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District attorney
urged to question Yates’ husband
HOUSTON (AP) — Less than a week
after Andrea Yates began serving life in prison for killing her
children, the Harris County district attorney’s office said
it is looking into her husband’s role in the drownings.
To
call it an “investigation” would be too strong, District
Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said Monday.
Rosenthal
said his office began looking into Russell Yates at the urging of
“gazillions” of e-mails which have arrived in his office
inbox in months since the drownings last June 20.
“We’re
looking into it, because we’ve been asked to look into it,”
Rosenthal told The Associated Press.
Russell
Yates’ attorney, Edward Mallett, said Rosenthal is doing his
job.
“He’s an elected district attorney,” Mallett said.
“What’s he going to say, ’I’m not going to investigate.’
“Of
course he’s going to investigate.”
Mallett
said he is confident any probe of Russell Yates will come up lacking
any criminal allegations against the NASA computer specialist.
Russell
Yates has blamed the medical community for failing his wife and
leading to his children’s deaths.
He
says a doctor changed his wife’s prescription two days before
police arrived at the family’s home after Andrea Yates’
called 911.
Prosecutors
have questioned why Russell Yates left his wife alone with the children.
The father told prosecutors he thought his wife would be fine with
the children for the hour between when he left for work and his
mother arrived to help out.
Russell
Yates also is under investigation for alleged gag order violations
by a special prosecutor appointed by state District Judge Belinda
Hill.
Singer
appears in new clean air television campaign
AUSTIN (AP) — Singer Rick Trevino
lent a hand to Texas Department of Transportation officials on Monday
as they unveiled a new television campaign advising drivers on how
they can help clean the air over Texas.
The
campaign, called “Drive Clean Across Texas,” begins Tuesday
and features Trevino sitting in what appears to be a countryside
as he plays his guitar and sings “Home on the Range.”
Between each bar of music, Trevino reaches for an oxygen mask and
inhales deeply.
Another
look at the setting reveals Trevino actually is sitting in a grassy
area near to a Texas highway clogged with traffic.
An
announcer then offers Texans tips on how to clean the air in Texas.
Missing
man presumed dead in Trinity River
(AP) A 33-year-old Grapevine man is missing
and presumed drowned after his kayak capsized while going over a
low-water dam on the Trinity River in east Fort Worth.
Witnesses
say Gregg L. Wilson disappeared just before 10 a.m. Sunday after
he was thrown into the water as his kayak spilled over the dam between
Interstate 820 and Handley-Ederville Road.
Wilson’s
friend and a neighbor, Jason Carrico, was paddling with Wilson in
one-man kayaks. Carrico, 31, said he tried to find Wilson after
the accident but couldn’t.
Neither
was wearing a life jacket, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s
Monday editions.
Fire-rescue
crews searched for Wilson a second day Monday.
Penn
State student found dead in residence hall room
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (U-WIRE) - In her
Thompson Hall bedroom, Pennsylvania State University freshman Bethany
Cynthia Smith was found dead at 2:30 a.m. Sunday. Smith, 18, was
pronounced dead less than an hour later, but the cause of death
has yet to be determined, Penn State Police Services said.
Called
“Booboo” by close friends, Smith was a varsity athlete
in high school and a member of the Key Club, longtime friend Jeff
Pan said.
During
her first year at Penn State she wasn’t as involved, Pan said,
because she had a harder time meeting other first-year students
in her West Halls dorm.
The
results of her autopsy will not be released until toxicology reports
are completed, which could take weeks, County Coroner Scott Sayers
said.
He
said there is no evidence of foul play and called her death an “isolated
event.”
Pan
and other friends visited Smith’s room Sunday and looked through
old photo albums.
In
her room, he said, there was one album that encompassed her life
and was covered with Post-It notes from her mother, reading: “Bethany,
you know I love you,” and “Bethany, take care of yourself
at college.”
A&M
approves highest fee increase in school’s history
AUSTIN (U-WIRE) - Texas A&M University
System regents on Friday unanimously approved the largest student
fee increase in the school’s history. The new fees will cost
students an additional $30 per credit hour, or an average of $390
per semester.
The
increase is a combination of four different fees, the “excellence
fee” increased two existing fees — the library and computing
fees — and introduced two new fees — a bursar and advising
fee. The new fees are a 23 percent increase in student fees.
The
excellence fee will not affect any students currently enrolled at
A&M, only incoming freshmen and transfer students.
A&M
officials expect the new fee to generate $33 million in the next
five years. A&M faces a $6.1 million budget shortfall this year.
“It
will certainly help. I’m not prepared to say it will cover
all of the difference,” said Lane Stephenson, spokesman for
A&M.
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