By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX –
Southwest Airlines is seeking to trump a rival bid and acquire Frontier Airlines.
Denver-based Frontier is operating under bankruptcy protection. A court had already approved the sale of Frontier Airlines Holdings to the parent of Republic Airways for $108.8 million, but that deal can be nixed if a better offer comes along.
Dallas-based Southwest today announced it's submitted a non-binding bid of $113.6 million.
Southwest hopes that making the bid will allow it to talk with Frontier and get information to help shape its final proposal. Southwest said it faces an Aug. 10 deadline for submitting a binding bid. If there is more than one qualified bidder, an auction will be held the following day.
Southwest recently went back into the Denver market, where it competes against Frontier and United Airlines.
Perry Camp: "Hutchison Web site contained hidden phrases"
A Web site for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison contained hidden phrases including "rick perry gay."
So Gov. Rick Perry's campaign is accusing the Hutchison team of being slanderous and of setting a negative and divisive tone. The two Republicans are running for governor in next year's GOP primary.
The Austin American-Statesman reported Thursday on the phrases.
Hutchison spokesman Jeff Sadosky said Hutchison's campaign was not condoning those words and did not know thousands of people would be searching for them. He said they would be removed from the site. Campaign officials said they bought a tool that generates the phrases to find out the most frequent Web searches using the two gubernatorial candidates' names.
Gas prices up 9 cents across Texas
Retail gasoline prices increased an average of 9 cents across Texas this week.
AAA Texas on Thursday reported the average price at the pump was $2.40 a gallon. The nationwide cost for gasoline increased by 6 cents to settle at $2.52.
Houston had the cheapest gasoline this week at $2.34 a gallon. El Paso gasoline prices were the highest statewide, averaging $2.45.
The auto club says Texas gasoline prices have followed the movements of oil prices for much of the summer and will likely continue to do so in the short term. Some analysts predict prices will not move significantly in either direction barring any unexpected events.
Construction worker dies in 300-foot plunge
A construction worker fell 23 stories to his death Thursday after the scaffolding on which he worked gave way.
The fatal plunge happened at the Saint Ann Court high-rise office building project. Witnesses say the man was installing hardware on the facade of the 23rd floor of the 26-story, 333-foot structure when he took the fatal plunge about 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
Dallas fire-rescue spokesman Jason Evans tells KDFW-TV of Dallas and Fort Worth reports that the 35-year-old man was the only one on the scaffold.
His identity hasn't been released. Evans hasn't returned a page from The Associated Press. U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating.