By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX –
A maroon minivan smashed through a back window at Dallas City Hall in what police say was a failed attempt to steal a city credit union ATM.
The van rammed the building around 4:15 a.m. Thursday. Several city workers in the area say they saw the crash. The Dallas Morning News reports that the suspects realized they were seen and fled in the van without the cash machine.
Police say the van was found a short time later abandoned outside the Dallas Police Association building. Police determined the van had been stolen overnight.
Police say they questioned several people sitting in cars outside city hall who may have been acting as lookouts. No one was arrested.
Developers from corruption case face sentencing
Sentencing is scheduled for March for an apartment complex developer who pleaded guilty to a bribery scheme that ensnared the former No. 2 official at Dallas City Hall.
Brian Potashnik faces sentencing March 19 in federal district court in Dallas. He pleaded guilty this year to bribing former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill in return for the city councilman's approval of Potashnik's plan to build low-income apartments.
The Dallas Morning News also reported Thursday that Potashnik's wife, Cheryl, will be sentenced the same day. She pleaded guilty to bribing state Rep. Terri Hodge in return for her support of the projects.
Hodge has maintained her innocence and faces trial March 8. Hill, his wife, Sheila and others convicted in the bribery scheme will be sentenced in February.
Rare blizzard strikes West Texas
In much of the rolling plains of West Texas, a blizzard has never been recorded. There has been one now.
The National Weather Service says the region west and northwest of the Dallas-Fort Worth area saw blizzard-like conditions throughout the day Thursday as up to 8 inches of snow fell in the region. Winds gusting at up to 65 mph drifted the snow as deep as 5 feet in some areas.
The weather service says no blizzard warning had ever been issued for an area of Texas as far south as Interstate 20. The heavily traveled interstate was closed for most of the day between Cisco and Abilene after six inches of snow fell in the area 130 miles west of Dallas. Crews worked late in the afternoon to reopen it to traffic.
State Trooper Sparky Dean of Abilene says a multitude of jackknifed tractor-trailer rigs and stalled cars compounded the traffic obstacles on the interstate. No fatalities or serious injuries have been reported.