Home > Waco Breaking News > Archives > 2009 > July > 01
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Pregnant woman thrown from pickup bed in collision, killed
A pregnant woman was killed late Tuesday in Hamilton County she was thrown from the bed of a moving pickup that was struck by an 18-wheeler.
Heather Smith, 18, of Lampasas, and her unborn baby were pronounced dead just after 9:30 p.m. at the scene of the crash on State Highway 22 and Farm-to-Market Road 1602, about 10 miles east of Hamilton, a Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman said.
Smith had been riding in the bed of a 1997 Ford pickup, along with at least one other person, 18-year-old Kayla Bench of Lampasas. Although the report is unclear, apparently, inside the cab of the truck was Smith’s husband, 19-year-old Raymond Smith of Lampasas and 39-year-old Michael Wilson of Comanche, and 22-year-old Kassie Kepler of Lampasas. The pickup was driven by 24-year-old Wesley Kepler of Lampasas.
Bench, Raymond Smith, Wilson and the Keplers were injured in the wreck, the spokeswoman said. Their conditions were not available today.
The spokeswoman said that just before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday the pickup was traveling northeast on State Highway 22 and an 18-wheeler driven by Adaleerto Marquez of Clovis, New Mexico was traveling behind.
Kepler signaled his intent to turn left onto F.M. 1602, the spokeswoman said.
Marquez attempted to pass the pickup in a no-passing zone and struck the pickup’s rear quarter panel, the spokeswoman said. Heather Smith and Bench were thrown from the vehicle, she said.
Marquez was cited for passing in a no-passing zone, the spokeswoman said, and more citations against him were pending, the report indicated.
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Bridge demolition on I-35 rescheduled again
Concerns about the uncertain weather have prompted Texas Department of Transportation officials to reschedule again a temporary closure of the Interstate 35 mainlanes in order to take out the Farm-to-Market Road 2063 bridge over it. It was schedule to happen tonight.
The new date — weather permitting, of course — is Monday, July 6, beginning at 7 p.m. It will reopen by 7 a.m. Tuesday, July 7. TxDOT has the following release:
The mainlanes in each direction (northbound and southbound) will be closed and detoured to the frontage roads. All Sun Valley Boulevard (F.M. 2063) traffic will be detoured to the frontage roads as follows:
*Traffic desiring to cross I-35 from west to east will be detoured south to F.M. 3148 (Moonlight Drive).
*Traffic desiring to cross I-35 from east to west will be detoured north to State Highway 6/Loop 340.
Motorists are advised to observe all warning signs and traffic control devices in the project area. The multiphase $88 million reconstruction project is projected for completion in the fall of 2011.
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American Eagle bringing turboprops back to Waco
American Eagle, which flies daily between Waco and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, will temporarily quit using jets on those flights beginning in late August.
The jets will return in late 2010, after runway improvements have been completed.
In the interim, 66-passenger turboprops will be making the flights.
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FDA requires mental-health warning for Chantix
The Food and Drug Administration will require Pfizer Inc.’s smoking cessation drug Chantix to carry the agency’s strongest safety warning over a series of mental health side effects, including depression and suicidal thoughts.
The new requirement is based on reports of people experiencing unusual changes in behavior, becoming depressed, or having suicidal thoughts while taking the drug.
Pfizer Inc. had already updated the drug’s labeling, following the beginning of an FDA investigation into the potential side effects in 2007.
The FDA is also requiring an additional study on the drugs to determine the extent of the side effects.
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Guaranty Bank needs federal help after losses
Austin-based Guaranty Bank, which lost $2.2 billion last year, is seeking help from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to stay in business. It has four locations in the Waco area.
Those with accounts at Guaranty should not have to worry, as accounts are insured up to $250,000 by the FDIC.
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Yemeni jet crash survivor recounts rescue
The New York Times has this story about the 14-year-old girl who is the only known survivor of the crash of a Yemeni airliner on Tuesday.
She held on to the plane’s wreckage in the Indian Ocean for more than 13 hours before her rescue.
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Seeking input about kids, pool safety around Waco
If you saw this item earlier, you know that Texas has seen 60 children drown already this year — 30 in the month of June alone.
