FORT HOOD SHOOTING-THREAT
Bomb threat made at courthouse near Fort Hood
BELTON, Texas (AP) - A Texas sheriff says someone threatened to bomb a county courthouse near Fort Hood unless officials met the demands of the Army psychiatrist charged in the 2009 shooting rampage on the Army post.
Maj. Nidal Hasan is jailed in Bell County because Fort Hood doesn't have holding facilities. Sheriff Eddy Lange says Hasan hasn't made any demands.
The jail was put on lockdown after Wednesday's threat.
Lange says law officers evacuated the historic courthouse and Bell County Justice Center, but found nothing after searching with bomb-sniffing dogs.
City of Belton spokesman Paul Romer says employees were allowed back inside a few hours later. He says the time the caller said the bomb would explode had long expired.
Hasan's trial starts in July at Fort Hood. He faces execution if convicted.
TEXAS BUS CRASH-INDICTMENT
Bus company owner faces charges from 2008 crash
HOUSTON (AP) - The owner of a bus that crashed and killed 17 people on their way to a religious retreat in Texas in 2008 has been indicted on federal charges that include making false statements on official documents.
Authorities said Angel de La Torre of Houston and an associate were taken into custody Wednesday, when an indictment returned on May 30 was unsealed.
The indictment charges de La Torre and his company, Angel Tours, with one count of conspiracy to make false statements, four counts of making false statements and one count of operating a commercial motor vehicle after being placed out of service.
Fifty-five members of Houston's Vietnamese Catholic community were headed to a conclave in Missouri when the bus crashed near Sherman, 60 miles north of Dallas.
SPECIAL SESSION-ABORTION
Dewhurst tweet says bill attempt to close clinics
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas Senate Republicans insist proposed new restrictions on abortion facilities are designed to protect women's health.
But a tweet Wednesday from the account of Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said what Democrats have claimed all along: the plan is an attempt to shut down clinics and all but ban abortion in Texas.
Senate Republicans Tuesday night passed sweeping new restrictions on how Texas abortion clinics operate. Critics say the changes would force most to close.
A tweet from the @DavidHDewhurst Twitter account included a map from an abortion rights group showing clinic locations that says "it would essentially ban abortion statewide."
"We fought to pass SB5 thru the Senate last night, & this is why!" the tweet said
A telephone message left with Dewhurst's office was not immediately returned.
FORMER PRIEST-SEX ABUSE
Former priest's sex abuse trial set for Aug. 27
TULIA, Texas (AP) - A West Texas judge has set ground rules in a sex abuse case against a former Roman Catholic priest who served 11 years in Texas -- despite a child molestation conviction in California.
The judge Wednesday told attorneys for both sides how proceedings will go in John Anthony Salazar's case.
He's pleaded not guilty to indecency with a child in connection with a 2001 Texas incident. He declined to comment.
The trial is scheduled for Aug. 27.
In 1987 Salazar pleaded guilty in Los Angeles to molesting two altar boys. He served about half of a 6-year sentence in California before the Diocese of Amarillo hired him to lead a Tulia church.
Salazar was convicted of sexual assault of a man in Texas in 2005. An appeals court overturned it.
SCOUT ABUSE-TEXAS
BSA appeals Texas order to turn over abuse files
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The Boy Scouts of America is asking the Texas Supreme Court to review an order requiring it to turn over years of so-called perversion files in a child abuse lawsuit.
BSA filed its request last week, a month after the San Antonio-based 4th Court of Appeals sided with a district judge's order. Attorneys for a former Scout who says he was abused by his Scout leader are asking for about a decade's worth of the internal files.
Files publicly revealed from 1965 to 1985 in a different case showed a decades-long cover-up for sexual abuse allegations by Scout officials.
Scouts spokesman Deron Smith declined to comment. Paul Mones, an attorney for the ex-Scout, says he will wait to see what the court does on the case.
TEXAS EXECUTION-FEMALE INMATE
Appeal seeks halt to Texas woman's execution
HOUSTON (AP) - The lawyer for a Dallas County woman set to die next week has appealed to block her execution.
Kimberly McCarthy on June 26 would be the first woman put to death in the U.S. since 2010 and the 500th prisoner executed in Texas since the death penalty resumed in 1982.
The 52-year-old former nursing home therapist was condemned for the 1997 fatal stabbing, beating and robbery of a 71-year-old neighbor, Dorothy Booth.
McCarthy's appeal late Tuesday in state courts contends black jurors were improperly excluded from her trial, and her lawyers should have challenged the exclusions. Lawyer Maurie Levin says the punishment should be stopped in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision backing another Texas prisoner who raised similar arguments about attorney competence.
EL PASO-PUBLIC CORRUPTION
Appeals court vacates West Texas corruption ruling
EL PASO, Texas (AP) - A federal appeals court has overturned a ruling by a West Texas judge that resulted in a 6-year prison sentence for a man accused of fraud.
The federal panel determined in a filing Tuesday that the judge interfered with plea negotiations involving Adrian Pena. The El Paso contractor pleaded guilty in December 2010 to fraud for his participation in a scheme to bribe officials to win county contracts.
The appeals court says federal Judge Frank Montalvo's condition that a separate civil case involving Pena be resolved before he accepted the plea induced Pena to cooperate with the government in the investigation and plead guilty, rather than continue bargaining.
The ruling orders the guilty plea and 6-year prison sentence vacated and requires further proceedings be handled by a different judge.
BELO-EXECUTIVES
Decherd to retire from Dallas-based AH Belo
DALLAS (AP) - The CEO of Dallas-based A.H. Belo (BEE'-loh) Corporation plans to retire in September and will become vice chairman of the board of directors.
Company officials on Wednesday announced 62-year-old Robert Decherd (DEK'-erd) will be succeeded by James Moroney III.
Moroney is executive vice president of A.H. Belo and has served as publisher and CEO of The Dallas Morning News since 2001. The 56-year-old Moroney will continue those roles with the company's flagship newspaper.
Decherd has been chief executive officer for A.H. Belo since the company spun off from Belo Corp. in February 2008. He was CEO of Belo Corp. from 1987 until 2008. Decherd has been with Belo nearly 40 years.
A.H. Belo also owns the Denton Record-Chronicle, The Providence (R.I.) Journal and The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif.
HOUSTON ASTRODOME'S FUTURE
Board backs turning Astrodome into convention hall
HOUSTON (AP) - A county board has recommended converting Houston's historic but deteriorating Astrodome into a giant convention center and exhibition space.
The Harris County Sports & Convention Corp. on Wednesday opted to go with its own plan for the world's first domed, air-conditioned stadium instead of 1 of 19 private-sector plans submitted for its reuse. The board says the groups promoting the private plans didn't meet the project's criteria by a deadline earlier this month.
The board's proposal would cost an estimated $194 million and take about 2½ years to complete. The plan now goes to Harris County commissioners, who will discuss it at a June 25 meeting.
The stadium once dubbed "the eighth wonder of the world" has been vacant since 2009, when it was deemed unfit for occupancy.
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