05/16/2008

Texas jobless rate ties record low at 4.1 percent in April
9:53 AM CT The state's addition of 15,400 non-farm jobs constrasts with job losses in the sluggish U.S. economy, which shed 20,000 jobs in April. The unemployment rate in the Dallas-Fort Worth area was 3.9 percent, down from 4.2 percent in March.
Link: Texas Workforce Commission
Employment and careers news

05/15/2008

Physician told staff at Texas veteran hospital to limit post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses
The physician in charge of the post-traumatic stress disorder program at a medical facility for veterans in Temple, Texas, told staff members to refrain from diagnosing PTSD because so many veterans were seeking government disability payments for the condition.

05/16/2008

Texas & Southwest briefs
Cornyn to check reports about Mexican chiefs

Judge won't free family of polygamist sect member
AUSTIN – A polygamist sect member who says the state has wrongly swept his three children into foster care lost an attempt Thursday to free them.

Polygamist sect's finances are murky
ELDORADO, Texas – In just five years, the West Texas polygamist sect transformed 1,700 acres of scrubland purchased for $700,000 in 2003 into a bustling ranch with a white limestone temple, sprawling three-story log cabins, woodworking shops and a dairy. Assessed value of the property now: $20.5 million.

Texas' small-business owners gather to fight new tax
AUSTIN – A coalition of small-business groups on Thursday launched an effort to revamp the state's new business tax even though the first payments under the tax aren't due until next month.

State franchise tax
Key changes in the state franchise tax proposed by a small-business coalition:

05/15/2008

Texas' small-business owners fight new tax
A coalition of small-business groups on Thursday launched an effort to revamp the state's new business tax even though the first payments under the tax aren't due until next month.

Polygamist sect member's effort to free children from foster care fails
A polygamist sect member who says the state has wrongly swept his three children into foster care lost an attempt Thursday to free them. Dan Jessop said he won a partial victory, though, when lawyers for Child Protective Services told a judge that CPS workers would try by Thursday evening to place his wife, their newborn son and two other young children together in a foster home.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn: California gay marriage decision will spark push for national ban
Sen. Cornyn noted that during congressional debates on the issue several years ago, one argument used by opponents of a constitutional ban was that few states allowed such arrangements, making the drastic step premature.

05/14/2008

Mexican police chiefs flee to U.S. for safety
Drug cartel attacks against Mexican police have become so violent and so common that some Mexican police chiefs are seeking safety in the United States.

05/15/2008

Change your ways or lose your children, Texas to tell mothers in polygamist sect
AUSTIN – Texas, calling a polygamist sect an abusive environment, is poised to tell its mothers they will lose their children unless they distance themselves from portions of their religion.

As drug violence intensifies, some Mexican police chiefs seek asylum in U.S.
WASHINGTON – Drug cartel attacks against Mexican police have become so violent and so common that some Mexican police chiefs are seeking safety in the United States.

CRIME
MUSKOGEE, Okla. – A Texas man has been ordered extradited back to that state on charges that he tried to sell a 25-gallon drum of cyanide to an FBI informant, saying the deadly chemical could be used to kill a large number of people.

Texas, Southwest briefs
Disaster declaration issued

Group alleges property rights violations with border fence
WASHINGTON – A group of Texas border mayors and business leaders says the federal government did not properly negotiate with landowners or inform them of their rights when surveying property for the U.S.-Mexico border fence.

2 men found dead in car after Arizona police chase
STANFIELD, Ariz. – Two men who led law enforcement agents on a lengthy pursuit on Interstate 8 Wednesday morning were found dead inside their car after it was disabled. Authorities said it appeared to be a murder-suicide.

Appeals court to reconsider Texas death row inmate's case
AUSTIN – A longtime Texas death row inmate could get another chance to avoid execution after an appeals court on Wednesday granted a rare reconsideration of an earlier decision.

Crazy rasberry ants invade Houston
Voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area.

05/14/2008

Crazy rasberry ants invade Houston
Voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area.

Texas Public Utility Commission investigating electricity retailer National Power Co.
The Houston electricity company sent letters to some customers last week informing them that the company would hike customers' rates, even though customers had signed contracts for a fixed rate for a particular length of time. Some customers said they'd agreed to pay 11 cents per kilowatt hour for a year, and the company hiked the rate to around 15 cents.

05/13/2008

Texas officials say new mom from polygamist ranch is not a minor
Texas child welfare officials no longer believe that a woman who gave birth in San Marcos last month while in foster care, after being removed from a polygamist sect’s ranch, is a minor.

05/14/2008

Environmental official sounds warning to Texas Senate panel about safety of dams
A state environmental official told a state Senate panel Tuesday that Texas needs to substantially increase its dam safety program's staffing and budget to ensure that the state's most hazardous dams get inspected regularly.

Texas to send trade delegation to Cuba
The state of Texas will send a trade delegation to Cuba in late May, the first official visit in more than 45 years and one that organizers hope will pave the way for broader trade in the years to come.

