Texas News: September 1-15, 1996

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Texas News Archives (searchable)

• 9/15 - Ft. Hood Soldiers Gear Up for Persian Gulf Journey
• 9/15 - Man Wrongly Diagnosed with HIV Sues Lab
• 9/15 - Former Plano Mayor Pleads Guilty in Loan Probe
• 9/14 - Permanent School Fund Investors Get Rid of Tobacco Holdings
• 9/14 - Prison Board Chairman Says Problems Have Been Corrected
• 9/14 - Prosecutor May Seek Death Penalty in Cadets Murder Case
• 9/14 - Marlboro Man's Widow Suing Tobacco Company
• 9/13 - Group urges lawmakers to keep gambling laws at arm's length
• 9/13 - Maloney seeks re-election, but wants to change election system
• 9/13 - Hispanic education woes studied: Insufficient school funding and segregation of Hispanic students in poor schools are contributing to Latino education troubles, a presidential commission reported Thursday.
  ...."Our children are having problems in school. That is due to no cause of their own. ... It is not a level playing field," said Ana Margarita "Cha" Guzman, vice president of Austin Community College.
  ....Guzman addressed the National Summit on Latino Children and presented findings of the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, which she chairs.
• 9/13 - Mesquite sizzling over burger ad: It's probably a good thing they don't sell Hardee's hamburgers in this east Dallas suburb.
  
  ....The city is upset over its image as portrayed in a television commercial for the hamburger chain.
  ....The commercial shows a rustic desert town that's home to hayseed ostrich farms and billboards featuring two-headed steers. The commercial touts the chain's new Mesquite-flavored bacon cheeseburger.
  ....In one scene, two Hardee's employees drive past a beat-up city of Mesquite sign, surrounded by desert brush and far-away mountains.
• 9/12 - New Algebra Test Tough on Texas Students
• 9/11 - Bullock Calls For Investigation Into Nursing Home Board
• 9/11 (early) - State Prison System "Great Big Mess:" The state's prison system "is a great big mess" and dumping the agency's nine-member governing board would help to fix it, Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock said Tuesday.
  
  ...."There has been enough questions about the board, members. I just can't justify it," Bullock said. "I would replace it by a person appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate and tell him, 'Go clean it up.' It's as simple as that."
  ....The lieutenant governor, who oversees the Texas Senate, said he has discussed the idea with Gov. George W. Bush and TDCJ Executive Director Wayne Scott. He wouldn't say how either responded.
  ....Allan Polunsky, chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, said it would be up to lawmakers to decide. He said it would not be appropriate for him to say whether he believes the board should be abolished.
• 9/11 (early) - Abandoned Dog Investigation Continues: Anderson County authorities are continuing an investigation into the discovery of 16 abandoned racing dogs found near death in East Texas.
  
  ....The greyhounds were discovered last week near Bethel and were malnourished and injured, officials said.
  ...."They looked like they had just run themselves to death," said Liz Walker, manager of the Anderson County Humane Society.
  ....Ms. Walker said some of the greyhounds could not walk, were underweight and worm-infected. Others had swollen legs and sores.
  ....The dogs that were found were picked up this weekend by Greyhound Pets of America, a national non-profit organization that places retired racing greyhounds. The dogs will be delivered to chapters in Dallas, Houston, Austin and Hillsboro, officials said.
• 9/11 (early) - Black Church Set on Fire: A fire set deliberately this morning at a predominantly black church caused $75,000 in damage to the building and $25,000 to the facility's contents, Dallas Fire Department officials said.
  
  ....Investigators were looking into the blaze at the Church of the Living God in South Dallas, said Chief Dick Langran of the Dallas Fire Department's arson investigation division.
  ...."We feel comfortable in the fact that it's set," Langran said. "We'll be combing through it some more."
  ....The blaze, reported at 12:55 a.m., was extinguished about an hour later.
  ...The back part of the church was engulfed by flames, he said. The sanctuary sustained smoke and water damage.
• 9/11 (early) - Tech Ag Mediation Program to Survive: A Texas Tech program that provides mediation for farmers and ranchers with delinquent loans likely will stay afloat another year.
  
