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Monday, June 29, 2009
Transportation officials postpone I-35 bridge demolition south of Waco
They are delaying a day due to the rain. Here’s the press release:
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will temporarily close the IH 35 mainlanes at the IH 35/FM 2063 (Sun Valley Blvd) interchange on Wednesday, July 1 from 7pm to 7am on Thursday, July 2, (weather permitting). This closure is necessary to demolish the existing FM 2063 bridge over IH 35.
The mainlanes in each direction (northbound and southbound) will be closed and detoured to the frontage roads. All Sun Valley Blvd (FM 2063) traffic will be detoured to the frontage roads as follows:
-Traffic desiring to cross IH 35 from west to east will be detoured south to FM 3148 (Moonlight Dr).
-Traffic desiring to cross IH 35 from east to west will be detoured north to SH 6/LP 340.
Motorists are advised to observe all warning signs and traffic control devices in the project area. The multi-phase $88 Million reconstruction project is projected for completion in the Fall of 2011.
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Trib printing and packaging operations will move to Austin; 43 positions eliminated
The Tribune-Herald will cease its Waco printing and packaging operations starting July 13, contracting those services to the Austin American-Statesman, the Waco newspaper announced Monday.
The cost-cutting move will eliminate 25 full-time and 18 part-time positions, publisher Belinda Gaudet said.
“Our decision reflects a growing trend throughout the newspaper industry,” she said. “We believe this change will create significant cost efficiencies and will better position us for success moving forward.”
The newspaper will continue to be designed in Waco, then sent electronically to the Austin plant, which has a faster and more modern production process. The papers will be packaged with inserts in Austin, then trucked back to Waco and delivered as usual.
Cox Enterprises, which owns both the Tribune-Herald and the Statesman, made the decision to discontinue the Waco print operation. The chain is offering both newspapers for sale, but that process should not affect the printing contract, Gaudet said.
The Tribune-Herald will offer severance packages for the affected workers, continuing base pay and benefits for 8 to 26 weeks, depending on longevity, she said.
She said the decision to let go of longtime employees was difficult but necessary, given financial challenges in the newspaper business.
“We realize the impact it has on people’s lives,” she said. “It’s not a decision we make lightly.”
Gaudet said she believes the Tribune-Herald still has a solid future and that advertising revenue will pick up again as the economy improves.
“We’re still a healthy company and a profitable company,” she said. “Actions like this will ensure that we stay profitable.”
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VIDEO: High-speed chase in Dallas area ends in crash
A high-speed chase that lasted more than an hour ended with a violent collision at a Garland intersection Monday afternoon.
Here’s the full story and video.
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Waco woman pleads guilty to shaking baby
A 36-year-old Waco woman who shook a toddler and threw her across the room, causing brain damage, pleaded guilty to injury to a child today.
Prosecutors recommended that Tammy Lou Beckett be sentenced to 25 years in prison in a plea bargain offer that comes in the wake of a trial that was interrupted in March after Beckett learned that she was not eligible for probation on the first-degree felony charge.
Judge Ralph Strother of Waco’s 19th State District Court said he normally readily would have accepted the plea agreement based on the number of years in prison. However, in this case, the judge said he will delay sentencing until after reviewing a background report from the probation department to determine if he will accept the offer.
Authorities say Beckett, who was caring for the girl and her older sister at her Woodway Drive apartment while their parents were at work in March 2008, threw the girl, who was 10 months old at the time, 20 feet across the room and shook her, causing a fractured skull, cranial bleeding and brain damage.
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Update: Storms arrive for area; power knocked out
We’re hearing that the power has been knocked out at the Wal-Mart on Hewitt Drive as the storm as arrived in the Hewitt/Woodway/Waco area.
The severe thunderstorm warning is until 3:15 p.m. It is moving to the east at 10-15 mph.
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Thunderstorm warning for southern McLennan County
The National Weather Service has just issued a severe thunderstorm warning for southern McLennan County, with a strong storm predicted to hit the Lorena and Hewitt areas at 2:15 p.m. with winds in excess of 60 mph.
