The Indian Panorama

Tag: Texas

  • More Republican Snow Disrupts Life in Dallas Hispanics in Texas than elsewhere in US: Poll

    More Republican Snow Disrupts Life in Dallas Hispanics in Texas than elsewhere in US: Poll

    AUSTIN, TX (TIP): Hispanic and Anglo residents in Texas identify with the Republican Party far more than the national average, according to new polling data released Friday, February 7 that calls into question how soon demographic changes in Texas could benefit Democrats seeking statewide office. Gallup tracking polls show that 27 percent of Hispanics in Texas identify with the GOP, the highest percentage since 2008 and 6 percent higher than elsewhere in the country.

    Democrats nationally rely on Hispanic voters, but their level of conservatism in Texas could damper the party’s hope to soon end its 20-year losing streak for statewide office. “Hispanics in Texas are more likely to identify as Republican than are Hispanics elsewhere, and the Republican Party in Texas has seen more growth in Hispanic support over the past five years than the Democratic Party,” Gallup’s Andrew Duggan said in his analysis of the results. “While this has not changed the overall equation – Democrats still lead big among Texas Hispanics – it does suggest the GOP may be more competitive with this bloc than many assume,” he said.

    The percentage of Hispanics who lean or identify themselves as Democrats dropped from 53 percent in 2008 to 46 percent in 2013, which is 5 percent below Hispanics nationally. Among the Anglo residents polled, 61 percent identified as Republicans. Nationally, Republicans make up 48 percent of the population. The poll was based on 1,000 phone interviews conducted daily in all 50 states throughout 2013. Democrats have stepped up efforts in Texas after 20 years of crushing defeats in statewide and presidential elections. Many note that Anglos, or non-Hispanic whites, make up 46 percent of the Texas population and that Hispanics are expected to become the majority by 2020, according to U.S.

    Census Bureau projections. Texas Democrats joined Jeremy Bird, President Barrack Obama’s national field organizer, in creating a political action committee called Battleground Texas to take advantage of the demographic shift. Gilberto Hinojosa, the party chairman in Texas, has said that if Democrats can build a coalition of liberal Anglos, Hispanics and black voters, they could win elections.

    But Gallup noted that voter registration and turnout continue to present the biggest challenges for Democrats. Only 43 percent of Texas Hispanics said they were registered to vote, while 82 percent of Anglos and 77 percent of blacks said they were eligible to vote. That gives Republicans a distinct advantage: 64 percent of Texas residents who say they are eligible to vote are Anglo, 19 percent are Hispanic and 13 percent are black. “Texas remains a Republican-leaning state because its white residents are becoming increasingly Republican and its large Hispanic population, though solidly Democratic, is less so than Hispanics nationally,” Duggan said.

  • Snow Disrupts Life in Dallas

    Snow Disrupts Life in Dallas

    DALLAS (TIP) As snow fell across North Texas on Thursday, February 6 the bitter cold caused some driving headaches and prompted some school districts to dismiss early. Several school districts will be closed Friday, while many others will operate on a delay In Jacksboro, problems with a gas line forced a company to cut service to the entire city, and it might not be restored until Friday or Saturday.

    POWER ERCOT,

    the electricity grid operator in Texas, is asking people to conserve power through noon on Friday due to increased demand on the grid because of the cold weather. ERCOT said peak demand on Thursday morning exceeded 57,000 megawatts. “We already saw electric demand close to our winter record this morning,” said Dan Woodfin, ERCOT director of System Operations in a statement on Thursday. “We are expecting cold weather to continue through tomorrow morning’s high demand period, and some generation capacity has become unavailable due to limitations to natural gas supplies.”

    SCHOOLS

    Several schools and school districts announced Thursday night that they’ll be closed Friday, including Azle ISD, Boles ISD, Garner ISD and more. Dallas ISD said Thursday that school will be held at the regular time Friday, but if that changes, officials will announce it no later than 6 a.m. Friday. Fort Worth ISD students are already off Friday, but officials will evaluate weather conditions and will make a decision early Friday morning about whether or not staff will be required to go in. Many other schools will operate on a delayed schedule Friday.

    ROAD CONDITIONS Drivers had a tough time getting around in the snow Thursday. In Dallas, 406 wrecks were reported. About 146 were injury accidents, and a majority of those happened on freeways. Sheriff’s deputies were on patrol along the I-35 corridor in Dallas looking for accidents, which is where one woman lost control, spun sideways, then hit a wall. No one was hurt. Just after noon Thursday, the city of Dallas activated a condition it calls “Ice Force Level 2,” with about 70 sanding trucks and 145 personnel on the roadways. Other municipalities had crews out working as well.

    AIRPORTS

    The snow caused hundreds of delays and cancellations at DFW Airport on Thursday. About 200 departures were canceled, and crews worked hard in the cold to de-ice planes. At times, they shut down runways to clear the snow. DFW officials urge travelers set to fly Friday to keep an eye on the status of their flights. Dallas Love Field reported no major issues.

