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Friday, August 1, 2008
Midway advances to Little League Softball World Series, 8-1
The Midway Little League softball all-stars are headed back to the promised land.
Midway defeated San Antonio Northwest/Northside Suburban, 8-1, in the deciding game of the Southwest regional tournament tonight at the Alamo Heights Little League Fields in San Antonio
By defeating Northwest twice in the championship round — 15-5 on Thursday night and again Friday — Midway advances to the Little League World Series Aug. 7-13 in Portland, Ore.
It’s the first time Midway has advanced to the World Series since it won its 11th Little League World Series title in 2004.
Midway broke open a 1-1 game with a seven-run rally in the bottom of the fourth inning to take control.
Spencer Williams led off the Midway fourth with a double, and she and Jill Perry, playing on her 13th birthday, scored on a throwing error by the Northwest catcher with Cameron Cale at-bat.
Williams capped the inning for Midway with another double that drove in the sixth and seventh runs, helping Midway build a seven-run margin.
Midway starting pitcher Callee Guffey went the distance, holding Northwest to a run and two hits and striking out seven through six innings.
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A week of 100s
A high of 100 today at Waco Regional Airport means the temperature has reached triple digits for the last seven days, and 11 of the last 13.
Waco continues under a heat advisory intended to last through 7 pm Monday*, meaning heat indices will be 105 degrees or higher for two or more days, with the actual temperature between those highs not dropping below 78.
Conditions may be even worse on Sunday and Monday: An excessive heat watch is in effect for then, meaning heat indices may reach 110 degrees or higher. It’s not that Waco hasn’t seen temperatures as high as Sunday’s forecast 104 degrees before, explains the NWS’s Dan Shoemaker, it’s that it’s usually been a dry heat — but Sunday’s temperatures may bring higher-than-normal humidity with them, making it feel much hotter; thus a higher heat index.
If it’s needed, the excessive heat warning would be issued tomorrow sometime. Shoemaker said he and his colleagues have had difficulty remembering the last time such a warning was issued — possibly as far back as 1980, when Waco had a 42-day 100-degree streak that included the entire month of July.
- The NWS web site currently gives the advisory as expiring Sunday morning, but the NWS Fort Worth office says this is due to software that doesn’t let the heat advisory run concurrently with the excessive heat watch.
Full advisory text after the jump.
…HEAT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 AM CDT SUNDAY… …EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY MORNING THROUGH MONDAY EVENING…
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN FORT WORTH HAS ISSUED AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY MORNING THROUGH MONDAY EVENING.
THE HEAT ADVISORY IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 AM CDT SUNDAY.
DANGEROUS SUMMER HEAT IS EXPECTED TO INTENSIFY THROUGH THE WEEKEND WITH HIGH TEMPERATURES RANGING BETWEEN 104 AND 108 DEGREES ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. THESE HOT TEMPERATURES WILL COMBINE WITH MODERATE HUMIDITY VALUES TO PRODUCE HEAT INDEX VALUES BETWEEN 106 AND 110 DEGREES ON SATURDAY. THE HOTTEST DAYS ARE EXPECTED TO BE SUNDAY AND MONDAY WHERE HEAT INDEX VALUES MAY EXCEED 110 DEGREES…THEREFORE AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY. IN ADDITION…OVERNIGHT LOW TEMPERATURES WILL ONLY DROP INTO THE UPPER 70S AND LOWER 80S…PROVIDING LITTLE RECOVERY TIME FROM THE HOT TEMPERATURES.
A HEAT ADVISORY MEANS THAT AFTERNOON HEAT INDEX VALUES ARE EXPECTED TO MEET OR EXCEED 105 DEGREES WHILE OVERNIGHT LOW TEMPERATURES WILL NOT FALL BELOW THE UPPER 70S.
