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One of the smallest school districts in Texas will make history this fall as it transitions to a predominately four-day school week — the first of its kind in the state.
Olfen Independent School District, a kindergarten-through-eighth grade district outside San Angelo that boasts 56 students, approved the new schedule earlier this month. Olfen officials cited a new law passed by the Legislature allowing districts more flexibility in setting calendars.
"We think this is going to be something great for our students and something that can also benefit a lot of parents out there,” said Olfen Superintendent Gabriel Zamora. “I just saw the possibility, once the law was passed and everything. I never thought I would be in the district that had the right circumstances.”
The Olfen school board unanimously voted Jan. 12 to approve the change for the 2016-2017 school year. The new schedule includes four mandatory instructional days and an optional day on Friday. Students who do not receive passing marks on progress reports will be required to attend school on Fridays to receive tutoring, while passing students will have the choice to stay home. A handful of weeks during the year will have a full five days of instruction.
Zamora, who compared the optional day to “Super Saturdays” in other districts, said it would include a few hours of tutoring in the morning and activities such as karate, tumbling and pottery in the afternoon.
Zamora proposed the change after the Legislature last spring passed a law altering how the state defines a school year. The law requires districts to have at least 75,600 minutes of instruction each year instead of the previously stipulated 180 days.
The new Olfen ISD calendar will have 160 class days that total more than 77,000 minutes, according to Zamora. The district will increase the duration of each school day by 25 minutes.
“The purpose of the bill was to offer traditional independent school districts more flexibility and local control,” said the bill's author, state Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian. “Every school district has different needs.”
DeEtta Culbertson, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, confirmed that Olfen is the first school district in the state to offer a four-day week schedule, although others have unsuccessfully pushed for a similar schedule in the past.
“Olfen is a really small district, so the chances of something like this working at a Houston or a Dallas ISD, I don’t know,” she said. “It would certainly be something a district could explore.”
Zamora said the schedule is compatible with the unique needs of his rural district, where only one student lives within the district boundary.
Ramon Cavazos, who teaches social studies, Spanish and special education for the older students in the district, said he was initially skeptical of the new schedule but now he sees it as an opportunity to improve individual students’ needs.
“This is my seventh year here, and this has always been an issue with us because we are, in some cases, up to 35 miles away from a student’s home,” Cavazos said. That distance means if the school wanted to offer tutoring after school, it would need to run an additional bus route, he added.
“This is going to give us the opportunity to pull those students in on Friday," he said.
Darlene Ortega, who has two children and one grandchild in the district, said she thinks the new schedule is a "great idea." She said she will be sending her children to school on Fridays regardless of their grades, in part because of the extracurricular programs the district plans to offer.
Cavazos said his older students have already expressed a desire to improve their grades so they can stay home on Fridays.
“I see it as an apple and stick approach, as far as the student’s side is concerned,” he said. “If you want the apple, then get with the program. If you want the stick, then don’t do your work because you’re going to come in on Friday. Eventually, you’re going to get what you need either way.”
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Investigators say 29 dangerous fugitives sought through the Texas 10 Most Wanted program were arrested last year.
The Texas Department of Public Safety on Thursday also said that $79,000 in rewards were paid for anonymous tips leading to some of the 2015 arrests.
DPS says the list of captured individuals includes a record 20 convicted sex offenders who fled but were caught. The previous Texas 10 MostWanted record for convicted sex offenders recaptured was 19 in 2013.
DPS says two of the state's most wanted convicted sex offenders last year were extradited from Mexico.
Gov. Greg Abbott has declared January to be Crime Stoppers Month inTexas.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas unemployment rate rose for a fourth straight month in December to reach 4.7 percent, the Texas Workforce Commission reported Friday.
The nationwide jobless rate for December held steady at 5 percent, the commission said in a statement. The Texas jobless rate was 4.6 percent in November.
Amarillo had the lowest average unemployment rate in the state last month at 2.9 percent. The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area had the highest jobless rate in Texas at 7.8 percent, the commission said.
"Texas finished 2015 on a strong note in December, with employers adding 166,900 jobs over the year across a diverse range of industries," said Andres Alcantar, commission chairman.
Texas employers expanded their payrolls in December with the addition of 24,900 seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs. That's the 10th month of job increases for Texas during 2015, according to the commission.
Professional and business services employment surged in December with the addition of 12,500 positions. The education and health services industry recorded the second largest employment gain over the month in Texas, with 7,400 jobs added.
"Private-sector employment was strong over the year with the overall job growth of 141,300 jobs in December," said Commissioner Ruth R. Hughs. "Texas employers continue to be strong and resilient in providing employment and training opportunities."