  ....The Texas Agricultural Mediation Program was the subject of a critical report from a federal agency in March. But Kent Kay, the program's director, said Tuesday he expects to receive a recertification letter this week from the Farm Service Agency in Washington, D.C.
  ....Kay said he was told by Ronald Cody, assistant to the administrator of the Farm Service Agency, that the federal official would send the letter after it was signed.
• 9/10 - Arlington Police Looking for Abduction Witness: Arlington police made a public plea Monday in the search for possible witnesses to the abduction of a 9-year-old girl last January.
  
  
  ....Authorities especially want to talk to a woman named "Anna" who might have seen something.
  .....Amber Hagerman was dragged screaming from her bicycle while riding in an abandoned parking lot last Jan. 13. Her body was found days later in a creek bed, her throat slashed.
  ....Police said the woman named Anna is Hispanic and between 40 and 50 years old. She has shoulder-length dyed blonde or orange hair, weighs about 180 pounds and stands between 5-foot-4 and 5-foot-8.
  .....Other details about the possible witness: She drives a small, white car, claims to work at or near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and has a son in his 20s who uses a wheelchair.
  .....Police believe Anna or people she knows might have information about the abduction. Officers said they would appeal to the Hispanic community to help locate the woman and urge her to come forward.
  .....Witnesses to the crime were asked to contact Arlington police at 817-459-5379.
• 9/10 (early) - Deadbeat Parents Fork Over $33 Million: The threat of having state licenses suspended brought child support payments totaling more than $33 million from deadbeat Texas parents, the attorney general's office reported Monday.
  
  ....The license suspension sanction, allowed by a law that took effect Sept. 1, 1995, was responsible for payments being made in 32,884 child support cases, the agency said.
  ....The suspension program collected a total of $33.2 million, considerably more than the $20 million initially projected.
  ....Attorney General Dan Morales said that his office also suspended 208 licenses that were issued to 204 deadbeat parents.
  ....The majority of those were drivers' licenses. The noncustodial parents involved in those cases were responsible for withholding $2,061,961 in support from their children.
• 9/10 (early) - Cheerleader Mom Pleads No Contest: "Cheerleader Mom" Wanda Webb Holloway pleaded no contest Monday and received 10 years in prison but could be eligible for freedom in six months.
  
  ....Her plea came less than a month before she was to be retried on charges she hired a hit man to kill the mother of her daughter's cheerleading rival.
  ...."Everyone was in concurrence that if she were willing to do this, it would be the best for everybody," explained Jack Zimmermann, Mrs. Holloway's attorney. "It's obviously not the best for her, because it involves being in custody."
  ....Mrs. Holloway could be eligible for probation in six months, her lawyers say. Prosecutors say they will fight such a request.
• 9/10 (early) - Texas Home to Exotic Animals: Texas may be better known for its cattle and horses, but the state also is home to nearly 200,000 exotic hoofed animals. The list includes mostly deer and antelope, but also giraffes, elephants, zebras and hippopotamuses.
  
  ....The Texas Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that a survey of the exotic animals counted 198,060 in the state.
  ....The May 1 survey, sponsored by the Exotic Wildlife Association, included farms and ranches, zoos, petting zoos, safaris, circuses and other operations that own exotic hoofed livestock.
  ....The animals were reported in 194 of the state's 254 counties, with a total of 1,007 operations owning them, the statistics service said.
  ....The largest inventory was deer, with 105,886 head reported. Second place went to antelope, with 51,498.
  ....The inventory found numerous other species as well, including: 30,248 head of exotic sheep, 5,110 exotic goats, 1,759 buffalo, 1,387 llamas, 646 zebras and 437 gazelles.
  ....Also reported were smaller numbers of camels, exotic cattle, elephants, giraffes, gnus and wildebeests, hippopotamuses, exotic oxen and rhinoceroses.
• 9/10 (early) - Midshipman Friend of Suspect Resigns: A midshipman who described himself as a close friend of a Naval Academy classmate charged with murder said he heard her talk about the slaying for weeks, but never told authorities.
  
