By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, Texas’ most-senior member of Congress, announced Thursday that he won’t seek re-election after a naked photo of him circulated online and a conservative activist released past messages of a sexual nature from him. The photo of the 68-year-old Barton was posted on … Continue reading
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — Hundreds of mourners crowded into the tiny town of Sutherland Springs for the first Sunday service since a gunman stormed the First Baptist Church a week earlier, killing more than two dozen people in the worst mass shooting in Texas history. After an emotional sermon held outdoors under a massive … Continue reading
CHICAGO (AP) — Texas church shooting victims and their families could have a hard time successfully suing the government over the Air Force’s failure to submit the gunman’s criminal history to the FBI — a step that would have blocked him from legally buying weapons. Relatives of the more than two dozen churchgoers killed in … Continue reading
LA VERNIA, Texas (AP) — By the time Paul Brunner rolled up in his ambulance to the worst mass shooting in Texas history, the First Baptist Church was a chaotic triage scene. Parents cried and kids screamed, and nearly all the victims appeared to have been hit more than once. Two of the first four … Continue reading
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The Latest on the scheduled execution of a Mexican citizen in Texas (all times local): 10:35 p.m. A Mexican citizen on death row in Texas has been executed for the slaying of his 16-year-old cousin. Ruben Ramirez Cardenas was given a lethal injection Wednesday night after several federal court appeals failed … Continue reading
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — Authorities have reviewed video from inside the small-town Texas church where a gunman killed more than two dozen people, including footage that shows the assailant shooting victims in the head during Sunday services, a U.S. official said Wednesday. The official’s account of the video is consistent with statements made by … Continue reading
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — The Latest on the church shooting in Texas (all times local): 3 p.m. A man who says he’s the uncle of the gunman who killed more than two dozen people in a Texas church is calling his nephew a “coward.” Dave Ivey appeared in an interview Monday with North … Continue reading
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — The Latest on the church shooting in Texas (all times local): 8:35 a.m. Officials in Texas have confirmed the identity of the man suspected of killing 26 people at a South Texas church. The Texas Department of Public Safety on Monday morning said 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley is the suspect. … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is pushing ahead on a $36.5 billion hurricane relief package that would give Puerto Rico a much-needed infusion of cash. The measure also would replenish rapidly dwindling emergency disaster accounts and provide $16 billion to permit the financially troubled federal flood insurance program to pay an influx of Harvey-related claims. … Continue reading
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A judge on Wednesday halted the execution of a man known as the Houston area’s “Tourniquet Killer” so authorities can investigate an alleged scheme in which the inmate says a fellow death row prisoner asked him to confess to another killing. Anthony Allen Shore was scheduled to be given a lethal … Continue reading
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The driver of a semitrailer packed with at least 39 immigrants, 10 of whom died, pleaded guilty Monday to making the deadly smuggling run. James Matthew Bradley Jr., 61, pleaded Monday in federal court in San Antonio to one conspiracy count and a count of transporting the immigrants resulting in death. … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans want their local officials to take on the challenge of battling global warming now that President Donald Trump is withdrawing the nation an international climate change agreement. That’s according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of … Continue reading
North Carolina latest to suffer in 2017 hurricane season WAVES, N.C. (AP) — Winds and storm surge from Tropical Storm Maria lashed North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Wednesday as the storm moved by well off-shore. Dare County Emergency Management Director Drew Pearson said in an email that the high tide early … Continue reading
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. industrial output plunged 0.9 percent in August, the most in eight years, mostly because of Hurricane Harvey’s damage to the oil refining, plastics and chemicals industries. The storm, which slammed into the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana late last month, lowered industrial production by about … Continue reading
DALLAS (AP) — Crews have removed a statue of Robert E. Lee from a pedestal and carted it away from a Dallas park named for the Confederate general. In an unannounced but expected move, a large crane was brought through the city by a police escort to Lee Park, where it lifted the large statue … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 