  • Rare ice storm grips US south, kills at least 6

    Rare ice storm grips US south, kills at least 6

    ATLANTA (TIP): Icy chaos gripped the US south on Wednesday after a rare winter storm that killed at least six people, stranded children in their schools overnight and paralyzed travel in several states, including hundreds of flight cancellations at the world’s busiest airport.

    The storm slammed a region largely unaccustomed to ice and snow – stretching from Texas through Georgia and into the Carolinas on Tuesday and early Wednesday. In Atlanta, motorists remained trapped in their cars on icy Interstates on Wednesday, some of them having spent as long as 18 hours on the road. Some 791 traffic accidents were reported in the city but there were no serious injuries, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said in a Wednesday news conference, adding that the focus was now on rescuing stranded motorists.

  • Skydiving Texas girl survives fall in Oklahoma hospital

    Skydiving Texas girl survives fall in Oklahoma hospital

    TULSA (TIP): A 16 year old Texas girl who plummeted more than 3,000 feet to the ground in an Oklahoma skydiving accident survived and is recovering from her many injuries, a doctor said Tuesday, January 28.

    Dr. Jeffrey Bender, a trauma surgeon at OU Medical Center who treated Mackenzie Wethington when she was flown Saturday from a skydiving school in Chickasha, said the girl hurt her liver and broke her pelvis, lumbar spine in her lower back, a shoulder blade and several ribs. She also has a broken tooth. “I don’t know the particulars of the accident as I wasn’t there.

    But if she truly fell 3,000 feet, I have no idea how she survived,” Bender said at a news conference at the hospital, where the girl’s parents also spoke to reporters. Not only did she survive, but she was in good condition Tuesday, Bender said, and was expected to leave the intensive care unit. Still, she has a long recovery ahead. Bender said it will be several weeks before she can bear any weight.

    The girl’s parents agreed to let her perform the jump, but her father, Joe Wethington, now says the skydiving company shouldn’t have allowed it. “I don’t think she should have been allowed at 16 to go up there and perform that type of jump, no matter what I say or she says, she shouldn’t have been allowed,” Joe Wethington said at the news conference. “I find it very hard to believe that the rules and regulations in Oklahoma are that lax. I think there is a flaw there somewhere, and I don’t think it’s through the state of Oklahoma. I think it’s the company.

    I’m not sure.” Nancy Koreen, director of sport promotion at the Fredericksburg, Va.-based U.S. Parachute Association, said its safety requirements allow someone who is 16 to make a dive with parental consent, though some drop zones set the age higher. Robert Swainson, the owner and chief instructor at Pegasus Air Sports Center in Chickasha, defended the company Tuesday. He noted that the father went up with his daughter and was the first to jump. Mackenzie, from Joshua, Texas, was making a static-line jump, where a parachute is connected to a lanyard that’s attached to the plane and opens automatically when a diver exits the plane.

    Swainson said Wethington’s parachute opened OK, but she began to spiral downward when the chute went up but not out in some kind of malfunction. Swainson said a parachute can develop such a turn for several reasons, but that Wethington and other divers were given instruction during a six-to-sevenhour training session beforehand on how to deal with such problems. He also said Makenzie had a radio hookup in her helmet through which someone gave her instructions. “It was correctable, but corrective action didn’t appear to have been taken,” said Swainson, who has run the skydiving business for nearly 30 years.

    Swainson said he did not jump out to help Wethington because there’s no way he could have reached her and another jumper got cold feet and refused to make the jump. Swainson said it was protocol for him to remain with the frightened person because instructors don’t know what that person will do. “The most I could have done is screamed,” he said. Koreen, from the U.S. Parachute Association, spoke generally about skydiving rules and didn’t want to directly comment on Makenzie’s case. However, she agreed that a reluctant diver can’t be left alone in a plane and that even if an instructor exited the plane, he wouldn’t have been able to assist the student. “You can’t fly over the parachute and help somebody,” she said.

  • Two Texas energy giants take multibillion-dollar dispute to jury

    Two Texas energy giants take multibillion-dollar dispute to jury

    DALLAS (TIP): Energy Transfer Partners of Dallas contends that Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners broke its commitment to jointly build a pipeline from Cushing, Okla., to Houston.

    Energy Transfer Partners argues that Enterprise and Enbridge Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, conspired to cut Energy Transfer Partners out of the deal. Enterprise and Enbridge, in court documents, say Energy Transfer Partners’ lawsuit is without merit because there never was an actual partnership or joint venture with Energy Transfer Partners.

    “Energy Transfer Partners is trying to get in the courthouse what it could not achieve in the marketplace,” lawyers for Enterprise said in court documents asking the judge to dismiss the case. Dallas County District Judge Emily Tobolowsky denied the request. Jury selection started Monday, and the trial is expected to last four weeks.

    “This is going to be a great case because the issues are important and there are so many great lawyers involved,” said David Elrod, a Dallas trial lawyer whose practice focuses on energy litigation. The case pits some of Texas’ most prominent trial lawyers against each other. Dallas trial lawyer Mike Lynn of Lynn Tillotson Pinker & Cox represents Energy Transfer Partners. David Beck of Beck Redden in Houston and Dick Sayles of Sayles Werbner are defending Enterprise.