  ....Jay Guild turned in a resignation letter this morning and was expected to move out later in the day, said academy spokesman Scott Allen.
  ....Guild, 18, had told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he was leaving the academy rather than face dismissal for conduct violations.
  ...."We wouldn't speculate on what would happen if he were to stay at the academy," Allen said.
  ....Guild, of Kankakee, Ill., said he stayed silent because he initially believed that fellow plebe Diane Zamora, 18, was lying about her involvement in the December slaying of Adrianne Jones.
• 9/10 (early) - Recycling Creating Jobs in Texas: Recycling isn't just for the environment any more. It has created more than 20,000 jobs and adds $2.8 billion to the Texas economy, according to a study released Monday.
  
  ...."Recycling is improving our state's economy as well as improving our state's environment," said Barry McBee, chairman of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission.
  ...."Recycling conserves natural resources. Recycling can save money. Recycling can even make money for businesses and for communities and for individuals in our state."
  ....McBee released the study, prepared for the Southern States Waste Management Coalition, as the TNRCC and a statewide recycling coalition announced the third annual Texas Recycles Day pledge drive.
  ....In the drive, Texans who promise to start or increase recycling have a chance to win prizes at a drawing at the Texas Capitol Nov. 15. Grand prize is a Jeep Wrangler.
• 9/9 - Nursing Home Board Hasn't Disciplined Anyone Since Inception
• 9/9 - KayBay Has Plan to Save LBJ Offices: U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has proposed a plan to save the former Austin offices of one of the greatest Democrats in the state's history, Lyndon Johnson.
  
  ....Mrs. Hutchison says she is urging federal and state officials to preserve the Austin office as it was when Johnson used it during and after his presidency.
  ....The space - more than 2,000 square feet decorated in lime and gold - should be saved to "preserve an era we will never see again," she said.
  ....However, she said she is recommending that the space be rented for public events.
• 9/9 - Rockefeller Museum Ground Broken: The children of former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller have broken ground on a new Latin American folk-art museum to be named for their father.
  
  ....The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Folk Art is intended to contain a 2,500-piece folk-art collection collected by the late New York governor and longtime U.S. envoy to Latin America.
  ....The $11 million museum will be a three-story east wing to the San Antonio Museum of Art and is scheduled to open in the fall of 1998.
• 9/9 - Cold Front Cools Texans: A weak cold front moved over Texas Sunday, bringing a welcome cooling trend along with some showers and thunderstorms across the region.
  
  ....In North Texas, a few thunderstorms were developing Sunday and afternoon temperatures ranged from 83 at Wichita Falls to 93 at Fort Hood.
  ....Skies were partly to mostly cloudy with a few storms across all but the mid-Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. Temperatures ranged from the 70s in rain-cooled areas to 80s and 90s elsewhere.
  ....Scattered showers and thunderstorms developed over West Texas with the remnants of a weak cold front stalled over the region. Temperatures were in the 80s.
• 9/8 - Report: Texas has $2.3 billion surplus as fiscal year ends
• 9/8 - Texas Democrats Getting a Sense of Presidential Opportunity This Year
• 9/8 - Captures, Rain Dampens Illegal Immigrant Death Toll
• 9/7 (early) - Cadets Entangled in Murder: The murder of a popular 16-year-old athlete has entangled two military academies and will result in charges against a U.S. Air Force Academy cadet and a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman.
  
  
  ....Adrianne Jones was shot in the face and head last Dec. 4, her clothed body left lying on a farm road near her hometown of Mansfield, a small town near Fort Worth.
  ....Police say the blond soccer player once dated cadet David Graham, 18, of Mansfield, who was awaiting extradition Friday from Colorado, where the Air Force Academy is located.
  Grand Prairie Deputy Police Chief Brad Geary said Graham will be charged with murder when he arrives in Texas.
  ....Geary said Graham wrote a statement earlier this week saying he had killed his former girlfriend and that his current girlfriend was an accomplice.
• 9/7 (early) - Hillary Visits San Antonio School: Hillary Rodham Clinton praised adult mentors and the students they work with during a visit Friday to a middle school on the outskirts of San Antonio.
  
