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Texas News: November 16-30, 1996
- 11/18 - Texas Considering Water Law Changes: Swelling populations
and long droughts have Texas officials considering changes in state laws
on the ownership and conservation of water.
....Corpus Christi, thirsty from a severe drought, and Austin, worried about
having enough water for its rising population, are a case in point.
....The two cities recently battled over the coastal city's efforts to transfer
water from the Lower Colorado River, Austin's major source of water, to
the Coastal Bend.
....."Nothing is more critical to the state's future than water,"
said Mike Hailey, a spokesman for Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock. "We are committed
to doing everything within our power to have a plan ready for debate and
implementation."
.....Bullock's office is working on possible legislation with representatives
of House Speaker Pete Laney and Gov. George W. Bush, as well as state officials
from the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission.
- 11/18 - Family Reeling from Deaths: A family coping with the
loss of a 42-year-old mother will now bury the woman's 14-year-old son and
his 17-year-old cousin.
.....A funeral is planned today for Dustin Caffey and his cousin, John Brewster,
who were killed in a collision hours after the funeral for Caffey's mother
Friday.
.....The boys' deaths bring to four the number of Union Hill High School
students who have died violently this year. One student at the tiny, rural
school northwest of Gilmer was shot. ....Another one died in a traffic accident
last spring, the week he was supposed to graduate.
....Counselors from other school districts and ministers will be brought
in to help students cope with the deaths, said Sharon Richardson, principal
of the Union Hill elementary and high schools. Combined enrollment for the
district is about 380.
.....While dealing with the boys' deaths, the family was still waiting for
results of an autopsy on Jeanette Caffey, 42. She was found dead in bed
Tuesday morning by one of her three sons, Jason, 17.
....The family suspects heart failure, said Rev. Madison Caffey, Dustin
Caffey's uncle.
- 11/18 - Airport Sign Trial Coming to Close: Closing arguments
are to begin today in a $50 million lawsuit brought by two executives who
blame large gate information signs at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
for their serious car accident.
....The men contend that American Airlines was negligent when it built the
five-story-high signs on the airport's main thoroughfare. They said testing
showed the signs were dangerous.
.....Anwar Soliman and Ralph Roberts, top executives of the California-based
Grandy's chain, were injured in 1993 when their car rear-ended another vehicle
that had stopped in the traffic lane in front of the signs.
.....Their lawyers contend that car had stopped because the car in front
of it had stopped so the occupants could read one of the signs.
.....Solimon suffered a brain injury and nerve damage. Roberts broke his
pelvis and suffered facial disfigurement.
.....American has maintained the signs provide a valuable service and that
the car accident stemmed from driver inattention.
- 11/17 - Prison Officials OK Christian-based Program
Texas prison officials have approved bringing a Christian-based program
to a Houston-area lockup and hope the unique volunteer ministry will later
help inmates lead crime-free lives.
The two-year pilot project will be operated at no cost to the prison system
by Prison Fellowship Ministries, an international volunteer program founded
by Watergate figure Charles Colson.
The program will be at a minimum-security state prison unit near Sugar Land.
It will offer intensive counseling based on Christian beliefs for selected
prisoners who are within 18 months of release.
As envisioned, 200 volunteer inmates will transfer to the prison for a values-based
program to study "restoration with their family, community and Jesus
Christ," the program proposal states.
- 11/17 - Evidence Implicates Routier 's Husband
Newly released evidence suggests that Darin Routier might have helped his
wife, Darlie, either fatally stab their two young sons or cover up the crime,
prosecutors say.
The evidence, detailed in court papers to be filed Monday, includes head
hairs matching Darin Routier's on the murder weapon, a knife that Mrs. Routier
reported finding on the family's laundry room floor, The Dallas Morning
News reported in a copyright story in Saturday's editions.
Assistant District Attorney Greg Davis said in the court papers that investigators
also found fibers from Routier's tennis shoes that match fibers from a sock
stained with the boys' blood.
