A Bexar County Sheriff's Office sergeant is one of two women accused of shoplifting nearly $200 worth of clothing and jewelry from Macy's in South Park Mall on Tuesday evening, officials said.
San Antonio police arrested Sgt. Laura Delgado, 31, and Lori Marsden, 36, about 6 p.m. on one count each of theft from $50 to $500. They were held on $1,000 bail, with Delgado released after posting it early Wednesday.
An 11-year veteran most recently assigned to the detention unit, Delgado was placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of the investigation, said Sheriff's Office spokesman Deputy Ino Badillo. Delgado was off duty Tuesday night, he said.
San Antonio sports enthusiasts were abuzz Wednesday after Texas Tech fired coach Mike Leach, the quirky offensive mastermind who in 10 years won more games than anyone in the history of Red Raiders football.
Tech relieved Leach of his duties three days before Saturday's Valero Alamo Bowl.
On the day the coach took the school to court in an effort to overturn his suspension for alleged mistreatment of an injured player, he was fired with cause, meaning the university doesn't feel obligated to pay off the rest of the coach's five-year, $12.7 million contract.
In Lubbock, school officials handed a termination letter to Leach's attorney Wednesday morning, before the two sides were to appear in court for a hearing on the coach's request to work the Alamo Bowl.
Friday's attempted terrorist attack against Northwest Flight 253 near Detroit is a powerful illustration that terrorists will go to great lengths to try to defeat the security measures that have been put in place since
While we took swift action immediately following last week's incident at airports around the country and throughout the world, our defenses should never have allowed this individual to board a plane bound for the United States. The administration is determined to find and fix the vulnerabilities in our systems that allowed this breach to happen.
President Obama has ordered, and the
We have also instituted enhanced security procedures for both domestic and international flights, including enhanced inspections at security checkpoints and increased pat-downs, bag searches, explosive detection canine teams, air marshals, behavioral detection officers and other measures, both seen and unseen.
We are grateful for the traveling public's patience with these new measures, and most important, for your continued vigilance. The public remains one of our most valuable layers of defense against acts of terrorism. Last week's attempted attack failed due in no small part to passengers and crewmembers who acted quickly and courageously to subdue the attacker and gain control of the situation.
While the investigation continues into the affiliations of the attacker, and as we address the circumstances behind this specific incident, we must also recognize the evolving threats posed by violent extremists, and take action to ensure our defenses continue to evolve to defeat them. At the Department of Homeland Security, we have increasingly focused on understanding the behaviors associated with violent extremism, from known terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda, to home-based individuals acting alone.
We know that terrorists motivated by violent extremist beliefs desire to carry out acts of catastrophic violence. Preventing, detecting and mitigating these threats require multiple layers of defense, all working in concert with one another.
President Obama has made it clear that we will be unrelenting in our efforts around the world, using every element of our national power to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda and other violent extremists wherever they plot against our country.
Here at home, we will continue to inform and train federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and security personnel about the tactics and techniques used by terrorists.
We will continue to invest in proven technologies to detect explosives and other dangerous materials, and deploy them as rapidly and efficiently as we can to transportation hubs across the country.
We will continue to strengthen international agreements to better coordinate and share information to eliminate the gaps that terrorists seek to exploit.
And over the long term, we will continue to work to counter violent extremism and radicalization in the United States and overseas through the full engagement of our people, our communities, our businesses and government agencies at all levels.
This reality makes it all the more critical that we are working together at all levels — federal, state and local governments, our international partners, and the American public — to counter threats. We must ensure we are using every tool at our disposal, and collaborating to the fullest extent possible, to prevent, detect and deter terrorism. This is a shared responsibility in which we all have a role to play — from the traveling public alerting authorities when they see something suspicious to federal agencies working together to piece together clues to foil potential plots.
Make no mistake: The Department of Homeland Security and agencies across the federal government are working quickly to address what went wrong on Christmas Day. If we work together, if we remain vigilant and if we refuse to live in fear, we can and will protect our country.
CPS Energy and its nuclear-expansion partner face off in a Bexar County courtroom for the first time today in the $32 billion lawsuit spawned by their now-faltering deal.
Today's hearing in district court likely will be limited to setting dates for more sessions in January, when the partners will begin arguments in what has become an increasingly nasty legal battle.
Both sides ratcheted up the rhetoric Monday with another round of filings.
An anesthesiologist who administered pain medication to a 22-month-old boy during a dental procedure gave the toddler morphine, but the dosage given should have been safe, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Maddoux Cordova was taken off life support at 7 p.m. Sunday at Wilford Hall Medical Center, where he spent more than two weeks after he stopped breathing after treatment for tooth decay at Village Specialty Surgical Center.
