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Monday, April 14, 2008
UT to bestow its highest honor on Rapoport
Waco’s best-known philanthropist tonight is receiving the highest award that the University of Texas System Board of Regents gives.
During an evening banquet at Austin’s historic Driskell Hotel, regents are awarding the Santa Rita Award to 90-year-old Waco businessman Bernard Rapoport for his decades-long association with UT institutions. The regents’ decision to award him the honor was announced in February.
The award is named for Santa Rita No. 1, the first producing oil well on UT System property in West Texas. The well produced oil from 1923 to 1990, spurring growth of the Permanent University Fund.
The award is not an annual honor but given out only occasionally to those whose contributions and efforts have come over a sustained period of time. Past honorees include Harry H. Ransom, Bob Bullock, William P. Hobby and, receiving the very first Santa Rita Award in 1968, Miss Ima Hogg.
“It’s not something taken lightly by the board of regents,” spokesman Matt Flores said of the award today. “There’s only been 20 of these given out in 40 years.”
Rapoport’s gifts to UT Austin, UT San Antonio, UT Health Science Center at Houston, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston total more than $26 million, and have funded buildings, established scholarships and created endowed chairs, among other things.
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Darlene Gentry case to be featured on Oxygen network Sunday
The Oxygen network program “Snapped” will feature the Darlene Gentry murder case at 9 and 10 p.m. Sunday.
Gentry, of Robinson, was caught on videotape trying to retrieve the pistol she threw into a pond after shooting her husband in 2005. She was convicted of murder last February and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
“Snapped,” now in its sixth season, profiles women accused of murder.
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Woman stabbed at least five times; husband arrested
A Waco man was arrested today after police say he stabbed his wife more than five times Sunday night.
Gail Thompson, 46, was stabbed in the chest, back and thigh during an argument with her husband, Steven, a Waco Police Department release stated.
Paramedics found Gail Thompson lying in her home in the 3800 block of Frederick Street at 10:30 p.m. Sunday.
Steven Thompson, 48, was arrested today in Temple, according to the release. He had left the home before police arrived.
Thompson was being held at the Bell County Jail on an aggravated assault charge, the release stated.
Thompson was treated for her injuries at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, according to the release. A hospital spokesman said he had no information on her condition this afternoon.
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Jenna will wear Oscar de la Renta at her Crawford wedding
Y’all probably have heard there’s a big wedding next month at the ranch out in Crawford. Well, here’s news that Jenna Bush has chosen Oscar de la Renta to design her wedding dress.
If you want to read the entire Women’s Wear Daily story, you have to pay.
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Pics from Gold-Headed Cane event online
Check out our photos from this past weekend’s Gold-Headed Cane Award Banquet held at Ridgewood Country Club. Maybe you’ll see your physician among the shots in the slideshow.
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Longtime Hillcrest social worker Beverly Johnston dies
Beverly Johnston, longtime director of the social work department at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center who no doubt touched many lives during her time there, died Saturday. Her obituary is in today’s newspaper. Her late husband, P.M. Johnston, was Waco mayor from 1966 to 1968.
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Film crew detained in Nigeria
Four people from a Seattle-based film crew and a Nigerian man accompanying them have been detained for illegally traveling by boat in restive southern Nigeria, officials said.
Security forces fighting militants in the Niger Delta consider much of the vast wetland region a military zone and have barred outsiders from traveling there without express consent by authorities.
Nigerian Brig. Gen. Wuyep Rintip said the group was seized Saturday for flouting the ban and were to be flown to the capital, Abuja. He did not identify the detainees. A U.S. Embassy spokesman had no immediate comment today.
According to a news release issue issued Sunday in Seattle, the Americans were Sandi Cioffi, director of the documentary “Sweet Crude;” Tammi Sims, Cliff Worsham and Sean Porter, also part of the crew, and Joel Bisina, a peace mediator and founder of Niger Delta Professionals for Development in Warri.
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Detroit council silences embattled mayor
The Detroit City Council rebuffed embattled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s attempts to propose a budget today, the latest sign of increasingly frosty relations between the mayor and city leaders.
