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Tuesday, October 14, 2008
How did McLennan County schools do on federal accountability ratings?
The Texas Education Agency today released preliminary results of 2008 federal school accountability ratings as determined by No Child Left Behind. The ratings state whether campuses and distrits met or missed “adequate yearly progress” based on standards set by the federal law.
The following are results for McLennan County Schools. Schools that don’t meet the standard can be compelled to start special programs, which vary depending on how many times they’ve failed.
Axtell ISD — Met AYP Axtell Elementary — Met AYP Axtell High — Met AYP Axtell Middle — Met AYP Methodist Home Boys Ranch — Met AYP Waco Center for Youth — Missed AYP (math performance)
Bosqueville ISD — Met AYP Bosqueville Elementary — Met AYP Bosqueville Secondary — Met AYP
Bruceville-Eddy ISD — Missed AYP (math performance) Bruceville-Eddy Elementary — Met AYP Bruceville-Eddy High — Met AYP Bruceville-Eddy Middle — Met AYP Bruceville-Eddy Intermediate — Met AYP
China Spring ISD — Met AYP China Spring High — Met AYP China Spring Middle — Met AYP China Spring Elementary — Met AYP China Spring Intermediate — Met AYP
Connally ISD — Missed AYP (reading and math performance) Connally High — Missed AYP (math performance) Lakeview Academy — Met AYP Connally Junior High — Missed AYP (math performance) Connally Primary School — Met AYP Connally Intermediate Center — Met AYP Connally Elementary — Met AYP
Crawford ISD — Met AYP Crawford Elementary — Met AYP Crawford High — Met AYP Crawford Middle — Met AYP
Eagle Academy of Waco — Met AYP
Gholson ISD — Met AYP Gholson Elementary — Met AYP
Hallsburg ISD — Met AYP Hallsburg Elementary —Met AYP
La Vega ISD — Missed AYP (reading and math performance, graduation rate) La Vega High — Missed AYP (math performance, graduation rate) Success Program — Met AYP La Vega Junior High — Met AYP La Vega Intermediate — Met AYP La Vega Elementary — Met AYP
Lorena ISD — Missed AYP (math performance) Lorena Elementary — Met AYP Lorena High — Met AYP Lorena Middle — Missed AYP (math performance) Lorena Primary — Met AYP
Mart ISD — Met AYP Mart Elementary —Met AYP Mart High — Met AYP Mart Middle — Met AYP
McGregor ISD — Met AYP Isbill Junior High — Met AYP McGregor Elementary — Met AYP McGregor High — Met AYP
Midway ISD — Met AYP Midway High — Met AYP Midway Middle — Met AYP Woodway Elementary — Met AYP Hewitt Elementary — Met AYP Speegleville Elementary — Met AYP Spring Valley Elementary — Met AYP South Bosque Elementary — Met AYP Midway Intermediate — Missed AYP (math performance)
Moody ISD — Missed AYP (math performance) Moody Elementary — Met AYP Moody High — Missed AYP (math performance) Moody Middle — Missed AYP (math performance)
Rapoport Academy — Met AYP
Riesel ISD — Met AYP Foster Elementary — Met AYP Riesel High — Met AYP
Robinson ISD — Met AYP Robinson Elementary — Met AYP Robinson High — Met AYP Robinson Intermediate — Met AYP Robinson Junior High — Missed AYP (math performance) Robinson Primary — Met AYP
Waco Charter School — Met AYP
Waco ISD — Missed AYP (reading performance, math performance, graduation rate) A.J. Moore Academy High — Missed AYP Alta Vista Montessori Elementary — Met AYP Bell’s Hill Elementary — Met AYP Brazos Middle — Missed AYP Brook Avenue Elementary — Met AYP G.W. Carver Academy — Missed AYP Cedar Ridge Elementary — Met AYP Cesar Chavez Middle — Missed AYP Crestview Elementary — Met AYP Dean Highland Elementary — Met AYP Doris Miller Elementary — Missed AYP G.L. Wiley Middle — Met AYP Hillcrest PDS Elementary — Met AYP J.H. Hines Elementary — Met AYP Kendrick Elementary — Met AYP Lake Air Middle — Missed AYP Lake Waco Montessori — Met AYP Meadowbrook Elementary — Met AYP Mountainview Elementary — Met AYP North Waco Elementary — Met AYP Parkdale Elementary — Met AYP Provident Heights Elementary — Met AYP South Waco Elementary — Missed AYP STARS High — Met AYP Sul Ross Elementary — Met AYP Tennyson Middle — Missed AYP University High — Missed AYP University Middle — Missed AYP Viking Hills Elementary — Met AYP Waco High — Missed AYP West Avenue Elementary — Met AYP
West ISD — Met AYP West Elementary — Met AYP West High — Met AYP West Intermediate — Met AYP West Middle — Met AYP Brookhaven Youth Ranch — Met AYP
Source: Texas Education Agency Statewide results available at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/ayp/2008/distcampfinal08.pdf
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Cowboys acquire former UT receiver Roy Williams from Lions
The Dallas Cowboys have acquired wide receiver Roy Williams from the Detroit Lions.
