MySA - Texas News

Restrictions loosened slightly on visits to care centers

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 02:30:16 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — State officials have loosened slightly their prohibition on visitors to some long-term care centers as the number of new confirmed COVID-19 infections continues to slowly but steadily decline.

In a policy shift announced late Thursday, Texas Health and Human Services said physical contact between visitors and residents will still be prohibited. However, limited indoor and outdoor visits to long-term care centers will be allowed at centers that haven’t had an infected staff member in two weeks and where there are no residents currently sick from the disease. Indoor visits will require a plexiglass barrier.

Outdoor visits will be permitted at nursing homes that test staff weekly.

The state had banned indoor visits to nursing home and long-term care center residents when the outbreak began of the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The Houston Chronicle reported that a coronavirus outbreak at a Missouri City nursing home has left 17 residents dead.

Of almost 475,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported by the state since tracking of the outbreak began in early March, 14,500 were residents of nursing homes and assisted-living centers and 9,514 were employees. Of almost 8,100 who died of the disease, 2,011 were nursing home and assisted-living center residents.

The number of new confirmed cases overall fell slightly Friday in Texas compared to Thursday, but the infection rate remained high.

State officials reported at least 7,039 new confirmed cases, almost 560 fewer than they reported Thursday.

The state reported 293 new COVID-19 deaths Friday in Texas. The state estimated that 134,760 confirmed cases were active with 8,065 patients hospitalized, 237 fewer than Thursday.

But the rate of positive COVID-19 test results remains high, with a rolling...

Ex-Dallas cop appeals murder conviction in neighbor's death

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 02:30:15 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — Attorneys for a white former Dallas police officer have filed an appeal of her murder conviction in the killing of her Black neighbor inside his home.

Amber Guyger is serving a 10-year prison sentence for the September 2018 fatal shooting of Botham Jean. She testified at trial that she mistook his apartment for her own and mistook Jean for an intruder when she entered and shot him.

In papers filed Tuesday with the 5th Texas Court of Appeals, her attorneys argue that the evidence presented at her trial last year was “legally insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Guyger committed murder.” They argue that Guyger had a “reasonable belief” that she was in her own apartment and there was an intruder inside, and that her mistake “negated the culpability of murder because although she intentionally and knowingly caused Jean’s death, she had the right to act in deadly force of self-defense.”

The appeal wants the Dallas-based court to overturn her murder conviction and sentence and order a new trial, or replace it with a conviction for criminally negligent homicide and order a new sentencing hearing. Criminally negligent homicide carries a maximum punishment of two years in jail.

Biglari: 2Q Earnings Snapshot

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 02:30:14 GMT

SAN ANTONIO (AP) _ Biglari Holdings Inc. (BH) on Friday reported second-quarter profit of $42.5 million.

On a per-share basis, the San Antonio-based company said it had net income of $121.51.

The investment firm that owns or has holdings in Steak 'n Shake and Cracker Barrel restaurants, as well as Maxim magazine posted revenue of $96.5 million in the period.

Biglari shares have decreased 82% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Friday, shares hit $75.50, a drop of 83% in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on BH at https://www.zacks.com/ap/BH

Fort Hood commander's transfer on hold amid investigations

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 02:30:14 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Army leaders have delayed the planned transfer of the Fort Hood commander, as a team of independent investigators heads to the base to determine whether leadership failures contributed to the murder of a soldier earlier this year, and several other deaths.

Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt, commander of Fort Hood, Texas, was slated to go to Fort Bliss, which is near El Paso, and take over leadership of the 1st Armored Division. Command of a division is a key step in an Army officer's career. The Army said in a statement Friday that he will now stay at Fort Hood, as Army leaders consider whether there were systemic problems at the base, and who should be held accountable.

Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen, 20, was killed and dismembered by a fellow soldier. She had been missing since April, and her remains were found and indentified last month. The soldier suspected in Guillen’s slaying, Spc. Aaron Robinson, shot and killed himself early last month as police were trying to take him into custody. A civilian, Cecily Aguilar 22, of Killeen, has been arrested and charged with allegedly helping Robinson dispose of Guillén’s body.

Speaking at Fort Hood on Thursday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said members of the independent panel will arrive at the base by the end of the month to begin their review. The 3rd Cavalry Regiment, which is stationed at Fort Hood, is also conducting a routine internal investigation into the matter.

McCarthy was asked whether anyone, including leaders, will be disciplined or fired. He said that the independent panel will look into the “command climate of the installation," to determine if there is a “sexual harassment-type toxic environment that exists.” McCarthy said that will help the Army "better understand more broadly, is it 3rd ACR (Armored Cavalry Regiment) or is it larger?...

