Tag Archives | Texas

Halliburton’s Lost Radioactive Cylinder In Texas

By on September 17, 2012 in News 4

FBI and state officials are on the hunt for a radioactive device which somehow vanished from its container inside the Halliburton truck transporting it this past week — on September 11 (spooky). Bloomberg reports:

Halliburton Co. crew members who lost a radioactive rod used in drilling wells in West Texas weren’t guilty of criminal conduct, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said as a hunt for the tool entered a fourth day.

FBI officials working with the Texas Department of Transportation questioned three employees who were unable to locate the device this week after it went missing on a 130-mile route from Pecos to Odessa, according to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission incident report today.

A National Guard unit based in Austin sent a three-person team with detection gear yesterday to assist local officials, said Amy Cook, a spokeswoman for the Guard. The Texas Department of State Health Services said yesterday it requested help to find the radioactive item, which can pose a health risk if touched or held for several days.

… Read the rest

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Texas Gun Range To Host Children’s Birthday Parties

By on August 13, 2012 in News 13

Gotta start ‘em young. Via Yahoo! News:

A new gun range opening this summer in Lewisville, Texas, will have two rooms available for hosting children’s birthday parties. Owner David Prince tells WFAA that the Eagle Gun Range will be available for children as young as eight years old.

“The age limit is eight years old. You have to be tall enough to get above the shooting table,” Prince said. “They’re not gonna be left unattended. Parents are gonna be one-on-one, or if there’s not enough parents we’ll have range safety officers here to show them how to do it safely.”

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Alleged UFO Footage From Texas Unearthed

By on August 7, 2012 in News 2

The possible sighting by multiple witnesses of a UFO above Stephenville, TX briefly garnered media attention in January 2008. This newly leaked footage claims to capture what residents saw. My hope is that it’s legitimate, as it features one of the more aesthetically pleasing alien crafts caught on video:

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Texas Man Strangles And Eats Dog After Entering Animal-Like State From Synthetic Marijuana

By on June 27, 2012 in News 31

How long until our military attempts to harness the potential of the new breeds of synthetic drugs? Via the Daily Mail:

A drug-fuelled rampage led a man to attack several people and chase around a neighbour while growling like an animal – before he brutally killed and ate a dog.

Waco police said that Michael Terron Daniel told his housemates that he was ‘on a bad trip’ after taking the synthetic drug K-2 and began attacking them. Sgt W. Patrick Swanton said that when a neighbour tried to intervene, Daniel got down on his hands and knees and ‘began barking and growling like a dog.’

As horrified witnesses watched, Daniel allegedly turned to a medium-sized Spaniel mix, who belonged to one of his housemates, choking the animal. Daniel then ‘took a bite out of the dog, ripping pieces of flesh away and eating them.’ Police showed up to find Daniel sitting on the front porch with the dog’s carcass on his lap.

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Homeless Man in Texas Finds $77,000, Gets to Keep It

By on June 18, 2012 in News 10

Reports Ashley Jennings on ABC News:

A Texas city council ruled this week that a homeless man who found $77,000 worth of gold collectible coins and $100 bills in a river could keep his treasure.

Bastrop City Council voted 6–0 Tuesday night that the money Timothy Yost found while washing his feet in the Colorado River Jan. 18 belonged to him. The city has had possession of the money since that time.

“It was a considerable sum of money, and we anticipated it would draw a fair amount of attention,” Bastrop Mayor Terry Orr said. “The city could have kept the money, because no one came forward to claim it, but we elected not to do that. It’s clearly Mr. Yost’s.”

Yost, 46, said he was close to Fisherman’s Park when he found the money in a bag. He told police he’d kicked it, and the bag made a weird sound. When he opened it up, he found 70 $100 bills and 40 Krugerrand gold coins from South Africa inside…

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It’s Legal to Kill Bigfoot in Texas

By on May 5, 2012 in News 2

BigfootAs long as it’s not listed as a game species and not listed as endangered, it’s OK to kill (license or no license). (However, wouldn’t one think if Bigfoot existed, it must be “endangered”?) Loren Coleman posted on Cryptomundo:

John Lloyd Scharf got a response from the Texas Wildlife officials about killing Bigfoot:

…If the Commission does not specifically list an indigenous, nongame species, then the species is considered non-protected nongame wildlife, e.g., coyote, bobcat, mountain lion, cotton-tailed rabbit, etc. A non-protected nongame animal may be hunted on private property with landowner consent by any means, at any time and there is no bag limit or possession limit.

An exotic animal is an animal that is non-indigenous to Texas. Unless the exotic is an endangered species then exotics may be hunted on private property with landowner consent. A hunting license is required. This does not include the dangerous wild animals that have been held in captivity and released for the purpose of hunting, which is commonly referred to as a “canned hunt”.

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Texas Man Allegedly Killed Soldier For Not Believing In God

By on March 17, 2012 in News 43

justinwaynegreen-publicCan being a non-Christian get you marked for murder in Texas? Uncovered by Raw Story:

Can being an atheist in America get you killed? If police in the small Texas town of Petrolia are to be believed, the answer to that question is yes.

Officials in Clay County revealed this week that human remains uncovered last month were those of Spc. Jose Ramirez. 30-year-old Justin Green was charged with the murder in February. Three others, including Green’s mother and sister Brittany, also face charges related to helping clean up the crime scene and hide the body.

One shocking detail seemed to be overlooked in the Associated Press’s story: A criminal complaint, obtained by Raw Story on Thursday, shows that Green’s sister [claims] he killed Ramirez “because Ramirez did not believe in God.”

After burying the body, police claim the group went to Brittany’s apartment and ordered a pizza and bread sticks with Ramirez’s credit card, and Brittany allegedly signed it using Ramirez’s last name.

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The Police-ification Of Schools

By on January 23, 2012 in News 65

Male-police-officers-supe-007The Guardian reports on the new public education model in Texas, in which police officers patrol school hallways, giving out hundreds of thousands of tickets to children each year and making arrests for criminal behavior such as leaving crumbs in the cafeteria, wearing inappropriate clothing, spraying perfume, and making sarcastic remarks in class. Poor children whose families are unable to pay the fines may be jailed for the nonpayment once they turn 17:

More and more US schools have police patrolling the corridors. Pupils are being arrested for throwing paper planes and failing to pick up crumbs from the canteen floor. Why is the state criminalising normal childhood behaviour?

The charge on the police docket was “disrupting class”. But that’s not how 12-year-old Sarah Bustamantes saw her arrest for spraying two bursts of perfume on her neck in class because other children were bullying her with taunts of “you smell”.

“I’m weird.

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Texas GOP Representative Declares ‘War On Birth Control’

By on September 21, 2011 in News 78

Wayne Christian - TEXASThe Texas Republican Party is engaged in a far-reaching and sustained “war on birth control”. No, that’s not the teaser from a Planned Parenthood press release — it’s the  pronouncement of (aptly named) state legislator Wayne Christian. Creepiest war ever. Via Think Progress:

When The Texas Tribune asked state Rep. Wayne Christian (R-Nacogdoches), a supporter of the family planning cuts, if this was a war on birth control, he said “yes.”

“Well of course this is a war on birth control and abortions and everything, that’s what family planning is supposed to be about,” Christian said.

While disturbing, Christian’s honesty is a refreshing change from Republicans’ more common defense that cuts to women’s health care will save money. As NPR notes, the state estimates that 300,000 women will lose access to family planning services because of these cuts, resulting in roughly 20,000 additional unplanned births. “Texas already spends $1.3 billion on teen pregnancies — more than any other state.”

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