  ...."I believe so strongly that every child can learn and every child has special gifts and that it is up to us - starting in a child's family, but in the larger community as well - to help each child realize that potential," the first lady said at Southwest Enrichment Center.
  ....Mrs. Clinton, on the second day of a four-city campaign swing through Texas, toured a library known as the "Eagle's Nest" and met with students and their adult mentors. The mentors are civilian and military workers from nearby Kelly Air Force Base.
  ....More than 600 Kelly AFB mentors are participating at 10 of 11 campuses in the Southwest Independent School District.
• 9/6 (early) - Shrimp Virus Back: A virus that decimated Texas shrimp farms last year has re-emerged at several coastal hatcheries, but is not as widespread or virulent as the previous outbreak, wildlife officials said Thursday.
  
  
  ....Still, the disease could strain an industry that lost millions of dollars in last year's disaster and was forced to cut this season's stock in half.
  ...."Last year we had a 90 percent mortality rate. This year it's not nearly that high, but we don't have nearly as much stocked," said Fritz Jaenike, whose company operates 30 shrimp ponds at Arroyo Aquaculture Association in Rio Hondo.
  ....The farm is one of six along the Texas coast whose shrimp have tested positive for the Taura virus, a mysterious disease discovered in Ecuadorian shrimp ponds in the early 1990s.
  ....The virus is not harmful to humans, but is deadly for crustaceans. It appeared in Texas shrimp ponds for the first time last year, killing off nearly all of the captive-raised shrimp along the Gulf Coast.
• 9/6 (early) - Insurance Co-op Tops $1 Million: The health insurance purchasing cooperative created by the Legislature to help small employers purchase policies has topped $1 million in monthly premiums and now covers 8,592 people.
  
  ....The cooperative, the Texas Insurance Purchasing Alliance, said Thursday that coverage is being provided for 4,932 employees and 3,660 dependents in 697 Texas companies.
• 9/5 - Supreme Court Denies Texas Redistricting Appeal
• 9/5 - Angry Nursing Home Advocates, Democrats Seek Bush's Help
• 9/5 - Lawmaker: Role COGs Play in Distributing Funds Needs to Be Re-Examined
• 9/5 - Old LBJ Offices May be Lost: A glimpse into President Lyndon Johnson's life could disappear from Austin's federal building if bureaucrats have their way and replace his offices.
  
  ....The General Services Adminis- tration, which is in charge of allocating space, would like to transform some of the two dozen offices Johnson and his staff used until 1971 into offices for GSA administrators and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
  ....The Texas Historical Commis- sion, which is considering de- claring the area off limits to change, would have to approve the switch.
  ...."We're trying to find out if anyone cares about this space," said Tere O'Connell, an assistant director with the historical com- mission's architecture division.
  ....Former U.S. Rep. Jake Pickle, D-Austin, had to thwart several attempts to take over the space.
• 9/4 - Accused Rapist Was High On Drugs: The man police claim responsible for raping more than a dozen women in Austin is addicted to methamphetamines and was high on drugs during the attacks, investigators say.
  
  
  ....Christopher Ted Dye, 33, has been linked to 15 rapes in Austin since 1993. He was arrested Saturday for violating his parole for a burglary conviction and has confessed to all but one of the attacks.
  ....Police credit patrol officer Joanna Gerbrands, who was put on the case full time three weeks ago, with discovering through a computer search that the suspect had made specific comments during the attacks.
  ....Dye, an unemployed auto mechanic, was among one of about 100 suspects in the attacks because a burglary he was convicted of placed him in the area where two of the rapes had occurred.
  ....His physical description also matched that of the suspect's.
• 9/4 - Lubbock Mayor Can Run as Democrat: Lubbock Mayor David Langston cannot be prohibited from running as a Democrat for the Texas Senate in an upcoming special election even though he voted in the last Republican primary, the attorney general's office said Tuesday.
  