PERSONS INVOLVED IN VIGOROUS OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES ARE URGED TO TAKE FREQUENT BREAKS AND DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. WEAR LOOSE FITTING AND LIGHT-COLORED CLOTHING. BE SURE TO CHECK ON PERSONS WITH HEALTH PROBLEMS AND THE ELDERLY…AS THEY ARE THE MOST SUSCEPTIBLE TO HEAT EXHAUSTION AND HEAT STROKE. NEVER LEAVE YOUNG CHILDREN OR PETS IN AN ENCLOSED VEHICLE…EVEN FOR A SHORT TIME…AS TEMPERATURES CAN QUICKLY RISE TO LIFE THREATENING LEVELS.
AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH MEANS THAT A PROLONGED PERIOD OF VERY HOT WEATHER IS EXPECTED. THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND HIGH HUMIDITY WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A DANGEROUS SITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES ARE POSSIBLE. PERSONS WITH OUTDOOR PLANS LATER THIS WEEKEND SHOULD CONTINUE TO MONITOR THIS DEVELOPING WEATHER SITUATION.
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Construction worker dies after fall from Waco building
Police are investigating after a construction worker fell to his death this afternoon.
Gregorio Gutierrez, 51, of Dallas, was working at 1:20 p.m. on the roof of the new Coca-Cola distribution center, 2700 Central Texas Parkway, when the incident happened, Waco police spokesman Steve Anderson said. Gutierrez was employed by B&R Development in Hutchins.
Gutierrez was working on the center’s roof when a gust of wind knocked him off, and he fell 30 to 35 feet to his death, Anderson said.
Gutierrez was wearing a safety harness because of the height at which he was working, but the harness had not been hooked to the safety rigging when he fell, Anderson said.
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Suspect in anthrax-letter deaths kills himself
Anthrax-laced letters that killed five people and severely rattled the post-9/11 nation may have been part of an Army scientist’s warped plan to test his cure for the deadly toxin, officials said Friday. The brilliant but troubled scientist committed suicide this week, knowing prosecutors were closing in.
Here’s the full storyfrom the Associated Press.
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Who’s No. 1? Check out the Top 25 preseason college football poll
The USA Today coaches’ football poll was released today, and the Texas Longhorns are in the Top 10.
Who’s No. 1? Click here.
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Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban ordered to pay up
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban must immediately pay Don Nelson $6.3 million, according to an arbitrator’s ruling that ends a long-running battle over the former Mavs coach’s compensation package.
Nelson, now Golden State’s coach, claimed the money was owed to him from his time with the Mavericks from 1997-2005. The arbitrator, retired Judge Glen M. Ashworth, also rejected Cuban’s claim that Nelson used “confidential information” to help the Warriors upset the top-seeded Mavs in the first round of the 2007 playoffs.
While the matter was settled with Thursday’s ruling, there are still plenty of hard feelings.
“He’s relieved but feels that it never should have come to this, that Cuban had withheld this money really out of spite and it was just unnecessary,” Nelson’s attorney, John O’Connor, said by phone from his San Francisco home Friday. “So, while Nelson’s happy and relieved, he’s not happy that he had to go through this and that Cuban would do this. We consider it a pretty shameful episode.”
Cuban said in an e-mail to the Associated Press that he’ll pay now that the ruling’s in place, but still contends that Nelson and his attorney aren’t being truthful.
“The sad thing about the entire situation is that if Nellie would have come to me and asked to get out of his contract so that he could coach the GS Warriors, I would have let him,” Cuban wrote. “Instead, he lied about it all and it took a lawsuit to find out the facts.”
— The Associated Press
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People magazine gets Pitt-Jolie baby pictures
People magazine has scored the U.S. rights to exclusive photos of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s newborn twins, a representative for the magazine told the Associated Press on Friday.
Here are more details.
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British rescuers struggle to save beached whale
British wildlife experts and the coast guard struggled on Friday to save the life of a sick, 26-foot-long (8-meter-long) whale that was freed from a mudflat where it had been stranded off the coast of southern England.
The northern bottlenose whale was beached off Langstone Harbor for around 12 hours before coast guards helped it return to the water. Marine wildlife experts said it had suffered severe dehydration, which had caused kidney failure, and it is almost certain to die.
