By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – A pipeline problem in Weatherford has led to an emergency advisory for residents to limit nonessential water use. An emergency notice Monday morning on the municipal website advised residents of the city of 27,000 of a "code red alert."
The advisory, from the Weatherford utility department, says water service has been interrupted due to a critical pipe failure and customers may be without water "for an extended period of time."
Residents were asked to limit water use to drinking, cooking and flushing the toilet.
City spokeswoman Danielle Felts says authorities do not know how long the repairs will take until crews see the damage. She says two tanker trucks are filled with water for firefighting needs.
Weatherford is 25 miles west of Fort Worth.
Plano Mortgage lender settles fraud charges for $4.5M
A Plano-based mortgage lender has agreed to replace its namesake chief executive and pay $4.5 million to settle North Carolina allegations the company pushed home buyers into mortgages they couldn't afford.
Attorney General Roy Cooper and the state Banking Commission said Monday that W.R. Starkey Mortgage agreed to a settlement that includes the resignation of chairman and CEO William Starkey Jr.
The company will refund $26,000 to each of the 170 North Carolina families who bought manufactured homes from Phoenix Housing Group Inc.
Starkey Mortgage neither admitted nor denied the allegations by state officials, including that its employees faked information about borrowers to boost their credit scores and help them qualify for loans they otherwise wouldn't have gotten.
Condemned inmate getting life over DeSoto killing
A formerly homeless man condemned for the 1997 killing of a Dallas-area woman will no longer face execution.
Judge Gracie Lewis on Sunday declared a mistrial in the penalty phase for 47-year-old John Wade Adams. The Dallas Morning News reports formal imposition of the life prison term was scheduled Monday.
Adams in 1998 was convicted of capital murder, but a federal court last year granted him a new sentencing hearing.
Jurors deliberated 27 hours on whether Adams should remain on death row over the slaying of Donna Vick of DeSoto. Vick had helped Adams and fellow transient Gregory Wright, who was executed in 2008 over the fatal stabbing.
Prosecutor Brandon Birmingham objected to Sunday's jury dismissal because the foreman had not indicated they were.