By BJ Austin, KERA News & Wire Services
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-992381.mp3
Dallas, TX – One worker is dead, another missing in a sewer line accident in Fairview - south of McKinney in Collin County.
Denise Hickey, with the North Texas Municipal Water District, says the men were apparently overcome by sewer gas after entering the line through a manhole.
One victim has been recovered. The second is being sought.
Hickey: The search, they are now using cameras through the manholes at the point of entry. And they will work their way down the pipeline in search of the victim.
Fairview officials say the men were trying to unclog a line. One went down the manhole and was overcome, the second man went after him. A third co-worker called 9-1-1.
The men worked for S.J. Lewis, a utility construction company.
Occupy Dallas Reacts To Oakland Violence
Members of Occupy Dallas say they're disappointed by the violence that disrupted a demonstration by a similar anti-corporate group in Oakland. Joseph Crockett of Fort Worth has stayed at four other Occupy camps around the country. He's committed to maintaining a peaceful presence in Dallas.
Crockett: There's no reason for violence. If we're having a silent protest and we're allowed to be here, then there shouldn't be any kind of "less lethal force."
So is Louie Davis, from Dallas.
Davis: Anyone that acts as an individual violently is not adhering to the consensus and the consensus is part of this process we're creating.
Last night some of the 7,000 participants at an Occupy Oakland demonstration damaged and looted buildings. They also hurled firebombs at police.
Occupy Dallas events have been mostly peaceful. Twenty-three were arrested when they blocked the entrance to a Chase bank building.
Dallas County Exoneration Not DNA Related
A Dallas County man who spent 14 years in prison could hear a judge pronounce him "innocent" Friday.
District Attorney Craig Watkins says Dale Lincoln Duke entered into a plea deal with prosecutors in 1992 on charges of sexual assault of a child. But Duke refused to sign a statement saying he did it. Six years later, the District Attorney's office received information that the person who brought the complaint "recanted." But two courts refused to re-open the case. Three years ago, D-A Watkins re-opened the case and discovered that prosecutors knew there were credibility problems with the person filing the complaint, but they failed to tell defense attorneys.
Watkins says "The original prosecutor's failure to provide critical information to the defendant coupled with overwhelming evidence that the initial allegations were false, convinced me that Mr. Duke was wrongfully convicted.
A hearing is set for 9:30 Friday morning.
Police arrest man in 27-year-old murder case
Police have arrested a suspect in the brutal 1984 rape and murder of an 82-year-old North Texas woman.
A Fort Worth police statement released Thursday says a capital murder arrest warrant was issued earlier this week for James L. Sanders, who was already in state prison on an unrelated charge.
Police say recently processed DNA samples enabled a detective in their Cold Case Unit to tie the 57-year-old man to the unsolved 27-year-old case.
Authorities say the victim, Elsie Mae Deem, was asleep in her Fort Worth home in January 1984 when a man broke in and repeatedly hit her on the head until she lost consciousness.
Deem was taken to a local hospital but later died from her injuries.
EPA to probe gas drilling's toll on drinking water
The Environmental Protection Agency is set to start a federal probe into whether the controversial drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing is spoiling and diminishing drinking water supplies.
The agency's final study plan was released Thursday. The research will look at where companies performing hydraulic fracturing get their water and how much they use. It will also try to pinpoint the cause of alleged water contamination - looking at above ground spills, well design and the fracturing process itself.
The first results will be available in 2012. Meanwhile, the agency has taken steps to boost regulation of so-called fracking, which is the injection of water and chemicals underground to extract natural gas trapped in rock.
The EPA will examine drilling sites in Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Louisiana, Texas and Colorado.
Judge: Daughter posted beating video out of spite
A Texas family law judge says his daughter posted a YouTube video of him beating her several years ago because he told her he was reducing her financial support and taking away her Mercedes.
Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams issued a statement through his lawyer on Thursday in which he questions his daughter Hillary's motives for posting the secretly-made 2004 video online last week.
The judge does not apologize in the three-page statement for lashing his then 16-year-old daughter 17 times with a belt while she wailed and pleaded with him to stop. He told a TV station Wednesday that the video "looks worse than it is" and that he was just disciplining his child.
Police are investigating and Adams says he will "respond" to any investigations.