Trib reporter Erin Quinn is working on a story about this, and is seeking people with backyard pools, whether it’s kiddie pools, above-ground or in-the-ground pools, to comment, especially if they have children or grandchildren and are concerned about their safety.
To contact her, call 757-5748 or e-mail equinn@wacotrib.com.
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Former boxing champ, Managua mayor Arguello dies
Former boxing champion Alexis Arguello, one of the best junior lightweights to step in the ring, was found dead at his home early Wednesday.
Presidential spokeswoman Rosario Murillo confirmed Arguello’s death and an autopsy was pending. The La Prensa newspaper reported Arguello was found with a gunshot wound to the chest.
“We are upset,” said Murillo, who declined to provide details about the death. “This is a heartbreaking announcement. He was the champion of the poor, an example of forgiveness and reconciliation.”
The 57-year-old Arguello, who was elected mayor of Managua last year, retired after several comebacks in 1995 with a record of 82-8 with 65 knockouts. Nicknamed “The Explosive Thin Man,” Arguello was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992.
In 1999, a panel of experts assembled by The Associated Press voted Arguello the best junior lightweight and sixth-best lightweight of the 20th century. His popularity in his own country was so great that he carried the flag for Nicaragua at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and led to his decision to seek public office.
Arguello fought against the Sandinista government in the 1980s after it seized his property and bank account, but later joined the party and ran for mayor of the capital last November. He defeated Eduardo Montealegre, though opponents alleged the vote was fraudulent.
Arguello had returned Sunday from Puerto Rico, where he honored the late baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente. His death prompted Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega to announced he was canceling a trip to Panama for the inauguration of President-elect Ricardo Martinelli.
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Waco breaking ground today for new fire stations
The first of two groundbreaking ceremonies today for new fire stations in Waco is beginning now for Fire Station #1, which is being relocated from 504 S. University-Parks Drive to 111 Peach St.
The fire station will serve portions of East Waco and downtown Waco. According to the city,the fire station will include six bays and will be equipped with a ladder truck, fire engine, confined space rescue trailer, rescue unit, command unit and the rescue boat and truck.
The facility plans include individual bedrooms for 11 firefighters, office space, a fitness room, a training/community room, a room for training and servicing the self contained breathing apparatus equipment, and a kitchen. The target completion date is summer of 2010.
The second ceremony will be at 2 p.m. for Fire Station #3, which is being relocated from 1400 Elm Ave. to 111 Ninth St. on the Texas State Technical College campus. The station will include three bays with space for air rescue firefighting equipment, if needed, in the future.
Waco has a mutual-aid agreement with L-3 for the TSTC airport. The fire station will be equipped with a fire engine, the hazardous material response truck and trailer, and one brush truck. The facility plans include individual bedrooms for eight firefighters, a kitchen and office space. The target completion date is spring of 2010.
The total combined cost for both projects is $6.8 million, which are being funded by the bond package approved by voters in May 2007.
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California among states with tough budget choices
Legislators in more than a half-dozen states, their revenues evaporating in the recession, frantically worked to stave off government shutdowns and devastating service cuts. California failed to meet a midnight deadline and now may need to issue IOUs instead of paying bills.
Across the country, lawmakers were feeling the heat as their legislatures began the new fiscal year without a budget in place.
In Illinois, the sputtering drive to come up with a state budget broke down completely Tuesday, leaving the state without any plan for paying its employees or delivering government services.
In Pennsylvania, talks between Gov. Ed Rendell and top legislators ended Tuesday night with no substantial progress, aides said. Rendell said he didn’t think an agreement would come soon. The state faces the prospect of not being able to pay state employees if they cannot resolve an impasse.
The end of June marked the end of the fiscal year in many states, meaning lawmakers worked late Tuesday to pass budgets in a year that has seen the recession take a devastating toll on government finances.
Fallout from California’s budget mess threatened to spread nationwide because of the sheer size of the state’s economy. The Senate rejected three bills designed to save $5 billion, including $3.3 billion in education funding cuts that had to be enacted before Wednesday.
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Texas special legislative session begins
Texas lawmakers have convened the special legislative session in Austin.
