself through each day with the language of emotional combat.

"You have to be a victor, not a victim," he said, sipping a Coke at his kitchen table. "I have to get up every day and do battle. ... As hard as it is, you've got to stand up and face it."

But no cartoons.

"If you want to see me completely lose my mind," he said, "put me in a room and make me watch cartoons."

And no asking himself why his loved ones had to be in that terrible spot at that deadly instant. If they had come along 10 seconds earlier or later, they would have been spared.

A dropped toy would have saved them. A single pause – another changing of a diaper, one more wiping of a child's nose – would have brought them home safely.

"I cannot let my mind go to those places," he said. "I can't let my mind go to 'why?' The few times I have gone there, it's a dark place. It's a bad place."

Mr. Martin, 38, lives alone now in the Collin County town of Prosper. He has salt-and-pepper hair and the self-consciousness of someone who has become accustomed to being studied. "People meet me," he said, "and they don't know what to say."

A building contractor, he is remodeling the house where he lives. He keeps a weight bench in the undecorated living room. The occasional conversation echoes off the bare, newly painted walls.

When there's no one around, the television stays on because he can't stand the silence. He sometimes piles his clean laundry on his bed so it won't seem so empty at night.

On the day of the crash, Mr. Martin was working on another house, this one intended to be his family's home. He had said goodbye to them that afternoon, when they left the small town of Tom Bean. They went to Sherman to buy two children's bicycles.

His wife, Lisa, 32, drove their 2000 blue Ford Expedition. His mother-in-law, Betsy Wood, 70, sat beside her. Four-year-old Chance sat in the back with Brock, 2, and Reid, 2 months, all of them in child-restraint seats.

Just before 4:30 p.m., a northbound truck driven by Miroslaw Jozwiak crossed the median on U.S. Highway 75. It hit the southbound Expedition and a Ford pickup carrying seven roofers.

Mr. Martin felt no initial apprehension when his family did not arrive home on time. His worried father-in-law, hearing news reports about the collision, called him. Mr. Martin tried to phone his wife but got no answer.

Still, he stayed calm. "Lisa was always letting the battery go dead on her cellphone," he said.

But later that evening, "something came over me." He drove toward the scene of the crash, his dread building. "I started praying, 'Beat up, burned up, torn up, I just want somebody alive,' " he said.

The closer he got, the more his hopes evaporated. "I just knew," he said. "I just knew they were all gone."

He reached the site to see his wife's car on its side, a charred hulk in the bright white of the emergency lights. He could smell diesel fuel and burned flesh. "I looked over," he said, "and they were cutting Lisa out of the car."

For several hours, Mr. Martin said, he maintained his composure, talking to police and relatives. Then, back at his house, he collapsed.

"I lay down on the bed, and it broke," he said, referring to his pent-up emotions. "I told my mom, 'I have nothing to live for. I want to die.' I was praying to die."

But he awoke the next morning, he said, with a purpose: to keep going. "I woke up just before 6, ready to go, ready to fight," he said. "God came and comforted me that night."

He sold the house he was building for his family. And he disposed of most of his wife's and children's possessions. "I couldn't sleep on the beds," he said. "I couldn't sit on the furniture. I just couldn't do it."

Such actions didn't banish his thoughts. They just made them easier to take. "I know what death feels like. I know what death looks like," Mr. Martin said. "It's a companion."

In northwest Dallas, at an apartment complex near Love Field, another victim of that day tries to rebuild his life.

Javier Esparza, 23, lost most of his right leg. He was one of seven roofers, all from the same Mexican village, in a two-tone Ford pickup that smashed into the 18-wheeler's trailer after the rig crossed the median. Five of the seven died.

Mr. Esparza was asleep when the crash occurred and remembers nothing of it. He spent six weeks in a coma. In fact, he was so seriously hurt that his family had a grave dug at his village in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí.

Once a soccer player, now he limps slowly on his prosthetic leg. A dark scar 3 inches wide splits his abdomen. He lost a kidney and part of his intestines. For now, he lives on $265 a week in workers' compensation payments.

He spends his day watching TV and listening to music, and undergoes physical therapy three times a week. He also visits with the widow of his uncle, Manuel Esparza, who drove the pickup and was killed in the crash.

Ultimately he hopes to return to his father's farm in Mexico. Beyond that, he said, "I don't know. I don't know."