Dewhurst has yet to appoint members of task force looking at sporting goods sales tax
A year after legislators decided to review what items should be included in a sporting goods sales tax, work has yet to begin because Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst hasn't named any senators to the task force.

Texas & Southwest briefs
Man sentenced to death

05/12/2008

Texas stopped from moving newborn, mother taken from YFZ ranch
Child Protective Services tried to whisk a newborn and his mother, in state custody as a minor after being removed from a polygamist sect's ranch, to a different city within hours of childbirth on Monday.

05/13/2008

Man who evaded state trooper in Sherman still at large
A state trooper fired on a 29-year-old man wanted on drug charges as he drove toward the officer Monday afternoon along Highway 75 in Sherman, police said. Bobby Lynn Haliburton and his female passenger were apparently uninjured.

EPA testing air in toxic Oklahoma mining town
Scientists were preparing tests Monday to find out how much lead-contaminated dust remains in the air after a deadly tornado blew through mountains of mining waste in a town that is already an environmental nightmare.

05/12/2008

Allstate Insurance to refund Texas customers $51.6 million
Allstate Insurance agreed Monday to refund $51.6 million to its Texas customers for overcharges in homeowners insurance, but the company will not have to return another $19.2 million in overcharges under a settlement with state regulators.

Video: Skimpy prom dress lands Houston teen in cuffs

KHOU-TV

Marche Taylor (left) was escorted out of her high school prom because school officials said her revealing gold dress was inappropriate.
Tell Us: Your thoughts on the dress

Houston lawyer Joe Jamail gives University of Texas $15M
Houston attorney Joe Jamail, whose name already appears on several University of Texas buildings, is donating another $15 million to the school.

05/11/2008

Texas polygamist sect seeks Bush's help
A member of an embattled polygamous church likened a raid by Texas authorities to an act of terrorism in a letter to President Bush.

Mental health workers criticize state's care of sect children
Mental health workers sent to help care for the women and children removed from a polygamist sect's West Texas ranch are criticizing Child Protective Services, saying the state's decision to seek custody of the children was unnecessary and traumatizing.

Wildfire in central New Mexico fully contained
A wildfire that burned 59 homes and more than 21 square miles in central New Mexico's Manzano Mountains was fully contained Sunday.

05/12/2008

Texas and Southwest briefs
A company that sits near the edge of a massive sinkhole in southeast Texas has been accused of violating permits for saltwater disposal, which some geologists say may have caused the crater.

05/11/2008

House of Yahweh sect case may test Texas' anti-polygamy laws
Yisrayl "Buffalo Bill" Hawkins, the sect's 73-year-old prophet, was arrested and indicted in February – less than two months before raids on the Eldorado compound – charged with four counts of promoting bigamy, made a felony in 2005 after the unrelated FLDS group arrived from Utah.

05/10/2008

Immigration raids catch citizens and legal residents
Two U.S. citizens and one legal permanent resident were among those arrested last month in Mount Pleasant, Texas, during a federal immigration crackdown targeting identity fraud at poultry giant Pilgrim's Pride.

05/11/2008

Texas' early currency offers look at young republic's shaky financial roots
The birth of Texas as a republic is often told in stirring tales of heroic battles for independence. Often lost in history, however, are the hard lessons those long-ago heroes learned:

Texas state historical markers disappearing
A steel bridge nearly the length of a football field has weathered floods, the South Texas heat and a century's worth of traffic to survive as a rare engineering marvel of its era and to earn recognition as a Texas and national historic landmark.

Louisiana sales-tax holiday on storm supplies set
An upcoming state sales-tax holiday on flashlights, portable generators and other supplies aims to help Louisiana shoppers prepare for the hurricane season.

05/09/2008

Children had to be removed from polygamist ranch, CPS tells court
Child Protective Services didn't overstep its bounds by yanking hundreds of children – even toddlers – from parents who belong to a polygamist sect, the state told an appeals court Friday.

Wedding excitement builds near Bush ranch
While man residents of Crawford share a genuine hope for the future happiness of presidential daughter Jenna Bush, who’s being married tonight, many love the idea that, for them, it signifies an ending.

4th-grader rallies fellow students, hometown to help the Alamo
Amanda Dale didn't forget the Alamo. When the 10-year-old fourth-grader from Elgin, Texas, saw a news report on the damage that time and a leaky roof had done to the Shrine of Texas Liberty, she decided to do something about it.

05/10/2008

State auditor says dams' safety in doubt
The state's dam safety program does not have enough money and employees or adequate policies to ensure the safety of 7,600 Texas dams, a new report reveals.

Texas and Southwest briefs
Mayor Lynn Wells said Friday that he and Liberty County officials have agreed to seek a state disaster declaration over a massive sinkhole threatening this small town in southeast Texas.

18th child on the way for Arkansas family
It's a Happy Mother's Day, indeed, for Michelle Duggar – she's pregnant with her 18th child, and says she has no plans to stop any time soon.

05/09/2008

Texas Gov. Rick Perry reiterates plan to run in 2010
Republican Gov. Rick Perry said Friday he's definitely running for re-election in 2010 and compared himself to the chief executive of a prosperous corporation that is in no need of a change at the top.