By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – President Barack Obama's political team is taking an early swipe at Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who's set to officially dive into the presidential race on Saturday.
Part of Perry's pitch is the Texas economy, which has fared better than most states during the nation's economic troubles.
Obama senior political adviser David Axelrod says Texas benefited from booming oil prices and increased military spending on two wars. He said Friday on CBS' "Early Show," "I don't think many people would attribute it to the leadership of the governor down there."
Axelrod also criticized the wider Republican field in Thursday night's debate, saying they were more interested in pledging allegiance to the tea party's anti-tax values than in helping middle-class Americans.
Navy SEAL from Texas killed in helicopter crash
The Department of Defense has identified a Navy SEAL from Texas as one of 30 Americans killed when a rocket-propelled grenade fired by a Taliban insurgent downed their helicopter in Afghanistan.
The military says Chief Petty Officer Stephen Mills of Fort Worth died Saturday in Wardak province of wounds suffered when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the 35-year-old was based in Virginia Beach, Virginia and attended Arlington, Texas schools.
His cousin Tina Mills Cunningham of Arlington says Mills, who married in April, loved his wife, three children and being a member of the elite military unit.
He was among those supporting Operation Enduring Freedom when they were ambushed en route to a combat mission.
AP Interview: Texas Ranger says raid vindicated
The Texas Ranger who led the heavily-scrutinized 2008 raid on a polygamist group's remote Texas compound says he feels vindicated now that the public has seen some of the damning evidence seized and used to convict its leader.
Capt. Brooks Long told The Associated Press after this week's sentencing of Warren Jeffs that the public got a slanted view of the raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound because the group spread misinformation.
Jeffs was convicted of sexually assaulting two child brides and sentenced Tuesday to life in prison.
Prosecutors secured a swift conviction by presenting some of the damning evidence seized during the raid. Among the items seized were audiotapes of Jeffs allegedly sexually assaulting one of the girls.
Dog brings home hand, authorities find body
South Texas police have found a man's body after a dog brought home a human hand setting off a search.
Mission Police spokesman Sgt. Jody Tittle says police found the unidentified man near a canal after searching for about two hours with the help of a Border Patrol K-9.
The spot where the body was found is less than a mile from the Rio Grande. Assistant Chief Martin Garza told The Monitor in McAllen that the death would be treated as a homicide until proved otherwise. Investigators estimated the body had been there for about three weeks.
The homeowner alerted police to the discovery after his dog brought the hand into the yard Thursday morning.