Texas History

(Newser) - Lone Star Fund is looking to profit from the castoffs of the credit meltdown, buying billions of marked-down assets and betting on just some of them to rebound, reports the Wall Street Journal . The Dallas-based private-equity firm run by John Grayken has closed a deal on $6.7 billion in Merrill Lynch mortgage backed assets once valued at $30.6 billion. More »

(Newser) - The energy crunch is a positive in at least one area, which lies above what may be the largest natural gas supply in the Lower 48. As energy companies buy up real estate, some residents of the south-central US find themselves suddenly flush with money, and some are even becoming millionaires, the New York Times reports from De Soto Parish, La. More »

(Newser) - While other Texas cities are working hard to separate their garbage, Houston still considers recycling to be sissy stuff, earning the oil town the worst recycling rate of 30 top US cities. Houston recycles just 2.6% of its trash, the New York Times reports, while San Francisco is at 69%, and New York 34%, by comparison. Environmental advocates are begging for reforms, but area landfills are so cheap there’s little enthusiasm for change. More »

(Newser) - Five members of a Texas polygamous sect charged in a child abuse investigation are in custody after surrendering to authorities, the Dallas Morning News reports. Four of the men are charged with sexually abusing girls under the age of 17. The fifth, said to be the physician at the sect's Yearning for Zion ranch, is charged with failing to report child abuse. More »

(Newser) - Cash toll booths are going the way of the Model T as "open-road tolling"—which lets drivers pay electronically without having to slow for booths or gates—gains traction, reports USA Today . Supporters say killing the cash-based system cuts down on everything from congestion to pollution to the amount of land required to build toll plazas. More »

(Newser) - Don't mistake polocrosse for its snooty cousin, polo, the Washington Post reports. The increasingly popular riding sport is more like rugged lacrosse, because polocrosse players don't just knock a ball around—they scoop, fire, and catch a ball in a hand-held net. "No one's ever heard of it. Not even a lot of horse people," one player says. "But when they play it they love it." More »

(Newser) - A Texas day-care provider has some explaining to do after losing track of a 5-year-old boy who took off on his own and walked half a mile to the local Hooters, WFAA of Dallas reports. The child asked to use the bathroom and skipped out through an emergency exit shortly before his father arrived to pick him up. More »

(AP) - Hurricane Dolly barreled into South Texas today, lashing the coast with winds up to 100 mph and dumping heavy rain that threatened to flood low-lying areas but spared levees along the heavily populated Rio Grande Valley. "The levees are holding up just fine," said an emergency coordinator for Cameron County. "There is no indication right now that they are going to crest." More »

(Newser) - Texas’s $6-million program to test high school athletes for steroids found two students out of 10,117 were using the drugs, the AP reports. Supporters called the testing, the country's largest, a deterrent, but critics see it as a waste of taxpayer money. About 45,000 students will be tested over two years. The two students caught were multi-sport athletes, but authorities did not say which sports they played. More »

(Newser) - Hurricane Dolly has come ashore near South Padre Island, Texas, the AP reports, forcing thousands on both sides of the US-Mexico border to forsake their homes for shelters. Heavy winds and rains have already destroyed a building’s roof and cut power for thousands; authorities say levees along the Rio Grande are holding. More »

(AP) - Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami say Hurricane Dolly has strengthened to a Category 2 storm, with maximum sustained winds near 100 mph. The storm center is about 30 miles east-northeast of Brownsville, Texas. More »

(Newser) - The EPA is considering a proposal from the governor of Texas to slash the amount of ethanol that oil companies are required to blend into gasoline to meet quotas, the New York Times reports. Gov. Rick Perry is calling for the EPA to cut the ethanol mandate in half, from 9 billion to 4.5 billion gallons, arguing that billions of bushels of corn should be used to feed livestock instead. More »

(Newser) - Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs and four members of the Texas ranch raided by authorities in April now face charges of sexually abusing girls under the age of 17, the Houston Chronicle reports. One of those indicted also is charged with bigamy, and a sixth person is accused of failure to report child abuse. A Texas grand jury handed down the charges today after two days of considering the state’s evidence. More »

(Newser) - Tropical Storm Dolly got a promotion this afternoon, becoming the second named hurricane of the season, the Galveston County Daily News reports. The new hurricane is moving northwest over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico at 10mph and is expected to make landfall sometime tomorrow. If current models prevail, the storm will collide with the Texas-Mexico border, Reuters reports. More »

(Newser) - Tropical Storm Dolly is en route to hurricane status, and hurricane conditions are expected by the end of today on the southern Texas coast near the Mexican border, Reuters reports. With winds currently around 50mph, Dolly is crossing the Gulf of Mexico from where it emerged over the Yucatan peninsula. More »

(Newser) - Federal inspectors are urging people to avoid eating fresh jalapeños after discovering the same salmonella strain responsible for a nationwide food-poisoning epidemic in a Mexican-grown pepper in a Texas plant. Though the FDA says the finding is a “very important break in the case,” the Mexican jalapeños are not necessarily the source of the salmonella, as the pepper may not have been contaminated on the farm, the AP reports. More »

(Newser) - An Illinois bank seized by regulators in 2001 continued to write risky subprime mortgages for months after it was put under the day-to-day supervision of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Wall Street Journal reports. Many of the loans—some with interest rates above 12%—have been foreclosed; a Texas bank that bought a portfolio of the loans is suing the government. More »

(Newser) - The Fort Bliss soldier reported missing and endangered Friday has been found alive in Nevada, reports the AP, and tells family that her estranged husband abducted her from her El Paso apartment. Jeneesa Lewis, whose apartment yielded evidence of a struggle, reported being beaten and stabbed twice, and sounded "tired, scared, and weak," her sister says. Police have charged her husband, Clinton Lewis, with aggravated kidnapping. More »