While the Bexar County medical examiner's office has not yet determined exactly what killed Maddoux, the child died from complications of a dental procedure, officials said. The office has ordered a toxicology report to further investigate Maddoux's death.
Family and friends overflowed the Zoeller Funeral Home Chapel in New Braunfels on Monday to say goodbye to Staci Michelle Montgomery, whom they remembered as a vivacious adventurer.
Montgomery, 25, who returned to Texas in November after working for three months as a nanny for a family in Italy, was remembered as the life of the party, a lover of fashion and an avid traveler.
Police in Addison, near Dallas, believe Montgomery was a homicide victim.
A toddler who might have been given too much morphine immediately after a dental procedure this month died Sunday night, authorities said.
Maddoux Cordova was taken off life support at 7 p.m. Sunday at Wilford Hall Medical Center, where the 22-month-old spent more than two weeks after he stopped breathing following treatment for tooth decay at Village Specialty Surgical Center.
Dr. Bill Berlocher, president of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, said morphine, a narcotic derived from the opium poppy plant, is occasionally given to children undergoing dental procedures but that serious complications resulting from its use are “extremely rare.” In dental procedures, it's mostly used to sedate patients before surgery or in conjunction with anesthesia, he said, adding that he doesn't prescribe the drug.
Better airport scanners delayed by privacy fears
The body-scanning technology is in at least 19 U.S. airports, while European officials have generally limited it to test runs.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of trying to ignite explosives aboard a Northwest Airlines jet as it was coming in for a landing in Detroit, did not go through such a scan where his flight began, at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
It was there London-educated Umar Abdulmutallab, 23, prepared for his Christmas Day bid to blow up a US jet.
They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike.
A Scotland Yard source said: "The great fear is Abdulmutallab is the first of many ready to attack planes and kill tens of thousands.
"We know there are four or five radicalised British Muslim cells in the Yemen.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the aviation security system failed when a young man on a watch list with a U.S. visa in his pocket and a powerful explosive hidden on his body was allowed to board a fight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
A day after saying the system worked, Napolitano said her words had been taken out of context. She said Monday on NBC's "Today" show that "our system did not work in this instance."
Napolitano said an investigation ordered by the Obama administration will look at why Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was allowed to board a U.S.-bound flight on Christmas Day despite being on a terrorist watch list.
As my brother Kevin headed off to Christmas Eve Mass in the Maryland suburbs, I asked him how he thought the first year of Barack Obama had gone.
He didn’t have to pray long over that one. “Fine,” he replied, “if you like unmitigated disasters like the Hindenburg and the Redskins season.”
If it’s Christmas, it must be time for my conservative brother to take over my column and turn it a blazing shade of red.
So without further ado, here is Kevin unplugged, offering a perspective from “the real America,” as one of his favorite Republican philosophers, Sarah Palin, likes to put it:
Iraqi troops say they will defend the well, where Iranian troops raised a flag for several days this month.
It is unclear how many troops are involved in the stand-off, but as many as 30 lightly armed Iraqi troops usually occupy border outposts in sensitive areas, and up to 10 in other areas. Some 11 Iranian soldiers are stationed near the disputed well.
The seizure of the well, which Iraq says is part of its Fakka oilfield in southeast Maysan province, triggered protests from the government in Baghdad and caused a rise in prices on jittery world oil markets.
The Iranian forces have since pulled back, but Iraq says they are still on its territory, stirring echoes of the border dispute that led to the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, in which about 1 million people died.
"These wells in the Fakka region are Iraqi, and we will defend them to the last drop of blood," said Brigadier-General Razak Abdul Hassan of the Iraqi border guards at Fakka.
The Iranians are 100 meters inside Iraqi territory, he said, some 80 meters from the disputed well. Iraqi troops watch from nearby, and both sides appear to be hunkered down behind earth walls at their bleak desert outposts.
EXTRA FORCES
Hassan said Iraq has deployed extra forces to other wells nearby, but declined to outline numbers.
The well, which has only been operative briefly in the 1970s, now sits in an effective no man's land as a binational committee prepares to begin work early next year demarcating the border in the oil-producing border region.
"After that the word will be very clear and precise. We expect and know the result is that the well is Iraqi, and the Iranians will admit this," said Ali Maarij, head of Iraq's state Maysan Oil Co., in charge of Fakka and surrounding fields.
Well No. 4 was drilled in 1979 and produced about 3,000 barrels a day, a small amount for a region that is home to some to the world's largest oil reserves. The well went offline in 1980 due to the Iran-Iraq war, and has been inactive since.