The Texas House gaveled in just after 10 a.m. Wednesday to kick things off. The plan for this session — which Gov. Rick Perry called after the regular session ended June 1 — is to wrap things up quickly, the governor says.
Perry called called to extend the shelf life of some critical state agencies and allow the Department of Transportation to issue $2 billion in bonds for building roads. Perry says the unfinished business from the regular session can be done in time for the holiday weekend.
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Waco ranks 15th on Old Spice All-Time Sweatiest Cities list
Sure, Old Spice is getting its name out to the public by doing this, but it has been kind of a fun annual “study” of the sweatiest cities in the U.S. This year, however, is also supposedly the last year of the eight-year study the anti-perspirant/deodorant brand commissioned, so in this final year Old Spice is declaring the Top-20 All-Time Sweatiest Cities.
Waco comes in at No. 15. According to the release, the Sweatiest Cities rankings are based on computer simulations of the amount of sweat a person of average height and weight would produce walking around for an hour in the average temperatures during the summer months, based on historical weather data during June, July and August from 2001-2008 for each city.
Phoenix, despite its “dry heat,” comes in at No. 1.
The release also notes that the Lone Star State has seven cities appearing in the Top 20 list. San Antonio comes in at No. 2, followed by Dallas (No. 4), Houston (No. 5), El Paso (No. 13), Waco (No. 15), Austin (No. 16) and Corpus Christi (No. 19). The release says: “Collectively, these seven cities produce more than 1.3 million gallons of sweat each summer - enough to fill the 400,000-gallon Dolphin Bay at the Texas State Aquarium more than three times!”
There’s a comparison for ya. Read the whole release here.
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Disturbing numbers on Texas child drownings
The Department of Family and Protective Services this morning sent out a pretty sobering e-mail about the number of Texas children — 30 — who drowned during the month of June.
Most of them were toddlers. It was the worst month for child drownings since the state’s annual count began in 2005, the release says.
The majority of the deaths occurred in swimming pools at private homes, and as the Fourth of July weekend approaches Texans are urged to watch their children closely around water, the release reads.
It’s obviously good advice.
So far in 2009, 60 children in Texas have drowned, according to the count by the Department of Family and Protective Services.
An average of 70 children has drowned each year since DFPS began tracking the deaths in 2005. DFPS identified 66 drowning deaths in 2005, 70 in 2006, and 63 in 2007.
For more information about children and water safety, visit the “See and Save” Web site at www.seeandsave.org.
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Magazine article on Palin refuels feud of McCain campaign advisers
FoxNews has a story about a new Vanity Fair article on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, which it says has re-ignited animosities among the feuding high-profile Republican advisers who worked on Arizona Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Click here for the FoxNews story and click here for the Vanity Fair article.
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Arizona lawmakers approve bill allowing guns in bars
The Arizona Senate has given final approval to a bill that would allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry a gun into a business that serves alcohol.
The move completes legislative action on the bill and sends it to Gov. Jan Brewer. She has not said whether she will sign it, but she has long been a supporter of gun rights.
The measure has pitted powerful groups representing gun and bar owners against each other, sparking a debate about whether guns and alcohol can coexist without bloodshed.
Critics of the measure say guns and alcohol are a dangerous combination. Supporters say they should be able to protect themselves and their families even if they happen to be inside a business serving alcohol.
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Mississippi leads in obesity rankings; Alabama No. 2
Mississippi’s still king of cellulite, but an ominous tide is rolling toward the Medicare doctors in neighboring Alabama: obese baby boomers.
It’s time for the nation’s annual obesity rankings and, outside of fairly lean Colorado, there’s little good news. Obesity rates among adults rose in 23 states over the past year and didn’t decline anywhere, says a new report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
And while the nation has long been bracing for a surge in Medicare as the boomers start turning 65, the new report makes clear that fat, not just age, will fuel much of those bills. In every state, the rate of obesity is higher among 55- to 64-year-olds — the oldest boomers — than among today’s 65-and-beyond.
That translates into a coming jump of obese Medicare patients that ranges from 5.2 percent in New York to a high of 16.3 percent in Alabama, the report concluded. In Alabama, nearly 39 percent of the oldest boomers are obese.