Winning numbers drawn in 'All or Nothing Evening' game

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 02:30:13 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday evening's drawing of the Texas Lottery's "All or Nothing Evening" game were:

01-04-05-08-09-12-13-15-17-19-20-22

(one, four, five, eight, nine, twelve, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-two)

Ex-Angels employee charged in overdose death of Tyler Skaggs

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 02:30:13 GMT

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — A former Los Angeles Angels employee has been charged with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl in connection with last year's overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs, prosecutors in Texas announced Friday.

Eric Prescott Kay was arrested in Fort Worth, Texas, and made his first appearance Friday in federal court, according to Erin Nealy Cox, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

Kay was the Angels' director of communications, and he served as their public relations contact on many road trips. He was placed on leave shortly after Skaggs' death, and he never returned to the team.

In a statement issued Friday after news of Kay's court appearance, the Angels said they opened an independent investigation into Skaggs' death. The team reaffirmed its position that management didn't know Skaggs was an opioids user and didn't know any employees were providing drugs to players.

Skaggs was found dead in his hotel room in the Dallas area on July 1, 2019, before the start of what was supposed to be a four-game series against the Texas Rangers. The first game was postponed, and Skaggs' death provoked an outpouring of grief across baseball.

Skaggs died after choking on his vomit with a toxic mix of alcohol and the powerful painkillers fentanyl and oxycodone in his system, a coroner's report said. Prosecutors accused Kay of providing the fentanyl to Skaggs and others, who were not named.

“Tyler Skaggs’s overdose – coming, as it did, in the midst of an ascendant baseball career – should be a wake-up call: No one is immune from this deadly drug, whether sold as a powder or hidden inside an innocuous-looking tablet,” Nealy Cox said.

If convicted, Kay faces up to 20 years in prison. Federal court records do not list an attorney representing...

Winning numbers drawn in 'Daily 4 Evening' game

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 02:30:13 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday evening's drawing of the Texas Lottery's "Daily 4 Evening" game were:

9-9-7-6, FIREBALL: 1

(nine, nine, seven, six; FIREBALL: one)

Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 3 Evening' game

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 02:30:13 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday evening's drawing of the Texas Lottery's "Pick 3 Evening" game were:

7-6-5, FIREBALL: 3

(seven, six, five; FIREBALL: three)

American oil execs, held 2 years, go to trial in Venezuela

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:32:40 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A Venezuela court has launched the trial of six American oil executives jailed well over two years after being lured to the South American nation and arrested on corruption charges, an attorney confirmed Friday.

The lingering case appears to have taken a new sense of urgency, which defense attorney Jesus Loreto credited to former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's recent meeting with President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas.

“We remain very hopeful that things will improve quickly,” Loreto told The Associated Press following the trial's opening day Thursday. “Yesterday demonstrated a very clear interest in moving the process forward, and rapidly.”

Loreto said a positive sign was his ability to meet with his client, Tomeu Vadell, for the first time in six months. Each of the accused men said they had been treated with “dignity and decorum,” despite a violation of their constitutional rights by holding them for two years without a trial, Loreto said.

Their ordeal began just before Thanksgiving 2017, when the six executives of Houston-based Citgo got a call from the head of state-run Venezuelan oil giant PDVSA, Citgo's parent company, summoning them to Caracas for a last-minute budget meeting.

Once they arrived, armed and masked security agents burst into a conference room and arrested them on embezzlement charges stemming from a never-executed proposal to refinance some $4 billion in Citgo bonds by offering a 50 percent stake in the company as collateral. Maduro at the time accused them of “treason.”

The men are Gustavo Cárdenas, Jorge Toledo, Tomeu Vadell, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano and Jose Pereira. Five of them are Venezuelan-Americans with deep roots in Texas and Louisiana, and one is a permanent U.S. resident.

They...

Ford, Bush presidential adviser Brent Scowcroft dies at 95

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:32:40 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Brent Scowcroft, who played a prominent role in American foreign policy as national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush and was a Republican voice against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has died, a Bush spokesperson said Friday. He was 95.

Scowcroft died Thursday of natural causes at his home in Falls Church, Virginia, spokesperson Jim McGrath said.

Scowcroft was the only person to serve as national security adviser to two different administrations. His appointment by Ford in 1975 came as Scowcroft retired from the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant general. He advised Bush, by then a close friend, during the four years of the Bush administration, 1989-93.

In a study of Scowcroft’s career, historian David F. Schmitz noted that Scowcroft had been at the center of numerous post-Vietnam War discussions of American foreign policy. He was part of the presidential administrations that grappled with U.S. responses to the collapse of communism in Europe, the crackdown in China after the Tiananmen Square protests, and Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent Gulf War.

