Texas

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With Huge Backlog, Texas Bill Wants to Crowdfund Rape Kit Testing

Donations collected at the DMV would fund DNA testing

(Newser) - With thousands of rape kits languishing untested in Texas, one state lawmaker devised a clever solution: crowdfunding. Rep. Victoria Neave came up with the idea after learning that many rape investigations were going nowhere because there was no money to analyze evidence collected from victims, NPR reports. The Dallas Democrat...

He Died in 1972, Turned Up Alive and Well on Ancestry.com

Police investigating identity theft case in Pennsylvania

(Newser) - In 1996, prosecutors say a young man escaped a halfway house in Texas, went to a cemetery, picked the name of a person born close to his birth date, tracked down that person's birth certificate, and began a second life as Nathan Laskoski. The ruse worked spectacularly for two...

Cops: Brothel's Effort to Hide Condoms Fails Miserably

Hundreds clogged sewer pipe by massage parlor in Austin, say police

(Newser) - Neighbors of Jade Massage Therapy in Austin, Texas, had their suspicions about the place, but it was a property manager's unusual find that helped bring about prostitution charges—a broken pipe linking the business to the sewer had been clogged by hundreds of used condoms, reports MySanAntonio . "It'...

Hackers Woke Up All of Dallas With Emergency Sirens

They set off 156 emergency sirens, all at the same time

(Newser) - Dallas got a rather unpleasant wakeup call over the weekend: nearly 160 emergency sirens blaring throughout the city in tandem, in what Rocky Vaz, director of the city's Office of Emergency Management, says was the result of hacking from "someone outside our system" but in or near the...

Witness: Driver Was Texting Before Crash That Killed 13

There's no statewide Texas law against it

(Newser) - A witness says the driver of a pickup truck that collided with a church minibus in rural Texas, killing 13 people, acknowledged he had been texting while driving—highlighting the dangers of sending messages on smartphones while behind the wheel. Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Conrad Hein wouldn't...

Former Punk Rocker Enters Race to Bring Down Ted Cruz

Rep. Beto O'Rourke might be the Democrats' best hope in 2018

(Newser) - Texas hasn't elected a Democrat to the US Senate in 30 years, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Beto O'Rourke wants to end that drought—by taking down Sen. Ted Cruz. The US representative from El Paso officially entered the race against the former presidential candidate Friday. O'Rourke isn'...

Teacher Accused of Sex With Student Is Pregnant: Cops

Katherine Ruth Harper arrested after Texas school district received tip

(Newser) - Katherine Ruth Harper may not want a former student at her Texas middle school to write an essay on what he did over summer vacation. Per an arrest warrant affidavit, the 27-year-old seventh-grade English teacher is accused of having sex with the 15-year-old both at her own home and at...

Soldier's Salute in the Rain Makes Waves

Kenneth Varnes didn't think twice about honoring veteran

(Newser) - As Kenneth Varnes stood on the side of a Texas highway in the pouring rain, saluting an American-flag-draped funeral procession for a fallen veteran, he thought someone might see him and feel a small ray of light on an otherwise gloomy day. "I know how it is to go...

Callers Saw Truck Driving Erratically Before Fatal Crash

Thirteen people killed in collision between truck and church van

(Newser) - Law enforcement officials in two Texas counties say they received phone calls about a person in a white pickup truck driving erratically shortly before a deadly collision between a church bus and a pickup left 13 people dead, the AP reports. Uvalde police Lt. Daniel Rodriguez says a man called...

Pickup Truck Collides With Church Van; 12 Reported Dead

The crash happened Wednesday afternoon in Texas

(Newser) - A Texas state trooper says 12 people were killed in a crash between a church van and a pickup truck on a two-lane highway in southwestern Texas, the AP reports. Sgt. Conrad Hein of the Texas Department of Public Safety said three others were injured and taken to hospitals after...

