By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX –
A man convicted of gunning down a Dallas-area police officer during an attempted bank robbery has been put to death.
Fifty-one-year-old Kenneth Mosley becomes the first prisoner executed this year in Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state.
Mosley was condemned for the February 1997 slaying of David Moore, an officer in the Dallas suburb of Garland. His lethal injection was carried out Thursday night after his legal appeals became exhausted.
The punishment had been stalled twice last year by technical issues and court appeals.
Freezing temperatures close Texas roads, schools
Texas joined other states in the nation's icebox today.
Temperatures plummeted into the teens and 20s through much of the northern part of the state and hovered just below freezing much of the day.
School closings, traffic accidents and icy roads were common in a Dallas-Fort Worth area gripped by the coldest weather in a decade.
The unusual cold stretched down to the Mexican border, where Laredo officials issued a frost bite advisory and told residents to "dress warmly and stay dry" as temperatures were expected near freezing overnight Thursday.
As a precaution, Gov. Rick Perry activated the National Guard and Dallas police rounded up homeless people for placement in warm shelters Wednesday night. They planned to do the same Thursday evening.
Hardware stores in parts of the state had runs on portable heaters and insulating materials. Texans snapped up plastic water pipe covers in anticipation of more cold.
In the Rio Grande Valley, South Texas citrus growers studied forecasts that disagreed on whether the temperature would actually get below freezing Saturday. Citrus fruit is damaged once the temperature reaches 28 degrees or below and stays there for three to four hours.
Tree damage occurs if temperatures hold at several degrees lower. He said most growers will probably flood their groves, hoping the water will make the 1 or 2 degree difference that saves their crop.
Texas gasoline prices spike 9 cents per gallon
Retail gasoline prices across Texas spiked upward this week in the biggest gain since last Memorial Day weekend.
The weekly AAA Texas price survey released Thursday found that unleaded regular averaged $2.56 per gallon, 9 cents higher than last week. Nationally, regular unleaded averaged $2.71 per gallon.
AAA Regulatory Affairs Manager Andrew Delmedge says the two cold waves since Christmas week prompted investors to buy more crude oil futures contracts. Also, a dollar weakening against other currencies means it takes more dollars to buy oil. Consequently, crude oil is averaging $20 higher than the 2009 average of just over $62 per barrel.
The cheapest gasoline in Texas is in Corpus Christi, where unleaded regular averages $2.51 per gallon. The most expensive gas continues to be found in El Paso, where it averages $2.58.
Governor, proud Aggie, roots for archrival Texas
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a proud Texas A&M Aggie, rarely passes up a chance to take a dig at archrival University of Texas, but when it comes to the national football championship his loyalties are clear.
When asked about it at a news conference in San Antonio on Thursday, the Republican said, "That's an easy one. We root for Texas," to applause. The news conference on federal spending came several hours before Texas was to take on Alabama in the title game.
But Perry, up for re-election in a famously football-crazed state, was quick to acknowledge the success of a team in the Texas A&M University System. He noted that Prairie View A&M won the Southwestern Athletic Conference title last month.
Texas would revel in a collection of football championships, he said, "if the Longhorns will follow course."