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Novelist to speak at Creative Writing Awards Novelist Donald Antrim will be the keynote speaker at the 2002 Creative Writing Awards ceremony at 4 p.m. today in the Dee J. Kelly Alumni and Visitors Center. Antrim, the author of “Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World” (1993) and “The Hundred Brothers” (1996), will sign copies of his books after the program. Nearly $3,000 in awards are given to TCU students and alumni each year who have won prizes in the writing contests. The ceremony is open to the public. — Laura McFarland Perry asks for alternatives to lowered speed limit HOUSTON (AP) — Gov. Rick Perry has asked officials with two state agencies to look for alternative measures to an environmental speed limit on major freeways in the Houston area. The Texas Department of Transportation has been set to install new 55 mph speed limit signs next week. The reduced speed limit is one component of the state’s plan to reduce ozone pollution in the eight-county Houston region to meet U.S. Clean Air Act limits by 2007. Ground level ozone is a major component of smog, and nitrogen oxides, which the speed limit is intended to reduce, contributes to ozone formation. Slow construction near Speedway raises concerns FORT WORTH (AP)
— Key highway lanes leading to Texas Motor Speedway may still
be closed when NASCAR racers and tens of thousands of their fans
return in early April. Only 18 percent
of the work is finished. But Texas Department of Transportation
officials say the recent good weather is a sign that the construction
can be finished on time. ModerateTexas Baptists pledge $1 million for missionaries DALLAS — (AP) Moderate Texas Baptists have pledged $1 million to help missionaries who say they may lose their jobs because they don’t agree with conservative leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention. The money will go into a fund created Tuesday by the executive board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. More than 200 board members of the state group and other Baptists met in Dallas this week to approve a series of challenges to the national denomination. The Rev. James Merritt, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, told The Dallas Morning News the move was another by the state convention to push away from the national convention. In the past month, the national denomination has demanded that its more than 5,000 missionaries affirm a confession of faith called the “Baptist Faith and Message.” Baptist General Convention of Texas leaders said they had heard from more than 60 SBC missionary families who said they could not sign the affirmation and feared they would lose their jobs as a consequence. School official charged with assault after beauty pageant GEORGETOWN, Ky. (AP) — A college beauty pageant turned ugly when a dress rehearsal ended in a scuffle between “Miss Congeniality” and a school official. Georgetown College freshman Keaton Lynch Brown, who had earlier been voted Miss Congeniality by the contestants, claims in a complaint that the student activities director grabbed her by the arm during a talent rehearsal Friday and dragged her down some steps until she hit a door. The school official, Kathy Wallace, was charged with assault. Contestants in the annual Belle of the Blue pageant said there was some tension between the two women over Brown’s chosen talent — a dance segment that drew on her love of horses and included a lasso routine in which she roped a stuffed pig. Brown, 18, of Brentwood, Tenn., was not among the top finishers in Saturday’s pageant. 5 people killed in car crash near Texas/Mexico border EL PASO (AP) — Five people were killed and another was in critical condition Wednesday after a car trying to pass a dump truck clipped the truck’s bumper, careened into the opposite lane and hit another car. The crash happened at about 9 a.m. on Paisano Drive, a busy street that runs near the U.S.-Mexico border through downtown El Paso. Four people in the car that tried to pass the truck died, as did the driver of the car that was hit. The four people in the passing car were identified as Mexican nationals, and authorities say they are working with Mexican officials to identify them. The woman killed in the second car has been identified as Mitzi Bond, the principal of Lindbergh Elementary School. She was on her way to support a student who was competing in a spelling bee. Psychiatrist testifies she was not contacted about Yates HOUSTON (AP) — A psychiatrist who once treated Andrea Yates testified Wednesday her office was never contacted by the doctor who was tending to Yates last June when she drowned her five children, then was shown a fax that appeared to indicate otherwise. A handwritten note on a 20-page fax addressed to Dr. Mohammad Saeed, Yates’ psychiatrist in the days leading up to the killings, from the office of previous doctor Eileen Starbranch said, “Here are the medical records on Andrea Yates. Thanks for your (patience).” Minutes before prosecutor Joe Owmby showed her the fax, dated May 9, 2001, Starbranch testified her office could not find evidence of any messages from Saeed or requests for Yates’ medical records from him. Andrea Yates, 37, is on trial for capital murder and could face the death penalty if convicted. She has confessed to killing Noah, 7; John, 5; Paul, 3; Luke, 2; and 6-month-old Mary. She has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. FBI warns of rapist at Spring Break hots pots GAINESVILLE, Fla. (U-WIRE) — As students ready themselves for vacations in Florida’s Spring Break hot spots, the Federal Bureau of Investigation cautions a serial rapist may be on his way to Panama City, Fla. Gale Marcinkiewicz, a Boston FBI field office spokeswoman, said Richard C. Lampron Jr., 28, is wanted for a series of rapes in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts in 1998. The FBI urges
students to be careful because the suspect frequents bars and nightclubs. Lampron, who goes by the alias Aaron Kincaid, meets women at parties or social settings and gives them date rape drugs. He then takes the victims to his car or apartment to rape them while they are unconscious, sometimes videotaping the event, according to the FBI Web site. Fraternity members caught attempting to steal a goat BERKELEY, Calif. (U-WIRE) — Delta Kappa Epsilon members were caught early Sunday morning allegedly attempting to steal a goat from Tilden Nature Area. Timothy Faye and Samuel Manhoff, members of the University of California-Berkeley chapter of the fraternity, were arrested, as was the president of Stanford University’s chapter, Dustin Espersen. They were arrested under suspicion of grand theft of livestock, conspiracy and violation of park curfew, East Bay Regional Parks Police Sgt. Scott Iversen said. The goat, which lives at Tilden’s Little Farm, is “heavily pregnant” with twins, said Stanley Ward, a farmer at the park. The members reportedly told police they had no intention of harming the goat and intended to return it to the park on Monday. A source associated with the fraternity, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said stealing goats is an annual tradition for the fraternity that has been continued for several years. |
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