News from the Lone Star State

Chat about anything and everything... (well almost anything) Whether it be the front porch or the pot belly stove or news of interest or a topic of your liking, this is the place to post it.

Moderator: S2k Moderators

Message
Author
User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1721 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Jun 07, 2005 9:32 am

Police investigate infant's death

By GARY REAVES / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Police are investigating the death of an infant at an Old East Dallas apartment complex on Monday.

The two-month old child died while in the care of a man at the Coronado Apartments in the 4900 block of Live Oak.

Marcus Jerome Hall, 34, was taken into custody by police, though no arrest has been made in connection with the death. Hall was watching the baby while the child's mother was in Oklahoma to be with her mother, who was hospitalized.

Authorities believe suspicious circumstances led to the death. The infant supposedly died around 9:00 Monday morning, but neighbors and police didn't find out until around after noon.

"The baby looked like he had been dead for some hours," said witness Dianna Bruce. "I said, 'why didn't you call police?', and (Hall) said, 'I was scared because I went through this ten years ago.'"

Hall, who faced charges of injury to a child in 1996 but was not convicted, told neighbors the baby choked on milk - the same thing a caller told a 911 operator at 9:00 Monday morning.

"The person reporting the call gave the wrong address," said Dallas Police spokesperson Sr. Cpl. Jamie Kimbrough. "DFD responded to the location, and everything was OK at the address that was given."

It was three hours later that Hall went next door to get help from Patricia Burton.

"He didn't say that he killed her, he said that she strangled to death from the milk," Burton said.

Hall denied he had involvement in the baby's death, but Bruce - a former health care worker - had her doubts.

"When he pulled the blanket from off the baby, I could see a bruise," Bruce said. "But if you saw the baby, you could see that it's apparently a handprint on the child's face."

Police said they have been called to the apartment 23 times in the past year, and Hall was involved in at least some of those prior incidents.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1722 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Jun 07, 2005 9:35 am

Dogs attack Fort Worth woman

FORT WORTH, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A Fort Worth woman was attacked by two dogs Monday morning while taking her dog for a walk in her neighborhood.

Authorities said the woman, whose name was not made public, was walking in the 2300 block of Marigold on the city's north side when a black labrador retreiver and a black-and-white pit bull came running from the yard of a home and attacked her. She was transported to Harris Methodist in downtown Fort Worth with multiple dog bites.

Jason Lamers, a spokesman for the Fort Worth Public Health Department, said animal control officers would investigate the incident.

"We really need residents to understand that they have to restrain their animals," Lamers said. "They have to license, they have to vaccinate - it's so important. Unfortunately, it can lead to these kinds of situations if they don't do that."

The dogs are currently being quarantined at the office of the owner's veterinarian.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1723 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Jun 07, 2005 9:37 am

Hutchison speaks out against Perry

Senator critical of governor, says school finance must be solved

By WAYNE SLATER / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN, Texas – Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison stepped up her criticism of Gov. Rick Perry's stewardship Monday, saying that he should call lawmakers back into session immediately to lower property taxes and repair the state's school-finance system.

"We need leadership to be shown now more than ever to do what's right for our state," said Ms. Hutchison, who is considering challenging Mr. Perry in next year's Republican primary.

"I am disappointed, like everyone, that school finance and especially relief for the property taxpayers of our state were not addressed," she told reporters. "I do hope the governor chooses to call a special session now."

A spokesman for Mr. Perry said the governor would do so if House and Senate leaders can agree on a plan, which they failed to do during the 140-day regular session that ended last week.

"He remains very optimistic that the Legislature can come back into session and finish their job," Robert Black said without indicating when that might be. "He's working on it every day."

The Texas Supreme Court is set to hear arguments July 6 on a legal challenge to the school-finance system, which a lower court has ruled unconstitutional.

In Ms. Hutchison's comments – her most specific critique to date of Mr. Perry and the Legislature – the senator said it would be a mistake to have the courts, not elected officials, set the guidelines for school funding. She said she is "in the homestretch of making the decision" whether to challenge Mr. Perry.

"I tried to stay out of the fray during the legislative session because there were so many important issues facing the Legislature," Ms. Hutchison told reporters after attending the swearing-in of federal appeals court Judge Priscilla Owen.

But when school-finance negotiations collapsed, Ms. Hutchison said, she decided to speak out.

She urged the governor to recall lawmakers and win agreement on a pay raise for teachers and judges, funding for new public school textbooks and property tax relief for homeowners.

Her political campaign later issued a statement elaborating on her comments. In it, Ms. Hutchison specifically recommended a way to fund new textbooks – as well as provide money for a new medical school in El Paso and a pharmacy school in Kingsville that also failed to get legislative funding. She said the money could come from the governor's Texas Enterprise Fund, which is designed to attract jobs.

"The best way to create long-term jobs in Texas is by improving education and creating a high-quality workforce," she said.

Mr. Black said the governor wants lawmakers back as soon as possible.

He noted that President Bush, when he was Texas governor, failed to fix the state's ailing school-funding system, which has been the subject of litigation for two decades.

And one of the main negotiators in those failed talks, Rep. Kent Grusendorf of Arlington, called on Ms. Hutchison to go one step further – by identifying a school-finance plan of her own.

"I would urge Senator Hutchison, along with any other state leader who wishes to do so, to offer a coherent plan for solving this critical issue," Mr. Grusendorf, who leads the House Education Committee, said in a written statement. "I can assure Senator Hutchison and others of a prompt public hearing on the specifics of their plan."
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1724 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Jun 07, 2005 9:38 am

Man charged in wife's golf cart death

SUGAR LAND, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) — Police have charged a husband with intoxication manslaughter in the death of his wife, who fell from a golf cart he was driving.

Scott Honefenger, 62, of Sugar Land, told officers his wife, Virginia Honefenger, 57, fell from the golf cart Sunday and hit her head after he turned the cart sharply.

The couple was driving home from a nearby country club in the Houston suburb where they had played a round of golf.

When police arrived, they found the woman on the street. She was taken by helicopter to a Houston hospital, where she died.

Police gave the husband a field sobriety test, which he failed, Sugar Land police spokeswoman Pat Whitty said.

Honefenger was arrested at the scene and later released on $4,000 bail.

Driving a golf cart on a public street is legal within a certain distance of a golf course.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1725 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Jun 07, 2005 9:44 am

Study: Generic drugs consistently cheaper

By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Americans could save billions of dollars by making one simple change when it comes to prescription drugs.

A new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital confirmed what a News 8 investigation showed about two years ago: people with or without insurance can save a lot of money on the price of pills by going generic.

Robert Miller knows exactly what he wants when it comes to prescription drugs.

"That's all we buy is brand names," said Miller. "Sure, it's a lot more money and it's more trouble, but the purity is a lot better."