The storm is moving to the east at 10 mph. The warning is until 3:15 p.m.
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Baylor student killed in morning accident in Waco
The Waco Police Department reports that a 21-year-old Baylor University student was killed this morning in a head-on collision.
According to Waco police spokesman Steve Anderson, Emily Ann Stuller of Dallas was killed just before 8 a.m. today when the 2004 Volkswagen Jetta she was driving drifted into oncoming traffic in the 3800 block of North Martin Luther King Blvd.
She was traveling northbound when she crossed over the double yellow line on the Brazos River bridge.
Stuller’s Jetta was first struck by 1979 gray Ford F-150 pickup traveling southbound on MLK Boulevard. The pickup’s driver, Cirilo Zamarripa, 43, of Waco pulled to the right as far as he could to try and avoid a collision as Stuller entered his lane.
Stuller’s car struck the left side of Zamarripa’s truck and continued traveling northbound in the southbound lane where it collided head-on with a 2006 Toyota Tundra driven by Juan Lopez, 31, also of Waco.
Both vehicles suffered extensive damage.
Stuller was pronounced dead at the scene. Lopez was taken to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center by ambulance with injuries to his back and leg. Zamarripa did not seek medical attention.
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Gear Up camps at TSTC have openings
If you’re an incoming ninth- or 10th-grader, three GEAR UP summer camps hosted at Texas State Technical College in Waco might appeal to you. A few slots are still available.
The Nuclear Power Camp continues Tuesday and Wednesday, and is open to ninth- and 10th-graders of any school district. A Future Flight Camp continues through Friday.
Next week (July 6-10) is the Super Computing Camp.
The camps are free, with lunch each day. They are about 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., with lots of activities, and they are supervised.
For more information, contact Sheryl Kattner-Allen, GEAR UP coordinator, at (254) 755-9574, or Audrey Davis at 867-3089 or Audrey.davis@tstc.edu.
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Falls County investigating apparent drowning
Falls County Sheriff Ben Kirk today released information about finding a missing Dallas-area man during the weekend in a stock pond.
According to the release, the Highland Village Police Department asked the Falls County Sheriff’s Department for help in trying to locate Walter Chandler of Farmers Branch, who had property in southeastern Falls County.
Sheriff’s personnel went to a heavily wooded area north of Bremond near County Road 277 and State Highway 14.
The search also included Texas Department of Public Safety aircraft, state game wardens, Texas Rangers, Bremond Volunteer Fire Department, and a canine search team from U.S. Homeland Security emergency responders. Cen-Tex Search and Rescue dive teams eventually found Chandler’s body after 6 p.m. Saturday in a small stock pond.
The initial investigation suggests that Chander’s death resulted from drowning, the release states.
Falls County Justice of the Peace Sharon Maxey pronounced Chandler dead and ordered an autopsy.
The release said no more details are expected to be released until the investigation is completed.
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U.S. forces confident hours before leaving Iraqi cities
Hours before the deadline for U.S. combat troops to withdraw from Iraqi cities, the top American military commander in the Middle East expressed confidence Monday that Iraqi security forces are ready despite a string of deadly bombings in recent days.
The blasts, which have killed more than 250 people in a little over a week, have raised concerns that violence will spike in Iraq’s urban areas after the last U.S. troops leave. But the Iraqi government has said its forces are prepared and has declared Tuesday “National Sovereignty Day,” a public holiday that will be marked by festivities.
The celebrations began Monday in Baghdad as patriotic songs rang out from speakers mounted at police stations and military checkpoints. Iraqi military vehicles decorated with flowers and Iraqi flags patrolled the city.
U.S. combat troops must withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30 according to a security agreement that also requires all American forces to leave the country by the end of 2011. Some Americans will remain in the cities as trainers and advisers, but the bulk of the more than 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq have assembled in large bases outside urban centers.
Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told The Associated Press that when the sun rises on Tuesday “Iraqi citizens will see no U.S. soldiers in their cities. They will see only Iraqi troops protecting them.”
