(Note: This is a follow up to a story we carried on April 18, 2013 on an explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas.)
The deaths of 15 people and the wounding of 226 others in an explosion at a West, Texas fertilizer plant was completely preventable according to the investigation into the incident.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board said Tuesday that the incident “should never have occurred.”
“It resulted from the failure of a company to take the necessary steps to avert a preventable fire and explosion and from the inability of federal, state and local regulatory agencies to identify a serious hazard and correct it,” Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso said. “The community clearly was not aware of the potential hazard at West Fertilizer.”
The board’s investigation found that the factory was storing ammonium nitrate inside a wooden building that left it very susceptible to fire. Ammonium nitrate is a common fertilizer but is also extremely explosive.
It has been used in terrorist attacks, such as the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing.
A Texas second grader was humiliated in front of her classmates when a teacher took away her Bible during reading time and told her that the Bible is inappropriate reading material.
The girl was reading the Bible during a “read to myself” session in class.
The family has asked the Liberty Institute to represent them as they deal with the school. A spokesman for L.I. said it’s ironic the teacher took the child’s Bible as the library at Hamilton Elementary contains copies of the Bible.
“So if it’s appropriate for their own library, why on Earth would it not be appropriate for their own students,” Michael Berry, senior counsel with the Liberty Institute, said to KHOU-TV.
The school district released a statement saying that during the student’s “independent reading time” that kids are required to read a book that is “just right,” meaning that most of the kids can understand the words.
A new report shows that two thirds of Texas are currently facing drought conditions.
The study from the Texas Water Development Board shows that 25 percent of the state has faced conditions so dry that they are facing “extreme drought” conditions.
The TWDB report shows that the northern and northeastern parts of the state are those hit the worst by the drought. The report also states that almost the entire state has received less than 50 percent of the normal rainfall.
The worst news for the region came from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a drought outlook for the 2nd quarter of the year that calls for conditions in Texas to “continue or worsen.”
Two lakes, White River Lake and Lake Meredith were officially listed as 0% full by the TWDB. Mackenzie Lake was listed at only 5% full.
The only part of the state with more than normal rainfall during the last three months was the extreme southern tip of the state near the Mexican border.
A gunman who was being treated for depression and anxiety and was being tested for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder opened fire with a handgun at Fort Hood in Texas Wednesday, killing 3 people and wounding 16.
Some of the wounded are in very critical condition at area hospitals and it’s possible the death toll could rise.
Spc. Ivan Lopez, 34, committed suicide when a military police officer confronted him.
Lopez opened fire inside one building, climbed in a vehicle and shot at people as he drove to a second building where he shot more victims.
Military officials say that Lopez did not see combat during his time in Iraq. They said that he was a truck driver at the time forces were withdrawing from the country. They insisted that even though he was not in combat, it is still possible he was suffering from PTSD.
Lopez reportedly lost his mother in November and he was having trouble dealing with the loss. He leaves behind a wife and 3-year-old daughter.
A U.S. appeals court has upheld a Texas law that requires abortionists to gain admitting privileges at a local hospital less than 30 miles from their abortion clinics.
A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans ruled the law put in place last July is Constitutional and does not place an undue burden on abortionists or women seeking to end the lives of their babies via abortion.
Lawyers for Planned Parenthood brought in abortionists had told the court that the regulation was unconstitutional because it would require abortion clinics in the state to close. Sixteen abortion clinics in the state have already closed because of the law.
Pro-life supporters say that many of the clinics are not actually closing because of the hospital privilege requirement, but rather they did not want to pay to upgrade their facilities to the same levels of hygiene and safety as other ambulatory surgery clinics.
The decision overturns a lower court ruling that requiring the admitting privileges was unconstitutional.
Abortion advocates said they would continue their fight in the courts to make sure more abortions would be able to continue in the state of Texas.
Houston police received a desperate phone call pleading with them to come and save a family who was being held by smugglers.
The police raided a south Harris County home where they thought the woman and children were being held and instead discovered 110 people who were trapped inside a rancid “stash house” where human traffickers were holding them for ransom.
Authorities say at least three traffickers have been arrested in connection to the house.
The victims were kept without clothing and shoes in an attempt to keep them from attempting to flee the house. The windows were boarded up from the inside and there were bars on the doors and windows.
The victims were between 5 and 47 years old and the majority were men. They were taken to hospitals for treatment for dehydration and malnutrition.
The case of an alleged drunk driver who drove into a crowd of concertgoers at Austin’s South by Southwest Festival has taken a dark turn.
Police now say that 21-year-old Rashad Owens deliberately drove through the crowd of concertgoers after fleeing from police on suspicion of drunken driving.
“For me from his actions, from what I’ve seen this is an individual that showed no regard for human beings. He plowed through in his attempt to get away,” Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo told Fox News.
Owens was scheduled to perform later that night. He has a long criminal record and the car he was driving had been reported stolen.
Owens killed two people who were riding a moped and before swerving around a police officer that tried to stop him and drove through the crowd. He was subdued after trying to flee on foot after driving into a taxi.
The festive mood of Austin, Texas’s South By Southwest Festival has been destroyed after a drunk driver drove into a crowd of concertgoers.
The driver also struck a moped outside the concert venue and killed the couple riding it. The car then struck 23 people outside The Mohawk nightclub, with five critically injured.
Police say the suspect has to be subdued with a taser after ramming a van and then trying to flee on foot.
Officials said that the driver, who was obviously drunk, would face two counts of capital murder charges and at least 23 counts of aggravated assault. Should any of the five critically injured concertgoers die from their wounds, additional murder charges will be added to the indictment.
The section of Red River Street near the incident has been closed and the club canceled all events. No word on whether they will open tonight for any concerts or events.
The city of Wichita Falls, Texas, is still in the middle of exceptional drought conditions and looking at a drastic measure to provide water to their residents.
The city is in the process of testing a plan that would take water from the city’s wastewater plant and pipe it directly to the water treatment plant. The water would be given “extra cleaning” and then placed into the water system for consumption by residents.
The plan should put five million gallons of water into the system if everything works as planned and the system is approved by the state. The city’s water usage, which has fallen from 50 million gallons of water a day to 12 million a day through conservation efforts, would need cut further without the additional water.
The city’s main water source for the town, Lake Arrowhead, is only at 27 percent capacity. Boat docks in the lake are so far from the water’s edge that they stand 10 to 15 feet above water level.
Residents told CBS that while they’re not necessarily excited about the idea of using toilet water for drinking, but it’s better than not having any water.
Texas officials have closed a Houston area abortion clinic because they refused to follow regulations in new state laws.
The Houston Chronicle reported that A Affordable Women’s Medical Center had their license revoked on Friday. The revocation is the first since a law that requires abortion clinic doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles from the clinic.
In addition, Dr. Theodore M. Herring, Jr. has his license to practice medicine temporarily suspended for committing 268 abortions between November 6, 2013 and February 7, 2014. Herring was the clinic’s medical director and sole abortionist.
The law requiring admission privileges went into effect November 1, 2013.
Herring’s lawyers say that the doctor submitted a plan to state officials that was ruled insufficient stating he would obtain the required hospital privileges by August 31, 2014.