DNA tests previously found traces of Mrs. Routier's skin in the sock, which
investigators retrieved from an alley behind the couple's home in the Dallas
suburb of Rowlett.
Routier denied any wrongdoing.
- 11/17 - $18 Million Fisheries Center Opening
Athens is about to have its own fun park for fishing fanatics.
The Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center, an $18 million aquarium and educational
center, opens Tuesday. It is committed to the research of underwater life
in Texas' freshwater streams, ponds and lakes.
A number of public organizations, including the Parks and Wildlife Department,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the city of Athens, funded the park.
The complex has 300,000 gallons of aquarium displays with fish in their
natural environment.
Texas Parks and Wildlife officials hope the center becomes a mecca for Texas
fishermen interested in learning more about their passion. They say there's
more to fishing than just a line and a hook.
- 11/17 - Poll: Texans Want Less Immigration
Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.
Not so fast say a majority of Texans who favor decreasing legal immigration
into the United States, according to a voter poll.
Another one-third supports keeping it about the same, while less than one
in 10 would like to see an increase in the number of legal entries.
The results basically mirrored voter polls conducted in California and New
York, although Texas led the three border states in favoring to shrink legal
immigration rates.
- 11/17 - USS Gonzalez Hits Reef
The newly-commissioned USS Gonzalez, the only active-duty Navy ship named
after a Hispanic, has been sidelined after apparently running into a reef
in the Caribbean Sea.
The $900 million guided missile destroyer reported that while it was getting
under way near the island of St. Martin, it struck an uncharted underwater
object, said Petty Officer 1st Class Bob Conn, public affairs officer in
Norfolk, Va., the warship's home port.
"What happened is it hit a reef," Conn said of the Thursday morning
incident in which two crew members received minor cuts and bruises.
The ship proceeded under its own power to Puerto Rico, where divers are
assessing the damage. The Navy was also conducting an investigation
- 11/16 - Texas Lawmakers Look for
Ways to Protect Children Better
- 11/16 - Morales May Run Again: Former Democratic U.S. Senate
candidate Victor Morales is not ready to give up his white pickup truck
quite yet.
....While Morales said he would return to Mesquite to resume teaching government
at Poteet High School beginning Jan. 6, he announced today that he will
continue to accept campaign contributions and has not ruled out another
race for public office.
....He said he initially ruled out another race, but supporters kept encouraging
him to run again.
- 11/16 - Food Stamp Reform Hitting Texas: State officials will
begin notifying thousands of unemployed Texans that they are no longer eligible
for food stamps next week, a prospect that concerns Gov. George W. Bush.
....Under the 1996 federal welfare reform law, adults under 50 who have
no children will be cut off from food stamps if they do not work at least
20 hours a week. Texans affected by that change will begin getting notice
next Friday that they have three months to find at least 20 hours of work
each week.
....The law will not effect people with children and new applicants must
meet the work requirement to get benefits.
....Bush this week said he's concerned about what will happed in areas where
unemployment is high. One-fifth of food stamp recipients live in counties
where unemployment rates of more than 10 percent, according to state unemployment
figures.
- 11/16 - TBCJ Votes for Limited Response: The Texas Board of
Criminal Justice voted Friday to limit its response to riots and escapes
at privately operated prisons and to charge the for-profit companies if
state employees are needed in such situations.
....Meeting in Abilene, the nine-member board voted unanimously to require
the 38 private prisons in Texas to contact their local law enforcement agencies
to assess the need for state revenues to be spent to help quell riots or
recapture escapees.
...."It gives us a third party assessment to determine if we're actually
needed so that the state's resources are not called upon until the situation
warrants it," said board member John Ward, of Gatesville.
....The move comes after a series of escapes and riots at privately run
prisons in Texas. The non-government prisons house many inmates who have
committed crimes in states where there is not enough prison space. 11/15
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All content copyright 1996, Knight-Ridder/Tribune Media Services,
Associated Press, The Abilene Reporter-News and Reporter OnLine
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