It will be put down if it becomes stranded again, rescuers said.
For more on the rescue, see the full Associated Press story.
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Waco Charter, Rapoport fare well in ratings
Local charter schools are faring well so far on this year’s state accountability ratings.
Waco Charter School has been moved from academically unacceptable to acceptable according to the Texas Education Agency’s statewide accountability system
In numbers released late Thursday by TEA, the school has officially shown the gains necessary to be removed form the state’s list of unacceptable schools.
All three Rapoport public charter schools earned ratings of “recognized” this year, according to a Rapoport schools spokeswoman.
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Midway posts top-notch school ratings
It’s all “exemplary” and “recognized” state ratings for Midway Independent School District this year.
Midway submitted its annual ratings in advance of the Texas Education Agency’s official release, which is at 1 p.m.
Midway’s ratings, based mostly on results from the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests, are as follows:
Hewitt Elementary - Exemplary Speegleville Elementary - Exemplary South Bosque Elementary - Exemplary Spring Valley Elementary - Recognized Woodway Elementary - Recognized Midway Intermediate School - Recognized (up from Acceptable last year) Midway Middle School - Recognized Midway High School - Recognized (up from Acceptable last year)
Midway ISD - Recognized (up from Acceptable last year)
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Oral arguments set in Sen. Craig sex-sting appeal
Arguments to throw out Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s guilty plea in a sex sting case will be heard by the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Sept. 10.
Craig plead guilty to charges of soliciting sex in the Minneapolis airport last summer, but later said the plea was a mistake.
A Hennepin County judge refused to let Craig withdraw the plea, resulting in this appeal to the higher court.
For more on the case, click here.
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Georgia town spends $1 million to buy, shut down strip club
A northeast Georgia small town voted earlier this week to spend $1 million to buy the Cafe Risque so they could shut the strip club down.
The announcement of the decision by the mayor was met with a standing ovation. City crews had a bonfire of the clubs sign and advertisements at the club site.
The town of Lavonia could have spent the money paying off bonds for a water treatment facility upgrade, but instead wanted to eliminate the adult entertainment venue they have fought for years.
For more on the story, click here.
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‘65 percent solution’ for education on Florida ballot
Florida voters this fall will consider a proposal to increase educational spending in the classroom without raising taxes. The proposal would require districts to spend 65 percent of their budgets on classroom expenses, rather than administrative overhead.
The proposal has widespread support among Florida voters, but has generated some controversy because of how it defines classroom expenses.
Federal statistics show that on average the nation’s school districts spend 66 percent of their annual budgets on classroom expenses and only 11 percent on purely administrative expenses. However, the federal study does not count transportation and support services, like nurses and librarians, as administrative cost.
First Class Education, an organization formed in Washington to promote the 65 percent idea counts those items as administrative costs and counts classroom expenses as only teacher salaries, supplies and extracurricular costs, including sports.
Texas and Georgia already have passed similar statutes, mostly following the First Class Education guidelines.
For more on the Florida proposal, click here.
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Congress passes spending bill, heads home for summer break
Members of Congress headed for the exits this morning for their annual five-week summer vacation. Their last act was to pass a $72.7 billion spending bill that gives increases for veterans benefits and military construction projects.
The measure passed the House by a vote of 409-4.
More notable was what didn’t pass: Any form of an energy bill to help with gasoline prices.
Senate Republicans blocked a bill aimed at curbing speculation in oil markets, while a similar bill and several others by House Democrats — including a plan to encourage drilling in already available coastal areas and in Alaska — failed to advance after party leaders brought them to the floor under procedures that required supermajorities to pass.
For more on Congress’ failure to pass energy legislation, click here.
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Heat advisory extended to Monday
It’s not just going to be hot — it’s going to be hot for a while. The National Weather Service heat advisory issued for Waco last night, originally set to expire Saturday night, has been extended to Monday evening.
Two things are required for a heat advisory to be issued: heat indices above 105 (the NWS forecast calls for the heat index to reach 105 to 110 degrees, with real high temperatures in the 102 to 105 range) and morning lows that don’t drop below 78 (and that’s the forecast low for the next three nights).
