By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX –
Hundreds of families at Fort Hood are getting a special gift this holiday season: Their soldiers are coming home.
In the past week, about 1,400 1st Cavalry Division soldiers have returned to Fort Hood, including 300 on Saturday night and 350 on Sunday morning. Another 450 are due back by Christmas. They served in Iraq about a year.
The troops are among some 16,000 1st Cavalry soldiers returning to the central Texas Army post by February. The 2nd Brigade was supposed to return sometime in December, and Army officials tried to make sure that most would be back before the holidays.
Maj. Chad Carroll is a 1st Cavalry Division spokesman. He says it's important for troops to be back now because many have been deployed several times and have missed at least one birthday and all the holidays.
Texas slow in spending funds to weatherize homes
Even though Texas has received millions of federal dollars from the economic-stimulus package to help poor Texans cut their energy bills, only seven homes had been weather-treated as of the end of last month.
The Dallas Morning News reports Texas has spent $1.8 million of $163 million available over the past four months and most of that went to administrative costs like salaries for state workers.
In Texas, the Department of Housing and Community Affairs has the task of figuring out how to get the money to local agencies and governments.
State officials acknowledge the slow start but say they're trying to ensure there is no waste or fraud. They also say federal red tape has been a problem.
Gov't imposes 3-hour limit on tarmac strandings
The U.S. Transportation Department is ordering airlines to let passengers stuck in stranded airplanes to deplane after three hours.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced the three-hour limit and other new passenger protections long sought by consumer advocates. From January to June this year, 613 planes were delayed on tarmacs for more than three hours, their passengers kept on board.
Under the new rule, airlines must provide food and water for passengers within two hours of a plane being delayed on a tarmac and maintain operable lavatories. They must also provide medical attention when necessary.
The new rule is effective in 120 days.
In December 2006, lightning storms and a tornado warning shut the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, causing Fort Worth-based American Airlines to divert more than 100 flights and stranding passengers on some planes for as long as nine hours.
Texas fire officials predict below-normal threat
The Texas Forest Service says Texans and firefighters may get a break this winter and spring on the heels of a couple of massive wildfire seasons across the state.
Officials predict that more rain will lead to a below-normal wildfire threat across most of the state and a normal threat for the Panhandle and the area from Midland to Abilene.
Texas Forest Service spokesman Nick Harrison says agency officials are keeping an eye on the tall grasses, bushes and other vegetation that sprang up because of the rainy autumn, especially since some freezing conditions have dried it out. But he says it has posed no real hazard so far because of the above-normal rainfall over most of the state, thanks to the El Nino weather phenomenon.