By KERA News
Dallas, TX –
The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to grant a rehearing in the nearly 15-year legal battle over accusations that Exxon Mobil Corp. sabotaged abandoned wells.
A smaller oil company that tried to enter the South Texas wells and the landowners had accused the world's largest publicly traded oil company of stuffing old wells with junk, sludge and tools so other companies couldn't drill there. Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil has denied wrongdoing.
The plaintiffs won at trial in 1999, but the Texas Supreme Court later reversed the finding. That ruling sparked a campaign led by the Texas land commissioner and state comptroller to reopen the case.
Texas Supreme Court spokesman Osler McCarthy says no date has been set for a hearing.
Dallas man gets 30-year term in fed drug case
A 23-year-old Dallas man has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison on drug trafficking and money laundering charges tied to Mexico's Gulf Cartel.
Uriel Palacios still faces murder charges in Dallas County in a Sept. 1, 2008, crash that killed newlyweds Erika Clouet, 24, and German Clouet, 23. Prosecutors alleged Palacios was driving drunk.
U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of Dallas says Palacios was a member of a North Texas drug operation that used profits from cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking in the U.S. to buy more illegal drugs in Mexico.
Prosecutors say U.S. drug enforcement agents seized a large suitcase in May 2008, that Palacios gave to a courier to take to Mexico. Prosecutors say it contained nearly $1.3 million cash.
Electrical fire knocks KXAS-TV off the air
An electrical fire forced evacuation of KXAS during a newscast and knocked the state's longest-serving TV station off the air.
Fort Worth Fire Department spokesman Tim Hardeman said Friday that no one was injured in the blaze reported at 10:09 p.m. Thursday.
Hardeman says dry chemicals were used to put out the fire in an electrical vault. Hardeman says the damage estimate was $405,000. KXAS vice president of programming Brian Hocker says the fire at the NBC network-owned station also forced its Telemundo affiliate, KXTX, off the air.
Hocker says about 50 people were in the building when the fire alarm sounded. The stations were back on the air by 2 a.m. Friday.
KXAS was the first television station in Texas, as WBAP, in 1948. The building is listed with the Texas Historical Commission.
Heritage group against governor's mansion addition
A group that made the first $10,000 private donation to rebuild the fire-gutted Texas Governor's Mansion is opposed to changing its look.
The Heritage Society of Austin will not support plans, unveiled in October, for a two-story addition to the 153-year-old building.
The Texas Historical Commission is in charge of issuing a permit for the expansion.
The June 2008 fire, as the mansion was unoccupied during renovation, has been ruled arson and so far no one has been prosecuted.
Society president Mandy Dealey says altering the exterior would threaten the architectural and historical integrity of the National Historic Landmark.
The proposed 2,000-square-foot addition would include an expanded family living area.
Gov. Rick Perry and his wife, Anita, are living in a rental house.