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Morgan and Limestone County officials continue to investigate a weekend shooting in Morgan County. It happened at 8:45 Saturday night on Garrett Road in Priceville. According to the Limestone County Sheriff's Department, Tim Garth of Belle Mina shot brothers Ricky and Sam Brown. Ricky brown was taken to Huntsville Hospital where he was pronounced dead. His brother Sam was shot in the leg. Authorities say the two brothers initially assaulted Garth at his home. Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely says the case has not been ruled as a murder yet, and there may be indication the incident was self-defense. No...

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - Since Friday's deadly accident that may have involved an illegal immigrant, the topic has once again become a talker. Many want to know what, if anything, can be done to stop it. Illegal imigration is a problem, especially for law enforcement. There aren't enough trained officers to deal with a growing Hispanic population. That's why city and county leaders are fighting for change. Felix Ortega was charged with murder in the deaths of two teens who died in a fiery car crash Friday night on Airport Road. Nearly a week later, Huntsville Police still have not...

2,000-3,000 attended Tea Party in Huntsville, Alabama

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The Town of Huntsville will be applying to the Joint Emergency Preparedness Program (JEPP) to fund a large-scale mock disaster in 2009." ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Hernen explained that typically a JEPP application involves a 50/50 spending commitment between the program and the municipality or organization making the application. However, in light of the upcoming 2010 G8 Summit being held at Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Hernen said, “they’re willing to look at a different funding formula for us,” and that the town would be applying for a grant to cover 100 per cent of the cost."

HUNTSVILLE, ONT. — ARTICLE SNIPPET: "On Friday, Aug. 8, a vehicle pulled into the Pow Wow parking lot and discharged six men, all dressed in what the locals would call "city clothes" - including dark slacks and leather-soled dress shoes. Without bothering to check with the office, they went down to the beach and began taking photographs of each other, each time with Deerhurst - including the cupola that rides over the main building - in the background." ARTICLE SNIPPET: "These six English-speaking men appeared to be of Middle-Eastern origin. But what really set them apart was their complete unfamiliarity...

Lately I have heard from some of you, asking about the Corridor. Most folks believe it is over, dead, gone from our beautiful East Texas. I have been watching our government's actions on this subject. Did you know that in TxDOT's cover letter to the federal government it states they will only use existing highways to build their corridor? Did you know that TxDOT also stated that it may need to build in non-existing paths also, some time in the future. Citizens, I write you today to make sure you understand that the corridor issue in Trinity County has not...

Prison escape here in Huntsville, TX. Illegal Alien 5'7", 200 pounds, tattooed.

It has been roughly three months since residents of Huntsville and Walker County attended town hall meetings to voice their opinion on the Trans-Texas Corridor/I-69 project to the Texas Department of Transportation. There was no question then that there was strong opposition to the proposed 1,600-mile national highway, and it seems as though residents’ efforts to stop it has not lost any of its momentum. Several residents attended the Walker County Commissioners Court on Monday morning, expressing concerns about the project and encouraged the court to take another step of action. The five-member court agrees with the majority of the...

Plots by Communists to infiltrate America. The disintegration of borders and rural areas. Citizens mobilizing and rising up against government agencies and big business. It all sounds like the plot for a summer blockbuster, but it's something that could be happening in your own backyard. These were just a few of the topics addressed in the "How to fight the TTC" workshop, held Monday at the Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin. The conference served as an informational meeting aimed at informing citizens and local government officials how they can unite in trying to stop the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor project....

A so-called “NAFTA Superhighway� earned support from the city’s mayor and discussion among residents Monday during a public hearing on the Texas Department of Transportation’s I-69 project. TxDOT held a public hearing at the Brownsville Events Center Monday to explain the progress of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a future segment of Highway I-69, which will link the U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S.-Canada border. After a short presentation, the floor was open for comments. Among the local politicians, college students and retirees at the hearing there was a wide range of opinion on the project. According to Mario Jorge, district engineer for...

