By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – Defense contractor Lockheed Martin plans to cut 1,500 jobs in its aeronautics business because of the "changing business environment."
That would more than double the cuts the company announced two weeks ago in its space systems equipment division, when it announced 1,200 job cuts.
The cutbacks come as budgetary pressures are prompting the Obama administration to pare back defense spending.
Lockheed Martin Corp. said Thursday that most of the cuts will fall among higher-paid workers at its main aeronautics centers in Texas, Georgia and California.
Special session ends 170-day Perry, GOP dominance
Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Republicans are claiming significant victories while sidestepping two notable defeats after wrapping up a 30-day special session of the Legislature.
Lawmakers left town Wednesday after voting to cut $4 billion from public education in the final piece of deep state budget cuts. They also approved new congressional districts for the 2012 elections and reforms to the state hurricane insurance association.
But Perry lost two of his priority items. An illegal immigration enforcement bill and a measure curtailing invasive body searches of air travellers failed to pass.
Texan wrongly imprisoned for 18 years gets $1.4M
A Texas man imprisoned for nearly two decades for the killings of a grandmother and five children that he didn't commit has received $1.4 million in compensation that the state previously denied.
Anthony Graves received the money Thursday during a private meeting with Texas Comptroller Susan Combs.
Combs later said she was "delighted" to pay Graves the money.
A 2009 Texas law gives exonerated convicts $80,000 for every year spent in prison. But Combs previously denied the compensation because the order clearing Graves lacked the phrase "actual innocence."
A law passed this year and signed by Gov. Rick Perry contained a provision addressing the Graves case.
Graves has said he's grateful for the money, but it "doesn't even come close" to making up for the time he spent in prison.
Walker County Jail fugitive still on loose
A Texas jail escapee once imprisoned for murder is still on the loose while his girlfriend is held on charges that she helped him flee.
The Walker County Sheriff's Department on Thursday said the search continues for Trent De'Ray Archie, who overpowered a guard Tuesday.
Investigators on Wednesday announced the arrest of Archie's girlfriend on a charge of facilitating his escape by allegedly providing a getaway car. Bond is $1 million for Latoya Marsha Wright of Livingston.
Archie was convicted of murder in the 2004 killing of an alleged drug dealer and received 40 years in prison. His conviction was overturned in 2009 and he was granted a new trial. Archie was freed on an appeals bond but was arrested this year on a drug possession count.