Many other people feel the same way - but the study shows Americans can save about $9 billion a year on prescriptions by substituting generic drugs for brand-name versions.

For example, at CVS News 8 found a month's supply of 20 milligram Prozac pills cost $128.99. The generic version Fluoxetine - with the same strength and quantity - is $21.29. That's a savings of 83 percent.

"Many of these seniors could easily save hundreds of dollars just on one medication alone," said Devon Herrick of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Herrick has studied the issue extensively.

"It's not just a case of saying to your pharmacist, 'Can I have this in generic', because many times the drug you were initially prescribed is not available in generic," Herrick said. "But (in) most cases there is a drug that is available generically that could easily substitute."

Joe Park, a pharmacist at Dougherty's Airway Drug in Dallas, said customers often refuse generics even though he can easily attest that they work just as well.

"(They're) indoctrinated that brands are better performers than generics," Park said.

Experts agree buying generic could save a bundle, especially for older people on fixed incomes who can't afford the high price of pills.

And as News 8 mentioned last year, shopping at wholesale warehouses like Costco and Sams can save customers even more money on generic drugs.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1726 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:45 am

Junk food at school reigns

New rules' 1st year sees more fruits and veggies, but old habits bite back

By KIM BREEN / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - You can take away the Snickers bars. But they'll just eat twice as many cookies.

Take the curly fries. They'll go for the chips.

Texas schoolchildren found plenty of empty calories at school despite sweeping changes in nutrition policies that debuted this year.

If they weren't interested in carefully regulated school lunches, they could still find non-nutritious snacks in the lunch lines, at the a la carte counters or at soda machines in high school hallways.

The push – which included everything from counting sugar grams in drinks to weighing Little Debbie snack cakes to setting rules about where the tennis team sold pizza slices – also brought more fruits and vegetables to school kitchens.

School nutrition experts say they believe they are headed in the right direction, but there are pressures that keep cafeterias from dumping the junk entirely. Lunchrooms must operate as businesses, and demand remains from students and their parents for the food court culture that got them into the obesity mess in the first place.

The last year has been a strong start to raising healthier kids, said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs, who is convinced students are eating better in schools thanks to the rules she imposed.

No one expected an immediate solution, she said. "Really, as a nation, we didn't get here overnight."

The end run

When the lunch ladies would serve up the dreaded rib sandwich at McMillan Junior High in Wylie this school year, 13-year-old Chris Hill headed for the snack line. There he could spend $2 on a chicken sandwich but also had plenty of choices that would make a nutritionist cringe.

"Last week and the week before that I had three cookies and a chocolate milk. It's $2," he said recently. And, also important, "I feel full."

He said his table is often half-filled with students eating chips or cookies for lunch.

"We have too many choices, I think," said Chris. "Any kid, when there's no adult to tell them not to, would go to the snack line."

Though he's a frequent visitor, he proposed enforced moderation. "Open it up every other day."

Wylie, like districts throughout the state, revamped its snack, or "a la carte," offerings this year to follow the complicated new rules. Snack portions are smaller. The beloved curly fries are gone.

Consequently, it's been a tough year financially, said Theresa Johnson, the district's director of student nutrition. Most school food services departments are expected to be self-sufficient – to make enough money to pay staff and maintain equipment, and even, in some districts, to pay utilities and rent.

Directors of student nutrition are expected to wear the hats of nutritionist and business person, tasks that sometimes clash.

"It's a Catch-22," said Ms. Johnson. In a perfect world, she wouldn't offer the snack line. But it helps her department meet the bottom line.

It also meets students' demands.

"They see food courts, and that's what they expect us to be," she said.

Cafeteria manager Pat Coleman said life lessons are learned in the lunch lines. "Kids this age especially, they need to make choices."

A couple of years ago, Dallas school district leaders decided to rid the school of all snacks, including candy bars and other fundraising food that were sold outside the cafeteria.

Within a few months, fundraising candy was back in business when officials realized how much money was at stake. The food services department had to wait a year to get snacks back because of purchase schedules and lost nearly $2 million, said Deborah Owens, director of compliance for the district's Food and Child Nutrition Services. Now the cafeteria offers snacks, but they're healthier.

In 2001-02, the district offered 82 snacks, including pork skins and a variety of candy bars. It now offers 42, including pretzels and cereal bars.

One district's story

An analysis of one school district's food orders during most of the school year shows the trends described by students and seen in cafeterias..

In just a year, the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district's consumption of fries, hash browns and tater tots fell by 66 percent.

Rachelle Fowler, director of Student Nutrition, decided to go beyond the state-imposed french fry limitation. She also plucked candy bars from the cafeteria – eliminating the 95,000 sold the year before.

But cookie dough purchases skyrocketed, from 23,000 pounds last year to 44,000 pounds this year.

Chip consumption also was up. Even though students were required to buy smaller bags of chips, they bought 62 percent more bags this year, or about 14 percent more chips.

Ms. Fowler said she's not surprised. If students had 50 cents to spend on candy last year, they'll use that money this year to buy cookies. But the offerings are healthier, including baked and reduced-fat chip varieties.

The district also restricted the amount of fat in items where the state has not and has more than doubled the money the department spends on fruits and vegetables, from $112,000 to $255,000.

As a dietician, Ms. Fowler said she believes no food should be off-limits. It's all about moderation.

Parents also play a part. They can limit what their child is allowed to buy by notifying the district. She said fewer than 20 parents did so during the school year.

"We have an obesity problem because of the American culture, not because of [what food is offered] in schools," she said.

McKinney parent May Tolson agrees that parents are responsible for their children's nutrition. If they're not, it's for one of three reasons, she said: "A, they don't have a clue; B, they don't have the time; or C, they don't care."

If the state passes nutrition regulations to make up for that lack of parent responsibility, elementary schools should not allow students to buy snacks such as ice cream every day, as some districts do, Ms. Tolson said.

"It's contradictory," she said.

She usually sends her children to school with homemade lunches because she doesn't find current offerings healthy enough. Still, she appreciates some changes, such as offering baked chips.

Ms. Fowler said the state regulations have also improved the way middle school students eat because vending machines and school stores are no longer allowed to sell competing food during meal times.

More middle school students are eating cafeteria meals statewide, Ms. Combs said. Ms. Fowler wishes the restrictions would be expanded to high schools, where her cafeterias are essentially competing with a 7-Eleven type store within school walls.

One of those high schools landed the district on a list of about a dozen statewide fined during the year for violating the nutrition rules. The school store was selling slushes that well exceeded the 12-ounce limit. For that, the district lost a day's worth of meal reimbursements – more than $1,800.

Commissioner Combs said she is happy with how the policy is working and complimented most schools and parents for being cooperative.