    Dallas attorney Jeffrey Levinger and a team from Sullivan & Cromwell in California represent Enbridge. All of the lawyers declined to comment on the case. The trial is expected to provide insight into the business operations and strategic thinking of leaders at three of the largest and fastest-growing oil companies in North America. Top executives at all three companies are expected to testify. The issue is whether Energy Transfer Partners and Enterprise legally formed a partnership to build the pipeline from Cushing, which is a major oil hub, to Houston, where the crude could be refined or shipped.

    Energy Transfer Partners says yes. The Dallas-based energy conglomerate, which has about $50 billion in oil and gas assets, claims that Enterprise majority owner and chairman Dan Duncan of Houston approached Energy Transfer Partners about a joint venture in the months before he died in 2010. Enterprise, which has an estimated $38 billion in assets, and Energy Transfer Partners renewed discussions in spring 2011 and signed a nonbinding agreement a few weeks later. “ETP and Enterprise shared joint control over the partnership’s commercial activities, jointly meeting with potential customers, jointly marketing the partnership to potential customers and jointly making operational decisions,” Energy Transfer Partners’ lawyers say in court records.

    “The parties unequivocally and repeatedly told potential pipeline customers, regulators and investment banks in formal written materials that they had formed a joint venture and that the parties had agreed to share profits and losses on a 50-50 basis,” Energy Transfer Partners claims. The two companies, which called their new venture Double E Pipeline, even signed a deal in August 2011 with Chesapeake Energy to ship “at least 100,000 barrels of oil per day on the Double E Pipeline for a 10-year period.”

    Less than a month later, Enterprise announced that it was ending its relationship with Energy Transfer Partners to do a similar partnership with Enbridge, which has about $30 billion in oil and gas assets and annual revenue of about $11 billion. Energy Transfer Partners claims that Enterprise and Enbridge conspired to end the joint venture with Energy Transfer Partners, which is seeking more than $1.2 billion in actual and punitive damages. Enterprise and Enbridge argue that Enterprise legally backed out of the proposed joint venture. Enterprise lawyers, in court documents, point to the April 21, 2011, letter between the two companies as proof that their partnership had not been finalized.

    “No binding or enforcement obligations shall exist between the parties with respect to the [relationship] unless and until the parties have received their respective boards’ approvals,” the agreement stated. “The parties made crystal clear that they had not yet agreed to undertake the proposed joint venture,” Enterprise lawyers said in court records. “Despite months of hard work by Enterprise’s employees, Enterprise and ETP were unable to secure sufficient commitments from prospective shippers of crude oil to make the proposed joint venture with ETP commercially viable.” Energy Transfer Partners lawyers, in court documents, say the relationship between the two companies had moved well beyond the terms agreed to in the April 2011 letter. Lawyers for Energy Transfer Partners argue that Texas law liberally defines the existence of a business partnership, even in some cases in which the parties involved claim there is no such partnership, much like the existence of a common-law marriage under Texas family law.

  • Poorer school districts still shortchanged in Texas, expert says

    Poorer school districts still shortchanged in Texas, expert says

    AUSTIN (TIP): The state only slightly reduced big funding gaps between richer and poorer school districts last year, a representative for hundreds of districts told a judge Wednesday, January 29.

    Wayne Pierce, executive director of the Equity Center, testified that elementary schools in wealthier districts still have an average $73,000 more per classroom to spend than schools in the state’s poorest districts. That funding advantage exists even though the poorest 15 percent of school districts have significantly higher tax rates than the wealthiest 15 percent, Pierce said. “The [funding] gaps remain exceedingly large,” he said.

    “We have an irrational system with layers of irrational funding factors.” Pierce, a former superintendent of the Kaufman school district, also said that lawmakers reduced the average gap between higher-wealth and lower-wealth districts by only $209 per student in the current budget. There is still a gap of nearly $2,000 per student between districts at the upper and lower ends of the property wealth spectrum, he said.

    The Equity Center represents low- and medium-wealth school districts. That includes 445 districts that are among the more than 600 suing the state. State District Judge John Dietz ruled the system unconstitutional a year ago. He is holding additional hearings to determine the effect of legislative changes made since his decision. Lawmakers increased funding and scaled back high school testing. School districts say schools still have inadequate resources and an unfair system for distributing funds.

    They also argue that the state has improperly limited their ability to raise enough revenue through local property taxes. Catherine Clark, a school finance expert with the Texas Association of School Boards, said that despite funding increases, nearly 40 percent of school districts still have less money this year than they had in the 2010-11 school year. Those 408 districts include Dallas and several other North Texas districts. Combined, they educate 2.3 million students.

    The Legislature slashed education funding by $5.4 billion in 2011 to help ease a state budget crunch. Lawmakers restored $3.4 billion last year. “The funding system is leveling down at the same time that standards are being raised,” she told the judge. “The funding has not responded to the increased standards set by the state.” The case is expected to wind up before the Texas Supreme Court later this year after Dietz issues his final decision.

