Home > Waco Breaking News > Archives > 2008 > July > 11
Friday, July 11, 2008
Larry King to revisit Stephenville UFO sightings
The “Larry King Live” program tonight is going to look back at those UFO sightings in Stephenville from earlier this year, tied into the release of a report completed by the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON. You can download the pdf file of the report from this site.
Local MUFON investigator Dave Keel of Waco was one of the field investigators who collected witness statements for the report.
“Larry King Live” is on a 8 p.m. CDT.
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Crane KO’s Gatesville in quarters, goes on to win state 7-on-7
Crane knocked off Gatesville, 46-20, today in the quarterfinals of the state 7-on-7 tournament in College Station.
Crane then went on to Navasota, 38-27, for the Division II (Class 3A and below) title.
Reicher and West were eliminated in the first round of bracket play Thursday night.
RESULTS
ROUND OF 16
Rice Consolidated 20, Lovejoy 13 (OT)
Navasota 35, Jasper 24
Celina 41, Diboll 40 (OT)
New Waverly 20, Melissa 19
Normangee 38, Marion 6
Brownwood 62, Rockdale 19
Crane 35, Bandera 21
Gatesville 26, Paradise 14
QUARTERFINALS
Navasota 34, Rice Consolidated 28
New Waverly 32, Celina 21
Brownwood 34, Normangee 30
Crane 46, Gatesville 20
SEMIFINALS
Navasota 25, New Waverly 20
Crane 38, Brownwood 34
CHAMPIONSHIP
Crane 38, Navasota 27
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Firefighters say McGregor blaze under control
Firefighters say a massive fire in downtown McGregor is largely out, three hours after it destroyed one business and threatened a row of historic structures.
The fire started five minutes before 1 p.m., and quickly caught the attention of downtown businesspeople returning from lunch.
In the 100-degree temperatures, firefighters from McGregor, Woodway, Crawford, Moody, Oglesby and Bruceville-Eddy responded to the blaze.
It started inside Central Texas Customs motorcycle shop, 200 S. Main St., in the heart of the city’s downtown.
The shop was not open at the time of the fire. Its owner, Bill Knox, who also occasionally lives at the 4-year-old shop, was out of town, said Becky Clarkson, the owner of Main Street Fitness, which is right next door to the motorcycle shop.
The upstairs of the two-story fitness center suffered smoke and water damage.
One volunteer firefighter from McGregor was taken to a Waco hospital, where he was treated for smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion. Others had to be covered with cold, wet towels and given water.
About a dozen concerned McGregor residents quickly scrounged up water and towels and ran to deliver them to firefighters.
“That’s just McGregor,” said the city’s mayor, Jimmy Hering. “That doesn’t surprise me one bit.”
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Update: McGregor crowds watch downtown fire
Trib reporter Erin Quinn reports that dozens of people are crowding McGregor’s Main Street watching firefighters battle a blaze at a motorcycle shop.
Crews from McGregor, Moody, Woodway and Crawford are battling the blaze, which appears to be contained to the interior of Central Texas Customs, 200 S. Main St.
Quinn reports the building’s structure is still standing and crews are fighting the flames inside the building from aerial cranes.
Smoke from the fire is visible from as far away as Woodway, Quinn reports. Onlookers are recording the event with cameras and cell phone cameras, she said.
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Motorcycle shop ablaze in McGregor
McGregor firefighters are battling a blaze at Texas Customs, a motorcycle shop on McGregor’s Main Street, authorities said.
Woodway firefighters were called out to help fight the fire at 200 S. Main St. Authorities say the building is fully engulfed.
Initial reports indicated chemicals inside the structure could be causing explosions as the fire burns.
Watch wacotrib.com for details as they come in.
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Study: Auto deaths drop as gas prices go up
Now here’s an intriguing story. Today’s high gas prices could cut auto deaths by nearly a third as driving decreases, with the effect particularly dramatic among price-sensitive teenage drivers, the authors of a new study said.
Professors Michael Morrisey of the University of Alabama and David Grabowski of Harvard Medical School found that for every 10 percent increase in gas prices there was a 2.3 percent decline in auto deaths. For drivers ages 15 to 17 the decline was 6 percent and for ages 18 to 21 it was 3.2 percent.
The study looked at fatalities from 1985 to 2006, when gas prices reached about $2.50 a gallon. With gas now averaging over $4 a gallon, Morrisey said he expects to see a drop of about 1,000 deaths a month.
— The Associated Press
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Great-grandson of former Trib owner dies in motorcycle accident
The grandson of Sara Fentress Warren of Waco — daughter of the last private owner of the Waco Tribune-Herald — died Thursday in Philadelphia, Pa., following a motorcycle accident.