She said she would wait a couple of years to let the current rules sink in before considering stricter guidelines. Several states looking for solutions are seeking advice from Texas, she added.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1727 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:47 am

Report: Bacteria led to socialite's death

Meningitis worsened by liver failure, probably from acetaminophen

By KATIE FAIRBANK / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Socialite Shannon Murchison died of acute bacterial meningitis that spread throughout her system, according to a report released Monday by the Dallas County medical examiner's office.

The meningitis was due to a strain of listeria, bacteria that can be found in food poisoning, investigators concluded. Her illness was compounded by liver failure probably caused by acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol and other medications.

"The liver failure was very dramatic," said chief medical examiner Jeffrey Barnard. "It is likely that she took a pretty good amount of acetaminophen."

The death was ruled accidental rather than natural due to the probable use of acetaminophen, Dr. Barnard said.

Mrs. Murchison, 47, the former wife of Clint Murchison III, was declared brain dead April 28 after a couple of days on life support. An autopsy was ordered in part because she had reported to police on April 19 that she had suffered a black eye and extensive bruising. The circumstances of her illness and death shocked many in Highland Park, raising questions among friends and fueling gossip.

Dr. Barnard said the bruising to Mrs. Murchison's eye was a traumatic injury but that it "played no role in her death." He said he could not determine what caused the injury.

Other bruising could have occurred because her blood clotting ability was impaired by her illness and liver failure, he said.

Mrs. Murchison's sister, Waverly West Burford, said the black eye was the result of a fall "and that's all there is to it."

Friends say that Mrs. Murchison had been taking a large amount of Tylenol for headaches.

"Poor thing. It's tragic," Mrs. Burford said.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1728 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:49 am

Artist in crisis over fatal hit-and-run

Dallas: Police say she was likely drunk; lawyer says she's in agony

By MARK WROLSTAD / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Johnice Parker, a respected impressionist painter whose professional success grew from personal loss and determination, has devoted herself to her art and the arts.

The Dallas artist's colorful, genteel pastels have celebrated the innocence of childhood, the tenderness of relationships and the richness of African-American culture, elevating the joy and vibrancy and quiet dignity of life past any pain in her own.

Now, the talented but troubled 52-year-old may stand at a crossroads, charged in the January hit-and-run death of a nameless man buried in an unmarked grave. Indictment by a Dallas County grand jury could come this week.

The woman whose work graced the sets of television sitcoms and movies, as well as private, public and business collections around the country, no longer paints.

Her lawyer described her as agonized and depressed.

"She's haunted every single day," said defense attorney Cheryl Wattley, who has known Ms. Parker since the artist moved to Dallas from Memphis, Tenn., in 1992.

"I think it would've been easier for her if she had died in the accident. I say that as a friend and a lawyer."

Police, on the other hand, said the artist has refused to speak with them since the fatality five months ago. The lead investigator said Ms. Parker was "probably intoxicated" in the midwinter, midnight hour when her loaned 1991 BMW struck a man in a crosswalk on a rainy Oak Cliff street.

"But that we can't prove," said Dallas police Detective L.D. Kimberlin of the vehicle crimes unit.

Ms. Parker, who has no criminal record, had been drinking, her attorney said, but wasn't intoxicated.

The victim, a black man in his early 30s with large, distinctive tattoos, lay in the hospital for about a week before dying. His identity remains unknown.

"I don't think she wanted to cooperate at all, not at all," said Detective Kimberlin, who quickly identified Ms. Parker as the suspect but had trouble developing evidence against her. "I thought for a while this was going to be my career case, and I'd have to solve it before I could retire. It was just taking forever."

Ms. Parker, now free on $10,000 bond, was arrested last month when police found a woman who was with the artist shortly after the hit-and-run. She told police that Ms. Parker had been drinking and had admitted driving the car early Jan. 7.

Investigators eventually built their case on an anonymous call about Ms. Parker's involvement in the crash, the detective said.

Court documents show that police then subpoenaed the cellphone records of a friend, who didn't cooperate with investigators. But through her, they found the woman willing to be a witness.

"She wondered what took us so long," Detective Kimberlin said of the witness, who police declined to name. "She may end up taking some heat, but she says, 'Right is right and wrong is wrong, and I'm more than willing to help.' "

Ms. Parker, who has supported the causes of education, history and music, was charged with failure to stop and render aid, which carries a maximum five years' imprisonment. In a mug shot, her trademark platinum hair wasn't as close-cropped and had turned dark.

"She knew it was wrong to be drinking and driving," the detective said of Ms. Parker, who had left a jazz club in the Bishop Arts District near her large home and spacious gardens.

Hit-and-run drivers usually flee because they're drunk or they're wanted for an offense, the detective said.

Neither Ms. Parker nor Diane Miles, her domestic partner who lives at the home on Sylvan Avenue, returned phone calls. Ms. Miles, 58, is executive director of human resource services for Dallas schools and has worked as Ms. Parker's business manager.

The witness, whose statements were part of an unusually long arrest warrant, told police that Ms. Parker clearly had been drinking that night.

"They can suspect anything they want," Ms. Wattley said. "It was a tragic accident."

She said Ms. Parker "may have had a drink or two and may have spilled one," intensifying the smell of alcohol on her.

Ms. Wattley said that not knowing the identity of the victim has added to the burden on Ms. Parker, who has a reputation as a sensitive and exacting artist.

The man may have been from out of state, but it's uncertain whether he was homeless.

He had a muscular build at 6 feet, 190 pounds, and he carried no money or identification. His clothing was layered, consistent with temperatures that were just above freezing.

Both of his upper and lower arms were tattooed. Descending from one shoulder was a snake twisting around an Egyptian cross; from the other, the Greek letters "Omega Rho Psi." A cross decorated one lower arm, and the word "dogs" was on the other.

The medical examiner discovered that the man had a large metal jaw implant.

"Surely someone knows this guy," Detective Kimberlin said. "This victim has a family somewhere."

Family trauma

Johnice Ingram Parker's family life changed traumatically by the time she turned 16. That was 1968, the year both of her parents died of cancer.

Her musically gifted brother, Charles Lloyd, 14 years older, had long abandoned dental school and left their Memphis home for California's Bay Area, where he exploded onto the jazz scene in the mid-1960s.

The saxophonist led a famous quartet that recorded one of the first jazz albums to sell more than a million copies.

Their father was a Pullman porter for 35 years and their mother a registered nurse. They wanted their daughter to be a doctor. She yearned to be an artist and was already attending the Memphis Academy of Arts. She withdrew to study in Spain when her parents died but realized a year later that she was running from the trauma of losing them.

"I had to accept the fact that it was just my brother and me," she once told The Dallas Morning News. "For all intents and purposes, we were orphans."