  .....Langston, a Democrat, has been criticized by both parties for voting in the March Republican primary. The seat he is hoping to fill was vacated last month by John Montford, D-Lubbock, who resigned to become the first chancellor of the Texas Tech University System.
  ....Rep. Debra Danburg, D-Houston and head of the House Committee on Elections, asked Attorney General Dan Morales whether Langston was eligible to run on the Democratic ticket even though he voted in the GOP primary. An aide in her office said the question was prompted by the Texas Democratic Party.
• 9/4 - Holiday traffic death count edges toward 40: At least 39 people died on Texas streets and highways during the Labor Day holiday weekend, one less death than the number estimated by state troopers before the 78-hour period began.
  ....The total could climb since any other victims who may die within 30 days of their injuries also will be listed for the Labor Day period.
  ....The Texas Department of Public Safety's final report included three deaths in one car-train collision in Hale Center.
  ....The DPS monitored traffic conditions from 6 p.m. Friday to midnight Monday, with all available troopers on the highways in an effort to reduce the toll, Department of Public Safety officials said.
  ....In 1995, 27 people died on Texas roads over the Labor Day weekend. Seven other people died later of injuries suffered in holiday wrecks, for a total of 34.
• 9/3 - Old Indian Items Coming into View at Reduced Aquarena Springs
• 9/3 - Man Confesses to Series of Rapes: An unemployed auto mechanic with a criminal record has confessed to 14 rapes in the Austin area dating to 1993, police say.
  
  ...Police Sgt. Bruce Boardman said Christopher Ted Dye, 33, of Austin, is suspected of committing 15 rapes, the most by a single person in the city's history.
  ...Boardman said Dye wasn't prepared to confess to the 15th sexual assault because he couldn't remember enough details to corroborate the evidence police had.
• 9/2 - Mystery of Likeable Cowboy's Death Solved
• 9/2 - Drought? What Drought? Amazing what seven days of rain will do to a drought. ...."The pastures - the rain just turned them around, and the pecan trees are looking better," Midland rancher David Harris told the Midland Reporter-Telegram.
  ...."I have never seen it change as fast as it has," he said.
  ....Before last week, when Hurricane Dolly hit Mexico and spawned thunderstorms across Texas' parched land, the drought had driven lean cattle to an earlier market to save ranchers' hides.
  ....But Harris' ranching operation near Spraberry, southeast of Midland, got a gift of about four inches of rain from Dolly, and he's now gotten 7.5 inches of rain since Aug. 12. That's more than the 6.24 inches of rain that was recorded at Midland International through Saturday.
  ...."Most of it fell real slow and just soaked in," Harris said.
• 9/1 - Fewer Boating Deaths: Far fewer Texans have died in boating accidents this summer, officials said as the season's last holiday weekend got under way.
  
  ....The number of boating-related deaths fell from 66 in fiscal 1995 to 26 in fiscal 1996, a 61 percent decrease. Fiscal years run from the beginning of September to the end of the following August.
  ....Officials attribute the improvement partly to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department safety crackdown. And the drought, they say, lowered lake levels and kept some visitors away.
  ....Authorities said they had charged 161 Texans so far this year with boating while intoxicated, more than double last year's total. They vowed to be on high alert over the Labor Day weekend for drunken boaters and swimmers.
• 9/1 - Car Plows into Crowd; Two Dead: Two people were killed and at least 13 injured early Saturday when a car plunged into a crowd of youths standing in a street to watch an impromptu drag race, officials said.
  ....Two people were in critical condition and six others in serious condition at Parkland Memorial Hospital after the 1:40 a.m. accident in north Dallas, said Parkland spokeswoman Gina Woodward.
  ....Three people were in stable condition at Parkland, Ms. Woodward said. Two others were in stable condition at Baylor University Medical Center, said Baylor spokeswoman Debbie Hesse. ....The Baylor patients were a 19-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl, Ms. Hesse said.
  The driver of the car, whose name was not available, was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, said Fire Department spokeswoman Sherrie Wilson.
• 9/1 - Women Get Shell Settlement Money: Seven women denied oil-field jobs by Shell Western E&P because they failed a physical strength test will split $132,000 from the company as part of a lawsuit settlement in Houston.
  ....Earlier this month, Shell Western signed a consent agreement with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to end the suit filed in 1989.
  ....The agency contended that Shell Western violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because its pre-employment physical strength test discriminated against women applying for entry-level oil-field jobs.
  ....The settlement also included a promise from Shell Western to study whether it needs to continue the tests. Part of the study will be an evaluation by an independent consultant.
  In addition, the Shell Oil Co. subsidiary has agreed to pay $10,000 to cover some of the EEOC's litigation costs.