The commander of U.S. troops in the Middle East, Gen. David Petraeus, expressed concern about the recent spate of high-profile bombings but said the average daily number of attacks remained low at 10 to 15 compared with 160 in June 2007.
“While certainly there will be challenges — there are many difficult political issues, social issues, governmental development issues — we feel confident in the Iraqi security forces continuing the process of taking over the security tasks in their own country,” said Petraeus after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.
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Medical examiner: TV pitchman Mays likely had heart attack
A Florida medical examiner says television pitchman Billy Mays likely died of a heart attack but further tests are needed.
Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Vernard Adams said Monday the boisterous, bearded 50-year-old known for hawking Oxiclean suffered from hypertensive heart disease. He was found dead Sunday in his Tampa home. A day earlier he bumped his head during a rough landing on a commercial airliner, but Adams says there there was no evidence of head trauma.
He says Mays was taking the prescription painkillers Tramadol and hydrocodone for hip pain. But Adams says there was no indication of drug abuse, and pill counts showed Mays had been taking the correct amount of the drugs.
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Michael Jackson’s mother seeks guardianship of his kids
Michael Jackson’s mother is caring for the late singer’s three children and asked the court Monday to declare her their guardian.
The guardianship papers were filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday. A hearing has been set for Aug 3.
Jackson died Thursday, leaving behind three children: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, 12; Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11; and Prince Michael II, 7. The youngest son was born to a surrogate mother.
The filings show that Katherine Jackson is also petitioning to take over the children’s estate. Its value is listed as “unknown” in the filing.
The filing lists the children as living at the Jacksons’ family compound in the San Fernando Valley, northwest of Los Angeles.
“Minor children are currently residing with paternal grandmother,” the filing states in an explanation of why Katherine Jackson should be appointed guardian. “They have a long established relationship with paternal grandmother and are comfortable in her care.”
The filings provide no other declarations by Katherine Jackson, nor do they state whether Michael Jackson left a will.
The filings note that Deborah Rowe is the mother of the Jackson’s two eldest children, but list her whereabouts as “unknown.” An e-mail message sent to Rowe’s attorney seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned Monday morning.
For Michael Jackson’s third child, nicknamed as Blanket, the filing states “None” for the mother.
Londell McMillan, the Jacksons’ attorney, said the family hasn’t heard from Rowe about custody.
“I don’t think there will be anybody who thinks that there is someone better” than Katherine Jackson to have custody, McMillan said Monday on NBC television. “She is a very loving host of other grandchildren.”
McMillan also said on NBC that the family was “quite clearly troubled” about the circumstances surrounding the death, given that Jackson had appeared healthy enough to be rehearsing for his upcoming concerts in London.
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Another in string of Waco arsons pleads guilty
Eric Benavidez, one of three men charged in a string of October fires in Waco that included the historic Sanger Avenue Elementary School, pleaded guilty today in a plea agreement.
Benavidez, 26, was sentenced to 20 years. He pleaded guilty specifically to setting the fire at the school, but he has been charged in burning the other buildings.
On Thursday, another of the trio, Kevin David Allen, 28, pleaded guilty to arson and was sentenced to 20 years of prison.
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Madoff receives maximum 150-year sentence
Convicted swindler Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison Monday for fraud so extensive that the judge said he needed to send a symbolic message to those who might imitate his fraud and to victims who need relief.
Applause broke out in the crowded Manhattan courtroom after U.S. District Judge Denny Chin issued the maximum sentence to the 71-year-old defendant, who said he sought no forgiveness and knew he must live “with this pain, this torment, for the rest of my life.”
Chin rejected a request by Madoff’s lawyer for leniency and said he disagreed that victims of the fraud were seeking mob vengeance.
“Here the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarily evil and that this kind of manipulation of the system is not just a bloodless crime that takes place on paper, but one instead that takes a staggering toll,” Chin said.
The judge said the estimate that Madoff has cost his victims more than $13 billion was conservative because it did not include money from feeder funds.
“Objectively speaking, the fraud here was staggering,” he said.
