By BJ Austin, KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – Nearly 60 current and former prosecutors and judges, police chiefs, governors, crime victims and exonerees want the state's highest criminal court to allow an unusual hearing on the Texas death penalty to continue.
A court hearing in Houston was put on hold earlier this month after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a request by prosecutors to stop it.
The hearing had been ordered by a state district judge who is considering a motion in a capital murder case on whether the Texas death penalty statute is unconstitutional.
The amicus brief filed Wednesday says the hearing would allow the public to be informed about risks that innocent individuals could be convicted and executed in Texas.
Suspects Face New Charges In Missing Irving Girl's Case
Irving Police have charged two men with "aggravated sexual assault of a child" in the case of a missing' 13 year old.
The girl, initially believed to be a runaway, was missing for a week before returning home early yesterday morning.
Irving officers say the sexual assault charges were filed after the girl was interviewed by police at the Irving Family Advocacy Center.
One of the suspects, in a jailhouse interview, says the girl went with them voluntarily after a basketball game at an Irving Middle School December 13th, and that the girl left late the next day.
The 20 year old suspects remain in jail. Detectives say the investigation is still in the early stages.
Garland Company Spreads Holiday Cheer
A Garland company is celebrating this holiday season in a generous way.
"Grand Hall" - maker of sports conditioning equipment - is wrapping up a week of visits to North Texas schools, donating 500 thousand dollars worth of workout equipment.
Kari Yeh says Grand Hall has weathered the recession very well.
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Yeh: We've been able to grow and expand, and hire more people when a lot of companies are laying people off, so we just wanted to give back to the community and say thanks for our success over the years.
14 North Texas School Districts received the equipment. Yeh says it helps coaches and athletes who have to deal with tight school budgets.
Electronic info dominates George W. Bush's archive
Archivists responsible for putting together former President George W. Bush's presidential library are tasked with processing 80 terabytes of electronic information. that's 20 times more than the Clinton administration's four terabytes.
Bush's electronic archives contain more than 200 million e-mails, compared to about 20 million in former President Bill Clinton's.
Bush's archives also include share drives, hard drives, scheduling systems and digital photography. The average size of a quality digital photo is about three megabytes, meaning just one terabyte can store more than 300,000 such pictures.
Alan Lowe is director of Bush's presidential library and museum. He says Bush administration e-mails alone would take up an estimated 600 million printed pages.
TABC approves reworked version of energy drink
Texas regulators have approved the sale of reformulated versions of an alcoholic drink that no longer contains caffeine.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission on Wednesday approved reworked versions of the flavored malt beverage Four Loko, minus the caffeine.
The Food and Drug Administration last month concluded that caffeinated malt beverages are unsafe and pose a public health concern.
The maker of Four Loko, Chicago-based Phusion Projects,LLC, on Nov. 16 announced its intent to reformulate the product to make only non-caffeinated versions.
The TABC on Nov. 19 asked members of the alcoholic beverage industry to voluntarily halt sales of caffeinated malt beverages.
TABC says its agents and auditors have visited more than 11,000 retailers and found widespread voluntary compliance in the removal of caffeinated malt beverages.
Free Flu Shots Draw Crowd
The offer of FREE flu shots brought crowds to clinic at Dallas County Health and Human Services on Stemmons Freeway today.
Officials say more than 500 people lined up for the seasonal flu vaccine. Today was the first day for "free" shots. They'll be available as long as the vaccine supply lasts.