3 Storm Chasers Die in Texas Crash
3 Storm Chasers
Die in Texas Crash
Mar 29, 2017 1:50 AM CDT

3 Storm Chasers Die in Texas Crash

They collided while pursuing tornado

(Newser) - Three storm chasers were killed in West Texas on Tuesday—and it wasn't by the tornado they were pursuing. The Texas Department of Public Safety says the three men were killed in a collision at a rural crossroads near the town of Spur, around 70 miles east of Lubbock,...

Woman Who Allegedly Hired Hitman at Olive Garden Is Dead

Valerie McDaniel was due in court Tuesday

(Newser) - A woman accused in a murder-for-hire plot committed suicide Monday, police confirm. Houston veterinarian Valerie Busick McDaniel and boyfriend Leon Jacob were accused of hiring a hitman to kill their exes; what they didn't realize is that "hitman" was actually an undercover police officer. Both were charged with...

Possible Sighting of Teacher Suspected of Abducting Teen

Elizabeth Thomas, 15, was reported missing last week in Tennessee

(Newser) - The 50-year-old former high-school teacher suspected of abducting his 15-year-old student may have been spotted Thursday in Texas, the Tennessean reports. Elizabeth Thomas was reported missing from Tennessee on March 13. Authorities say Tad Cummins, who has since been fired, appears to have planned the abduction and may have been...

Cops: Texas Teen's Gang-Rape Story Was a Hoax

Police say scratches to her body were self-inflicted

(Newser) - A bloodied Breana Talbott stumbled into a Texas church on March 8, wearing only a T-shirt and underwear, claiming to have been kidnapped and gang-raped in nearby woods by three black men in ski masks, police say. Authorities in Denison now add that the 18-year-old's story was only an...

Pilot Busted With 230 Pounds of Pot After 3-Airport Sting: Cops

It wasn't easy for Texas authorities to get Wayne Brunet to come down from the sky

(Newser) - If you fly your small plane solo from Medford, Ore., to South Texas with only one stop to gas up during the 2,000-mile flight, you're either going for some sort of endurance record or you're trying to get to your destination as quickly as possible for …...

Lawyers Want 'Affluenza Teen' Released From Jail

Ethan Couch's lawyers filed motion with Texas Supreme Court on Friday

(Newser) - Lawyers for Ethan Couch are asking the Texas state Supreme Court to release the "affluenza teen" from jail, NBC DFW reports. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram , a judge sentenced Couch to 720 days in jail last April after he skipped a probation check-in and ran to Mexico with...

Moments After Photo Was Taken, Aspiring Model Was Dead

Fredzania Thompson struck by train in Texas

(Newser) - It was Fredzania Thompson's dream to pursue a career in modeling, so much so that her family says she decided to pause her college studies and go after it. "It's what she had started to do the day she was deceased," her mom tells the Bryan-College ...

Cops: Couple Hired Hitman for Their Exes at Olive Garden

Valerie McDaniel, Leon Jacob appeared in court Monday

(Newser) - The Olive Garden isn't exactly the place that comes to mind when one thinks of "best spot to meet your hitman," but police allege that's exactly what happened in Texas. A Houston couple have been charged with solicitation of capital murder in connection with an alleged...

Texas Bill Would Fine Guys $100 for Solo Sex

Dem lawmaker says 'satirical' masturbation measure is rebuttal to anti-women bills

(Newser) - If you're a Texas cowboy who wants to rope the pony, hope you've got a C-note in that 10-gallon hat. Per the Texas Tribune , Democratic Rep. Jessica Farrar has been a vocal opponent of what she says are anti-women's measures recently introduced in the Lone Star State,...

He Charged $2K for the Murder. It Cost Him His Life

Rolando Ruiz was executed Tuesday in Texas

(Newser) - A paid hit man was executed Tuesday night in Texas for gunning down a San Antonio woman in a life insurance scheme 25 years ago. Rolando Ruiz was given a lethal injection for fatally shooting Theresa Rodriguez, 29, outside her home in 1992 as she was getting out of a...

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