“The key tenets of his thinking, shaped by the Second World War, were that national security policy had to protect the nation from aggression, provide international stability, control arms while maintaining preparedness, and shape an international environment that was conducive to America’s goals and needs,” Schmitz wrote.

Described as both gentle and tough, a brilliant coordinator most concerned with results, a tireless worker used to 18-hour days, Scowcroft offered a self-assessment to The Washington Post on the eve of the George H.W. Bush administration: “I don’t have a quick, innovative mind. I don’t automatically think of good, new ideas. What I do better is pick out good ideas...

Winning numbers drawn in 'Daily 4 Morning' game

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:32:40 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday morning's drawing of the Texas Lottery's "Daily 4 Morning" game were:

4-2-4-8, FIREBALL: 3

(four, two, four, eight; FIREBALL: three)

Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 3 Morning' game

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:32:40 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday morning's drawing of the Texas Lottery's "Pick 3 Morning" game were:

9-7-7, FIREBALL: 8

(nine, seven, seven; FIREBALL: eight)

Scowcroft, national security adviser to 2 presidents, dies

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:32:40 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A lifetime before he served two presidents as national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft was just 12 when he decided to become a West Point cadet after reading about cadet life. After he graduated with the Class of 1947, he decided to join the Army Air Corps and train to be a fighter pilot. He achieved that goal, too, but then fate shot down his plans.

Just months after earning his wings, Scowcroft was flying over New Hampshire when his F-51 crashed in a frozen swamp. A broken back and other injuries kept him in the hospital for two years. He flew again, but so much time had passed that he decided to turn from tactics and operations to strategy and planning.

And he did. Playing a prominent role in American foreign policy, Scowcroft served as national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, the only national security adviser to two different administrations. He also advised Presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan on defense issues.

“I don’t have a quick, innovative mind. I don’t automatically think of good, new ideas. What I do better is pick out good ideas from bad ideas,” he told The Washington Post on the eve of the George H.W. Bush administration. He added: “It is comforting to be doing things that make a difference. In the end, it’s the job that’s more important.”

Scowcroft, who died Thursday of natural causes at age 95 at his home in Falls Church, Virginia, was appointed Ford’s national security adviser in 1975 as he retired from the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant general. He served as national security adviser to Bush, by then a close friend, during the four years of the Bush administration, 1989-93.

Scowcroft's death was confirmed Friday by Jim McGrath, a longtime spokesperson for Bush, who died in 2018.

An independent...

National Western Life: 2Q Earnings Snapshot

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:32:40 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ National Western Life Insurance Co. (NWLI) on Friday reported second-quarter earnings of $47 million.

On a per-share basis, the Austin, Texas-based company said it had profit of $13.69.

The insurance provider posted revenue of $216 million in the period.

National Western Life shares have dropped 27% since the beginning of the year. The stock has declined 16% in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on NWLI at https://www.zacks.com/ap/NWLI

Winning numbers drawn in 'All or Nothing Day' game

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:32:40 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the Texas Lottery's "All or Nothing Day" game were:

02-04-05-06-07-08-12-13-15-17-20-23

(two, four, five, six, seven, eight, twelve, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen, twenty, twenty-three)

Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 3 Day' game

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:32:40 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the Texas Lottery's "Pick 3 Day" game were:

0-6-6, FIREBALL: 3

(zero, six, six; FIREBALL: three)

Winning numbers drawn in 'Daily 4 Day' game

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:32:40 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the Texas Lottery's "Daily 4 Day" game were:

9-2-1-4, FIREBALL: 2

(nine, two, one, four; FIREBALL: two)

Winning numbers drawn in 'All or Nothing Morning' game

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:32:40 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday morning's drawing of the Texas Lottery's "All or Nothing Morning" game were:

01-02-04-05-07-11-12-13-14-16-17-24

(one, two, four, five, seven, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, twenty-four)

Alert: Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George HW Bush, ...

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:32:40 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George HW Bush, dies at 95, Bush spokesman says.

PFSweb: 2Q Earnings Snapshot

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:32:40 GMT

ALLEN, Texas (AP) _ PFSweb Inc. (PFSW) on Friday reported a loss of $987,000 in its second quarter.

On a per-share basis, the Allen, Texas-based company said it had a loss of 5 cents. Earnings, adjusted for stock option expense and pretax expenses, were 23 cents per share.

The operator of internet retail websites posted revenue of $82.4 million in the period.

PFSweb shares have more than doubled since the beginning of the year. The stock has more than doubled in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on PFSW at https://www.zacks.com/ap/PFSW