Here’s some heat safety information from the NWS Web site.
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Waco interfaith group forming
An interfaith grief support group is being formed for the Waco community. The group will meet Thursday afternoons beginning Aug. 28th. Space is limited. To sign up, call or email co-leaders Dr. James Ellor, Baylor School of Social Work, 710-4439, james_ellor@baylor.edu, or Rabbi Gordon Fuller, 772-1451, cajrabbi@agudath-waco.org. Further details will be shared with registrants. This group will be both supportive and educational and will meet for 8 consecutive weeks. It is intended for those who have suffered the loss of an adult within the last few years.
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44-pound cat’s origins established
A 44-pound cat found lumbering around New Jersey was abandoned by a woman who said her home was foreclosed, an animal shelter official said Thursday.
The porky white cat found Saturday became a local media sensation and was dubbed “Princess Chunk”. But the animal is really a male whose name is Powder.
Jennifer Anderch, director of the Camden County Animal Shelter, said Thursday that the cat’s owner came forward to describe the animal’s background.
For more on the celebrity cat, click here.
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Guantanamo Bay detainee assaults admiral with feces
A detainee assaulted the Navy admiral in charge of the Guantanamo Bay detention center with a “cocktail” of bodily fluids on a recent tour inside the razor wire, military officials said Thursday.
The inmate used a water bottle to splatter Rear Adm. David Thomas with feces as he walked the cell block in mid-July, said Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Hayhurst, a senior member of the guard leadership. (enlarge photo) In this image reviewed by the U.S. Military, a detainee is pictured at the medium security Camp 4 detention center, at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, in Cuba, Wednesday, July 23, 2008. (AP Photo/Randall Mikkelsen, Pool)
The admiral’s spokeswoman, Navy Cmdr. Pauline Storum, said Thomas did not react.
For the rest of the Associated Press story, click here.
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Prospective jurors for Coble murder case fill out questionnaires
About 125 people gathered this morning in Waco’s 54th State District Court to fill out questionnaires prior to jury selection in the capital murder case of Billie Wayne Coble.
Coble, 59, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1990 in Waco in the August 1989 shooting deaths of his estranged wife’s parents, Robert and Zelda Vicha, and her brother, Waco police Sgt. Bobby Vicha, at their Axtell homes.
Upon appeals, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals left Coble’s capital murder conviction intact but reversed the punishment in his case.
That sent the case back for a new punishment trial in which prosecutors again will seek the death penalty.
The New Orleans-based court ruled that the two special issues that Coble’s McLennan County jury had to answer for the death penalty to be assessed — whether he committed murder deliberately and if he constitutes a continuing threat to society — were unconstitutional as applied to him.
At his retrial, a third special issue will be added, which will ask jurors whether sufficient mitigating factors exist that make a life prison term more appropriate than a death sentence.
For the retrial, Judge Matt Johnson summoned 350 people for jury duty, however, after exemptions and wrong addresses, a panel of about 125 remained.
Individual questioning of potential jurors is set to begin Tuesday. The judge has scheduled for three potential jurors to be questioned in the morning, and three in the afternoon.
Court officials said they expect testimony in the case to begin Aug. 19.
Among the questions jurors were asked on the 12-page questionnaire given to potential jurors today were religious affiliation, hobbies, including what TV shows they watch, education, family background and civic affiliations.
They were also specifically asked about their beliefs on the death penalty.
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Chinese president says politics and Olympics don’t mix
In a rare media interview, Chines president Hu Jintao this morning stressed competition and international friendship, not politics, as the defining issues for this summer’s Olympic Games, which start next week in Beijing.
Hu did not address limits in Internet access and human rights issues, the two main topics that have detracted from Olympic coverage, but he did stress that reporters should obey the laws of the land and report objectively and fairly during their stay in China.
Questions had to be submitted by invited media prior to the press conference. When a German reporter tried to ask a human rights question at the end of the session, Hu ignored him.
