TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalRoy Tarpley, troubled but talented Dallas Maverick center, dies at 50
LOS ANGELES — Former Mavericks’ center Roy Tarpley has died at age 50. Cause of death was not immediately known although when the Mavericks arrived in Los Angeles for their game Saturday against the Clippers, several members of the traveling party had been informed that liver failure was at least partly to blame.
The 6-11 Tarpley was the seventh pick in the 1986 draft by the Mavericks out of Michigan. In his second season, he was the NBA’s sixth man of the year before drugs and controversy shrouded the rest of his six seasons in the league.
According to a medical examiner’s report, Tarpley’s death happened at Texas Arlington Health Memorial Hospital. It is a sad ending to one of the most gifted talents ever to play for the franchise. Tarpley had a rare combination of strength and speed that made him one of the best athletes of his era.
“Our condolences go out to the family of Roy Tarpley,” Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban said via Twitter. “RIP Roy. Mavs fans everywhere will remember you fondly.”
Read more: http://mavsblog.dallasnews.com/2015/01/roy-tarpley-troubled-but-talented-maverick-center-dies-at-50.html/
In Fort Worth trial, Moncrief Oil seeks $1.37 billion from Russian firm
FORT WORTH -- In 1997, Fort Worth oilman Richard Moncrief waded into the murky post-Soviet Russian energy landscape and struck what he says was a deal with a unit of OAO Gazprom to develop a big natural gas field in Siberia.
Eighteen years later, Moncrief, the grandson of one of the original Texas wildcatters, is still trying to enforce his company’s claim against the Russian energy giant, this time before a state court jury in his hometown.
The trial, which started with opening statements Thursday, may be the best chance for his Moncrief Oil International to claim compensation from Gazprom after losing in other courts.
Moncrief Oil seeks $1.37 billion in damages from Gazprom and several subsidiaries. It lost in a German court in 2010, and a separate lawsuit over the same deal was dismissed by a federal court in Texas in 2007.
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/article5626404.html
Andrae Crouch, legendary gospel figure, dies at 72
Source: AP
LOS ANGELES — Andrae Crouch, a legendary gospel performer, songwriter and choir director whose work graced songs by Michael Jackson and Madonna and movies such as “The Lion King,” has died. He was 72.
Crouch died Thursday afternoon at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he had been admitted Saturday after suffering a heart attack, said his publicist, Brian Mayes.
Crouch and his sister, Sandra Crouch, lived in the Pacoima area of Los Angeles, Mayes said. They were pastors at the New Christ Memorial Church in the Los Angeles suburb of San Fernando.
Born in San Francisco, Crouch wrote his first gospel tune at age 14.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20150108-andrae-crouch-legendary-gospel-figure-dies-at-72.ece
Round Rock man sentenced to prison for pouring boiling water on wife
A Williamson County jury has just sentenced a Round Rock man to 37 years in prison for pouring boiling water over his wife’s head.
Everton Bailey Jr., 29, was convicted Wednesday of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors said he poured scalding water over his wife while she knelt in front of him on May 3, 2013, at their Round Rock apartment.
Amanda Mitchell, 26, received third-degree burns over 16 percent of her body including her face, hands, chest and back, prosecutors said. Prosecutor Sunday Austin said earlier this week that Mitchell endured the abuse because she was desperate to hold a birthday party for her five-year-old son.
One of Bailey’s lawyers previously had said that Bailey plans to appeal his conviction.
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/round-rock-man-sentenced-to-prison-for-pouring-boi/njjpH/
Oil billionaire Harold Hamm's ex-wife rejects handwritten $975 million divorce check
The ex-wife of oil tycoon Harold Hamm rejected a handwritten divorce check for almost $975 million because she feels she's owed more of his $19 billion fortune.
Lawyers for Sue Ann Arnall told Reuters on Tuesday that she rejected the check — written for exactly $974,790,317.77, as shown in a tweet from CNBC — because she did not want to hurt her appeal of a November divorce ruling by an Oklahoma judge stating she was owed $1 billion.
Both Arnall and Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources — have appealed that decision, according to Reuters.
Hamm called the $1 billion dollar amount "erroneous and inequitable" in the face of falling oil prices after previously deeming the judge's ruling "fair and equitable."
Read more: http://www.mrt.com/business/article_b45719b0-96bc-11e4-8699-2b7e5e48bd6d.html
Cleanup ongoing for 7,500-gallon oil spill near Victoria, Texas
A cleanup crew continued to scrape soil from a 7,500 gallon oil spill on state Highway 185 about four miles south of Victoria on Wednesday.
