By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX –
Texas retail gasoline prices slipped 4 cents a gallon this week to settle at $2.46 as millions of travelers get ready to make holiday trips. AAA Texas on Thursday reported the nationwide average price at the pump also declined by 4 cents, to reach $2.59.
Houston had the least expensive gasoline in Texas this week, at $2.41 a gallon. The state's most expensive gasoline was in El Paso, at $2.58.
The association says its recent travel surveys indicate as many as 6.3 million Texans will travel during the Christmas and New Year's holiday periods.
Bedford man used 2 preschool daughters for porn
Sentencing is April 12 in Fort Worth for a Bedford man who used his two preschool-age daughters for Internet child pornography. The U.S. attorney's office says the 26-year-old man pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of production of child pornography.
The man, in custody since his Oct. 6 arrest, faces between 15 and 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
FBI agents in October determined the man was using his own daughters, at the time both were under age 3, for sexually explicit images with him. Prosecutors say the images were transmitted over the Internet to another man, now accused of sexual exploitation of children.
Whooping crane flock estimate 244 for Texas refuge
The season is looking up for endangered whooping cranes with more birds apparently heading to Texas for the winter. Experts say the estimated flock count of endangered whooping cranes has increased to 244.
Tom Stehn with the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge says he has received reports of six more birds, including two chicks. The latest estimate accounts for 21 of the 22 chicks that fledged in Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada, where the cranes spend summers.
Refuge authorities hope the flock total, updated this week, will reach at least 247, which is the number of birds that left the Aransas facility in March.