By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – Texas authorities plan to search for evidence at the former homes of a torture suspect under investigation in the cases of three missing women.
Parker County sheriff's Deputy Danie Huffman says Jeffrey Allan Maxwell had several houses there before he moved 100 miles away to Corsicana about five years ago.
Maxwell remained jailed Thursday on aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault charges. He doesn't yet have an attorney. Authorities say he tortured a woman for two weeks on a device used for skinning deer. She was rescued Saturday when Maxwell was arrested.
Investigators didn't find any bodies when they searched his Corsicana home using cadaver dogs.
Authorities say of the three cold cases, so far there's only a significant link between Maxwell and his wife's 1992 disappearance from Fort Worth.
UT Regents look at upping tuition for med students
A projected state budget shortfall could mean higher tuition for medical students.
Regents of the University of Texas System will hold a special telephone meeting on Friday. The agenda includes an expected vote on plans to raise tuition and fees at UT System medical schools and programs in the 2011-12 school year.
Texas lawmakers are facing a projected $15 billion shortfall in the next two-year budget period. State-supported programs have been looking for ways to deal with projected lower funding.
Threat high for Texas Panhandle wildfires
The Texas Forest Service says summer-like temperatures and strong winds add up to dangerous wildfire conditions in parts of West Texas and the Panhandle.
The agency on Thursday warned of hot, dry weather that could affect an area north and west of a line from Wichita Falls to Midland and Van Horn, including the Guadalupe Mountains.
The National Weather Service said highs in the region could reach the lower 90s.
The Texas Forest Service, in the past week, has responded to 67 fires burning nearly 15,000 acres. Overall this year the agency has responded to nearly 365 fires burning more than 246,000 acres.
Burn bans are in effect in two-thirds of the state's 254 counties.