Harlon Humphreys Morse, 22, a landscape designer for Chanticleer Gardens, was the son of Laurie Humphreys of Philadelphia and Carl Spencer Morse II of Austin. He was named for Harlon Morse Fentress, his great-grandfather, who sold Newspapers Inc., which included the Waco Tribune-Herald, to Cox Enterprises shortly before his death in 1976.
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Construction worker in Waco killed
A 49-year-old Bellmead man was killed this morning when a 450-pound piece of metal fell on him while working on a construction site in Waco, police say.
The industrial accident happened at about 8 a.m. this morning at the Heart of Texas Pediatrics building at Sanger Avenue and State Highway 6, Waco police spokesman Steve Anderson said.
The man was lowering himself down after tack-welding a 20-foot-long section of square tubing when the weld apparently didn’t hold, Anderson said. The piece hit him on the right side of the head and shoulder.
An off-duty officer and paramedic who was next door at a credit union rushed over to help and called an ambulance, Anderson said, but the worker died at the scene.
Police are not releasing the victim’s name until after relatives have been contacted.
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Report: Austrian woman kept in dungeon questioned
Prosecutors for the first time questioned the woman allegedly held captive for 24 years by her father, and video of the interviews will be shown in court at the father’s trial later this year, Austrian media reported today.
The Austria Press Agency, citing unidentified judicial sources, said 42-year-old Elisabeth Fritzl was interviewed today in a secret location.
Her father, 73-year-old Josef Fritzl, is expected to go on trial before the end of the year. Prosecutors allege he held his daughter in a windowless underground cell beneath his home and fathered seven children with her, tossing into a furnace the body of one of the babies after it died in infancy.
— The Associated Press/CNN
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British spymaster awakes from 10-day coma
This probably doesn’t have the intrigue it would seem at first blush, but a senior British intelligence official has emerged from a coma 10 days after he collapsed at home, according to the Associated Press.
The Cabinet Office said late Thursday that Alex Allan remains in intensive care but is conscious and showing “positive signs of recovery.”
Allan, 57, was found unconscious by a neighbor at his London home on June 30.
Police investigated amid fears he had been poisoned, but say they do not consider the incident suspicious.
Allan chairs the Joint Intelligence Committee, which briefs the government on information from all Britain’s spy agencies.
Allan’s sudden illness comes amid a long chill in Anglo-Russian relations.
In 2006, former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko died in a London hospital after being exposed to deadly Polonium-210. Britain suspects Russian state involvement in the death of Litvinenko, a fierce critic of the Kremlin.
Britain expelled four Russian diplomats after Russia refused to hand over the main suspect in Litvinenko’s death. Russia responded by expelling four British embassy officials from Moscow.
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Doctors may no longer get drug company trinkets
Those freebies of pens, notepads and such given to doctors by pharmaceutical companies may become a thing of the past, according to this blog link I was sent by a colleague.
The pharmaceutical industry’s trade association, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, has issued a new voluntary code of conduct that prohibits giving out those freebies with the name of drug brands to the nation’s doctors.
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Ohio plans first execution since moratorium
Ohio is planning its first execution since a U.S. Supreme Court decision ended a national pause on killing inmates.
The Ohio Supreme Court today set an execution date of Oct. 14 for Richard Cooey, who was convicted of raping and murdering two University of Akron students in 1986.
Executions had been put on hold nationally for several months until the U.S. Supreme Court decided in April to allow Kentucky’s lethal injection process, which is similar to the one used in Ohio. Opponents argued the procedure is unconstitutionally cruel.
— The Associated Press
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People lining up in Waco for latest iPhone
Techno-savvy consumers hoping to get their hands in the second generation of Apple’s iPhone today will have to settle for a raincheck.
The AT&T store at New Road and Waco Drive was sold out of the gadget du jour by 11 a.m., but they are happily taking “direct fulfills” which basically puts a name on a phone for you when the next shipment comes in. The next shipment may be some time next week.
The lines formed at local AT&T stores last night and there was still a line outside the New Road and Waco Drive store at 9:30 this morning.
The store was filing people through quickly, sending them on their way with a new gadget that, unlike the first-generation iPhone, has GPS capability and access to AT&T’s high-speed 3G broadband network. If you had your heart set on a 16-gig model, though, you’re probably out of luck.
An AT&T rep said the New Road store was already out of the phone with the larger storage. The store was taking the names of folks in line though, so that when the phone they want comes in, it will have their name on it.
But there have been problems reported with the new phones, which drew long lines worldwide.
Some of the people at the Waco store had been waiting since 11 p.m. last night, we’re told.