Kilpatrick, who is fighting criminal charges, walked in to the council chambers, sat down and prepared to speak. Council President Ken Cockrel then informed him that he had talked over the matter with other members over the weekend, and they agreed not to hear from the mayor.
“This could have been done in my office,” Kilpatrick told the council before heading out into the hallway, where he called the council’s actions “childish.”
The relationship between Kilpatrick and the council has been going downhill for months. The panel voted 7-1 in March to ask Kilpatrick to resign.
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Those crazy Yankee haters
Boy, those Yankee and Red Sox fans sure take things to extremes. I’m still chuckling over this story about a construction worker’s bid to curse the New York Yankees by planting a Boston Red Sox jersey in their new stadium that was foiled.
After locating the shirt in a service corridor behind what will be a restaurant in the new Yankee Stadium, construction workers jackhammered through the concrete Sunday and pulled it out.
The team said it learned that a Red Sox-rooting construction worker had buried a shirt in the new Bronx stadium, which will open next year across the street from the current ballpark, from a report in the New York Post on Friday.
Was it really worth all that effort to retrieve the jersey? This was discussed on the KRZI-AM “The Starting Line” show and I have to agree with host Paul Catalina: Is it really a curse when you consider that Boston has won two World Series titles since the Yankees even last appeared in one? But it is funny that the Yankees had to get that offending jersey removed.
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Not freezing, but still a record
According to the National Weather Service, the low this morning at the Waco airport was 33 degrees — not quite freezing, but still a record for the date. The previous record low was 36, set in 1980.
The cool weather will hang around a little longer. Looking around the forecasts for this morning, the high today is expected to be in the upper 60s up to 70, with a low tomorrow morning in the low 40s.
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Comptroller’s office shuts down Holze Music
From Tribune-Herald business editor Mike Copeland:
Rob Gibson, owner of Holze Music Co., confirmed this morning that the State Comptroller’s Office had closed his stores in Waco, Temple and Killeen because he was late paying sales taxes.
Gibson said his stores are taking inventory, but cannot sell merchandise that requires a sales tax until the situation is resolved.
The comptroller’s office had canceled the company’s sales tax permit late last week, effectively suspending operations of its stores. The comptroller’s office said it seized cash, but Holze Music still had a liability of $151,442 to pay.
Gibson said he was delinquent on the payments due to a “cash-flow” problem and that he hopes to get the stores reopened today or Tuesday.
He said the company is not insolvent, though now is a “challenging” time in the retail business. Holze Music Co., which sells band and orchestral instruments, has other locations in Bryan, Dallas, Frisco, Houston, Lewisville, Plano and Round Rock.
The company was founded 71 years ago, and Gibson bought it in 1991 from brothers Larry and Ronnie Holze. The biggest part of its business is renting musical instruments to youngsters.
Gibson said his stores are staying busy, as more schools around the state turn to Holze since Brook Mays Music, a Dallas-based retailer of musical instruments, sheet music and supplies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2006 and liquidated its assets.
It was one of the largest music companies in the Southwest.
Gibson said this morning he is pursuing a loan that should close this week and ease his cash-flow problems. He said he thought the transaction would close early last week. When it didn’t, his efforts to keep the Central Texas locations open were harmed.
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Crawford, Reicher prom photos online
Judging by the photograph from Crawford High School’s prom, seen below, it looks there was plenty of fun to be had this weekend. The Trib has an online slideshow from the Crawford prom as well as the Reicher Catholic High prom.
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Zimbabwe court rejects call to release election results
Zimbabwe’s High Court today rejected an opposition demand for the immediate release of long-delayed election results, prolonging a political crisis that has paralyzed this southern African nation for more than two weeks.
The main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, says he won the March 29 election outright, and has accused President Robert Mugabe of holding back the results so he can orchestrate a runoff and ensure his 28-year grip on power continues.
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change had hoped that the court — though stacked with Mugabe loyalists — would force the election commission to release the results.
The commission, which had quickly published results for parliamentary and local elections held the same day, said it was delaying the release of the presidential results so it could verify the votes.
