By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX –
Gov. Rick Perry says special teams of Texas Rangers supported by about 200 Texas National Guard members will be deployed to the Mexican border to deal with increasing violence there because the federal government has failed to address the problems.
Perry says the teams will be sent to "hot spots" and will be paid for with money approved by Texas lawmakers. The governor early this year asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for 1,000 National Guard troops and renewed his call last month in a letter to President Barack Obama. The request is bogged down over who will pay for the troops and how they will be deployed.
Perry's announcement has been branded as grandstanding and empty rhetoric by the campaign of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Perry's GOP opponent in the March primary.
Gas prices fall 6 cents across Texas
The average retail price of gasoline across Texas dropped 6 cents to $2.39 a gallon this week.v AAA Texas reported Thursday that prices this summer reached a peak in June when a gallon of unleaded gasoline cost $2.55 while the national average was $2.69.
Fort Worth and Houston had the cheapest gas in the weekly survey, at $2.34 a gallon. El Paso had the most expensive price per gallon, at $2.50.
AAA Texas spokesman Dan Ronan says motorists in Texas consistently pay less than the national average. Average cost for a 14-gallon fill-up in Texas costs $33.46, compared to $36.12 nationally.
The association says nationwide gas prices fell 2 cents to $2.58 a gallon.
Purse snatcher chased by Texas granny sentenced
A man who was chased down by a Fort Worth grandma after grabbing her purse in a parking lot has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Ricky Lee Sample was sentenced Thursday. The 47-year-old pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery in a plea bargain. Dallas-Fort Worth television station KXAS reports that he could have received life in prison.
After Sample grabbed 65-year-old Val Renfro's purse in the parking lot of a Fort Worth office supply store in March, she jumped in her car and chased him, grabbing the cell phone she carried in her bra and calling 911.
Renfro told him in court: "You saw a woman in a parking lot. You thought I was an easy target. Now you know I wasn't."
Bad weather forces space shuttle to skip landing
Bad weather has delayed space shuttle Discovery's homecoming for at least a day.
NASA decided conditions were too poor to bring Discovery back to Florida on Thursday evening. Mission Control skipped both landing possibilities and ordered the seven astronauts to keep circling the world for a 14th day. Their next chance at returning will be Friday at 5:54 p.m.
The forecast for Florida on Friday is worse, and it only gets a little better Saturday. NASA says if necessary, it will consider the backup landing site in California on Friday.
There was a bit of excitement earlier Thursday when the astronauts steered clear of a mysterious piece of space junk. The debris apparently came from the shuttle or international space station.
Body found on Colorado peak may be missing Texas pilot
Authorities say human remains found on a southwest Colorado mountain may be those of a Dallas pilot whose plane crashed three years ago.
San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters says he believes the body is 27-year-old Mark Cochran, who was missing and presumed dead after the Sept. 15, 2006, crash on Wilson Peak.
The body was spotted from a helicopter Tuesday and has been taken to a medical examiner to confirm the identity. Cochran and three passengers were aboard the 1965 Beech Debonair when it crashed on the 14,017-foot mountain.
The bodies of all three passengers were found within three days of the crash. Deputies believe Cochran's body was buried by an avalanche triggered by the crash and have been monitoring the area.