Yet the symbolism of the brief Iranian occupation was more serious. Fakka is part of the Maysan oilfield complex, with reserves of 2.5 billion barrels, which Iraq tried unsuccessfully to auction off to foreign oil firms this year.
The mere threat of future incursions or border feuds puts more risk onto the 10 oilfield deals the Iraqi government did secure this year, some of which are near the Iran-Iraq border.
Oil firms are already jittery about working in a country just emerging from years of bloodshed after the 2003 U.S. invasion, and where bombings and shootings are still common.
The occupation was also damaging for Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose party is contesting March 7 national polls. His government's response to the dispute was relatively muted, and Iranian troops faced no apparent military resistance.
Iran-Iraq ties have warmed since the ouster of Sunni Arab Saddam Hussein in 2003. Many in Iraq's new Shi'ite leadership took refuge in majority Shi'ite Iran during Saddam's reign.
But relations have been strained by accusations of Iranian interference in Iraq and by Tehran's opposition to the presence of U.S. troops. Being seen as close to Iran has become a liability for Iraqi politicians ahead of the general election.
"We are determined and persistent in the defense of our border. We will not give up even an inch. We are confident and able ... and ready for any action at any time," said Major General Habib al-Husseini, head of Maysan security operations.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iranian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters in the capital Sunday, killing at least four people in the fiercest clashes in months, opposition Web sites and witnesses said.
Thousands of opposition supporters chanting "Death to the dictator," a reference to hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, defied official warnings of a harsh crackdown on any protests coinciding with a religious observance on Sunday. Iranians were marking Ashoura, commemorating the seventh-century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints.
Security forces tried but failed to disperse protesters on a central Tehran street with tear gas, charges by baton-wielding officers and warning shots fired into the air. They then opened fire directly at protesters, killing at least three people, said witnesses and the pro-reform Web site Rah-e-Sabz.
The FBI is investigating the Bexar County sheriff’s narcotics unit over allegations that some of its deputies might have been unlawfully taking evidence or stealing money and property from people they detain or arrest, the San Antonio Express-News has confirmed.
The two-year-old probe includes allegations of civil rights violations, but has expanded as agents learned about deputies who are living beyond what their county pay could afford — group trips to Las Vegas and the purchase of a large property in South Texas, for example.
“There have been many complaints about that narcotics division,” said one law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation, one of several who confirmed its existence. “The complaints include stuff about rogue cops and deputies running roughshod, arresting people without cause and stealing money.”
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) - Some people won't be getting the Christmas presents they were expecting.
Missouri troopers seized about 20 pounds of marijuana from a car this week - some of it in luggage, and some in boxes wrapped as Christmas gifts.
The Highway Patrol says troopers found the marijuana in the car they stopped for speeding on Interstate 44 near Joplin.
Two California women in the car gave troopers permission to search the vehicle. Both were charged Tuesday with one marijuana-related count and released on $1,000 bond.
A West Side couple awoke Christmas morning and made a heartbreaking discovery: Their 4-month-old boy had stopped breathing in his sleep.
Rene Montoya appeared to have been accidentally smothered sometime Thursday night or Friday morning as he slept in his parents' bed in the 5600 block of Brookhill Street, said Sgt. Lloyd Jackel of the San Antonio Police Department. His parents, whose names and ages weren't immediately released, called 911 around 10:15 a.m.
Medical personnel pronounced the infant dead at the home, where lights on a Christmas tree blinked through a garland-draped doorway guarded by police. Friends and family soon swarmed to the house, where Rene's mother could be heard wailing inside.
An infant girl was in critical condition Friday evening after a bullet accidentally fired from her father's gun struck her in the head at their home in Bandera County, officials said.
The child, 2, was airlifted to University Hospital in San Antonio with a single gunshot wound to the head, said Bandera County Sheriff's Office chief deputy Richard Smith. The bullet from the 9 mm pistol entered the back of the child's head and exited her temple, and Smith said she had a “good chance of recovering.”
The girl's mother called 911 to report the shooting around 1 p.m. at their mobile home in Bandera, Smith said. When officers arrived they were told the girl's father, 47, was cleaning his gun in the living room when it discharged one round, which went through a kitchen cabinet and struck his daughter. Smith said the father claimed he thought the gun was empty.
Passengers help foil attack on Detroit-bound plane
The commotion began as Northwest Airlines Flight 253, carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew members from Amsterdam, prepared to land in Detroit just before noon Friday. Travelers said they smelled smoke, saw a glow, and heard what sounded like firecrackers. At least one person climbed over others and jumped on the man, who officials say was trying to ignite an explosive device.