  • AT&T creating new jobs in Dallas and around Texas

    AT&T creating new jobs in Dallas and around Texas

    DALLAS (TIP): Dallas-based AT&T Inc. said it was hanging out a help wanted sign. The company wanted to fill more than 1,800 jobs in Texas, including 770 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

    More than 1,000 of the positions statewide were newly created. Monday, AT&T said it was still looking to hire. Now it has more than 1,000 jobs to fill in Texas, just over half of them newly created. That includes 350 jobs to fill in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, 61 of them new, a spokeswoman said.

    The jobs range from technicians to call center employees to retail employees. Applications can be done online. The company currently employs 36,000 in Texas, up 1,000 since June, the company said. It employs 246,000 nationwide, up from 240,000 in June.

  • Texas ranks No. 2 for human trafficking crime

    Texas ranks No. 2 for human trafficking crime

    DALLAS (TIP): The National Human Trafficking Resource Center has released its 2013 data and it may or may not come as a surprise to you that Texas ranks No. 2 in number of calls placed to the hotline.

    Texas maintained its No. 2 position, behind California, even as overall calls skyrocketed last year. It’s safe to say that a large number of those calls came from the North Texas region, as the Dallas-Fort Worth traditionally has been a relative hotbed for human trafficking.

    Experts have said that has to do with the convergence of highways in the region as well as the area’s proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border. While it’s difficult to capture the specific data because of the hidden nature of the crime, Mosaic Family Services in Dallas, for example, typically serves 100 victims a year. And in 2012, the national hotline received about 250 calls from the city of Dallas alone.

  • Texas woman charged with murdering 10-year-old son

    Texas woman charged with murdering 10-year-old son

    FRISCO, TX (TIP): A North Texas woman was charged with murder Thursday, January 30, in the death of her 10-year-old son, whose body was found in a bathtub in the family’s suburban Dallas home.

    Pallavi Dhawan was booked into the Frisco City Jail after her Wednesday night arrest. Bond is set at $50,000. Police said Sumeet Dhawan, the suspect’s husband of 15 years, called officers to the family home Wednesday evening after he returned from an out-of-town trip and could not find his wife. When officers arrived, the husband also expressed concern about the welfare of their only child, Arnav Dhawan.

    His father said he had received an email that the child had been absent from school for several days, according to a Frisco Police Department statement. At that point, Pallavi Dhawan arrived at the house. Officers asked where the child was, but she asked to speak privately with her husband first, according to the statement.

    During the conversation, her husband became visibly upset, called officers over and pointed toward a bedroom door. They found the door locked. “Officers asked Mrs. Dhawan if the child was in the room, and she nodded her head ‘yes.’ Officers asked her if she killed the child, and Mrs. Dhawan nodded her head ‘yes,’” said police Sgt. Brad Merritt at an afternoon news conference. Police said officers forced the door open and found the child’s body in the tub, wrapped in a cloth up to his neck and with plastic bags in the tub around him.

  • Mexican beauty queen arrested in South Texas for allegedly interfering with an officer

    Mexican beauty queen arrested in South Texas for allegedly interfering with an officer

    LAREDO, TX (TIP): Police say the reigning beauty queen from a Mexican state bordering South Texas could have avoided her weekend arrest for allegedly interfering with an officer.

    Laredo police spokesman Joe Baeza said Thursday, January 30, that 24-year-old Barbara Falcon Prieto and a friend were arrested in the early morning hours of Jan. 26. Falcon was charged with interfering with public duties, a class B misdemeanor. Police were called to a Laredo bar because people in Falcon’s group were trying to leave with alcohol.

    Baeza said that when police tried to interview one of the men, Falcon yelled at them, pushed an officer and tried to pull his hands away. Her friend also tried to intervene when police turned their attention to Falcon, Nuestra Belleza 2013 for Tamaulipas. The men were not arrested.

  • Doomsdayers’ underground survival shelters spread across Texas

    Doomsdayers’ underground survival shelters spread across Texas

    HOUSTON (TIP): Texas is a home for survivalists. Underground bunkers are being built faster here than in any other state. Doomsdayers see Texas as a safe haven for bunkers and guns. And a Houston man is responsible.

    His atlas survival shelters are among the most popular in the country, and now we’re getting to know him. Ron Hubbard may seem eccentric. He’s got plenty of weapons, ammunition, food, water and a secret bunker. “It’s strictly defensive. Nobody is looking for a fight,” he said. “A shelter is more secretive than a bank account.” But far from eccentric, Hubbard is a businessman. “The U.S. Constitution is under attack,” Hubbard said.He’s selling bunkers to a booming clientele.

    “It’s got four bunks, it will have a couch, and a little entertainment center and a TV,” Hubbard said. And it all starts in Los Angeles, his construction hub. “They are afraid of the U.S. government and where this country is headed,” Hubbard said. “They see a battle in the future. They see the Constitution being trampled. They see the 1st Amendment gone, they see the 2nd Amendment gone.” That brings U.S. back to the Lone Star State.