Her brother withdrew in his own way for a decade, walking away from budding superstardom in the early '70s. He moved to the Big Sur region for what's been called an inner journey along the rocky coasts and sloping peaks south of Monterey.

Mr. Lloyd didn't return to performing until 1982, but he still tours extensively today at age 67. It's unclear how much contact he has with his sister. He didn't respond to e-mail messages.

With encouragement from an aunt, Ms. Parker pursued her art career, working for a ceramics company, teaching art at a college and living in Memphis, Little Rock and Houston. She started working studiously as an artist in 1981 and had to overcome "the fear of success" as she moved from pencil and ink to acrylics, oils and finally pastels, sometimes considered a less serious medium.

Four of her works were bought in 1988 for the set of The Cosby Show ; another was a centerpiece on the show Family Matters.

In 1991, Ms. Parker held an exhibition in Dallas and almost impetuously decided to move there.

"I was coming from the airport, saw the skyline and knew this was where I needed to be," she recalled. "Sometimes you get a feeling that says you are supposed to be somewhere. I'm supposed to be in Dallas."

She bought a 5,200-square-foot home on 21/2 acres in Kessler Park and started remaking the property, designing tile mosaics for the pool and mastering landscaping and gardening – which she called her "God time."

"Whenever I have to work something out, whether it's in my life or my painting, I come back to earth," Ms. Parker said in 2002.

Her home became a gathering place for artists and musicians, as well as civic and political fundraisers. She also cultivated her love of fashion; shoes and sunglasses were two of her favorites.

The romanticized settings in her paintings earned attention and sales through representatives in several cities.

"I used to think to become financially independent as an artist, you had to be one of the best," she said in 1993. "But now I realize it's all in who's representing you."

She did pieces for movie sets, won some awards, designed art for a couple of Dallas light-rail stations and sold paintings to Adolph Coors Co., hamburger corporations and blues legend B.B. King.

'Depressed lately'

Success couldn't completely protect Ms. Parker, however, and by last year something in her life was still not right.

In late October, she attempted suicide at her home, according to police records. She "had been depressed lately," a friend told police.

About six months earlier, Ms. Parker was assaulted late at night outside a Dallas bar. She said she was arguing with someone who then tackled her, but the police report said she "was elusive about the nature of the incident."

Detective Kimberlin said she believes Ms. Parker's life showed "instability" that led up to the hit-and-run.

She was driving west on Davis Street about 12:40 a.m. when the car struck the man as he crossed at Polk Street, according to police. The intersection appears to be past the point where Ms. Parker would have turned if she were headed directly home.

The severely dented car was abandoned about 10 blocks farther west just off Davis. No one has said what Ms. Parker did after the crash, but defense attorney Wattley said the grand jury would hear "why Johnice did not personally contact the police."

Her friends took her for medical treatment that night and Ms. Wattley was contacted. The lawyer called police about 4 a.m. and told them where the car was, although police said it took a week to determine the driver.

The unidentified victim was buried at county expense at Grand Prairie's Southland Memorial Cemetery.

As the weeks passed, Ms. Parker or her attorney said four times that they would meet with police, Detective Kimberlin said. It never happened.

"Sometimes I have to be a lawyer," Ms. Wattley said when asked why her client didn't submit to questioning.

Ms. Parker "hasn't done any artwork in months," she said. "The impact of the death of this individual and the fact that he is still not identified continue to fuel the depression that led to that suicide attempt."

Some Kessler Park neighbors were surprised when Ms. Parker was arrested because they thought she'd already been charged. They considered her involvement in the death common knowledge because she talked about it with several friends, said a resident who didn't want his name used.

The detective said Ms. Parker deserved to go to prison. "Oh, yes. Definitely," she said. "You would think she would have more compassion."

Ms. Parker still smiles in a casual photo on her Web site, where her prints sell for between $8 and $1,200.

For the picture, she has apparently placed her glasses playfully on the nose of her dog, Jake.

"It is through sharing my gift," she wrote on her home page, "that I find contentment and peace."

Shortly after moving to Dallas, Ms. Parker recalled being inspired by the inquisitiveness of a young woman with multiple sclerosis who was legally blind.

"Now when I look at flowers, I smell them, too," Ms. Parker said in a newspaper story. "I'm always hungry to learn something. When you decide you can't learn anymore, you're at a dead end.

"My work and friends in Dallas are gonna keep me away from dead ends."

Staff writer Holly Yan contributed to this report.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1729 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:50 am

Substitute's behavior worried teachers

Plano: Interactions with girls noted in '04; district warned him

By KIM BREEN / The Dallas Morning News

PLANO, Texas - A former Plano substitute teacher accused of fondling and photographing a 15-year-old girl in a classroom had been criticized by teachers a year ago for acting inappropriately with female students.

Jason Pearce, 31, had been placed on "do not call" lists at two schools in the Plano school district following complaints. But he continued to work at other campuses until he was fired last month.

He was charged May 13 with sexual performance of a child and indecency with a child, both felonies, and two Class A misdemeanor charges of displaying harmful material to a minor. Mr. Pearce has been released from the Collin County jail on $80,000 bail. He could not be reached for comment.

Plano school district officials did not return calls for comment but said in a statement Monday that the district followed normal disciplinary procedures and that Mr. Pearce had been warned in July 2004 "that if there were future problems, he would be removed from the substitute system."

He is accused of photographing and fondling a girl at Williams High School this spring after he summoned her to a classroom and asked her to take her top off, court documents show. During a search, police reported finding photographs in Mr. Pearce's backpack of the girl posing in sexual positions.

He is also accused of showing sexually explicit photos to two other girls at the school.

Two teachers at Bowman Middle School wrote in evaluation forms in May 2004 that Mr. Pearce should not be considered for employment again. One stated that he took photographs of students and that he "allows too many students (esp. girls) to hug on him."

Another stated Mr. Pearce wrote an excuse for several girls to join him in a class where they didn't belong, and that he allowed several female students to eat lunch in his classroom.

"Both of these incidents are inappropriate and unprofessional," read the evaluation written by a teacher and signed by a campus administrator.

"Mr. Pearce was treated similarly to others under like circumstances," Tamira Griffin, the district's executive director of human resources, said in Monday's statement. "The district followed a progressive disciplinary process."

She wrote that the district looks at both positive and negative evaluations. "Prior to the last incident, there had been only three negative substitute evaluations received over the four-year period."

District records show Mr. Pearce worked 359 days between April 12, 2001, and May 9, 2005, when he was fired. During that time, he worked at numerous campuses with students at all grade levels.

