By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX –
Police have arrested a 26-year-old man and charged him with murder for the brutal slaying of a 20-year-old Dallas art student.
Daniel Willyam was being held without bond Wednesday at the Dallas County Jail for the brutal murder of Samantha Michelle Nance, according to online jail records and a news release from the Dallas Police Department.
Dallas police discovered Nance's body at her apartment on Sept. 11. Police later searched an apartment shared by Willyam and 20-year-old Nathan Shuck, Nance's boyfriend. They are also art institute students.
Nance's tearful mother, Cynthia, told reporters Wednesday that her daughter had so much to live for.
Online jail records did not show whether Willyam had obtained an attorney.
Firm: Texas A&M facility wasn't built to code
An engineering firm hired by Texas A&M University to study its tentlike athletic complex says the facility wasn't built to withstand the maximum winds prescribed by the building code.
The analysis by the Houston structural engineering firm Haynes Whaley Associates suggests that the McFerrin Athletic Center was built according to a flawed design. That design is similar to that of the collapsed Dallas Cowboys' practice facility.
Both were built by Summit Structures LLC of Allentown, Pa.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press under the Texas Public Information Act show that Haynes Whaley believed the McFerrin Center couldn't withstand the 90 mph winds specified by national standards. Summit has added a series of cables to the facility's steel frame in response, the documents show.
Appeals court rules against voting rights lawsuit
A federal appeals court has affirmed a lower court ruling against three Latino voters who tried to change how council members are elected in a Dallas suburb.
Farmers Branch has been trying to drive illegal immigrants from the city through a series of ordinances. The voting-rights lawsuit alleged that the city's minority vote was diluted by its at-large City Council system. The plaintiffs wanted to create single-member districts, arguing that Hispanic citizens of voting age would form a majority of the voters registered in one of the proposed districts.
The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the argument. In a ruling Tuesday, the New Orleans-based panel insisted that the number of minority citizens of voting age in a proposed district must form a majority of the total population of its voting-age citizens.
Study finds Texas teacher merit pay did little
Texas spent $300 million on merit pay for teachers in the past three years in an effort that led to few gains by students.
The National Center on Performance Incentives reviewed the now-defunct Texas Educator Excellence Grant.
The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday that researchers determined there was "no systematic evidence that TEEG had an impact on student achievement gains."
Researchers examined reading scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills for more than 140,000 students.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, Allison Castle, says he supports incentivizing the best teachers through merit pay. She says Perry worked with the Legislature to consolidate programs into one with increased funding.
Legislators provided nearly $200 million annually for another merit pay plan that began last year, District Awards for Teacher Excellence, or DATE.