The Cowboys on Tuesday traded a first-round pick in 2009, plus a third- and sixth-rounder that year for Williams and a seventh-round pick in ‘09.
Williams’ best season was 2006, when he went to the Pro Bowl after catching 82 passes for 1,310 yards and seven touchdowns. He has 17 catches for 232 yards and a score this season for the winless Lions.
The fifth-year receiver was drafted in the first round by Detroit out of the University of Texas. He has 262 career catches for 3,884 yards with 29 touchdowns.
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Several testify in Waco murder trial of Eric Williams
Two friends of Erica Rivera, whose body was found on May 8, 2007, testified about her violent relationship with her boyfriend Eric Williams, who is on trial in Waco’s 170th State District Court for Rivera’s murder.
Alexia Hardin, one of Rivera’s friends, said that it was like Rivera and Williams were in two different relationships.
“Erica loved him and would do anything for him, and Eric was abusive, controlling and violent,” Hardin testified.
Hardin recalled a time in February 2007 in which Rivera showed up at her apartment desperately banging on the door, crying and saying “He’s after me, he’s after me.” She said Rivera told her that she and Williams got into a fight because Rivera was watching BET (Black Entertainment Television network) and Williams didn’t allow her to watch that.
I.V. Garrett, another friend of Rivera’s, described a similar situation from 2006 when Rivera showed up at her door frantic and saying that Williams was after her, and that she needed to get inside.
During cross examination, defense attorney Guy Cox asked the women if they had called the police or considered doing so, and neither said they did.
Also during testimony, Ricky Roddy Jr., Randy Roddy and Ray DeLa Santos testified that Williams was seen in Hallsburg near where Rivera’s body was found a few days later.
Five days before Rivera’s body was found, Williams got his car stuck in the mud on property that previously belonged to his family — the same location where Rivera’s body was later discovered.
When the Roddies saw Williams, he told them that he had been fishing, they testified. They said they found his story suspicious, since it was raining and the property wasn’t considered a prime fishing spot.
Randy Roddy Jr. said Williams smelled like rotting flesh.
But during cross examination, Roddy admitted to defense attorney Cox that the smell could have been body odor.
Cox also noted that in a statement Randy Roddy Jr. gave to a McLennan County Sheriff’s detective on May 8, he did not mention the smell.
Cox also noted that all three men gave different accounts of what Williams was wearing when they saw him.
Testimony in the trial continues this afternoon.
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Trial update: Witness said white supremacist killed woman
A former member of the white supremacist group the Aryan Circle testified this afternoon that Robert Allen Byrd confessed him to killing Dana Leigh Taylor in April 2006.
Byrd, also a white supremacist according to court testimony, is on trial for capital murder in Waco’s 54th State District Court.
Henry Nelson, 29, of Longview, told jurors that he was staying at Byrd’s trailer in Johnson County when Byrd told him about the killing and said he better leave because “it’s going to get hot around here.”
Earlier today, two other Byrd acquaintances said they believed he stabbed Taylor to death.
Jennifer Perez, 25, told jurors she was with Byrd the night he killed Taylor.
They were supposed to go the next day to pick up her cousin, who was about to be paroled from prison in Gatesville, she told jurors
While at Byrd’s home in Keene, she said she recognized Taylor as being in jail with her in Tarrant County, but Taylor denied that she was there.