A month after he started working for the district, a Clark High School teacher said Mr. Pearce should be placed on a "do not call" list, because he let students go through their absent teacher's desk and use the teacher's computer, according to records released by the district.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1730 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:52 am

Officials: Legal glitch kept arsonist free

By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Fire officials say an outdated state law prevented them from charging a man with arson in a trash fire in March, and he went on starting larger and larger fires until he set ablaze a condo and a church.

Previously convicted arsonist James K. Petty, a 47-year-old homeless man, is suspected of starting six fires in Old East Dallas over Memorial Day weekend – including at the Bethany Christian Church. He had been released from jail a week earlier.

Mr. Petty was arrested March 11 after being seen at the scene of a trash fire that spread to a fence in the 600 block of North Glasgow Drive. Authorities also suspect that he started five other trash fires in less than two hours in the area earlier in the same day.

Fire investigators said they tried to make an arson case against Mr. Petty in the Glasgow Drive fire, but because of the wording in the state's arson law, and because no witnesses saw him start it, authorities could only cite him for criminal mischief.

"Arson is one of the hardest cases to prove," said Capt. Paul Martinez, a Dallas Fire-Rescue senior arson investigator. "We knew he was a ticking time bomb, and we wanted to stop it. We did the best we could."

Mr. Petty could not be charged with arson in the March incident because he set fire to a fence that was not surrounding open land, he said.

The penal code states that a person commits felony arson if they start a fire or cause an explosion with intent to damage someone else's property. Such property includes vehicles and buildings, but things such as vegetation or fences must be on open land for arson charges to apply.

The wording of the law, which has stymied fire investigators for years, was meant to protect farmers and ranchers years ago.

"What you've got is an outdated law that need to be updated to protect people now," said Capt. Jesse Garcia, a fire spokesman. "It doesn't take into account private property as it's now defined."

Mr. Petty was instead cited for criminal mischief in connection with the Glasgow Drive trash fire and released after serving about two months in jail.

Mr. Petty was already a convicted arsonist at the time of the March fire. Mr. Petty, who declined interview requests, has a criminal history back to 1979, including burglary, criminal mischief, evading arrest, possession of a controlled substance and retaliation. His conviction for a 1996 incident was thought to be his first for arson.

He was arrested most recently on May 31 on suspicion of setting the Bethany Christian Church ablaze. He is being held at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center on a second-degree felony arson charge in lieu of $35,000 bail.

He now is being investigated for a dozen fires set this year within a few blocks of each other.

He was convicted on second-degree felony arson for the June 1996 incident, when he poured a flammable liquid on the seats of a car and tossed a match inside while he was intoxicated.

In each of the recent blazes, investigators lacked witnesses to the fire-starting, although officials said they have evidence linking him to the church blaze.

"You can use a lighter, put it in your pocket and off you go," Capt. Garcia said.

All the earlier incidents in which Mr. Petty is a suspect were trash or other minor fires, but investigators say his behavior escalated, as is often the case with arsonists.

On May 28, five days after being released from jail, firefighters were called to a night trash fire on La Vista Drive. Minutes later, they had to rush to a fire at a nearby two-story house under renovation. Then quickly, a three-story condominium under construction blocks away went up in flames.

The next day, someone set a trash bin on fire on North Paulus Avenue. Two days later, someone set a trash bin on fire on Abrams Road. Minutes later, a man called 911 to report a suspicious man at the Bethany Christian Church on Oram Street.

A police officer saw the fire through a broken church window and summoned firefighters. Mr. Petty was arrested later that night.

Capt. Martinez said that under questioning, Mr. Petty offered no specific motive for the fires – other than he was upset about a chronic illness.

"It's probably general revenge," Capt. Martinez said. "There's nothing going right for him. He's homeless and HIV positive. He's mad at the world. I think that like a lot of people who start fires, he has some issues, and they turn it around and burn to express emotion."

Fire officials are checking to see if there were any other unexplained fires set in the Gaston Avenue-Abrams Road area in the five days between the time Mr. Petty was released from jail and the May 28 fires.

No one was injured in any of the fires that Mr. Petty is suspected of starting.

"You look at the damage to that house and that condo," Capt. Martinez said. "God forbid, either of those had been occupied."
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1731 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:20 am

Suspect killed in Fort Worth following chase

By CYNTHIA VEGA / WFAA ABC 8

FORT WORTH, Texas — Gunfire erupted on a Fort Worth freeway Tuesday night as police and a U.S. Marshal confronted and killed a man wanted for nine outstanding warrants.

Police said Brian Wang, 25, fled as officers attempted to arrest him at a motel around 10 p.m.

A brief pursuit followed, ending when he crashed his late model Ford Mustang at Interstate 35W and East Ripy Street, about 3 miles south of downtown.

Police said Wang shot at them as they approached him. The officers returned fire. Wang was pronounced dead at the scene.

No police officers were hurt. Traffic was diverted around the crash site after the incident.

Wang had been sought since last month on charges ranging from narcotics posession to posession of stolen goods. He was identified by a Crime Stoppers tip.

He also allegedly shot his own two-year-old son with a gun that had been stolen in Grand Prairie. Wang had originally told police the boy had shot himself.

The toddler is recovering at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1732 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:21 am

Dallas man vanishes in Mexico

By GARY REAVES / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Friends say a Dallas man has disappeared while on vacation in Mexico.

Eric Hinnant is catering manager for the Westin Galleria, organizing the menu for some of the charity balls so popular with Dallas high society.

However, Hinnant vanished on Memorial Day after checking out of his hotel in Mexico City. A taxi driver verified that Hinnant was dropped off at the airport, but he never boarded his flight home to Dallas.

Donald Solomon is among Hinnant's friends who fear the worst.

"It's been eight days, and we've had no contact - nothing," Solomon said. "We've checked the hospitals and we've checked the jails in Mexico City, and right now we still have no Eric Hinnant - which is really strange."

Dallas police and the FBI are powerless to investigate in Mexico, and so far there's no evidence of a crime or proof that Hinnant didn't just choose to disappear.

There is something, though: a muffled message in Spanish retrieved from Hinnant's own answering machine. A woman's voice says, "Look, you'll never guess who I have here," and then a man's voice can be heard mumbling.

"I think something has happened to Eric," Solomon said. "I think he's been kidnapped."

While Hinnant's friends have gotten little help, the FBI has joined the search for an American student missing in Aruba. The television program America's Most Wanted will feature her story in an upcoming episode, and producers have told Hinnant's friends to write because they might mention his case as well.

There has been no request from the Mexican government for American help in trying to locate Hinnant, despite the fact that missing-person reports have been filed.

"Here's another American citizen who was in Mexico City, an international airport, and now he's just gone," Solomon said. "We don't have anyone that's willing to help us try to find him."
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1733 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:22 am

North Texas foreclosures reach new high

By BRAD HAWKINS and YOLANDA WALKER / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - The number of residential foreclosures in North Texas is at an all-time high.