Before Chin announced the sentence, Madoff, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and a tie, sat and listened as emotional witnesses described how he spoiled their security.
“Life has been a living hell. It feels like the nightmare we can’t wake from,” said Carla Hirshhorn.
“He stole from the rich. He stole from the poor. He stole from the in between. He had no values,” said Tom Fitzmaurice. “He cheated his victims out of their money so he and his wife Ruth could live a life of luxury beyond belief.”
Dominic Ambrosino called it an “indescribably heinous crime” and urged a long prison sentence so “will know he is imprisoned in much the same way he imprisoned us and others.”
He added: “In a sense, I would like somebody in the court today to tell me how long is my sentence.”
“The sheer scale of the fraud calls for severe punishment,” the prosecutors wrote.
The jailed Madoff already has taken a severe financial hit: Last week, a judge issued a preliminary $171 billion forfeiture order stripping Madoff of all his personal property, including real estate, investments, and $80 million in assets his wife Ruth had claimed were hers. The order left her with $2.5 million.
The terms require the Madoffs to sell a $7 million Manhattan apartment where Ruth Madoff still lives. An $11 million estate in Palm Beach, Florida, a $4 million home in Montauk and a $2.2 million boat will be put on the market as well.
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Connally’s Johnson stepping down as head football coach
Kevin Johnson, Connally’s head football coach for the past five years, is stepping down from that role just two months before the start of the season.
Steve Hoffman, the Cadets’ offensive coordinator under Johnson, will take over as head coach for the upcoming season.
Johnson will retain his athletic director position until a full-time replacement can be found, probably through December or January. He is also taking on assistant principal duties at the high school.
Johnson said the reason behind the move was family-related, as the change should offer more free time in his schedule.
“I’m not at the point where I’m ready to give (coaching) up yet,” Johnson said. “But I just needed something that will free up a little more time with my family.”
In five seasons at Connally, Johnson registered a 29-25 overall record with playoff appearances in 2004 and ‘05.
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Lacy-Lakeview man pleads guilty in brother’s stabbing death
A 53-year-old Lacy-Lakeview man pleaded guilty this morning in 54th State District Court in the stabbing death of his brother last year.
Jonathon Satchell was sentenced to 20 years in prison by Judge Matt Johnson.
Lacy-Lakeview police were called to a domestic disturbance in the 200 block of South Barbara Street about 2 a.m. on Oct. 18, 2008. There they found that Rodrick Satchell, 45, had been stabbed by his brother with a screwdriver, according to Lacy-Lakeview police Lt. David Cummings.
Rodrick Satchell was taken to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, where he died of his injuries, police said.
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Slideshows and then some
It might be summer, but last weekend was filled with activities, such as KidZobilee (seen at right), Zoobilee, the Aaron Watson concert at Hog Creek Icehouse, the local premiere of “Risen” at the Waco Hippodrome, the Bosque River Funk and Soul Music Festival at Bosque River Stage, and the Midway High School all-alumni reunion.
Whew!
We also have this slideshow of Waco attorney Stuart Smith’s trip to the North Pole. If you missed it, here’s Trib writer John Werner’s story.
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Two more celebrity deaths to report
These aren’t the big-name stars like Michael Jackson or Farrah Fawcett, or even the more-recent “celebrity” status of TV pitchman Billy Mays, but comedian and celebrity impressionist Fred Travalena and Gale Storm, a TV sitcom pioneer from Texas who starred in”My Little Margie” in the 1950s, have both died.
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Nepal has its first swine flu cases
Nepal confirmed on Monday its first cases of H1N1 flu virus, in three members of a family who had returned from the United States, the Himalayan nation’s health ministry said.
The three — a 44-year-old man, his 38-year-old wife and their 8-year-old son — arrived in Nepal last week from Washington, where they spent eight months, said Raj Kumar Mahato, an epidemiologist with the government’s Department of Health Services.
“We had some suspicion when they arrived at the airport. After necessary investigation they tested H1N1 positive,” Mahato told Reuters.