"It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase," said Peter Smith, a passenger from the Netherlands. "First there was a pop, and then (there) was smoke."
Service was restored to most of the 12,500 San Antonio homes and businesses left without electricity Thursday after winds battered power lines throughout the day, a CPS official said.
Initially about 10,500 scattered customers lost power overnight, but it was quickly restored for all but about 1,300. The relentless winds caused more problems later in the day, however, producing a new total of about 12,500 customers without electricity, according to CPS Energy.
Crews were expected to restore power before midnight to nearly 200 customers that were still without electricity late Thursday, officials said.
A Chinese court has sentenced a leading dissident to 11 years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power".
Liu Xiaobo, a 53-year-old academic, who was previously jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, had been charged for co-authoring a document appealing for political liberalisation.
The verdict was handed down by a Beijing court on Friday after a two-hour trial on Wednesday in which prosecutors accused Liu of "serious crimes".
Liu's lawyer, Shang Baojun, said he had 10 days to appeal, but Liu's wife, Liu Xia, had said on Wednesday that her husband had no plans to appeal.
Condemnation
Friday's sentencing came despite calls by the US and EU for Liu's release.
"We are deeply concerned by the sentence of 11 years in prison announced today," Gregory May, the US embassy's first secretary in China, told reporters outside the courthouse.
In June, Liu was charged with the "incitement of subversion of state power" and could have been jailed up to 15 years
"Persecution of individuals for the peaceful expression of political views is inconsistent with internationally recognised norms of human rights."May was one of a dozen diplomats stopped by the authorities from attending the trial and sentencing.
Jiang Yu, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, told reporters this week that statements from embassies calling for Liu's release were "a gross interference of China's internal affairs".
The highly-sensitive case has also been criticised by human rights groups, which said the trial was deliberately timed to coincide with the Christmas holiday period, in the hope that international media and foreign governments will overlook the case.
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement condemning Liu's conviction on Friday, calling it a "travesty of justice".
Phelim Kine, an HRW researcher in Hong Kong, told Al Jazeera that "today, we have seen the true face of the regime, and the true face is that the Chinese government uses the judicial system to silence dissent".
"The fact is that it's a myth that China is now more tolerant of free speech. Liu Xiaobo is a high-profile figure, and they have used him to send a message that they will not tolerate these ideas."
Challenging one-party system
The case against Liu centres on his co-authoring of a petition titled Charter 08, which calls for the protection of human rights in China and reform of the country's one-party communist system.
Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan, reporting from Beijing, said Liu's conviction - the longest sentence for "inciting subversion" handed down since the crime was established in the 1997 reform of the criminal law - sent a clear message that the Chinese authorities do not tolerate his kind of opinions.
The charter co-authored by Liu sought amendments to the constitution and called for a multi-party system in China, which our correspondent said may have been seen as a direct challenge to the Communist party.
According to China Human Rights Defenders, a network of activists, the petition had been widely circulated online, and was signed by more than 10,000 people, including other dissidents and intellectuals.
Among the signatories was Bao Tong, an aide to Zhao Ziyang, the late general secretary of the communist party purged for sympathising with the Tiananmen protests.
Bao himself spent seven years in prison for sympathising with democracy advocates.
Liu is the only person to have been arrested for organising the Charter 08 appeal, but others who signed it have reported being harassed.
The petition, which said "we should end the practice of viewing words as crimes", specifically called for the abolition of subversion in China's criminal code - the very crime for which Liu was sentenced on Friday.
Staff manning the phones have received complaints about snowball fights, sledging and poorly gritted roads (clearly, the grit had hit the fan…).
But it doesn’t stop there. The anonymous telephone service, set up to catch criminals, have also fielded calls about a shopping centre Father Christmas who stank of booze and an obscene snowman that featured a cheeky extra carrot.
Another homeowner called to complain that his flashing, outdoor Father Christmas display had gone missing.
The man claimed he was the victim of jealous neighbours trying to sabotage a Christmas lights competition in his street.
Michael Laurie, chief executive of Crimestoppers, said the charity receives about 250 pieces of information a day through calls, texts and emails.
He said: "Unfortunately crime is a year-round issue that doesn't take a break over Christmas."In fact, there are some crimes, such as burglary and domestic violence, which tend to rise during this time.
"While we do receive some amusing calls, it's essential people realise the importance of their information on crime."
Other strange calls that Crimestoppers received during 2009 included a prisoner who rang to moan about his toilet roll being stolen and a drug user who said he’d been sold tree bark instead of stunk cannabis.
Chandria Murphy got quite an early Christmas present this week, covered in 27 diamonds.
It was the precious ring she had given up for lost earlier this month.
