By BJ Austin, KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – Top Texas youth prison system officials have received hefty pay raises, even as most state agencies prepare to face major budget cuts.
The Austin American-Statesman reports some key Texas Youth Commission managers and directors recently got raises of 3.5 to 10 percent.
State records the newspaper reviewed show that all but one of the eight officials who got the raises now earn more than $100,000 annually. TYC director Cherie Townsend justifies the raises by saying the agency has cut several top positions causing those who remain to take on additional duties.
Lawmakers expressed anger as they considered pay cuts for other state employees. Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire calls the raises "outrageous" and demanded that they be rolled back immediately.
6-year-old boy shot dead in Dallas apartment
A 6-year-old boy is dead of a gunshot wound, and detectives are questioning other kids who were with him in a north Dallas apartment to determine how he was shot.
The incident happened Thursday afternoon in a second-floor flat at the Spanish Point Apartments. However, reports on what happened are sketchy and conflicting.
Police say several children who witnessed the shooting initially told officers that a masked man entered the apartment and shot the child. However, no other children were injured.
Dallas police Lt. David Pughes said there was no active manhunt and that investigators continued to question witnesses.
Tuberculosis Alert At North Dallas High
Students and faculty at North Dallas High School are being offered tuberculosis tests after the death of a student over the holidays. Officials say she had tuberculosis, but died of kidney failure.
Dallas County Medical Director Dr. Garry Woo believes the T-B risk is "relatively low", but testing for exposure is a public health measure.
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Woo: Those individuals most at risk have been notified. It's in the hundreds. And testing will begin in the near future.
Those whose tests show "exposure" will be checked for symptoms and given chest x-rays. T-B is a bacterial disease that usually affects the lungs, and can be fatal.
Dr. Woo says there have not found secondary cases in any recent T-B investigations at schools, including one about six months ago.
In 2009, TB cases in Dallas County were down 10%.
Fort Hood suspect's mental report due next week
A panel of health professionals will submit its report next week on whether an Army psychiatrist is competent to stand trial for the deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood.
Maj. Nidal Hasan's attorney, John Galligan, said Thursday that an Army colonel granted the panel's request for a weeklong extension to submit the report, initially due Friday.
The three-member military panel also will determine Hasan's mental state the day of the November 2009 shootings on the Texas Army post.
The panel met with Hasan in jail for several days last month and is reviewing documents in the case.
Army officials will review the mental evaluation before deciding whether Hasan will stand trial on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.
Longtime Texas securities chief to retire
Texas Securities Commissioner Denise Voigt Crawford has announced her plans to retire after 17 years in office.
A statement issued Thursday by the Texas State Securities Board says Crawford will step down as the state's top investments regulator, effective Feb. 28. Also retiring as of Feb. 28 will be Deputy Commissioner John R. Morgan.
The board statement says Morgan is stepping down to allow Crawford's successor to select the new deputy. The board will consider candidates at its Feb. 16 meeting in Austin.
Crawford twice served as president of the North American Securities Administrators Association.
FW Leads Gasoline Price Increase
Gasoline prices across Texas are up for the second week in a row.
Dan Ronan, with Triple-A-Texas says Fort Worth led the increase, up six cents a gallon.
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Ronan: Several gas stations in Fort Worth on Monday and Tuesday started moving their gasoline prices up; in some cases over $3.00 a gallon. And that's what's pushed the Fort Worth average up to almost three dollars a gallon, just below that $2.97.
Gasoline in Dallas is an average $2.96, up four cents. The statewide average is $2.94 a gallon.