Five stories that have North Texas talking: Gov. Rick Perry is expected to make an announcement about border security this afternoon, a Texan was one of two Americans killed in Gaza fighting over the weekend, it’s been 45 years since the first sighting of the “Lake Worth Monster,” and more.
Gov. Rick Perry has scheduled an announcement this afternoon about border security. State Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, a Democrat from McAllen, tells the newspaper The Monitor that Perry wants to send 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the Rio Grande Valley. This comes two weeks after Perry met privately with President Obama in Dallas to discuss the 57,000 immigration children who've crossed the border since October.
On the day he was in North Texas, Obama proposed $3.7 billion emergency aid bill to deal with the border, but Democrats and Republicans haven't been able to agree. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar are pushing an alternative that would speed up deportations.
- An Israeli-American citizen from Texas was killed in Gaza over the weekend. Sgt. Nissim Sean Carmeli was one of two Americans killed in combat in the Gaza Strip, the Associated Press reports. Carmeli was from South Padre Island. He moved to Israel four years ago and joined the Israeli army after high school. After weeks of shelling back and forth, Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza last week.
- It was an eventful summer of ’69 for Tarrant County. It’s been 45 years since the first reported sightings of the “Lake Worth Monster” in Tarrant County, but the stories live on, the Dallas Morning News reports. The “part man, part goat” supposedly lives on Greer Island and was known for chucking tires and scaring teenagers.
- There’s been a continuing struggle to draw younger audiences to the opera, so some opera houses have turned to the live simulcast. KERA’s Jerome Weeks reports there’s some disagreement over how effective they are. The Met Opera says they don’t work, but the Dallas Opera disagrees. But this young opera fan seems to love them.
- Oscar de la Renta has dressed some of Hollywood's biggest stars; he’s also worked with some political leading ladies. That would probably explain why there’s an exhibit at the George W. Bush Presidential Center covering the designer’s five-decades-long career. The exhibit will run until October, so there’s plenty of time to catch some never-before-seen creations.