    Hidden deep in the most remote areas of Texas are hundreds of survival shelters, secret bunkers. “People who have bunkers are not looking for a fight, they’re looking to sit a fight out,” Hubbard said. “You can drive within 20 feet of a bunker and not know it’s there.” The ideal setting for a bunker is in the middle of nowhere. It’s a secret location for most, surrounded by plenty of weapons, enough food, water and of course, ammunition to last for several years.

    “You have a sense that you’re invisible because nobody can get to you down here,” Hubbard said. The living quarters are like a regular home. You’re 20 feet underground, but the bunkers carry all the conveniences of home and much more. Their cost ranges from $40,000-$400,000. None of his buyers want to go on camera, but there reasons for buying a bunker are the same — they fear a collapse of the Constitution and a one world order. “The people who buy shelters are typically very professional, they’re very patriotic, they believe in the Constitution,” Hubbard said. And in the past year, sales have dramatically increased.

    “When they think of a zombie, they think of people that in the worst-case scenario are looking for food and water, they’re desperate. And they will look like zombies because they will be starving and desperate. They will be willing to kill you to take what you got,” Hubbard said. So, the Doomsdayers wait, prepared for the worst, hoping for the best. And they’re always ready for a fight.

  • Texas executes Mexican man despite his nation’s objections

    Texas executes Mexican man despite his nation’s objections

    HUNTSVILLE (TIP) A Mexican national was executed January 22 night in Texas for killing a Houston police officer, despite pleas and diplomatic pressure from the Mexican government and the U.S. State Department to halt the punishment.

    Edgar Tamayo, 46, received a lethal injection for the January 1994 fatal shooting of Officer Guy Gaddis, 24. Asked by a warden if he had a final statement, he mumbled “no” and shook his head. As the lethal dose of pentobarbital began taking effect, he took a few breaths and then made one slightly audible snore before all movement stopped.

    He was pronounced dead 17 minutes after the drug was administered, at 9:32 p.m. CST. Tamayo never looked toward Gaddis’ mother, two brothers and two other relatives who watched through a window. He selected no witnesses of his own. There were several dozen police officers and supporters of the slain patrolman revving their motorcycles outside of the prison before witnesses were let inside the death chamber.

    The execution, the first this year in the nation’s most active death penalty state, came after the U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts rejected lastday appeals and Texas officials spurned arguments that Tamayo’s case was tainted because he wasn’t informed, under an international agreement, that he could get legal help from the Mexican consulate after his arrest for the officer’s slaying. Attorneys had also argued unsuccessfully that Tamayo was mentally impaired, making him ineligible for execution, and that the state’s clemency procedures were unfair.

    The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday had rejected Tamayo’s request for clemency. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from,” Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said. “If you commit a despicable crime like this in Texas, you are subject to our state laws, including a fair trial by jury and the ultimate penalty.” Gaddis, who had been on the force for two years, was driving Tamayo and another man from a robbery scene when evidence showed the officer was shot three times in the head and neck with a pistol Tamayo had concealed in his pants.

    The car crashed, and Tamayo fled on foot but was captured a few blocks away, still in handcuffs, carrying the robbery victim’s watch and wearing the victim’s necklace. Mexican officials and Tamayo’s attorneys contend he was protected under a provision of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Legal assistance guaranteed under that treaty could have uncovered evidence to contest the capital murder charge or provide evidence to keep Tamayo off death row, they said. Records show the consulate became involved or aware of the case just as his trial was to begin.

    Secretary of State John Kerry previously asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to delay Tamayo’s punishment, saying it “could impact the way American citizens are treated in other countries.” The State Department repeated that stance Wednesday. But Abbott’s office and the Harris County district attorney opposed any delays. At least two other inmates in circumstances similar to Tamayo’s were executed in Texas in recent years. The Mexican government said in a statement this week it “strongly opposed” the execution and said failure to review Tamayo’s case and reconsider his sentence would be “a clear violation by the United States of its international obligations.”

    Tamayo was in the U.S. illegally and had a criminal record in California, where he had served time for robbery and was paroled, according to prison records. Tamayo was among more than four dozen Mexican nationals awaiting execution in the U.S. when the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, ruled in 2004 they hadn’t been advised properly of their consular rights. The Supreme Court subsequently said hearings urged by the international court in those inmates’ cases could be mandated only if Congress implemented legislation to do so. “Unfortunately, this legislation has not been adopted,” the Mexican foreign ministry acknowledged.

  • Flu Battle, Vaccinations Continue Across North Texas

    Flu Battle, Vaccinations Continue Across North Texas

    As the flu epidemic continues to hit North Texas, health leaders are hammering the message: It’s still not too late to get vaccinated. Some clinics have quickly run out of the shots, but several DFW-area Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores say they’re stocked up.

    At the Wal-Mart store off Northwest Highway and Skillman in Dallas, NBC 5 found there wasn’t a line at the pharmacy and they had plenty of flu shots in supply. “We got a heads up on the issues that were going on with the flu shots, so we were giving the incentive and directions to order enough supply to have some in stock.