His cousin Candelario Esparza also survived the crash, suffering broken ribs. The cousins don't talk about it now. "We would just like to forget it," Candelario said.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, Mr. Jozwiak, is scheduled to go on trial March 27 in Sherman on manslaughter charges.

Javier Esparza said he has no plans to attend the trial. Nor does he have anything he would like to say to the trucker. "I think it was an accident, and it's already happened," he said. "But he should feel responsible."

Lawyers for Mr. Jozwiak are expected to depict him as a hardworking immigrant who simply had a tragic accident.

Mr. Martin, for one, does not want to hear any such words of sympathy.

The mention of it causes him to scowl, and he mimes the playing of a violin.

He said he wishes that his family's gravestones did not say they passed away. "They didn't pass away," he said. "They were killed."

Early on, Mr. Martin passionately opposed an offer by the Grayson County district attorney to Mr. Jozwiak of a 10-year sentence for a guilty plea. It was withdrawn.

"I just want it to be decided by a jury," Mr. Martin said. "Whether you win or not, sometimes you've got to draw the line and fight."

That does not mean, he said, that he expects the jury-imposed sentence to exceed the district attorney's offer of 10 years. "I think everybody's going to say, 'It was a horrific accident, blah blah blah, give him a couple or three years.' "

The length of the sentence, he said, is almost beside the point. "If the guy gets 200 years, my family's still dead. If he gets six years or eight years, my family's still dead."

A relatively light punishment, Mr. Martin said, could shine a light on weak laws and poor oversight of the trucking industry. He said he spoke out in hopes of sparing other families a similar loss.

"Legally, this thing is not going to go the way we want it, and people are going to step in and say, 'What happened?' " he predicted. "It's going to make a statement of how pitiful the laws on the books are on this."

A suit is pending against the trucking company that employed Mr. Jozwiak. The judge hearing the case threw out a proposed $3 million settlement to the Martin and Wood families because it excluded the roofers and their relatives.

Disagreement over strategies in the civil case has caused a split between him and part of his wife's family, Mr. Martin said. As with the criminal case, he said, he will accept the judgment of the court.

"An amount of money," Mr. Martin said, "doesn't change the fact that they're all dead."

As he has mourned, Mr. Martin has been perplexed to find himself sought for advice. "This one took the cake," he said. "I had one guy come up to me and say, 'I know you suffered a loss. I suffered a loss, too.' He said, 'My girlfriend moved out.' "

Even when strangers aren't reminding him, the agonizing jolts can come anytime and anywhere, from a song, a smell, a child.

"And anything Spider-Man," he said. "Chance and Brock loved Spider-Man."

Sometimes it happens just driving down the street. "Blue Expeditions wear me out," he said. "I turned around on Preston and followed a redheaded lady in a blue Expedition. I said to myself, 'What are you doing?' "

Several months ago he began seeing Penny Johnson, a woman he met at church.

"We'd go out on a date, and I'd have a great time," he said. "Then I'd cry all the way home. I felt like I was cheating."

He has stopped feeling that way, Mr. Martin said.

"He's learned to keep moving, and that's the key to grief," said Mr. Martin's pastor, Gerald Brooks. "But he will manage emotion the rest of his life. It will not reach an end in his life."

Lately, Mr. Martin also has begun to envision a new family. "I would hope God would give me a boy," he said.

Something in that child, he hopes, might remind him of his lost sons. "I know I would see mannerisms, movements, tones of voice."

He and Ms. Johnson plan to marry in April.

It will be a big step, he said, toward his greatest goal: "I just want to wake up and not hurt tomorrow."
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#4433 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 2:23 pm

Kinky Friedman testifies in capital murder trial

HOUSTON, Texas (KHOU CBS 11) - Independent Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman visited a Houston courtroom Tuesday to testify on behalf of convicted killer Max Soffar.

Soffar was convicted last week of killing three people at a Houston bowling alley in 1980. His first conviction and death sentence were overturned on appeal.

Friedman testified he doesn't believe Soffar should be executed because he believes he is innocent.

The candidate said he met Soffar while writing a column for Texas Monthly in January 2004. He interviewed Soffar and exchanged letters with him during his years on Texas' Death Row.

Friedman was only on the stand for a few minutes.