Dallas County tops the list, with the highest number of home foreclosures of any major city in the country - nearly 8,000. Tarrant County had 5,300 foreclosures, and Collin and Denton counties had a combined total of between 1,500 and 2,000.

On the first Tuesday of every month in Fort Worth, trustees auction foreclosed properties and land on the steps of the old courthouse. 954 properties went on the auction block Tuesday.

For investors, it can be easy money, and for potential homeowners it can be a bargain hunter's dream.

"Our home was a government foreclosure that we had bought," said homeowner Lori Higgins, who came to the auction. "We thought we could find another good deal."

"I definitely see some potential out here," said investor Brian Quimby.

But there's a face on most properties up for grabs. Timothy Helton is losing his home.

"I'm here today to find out who's buying for how much," Helton said.

For the past few years, layoffs and the economy were to blame for higher foreclosure rates, but experts now say it's the push for home equity lines of credit. Homeowners pay off short-term debt, but create another long-term loan.

"Consequently, a year or two later they go back and they get in debt again, and all they did is create a bigger problem," said Jim Brown of All-America Title Services.

There are other reasons, too. North Texas lost more jobs in 2002 than anywhere else except California's Silicon Valley. Additionally, homes are not appreciating here as they do in other big cities, so people who have to get out of their homes in a hurry often don't have that equity for cushioning.

The homes that were taken away from homeowners vary from $20,000 all the way to $1,000,000 in value - and the mortgage industry estimates that in half those cases, people give up their address without even talking to their lender.

Now, there's a new toll-free number for people in a real pinch to get advice and, in some cases, real help in getting lower payments or rates.

Counselors who speak English and Spanish are available at 1-888-995-HOPE, usually from 5 a.m. to midnight and on the weekends.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1734 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:23 am

Officials: Tanker wreck a close call

By DAN RONAN / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Fire officials said a tanker truck accident near downtown Dallas on Monday was a close call that could have been much worse had circumstances been slightly different.

The 18-wheeler truck overturned shortly before 1 p.m. on the ramp from Woodall Rodgers to northbound Central Expressway. 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled, and Dallas Fire-Rescue hazmat crews pumped out another 5,500 gallons of fuel from the truck.

Dallas Fire-Rescue Lt. Joel Lavender said the city's stormwater division cleaned up fuel that spilled into the city's sewer system

The wreck closed the ramp for more than eight hours, and kept the northbound I-45/Central overhead closed for about half that time, snarling traffic coming from the south and from downtown.

Just last month in Dallas, hazmat teams from several fire departments trained for this type of accident. Officials said the drill and good luck paid off.

Lavender said the highways that pass close to downtown like Woodall Rodgers are off-limits to tanker trucks - a fact clearly marked on signs but still ignored by some including the driver of the 18-wheeler involved in Monday's accident.

To try and prevent similar incidents, the state is temporarily increasing its truck inspection process. For the next three days, DPS officials plan to stop thousands of big rigs at eight locations statewide.

"(The) emphasis is going to be seat belts, bad equipment, unsafe drivers ... the whole conglomerate of things," said DPS Capt. James Spencer.

Some truckers said although the four serious truck accidents over the past two weeks are unrelated, there is one common thread.

"People don't know how to drive, " truck driver Dwayne Hilton said. "All they want to do is get out on these highways and drive fast and crazy, instead of cautious and careful like they need to be."

Emergency leaders said the accident could have put downtown in serious danger, adding that drivers and nearby businesses are very fortunate it was diesel fuel that spilled. Had it been gasoline, the accident could have easily sparked an explosion or fire that would have been much more serious and likely fatal.

"It was a terrible decision affecting so many people," Lavender said. "It put our firefighters at risk, and put the public at risk."
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1735 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:24 am

SWA: Wright repeal will help economy

By BRAD WATSON / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Southwest Airlines released its own study Tuesday on the Wright Amendment, claiming that not repealing the law is costing air travelers billions of dollars in higher fares.

The study claims doing away with Wright, which limits flights at Dallas Love Field, would save North Texas passengers $397 million dollars each year. That would give the local economy a $1.7 billion annual boost.

Southwest could have saved the cost of its study of what repealing Wright would mean by just asking passenger Paul Henry, who flies both Southwest and American.

"(It would) spur more economic growth and competition among other carriers, so I think it would be very helpful to the economy and to the nation as a whole," Henry said.

That's exactly what the Southwest study, by aviation consultant Campbell-Hill, concludes.

The law limits flights on mainline jets from Love Field to seven states surrounding Texas, as a means of protecting Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

Southwest claims Wright also shields American Airlines at D/FW from competition in 49 cities. Airline officials said the debate isn't about airports.

"This issue is about high fares, and the cost of doing nothing is just too great," said Southwest CEO Gary Kelly.

The study claims that if Wright were lifted and Southwest were allowed to fly to 15 major U.S. cities now off-limits, the average round-trip savings per passenger would be $134.

Airline chairman Herb Kelleher said that proves the 1979 law is outdated.

"The Wright Amendment is truly a tattered, truly a worn-out and truly an ancient anachronism," Kelleher said.

The bill filed by two North Texas congressmen to repeal Wright now has seven co-sponsors from states such as New Hampshire, Nebraska, Tennessee and South Carolina. No bill has been filed yet in the Senate.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1736 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:26 am

D/FW stages mock plane crash

By CYNTHIA VEGA / WFAA ABC 8

DFW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Texas - Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport put its emergency response system to the test Tuesday morning, measuring how it would respond to a simulated plane crash.

The airport's "Lifesaver 2005" drill featured a large mock-up of a plane's fuselage on a runway, complete with a massive explosion and countless casualties.

D/FW emergency responders went straight to work, with a goal of getting nearly 300 victims to area emergency rooms in 45 minutes. Ambulances from the area rushed to the scene to transport the victims, only to be turned around when it was discovered there was an infectious disease amongst the injured.

For officials overseeing the drill, the ability of rescue personnel to handle such adversity and make quick decisions is critical.

"There were some body parts that we had configured from mannequins and other pieces, and we want the first responders to recognize that those people are obviously dead, and there's nothing they can do about it," said D/FW fire chief Alan Black. "They need to move on, determine what the most critical injuries are and the people we can save, and get them to triage so they can be stabilized and transported to an area hospital."

The "victims" were all North Texas residents who volunteered to take part in the drill. They arrived early Tuesday, met with make-up artists who went to work creating many different kinds of injuries.

D/FW officials said they go through such drills every three years, with the next planned for 2008. They want to make sure personnel stay prepared should such a disaster ever become a reality.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1737 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:27 am

Dallas artist indicted in hit-and-run

Dallas: Lawyer says she wasn't drunk, thought brick had struck car

By MARK WROLSTAD / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Dallas artist Johnice Parker was indicted Tuesday in the January late-night hit-and-run death of a man who still hasn't been identified.