    We have plenty of supply and figure my other Wal-Mart pharmacies, as far as I know, Wal-Mart is not experiencing a shortage as some other retailers are,” said Dallas Wal-Mart Pharmacist Emelda Azu-Irondi. She said even though her store has plenty of doses of the flu shot, there’s still not the demand. She’s only been giving out a dozen shots a day. That was good news for Elizabeth Bula, she tried a CVS Store first a couple of weeks ago.

    “The pharmacy I went to was out of stock, so I’ve just kind of been putting it off until now,” said Bula. The 25-year-old said this is the first year she’s rolling up her sleeve to get a shot. “I know the age range I’m [in] and it’s almost like we’re being targeted this season. It’s interesting to hear how many people have gotten sick, and some people have passed away, which is so sad. Hearing that, realizing I should’ve gotten a shot, I’m out here and getting it done,” said Bula. Lucy Neal’s sister is a nurse in the intensive care unit. She heard the warning from her: don’t wait any longer.

  • West Texas in line for solar farm

    West Texas in line for solar farm

    TEXAS (TIP)For years Texas has watched as solar developers flock to greener pastures in California and Arizona where state subsidies and high power prices have created a solar boom.

    The announcement Wednesday that First Solar, one of the world’s largest solar companies, was building a sprawling 22 megawatt farm in West Texas represented a rare piece of good news for the state’s nascent solar industry. Tim Rebhorn, First Solar’s senior vice president for project development in North and South America, said his company was betting on the conditions for solar improving in Texas.

    “When energy prices are as low as they are in Texas, it makes it very difficult to come in and build,” he said. “But we’re seeing constraints on capacity. And we think on the merchant side there’s going to be a price effect.” The project, named Barilla, is being built on a 200-acre site about 30 miles west of Fort Stockton. Rebhorn said the site is large enough the facility could ultimately expand to 150 megawatts of capacity, which would make it the largest solar farm in Texas.

  • 116 North Texas schools identified as low performing

    116 North Texas schools identified as low performing

    DALLAS (TIP): The parents of thousands of North Texas students will get a letter soon telling them their school does not make the grade.

    The Texas Education Agency has compiled its annual list of low performing schools based on poor test scores or unacceptable ratings from the state’s Public Education Grant program. This year the number of campuses across the state on the list nearly doubled to 892.

    Locally, Dallas and Fort Worth have the most campuses on the list, but many suburban districts are on it as well. Students in low performing schools are allowed to transfer to another school or district, but Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander said few do because transportation is not provided. DISD will host a public meeting Thursday evening for parents with questions. It will begin at 5:45 p.m. at the Ada L. Williams Auditorium, which is located at 3700 Ross Avenue in Dallas.

  • Supreme Court hears Texas man’s appeal in child pornography case

    Supreme Court hears Texas man’s appeal in child pornography case

    WASHINGTON (TIP): The Supreme Court wrestled on January 22 with how much a Texas man who possessed child pornography must pay one of the victims. Doyle Paroline, who is from East Texas, was arrested in 2008 with 280 images of child pornography and spent 22 months in jail.

    Two photographs detailed the abuse of Amy, who was eight years old at the time she was raped and photographed by her uncle. Amy’s lawyers said Paroline should pay Amy for her suffering. They said she needs $3.4 million, mostly to cover lost future income and counseling fees. They also say he should be able to sue other offenders to help contribute to that sum.

    Paroline’s lawyers disagree. Because a district court ruled that the government could not directly calculate his contribution to her losses, they argue he should not be held responsible In court Wednesday, several justices agreed that Amy, a pseudonym used to protect the true victim’s identity, was harmed by all of those involved in the distribution and consumption of her images. But they remained skeptical that Paroline should be liable for her entire losses, as he played a relatively small part in her saga.

  • Ex-Texas Longhorns quarterback Vince Young files for bankruptcy protection

    Ex-Texas Longhorns quarterback Vince Young files for bankruptcy protection

    HOUSTON (TIP): Former NFL and University of Texas quarterback Vince Young has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The petition was filed last week in a Houston federal bankruptcy court, listing Young with estimated assets between $500,001 and $1 million and liabilities between $1,001,000 and $10 million.

    The Houston Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/1edNPn8 ) no specific details on Young’s assets and liabilities were immediately available. The 30-year-old Young is fighting a pair of lawsuits stemming from a $1.8 million loan obtained in his name during the 2011 NFL lockout. A court has granted a judgment against Young to Pro Player Funding, a New York company that made the loan. Pro Player Funding has made several efforts in a Harris County state district court to enforce collection of the judgment, but those efforts remain pending.

  • Emergency declaration allows Texas to help ease propane shortage

    Emergency declaration allows Texas to help ease propane shortage

    AUSTIN (TIP): Gov. Rick Perry signed an emergency declaration late Wednesday, January 22, easing licensing restrictions that will allow other states facing a propane shortage to tap into Texas’ abundant supply of the home-heating fuel.