"I've seen the problems with the lawyers ... everybody's dead, all the witnesses are dead, there's no evidence against him," Friedman said. "And I can't even believe he was brought to trial in the first place."

The jury also heard from one of the victim's sisters, Jackie Bryant, who wants Soffar to get the death penalty again.

"It's very hard to believe that it's been 25 years because, you know, the pain is still there," Bryant said. "It's very fresh, it's very raw, and he has had a chance to live for 25 years and get married and experience things in life that my sister never had a chance to do."

Testimony in the punishment phase ended shortly after Friedman's testimony and the trial wrapped up for the day.

Jurors will return for closing arguments Wednesday before deciding whether to sentence Soffar to life or death.
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#4434 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 4:42 pm

City tackles Deep Ellum's decline

By CYNTHIA VEGA / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Business owners and residents of Dallas' Deep Ellum entertainment district crowded into the Gypsy Tea Room Tuesday morning to learn how city leaders plan to address the neighborhood's declining fortunes.

Until recently a vibrant center of live music and dining, the historic area has seen declining crowds and shuttered venues corresponding with an increase in crime.

At the community meeting—"Turning Around Deep Ellum—the mayor, council members and Police Chief David Kunkle addressed the standing concerns.

"Crime is down in Deep Ellum, and it continues to go down," Chief Kunkle said, citing statistics compiled after police stepped up enforcement efforts and visibility in the area. Violent crime is off 30 percent.

Hundreds of Deep Ellum residents and businesspeople were at the meeting to offer ideas and support for a 90-day initiative to turn things around.

Those who live and work in the neighborhoold told News 8 that one goal should be to elminate the perception that Deep Ellum is unsafe.

They want more police and improved lighting to curb whtat they call the constant nuisance crimes that plague the area.

They are also asking for special use permits that will help existing and incoming dance clubs control the late night crowds.

"We just created a tax increment finance district to pour money back into the neighborhood for infrastructure and lighting and sidewalks," said Mayor Laura Miller. "We're just going to make sure that we get these issues resolved."

Gianna Madrini, president of the Deep Ellum Association, said former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was able to successfully address the same types of problems in his city.

"We need to go after a similar policy," Madrini said. "Start with the panhandlers; start with the cruising; help get people in and out of the neighborhood, and try and make it a good experience for them. Show them that there are police here, and they're going to be perfectly fine."

The City Council is working on freeing up funds that will help put a fresh face on Deep Ellum—cleaning up graffitti on the old buildings and helping restore the old warehouses for use as music venues and housing.

City officials said it is in their best interest to improve Deep Ellum, because if this sector in the shadow of downtown can thrive, it could provide a boost to other parts of the city.
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#4435 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:22 pm

Police: Gang fight occurs near 2 Dallas schools

By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - At least one gun shot was reportedly fired near two Dallas schools Tuesday afternoon after police said a gang fight broke out.

At least a dozen police cars converged in the area of Kimballdale and Pomeroy Drive to break up the fight near TW Browne Middle School and Justin F. Kimball High School.

The gang unit was also sent to the scene and talked to people believed to be part of the fight.

Sources said the fight began after a student was jumped, and grew after friends were allegedly called by cell phones to the scene.

Once the scene of the fight seemed to be under control and police had cleared the area, more fights broke out and Dallas police were called back to the scene.

No arrests were made yet, but some students were ticketed. The only injuries reported were from the physical fighting and no injuries were said to have occurred from any gun shots.

Dallas police and the gang unit remain on the scene investigating.
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#4436 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:23 pm

Meth addicts target storage units

By STEVE STOLER / WFAA ABC 8

Rachel Naydeau says she and Michael Higgins broke into storage units to support a methamphetamine habit. But she claims there have been far fewer burglaries than police believe.

"It was just to support a drug habit," she says.

"They're making it look like it's some big giant crime ring or something but it wasn't. "

Lavon police say they found an array of stolen goods from baseball equipment to electric scooters. It started with a routine traffic stop when an officer pulled over a van with a bad brake light.

"Inside the van was a list anywhere between 50 to 100 names of storage facilities listed throughout North Texas, anywhere from Mineral wells to Farmersville," said Chief Jason Rector from Lavon police.

Lavon police brought the pair here to the Collin County jail.

Naydeau says they would usually cut off locks with a bolt cutter, look for valuable items and leave, within seven minutes. She says they targeted storage units with no cameras or electric fences.

