By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – Texas will apply for about $830 million in education aid from Washington even though officials are expecting a legal fight over the money.
Gov. Rick Perry has said that to comply with a provision in the bill that put stiffer requirements on Texas would be a violation of the state constitution.
But Perry Chief of Staff Ray Sullivan told the Austin American-Statesman that they'll look for ways around the requirement that the Texas governor assure a level of education spending for the next three years.
Other states had to provide that assurance for only one year.
Texas education leaders were meeting with federal education officials Friday.
The money is intended to help school districts cope with the economic recession and avoid layoffs.
Mansfield-area woman, boy, hurt when dogs attack
Johnson County authorities say a woman saved her 3-year-old nephew by lying on him as pit bulls attacked them outside her house near Mansfield.
Sheriff Bob Alford says the boy was severely hurt in Thursday's attack and was transported to a Fort Worth hospital. The woman was also taken to a hospital. Investigators on Friday declined to release names of the victims or further details on their injuries.
Authorities say the woman and the boy managed to get into her house before rescue personnel arrived. Alford says arriving deputies also were attacked by the dogs, who lived at the woman's residence, and killed one of the animals.
Mansfield is about 15 miles southeast of Fort Worth.
Try tubing the Trinity River in north Texas
Tubing in Texas isn't limited to tourist-popular rivers in Central Texas.
About 40 tubers yesterday who took up the invitation from the Trinity River Vision Authority in Fort Worth to take part in a "Tubing Happy Hour" along the river. The tubers, with coolers in floats, drew gawkers as cyclists stopped and motorists slowed down along the Rogers Road Bridge.
Authority executive director J.D. Granger told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that there will probably be more events next spring or summer.
New Braunfels-based Rockin' R River Rides, which provided some mesh bags and other equipment for this week's float, plans a fact-finding trip next week to explore the viability of setting up tubing along the Trinity.
Trinity River Vision on July provided 100 inner tubes during the Fort Worth's Fourth celebration -- and was overwhelmed by the response.
While Texas tubing has generally been focused on Central Texas, people do go tubing in North Texas along the Brazos River, west of Mineral Wells and near Glen Rose. The Paluxy River, also near Glen Rose, is another popular spot.