“All three are getting necessary treatment in an isolation ward in a hospital in Kathmandu,” he said without giving further details.
Authorities said they were trying to find details of the family’s transit routes before coming to Nepal.
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Ousted president, replacement duel for Honduras
Honduras’ new leaders defied growing global pressure on Monday to reverse a military coup, arguing that they had followed their constitution in removing a leftist president who attacked it.
Presidents from around Latin America were gathering in Nicaragua for meetings Monday on how to reverse the first coup in Central America in at least 16 years.
The Obama administration and European governments denounced the coup. U.S. officials said they were working for the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya and European officials offered to mediate talks between the two sides.
But Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took center stage in the region as he defended his ally Zelaya by casting the dispute as a rebellion by the region’s poor.
“If the oligarchies break the rules of the game as they have done, the people have the right to resistance and combat, and we are with them,” Chavez said in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua.
He threatened to “overthrow” the new leader sworn in by lawmakers, Congressional President Roberto Micheletti — who replied in an interview with HRN radio on Monday: “Nobody scares us.”
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Supreme Court rules white firefighters unfairly denied promotions
The Supreme Court has ruled that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.
New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.
The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide, potentially limiting the circumstances in which employers can be held liable for decisions when there is no evidence of intentional discrimination against minorities.
“Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer’s reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions,” Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his opinion for the court. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters “understandably attract this court’s sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them.”
Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens signed onto Ginsburg’s dissent, which she read aloud in court Monday.
Kennedy’s opinion made only passing reference to the work of Sotomayor and the other two judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who upheld a lower court ruling in favor of New Haven.
But the appellate judges have been criticized for producing a cursory opinion that failed to deal with “indisputably complex and far from well-settled” questions, in the words of another appeals court judge, Sotomayor mentor Jose Cabranes.
“This perfunctory disposition rests uneasily with the weighty issues presented by this appeal,” Cabranes said, in a dissent from the full 2nd Circuit’s decision not to hear the case.
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Camp LT is under way in Waco
Somehow I doubt you’ve missed the news on this, but Camp LT, headed by San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson got started yesterday at Floyd Casey Stadium
The former University High School and Texas Christian University standout welcomed campers Sunday and they’ll be busy this week learning and sweating during the camp.
We have this photo slideshow from the first day.
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Accident kills woman on MLK Boulevard in Waco
The Waco Police Department is working a fatality in the 3800 block of North Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Waco police spokesman Steve Anderson said the victim is a 21-year-old woman, but he has no other information at this point.
The road has been blocked off and traffic is being diverted, as those traveling to downtown around Cameron Park East already know.
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Spectators flock to Madoff sentencing
Several hundred spectators crowded Monday into a courtroom in Manhattan to witness the sentencing of Bernard Madoff for a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme that wiped out fortunes, ruined charities and foundations and pushed some investors to commit suicide.
Dozens of victims of a fraud that lasted decades lined up outside the New York courthouse along with scores of journalists in the hours before the sentencing. They were led into a large ceremonial courtroom in the hour before the sentencing was scheduled to start.
The 71-year-old Madoff was likely to be sentenced to 12 years to 150 years in prison. His lawyer insists 12 years in prison is enough. Prosecutors demand a 150-year sentence that would guarantee the that he spends his final days behind bars.
At least 10 victims were expected to call for harsh punishment at the disgraced financier’s sentencing. The final decision was up to U.S. District Judge Denny Chin.
Madoff “will speak to the shame he has felt and to the pain he has caused,” his attorney, Ira Sorkin, said in court papers.
“We seek neither mercy nor sympathy,” Sorkin wrote. But the lawyer urged Chin to “set aside the emotion and hysteria attendant to this case” as he determines the sentence.
There was no shortage of emotion in recent e-mails and letters to the judge by victims.
Carla and Stanley Hirschhorn wrote that they lost their life savings — “a living nightmare that we can’t wake up from.”
Miriam Siegman expressed outrage “at the spectacle of a man playing with his victims — thousands of them — who he knew were facing a kind of death, playing with them as a cat would with a mouse.”