"Sometimes it takes something like this for you to wake up and realize what you're doing wrong and you're hurting other people," she said.

Police departments from across North Texas want to look through the stolen goods to see if any came from their cities. The case is still under investigation and burglary charges are pending.
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#4437 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:24 pm

Implantable contact lenses offered in Dallas

By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - As a computer programmer, Tim Burga needs good eyesight.

Fed up with glasses and contacts, he wanted Lasik.

"My eyes were rejected basically. My corneas were too thin," he said.

That made him the perfect candidate for the first ever implantable contact lens.

Dr. Jeffrey Whitman is one of two North Texas eye surgeons implanting the newly FDA approved Visian lens.

"It's like a hidden contact lens."

This is a minimally invasive surgery that does involve a small, self healing cut to eye.

The lens is then placed behind the pupil and in front of the eye's own lens.

Unlike current vision improvement procedures, including Lasik - none of the eye's natural structures are altered or removed.

"Certainly it's an advantage of the procedure. And it makes this procedure truly reversible," said Dr. Whitman. "He'll see a difference tonight."

Best results may not be seen for a couple of weeks.

Implantable contacts cost about $4,000 per eye, and are not covered by insurance.

"I feel like I'm free basically," said Julie Holgin, a patient.

It's money well-spent to Julie Holgin, who's looking forward to throwing away her coke-bottle glasses.
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#4438 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:27 pm

Miller: Deep Ellum needs 'united' effort

By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Perception is not reality in Deep Ellum.

So say city leaders who met with dozens of the residents and workers of the near-downtown entertainment district, troubled in recent years by crime concerns and business closures.

"Deep Ellum is a safe place to come," Mayor Laura Miller said. That it's overrun by thugs and thieves, she said, is "a huge misconception."

Crime levels have indeed declined in recent months, and up to 25 officers patrol Deep Ellum when traffic there is heaviest, said Police Chief David Kunkle, who joined City Council members Pauline Medrano and Angela Hunt and other city officials at a Tuesday morning forum.

But some residents and business owners demanded that the city do more to foster a resurgence of the district long known for its vibrant music scene, shops and restaurants.

"Clubs seem to be dropping left and right," said David Lewis, who works at Sons of Hermann Hall on Elm Street. "Improving the image, doing more in terms of crime prevention – that'll maybe cause more shops to move back in. And that's in everyone's best interest."

Among their other concerns, attendees cited traffic control, parking problems, lighting regulations and the need for faster planning and zoning processes. Even such pedestrian problems as narrow sidewalks and graffiti make Deep Ellum less pleasant, some said.

Taking the Gypsy Tea Room's main stage, Ms. Miller said that outlawing after-hours permits, which allow clubs to remain open until 4 a.m. instead of the 2 a.m. standard closing hour, would solve many crime and crowd control issues. She urged Deep Ellum stakeholders to support that measure.

Not all people gathered seemed inclined to do so.

Marshall Armstrong shouted at Ms. Miller that blaming after-hours clubs for crime is "misleading and inaccurate." Most problems occur in the streets and would happen regardless of when clubs closed, he said.

The mayor asked Mr. Armstrong whom he represented.

Club Blue, he responded.

"Ah, a couple of problems associated with Club Blue," Ms. Miller said, smiling, as "oohs" emanated from the audience. The massive downtown nightclub, she said, is one of area's most notorious crime hotspots.

"This meeting is a joke," the club's owner, Keith Black, said afterward as Mr. Armstrong nodded in agreement. Their operation is unfairly portrayed by city officials, they said.

While crime has improved, Deep Ellum is nonetheless plagued by "a fringe element, and it's out of control," Peter Tarantino, who owns Tarantino's Deep Ellum on Elm Street, told Ms. Miller. "We've got to tackle that issue right now."

The best way to make Deep Ellum more attractive, Ms. Miller told the audience, is to create "a united Deep Ellum, with all you guys on the same page."
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#4439 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Mar 01, 2006 8:33 am

Bank customer killed at ATM

By CYNTHIA VEGA / WFAA ABC 8

FORT WORTH, Texas — A bank customer was shot and killed early Wednesday as he was making a transaction at an automated teller machine in Fort Worth's Stop Six neighborhood.