A Dallas County grand jury handed down a felony indictment against the highly regarded impressionist painter for failure to stop and render aid when the man was struck about 12:40 a.m. Jan. 7.

The charge, filed in mid-May after a four-month investigation, is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Police said they have been unable to speak with the 52-year-old artist since the fatality because she hasn't submitted to questioning; they suspect but can't prove that she was intoxicated after she left a north Oak Cliff jazz club.

Ms. Parker, whose work has celebrated African-American culture and the richness of life, had a drink or two that night but wasn't intoxicated, said her attorney, Cheryl Wattley.

Reached at her home Tuesday, Ms. Parker had little to say but quietly questioned why a detailed story about her had run in The Dallas Morning News that day.

"It's OK," she said before hanging up. "It doesn't matter anymore."

For the first time Tuesday, her attorney offered Ms. Parker's version of the night's events and an explanation for her failure to stop or call police.

Ms. Wattley said that when Ms. Parker's car struck the man on dark, slick Davis Street with temperatures just above freezing, she thought a brick had been thrown at the car. Ms. Parker stopped and looked around from inside the car but couldn't see anything, the attorney said.

Ms. Parker drove about 10 blocks to a friend's home and discovered the side mirror dangling from her 1991 BMW loaner car.

"That was the first inkling she had that maybe it was something more than someone throwing a brick at her car," Ms. Wattley said.

After a friend went back to the scene and saw emergency vehicles and a person lying in the street, Ms. Parker became "very upset, very hysterical that she may have hurt someone," the attorney said.

Friends, including Ms. Wattley, gathered in the early-morning hours, concerned that Ms. Parker might try to hurt herself, the attorney said. Ms. Parker, who made a suicide attempt in October, has continued to struggle with depression this year, Ms. Wattley said.

The attorney contacted police about 4 a.m., told them where the badly dented car was and took Ms. Parker for a psychiatric assessment later that morning.

"My concerns that this could push her into another suicidal episode were valid," Ms. Wattley said, adding that Ms. Parker was admitted to a psychiatric facility for several days and is still being treated.

Dallas police Detective L.D. Kimberlin, the lead investigator in the case, said Ms. Parker or her attorney said four times that they would meet with police, but never did.

Ms. Parker wasn't arrested until last month when the detective was able to identify and find a friend of Ms. Parker's who was with her shortly after the crash.

The woman told police that Ms. Parker clearly had been drinking and had acknowledged driving the car.

"She wants to do the right thing" under the law, the detective said of the witness, whom police have declined to name.

Detective Kimberlin, a nearly 20-year veteran who works in the vehicle crimes unit, said the investigation involved so many uncooperative witnesses and was so time-consuming that she "thought for a while this was going to be my career case."

Ms. Parker, free on $10,000 bond, deserves a jail term, she said.

The victim, a black man in his early 30s, died about a week after he was hit.

He was buried in an unmarked grave by the county, and the hope of identifying him has waned. Besides a metal jaw implant, he had large, distinctive tattoos on both arms, including an Egyptian cross with a snake and the Greek letters Omega Rho Psi.

In 1992, Ms. Parker moved to Dallas from her native Memphis, Tenn., where her parents died of cancer when she was 16. Her brother, 14 years older, is jazz star Charles Lloyd.

In Dallas, her large home and gardens have welcomed artists and hosted fundraisers.

Her work has been used on the sets of TV sitcoms and movies and hangs in private and public collections.

Ms. Wattley said the victim's missing identity remains deeply disturbing to Ms. Parker.

"This is devastating," she said. "The indictment isn't what's devastating. The incident is devastating."
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1738 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:28 am

Teen who says his life is in danger faces deportation to China

HOUSTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) – A teenager who says smugglers in China have threatened to kill him and his family faces deportation Friday unless a federal appeals court grants an emergency stay while it decides whether to reopen his case.

Lawyers representing Young Zheng, 17, want to prove that if he is returned to China, he and his family face death at the hands of the smugglers, to whom he owes about $50,000. He has been in the U.S. since January 2003.

"I will be killed if I return to China," the youth told The Associated Press in a phone interview from the federal juvenile detention facility. "I owe the smugglers money, and they will find me."

Young had been living with an uncle in Akron, Ohio, and attended high school there until being detained in April when his final deportation order came through. He had a 4.0 grade point average.

Houston lawyers John Sullivan and Hannah Sibiski are representing him pro bono through an initiative of the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children. They asked the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 27 for the emergency stay.

"This is an emergency situation," Mr. Sullivan said. "His life is in danger."

In a brief filed Tuesday opposing the emergency stay, the government argued the court has no reason to reopen the case. Justice Department attorney Shelley Goad did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Young came to the United States after his father asked smugglers to arrange his trip. He said his father chose to send him away from China because as the second child born to the family, he faced "extreme discrimination."

China limits most families to one child.

Officials discovered his fake passport when he arrived at the airport in Newark, N.J., and he was eventually released to his uncle as long as he checked in periodically with federal officials.

But the smugglers began calling his uncle and demanding the more than $50,000 still owed to them. He said they also went to his family's home in China and threatened them after they said they did not have the money.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1739 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:30 am

Five departments battle Southlake blaze

SOUTHLAKE, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Southlake firefighters requested help from four neighboring departments to battle a stubborn blaze at a house in the 800 block of Potomac Place Tuesday morning.

A department spokeswoman said flames were shooting out of the roof when the first units arrived shortly after the alarm went out at 11 a.m.

Aerial views of the scene showed the fire at the 4,200 square foot home was still out of control more than 30 minutes later.

No injuries were reported.

An aerial ladder truck from the Keller Fire Department along with equipment and manpower from Bedford, Grapevine and Colleyville departments assisted.

This is the area's second major house fire in three days. Colleyville firefighters battled a blaze in the 2400 block of Carlisle Avenue early Sunday morning. Investigators blamed lightning for igniting a natural gas line in the attic.

Damage to contents and property was estimated at $2 million.

WFAA-TV and WFAA.com contributed to this report.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter

User avatar
TexasStooge
Category 5
Category 5
Posts: 38127
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
Contact:

#1740 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:33 am

Hazardous decisions ahead

Traffic spurs need for new truck routes, more inspections

By TONY HARTZEL / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Twenty years ago, the Dallas-Fort Worth region became a national leader when it adopted ordinances restricting through-truck traffic carrying hazardous materials to a loop that avoided the urban cores of Dallas and Fort Worth. But the urban cores have spread, with the addition of nearly 2 million people.

