By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX –
The U.S. Labor Department has announced that it's recovering more than $1 million in overtime back wages from poultry processor Pilgrim's Pride Corp.
In a statement issued Friday, the department said the back wages are owed to 798 former and current workers at the Pittsburg, Texas-based company's Dallas processing plant.
In a consent decree filed in U.S. District Court in El Dorado, Ark., Pilgrim's Pride also agrees to pay for time spent by workers donning and removing work-related gear in all of its U.S. processing plants. The decree says Pilgrim's Pride violated federal law by not paying workers for all hours worked, including time spent putting on and removing protective clothing.
Pilgrim's Pride emerged from bankruptcy protection late last month and sold most of its business to the U.S. unit of Brazilian beef giant JBS.
Panhandle highways reopened
Texas highway officials have reopened Interstate 40 from the New Mexico border to the Oklahoma line.
They also reopened U.S. 287 from Amarillo to the Oklahoma line, U.S. 87 from Amarillo to Dalhart and U.S. 54 from the New Mexico line to the Oklahoma border on Friday afternoon. That's the day after they were buried by up to a foot of snow.
Texas Tech University in Lubbock on Friday canceled classes for the second straight day due to the winter weather. Classes were scheduled to resume Monday.
Bald eagle shot in Texas has wing amputated
Veterinarians at Texas A&M amputated a wing from a bald eagle that had been found shot.
The Bryan-College Station Eagle on Friday reported the bird has been taken to Bellville Lonestar Wildlife Rescue. A spokesperson did not immediately return a call Friday from The Associated Press.
Charlie Rohawk with the Eyes of Texas Wildlife Rescue in Bryan says the male bird was found in a pasture near Lake Livingston. Rohawk tended the wound, then took the bird to A&M.
She says ammunition fragments from the eagle were sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Houston, in an effort to locate the shooter. Bald eagles are no longer listed as endangered, but they are protected and fines up to $250,000 apply for killing the majestic birds, which are the nation's official symbol.
Illnesses limiting Texas prison visitors
An outbreak of stomach flu is continuing to plague Texas prisons, forcing state corrections officials to scrap usual visiting hours this weekend at seven prisons.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials say that while other prisons may be open for visits by friends and relatives of inmates, they may have visiting restrictions. They're urging people, particularly those planning to travel significant distances, to call the individual prisons to check whether visits may be limited.
Units closed to visitors this weekend are the Byrd Unit in Huntsville, Hodge Unit in Rusk, Pack near Navasota, Robertson Unit outside Abilene, Hightower Unit in Liberty County, Crain Unit in Gatesville and the Young Unit, a medical facility in Galveston County.