Home > Waco Breaking News > Archives > 2008 > July > 21
Monday, July 21, 2008
Truck fire blocks southbound Interstate 35
An 18-wheeler has caught fire near Bruceville-Eddy, causing authorities to shut down southbound Interstate 35.
The incident began about 9:50 p.m. when one of an 18-wheeler’s tires caught fire, and the flames quickly spread to the rest of the truck, authorities said.
No one was injured in the fire, but authorities are directing all southbound traffic onto the I-35 access road at Bruceville-Eddy.
Authorities hope to have the road reopened by 11:30 p.m.
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The heat goes on
Today’s high of 102 at Waco Regional Airport is the hottest so far this year; paired with yesterday’s high of 100, it’s also the first time in 2008 we’ve had two days in a row of triple digits.
Will it be three in a row tomorrow? Right now, looking at online forecasts, only KXXV and The Weather Channel think so. I’d call it a coin flip myself.
Wednesday and Thursday we may get some rain (and some cooler temperatures) thanks to Tropical Storm Dolly, which may be Hurricane Dolly by the time it hits the Gulf coast Wednesday afternoon. Depending on how far north it gets — the current forecast has the eye coming ashore just north of Brownsville, but there’s a great deal of uncertainty — Waco could see some of the outer rain bands.
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Authorities investigating explosive devices in Waco
Officials are investigating after they found explosive devices in North Waco.
Waco police and an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were investigating after receiving a call at 7:22 p.m. about a suspicious item in the 6300 block of North 19th Street, Waco Police spokesman Steve Anderson said.
Officer called out to the scene found suspicious items in the area, and called a squad of Fort Hood technicians to the scene, Anderson said. Officers blocked off North 19th Street between Lake Shore and Steinbeck Bend drives and evacuated neighbors.
Soldiers recovered two explosive devices from a residence in the block and rendered them safe, ATF spokeswoman Franceska Perot said. An ATF agent was with the Waco Police Department, assisting in the investigation Monday.
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Texas, Mexico prepare for Tropical Storm Dolly
Tropical Storm Dolly is expected to make landfall Wednesday as a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 74 mph to 95 mph. The storm is currently moving toward the west-northwest at 18 mph, expected to gradually slow in the next couple days but stay on track toward the U.S.-Mexico border. Maximum sustained winds were 50 mph earlier but were expected to strengthen Tuesday to hurricane force, which would mean at least 74 mph.
The storm is expected to bring high winds and dump 10 to 20 inches of rain in coastal areas near the U.S.-Mexican border. Emergency officials fear major flooding problems and have urged coastal residents to prepare.
There are about 2 million people in the Rio Grande Valley, which includes popular summer beach resort South Padre Island. Officials readied to evacuate residents in flood-prone areas and urged RV owners on South Padre to head for higher ground. Read more here.
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Local teams still alive at state Little League tournaments
We’ve got quite a few scores from the early games today out at the Texas West state tournaments at the Southwestern Region Little League Complex. Don’t forget to pick up a copy of Tuesday’s Tribune-Herald for full stats and info:
9/10-year-old softball: Midway forced a third game for the championship with McAllister Park in a 14-3 rout. That game will be Tuesday at noon.
9/10-year-old baseball: The Midway team took a tough 3-2 loss to Lubbock Western. That knots the series at one game apiece, with the title game scheduled for noon Tuesday.
10/11-year-old baseball: Midway advanced in the bracket with a 5-1 win over Lubbock Southwest. They’ll play for the championship Wednesday at 9 a.m.
In non-local games, 5 Diamonds beat Dalhart, 13-3, in junior softball; San Antonio Northwest edged Monahans, 7-6, in junior baseball; and Lubbock Western defeated East Brownsville, 11-5, in 9/10 baseball.
If you’re looking for scores and summaries for the past few days of games, you can find all that good stuff on our Youth SportsPlus page.
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Former Baylor, NCAA sports figure Dave Cawood dies
Dave Cawood, a graduate of Baylor University who served as a sports information director at Baylor and later on the NCAA basketball tournament committee, died Sunday at the age of 64 at his home in Louisville, Ky.
Click here to read the official NCAA announcement:
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Waco High grad in the mix for Arkansas’ defensive secondary
The Northwest Arkansas Times is doing a nine-part series on the prospects for the Arkansas Razorbacks football team this fall under new head coach Bobby Petrino. Today’s installment is part three and focuses on the defensive secondary.
Thought to be a weakness after the graduation or injury to four key players from last year’s team, the Times reports Petrino is thrilled with the prospects for the squad.
Among those he mentioned at free safety was junior Rashaad Johnson (6-1, 191) of Waco.
You can check out the full report here.