Now, North Texas faces several challenges to the system that features the once-rural Interstate 20 as the backbone of the hazardous cargo route network. A solution to move the traffic farther out might be at least a decade away, planners say.

Three major truck crashes in two weeks have again highlighted hazardous cargo safety. In two fiery truck crashes on I-20 and State Highway 183, officials have determined that the drivers did not break any laws governing which roads they were using to haul dangerous materials. But on Monday, a diesel tanker truck illegally using Woodall Rodgers Freeway overturned, shutting northbound Central Expressway for hours.

At some of its busiest spots, the I-20 route has more than 140 percent more traffic than it did in 1986. Although 165,000 vehicles – including 16,000 big trucks – now use it every day, the region has nowhere else to send dangerous shipments traveling through the area. In addition, a large number of hazardous cargo shipments – mostly tankers carrying thousands of gallons of gasoline – begin or end in the urban area, allowing truckers to use virtually any highway or road to get to their destinations.

"We recognize the growth, but from a road geometrics standpoint, it is the best facility and still the least congested," said Dan Kessler, assistant director of transportation at North Central Texas Council of Governments and one of the authors of the hazardous cargo policy 20 years ago.

Planners have started looking at detours around the urban area, but any new outer highway pavement is a decade or more away. More truck inspections and increased law enforcement patrols to ensure motorist safety are options being studied for the interim.

North Texas planner say the leading permanent option lies with the Trans-Texas Corridor, a state plan to build new toll roads and rail lines. Supporters say it would relieve congested interstates and provide alternate routes for truckers on I-20 and for a growing number of hazardous cargo shipments that travel directly through urban areas on rail lines.

"There is no place farther out right now" than I-20, said Tarrant County Commissioner Marti Van Ravenswaay, whose district includes I-20 around southern Arlington. "In the 1960s, this was for the future. We are now living in that future of the 1960s."

Route born of need

North Texas' primary hazardous cargo route, which uses I-20 to the south of downtown, LBJ Freeway to the east and north of downtown, and Loop 12 to the west of downtown, was born of necessity in the mid-1980s. Planners looked at hazardous spills and fires, the danger zones produced by each and how many people they would affect. They also considered the design and age of the highways that would be used.

Then and now, those factors led to the use of the hazardous cargo route, Mr. Kessler said.

Monday's crash near the increasingly residential downtown Dallas area illustrates the potential danger.

"If it had been gasoline, it would have been ugly," said Lt. Joel Lavender of the Dallas Fire-Rescue department. Gasoline is more flammable than diesel fuel. "They just had a bad fire last weekend in Irving. This could have been the same thing, except it would have been on a weekday near downtown Dallas."

Massive explosions and intense fires marked the two previous crashes, which killed one person but caused remarkably little damage to the highways. The driver in the I-20 crash on May 24 was traveling from East Texas to Houston with a load of industrial waste, and he was using I-20 to avoid the urban core. In the May 28 crash on Highway 183, police said, driver Kevin Walton was hauling a load of 8,000 gallons of gasoline to and from points in the North Texas area. He died when he swerved to avoid a pickup and crashed at MacArthur Boulevard.

With no alternate routes available and truck traffic growing about 7 percent annually thanks in large part to the North American Free Trade Agreement, some officials say local cities and counties might be forced to consider additional truck inspections and law enforcement patrols to ensure motorist safety.

But with increased enforcement comes the question of how to pay for it.

That question already has the attention of the council of governments and the Regional Transportation Council, which oversees most spending of federal highway funds.

"If there is a problem out there in regards to enforcement, I don't think the Regional Transportation Council will have a problem doing something about it," said Michael Morris, director of transportation for the council of governments.

Enforcement sparse

Enforcement of hazardous cargo regulations has been sparse in Dallas, where the task falls to the Fire-Rescue department. Fire officials could recall issuing only one citation before Monday. That ticket went to a driver whose truck overturned last fall on I-30 near downtown, snarling weekend traffic all day. The driver of the truck in Monday's crash will receive a ticket and face up to a $2,000 fine.

"We'll try to increase our enforcement. It's something we all need to look into," said Deputy Chief Joe Pierce of the Dallas Fire-Rescue department.

Truckers often are viewed as the bad guys even when they don't cause the crashes, said Bill Webb, president and chief executive officer of the Texas Motor Transportation Association, which represents trucking companies.

"We will never be opposed to getting bad trucks and bad drivers off the road," Mr. Webb said. "But we want as much effort on getting bad cars and bad drivers off the road."

In the case of the crash on Highway 183, "What are we going to do about the drunk driver who hit him [Mr. Walton]? The problem was not that a truck was there. The problem was that a drunk was there and hit him," Mr. Webb said.

The truck driver in the I-20 crash fell asleep, and the driver in Monday's crash was driving too fast through a hazardous cargo prohibited zone when he crashed on a ramp curve, authorities said.

Tanker drivers must pass a written Texas Department of Public Safety test before they can carry hazardous cargo. Also, they undergo extensive training from employers on things such as how to handle a half-empty tanker sloshing with thousands of gallons of flammable liquid, Mr. Webb said.

"As an industry, their track record is pretty remarkable," Mr. Kessler said. "We know this is a challenge. We know the region is growing. By definition, we have more commodities flowing in and out of here all the time. We just have to try and strike a balance between safety and the economic needs of the region."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS

Regulations restrict transportation of many categories of hazardous cargo, though some are restricted only in certain quantities. The categories are:

•Explosives

•Gases (flammable and nonflammable)

•Flammable and combustible liquids

•Flammable solids

•Oxidizers

•Poisons

•Radioactive materials

•Corrosives

•Certain consumer commodities

Some examples of common hazardous materials, including some items that had been removed from the hazardous materials list but that have been added back:

•Paint, lacquer, enamel, stain, shellac and varnishes

•Perfumery produces with flammable solvents

•Printing ink

•Flammable resin solution

•Rubber solution

•Liquid tars, including road asphalt and oils

•Liquid wood preservatives

•Cleaning compounds

•Matches
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STATE INSPECTIONS

Texas troopers began inspecting thousands of commercial vehicles statewide Tuesday, the kickoff of an initiative that will continue through Thursday.

Roadcheck 2005 is a 72-hour program that involves Texas Department of Public Safety officials stopping commercial vehicles to inspect safety equipment, checking driver's licenses and seeking possible drug or alcohol use.

According to the agency, Roadcheck 2004 completed nearly 4,000 inspections, leading to the removal of 157 drivers and almost 1,200 vehicles from service.

The Roadcheck program is part of a national effort from Mexico to Canada designed to reduce commercial vehicle highway fatalities through increased vehicle safety.
0 likes   
Weather Enthusiast since 1991.
- Facebook
- Twitter


Return to “Off Topic”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 150 guests