For the better part of a week, Murphy, 29, wondered what had happened to her beloved wedding ring after she lost the $6,000 band while working at her mother's massage booth in a Great Falls, Mont., mall the night of Dec. 10.
“My heart was broken,” Murphy said. “I was so sad.”
Dwayne E. Adams always made a great first impression.
Adams, the former Bexar County Democratic Party treasurer accused of siphoning more than $200,000 out of the party’s coffers, has left a trail of disgruntled associates over the past decade. Several accuse Adams of winning their confidence, cheating them out of thousands of dollars and then disappearing.
No matter how sour these relationships turned, however, they began beautifully.
Adams, 54, is described as tall, dapper and articulate, with an easy charm and a knack for making believers out of the most hardened cynics.
Senate OKs health care measure, reaching milestone
- Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats passed a landmark health care bill in a climactic Christmas Eve vote that could define President Barack Obama's legacy and usher in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in the country's history.
"We are now finally poised to deliver on the promise of real, meaningful health insurance reform that will bring additional security and stability to the American people," Obama said shortly after the Senate acted.
"This will be the most important piece of social legislation since Social Security passed in the 1930s," said Obama, standing with Vice President Joe Biden in the State Room of the White House.
Kirby police are investigating a shooting during a burglary Tuesday afternoon that left a teenager dead, officials said.
Authorities arrived around noon at a home in the 2800 block of Von Braun Drive in Kirby to find a teenager and a man shot inside. An unidentified homeowner, who was at the residence during the incident, fired several shots at the pair after they broke into his home, police said.
The unidentified assailants were taken to Brooke Army Medical Center. The teen died at the hospital, and the other man suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Neither had a weapon, police said.
A San Antonio man implicated in the deaths of two young children found under a Southwest Side home in 2007 received a life sentence Tuesday as part of a last-minute plea deal.
Jerry Salazar, 30, was set to go to trial next month in a high-profile capital murder case in which prosecutors were seeking the death penalty.
During Tuesday's brief hearing, he instead pleaded guilty to injury to a child by omission causing serious bodily injury, which is a first-degree felony under which he could eventually be eligible for parole.
As people enjoy a holiday season filled with family, friends and celebrations, local law enforcement agencies are bracing for what they consider to be the busiest time of the year.
Crimes of opportunity typically increase in December, according to the San Antonio Police Department and Bexar County Sheriff's Office. Likewise, the San Antonio Fire Department gets more calls for structure fires in December than most of the rest of the year, and the Texas Department of Public Safety increases its presence in anticipation of more dangerous motorists on the roadways.
“Generally speaking, burglaries of vehicles, habitation and general thefts tend to go up during the holidays,” said Eric Hernandez, a police officer in the San Antonio Fear-Free Environment unit. “The criminals know that during the holiday season, more people are shopping. If you give criminals the opportunity, they're going to take advantage.”
Charde Houston knows all about the kindness of strangers. When the star forward of the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx was 12, financial troubles forced her family out of their home in San Diego, Calif., and into a car where they would live.
Houston would go on to star on the basketball team of the University of Connecticut, but not without help. While her mother remained homeless, a revolving cast of coaches and friends stepped in over the years to provide rides to basketball practice, encouragement and even a bed to sleep in at night.
When Houston read about the plight of Aiyanna Bardwell, 11, a basketball player with dreams of playing in the WNBA, she decided to reach out.
The rest of the story:
HAVANA (AP) - Cuba's foreign minister called President Barack Obama an "imperial and arrogant" liar Monday for his conduct at the U.N. climate conference, a reflection of the communist island's increasingly fiery verbal attacks on the U.S. government.
Bruno Rodriguez spent an hour and a half lambasting Obama's behavior in Copenhagen, telling a news conference, "at this summit, there was only imperial, arrogant Obama, who does not listen, who imposes his positions and even threatens developing countries."
He called the summit "a fallacy, a farce" and said Washington used back-room deals and strong-arm tactics to foist on the world a deal that he labeled "undemocratic" and "suicidal" because it urges - but does not require - major polluters to make deeper emissions cuts.
AUSTIN — If you play the lottery, you might not think it's a gamble to ask a store clerk to check your ticket.
You might want to think again.
The case of Willis Willis of Grand Prairie, who prosecutors say lost a million-dollar jackpot to a now-indicted and fugitive store clerk, might be the biggest prize hijack in Texas. But it's not the only one.
Since Jan. 1, 2008, the Lottery Commission has referred at least five other cases to prosecutors after players complained they weren't paid their rightful winnings: two in Pflugerville near Austin, two in Harris County and one in Brookshire in Waller County.