Perez said she and Byrd grew suspicious of Taylor because she “broke the code” about not lying to another jailmate.
The three took Perez’s truck the next morning to pick up Perez’s cousin from the Hilltop Unit in Gatesville.
But they stopped along Old Dallas Highway near Elm Mott. Byrd pulled out a knife and told Taylor to get out of the truck, Perez testified. She said Byrd and Taylor walked into the woods and she heard a scream.
Byrd returned to the truck and asked Perez if she had a rag, she said. Perez said she pointed to the back of the truck and Byrd wiped blood off his face and the knife.
They then drove to an area Wal-Mart and he bought new clothes, she said.
Other testimony came from Liz Thericut, 30, who said she was affiliated with the Aryan Circle and was at Byrd’s home because he was trying to help her and Taylor overcome a methamphetamine addiction. Thericut said Byrd was soft-spoken and had a gentle nature.
“They were both good people,” she of Taylor and Byrd. “I loved them both. But he turned into a monster and now she’s gone.”
She testified she was asleep at Byrd’s trailer house when Byrd and Perez returned from the trip. She found the bloody shirt in the truck and noticed he was wearing different clothes, she said, so she assumed that he killed Taylor.
She said he asked, “Can I trust you, Sissy?” She then asked if he killed Taylor. He replied, “I cut her,” she testified.
Prosecutor Melanie Walker confronted Thericut with her testimony to the grand jury where she said Byrd’s words were: “I cut her throat.”
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Russ Hunt Sr. Thericut said she was high at the grand jury and doesn’t remember what she said.
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Dow only down slightly after another roller-coaster day
Up as much as 406 points in the morning and down as much as 302 points in the afternoon, the Dow Jones industrials ended up only 76 points down at around 9,311.
Here’s more from the Associated Press.
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Friend testifies about last time she saw murder victim
The best friend of a 25-year-old woman whose body was found in a shallow grave in eastern McLennan County testified today that the last time she saw Erica Rivera was in the company of her boyfriend at the Falcon Club, 211 S. Loop Drive.
The boyfriend, Eric Williams, is on trial in Rivera’s murder in the 170th District Court.
Shiranda Brown said she drove Rivera to the club in April 2007. She told the six-man, six-woman jury that seconds after they parked, defendant Eric Williams approached Rivera’s side of the car and opened the door.
Brown testified that Williams told Rivera “you’re not going in there” and told her she shouldn’t be going to clubs. He put his hands on Rivera’s arms when she stepped out of the car, she said.
They remained at the car talking for awhile, but Brown testified she left to go into the club to use the restroom. When she returned to the car about 15 minutes later, the two were gone, she said.
Brown said she never saw her friend again.
Rivera’s family filed a missing person’s report on May 2, 2007.
On May 3, 2007, Williams asked a friend to help pull his car out of mud on private property off Elm Lake Road near Hallsburg. The friend, who knew Williams’ family had once owned the property, grew suspicious when he heard of Rivera’s disappearance and found her body during a search of the property.
Afternoon testimony in the case has just gotten under way.
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NFL suspends Cowboys’ “Pacman”
FORT WORTH — Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones was suspended indefinitely by the NFL on Tuesday for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.
Jones will miss the next four games, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will determine the final length of the suspension after the Cowboys’ game in Washington on Nov. 16.
Jones was involved in an alcohol-related scuffle on Oct. 7 with one of his bodyguards at a private party in Dallas.
In a letter Tuesday to Jones, Goodell called the latest incident the continuation of “a disturbing pattern of behavior and clearly inconsistent with the conditions I set for your continued participation in the NFL.”
The incident at an upscale Dallas hotel came only six weeks after Goodell reinstated Jones from a 17-month suspension after several run-ins with the law while with the Tennessee Titans.
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Natural gas firm gets air permit for Temple plant
Panda Energy International Inc. today announced that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has granted the air permit for the company’s planned 1,000-megawatt combined-cycle power plant in Temple.
The generating station will be fueled with natural gas from the Texas Barnett Shale and will be able to supply the power needs of approximately 750,000 homes in the Central and North Texas regions, the company said in a press release.
At peak construction, an estimated 400-500 personnel will be employed to construct the Temple power plant, which the company says will be one of the least-polluting in the nation. During operations, the generating station will create an estimated 35 direct jobs to run the facility and 45 indirect jobs to support it.