A big protest is planned for Monday afternoon, ahead of the latest public hearing on the proposed statewide tollway. Lots of landowners are upset about the state’s plan to build a tollway from Mexico to northeast Texas. There have already been several town hall meetings about the Trans-Texas Corridor. Most of the people who have spoken out about the plan say it will put them out of business. But state officials argue the tollway is necessary to keep up with the growing population in Texas. Monday’s meeting is being held in Huntsville. It starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Walker...

Local residents who want to add their two cents about the proposed Interstate 69 construction won't have to fill their tanks to do it. TxDOT is coming to Longview. The Texas Department of Transportation is holding 46 public hearings this month in East and South Texas along the planned corridor, including Tuesday's meeting in Longview. The hearings will give Texans a chance to comment and ask questions about the proposed Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor, a collection of passenger and freight roadways, utility and rail lines from Texarkana to the Rio Grande Valley. A draft environmental impact statement released in November suggests...

The majority of residents from Walker and area counties made it clear Wednesday night how they feel about the proposed I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor. They are strongly opposed to it. An estimated 800 people took action on the controversial issue. The second town hall meeting in Huntsville, offering a chance for open dialogue between residents and the Texas Department of Transportation, took on a different tone than the initial meeting Jan. 23 at the Walker Education Center. With the main building at the Walker County Fairgrounds able to accommodate the large crowd, property owners and other residents expressed their dissatisfaction with Gov....

Some Texans are afraid of losing their land to the Trans-Texas Corridor while others loathe the thought of a quarter-mile-wide swath of toll roads and railway lines transforming the countryside into a superhighway. People continue to turn out in droves at public meetings concerning the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor proposal, specifically the portion known as the TTC-69 proposed from Brownsville to Texarkana. A meeting Monday, Jan. 28, at the fairgrounds in Austin County was no exception, drawing more than 1,000 people. Opposition to the proposed corridor has come from people in all walks of life, said Chris Steinbach, chief of staff...

BELLVILLE — In what is becoming a regular occurrence in Southeast Texas, more than 1,000 Austin County residents and interested outsiders jammed a county fairgrounds exhibit hall Monday night to let a panel of state transportation officials know that the Trans-Texas Corridor was not welcome here. State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, opened the public remarks to thunderous applause when she told the panel, "You all thought I was crazy in Austin when I said my people don't want it and I don't want it." The panel, which included Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director Amadeo Saenz and Deputy Executive Director...

Gov. Rick Perry's ambitious Trans-Texas Corridor plan, and his advocacy of toll funding for future roads, hit the skids in a skeptical Legislature last spring. The road shows no signs of getting any smoother as state transportation officials try to sell the plan to Houston-area audiences. "This will wipe me out," Dee Bond told a panel of corridor advocates at a town hall meeting in Rosenberg last week. The panel, which included Texas Transportation Commissioner Ned Holmes of Houston and Steve Simmons, deputy executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, was there to explain and gather comment on a...

More than 400 people from Walker County and surrounding counties attended the Texas Department of Transportation town hall meeting Wednesday night at the Walker Education Center. According to Bob Colwell, TxDOT public information officer for the Bryan District, the Huntsville meeting was one of 11 town hall meetings scheduled throughout the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor study area. Colwell said 25 TxDOT representatives attended to answer questions. “Tonight is the opportunity for people to ask any questions that they want,” Colwell said. “In the past, TxDOT has gotten knocked for not having open discussions, so that’s what we’re here for.” After the town...

More than 800 people packed a meeting hall in Hempstead for a public meeting on the Trans-Texas Corridor. Seven more public sessions are scheduled. Residents are speaking out about a controversial highway that would cut right through the state. The state plans to build a 4,000-mile network of super-highway toll roads. In Hempstead on Tuesday, many residents said that road could cost them their property. Odis Styers owns hundreds of acres north, east and west of town. But the traffic that now travels through on State Highway 290 could interrupt his peace. A TxDOT super highway could soon plow through...

