North Texas
(2009-09-24)
Federal officials say a 19-year-old Jordanian national has been arrested on charges he plotted to bomb a downtown Dallas skyscraper. Federal officials say the case has no connection with the major terrorism investigation under way in Colorado and New York or the Thursday arrest of a man facing similar charges in Springfield, Illinois.
A statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Dallas says Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was arrested Thursday after placing what he thought was a bomb at the 60-story Fountain Place office tower. The decoy device was given to him by an undercover FBI agent.
The FBI has been monitoring the man, who lived in the small north Texas town of Italy.
He's charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Court documents don't list a defense attorney.
Attorney: Stabbing suspect 'mentally disturbed'
The attorney for a 16-year-old student accused of stabbing his teacher to death at a Tyler high school says the boy has a lengthy history of mental illness.
Jim Huggler said Thursday he planned to seek a competency hearing after a juvenile judge ruled there was probable cause for a murder charge. The boy was ordered held until another detention hearing Oct. 5.
A makeshift memorial surrounded a flagpole at John Tyler High School as classes resumed under tight security a day after the slaying of Todd Henry. The 50-year-old special education teacher was attacked in a classroom Wednesday and later died.
Smith County Criminal District Attorney Matt Bingham has so far declined to comment on the case.
Largest home in Texas for mentally disabled closes
The largest private facility in Texas for the mentally disabled is voluntarily closing and moving nearly 200 residents to community-based homes.
The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services announced Thursday that the transition for residents at The Willows in San Antonio should finish by March. Residents and their families will choose their next homes under a federally funded program.
Advocates for the mentally disabled have championed such initiatives because it removes residents from institutional settings and into communities.
There are about 177 residents at The Willows. The state says residents will have the option to live with family members, in small group homes or get their own apartments.
Texas teen drivers using cell phones less
A new study has found that Texas teenagers are less likely to use a cell phone while driving than they were a year ago.
The Teens in the Driver Seat Center of the Texas Transportation Institute conducted the study released Thursday. Researchers surveyed more than 18,000 high school students.
They found the percentage of teens who recognized the danger of texting or talking on a cell phone while driving rose for both urban and rural teens.
Cell phone talking while driving dropped from 52 percent to 46 percent for urban teen drivers and from 66 percent to 52 percent for rural teens. Texting while driving also took a dip, from 47 percent to 42 percent for urban teen drivers and from 58 percent to 48 percent for rural teens.
Housing agency says it's Rita aid pace picking up
Hundreds of southeast Texans displaced by Hurricane Rita four years ago are still waiting for new federally funded homes to be built.
Meanwhile, a state agency is trying to spend the housing construction money it has a little faster.
Those waiting residents are living with relatives or in trailers, rental property or their dilapidated, blue-tarped houses damaged when the storm struck Sept. 24, 2005. Hurricane Ike further wrecked the region on Sept. 13 last year.
So far, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs has spent only 38.5 percent of a $428 million federal allotment that arrived in 2007. Still, agency executive director Michael Gerber says he thinks the agency is "making really strong headway."
He blames blames federal environmental, historic preservation and proof-of-ownership regulations for much of the delay.
Gov. Rick Perry's office acknowledges home construction time for Rita victims has taken too long and said state officials have tried to keep Hurricane Ike victims from facing similar roadblocks.
© Copyright 2009, KERA