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) —
Texas A&M University has opened a Career Closet to help students without the money to buy business clothes rent the items for job interviews.
Ceremonies were held Tuesday at the Memorial Student Center in College Station.
Clothing rental is free but the student must pay $5 for dry cleaning of the returned items.
Chancellor John Sharp and members of the Chancellor's Century Council last fall donated $70,000 to create or support similar programs at all schools in the A&M system. The Career Closet in College Station used the funds buy 200 suits, for men and women.
The organization is accepting donations of suits and other professional clothing, including shoes, belts and ties.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) —
The U.S. Supreme Court is considering multiple appeals from lawyers trying to keep a Texas inmate from execution Wednesday evening for a slaying 15 years ago that the man claims was accidental.
Richard Masterson, 43, would be the first inmate put to death this year in the nation's busiest death penalty state, where 13 lethal injections in 2015 accounted for nearly half of the 28 executions nationwide.
Masterson was sentenced to death for the January 2001 strangulation of Darin Shane Honeycutt, 35, a female impersonator he'd met at a bar. He testified at his Houston trial that Honeycutt's death was the result of an accidental asphyxiation during sex and not an intentional murder.
Evidence showed Masterson stole Honeycutt's car, dumped it in Georgia, and was arrested at a Florida mobile home park more than a week later with another stolen car. That car belonged to a Tampa, Florida, man who testified that he was robbed by Masterson but survived a similar sex episode where he was choked.
At least four appeals on Masterson's behalf were before the Supreme Court.
His attorneys are arguing that Honeycutt's death was accidental or the result of a heart attack, that a Harris County medical examiner whose credentials have been questioned was wrong to tell jurors it was a strangulation, that Masterson's earlier lawyers were deficient for failing to discover that information and that his prolonged drug use and then withdrawal while in jail contributed to his "suicide by confession" when he spoke to police about the slaying.
"Mr. Masterson's case presents a perfect storm of attorney incompetence and neglect combined with a severely mentally ill, suicidal defendant who did not kill anyone," attorney Gregory Gardner said in a filing to the high court.
Lawyers also contend that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Masterson his rights to due process and access to the courts by refusing their challenge to a new state law that keeps secret the identity of the provider of pentobarbital that Texas prison officials use for lethal injections.
State lawyers argued that Masterson's attorneys offered no scientific evidence about Honeycutt's death that hadn't been previously raised and rejected, including by jurors at Masterson's trial.
"He is simply attempting to present identical facts under a different legal theory and using different experts in order to pass off the allegation as 'new,'" Erich Dryden, an Texas assistant attorney general, told the justices.
According to court filings, besides confessing to police, Masterson told a brother he killed Honeycutt and wrote to Texas' then-Attorney General Greg Abbott in 2012 acknowledging the slaying.
"I meant to kill him," Masterson wrote to Abbott, who is now Texas' governor. "It was no accident."
Masterson had a long drug history and criminal record beginning at age 15. Court documents showed he ignored advice from lawyers at his 2002 trial and insisted on telling jurors he met Honeycutt, who used the stage name Brandi Houston, at a bar and they went to Honeycutt's Houston apartment where Masterson said the chokehold was part of an autoerotic sex act.
Honeycutt's body was found Jan. 27, 2001, after friends became worried when he failed to show up for work.
Masterson also told jurors he was a future danger — an element they had to agree with in order to decide a death sentence was appropriate.
Masterson's case has recently drawn the attention of Pope Francis, who has reinforced the Catholic Church's opposition to capital punishment.
At least eight other Texas death row inmates have executions scheduled for the coming months, including one set for next week.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — An SUV driver from Mexico must serve nearly six years in a U.S. prison for a 2014 rollover wreck in South Texas that left two immigrants dead.
Amurabi Medina-Cruz was sentenced Tuesday by a federal judge in Corpus Christi.
Prosecutors say the 22-year-old Medina Cruz was convicted in October of conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants. Authorities say the December 2014 human smuggling case involves officers pursuing a fleeing vehicle driven by Medina-Cruz.
Six other immigrants in the vehicle, which rolled several times, were injured in the accident.
Prosecutors say Medina-Cruz faces deportation to Mexico after his prison term.
HOUSTON (AP) —
The national president of the Bandidos biker gang, who faces life in prison if convicted on racketeering, drug distribution and other charges, has been freed on $250,000 bond.
Jeffrey Pike of Conroe was released Monday following a detention hearing in Houston.
Pike and other Bandidos leaders were arrested last week in an investigation into racketeering, extortion, drug trafficking, murder and other violent crimes.
