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Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings Performs Heimlich Maneuver On Choking Woman

Gunnar Rawlings
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Twitter/@G_Rawlings
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings performed the Heimlich maneuver on Helen Mayer over the weekend.

Five stories that have North Texas talking: Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings uses the Heimlich maneuver on a choking woman; FBI to investigate shooting death of Christian Taylor; a cat cafe opens in Dallas; and more.

Mike Rawlings isn’t just the Dallas mayor – he’s a lifesaver. He used the Heimlich maneuver on a woman who was choking at El Fenix restaurant in downtown Dallas. On Saturday, Helen Mayer was having lunch with family. She was eating fajita meat when she began choking. Mayer told WFAA-TV she was gasping for air. Rawlings was having lunch when he heard some screams. He said Mayer was red and wasn’t breathing. “It was like he was my hero,” Mayer told WFAA. Rawlings said he learned the Heimlich when he was a lifeguard and a Boy Scout. He saved another person from choking a few years ago.

  • The Arlington police chief promised transparency as the FBI joined the investigation into the death of Christian Taylor. He's the college football player who was fatally shot by an officer during a burglary call at a car dealership. Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson said the FBI's Dallas field office has been asked to help investigate the death early Friday of Taylor, a 19-year-old African-American who was unarmed when shot by a white police officer. On Sunday, Taylor was remembered at Koinonia Christian Church in Arlington. “One thing that I’ve been convinced of in the past 72 hours is that tomorrow is not promised to anyone,” Pastor Ronnie Goines said, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “You keep talking about changing your life tomorrow. But who says you will have a tomorrow?” [Associated Press/Fort Worth Star-Telegram]


  • A Fort Worth pastor delivered his final sermon Sunday at Wedgwood Baptist Church. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports: Al Meredith “rose to national prominence in 1999, as he led the congregation in the days and weeks after a gunman opened fire during a Wednesday evening prayer service, killing seven people and injuring another seven. Some members wanted to dismiss the following Sunday service. Absolutely not, Meredith replied. ‘We are not giving an inch,’ he told them. … At a final service filled with hymns and testimonials of family and friends around the world, the longtime pastor said Sunday that it was time to step aside to allow for new leadership and a fresh perspective. ‘Christ is the head of this church,’ Meredith told the congregation, which numbers around 2,000. ‘Pastors come and go.’” [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]

  • For the first time since 2001, people ran from El Paso to Juarez, Mexico. The El Paso Times reports: “Organizers said the 10K race tightened the bonds between the two cities and fought the image of violence that has been painted about the border between the U.S and Mexico. The race started in El Paso, crossed into Juárez and ended on the dividing line between the two nations. 'This race shows us and it shows the people who visited from other parts of the country and from the interior of Mexico that just what a beautiful community El Paso and Juárez is and how connected we are,' said U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso. O'Rourke's office and the El Paso Community Foundation put together the race to celebrate and to fight negative pictures painted about the border following remarks by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.” [El Paso Times]


  • Me-ow. Dallas’ first cat café opened over the weekend. The Dallas Morning News reports:  “There were cat earrings and cat necklaces, cat watches and cat shoes. T-shirts that said, ‘Meow’s It Going?’ and ‘Real Men Love Cats.’ People walking around with laminated cutouts of their pet cats, in lieu of the real thing. … Saturday marked the opening of Dallas’ first “pop-up” cat café, an event that was clearly a big deal for the hundreds of cat lovers who flocked to Cat Connection, a boutique “for all things feline” on Inwood Road just north of Spring Valley Road.” The cat café returns each Saturday this month. [The Dallas Morning News]
Eric Aasen is KERA’s managing editor. He helps lead the station's news department, including radio and digital reporters, producers and newscasters. He also oversees keranews.org, the station’s news website, and manages the station's digital news projects. He reports and writes stories for the website and contributes pieces to KERA radio. He's discussed breaking news live on various public radio programs, including The Takeaway, Here & Now and Texas Standard, as well as radio and TV programs in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.