“The approval of the air permit is a major step toward construction of this project,” said Todd Carter, president of Panda Energy International, in the release. “Thanks to continued strong support from local and state officials, we continue to move forward. We’re excited about the potential the Temple project has to both strengthen the local economy and to support the region’s future growth for decades to come.”
The Temple Generating Station will be located on a 250-acre site at the South Temple Industrial Park. Construction should take approximately 24 months and is dependent upon financing, regulatory approvals and other conditions.
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Linens ‘n Things plans to start liquidating stores
Specialty retailer Linens ‘n Things, which filed for bankruptcy protection in May, plans to begin liquidation sales at its stores as early as Thursday after failing to find a buyer that wanted to operate the company.
“It’s a straight going-out-of business liquidation sale,” said James Schaye, president and chief executive of Hudson Capital Partners, one of the members of the investment group buying the company’s assets. He expects the process for the company’s approximately 371 remaining store locations will take about 11 weeks. The chain operates a store at 4809 Waco Drive.
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Librarian reportedly shot, killed co-worker
When have you ever heard about a librarian killing another librarian other than in an episode of “Murder, She Wrote”? But that’s the story out of San Antonio as a 62-year-old librarian was arrested and charged with murder in the shooting death of a fellow librarian at a community college.
According to this Associated Press story, Alan Godin, an adjunct librarian, allegedly walked into the library at Northeast Lakeview College on Monday afternoon and shot Devin Zimmerman, 37, to death, said school President Eric Reno.
Godin allegedly shot Zimmerman and then sat down and waited for police.
The men were co-workers, Zimmerman staffing the library during the day and Godin at night. There had apparently been some previous dispute about “work ethic,” said Dan Pew, the acting chief of the Live Oak Police Department, which was assisting in the investigation.
Godin had worked part time at the library since 2003. Zimmerman started working at the school last fall.
The campus, one of five Alamo Community Colleges around the city, has about 4,100 students.
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Britain to eliminate 1 national test for students
Fourteen-year-olds in England will probably be joyous today once word gets to them that they no longer will have to take one of their national tests.
Education Secretary Ed Balls said today the government was scrapping its national testing of 14-year-olds in math, reading and science.
Like in the United States, British parents and teachers have complained that kids are overtested and that nontested subjects are getting squeezed out.
The government isn’t getting rid of other key tests, including those given to 11-year-olds and 16-year-olds.
The tests being scrapped have generally been used to judge how well schools are doing moving kids along.
The government says there will be a stepped-up effort to assess teachers and increase reports to parents.
The test for 14-year-olds has been around since 1993.
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Baylor basketball player named to Big 12 preseason squad
Baylor University senior guard Curtis Jerrells has been named to the Preseason All-Big 12 team, the conference office announced today.
Last season, Jerrells earned Baylor’s second first-team selection in Big 12 history and the first since Terry Black earned the honor following the 2000-01 season. He became the fifth player in BU history to lead the team in scoring three straight seasons
The Austin native enters his senior season 12th all-time at Baylor in scoring with 1,185 points. His career 3.69 assists per game average ranks eighth in school history.
The consensus 2008 first team All-Big 12 selection led Baylor in points (15.3), assists (3.78) and minutes (31.2). He was named to Yahoo.com’s All-America fourth team in 2008.
Joining Jerrells on the Preseason All-Big 12 team are Sherron Collins (Kansas), A.J. Abrams and Damion James (Texas) and Blake Griffin (Oklahoma). Griffin was named the Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year. Kansas’ Mario Little and Oklahoma’s Willie Warren were named Preseason Newcomer and Freshman of the Year, respectively.
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Beckhams’ swiped possessions show up on eBay
People magazine is reporting that British police have arrested a housekeeper for Victoria and David Beckham after treasured possessions belonging to the couple allegedly ended up on eBay.
The items allegedly include dresses belonging to Victoria and sporting memorabilia of her soccer star husband that were stored at their 24-acre English mansion and estate.
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PepsiCo to trim 3,300 jobs
PepsiCo Inc., the world’s largest snack maker, said it will cut 3,300 jobs after profit fell more than analysts estimated and the company lowered its forecast for the rest of the year. The shares dropped as much as 14 percent in New York trading.