    Due to severe cold this season, propane supplies are extremely low in more than 20 states across the Midwest and Northeast. States as far away as Maine have requested help from the Lone Star State, which produces two-thirds of nation’s propane supply and houses the world’s largest propane storage facility, said Bill Van Hoy, executive director of the Texas Propane Gas Association which sent a letter to Perry last week requesting the emergency declaration.

    “Texas has the fuel, but motor carriers from other states could not get supplies from Texas because they were not licensed and certified to enter our state,” Van Hoy said Thursday, January 23. The declaration of emergency will help address the shortage by temporarily waiving licensing requirements and rules prohibiting other states from trucking propane from Texas, Van Hoy said.

    The Texas Department of Public safety is also waiving limits on hours of service in Texas to fuel carriers providing emergency relief, he said. Propane is used to heat more than 7 million homes across the United States, he said. A confluence of events, including extreme winter weather and a sharp increase in propane exports, has led to the shortage. Also reducing the supply was a record fall corn harvest when large quantities of propane were used to dry out crops.

    Prices in the Midwest are the highest since at least 1990, according to the Energy Information Administration. The propane supply has fallen from 34 days on Nov. 29 to 24 days on Jan. 10, according to the administration. The supply stood at 42.1 days a year ago. Some out-of-state suppliers have already sent truckers to Mont Belview near Houston, where propane is stored in an enormous salt cavern, Van Hoy said. “This won’t just help those states, it will be good for business in Texas,” he said.

  • Shooter held for US school firing is just 12 years old

    Shooter held for US school firing is just 12 years old

    ROSWELL (TIP): A 12-year-old boy drew a shotgun from a band-instrument case and shot and wounded two classmates at his middle school before a teacher talked him into dropping the weapon and he was taken into custody, officials said. A boy and a girl were injured following the shooting at Berrendo Middle School in Roswell on January 14 morning. Governor Susana Martinez said the students were in the gym, where they typically hang out before classes start, when the 12-year-old boy opened fire with the shotgun at about 8am.

    However, he was “quickly stopped by one staff member who walked right up to him and asked him to set down the firearm, which he did,” Martinez said at a news conference. Superintendent Tom Burris said the school’s faculty had participated in “active shooter” training, and they responded appropriately. Officials at University Medical Centre in Texas, said that the 11-year-old boy was the shooter’s target. The shooter has now been shifted to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.

  • Doctor convicted in Michael Jackson death loses appeal

    Doctor convicted in Michael Jackson death loses appeal

    LOS ANGELES (TIP): A California appellate court refused on January 15 to overturn the conviction of Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Conrad Murray, who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of the pop star. The three-judge panel of California 2nd District Court of Appeal unanimously upheld Murray’s 2011 conviction, ruling that there was sufficient evidence and there were no errors during his trial.

    Grenada-born Murray, 60, was released from a Los Angeles jail in October after serving two years. Murray’s six-week trial in 2011 grabbed global attention after Jackson, preparing for a series of comeback concerts in London, died unexpectedly in 2009 at age 50 from an overdose of the surgical anesthetic, propofol. Prosecutors successfully argued at the trial that Murray, who was hired by concert promoter AEG Live as Jackson’s general practitioner, was grossly negligent in administering the powerful anesthetic, which was used to help the singer sleep.

    Murray’s attorneys presented the case that Jackson had injected himself with the powerful anesthetic. The cardiologist’s current attorney handling his appeal, Valerie Wass, said she anticipated an appeal would be filed to the California Supreme Court. “I’m always of the opinion that he has a better chance in the (California) Supreme Court or federal court,” Wass said. Murray, whose medical license was either suspended or lapsed in California, Nevada, Texas and Hawaii, has said he wants to practice again, but so far his appeals have been turned down.

  • Texas judge recuses herself from lawsuit over brain-dead pregnant woman

    Texas judge recuses herself from lawsuit over brain-dead pregnant woman

    TEXAS (TIP): The judge overseeing a lawsuit seeking to force a Texas hospital to remove a braindead pregnant woman from life support abruptly recused herself from the case January 16. In a oneparagraph order issued without explanation late in the afternoon, Tarrant County District Judge Melody Wilkinson removed herself from the nationally watched case of Marlise Munoz, the 33-year-old Fort Worth paramedic whose husband has sued to have her taken off of life support.

    Marlise Munoz was 14 weeks pregnant when she collapsed in November from what doctors believe was a pulmonary embolism. Her husband, Erick Munoz, has said that doctors have described her as brain-dead and that his wife was clear that she wouldn’t want to be kept alive. Erick Munoz on Tuesday sued John Peter Smith Hospital of Fort Worth, which responded that it was barred by state law from removing a pregnant patient from life support. Neither judge Wilkinson nor the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office would elaborate on the move, but Bud Kennedy, a reporter for the Fort Worth Star- Telegram, tweeted on Jan 16 that Wilkinson’s campaign treasurer is also general counsel for JPS Health Network, the hospital’s parent company.

