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Austin police fatally shoot man with rifle

Written by ASSOCIATED PRESS Wednesday, 24 April 2013 14:51

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Police in Central Texas have shot and killed a man who aimed a rifle at officers answering a call about him threatening suicide. Austin police Chief Art Acevedo says four officers who opened fire Tuesday night have been placed on administrative leave with pay. Police received a report of a man threatening to kill himself and his roommate. Investigators say the suspect had a rifle and told police to leave. Authorities say the suspect appeared to be preparing to open fire when he pointed the rifle at police — who then shot him. No officers were…

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Fort Worth police officer, another person shot

Written by ASSOCIATED PRESS Wednesday, 24 April 2013 14:46

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A North Texas police officer responding to a robbery call at a fast-food restaurant has been shot and another person wounded. Fort Worth police did not immediately provide further details on the gunfire around dawn Wednesday. Matt Zavadsky with MedStar Emergency Medical Services says the officer was in stable condition when transported to a Fort Worth hospital. Zavadsky says the other person who was shot is in critical condition and also has been transported to a hospital. Names of the officer and the other wounded person weren't immediately released. Police have not said who shot…

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Man who faked being Texas judge's son gets prison

Written by ASSOCIATED PRESS Wednesday, 24 April 2013 14:45

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A man who faked being the son of a South Texas judge to con money from people with legal troubles has been sentenced to two years in state jail. Another judge in San Antonio on Tuesday sentenced 37-year-old Mark David Leal. Leal in March pleaded no contest to theft of $3,500 from a man facing drug possession and drunken driving charges. Prosecutors say Leal falsely claimed his mother was Judge Juanita Vasquez-Gardner and that she would delete the charges from a court computer. The scam surfaced in 2011 when the charges weren't dropped and the duped…

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Killer in East Texas slaying-abductions set to die

Written by MICHAEL GRACZYK - Associated Press Wednesday, 24 April 2013 14:42

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Richard Cobb never denied using a shotgun to kill a man abducted and shot during a holdup of an East Texas convenience store almost 11 years ago. A Cherokee County jury sent him to death row and the 29-year-old now is set to die Thursday evening in Huntsville. Cobb testified at his trial he was forced into fatally shooting 37-year-old Kenneth Vandever because of threats from his holdup partner. That companion, Beunka Adams, was executed last year. Two women also abducted from the store were shot and left for dead. One of them was raped. But…

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TEXAS LEGISLATURE: Lawmakers get map of transportation needs

Written by JIM VERTUNO - Associated Press Tuesday, 12 February 2013 17:57

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas transportation officials say they will need about $4 billion more per year to maintain and improve the state's aging highway system and keep its growing population moving. Phil Wilson, executive director of the state Department of Transportation told House lawmakers that Texas is nearing the end of a decade of construction and maintenance fueled by bonds and other revenue sources. Wilson says that without new money, state roads are facing a "perfect storm" of a growing population trying to use aging highways. Gov. Rick Perry has said he wants to spend more than $3 billion…

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TEXAS LEGISLATURE: Senate starts work on $2B water fund

Written by CHRIS TOMLINSON - Associated Press Tuesday, 12 February 2013 17:54

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas senators have begun work on creating a $2 billion water fund and fundamentally restructuring the Texas Water Development Board. Senate Natural Resources Committee Chairman Troy Fraser laid out his plan on Tuesday, but said he expected to spend weeks refining the measure, named Senate Bill 4. Fraser complained that he asked the existing six-member water board for a prioritized list of water projects more than two years ago and he still doesn't have an answer. Fraser wants to replace the current part-time board and replace it with three, full-time professionals. His bill also sets aside…

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TEXAS LEGISLATURE: Industry leaders cheer vocational training bill

Written by WILL WEISSERT - Associated Press Tuesday, 12 February 2013 17:52

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Industry leaders are praising a high-profile bill in the Texas Senate designed to give high school students more options in career and vocational training. Addressing the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, representatives from numerous firms and trade organizations told of not being able to fill high-paying jobs that require more technical skills than college smarts. They applauded a measure by committee chairman Dan Patrick seeking to better emphasize "workforce development." It would allow students more flexibility to choose what high school courses they take. Students could study a vocational plan featuring electives in business and industry,…

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TEXAS LEGISLATURE: Key Senate panel approves CPRIT reforms

Written by ASSOCIATED PRESS Tuesday, 12 February 2013 17:48

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A key Senate panel has approved proposed reforms to the state's troubled $3 billion cancer-fighting agency. The Health and Human Services Committee on Monday passed a bill that would install stricter oversight than former rules at the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Dorothy Gibbons, whose Houston-based organization The Rose has received $3.6 million in CPRIT grants, told lawmakers the embattled agency is too valuable to lose. She said money from CPRIT has so far allowed more than 4,300 mammogram screenings statewide. The bill now goes to the full Senate. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

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Sex offender inmate stabs officer, flees in Texas

Written by KELLI KENNEDY - Associated Press Tuesday, 12 February 2013 17:45

MIAMI (AP) — A manhunt is under way for a prisoner convicted in two violent sexual assaults who stabbed one of two police escorts and escaped in the Dallas area as he was being transferred from Florida to Nevada, police said Tuesday. Alberto Morales, 42, somehow obtained a sharp object and stabbed one of the officers once in the neck and three times in the back Monday night outside a Walmart in Grapevine, city police Lt. Barry Bowling said. Miami-Dade Police Detective Jaime Pardinas, a 54-year-old who has been on the force for 28 years, is in serious but stable…

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Texas woman's execution halted; DA won't appeal

Written by MICHAEL GRACZYK - Associated Press Tuesday, 29 January 2013 21:03

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas woman won a reprieve from the death chamber Tuesday, mere hours before she was scheduled to be the first woman executed in the U.S. since 2010. State District Judge Larry Mitchell, in Dallas, rescheduled Kimberly McCarthy's punishment for April 3 so lawyers for the former nursing home therapist could have more time to pursue an appeal focused on whether her predominantly white jury was improperly selected on the basis of race. McCarthy is black. Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Shelly Yeatts, who initially contested the motion to reschedule, said she would not appeal the…

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