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Waco-based Mr. Appliance gets a mention
Mr. Appliance, which is based in Waco, figured prominently in a New York Times News Service article posted Sunday on the Chicago Tribune Web site about how regular maintenance can extend the life on your appliances.
Here’s the story, which offers several worthwhile suggestions. You just have to be diligent about doing it. Heaven knows, I should do a better job than I have.
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Delta, Northwest could be merging
Bloomberg this morning says that Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. may announce a merger to create the world’s largest carrier as early as Tuesday, following a meeting of Northwest’s board today, people familiar with the talks said.
Delta Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson met Sunday in Minneapolis with Northwest CEO Doug Steenland to discuss the merger plans, said two of the people, who didn’t want to be identified because the discussions are private.
Delta, the third-largest U.S. carrier by traffic, is betting that a combination with No. 5 Northwest will boost revenue and lower costs after jet-fuel prices surged 77 percent in the past year. The merged company would surpass AMR Corp.’s American Airlines as the world’s biggest carrier.
American, meanwhile, is back in the air with a full schedule after last week’s run of groundings.
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Blockbuster makes bid for Circuit City
Blockbuster Inc., the biggest movie-rental chain, made an unsolicited offer to buy Circuit City Stores Inc., for as much as $1.35 billion as the second-largest U.S. electronics retailer struggles with falling sales, according to Bloomberg.com.
Blockbuster, based in Dallas, wrote to Circuit City Chief Executive Officer Philip Schoonover and bid between $6 and $8 a share for the company, as much as double last week’s closing price. Circuit City, which rose as much as 47 percent in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, said in a statement it isn’t convinced Blockbuster can finance a purchase.
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Rowling coming to N.Y. court to stop Potter reference book
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is expected to testify in a New York court today in a bid to stop the publication of a fan’s unofficial encyclopedic companion to the boy wizard series, Reuters reports.
Steve Vander Ark has written The Harry Potter Lexicon, a 400-page reference book based on his popular fan Web site (www.hp-lexicon.org). Rowling and Warner Bros. are suing RDR Books, which planned to publish the volume last November.
In a declaration filed in the U.S. District Court in February, Rowling, 42, who wrote the seven hugely successful Harry Potter novels, said she was “very frustrated that a former fan has tried to co-opt my work for financial gain.”
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Sect investigation heads to courtroom
An investigation of abuse at the private ranch of a polygamous sect is moving to a San Angelo courthouse this week as the state argues to retain custody of 416 children removed from their parents.
Texas bar officials say more than 350 attorneys from across the state have volunteered to represent the children for free.
“The size, the scope of this effort is unprecedented,” attorney Guy Choate said. “It’s terribly important to the State Bar of Texas that everyone have access to justice.”
Child welfare laws require each child in state custody to have an attorney.
A scheduling hearing to determine which cases will be addressed first and other procedural issues was set for today. A judge was to begin addressing custody issues at a hearing Thursday.
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4 schools near Chicago university close
Four public and parochial schools in Chicago are canceling classes today as a precaution because they are close to a private university that has closed over threatening graffiti found in a dormitory.
Officials said they expect to resume classes Tuesday at Evergreen Park Southwest public elementary school and the Mother McAuley, Brother Rice and Queen of Martyrs high schools.
The four schools are close to St. Xavier University, which shut down indefinitely last week after threatening graffiti was found scrawled in the restroom of a freshman dorm.
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British journalist rescued in Basra
A kidnapped British journalist was rescued by Iraqi troops today after two months in captivity in the southern city of Basra, the Iraqi military said.
Richard Butler, who worked for CBS News, was found with a sack over his head and his hands tied inside a house in Basra, Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji said. He said Butler was in good condition.
He was kidnapped along with his Iraqi interpreter on Feb. 10 in Basra. The interpreter was later released. Iraqi police and witnesses said the two men were seized by about eight masked gunmen wielding machine guns who stormed a hotel in the city.
Here’s the story on the BBC News Web site, along with an image of Butler.
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Cool beginning this Monday
It’s a chilly start to the day with a temperature right now at 37 degrees, according to the official thermometer at Waco Regional Airport. It will be sunny today, with a high near 67.
Tonight it should be mostly clear, with a low around 41.
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