For more on the press conference, click here.
For our continued coverage of the Olympic Games, click here.
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Four soldiers killed in Afghanistan this morning
A roadside blast this morning killed four soldiers and one civilian this morning in eastern Afghanistan this morning, according to NATO sources.
Although the nationalities of the victims have not been released, most of the troops in that area are Americans.
For the latest on the deaths, click here.
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President touts gains in Iraq
Eager to shore up his legacy as his second term nears a close, President Bush touted gains in Iraq in a press conference Thursday, saying that a decrease in violence seemed to be a development with some “durability.”
Bush also pointed out that tours of duty for the U.S. military are down from 15 months to one year.
However, as Bush acknowledged gains in Iraq, other aspects of his world agenda do not appears as optimistic. Violence in Afghanistan is increasing along the Pakistani border. The resignation of Israel’s prime minister and the resulting new elections cast doubt on finalizing a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians before Bush’s term expires. And the nuclear situation in Iran and North Korea continues to remain in doubt.
For more of the analysis, click here.
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Chinese national sentenced for aiding spy
A woman who helped a Chinese spy obtain U.S. military secrets has been sentenced in Virginia to a year and a half in prison.
Thirty-three-year old Yu Xin Kang (yoo shin kong) is a Chinese national who had been living in New Orleans with furniture salesman Tai Shen Kuo.
Kang at times served as an intermediary for Kuo in helping him get secret information about U.S.-Taiwanese military relations to the Communist government in Beijing.
For the rest of the Associated Press story, click here.
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Man pleads guilty to forcing daughter to stab family cat
An Indiana man has reached a plea agreement that would send hi to prison for 18 months for having tried to force his seven-year-daughter to stab the family cat.
Danield John Collins, 39, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of domestic violence/animal cruelty and two counts of neglect of a dependent. He reportedly held the knife in his daughter’s hand as he urged her to stab Boots, the family’s 8-month old cat.
Collin’s 11-year-old son hid the cat from his father, but Collins eventually found the cat and strangled it in front of his children. The children say their father wanted them to “learn to kill.”
Collins admits to being intoxicated at the time and remembers little of the incident.
Final sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 28.
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Businessman charged in IRS murder plot
A central Florida businessman will appear in court today to face charges of having hired a hit man to kill an Internal Revenue Service agent to avoid paying $300,000 in taxes.
Authorities say Randy Nowak, a construction company owner, paid $20,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill the IRS agent auditing him. Nowak allegedly also threatened to burn down his local IRS office.
For more on this story, click here.
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Snoop Dogg’s entourage busted with marijuana in Corsicana
Following in the footsteps of Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg’s tour bus was pulled over by state troopers due to expired tags after a concert in Dallas Thursday night.
Two on board were charged with misdemeanor possession, according to the AP. Read more here.
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Anthrax scientist commits suicide as FBI closes in
A top U.S. biodefense researcher apparently has committed suicide in the wake of what a brother said was his intense pursuit by the FBI in connection with anthrax-tainted letters that killed five people.
The Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against the scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, 62, a leading military anthrax researcher who worked for the past 18 years at the government’s biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Md., the Los Angeles Times reported in Friday editions. Ivins had been told of the impending prosecution, the paper said.
Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland. The Times, quoting an unidentified colleague, said the scientist had taken a massive dose of a prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine.
For more on this story, read the full account by the Associated Press.
For a timeline of events in the Anthrax case, click here.
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Authorities searching for gunman in Wisconsin
Police are still searching this morning for a gunman who stepped out of the woods and shot four people swimming in a river, killing three. The fourth was wounded in the incident.
Nine young adults were swimming in the Menominee River yesterday afternoon when the shooter emerged at about 5:30 p.m.
Police continue to search for the suspect, a middle-age man who was last seen near the town of Niagara in northern Wisconsin, across the state line from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
For the latest on this story, click here.
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Texas ranks first in juvenile prison sexual abuse
Here’s a category in which we’d rather not lead the nation: Sexual abuses at juvenile prisons.</