PepsiCo wants to save $1.2 billion over three years as it closes as many as six plants and pares 1.8 percent of its workforce, including “overlapping” marketing and sales jobs, Chief Financial Officer Richard Goodman said today in an interview.
The maker of Gatorade and Pepsi-Cola will use some of the savings to boost marketing of its beverages in North America, which make up a fourth of PepsiCo’s annual revenue. Drink sales in the U.S. and Canada decreased 3 percent in the third quarter as consumers cut back on soft drinks in groceries and convenience stores to better afford higher priced gasoline and food.
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Man ‘too fat to die’ executed in Ohio
Ohio executed a 5-foot-7, 267-pound double murderer today who argued his obesity made death by lethal injection inhumane.
Richard Cooey, 41, died at 10:28 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, said Jim Gravelle, a spokesman with state attorney general’s office.
There were no immediate reports of difficulties finding suitable veins to deliver the deadly chemicals, a problem that has delayed previous executions in the state.
Cooey’s attorneys had argued that his weight problem would make it difficult for prison staff to access a vein. A prisons spokeswoman said Cooey received a pre-execution exam early Tuesday and was cleared.
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Second murder trial in county starts
A six-man, six-woman jury heard opening testimony today in the murder trial of Eric Williams, who is charged in the murder of his 25-year-old girlfriend.
Prosecution witnesses this morning in 170th State District Court included Rosie Nino, the mother of murder victim Erica Rivera; Joanne Gonzales, who was dating Erica’s uncle; and the uncle, Danny Casiano.
All three were at a party on April 28, 2007, at Casiano’s apartment, playing dominos and darts and cooking food. Rivera’s three children also were there, she said.
Rivera left the party with her best friend to go to clubs, which Nino said was unlike her daughter.
Rivera was last seen at the Falcon Club that night.
Family members initially weren’t alarmed that they hadn’t seen her the next couple of days, they testified. Nino cared for two of the grandchildren while another child lived with Rivera and a grandfather.
The family filed a missing person’s report on May 2. Her body was found in a shallow grave six days later in eastern McLennan County.
Nino testified that she talked had talked with Williams, who also was known as “Ice,” during the time she was missing. He told her that he saw Rivera at the Falcon Club, and that he didn’t want her to go there. Nino said Williams was known to get jealous.
She said Williams told her that Rivera got in the car with him, but then jumped out of the car’s window, and ran off. Williams didn’t try to find her, Nino testified.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Guy Cox presented a statement Nino gave police two days after her daughter’s body was found. In the statement she said she didn’t know of any violence in the couple’s relationship although they had bickered occasionally.
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Murder trial of white supremacist begins
Testimony began this morning in the 54th State District Court trial of a white supremacist accused of kidnapping and stabbing to death a 39-year-old woman. Security was heavy with eight sheriff’s officers observing the proceedings.
Robert Allen Byrd is on trial in the death of Dana Leigh Taylor of Kemp.
The first witness was Irene Olivo, who describing finding the woman’s badly decomposed body on April 26, 2006, near the railroad tracks along Old Dallas Highway while she and her family were looking for wild garlic for her garden..
She said they smelled a foul odor. Her father looked over the fence but couldn’t tell what he was looking at, she said, so he called her over. They then realized it was a body and drove to a nearby Interstate 35 rest stop and called the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office.
Bob Fuller with the sheriff’s office testified that tried to identify the body through DNA and a profile match. A Facial reconstruction expert at the University of Texas at Arlington also was brought in.
DNA expert Lisa Sansom with the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth testified that DNA testing determined the body was Taylor’s.
During opening statements prosecutor Melanie Walker told the jury that Jennifer Perez, a member of the Aryan Circle along with Taylor and Byrd, willl testify that she saw Taylor at Byrd’s trailer house and they thought she was a “snitch” for the Aryan Circle.
Perez is expected to testify that Byrd and Taylor left in the car but only Byrd came back, Walker told the jury.
Defense attorney Russ Hunt Sr. acknowledged that Byrd is a captain in the Aryan Circle, adding that a high-ranking officer sent Taylor to stay with Byrd because she was on drugs and Byrd was supposed to help her get off drugs.
Hunt said the three stopped in Ross, where Taylor got out and left with people in a small white car. That was the last time Byrd saw her, Hunt said.
