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Roundup: Gov. Perry Calls For Tax Cuts, Benefit Changes

Gage Skidmore (cc) flickr

By KERA News & Wire Services

Dallas, TX – Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is proposing a sweeping economic plan that includes a flat tax proposal, private retirement accounts for Social Security, a lower corporate tax rate and reforms aimed at keeping Medicare solvent.

The governor on Tuesday outlined a proposal he calls "Cut, Balance and Grow" that he says is bolder and more aggressive than what President Barack Obama or his other Republican rivals would do.

Perry said his plan "doesn't trim around the edges, and it doesn't bow down to the establishment."

Perry's plan sets a flat 20 percent income tax rate, but also gives taxpayers the option of sticking with their current rate. He wants to raise the retirement age in Social Security and set Medicare benefits based on income levels. Perry says he would end corporate loopholes and lower the corporate tax rate to 20 percent.

Fort Worth Council Rejects Drilling Ordinance

Fort Worth City Council Members have rejected a revised gas drilling ordinance that drew heated opposition from citizens and business.

Council members agreed citizens had not had enough opportunity to weigh in on the changes.

But Councilwoman Kathleen Hicks made it clear, the City will tackle changes in the ordinance again. Hicks said there are too many concerns still up in the air.

Hicks: There is the issue of pipelines; the issue of saltwater disposal wells, notification remains a great concern of mine. As we move forward I don't want people to think we are washing our hands of it and this will not come back. It has to come back. We have to be engaged.

Council members specifically rejected a revision that would have allowed injection wells within the City to dispose of water contaminated in the drilling process. The council extended a ban on those wells for six months.

Judge to hear defense motions in Fort Hood case

A military judge has set a hearing for this week to consider defense motions for an Army psychiatrist charged in the Fort Hood shooting rampage.

Maj. Nidal Hasan is expected to be in court for Thursday's hearing at Fort Hood.

Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the November 2009 shootings.

The judge, Col. Gregory Gross, will consider two defense motions seeking certain expert witnesses for Hasan's case.

Thursday's hearing will be the first since Hasan was arraigned in July. He hasn't yet entered a plea.

Hasan faces the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole if convicted at his military trial set to begin in March at the Central Texas Army post.

Chimp flees Dallas Zoo enclosure, still confined

A chimpanzee at the Dallas Zoo has been sedated after briefly escaping from her enclosure but staying in an area not open to the public.

Sr. Cpl. Sherri Jeffrey says police were summoned around 10:20 a.m. Tuesday by zoo officials who said a large adult female chimpanzee had gotten loose.

Authorities closed the Wilds of Africa exhibit and moved visitors elsewhere in the complex as zoo workers quickly reached the chimp, in a building, and tranquilized the animal.

Nobody was hurt.

The zoo's deputy director, Lynn Kramer, says the chimp is fine and officials are trying to determine how she escaped her enclosure.

In 2004, a male gorilla at the Dallas Zoo cleared a 14-foot wall and mauled three people. The animal was killed by police.

US's biggest nuclear bomb dismantled in Texas

The last of the nation's most powerful nuclear bombs has been taken apart in Texas.

Technicians at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo removed the uranium Tuesday from the last of the nation's largest nuclear bombs, a Cold War relic known as the B53.

The bomb put into service in 1962 was 600 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, that killed as many as 140,000 people at the end of World War II.

Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman watched workers take the bomb apart. He says it's "a milestone accomplishment" and a step toward President Barack Obama's mission to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

The nation's largest nuclear bomb now is the 1.2-megaton B83. The B53 was 9 megatons.