Attorneys for the 60-year-old Pike say he's no threat to the community. Several defense witnesses testified that they did not believe Pike would flee if granted bond.
Federal authorities accuse the Bandidos of waging a deadly "war" on the rival Cossacks biker gang. That rivalry entered the spotlight last May, when a shootout between police and bikers in Waco, Texas, left nine people dead.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) —
The mother of a fugitive teenager known for using an "affluenza" defense in a fatal drunken-driving wreck was released from a Texas jail on Tuesday, a day after a judge sharply reduced her $1 million bond for allegedly helping her son flee to Mexico.
Tonya Couch declined to speak with reporters when she was released from the Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth. She posted the $75,000 bond and was ordered to wear an electronic ankle GPS monitor and remain at the home of another son, 29-year-old Steven McWilliams, except for appointments with her doctor and lawyer.
Her arrest affidavit alleges that she and her 18-year-old son, Ethan Couch, fled the state in December as Texas prosecutors investigated whether he had violated his probation in the 2013 wreck that killed four people. Both were taken into custody later that month in Puerto Vallarta, after a call for pizza delivery tipped off authorities to their whereabouts.
Tonya Couch is charged with hindering the apprehension of a felon and could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Ethan Couch is still being held in Mexico as he fights deportation.
During Ethan Couch's trial, a defense witness said the teen was coddled into a sense of irresponsibility by his wealthy parents, a condition the expert called "affluenza." The condition is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association, and its invocation drew widespread ridicule.
Law enforcement officials said Tonya Couch, 48, and her son fled the U.S. after a video surfaced that appeared to show the teen at a party where people were drinking alcohol. If Ethan Couch was drinking, it would violate his probation and could lead to jail time.
According to an arrest warrant, Tonya Couch is accused of telling her estranged husband, Fred Couch, that he would never see her or his son again before fleeing.
The couple originally married in 1996, but divorced 10 years later. They remarried in April 2011, but court records show they are amid divorce proceedings and haven't been living together as husband and wife since at least August 2014.
Law enforcement officials have said the mother and son had a going-away party shortly before driving across the border in her pickup truck. They were first tracked to a resort condominium after ordering pizza before police found them at an apartment in Puerto Vallarta's old town.
When they were arrested, Ethan Couch appeared to have tried to disguise himself by dying his blond hair black and his beard brown, according to investigators.
HOUSTON – Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, 24, a Palestinian born in Iraq, has been charged in a three-count indictment alleging that he attempted to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization.
U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner of the FBI’s Houston Division and Special Agent in Charge Brian M. Moskowitz of Homeland Investigations (HSI) in Houston made the announcement.
The three-count indictment was returned Jan. 6, 2016 and unsealed tonight. He will have his initial appearance tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. in Houston before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Milloy.
Al Hardan entered the United States as a refugee on or about Nov. 2, 2009. He was granted legal permanent residence status on or about Aug. 22, 2011, and resides in Houston.
He is charged with one count each of attempting to provide material support to ISIL, procurement of citizenship or naturalization unlawfully and making false statements.
The indictment alleges that Al Hardan attempted to provide material support and resources, including training, expert advice and assistance, and personnel – specifically himself – to a known foreign terrorist organization. According to the allegations, he also knowingly responded, certified and swore untruthfully on his formal application when applying to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. He allegedly represented that he was not associated with a terrorist organization when, in fact, he associated with members and sympathizers of ISIL throughout 2014, according to the charges. The indictment further alleges that during an interview in October 2015, Al Hardan falsely represented that he had never received any type of weapons training, when he allegedly received automatic machine gun training.
The charge of attempting to provide material support to terrorists carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. The charge of false citizenship procurement carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison (if the offense was committed to facilitate an act of international terrorism). The charge of making false statements carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison. If convicted, any potential sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal history, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation.
The charges are the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and HSI with the assistance of the Houston Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ralph Imperato is prosecuting the case along with Trial Attorney Kashyap Patel of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) —
Texas Tech University President M. Duane Nellis will step down this month but remain on the faculty.
Texas Tech University System Chancellor Robert Duncan on Friday announced the resignation of Nellis, effective Jan. 22.
No reason was given for the decision by Nellis to quit as head of the school in Lubbock, a job he's held since June 2013.
Nellis was among three finalists last month to become president of the University of Wyoming, but he did not get the job. Nellis, before arriving in Lubbock, was president of the University of Idaho.
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in December reported that Nellis told students, faculty and staff at the Wyoming school that working in a chancellor-led system was "more challenging" than he thought.
