New York Post – by Tamar Lapin

A key witness who testified for the prosecution in the trial of killer Texas cop Amber Guyger was shot to death in an ambush outside his apartment, according to a report on Saturday.

Witness Joshua Brown, a neighbor of Guyger’s victim Botham Jean, was found on the ground, his body riddled with bullets, Friday around 10:30 p.m. outside his building in a Dallas neighborhood, The Dallas Morning News reported.  Continue reading “Key witness in trial of killer cop Amber Guyger shot to death”

Dallas Morning News

Amber Guyger got 10 years in prison Wednesday for murdering Botham Jean, a sentence that set off angry chants outside the courtroom and an unexpected moment of forgiveness inside.

“If you truly are sorry,” Botham’s 18-year-old brother, Brandt Jean, told Guyger from the witness stand before walking down and embracing her, “I know I can speak for myself, I forgive you.”  Continue reading “10-year sentence for Amber Guyger triggers chants of protest — and a hug of forgiveness”

Dallas Morning News

For some legal observers, there was only one word for the Amber Guyger guilty verdict on Tuesday: Stunning.

That’s because a police officer likely never even would have been charged just a few years ago, they said.  Continue reading “Legal experts say Amber Guyger guilty verdict signals major shift in how juries view police officers”

Dallas Morning News

A Dallas County jury convicted fired officer Amber Guyger of murder for fatally shooting Botham Jean in his apartment last year.

Cheers broke out in the hallway outside the courtroom after the verdict was announced.

Jurors will now resume deliberating to decide Guyger’s punishment. In Texas, murder carries a punishment of five to 99 years or life in prison. The charge is not eligible for probation.  Continue reading “Amber Guyger convicted of murder for killing Botham Jean”

New York Post – by Jon Levine

Impeachment can be profitable, Republicans, Democrats and President Trump found this week.

“We’re going to raise a tremendous amount of money off this,” Harlan Hill, a Trump campaign surrogate and re-election advisory board member, told The Post. “Anytime there is some sort of dustup like this, whether it’s Mueller or anything else, we have a huge surge of donations. We’re kicking the Democrats’ ass.”  Continue reading “Impeachment unites Trump and Dems on one thing: collecting campaign cash”

The Eagle

A Missouri couple were on their way to living their own American Dream when devastating tests made them alter their plans.

Elisha and Tyler Hessel bought their first home in Jefferson County, Missouri, last year and planned to use one of the rooms for a nursery. After three years of trying to have a child, they found out they were finally going to be parents.  Continue reading “A pregnant Minnesota woman tested positive for amphetamines. Turns out her home was a former meth lab.”

New York Post – by Jackie Salo

A Florida man was paralyzed when his elaborate plot to kill his estranged wife backfired and the woman’s daughter shot him, authorities said.

Henry Herbig, 65, faces charges after he allegedly attempted to kill his estranged wife Sept. 8 at her home in Virginia Beach, Virginia, news station WAVY reported. Continue reading “Florida man paralyzed after alleged murder plot to kill wife backfires”

New York Post – by Lorena Mongelli and Aaron Feis

A distraught Bronx dad said the final words “With God, with God, with God, here comes the train” before jumping in front of a subway car while holding his 5-year-old daughter, who miraculously survived, his wife revealed Tuesday.

Fernando Balbuena, 45, spoke those chilling last words in Spanish — “Con dios, con dios, con dios que alli viene el tren” — to wife Niurka Caraballo in a phone conversation that sent her running out of the couple’s Grand Concourse home to the nearby Kingsbridge Road station Monday morning, only to find it was too late.  Continue reading “Chilling last words of dad who jumped in front of train with daughter in arms”

NBC

Relatives of people killed in the 2012 shooting at a theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a Batman movie sent a letter to Warner Bros. expressing unease about “Joker,” an upcoming film that has divided critics with its lurid, violent take on the comic book villain.

“When we learned that Warner Bros. was releasing a movie … that presents the character as a protagonist with a sympathetic origin story, it gave us pause,” the five family members say in the letter, according to a copy shared with NBC News on Tuesday by the group Guns Down America.  Continue reading “‘Joker’ backlash: Aurora shooting victims’ families express concerns to Warner Bros.”

Dallas Morning News

Officers scrambled up stairs and down hallways, breathing hard as they rushed toward Botham Jean, who lay dying last September on the floor of his Dallas apartment. First responders frantically took turns performing CPR as Jean lay unconscious with only a faint pulse.

