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Governor Perry Tells Virginia Court It’s An Emergency

Gage Skidmore (cc) flickr

Governor Perry has filed an emergency order in federal court to require Virginia’s Board of Elections to place his name on the ballot for the state’s Republican presidential primary.

Perry did not meet Virginia’s requirement of ten thousand signatures of registered voters, with 400 from each of its 11 congressional districts.

Yesterday, the Governor filed a lawsuit against the Board of Elections and the Republican Party of Virginia.

Today he filed the “emergency motion.” Perry claims Virginia’s requirements violate his freedoms of speech and association.

Newt Gingrich also came short of the signatures.

The Virginia primary is March 6th.

BJ Austin, KERA News

Gov. Perry Shifts Views On Abortion, Opposes Exceptions

 

Gov. Rick Perry is shifting his opposition to abortion, saying he opposes it even after rape or incest. Perry told potential caucus-goers in Iowa that he has changed his mind.

Previously, he believed abortion was acceptable in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is at risk. Now, he says abortion in all forms should be prohibited. 

Perry told a pastor who asked him about his views that, in his words, "you're seeing a transformation." Perry says he recently watched former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's documentary about abortion.

He says he met a woman in the film and that she told him she was the result of rape and that her life has worth.

Perry says that encounter led him to rethink his position.

Associated Press

Dallas Mayor Plans For 2012

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings is making plans for the New Year.

The Mayor says he’s refining his list of priorities for 2012. And he says there’s no doubt about #1 on the list.

Rawlings: I want 2012 to be the year of Southern Dallas. I’ll be laying out a plan at the end of January with my top ten priorities, and that will be my focus.

Mayor Rawlings says the city council took a couple of big steps toward his #1 priority before adjourning for the holidays: approval of a Wal-Mart at I-35 and Ledbetter, and a development at Sylvan and Fort Worth Avenue.

 

BJ Austin, KERA News

Grapevine Gunman Tried To Stage Scene

Grapevine Police now say they believe the man who killed six family members Christmas day attempted to stage the scene by placing one of the guns used in the hands of his dead brother-in-law -- who was shot multiple times in the head, chest and stomach.

Sgt. Robert Eberling says evidence shows 56 year old Aziz Yazdanpanah was the only one to fire the two handguns found at the scene. A gun was also found in his hand.

Also shot to death Christmas morning: Yazdanpanah’s ex wife, his two teenage children, his wife’s sister, and his 22 year old niece.

BJ Austin, KERA News

Texas Settles In Medicaid Overcharges Case

Texas is settling a case with a New Jersey prescription drug maker convicted of inflating Medicaid prices. The settlement price tag is 84 million dollars.

Attorney General Greg Abbott says the agreement avoids a long appeals process after a jury conviction in Travis County earlier this year.

Prosecutors at trial said Actavis inaccurately reported its prices, leading Medicaid to overpay pharmacies.

The lawsuit follows a whistleblower suit filed more than ten years ago by a small pharmacy in Florida, and was the only one of several similar cases to reach a jury.

About 30 million dollars of the settlement gets returned to the Texas treasury after legal fees and federal reimbursements.

BJ Austin, KERA News

Aggie Plans For The New Year In The SEC

The Southeastern Conference released its 2012 schedule today … and it includes for the first time the Texas Aggies.

A&M will host its first SEC game September 8th at Kyle Field against Florida.

Missouri will replace University of Texas as the A&M Thanksgiving week game.

BJ Austin, KERA News

Paul returns to Iowa as rivals eye his supporters

Congressman Ron Paul of Texas is rallying his diehard supporters in Iowa, while his rivals regard them as the greatest complication in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. With less than a week until Iowa's caucuses, Paul plans to meet Wednesday with supporters near Des Moines.

The other GOP candidates are spreading out across the state to woo potential caucus-goers, many of whom are still undecided amid a flood of television and radio ads.

At the same time, Paul's rivals are working fervently to disqualify him on social issues, foreign affairs and even his controversial, decades-old newsletter.

Newt Gingrich tells CNN that he couldn't vote for Paul if his rival were to become the GOP nominee, saying Paul's views are "totally outside the mainstream of every decent American."

Associated Press

Dallas officer shoots, kills, passenger in car

Dallas police say one person is dead and another in custody after an officer shot a passenger in a car who reached for a handgun as the officer approached.

Police spokeswoman Cpl. Melinda Gutierrez says the fatal shooting occurred Tuesday night as officers responded to a call from a resident who reported a suspicious vehicle parked near a South Dallas intersection.

Gutierrez tells The Dallas Morning News the officer spotted the handgun as he reached the car and when the passenger reached for it, he fired. The passenger was killed.

A second person in the car wasn't hurt but was taken in. Additional details and names of the officer and the people in the car haven't been immediately released.

Associated Press

Marine survivor of USS Arizona dies in Texas at 91

One of only 15 Marines to survive the 1941 attack on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor has died at a Texas hospice. Lamar Crawford Sr. was 91.

Rev. Paul Howell, who was conducting funeral services Wednesday in Tyler, described Crawford as a quiet man with a deep faith and trust in the Lord. Crawford, who died last week, was born in Union County, Ark.

He joined the Marines in 1940.

On Dec. 7, 1941, he was at his battle station just below the crow's nest on the Arizona's rear tower when the ship exploded and began sinking. He dove into the water and was rescued by sailors in a small boat.

The Tyler Morning Telegraph reports Crawford worked as a postal inspector after the war, retiring in 1976.

Associated Press

Accused minister's ex-wife dies years after attack

Peggy Railey, former wife of a Dallas minister, who was acquitted at a sensational trial of trying to kill her, has died nearly 25 years after an attack left her incapacitated.

Ron Gamel of the Tyler Memorial Funeral Home confirmed the death Tuesday but declined to release details, citing a family request for privacy.

Railey, who was 38 at the time of the savage choking assault at her Dallas-area home in April 1987, never recovered and remained in what doctors called a vegetative state.

Walker Railey, her husband at the time of the attack, was once a rising star at Dallas' First United Methodist Church. He eventually acknowledged lying about his whereabouts the night of the attack to hide an affair. The Tyler Morning Telegraph first reported the death.

Associated Press

West Texas phones out after line severed

All phone service was disrupted for much of Monday in far West Texas after a fiber-optic line just south of Monahans was severed.

AT&T spokeswoman Carrie Corey says a contractor accidentally cut an underground fiber optic line, cutting service in the provider's West Central Texas district. That left callers to Fort Stockton, Alpine, Fort Davis, Marfa and other places getting a persistent busy signal.

People in Terlingua in the Big Bend told the Odessa American their landline phones had been fine but cell service was knocked out.

Fort Stockton police chief Art Fuentes told television station KOSA his department had to use an emergency backup plan that forwarded calls to a working county, which then relayed the information back. Corey says AT&T service was restored by Monday night.

Associated Press