The State's Transportation Department has nearly 50 public meetings scheduled to hear from people along the proposed I-69 portion of the Trans-Texas Corridor. The corridor is planned as a superhighway with separate car and truck lanes, freight and commuter rail and utility lines. Parallel to I-35 [actually, that's the I-35 portion. --TSR] and the future I-69, today's US 59 are the planned routes. TEX-DOT's Randall Dillard says that several citizen's advisory committees are being set up along the I-69 and I-35 routes to get feedback. Opponents say the corridor will put Texas in a security risk and damage the economy....

The much touted — and disputed — Trans-Texas Corridor may be one step away from a pipe dream and one step closer to a reality. The group this week released its Tier 1 Environmental Impact study, a look at how building the highway, dubbed I-69, running from Texarkana to Laredo, would affect the 50 or so counties it would run through. Bryan Wood, district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation in Bryan, said the first study only looks at how the many initially proposed component of the highway would impact the surrounding areas. “We’re still a long ways away...

HOUSTON -- The state's first convicted murderer to be tried under an obscure law designed to identify dangerous sexual predators will face strict treatment guidelines after his release from prison next year. Wesley Wayne Miller, 44, is nearing the end of a 25-year prison sentence for the 1982 murder of 18-year-old Retha Stratton, who was stabbed 38 times after refusing his sexual advances. In a recent civil trial under the Sexually Violent Predator Act, a Montgomery County jury decided that Miller fit the profile of someone who probably would commit the same crime again. When released from prison Sept. 30,...

Westboro Baptist Church (WBC Chronicles - Since 1955) 3701 SW 12" Street Topeka, Ks. 66604 785-273-0325 Religious Opinion and Bible Commentary on Current Events Tuesday, November 21,2006 NEWS RELEASE (Supplemental info: background, photos, audio sermons & hymns, and video footage - available free at: wwn.podhatesamerica.com, hatemongers.com, and www.thesiensofthetimes.net) WBC to picket the funerals of school children killed in Huntsville, Alabama, when their school bus from Lee High School plunged 30 feet off a highway overpass - in religious protest and warning: ccGod is not mocked!" Gal. 6:7. God Hates Fags! & Fag-Enablers! Ergo, God hates Alabama and America because they...

Disruptive actions prompt weekend curfew of 6 p.m. In two weeks, weekend nights at the mall will be different in Huntsville. Starting Sept. 29, both Madison Square and Parkway Place malls will begin requiring adult guardians to accompany people under 18 on Friday and Saturday nights. The "Youth Escort Policy" announced on Friday is the result of increasing incidents caused by unsupervised youths, as well as customer and retailer complaints, said Lucinda Hartshorne, manager of Parkway Place, and Joe Black, manager at Madison Square. "A lot of parents drop off their kids at the mall because they feel it's a...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The name of the new vehicle that NASA hopes will take astronauts back to the moon was supposed to be hush-hush until next week. But apparently U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams, floating 220 miles above Earth at the international space station, didn't get the memo. Williams, through no fault of his own, let it slip Tuesday that the new vehicle's name is Orion. "We've been calling it the crew exploration vehicle for several years, but today it has a name — Orion," Williams said, taping a message in advance for the space agency that was transmitted accidentally...

(6/27/06 - HUNTSVILLE, TX) - US Supreme Court appeals are still pending for convicted killer Angel Maturino Resendiz -- so Texas prison officials have delayed the scheduled start time of his execution. Officials won't proceed tonight in Huntsville until the appeals are resolved. The death warrant remains in effect until midnight.

Redstone's robotics chief strives to put technology, not soldiers, in harm's way. Many a joke has been told of the military's snail-paced bureaucracy. In Iraq, robotics chief Col. Edward Ward is not laughing. Ward measures red tape in deaths, and military brass have declined to erect hurdles as Ward marches along the shortest distance between the points. Based at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ward is something of a Decatur fixture due to frequent speeches here, all ginning up support for a robotics program that has proved to be the most effective defense against improvised explosive devices in Iraq. Ward, 50,...