On Tuesday, jurors in Amber Guyger’s murder trial watched body-camera footage from Sept. 6, 2018, the night that Guyger, an off-duty Dallas police officer, fatally shot Jean in his apartment.  Continue reading “Jurors in Amber Guyger’s murder trial watch officers’ frantic efforts to revive Botham Jean”

NBC News

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who for months resisted efforts to launch impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, announced a formal inquiry on Tuesday, saying that the president’s growing Ukraine scandal marked a “breach of his Constitutional responsibilities.”

“This week the president has admitted to asking the president of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically,” Pelosi said.  Continue reading “Nancy Pelosi Announces Formal Impeachment Inquiry of Trump”

The Advocate

A veterinarian prescribed antibiotics Monday for a camel that lives behind an Iberville Parish truck stop after a Florida woman told law officers she bit the 600-pound animal’s genitalia after it sat on her when she and her husband entered its enclosure to retrieve their deaf dog.  Continue reading “After woman bites Tiger Truck Stop camel, animal given precautionary antibiotics”

The Eagle

The floodwaters were raging again in Houston and Jim McIngvale knew it was time to dispatch the furniture trucks.

The salesman is known here as Mattress Mack. From his Gallery Furniture showroom on Houston’s north side, McIngvale, 68, could see Tropical Storm Imelda wreaking familiar havoc on Thursday. There were vehicles trapped on freeways that turned into rivers. First responders were rescuing people from their own homes.  Continue reading “‘I can’t let my people drown’: Houston mattress salesman turns his showroom into refuge — again”

AOL

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard is ready for combat and “any scenario,” its chief commander said Saturday, as the country’s nuclear deal with world powers collapses and the U.S. alleged Iran was behind a weekend attack on major oil sites in Saudi Arabia that shook global energy markets.

Iran has denied involvement in the Sept. 14 attack that was initially claimed by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is in New York for the U.N. meetings, has warned that any retaliatory strike on Iran by the U.S. or Saudi Arabia will result in “an all-out war.”  Continue reading “Iran’s Guard says ready for ‘any scenario’ amid U.S. standoff”

AOL

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday approved sending American troops to bolster Saudi Arabia’s air and missile defenses after the largest-ever attack on the kingdom’s oil facilities, which Washington has squarely blamed on Iran.

The Pentagon said the deployment would involve a moderate number of troops – not numbering thousands – and would be primarily defensive in nature. It also detailed plans to expedite delivery of military equipment to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.  Continue reading “United States sending troops to bolster Saudi defenses after attack”

The Weather Channel

A bridge on Interstate 10 in Texas was shut down indefinitely Friday morning after at least two runaway barges hit it overnight.

The bridge crosses the San Jacinto River about 15 miles east of Houston.

Continue reading “Barges Hit Bridge on Interstate 10 in Texas; Portions of Roadway Remain Flooded”

New York Times

Ric Ocasek, the songwriter, rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the Cars, was found dead on Sunday afternoon at his townhouse in Manhattan, according to the New York Police Department. No cause of death was available on Sunday night.

It is unclear what age Mr. Ocasek (pronounced oh-CASS-ek) was. According to some public records and previous articles, he was 70, other reporting suggests that he may have been 75.  Continue reading “Ric Ocasek, New Wave Rock Visionary and Cars Co-Founder, Is Dead”

The Eagle – by Rebekah Allen

A colony of golden retrievers and Labrador mixes lives in an unmarked building at Texas A&M. Few Aggies will ever see them, and many of the dogs will never know another home.

The building looks like a pristine dog pound, with aisles of bare metal kennels and slatted floors. The healthy dogs jump and bark loudly, pushing their cold, wet noses between the bars of their cages in sterile, white rooms. The sick dogs are quiet.

Continue reading “Texas A&M researchers quietly bred sick dogs in hopes of finding human muscular dystrophy cure”

AOL

Briscoe Cain, a Republican serving in the Texas House of Representatives, is facing a possible FBI investigation over a threatening message he sent to Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke.

“My AR is ready for you Robert Francis,” Cain wrote on Twitter in response to O’Rourke’s proposed assault weapons ban.  Continue reading “‘My AR is ready for you’: GOP lawmaker sends ominous message to Beto O’Rourke”