North Texas
(2009-11-02)
A state district judge has declared a 16-year-old boy competent for trial in the fatal classroom stabbing of an East Texas special education teacher.
The boy is accused of stabbing 50-year-old Todd Henry in the heart in a classroom at John Tyler High School in Tyler on Sept. 23.
Defense attorney Jim Huggler told Judge Floyd Getz in Tyler on Monday that he had spent about 30 hours in discussions with his client. He says most of the youth's answers "are monosyllabic, and he doesn't understand or remember our conversation."
Huggler said the Texas Youth Commission had diagnosed his client as schizophrenic in 2007 or 2008. However, prosecutor Taylor Heaton said a state hospital found the boy to be "alert and oriented, and his though process seems goal-directed" in May.
Texas police shoot robbery suspect
Fort Worth police shot a man suspected of robbing more than a dozen businesses. Dallas-Fort Worth television KDFW reports police responded to a robbery call at a U-Haul store Monday afternoon and saw a truck matching the description of the one used in several recent robberies.
The driver didn't stop when they tried to pull him over. An officer drew her gun and fired one bullet into the truck, hitting the suspect. He was arrested and taken to a hospital in critical but stable condition.
A witness, Aymen Awad, says he was standing outside talking and saw the police parking in the front of the store and screaming "move out of the way." He ran inside the store. Police haven't released the suspect's name.
Enron exec gets home confinement after guilty plea
Enron's former broadband finance chief received one year's probation, including nine months' home confinement, for falsifying company books.
Kevin Howard's sentence Monday came under a deal with prosecutors for his June 1 guilty plea. According to the Justice Department, Howard could have received up to 12 months' home confinement under the plea deal.
Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore for leniency in the sentence. They said Howard didn't benefit personally from any fraud committed at Houston's Enron, which collapsed in December 2001 under the weight of faked accounting.
Howard had been tried twice, first in 2005 in a proceeding that ended in a hung jury, then in 2006 that ended in convictions that Gilmore tossed out.
Perry ponders whether to "opt out" of health plan
Gov. Rick Perry is bashing Washington-style health care fixes, but he isn't saying whether Texas should refuse federal incentives for insuring more people if given the chance.
Perry called proposals to let states "opt out" of a government-run health insurance system a "classic Washington bait and switch." He says Texans would have to pay for the program whether it joined or not.
But Perry said "our options are open" for participating in a government-run health insurance program as part of the proposed federal overhaul.
CareNow says headscarf ban was misunderstanding
Texas clinic officials say they regret telling a Muslim doctor applying for a job that she couldn't wear her traditional headscarf.
Coppell-based CareNow released a statement that called the ban a misunderstanding. It says it plans to clarify its policy and continue training current workers to prevent confusion in the future.
Dr. Hena Zaki of Plano says she was shocked when CareNow officials told her this month in person and later by e-mail that a no-hat policy extended to her hijab.
Zaki had been on a tour two weeks ago of a CareNow clinic in the northern Dallas suburb of Allen. She said the regional medical director told her he didn't want her to be surprised about the policy during orientation.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote to CareNow, explaining federal law requires employers to reasonably accommodate religious practices of an employee.
© Copyright 2009, KERA