Killings up in state, nation FBI reports increase for first 6 months of '05 Tuesday, December 20, 2005 CAROL ROBINSON News staff writer The number of killings in three of Alabama's four largest cities climbed in the first six months this year, mirroring the nation, according to preliminary FBI statistics released Monday. Huntsville saw the biggest jump, with the number of murders doubling. But that was only six killings in the first half of 2005 compared with three during the same 2004 period. Birmingham by far had the highest count with 38 homicides from January through June, up from 24...

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. A grand jury will decide if a Gurley woman will stand trial for allegedly trying to hire a hit man to kill her neighbors to avenge her dead cat. 38-year-old Alisha Grantham is charged with four counts of conspiracy to commit murder. District Judge Lynn Sherrod sent the case to the jury and set Grantham's bail Wednesday at $200,000. She was arrested on May 20th. Sheriff's deputy Marcus Adams says Grantham tried to hire George Nayman of Gurley to kill the family next door. She suspected the family of three adults and a 13-year-old child of killing her...

Galveston may no longer be the most likely target for Hurricane Rita, but the island remains well within the danger zone. The city and county have begun a voluntary evacuation, with a mandatory evacuation set for Wednesday. Brazoria County is planning a voluntary evacuation. Galveston city officials said today that they have have set the city's first-ever mandatory evacuation for 6 p.m. Wednesday and a state of emergency was declared this evening. Evacuation buses are to begin rolling out of town Wednesday morning, with hundreds or even thousands of people on board as shelters open to Galveston evacuees in Huntsville....

Emergency Landing A single engine Cessna plane made an emergency landing on Resarch Park Boulevard, between I-565 and University Drive, in Huntsville around 4:00 Wednesday afternoon. The pilot, passenger and plane are okay. We're told the pilot was showing the plane to a potential buyer when the plane started having problems. It's believed there may have been water in the fuel. Wed Sep 14 17:58:07 2005

Construction firm aims to build foundation for US operations El Pais Spain | M. ELKIN Madrid Ferrovial, Spain's second-largest construction group, bought the Texas-based Webber Group for $220 million (€178 million) on Tuesday, the Spanish company said in a statement to national securities regulators. The purchase of Webber, whose construction and services operations are located in Houston and Dallas, will provide Ferrovial with an established base to provide support for its $37 billion contract with the Texas Department of Transportation to build and operate the Trans-Texas Corridor, running from the Mexican border to Texas' northern border with Oklahoma. The deal,...

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., July 27, 2005 – Fifteen military children took a giant leap for 'kidkind' this summer. It was 36 years ago on July 20, 1969, when real astronaut Neil Armstrong announced he was taking "one small step for man, one giant step for mankind" on the moon. The students were selected from nearly 200 applicants who applied for the Bernard Brown II Memorial Scholarship Fund that covers all expenses involved in sending military children to Space Camp here, said retired Army Lt. Gen. Don Jones, who chairs the committee that raises funds for the scholarships. Space Camp, founded in...

In... 1970, a Washington gossip columnist found herself seated at a dinner party next to rocket engineer Wernher von Braun. "One of the most fascinating men in the world has just moved to town," she gushed to her readers afterward. "The rocket genius is a brilliant conversationalist, extremely handsome and socially charming." It might seem odd to judge the mastermind of the Apollo program's Saturn V launch vehicle -- and, earlier, the German V-2 -- by his savoir faire. Yet Dr. von Braun's gift for talk and salesmanship, together with his technical skill and managerial prowess, were indispensable to his...

I get daily e-mail updates from a Web site called truthout.org. William Rivers Pitt, the site's editor, has been relentless in his criticism of the Bush administration and the war with Iraq. But the site also features well-reported articles from established mainstream newspapers like the New York Times and the Guardian of London. In the e-mail Pitt sent out on Wednesday, he included a link to a letter and obituary he had received from Jane Bright, a resident of Southern California's San Fernando Valley. Bright had a son, 24-year-old Evan Ashcraft, who was killed in Iraq in August. Ashcraft was...