Police were questioning three suspects and searching for one other in connection with the crime.

Investigators said the incident apparently started about 1 a.m. at the Chase bank branch at Loop 820 and Ramey Ave. when two men drove up to the ATM and the passenger exited to use the machine.

Four men in a white Honda pulled up and tried to rob the victim at the ATM. He was shot in the abdomen; the suspects fled.

The other bank customer called for help. The wounded man was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

A vehicle matching the description of the suspects' car was stopped at Loop 820 and 15th Street. The four occupants fled, but two men and a woman were captured. They were being questioned by police.

Canine units were employed in the search for the fourth suspect.

WFAA-TV photojournalist Mike Zukerman contributed to this report.
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#4440 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Mar 01, 2006 8:37 am

SMU to get $33M for arts

Meadows Foundation's record donation to benefit school, museum

By JANET KUTNER / Staff Writer

UNIVERSITY PARK, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) - The Meadows Foundation has pledged $33 million to support the school of arts and museum at Southern Methodist University, the largest single donation in the histories of SMU and the foundation.

The gift from the family foundation of Dallas oilman Algur H. Meadows could transform two of the campus's highest-profile institutions.

The bulk of the money, $25 million, will go to the Meadows Museum he founded in 1962, which houses one of the finest collections of Spanish art outside Spain.

An additional $8 million is for faculty and student recruitment and maintenance of the Meadows School of the Arts.

Home to several theaters and the Hamon Arts Library, the school offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in disciplines including art, theater, music and film.

"Hopefully, this gift will help propel these institutions into the future," Meadows Foundation president and CEO Linda Evans said Tuesday. Referring to her great-uncle, Mr. Meadows, she said, "Uncle Al wanted the museum and school that bear his name to be of great distinction, and this gift is in keeping with his wishes."

The foundation gave SMU $20 million for the new museum building that opened in 2001. In January the museum named curator Mark Roglán director. Carole Brandt, dean of the Meadows School, retires in May, and the search for a new dean is nearing conclusion.

The new money is needed. The building that houses the school is outmoded, and the gift includes $3 million to maintain an expanded facility once the university raises the necessary capital for construction.

Despite the new home, the museum has drifted as an institution since its first director, William B. Jordan, left in 1981 to become deputy director of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Former Kimbell director Edmund "Ted" Pillsbury instilled new life during his brief tenure. But he left in May 2005 after less than two years.

Attendance for 2005 was 50,000, compared with 550,000 at the Dallas Museum of Art and 160,000 at the smaller Nasher Sculpture Center.

"This gift is just what has been needed," Dr. Jordan said. "It's great news for the Meadows Museum, for SMU and for Dallas. This is the kind of commitment Mr. Meadows made in his lifetime, and the kind he would applaud today."

Dr. Pillsbury agreed. "This news is very gratifying to me," he said. "It shows that the Meadows Foundation is willing and able to play a leadership role in the ongoing support of Mr. Meadows' great legacy."

The impact of this latest gift, which is to be paid over 10 years, will snowball, said Gerald Turner, SMU president.

"Steady funds will allow the museum to plan exhibitions several years out, and that's what draws the traffic," he said. "Many people will be introduced to the collection for the first time."

The annual budget for exhibitions for the last two years has been about $500,000, Dr. Roglán said.

"With this wonderful gift, we have $750,000 a year for exhibitions and another $750,000 for acquisitions, not counting a $5 million matching grant for art purchases," he said. "This will help improve programming on the one hand, but it really puts us in a different arena for purchases because now we can actively pursue works at auction or from other sources."

With the $5 million grant, the foundation will match donations for acquisitions one-to-one, but it will take no credit. For example, if a contributor provides $100,000 for art, the foundation will add $100,000.

"Double for your money," Ms. Evans called it, noting that "the foundation's name won't even appear on the label."

Money to hire a new education director is part of the package, and community outreach will be one of that person's main responsibilities. "We want the museum to be a resource for students, but we want to share it with everyone in the city and the state," Ms. Evans said.

The Meadows Foundation and family are now the biggest benefactors SMU has ever had, university officials said. Mr. Meadows gave $30.4 million during his lifetime, and the foundation has provided an additional $67 million since his death in 1978.

A formal announcement and celebration of the gift will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Owen Arts Center, 6101 Bishop Blvd.
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