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Tropical Storm Omar forms in Caribbean
Tropical Depression Fifteen has become Tropical Storm Omar in the eastern Caribbean, aiming at Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It’s headed well out to sea once it passes them.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the Caribbean and headed the other direction, Tropical Depression Sixteen has formed. It’s expected to become TS Paloma before making landfall in the Belize/Guatemala/Honduras area.
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Thieves steal as preacher gives sermon
Authorities in Fort Worth are looking for two people who allegedly stole a preacher’s wallet and went on a shopping spree while he was giving a sermon about showing mercy to others.
The Rev. Rob Hamby was the guest preacher at Fort Worth Presbyterian Church on Sunday when his briefcase was stolen from the church office. Security cameras caught images of a man and woman.
“What troubles me is that they would go to the church, not for help but to steal. I am shocked and frustrated that these people did it. But more than anything, I feel kind of sorry for them,” Hamby said in Monday’s online edition of The Dallas Morning News.
The newspaper reported that about $2,000 in purchases were made on his credit and debit cards before he finished preaching, including the purchase of a $676 diamond ring. In addition to his wallet, Hamby’s computer valued at $2,600 was taken.
Hamby, who works as a campus minister at Texas Christian University, said he could have understood if the thieves used his credit cards to buy essentials but not luxuries that they did not need.
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Florida congressman mired in sex scandal
The Florida congressman who succeeded Mark Foley after he resigned because of a sex scandal is now embroiled in a sex scandal of his own, and has requested a congressional ethics investigation to clear his name.
The congressman, Tim Mahoney, a Democrat, agreed to a $121,000 settlement with a former mistress who worked on his staff and was threatening to sue him, two Democratic staff members who have been briefed on the settlement said.
The revelation, first reported by ABC News, could cost Mr. Mahoney his House seat. His South Florida district is conservative, and he was already in one of the most competitive races involving an incumbent Democrat.
Mr. Mahoney was elected two years ago after the resignation of Representative Foley, a Republican, whose lewd Internet messages to Congressional pages created a national outrage.
Without denying the accusations or explaining how he might benefit from an ethics investigation, Mr. Mahoney said the truth would vindicate him.
“While these allegations are based on hearsay, I believe that my constituents need a full accounting,” Mr. Mahoney said in a written statement. “As such, I have requested the House Ethics Committee to review these allegations.”
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Wildfires burning in California
Powerful winds stoked three major wildfires this morning after destroying dozens of homes, forcing thousands to flee and killing two people.
The fires have charred nearly 15 square miles in suburban Los Angeles and northern San Diego County in three days, with the fiercest blazes burning in the San Fernando Valley.
More than 2,000 firefighters and a fleet of water- and retardant-dropping aircraft battled a 5,000-acre fire in canyons on the west end of the valley and another 5,300-acre fire at the northeast end. Both were burning brightly this morning, sending flames skyward.
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White supremacist trial will start after all
The key prosecution witness whose absence Monday threatened to postpone the murder trial of a white supremacist today has appeared and the jury is now being sworn in.
Robert Allen Byrd, 34, is charged in the kidnapping and stabbing death of Dana Leigh Taylor of Kemp, who also was affiliated with the Aryan Circle.
The trial will be in the 54th State District Court.
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U.S. stocks continue rally
After posting its largest point gain in history, the Dow Jones industrial average maintained its strong rally today, going up more than 400 points in the opening minutes. It’s cooled off a bit, but is still showing a gain of about 250 points at this point of the morning.
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Cowboys in a world of hurt
Everybody knows that Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is out for the next four weeks with a broken pinkie finger and that 40-year-old Brad Johnson will start in his absence.
While that’s a huge loss for the Pokes, the team also will be without punter Mat McBriar, who suffered a broken foot when Arizona blocked the punt in overtime and recovered it for the game-ending touchdown.
He could be out two months, so the team will have to sign another punter.
Also hurt were wide receiver Sam Hurd, who will need surgery after he reinjured his left ankle. Rookie running back Felix Jones and linebacker Anthony Spencer have strained hamstrings.
You’d like to say “at least they’re playing the Rams on Sunday.” But St. Louis did knock off previously unbeaten Washington in D.C. for its first win of the season last week.
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