By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – A Dallas police motorcycle officer suffered minor injuries when his motorcycle crashed as he led President Barack Obama's motorcade from Dallas Love Field.
A police statement says the crash happened about 4 p.m. Monday at a north Dallas intersection as the motorcade headed to a Democratic Party fundraiser.
Police Chief David Brown said Officer Mike Manis was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital for a precautionary examination, but he complained only of pain in a hand. Brown said Manis had been a motorcycle officer for about six months.
Witnesses told reporters that Manis apparently lost control of his motorcycle and flipped on a median.
In February 2008, a Dallas motorcycle officer died in a crash while escorting then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's motorcade. Investigators said the motorcycle clipped a curb and crashed into a guard rail, throwing the officer to the pavement.
Texas: BP refinery emitted toxic chemicals
The Texas attorney general has sued BP, charging the company illegally emitted nearly 500,000 pounds of air pollutants at its Texas City refinery for more than a month this spring.
The suit charges that BP's poor operation and maintenance for 46 days in April and May were the primary cause of the toxic emissions. BP could be fined up to $25,000 per day for each violation. The Texas City refinery is the nation's third-largest, about 30 miles south of Houston.
Last week, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality released findings that BP's multiple violations are "egregious" and the company has a poor compliance history. The state regulatory agency turned those findings over to the attorney general.
A BP spokesman did not immediately return messages left for comment. Last week, spokesman Scott Dean denied the allegations from the TCEQ's report.
Texan faces Russia smuggling charges in NY
A plea deal is in the works for a Texas woman accused of smuggling high-tech rifle sights to Russia.
Anna Fermanova made a brief court appearance Monday in Brooklyn, where she's facing federal charges. Attorneys on both sides told a judge that they were trying to reach a plea deal.
Prosecutors say the 24-year-old from Plano, Texas was caught at New York's Kennedy airport in March with the sights stashed in her luggage.
Her attorney, Scott Palmer, told reporters Monday that Fermanova bought the sights for her father-in-law to use at a Moscow gun club.
Fermanova has been compared in the tabloids and on websites to another Anna - admitted Russian secret agent Anna Chapman.
Chapman was part of a headline-grabbing spy ring broken up last month.