Health economists once made the harsh financial calculation that the obese would save money by dying sooner, notes Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust, a nonprofit public health group. But more recent research instead suggests they live nearly as long but are much sicker for longer, requiring such costly interventions as knee replacements and diabetes care and dialysis. Studies show Medicare spends anywhere from $1,400 to $6,000 more annually on health care for an obese senior than for the non-obese.
“There isn’t a magic bullet. We don’t have a pill for it,” said Levi, whose group is pushing for health reform legislation to include community-level programs that help people make healthier choices — like building sidewalks so people can walk their neighborhoods instead of drive, and providing healthier school lunches.
“It’s not going to be solved in the doctor’s office but in the community, where we change norms,” Levi said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has long said that nearly a third of Americans are obese. The Trust report uses somewhat more conservative CDC surveys for a closer state-by-state look. Among the findings:
- Mississippi had the highest rate of adult obesity, 32.5 percent, for the fifth year in a row.
- Three additional states now have adult obesity rates above 30 percent, including Alabama, 31.2 percent; West Virginia, 31.1 percent; and Tennessee, 30.2 percent.
- Colorado had the lowest rate of obese adults, at 18.9 percent, followed by Massachusetts, 21.2 percent; and Connecticut, 21.3 percent.
- Mississippi also had the highest rate of overweight and obese children, at 44.4 percent. It’s followed by Arkansas, 37.5 percent; and Georgia, 37.3 percent.
- Following Alabama, Michigan ranks No. 2 with the most obese 55- to 64-year-olds, 36 percent. Colorado has the lowest rate, 21.8 percent.
More information is available online at Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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H-E-B issues voluntary recall of some beef products
H-E-B has issued this release about a voluntary recall on certain beef products.
In connection with the voluntary national recall by JBS Swift Beef Company for possible E-coli 0157:H7 in some of its products, H-E-B is notifying its customers and advising them to check their freezers for the beef products listed below:
- Raw Beef Briskets with plant inspection #969 (EST #969) with sell-by dates between 5/12 and 6/20
- Raw Beef Inside skirt steaks in a Styrofoam tray with sell-by dates between 5/4 and 6/20
- Hill Country Fare Beef for fajitas with a sell-by date of 5/23
- Any fresh ground beef in a Styrofoam tray with sell-by dates between 5/9 and 6/20
Currently, H-E-B does not have any of the impacted JBS Swift Beef products in its stores or in its supply chain. H-E-B has no reported illnesses, and there have been no reports of illnesses in Texas due to this recall.
H-E-B is issuing this recall in an abundance of caution to ensure the safety of our customers. Please return products impacted by this recall to the nearest H-E-B store for a refund or replacement.
Customers with any concerns or questions can contact H-E-B Customer Relations at 1-800-432-3113.
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Black box located in Yemeni jet crash
One of the black box flight recorders from the Yemeni plane which crashed in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday has been located, a French official has said.
Efforts to retrieve the recorder will begin during the day, the official added, quoted by AFP news agency.
Meanwhile doctors say the only survivor of the crash, teenage girl Baya Bakari, is recovering and in no danger.
The plane, flying from the Yemeni capital Sanaa to the Comoros, came down in bad weather with 153 on board.
There were 66 French nationals among the passengers. Most of the rest were Comorans.
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Ex-Texas governor gets new Internet gig
Former Texas Gov. Mark White has been hired by a Houston-based Internet provider to oversee the expansion of wireless Internet access to rural America.
Internet America Inc., said Tuesday that White will help maximize public private partnerships as the special counsel on rural broadband development. White’s job will involve bringing broadband wireless Internet service to underserved areas of the country.
The Houston attorney served as governor of Texas from 1983-1987 and is best known for leading educational reforms in an underperforming state school system.
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Still a chance of rain for Waco area today
I’ll take whatever rainfall — even cloudcover — that I can get these days. Chances for rain, however, are only around 20 percent for today. But with the clouds our high is forecast to reach only 93 degrees, which would be the second day in a row that we don’t hit 100 degrees.
Yesterday’s rain-dampened high of 84 degrees broke our run of 10 consecutive afternoons of highs of 100 or more. And boy, that was nice.
Heat-index values could reach as high as 98 today. A southwest wind around 5 mph will blow.
And yeah, welcome to July!
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