  • Texas Family Of Four Arrested On Drug Charges After Neighbors Report Suspicious Activity To Police

    Texas Family Of Four Arrested On Drug Charges After Neighbors Report Suspicious Activity To Police

    TEXAS TIP): Four members of a Texas family face drug charges after neighbors reported suspicious activity at their home to police using a crimeprevention smartphone app. Parents Raymond and Stephanie Wood were arrested last January 17, along with their 18-year-old son and 22- year-old daughter. They were all charged with drug possession, and the parents face additional charges of possession of an illegal weapon, according to police.

    The son’s girlfriend was also arrested, according to the mediapersons. Harris County deputies allegedly found marijuana, cocaine, morphine, and Xanax at the home, and several illegal weapons including a sawedoff shotgun. Neighbors told that for months they’d seen a constant flow of traffic to the house — even into the wee hours of the morning — and had observed other strange activity as well. “There would be a skateboarder that would come down our street,” neighbor Carlie Padgett told the station. “He had a bag in his hand and he would throw it in their yard and pick up a bag and skateboard back out.”

    Police said they acted after receiving a narcotics tip though a smartphone app called iWatchHarrisCounty. “[The narcotics unit] did an excellent job developing probable cause. We got a search warrant went inside the house,” Sgt. Larry Franks told . The family’s lawyer, Sam Adamo, called the raid a “home invasion. He also said one of the weapons belonged to a deceased son who was a U.S. Marine and explained that the traffic at the house was due to an ecigarette business that Stephanie Wood and her daughter ran out of their home.

  • Man gives change to a homeless person, gets handcuffed

    Man gives change to a homeless person, gets handcuffed

    HOUSTON (TIP): Greg Snider was in a Houston, Texas parking lot, on the phone making a business call. While in the lot, a homeless man approached his car and asked for change. Snider gave him 75 cents and then drove off. KPRC Local 2 News reported on the shocking thing that happened next. When Snider pulled onto a nearby freeway, a police car pulled him to the side.

    Greg was surprised by how aggressive the officer was, telling KPRC, “He’s screaming. He’s yelling. He’s telling me to get out of the car. He’s telling me to put my hands on the hood…They’re like, ‘We saw you downtown. We saw what you did.’ And I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? I gave a homeless man 75 cents.’” He was dragged out of his car and handcuffed. So what was it that police insisted Mr. Snider had done? Give that homeless man drugs. Again, he didn’t.

    Snider only gave the man some money. Snider agreed to let police search his car for drugs, and they did so for an hour while Greg remained handcuffed. In that time, ten more police cars showed up and pulled over. The search was not fruitful – no drugs were found in the car. That is, because, as previously mentioned, Snider didn’t have any drugs to give. Aside from the damage police did to his car, Snider isn’t happy that the police were actually laughing about the mistake. Mr. Snider has filed a complaint. Police declined to comment to KPRC about the incident.

  • Kids believe nicer people over meaner ones

    Kids believe nicer people over meaner ones

    TEXAS (TIP): A new study has found that children are less to believe a mean person than a nice person, even if the pleasant person was described as having no knowledge on the topic. Researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas examined how preschoolers decide whom to believe when provided with two conflicting pieces of information given by a nice or mean adult. Dr. Asheley Landrum, lead researcher of the study, said that past research have shown children recognize that different people know different things.

    However, less was known about how children decide between conflicting claims from alleged experts. Landrum and colleagues conducted a series of experiments to test how children decide who is a trustworthy source of information. A total of 164 children, ages 3 to 5, participated in the experiments by watching videos of people described as eagle or bicycle “experts.” The first experiment questioned if children understood that some people have more knowledge about topics depending on their expertise, that is, eagle experts know more about birds than bicycle experts.

    The second and third experiments examined how niceness and meanness affected assigning knowledge to an expert. “Even when an expert clearly should know an answer to a question, children tend to trust claims made by nice people with no expertise over mean people with clearly relevant expertise,” said Dr. Candice Mills, Landrum’s advisor and co-author on the paper. According to Mills, children may conclude that someone who appears pleasant is both trustworthy and competent, even if the friendly appearance is a carefully crafted act of manipulation. The study is published in Developmental Science.

  • Late nights can make you feel sick

    Late nights can make you feel sick

    TEXAS (TIP): Jet lag, shift work or any late night might be the reason behind you getting sick, a new study has revealed. That’s because the body’s internal clock is set for two 12-hour periods of light and darkness, and when this rhythm is thrown off, so is the immune system. According to the new study, one reason might be that the genes that set the body clock are intimately connected to certain immune cells, Stuff.co.nz reported.

    Lora Hooper, immunologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas claimed that the discover happened when she and her colleagues were studying NFIL3, a protein that guides the development of certain immune cells and turns on the activity of others. The gene for this protein is mutated in some patients with inflammatory bowel disease, the study also found that the mice lacking the gene for NFIL3 had more so-called TH17 cells in their intestines. These cells are a type of immune cell known as a T cell, which get their name from a signal they produce, called interleukin 17, which tells other T cells to increase the immune response. The study is published online in the journal Science