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Justice Souter to mark final day on Supreme bench
It’s Justice David Souter’s last day on the Supreme Court and he’ll be ruling on a case familiar to the woman nominated to replace him.
It’s a reverse discrimination case filed by white firefighters in New Haven, Conn. They argued they were discriminated against when the city tossed out the results of a promotion exam because too few minorities scored high enough on it.
Sonia Sotomayor, who has been nominated to take Souter’s seat, was one of three appeals court judges who ruled that New Haven officials acted properly.
That’s one of the cases the high court is dealing with Monday before justices begin their summer break.
Souter said he’d retire when the court rises for the summer recess. He was named to the court in 1990.
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Police: Virginia dad lured son home, shot him
A college student who was wounded in a shooting that killed his mother and brother told police his father lured him to the family’s house in southwest Virginia. The father later killed himself, authorities said.
Timothy Carter, 22, remained in fair condition Monday at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Authorities said the father, William Ronald Carter, shot his wife, Bonnie, 56, and their 29-year-old son William Ronald Carter Jr. early Sunday. Sheriff Lane Perry said the father shot and wounded Timothy, who was able to escape, and then killed himself before authorities arrived at the burning home.
The three bodies were discovered shortly after midnight in the basement of the home in Axton. The fire is being investigated as an arson, the Henry County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
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Financier Stanford may learn if he can get out on bond
Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, indicted on charges alleging he swindled investors out of $7 billion, could find out Monday if he will be freed on a $500,000 bond or stay locked up until his trial.
Stanford is a native of Mexia and graduate of Baylor University.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner was set to hold a hearing to listen to arguments from federal prosecutors that Stanford, who holds Antiguan citizenship and may have access to hidden vast wealth, is a flight risk.
But Dick DeGuerin, Stanford’s attorney, says his client is broke, has never tried to flee and wants to fight the charges against him.
The once high-flying financier and three executives of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group were accused June 18 of orchestrating a massive fraud by misusing most of the $7 billion they advised clients to invest in certificates of deposit from the Stanford International Bank in the Caribbean island of Antigua.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy granted Stanford’s bond last week and also ordered GPS monitoring and home detention.
But Hittner, who is presiding over Stanford’s case, granted a prosecution request to delay Stacy’s order until he can review the decision and rule on whether Stanford’s bond should be revoked.
Court records show the $100,000 in cash that needed to be given for Stanford’s bond had been paid.
The money for the bond came from his family and friends. Stanford was once considered one of the richest men in America with an estimated net worth of more than $2 billion. But DeGuerin said his client is now broke as authorities have seized all his assets, including his underwear and socks.
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Trains collide in China; 3 killed, 60 injured
Two passenger trains collided Monday in an accident that killed three people and injured 60 as train cars were derailed and nearby houses knocked over, Chinese state media and an official said.
The pre-dawn crash occurred in Hunan province when a train going from the provincial capital Changsha to the southern city of Shenzhen collided with another Shenzhen-bound train, state television said.
The China Central Television newscast showed a tangle of red, white and blue train cars on their sides at the station at Chenzhou, where the collision occurred at 2:34 a.m.
“One train compartment has been crushed out of shape. Debris and the belongings of the passengers are scattered everywhere,” a CCTV reporter said as the camera showed seats ripped from the floor and the ground littered with plastic bottles and scraps of paper.
Rescue workers wearing hard hats rushed around the scene, shouting instructions as police and medics crammed into collapsed train compartments. A group of men were shown carrying a body covered in a pink quilt on a stretcher. The report said two people were killed on the trains while one died when their home was damaged.
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Thankfully, a chance of rain
With just a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms today and 30 percent this evening, that’s certainly no guarantee we’ll get any rain. But even the chance of rain and more clouds in the skies overhead give me reason to smile.
Yesterday’s high of 105 degrees was 1 off the record for the date, set in 1980. We might not hit 100 today, with a high forecast near 99 under partly sunny skies. The heat index, however, will make it feel like 105.
Winds start out calm and will become north between 5 and 10 mph.
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