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2/3/2012
former soldier in South Texas has pleaded guilty in a scheme to collect part of $244,000 in bonuses for referring recruits.
The Justice Department says former Spc. Xavier Aves of San Antonio pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to aggravated identity theft.
Aves faces sentencing May 25 in San Antonio. The maximum penalty for the conspiracy charge is five years in prison, plus two years for aggravated ID theft.
Recruiting incentives offer soldiers up to $2,000 for referrals who enlist.
Investigators say bonuses were paid to some soldiers who obtained personal information about people planning to join the military, then falsely claimed to have recruited the individuals.
Aves, who received about $69,000 in fraudulent bonuses, is the fifth person to plead guilty.
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2/3/2012
The ex-chief financial officer for Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford's businesses says the financier funneled millions of dollars from investors to a secret Swiss bank account that he used to pay for personal expenses, bribes to regulators and employee bonuses.
James M. Davis worked for Stanford for 21 years. He testified Friday for a second day in the financier's fraud trial in Houston federal court.
Prosecutors claim Stanford used money for certificates of deposit in his Caribbean bank to pay for his failed businesses and his billionaire lifestyle.
Stanford's attorneys contend he was a savvy businessman whose financial empire was legitimate. They have suggested Davis was behind the alleged fraud.
Davis has pleaded guilty in the case as part of an agreement with prosecutors.
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2/2/2012
The first major metropolitan area in Texas is apparently emerging from the state's historic drought.
The U.S. Drought Monitor's weekly map posted Thursday classifies the Dallas-Fort Worth area as being not in drought for the first time since July. Texas has been in the grips of the most severe one-year drought in state history.
While residents in those areas will likely no longer have any water restrictions, meteorologists and climatologists warn the situation remains precarious.
More than half the state remains in severe or exceptional stages of drought, and a drier-than-normal spring or hotter-than-usual summer could quickly tip wetter areas back into drought.
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2/2/2012
A former North Texas police sergeant has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman he arrested on a traffic violations warrant.
A Tarrant County grand jury Wednesday indicted ex-Dalworthington Gardens police Sgt. Bobby Beasley on a charge of sexual assault.
An attorney for Beasley says he's innocent.
The woman says Beasley, in December 2010, was wearing civilian clothing but his badge and gun were displayed. She allegedly was molested while in a vehicle with Beasley.
The woman, when reporting the incident last April, told police she feared no one would believe her because she's black and Beasley is white.
Beasley resigned when the allegations began public. If convicted, he could face 20 years in prison.
Details on the traffic case weren't immediately available.
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2/2/2012
The Federal Aviation Administration says a bright, streaking light seen in the skies over parts of Oklahoma and Texas likely was a meteor.
FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said late Wednesday the agency had received reports from people who saw the object about 8 p.m. as far north as Oklahoma City and as far south as Houston.
Lunsford said FAA officials knew it wasn't an airplane people were seeing, and a meteor was the likely candidate.
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2/1/2012
Prosecutors in South Texas say two men have pleaded guilty over the illegal export of about 3,000 rounds of ammunition to Mexico.
A federal judge in Brownsville in May will sentence Guillermo Enrique Villarreal of Brownsville and Leoncio Sanchez, who's a U.S. citizen living in Matamoros, Mexico.
Both pleaded guilty Tuesday to exporting defense articles without a license and remain in custody. The maximum penalty is 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
The investigation started after the men bought about 3,000 rounds at a store in McAllen, just days after purchasing about 4,000 rounds of ammunition.
Surveillance began Dec. 12 when agents learned that Villarreal and Sanchez drove into Texas, from Mexico, and bought another 10,000 rounds. The men were seen hiding the ammo in their truck.
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2/1/2012
The top candidates for the Republican nomination to replace outgoing U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will debate in Austin at the Texas Association of Business annual conference.
The group invited Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and former ESPN football analyst Craig James to participate. The forum will be moderated by the association's president and CEO, Bill Hammond.
The four men are the top candidates among 10 people running to replace Hutchison, who is retiring at the end this year.
Most of the competition between the candidates has focused on their level of conservatism and experience. The campaign is lasting longer than planned because of a dispute over Texas' political maps, and a date has not been confirmed for the primary.
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2/1/2012
Authorities say four pit bulls blamed for mauling a North Texas toddler have been euthanized.
Fort Worth Animal Control officials said Tuesday that the dogs will be tested for rabies over the attack on the 18-month-old boy. Cook Children's Medical Center on Wednesday declined to release details on the boy's condition.
The Tarrant County Sheriff's Office has said the boy's grandfather kept seven pit bulls at the residence near Lakeside. Officials believe the youngster was attacked Monday when he crawled through a doggie door and into the yard.
The boy's grandmother, shortly after the mauling, was arrested during a scuffle with a neighbor who had complained about the dogs. Lena Grace Brown has been charged with assault and bodily injury. She's free on $2,500 bond.
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2/1/2012
A North Texas site once meant to host the superconducting super collider will be the new home for a chemical plant that burned last fall.
Magnablend Inc. on Tuesday announced the purchase of the property near Waxahachie (wahks-uh-HA'-chee), about 30 miles south of Dallas.
Repairs must first be done at the 135-acre super collider site, which has had theft and vandalism since the government killed the physics program in 1993 amid budget concerns.
Magnablend's plant went up in flames Oct. 3 in a massive fire that forced the evacuation of about 1,000 Waxahachie residents.
Magnablend, which specializes in custom chemical manufacturing, blending and packaging, also has facilities in Pennsylvania, Wyoming and North Dakota.
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1/31/2012
Democrats on a congressional committee say the panel has obtained no evidence that a flawed gun smuggling probe called Operation Fast and Furious was conceived or directed by high-level political appointees at Justice Department headquarters.
The probe, say the Democrats, grew out of a misguided five-year-long effort during both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations in the Phoenix division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to dismantle arms trafficking networks along the Southwest border.
"Operation Fast and Furious was the latest in a series of fatally flawed operations run by ATF agents in Phoenix and the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office,'' says the report from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
It follows a yearlong inquiry and is expected to differ sharply with the conclusions of Republicans, who will question Attorney General Eric Holder about Operation Fast and Furious at a hearing Thursday before the committee.
Starting six years ago, according to the Democrats' report, ATF agents in Phoenix devised a strategy to forgo arrests against low-level straw purchasers while they attempted to build bigger cases against higher-level traffickers, a risky tactic known as gun-walking.
Rather than halting operations after flaws became evident, the ...
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