On Saturday morning, the driver of a southbound Sun Coast Resources, Inc. cargo trailer drove off the east side of the roadway and into the median, where the vehicle rolled, spilling crude oil, according to the San Antonio Department of Public Safety communications office.
The driver of the truck was treated at a hospital and released, said Steve Boyd, Sun Coast Resources senior managing director.
All of the spilled oil was contained to the storm ditch next to the road, wrote Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokeswoman Andrea Morrow in an email. No water supplies were affected.
Read more: https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2015/jan/07/cleanup-ongoing-for-7500-gallon-oil-spill/
Bill Aims to Bar Texas Clerks from Issuing Same-Sex Marriage Licenses
On the eve of a federal appeals court hearing in a lawsuit challenging Texas’ same-sex marriage bans, a Republican legislator has introduced a bill that would prohibit county clerks from issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
Rep. Cecil Bell Jr. (R-Magnolia) on Wednesday introduced House Bill 623, which he’s calling the “Texas Preservation of Sovereignty and Marriage Act.”
HB 623 would amend the Texas Family Code to prohibit the use of taxpayer funds for the “the licensing or support of same-sex marriage.” It would also bar government employees from recognizing, granting or enforcing same-sex marriage licenses. Any government employee who violates the provision would be barred from collecting “a salary, pension, or other employee benefit.”
HB 623 would also require Texas courts to dismiss challenges to the law and award attorneys’ fees to defendants. And it would grant Texas sovereign immunity under the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when it comes to enforcing the law, “regardless of a contrary federal court ruling.”
Read more: http://www.texasobserver.org/bill-aims-to-bar-texas-clerks-from-issuing-same-sex-marriage-licenses/
Lancaster, Texas ISD police to teach students how not to die in confrontations with officers
Lancaster ISD police want to save students’ lives and build up trust with officers.
After recent shootings in which unarmed African American teens have been killed across the nation, the Lancaster ISD police department is holding a forum called “Project S.O.S” for students, parents and other community members to help them understand the role of law enforcement and related issues, such as how use of force works with police.
Other topics will include the role of law enforcement, the complaint process and the importance of voting. Forum speakers will include police, judges, attorneys and constables.
“We want to educate our students on what to do and what not to do when encountering law enforcement,” Lancaster ISD police Sgt. Alvin Johnson said in a release. He added, ”We want to shed light on the current events, discuss the impact on our students and community and try to ensure that these things will not happen in our community.”
Read more: http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/01/lancaster-isd-police-to-hold-forum-to-save-our-students.html/
Cross-posted in the Texas Group.
Lancaster, Texas ISD police to teach students how not to die in confrontations with officers
Lancaster ISD police want to save students’ lives and build up trust with officers.
After recent shootings in which unarmed African American teens have been killed across the nation, the Lancaster ISD police department is holding a forum called “Project S.O.S” for students, parents and other community members to help them understand the role of law enforcement and related issues, such as how use of force works with police.
Other topics will include the role of law enforcement, the complaint process and the importance of voting. Forum speakers will include police, judges, attorneys and constables.
“We want to educate our students on what to do and what not to do when encountering law enforcement,” Lancaster ISD police Sgt. Alvin Johnson said in a release. He added, ”We want to shed light on the current events, discuss the impact on our students and community and try to ensure that these things will not happen in our community.”
Read more: http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/01/lancaster-isd-police-to-hold-forum-to-save-our-students.html/
Cross-posted in the African-American Group.
Dan Patrick lays out aggressively conservative agenda
Laying out ambitious priorities for the legislative session that begins next week, Lt. Gov.-elect Dan Patrick said Thursday that he will push for significant tax cuts despite a steep drop in oil prices and money for two more years of National Guard presence on the Mexico border.
Patrick promised a Senate-passed state budget that would not include money for the Travis County Public Integrity Unit, the subject of a line-item veto in 2013 that led to as-yet unresolved criminal charges for abuse of office against Gov. Rick Perry.
And he backed ending a diversion of gas-tax money to the Department of Public Safety, saying the change would pump $600 million into needed roads. Other sources of money will be found for DPS, he said.
“DPS will be made whole and gas-tax money will go where it was supposed to go,” Patrick said in a Capitol news conference.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/dan-patrick-lays-out-aggressively-conservative-age/njjRX/
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
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