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New Zealand families swap ashes after funeral mix-up
Two families swapped ashes in New Zealand after a mortuary mix-up led one of the families to say goodbye to a male stranger rather than their mother.
The mortuary realized the error after finding the woman’s body after having mistakenly released the male ashes to the wrong family.
Both families were contact and an exchange arranged. The correct remains now rest with each family and the mortuary has opened an investigation into the mix-up.
This story, coupled with the coffin story Ken posted last week should have every grieving family forewarned to double check with the funeral home.
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Putin plans to attend Olympic opening ceremony
Former Russian president Vladimir Putin has pledged to attend the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics next month.
Putin joins President Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy as world leaders who have confirmed their participation in the Aug. 8 ceremony.
Other plan to boycott the opening ceremonies as a protest to China’s poor record of human rights violations, particularly a recent crackdown in Tibet.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper are among those who have said they plan to stay away.
The games will run from Aug. 8 through Aug. 24 in Beijing. To follow the athletic side of things, you can always visit our constantly updated Olympics page at wacotrib.com/olympics throughout the months ahead.
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West man pleads guilty to intoxication manslaughter
Douglas Howard Church, 25, of West, pleaded guilty today in 54th State District court to intoxication manslaughter and three counts of intoxication assault.
A jury will assess his punishment.
Church, whose older brother was killed in a single-vehicle, drunken driving accident eight years ago after the Westfest parade, is charged in the August 2006 death of Debbie Ruth French, 36, also of West.
Officials have said that Church was driving drunk on Farm-to-Market Road 3149 when he drifted into the path of French’s vehicle. She was killed, and her three children were injured.
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Mississippi school bars texting between students and teachers
The Lamar County school board in southern Mississippi approved a policy this month which prohibits teachers and students from sending text messages to one another or interacting on social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook.
The intent of the policy was to keep communication professional, not personal.
Teachers may still have pages on the networking sites; they just can’t use them to communicate with students.
No specific incident led to the new policy, the district reported.
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Hurricane watch issued for Brownsville area
As Tropical Storm Dolly crosses the Yucatan Peninsula and heads into the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters have issued a hurricane watch in Texas extending from Brownsville to Port O’Connor. A tropical storm watch also is in effect and extends from north of Port O’Connor to San Luis Pass.
For more details, click here.
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Rice says meeting with North Korea no big deal
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is set to meet with North Korean diplomats in Singapore this week. It will be the highest level of meetings between the U.S. and the Communist nation and charter member of President Bush’s “axis of evil” in four years.
American, North Korean, Chinese, Russian, South Korean and Japanese representatives will meet to discuss North Korea’s progress in dismantling its nuclear facility. Rice calls the meeting consultational rather than historic or significant and expects only to convey a message that “obligations must be met” by North Korea, namely finishing the dismantling.
The U.S. and North Korea have no regular diplomatic relationship and are technically still at war dating from the 1950s’ Korean War.
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Paulson: Brace for months of economic stress
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson used the Sunday TV talk shows as a pulpit to send out a grim message: “I think it’s going to be months that we’re working our way through this period — clearly months.”
Referring to the trouble banks are facing as more bad mortgages are defaulted, he sought to reassure Americans by saying, “Of course the list (of troubled banks) is going to grow longer given the stresses we have in the marketplace, given the housing correction. But again, it’s a safe banking system, a sound banking system. Our regulators are on top of it.”
Paulson reminded depositors that their accounts are insured up to $100,000 and that no one has lost a penny on insured deposits in the 75 years of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) operation.
For more of Paulson’s comments, click here.
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Jury selection set in intoxication manslaughter case
Tribune-Herald reporter Tommy Witherspoon says jury selection should start by 10 a.m. in an intoxication manslaughter case involving a man from West.
Douglas Howard Church, a 25-year-old West man whose older brother was killed in a single-vehicle, drunken driving accident eight years ago after the Westfest parade, is charged in the August 2006 death of Debbie Ruth French, 36, also of West.
Officials have said that Church was driving drunk on Farm-to-Market Road 3149 when he drifted into the path of French’s vehicle. She was killed, and her three children were injured.
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Be warned: Some truckers prone to unconsciousness
A U.S. Safety Study obtained by the Associated Press shows that “hundreds of thousands” of tractor-trailer and bus drivers carry commercial driver’s licenses while also qualifying for full federal disability payments for conditions like seizures, heart attacks, and unconscious spells.
The U.S. agency responsible for cracking down on unfit truckers, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, acknowledges it hasn’t completed any of eight recommendations that U.S. safety regulators have proposed since 2001.
Makes you really anxious to get back on I-35, doesn’t it?
For more of this report, click here.