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Crude oil hits new high in trading
Crude-oil futures soared to a new record high this morning, surpassing $147 a barrel, propelled by mounting tensions on Iran and worries about supply disruptions in Nigeria and Brazil, according to Marketwatch.
Crude hit an all-time record of $147.27 a barrel in electronic trading on the Globex exchange. At the New York Mercantile Exchange, the contract for August delivery was last up $4.95 to $146.60 a barrel.
“Everything that we were worried about going into the [July 4] holiday weekend has re-emerged,” said Phil Flynn, vice president at futures brokerage Alaron Trading in Chicago.
“The rhetoric form Iran is heating up. They’re shooting off the missiles, and (there is) a lot of provocative statements on both sides,” Flynn said.
Iran has said it test-fired a number of missiles in recent days, including a missile that’s capable of reaching Israel.
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Shark sighting reported at ‘Jaws’ film site
Interesting news that the island where “Jaws” was filmed had a real-life shark scare yesterday, when an unconfirmed sighting of a great white forced the closure of two beaches, the Associated Press reported.
South Beach on Martha’s Vineyard was closed for a short time, and swimmers were kept out of the water at State Beach in Edgartown, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation said.
A plane was dispatched to try to confirm the sighting, but no shark was spotted, said Lisa Capone, a spokeswoman for the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
In 1974, Steven Spielberg chose Martha’s Vineyard for filming the movie version of “Jaws,” depicting a series of deadly great white attacks in the fictional community of Amity.
Shark attacks are extremely rare in waters off New England, but great whites have been known to occasionally prowl in the region, the AP said.
If you’re unfamiliar with this classic of American cinema, here’s the 1975 trailer for “Jaws”:
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Average gas prices in state up a penny
Retail gasoline prices rose just slightly in most of the state this week, according to AAA Texas.
The weekly AAA Texas gasoline price survey released today showed that the average retail price of self-serve regular rose a penny this week to $3.960 per gallon. Nationally, the average price rose a penny to $4.10.
The survey showed the most expensive gasoline in Texas was in Beaumont, where the average price of self-serve regular fell a penny to $3.99. The cheapest gas was in Houston, where the average price rose a penny to $3.94.
Don’t forget to check out local gas prices at our GasBuddy link.
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Obama backers to have voter drive
Concerned Citizens for Barack Obama will hold a voter registration drive Saturday starting at 10 a.m. at 808 Elm St. in Waco, organizer Cynthia Lyons said. The group will distribute campaign materials and sell T-shirts.
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Waco man in story on Wounded Warrior Project
A story online at mycentraljersey.com interviews several soldiers who are being treated to a weekend of activities by the Wounded Warrior Project. The first man featured in the article is a John Wayne Walding, a 27-year-old U.S. Army staff sergeant from Waco.
According to the story, Walding was one of 37 wounded soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq who were treated to lunch at a restaurant in Edison, N.J. Thursday. They began the day at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and would receive a police escort from here to Queens, N.Y., where they were scheduled to participate in water sports activity this weekend, including water skiing and scuba diving.
A photo of Walding and his family accompanies the story. He seems to have a good outlook on life despite losing part of his right leg because of an attack.
I didn’t find any Waldings listed in the Waco phone book. Does anyone know of this family?
Here’s an informative video on the project:
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World Hunger Farm featured in Morning News
The Dallas Morning News today is taking a look at organic farming and how a new generation of young adults is experiencing a different lifestyle — at least for a while — with this story on the World Hunger Farm in Elm Mott.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Hunger Farm, here’s a video profile:
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Bodies of 2 missing U.S. soldiers found in Iraq
For more than a year, Gordon Dibler held out hope that his stepson, Army Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, would return home from Iraq. Then military officials delivered the grim news that the body of Fouty and another soldier captured during an ambush south of Baghdad had been found.
“Every day that he’s been missing has been a day of `what could have been’ … but after hearing the news … I’m still in shock,” Dibler said Thursday, after military officials came to his home and told him his stepson’s body was one of two discovered in the Iraqi village of Jurf as Sakhr.
Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich., and Army Sgt. Alex Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass., were kidnapped in May 2007 in the volatile area south of Baghdad known as the “triangle of death.” The body of a third captured soldier, Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif., was found in the Euphrates River a year later.
— The Associated Press
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Just hot and dry for today, weekend
Not that we saw much in the way of rain the past couple of days, but the chance of precipitation is completely gone from the forecast starting today through the weekend with a high flirting with 100 degrees.
And of course, that means the heat index will reach the low 100s. Stay as cool as you can, and if you have to be outdoors, stay hydrated. There will be a south wind between 10 and 20 mph, which means it’ll dry out my lawn even more.
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