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Police issue arrest warrant in Waco homicide
Waco police have issued an arrest warrant for Jay Vincent Hopwood, 19, in connection with the slaying of Trakemeyon “Trey” Richardson, 28, of Waco
Richardson was pronounced dead at 5:10 p.m. Friday.
According to a release from Steve Anderson of the Waco Police Department, Richardson and another individual were walking in the 400 block of Clifton Street just after 6 p.m. July 10 when someone in a gold Ford Taurus drove by and started shooting at them.
Richardson was struck in the upper body by one of the bullets. The individual that had been walking with Richardson ran away before officers arrived. Richardson told officers he believed he wasn’t the intended target of the shooting.
Richardson was taken by ambulance to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, where he remained in intensive care until Friday night, when he died from his injury.
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Pentagon top offical: Troop withdrawal could have ‘dangerous consequences’
Adm. Mike Mullen said Sunday that a specific timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq could undo political and economic gains and lead to “dangerous consequences.”
Alternatively, he likened the Bush administrations efforts with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to set a “general time horizon” for withdrawing U.S. troops, calling it a sign of “healthy negotiations for a burgeoning democracy.”
The best way to determine troops levels, he said, is to assess the conditions on the ground and to consult with American commanders — the mission Bush has given him.
For more of his comments, read the full story from the Associated Press.
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Bush administration splits from Party over Freddie, Fannie
When he saw Treasury’s plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., grumbled, “I thought I woke up in France. But no, it turned out it was socialism here in the United States of America.”
Bush administration officials, particularly Treasury secretary Henry M. Paulson, are working with Democrats on a bargain that would rescue 40,000 homes from foreclosure while tightening controls on the mortgage giants.
Democrats have long championed the two programs that help middle- and low-income families become homeowners, but this is new ground for Republicans.
“Nothing concentrates the mind like a death sentence,” said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., the Senate Banking Committee chairman. “I went from dealing with an administration that didn’t want to do anything to one that wants to do everything.”
For more on the story, click here.
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Coast Guard searches for survivors of crashed B-52
The Air Force is reporting that a B-52 bombed crashed off the coast of Guam early this morning prior to a Liberation Day parade planned to celebrate the day the U.S. retook Guam from the Japanese in World War II.
The Coast Guard has found two crew members so far. Their conditions are not currently released. Coast Guard rescue squads continue to search a “vast area” of debris and oil off the coast of the island this morning.
Guam is a U.S. possession in the Pacific.
For further details, click here.
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Iowa hit by thunderstorms
As if the Midwest hasn’t been hit hard enough this summer by all the flooding the region has experienced, reports are now coming out of Iowa that severe thunderstorms with winds over 100 miles per hour knocked out electricity and caused considerable damage overnight.
Fortunately, no casualties have been reported so far.
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Latest in foot care? Say goodbye to corns and hello to fish
Want to rid your feet of scaly, dry patches? Catch yourself a carp.
A salon in Virginia is offering fish pedicures where clients’ feet are submerged in tubs containing “doctor fish.” The treatment replaces razors, which have been deemed “unsanitary.”
Clients report the procedure is ticklish. It is followed by a typical pedicure, which is reportedly easier because the skin is softened by the fish.
Have I got you hooked? Check out the whole story here.
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Rice: Iran not serious about nuke talks
U.S. Secretary of State Condolleeza Rice said Iranian representatives were not serious during weekend meetings with six major world powers, including Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, the State Department’s number 3 man. Rice warned that further sanctions might be necessary.
Check out the full report here.
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Hurricane watch: Fausto has reached peak
This one’s dedicated to my best friend in high school, whose middle name really was Faust.
Hurricane Fausto in the Pacific has been upgraded to a Category 2 storm, but forecasters believe this is the storm’s peak and expect a weakening over the next 24 hours.
Meanwhile Tropical Storm Dolly in the Atlantic is moving over the Yucatan Peninsula and is expected to strengthen as it moves into the Gulf of Mexico.
You can get all the details here.
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Midwife delivery poses citizenship questions in South Texas
Here’s an interesting story out of Brownsville, and it’s certainly an issue I never would have considered: Supposed U.S. citizens who were delivered by midwives rather than at a hospital are having to prove their citizenship all over again.
When applying for passports, these individuals, who claim they’ve never lived anywhere but Texas, are having to prove that they really are citizens. The government suspects that midwives in the South Texas city are issuing fraudulent birth certificates in order to help illegal aliens gain apparent citizenship.
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Good hot morning, Waco
Ken is on vacation for the next two weeks, so I’ll be stepping in to his very large shoes.
Expect a high today in the high 90s, with light southeasterly winds in the afternoon. Low tonight will be in the mid-70s.
It looks like late in the week before we have any chance of showers.
And it’s already 79 this morning, so brace yourself for the heat to come.
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