Death Chamber Unusually Quiet in Texas By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- The state is in the midst of its longest break in executions in seven years, a lull some attribute to coincidence but others say may be due to recent changes affecting death row prisoners. So far this year, 21 convicted killers have been put to death in the nation's busiest death chamber, the last in September. But no one is on Texas' execution calendar again until December, when four are planned in about a week's time. The last time the state went so long...

I received an email early this morning from a stranger.........a stranger who sought me out to tell me that an old high school buddy had died, quite suddenly, of a heart attack. No, he wasn't famous. His name was Bruce Parker. We went to high school together in the early '70's in Huntsville, Alabama. Being close to the Tennessee border, a few of us would often get together and drive across the border to some little bar or liquor store (the drinking age was 18 in Tennessee in those days; you know, before Uncle Sugar blackmailed everyone into raising it...

NASHINGTO- Teddy Roosevelt, sitting proudly on his oil-W painted horse in the White House room with his name, must have been horrified at Dr. Condoleezza Rice. As President Bush's national security advisor, she should have known better. She wasn't supposed to say that. Not in a White House peopled with conservative Republicans. Not to a group of black columnists representing major newspapers from around the country. Not in the Roosevelt Room. ''Race matters in America,'' Rice said. ''It has, it always has. Maybe there will be a day when it doesn't, but I suspect that it will for a long...

We're No. 1! We're No. 1!'' These certainly are the right, if not the righteous, times to declare superiority. No, I'm not talking about rabid declarations of pigskin supremacy - War Eagle! Roll Tide! Sic 'Em, Dogs!. This is much bigger than that. I'm talking about the international stage where jingoistic ethnocentrism rules. Our screeches of dominance are being led by President Bush. He seems ready to declare war on tiny Iraq just to prove the point. Yes, our front line is bigger than your front line. Our front four doesn't have 350-pound offensive linemen. We're better than that. We've...

Gun-running is not a term most Huntsvillians would have associated with Oakwood College. A New York Daily News report about a federal investigation into the illegal sale of guns in New York by college students has changed that. Students from three historically black institutions - Oakwood, Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta and Texas Southern University in Houston - have been implicated. At least one student from Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, a predominantly white institution, is also believed to have been in the illegal sale of guns. Dedrick Blue, the newly appointed vice president for Student Services at Oakwood College,...

Know your place, chile. Always know your place.'' I still remember Mama Robinson telling us that, talking about Jim Crow and segregation. We black folks, colored folks, Negroes could never be uppity, always had to be deferential. Folks would be watching. Bad things could happen. She was a sweet old lady, her white hair pulled back in a bun. She wore that ever-present apron that always smelled of pound cake. Yellow pound cake. ''Get you a piece of cake, baby,'' she would say. More than four decades removed I can still see her, sitting in a rocking chair on that...

I Somebody, please tell the Rev. Jesse Jackson to chill. Jackson has been complaining about Ice Cube's hit movie ''Barbershop'' and how some of its jokes about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and him have crossed the line of propriety. I've seen the movie. It's funny, touching, thought-provoking and, at times, embarrassingly true-to-life. And, yes, Cedric the Entertainer's character - a crusty old barber - skewers Jackson, King and even the regal Parks. The jokes made me laugh, but also made me uncomfortable because I knew the crusty old barber was attacking some sacred cows. But after my...

It's time to dump affirmative action. Wow, what a statement. I can't imagine that my fingers, my brain, my muscles actually came together to write those words. A few months back my body never would have allowed the coordination needed to pen those words. And I haven't just written these words, as I did in this space Aug. 29. I've actually spoken them in recent weeks. Those who regularly review my often left-leaning offerings here have to be wondering: How did it all come to this? It's all part of my continued declaration of self-independence. Out, darned crutches. Away, liberal...

No matter what color you are, it's worth paying attention to the discussion that NAACP chairman Julian Bond initiated on our Commentary page Wednesday. His essay expressed displeasure with black political candidates who charge that their opponents aren't ''black enough.'' Bond's charge was that the ''not black enough'' charge is a loaded euphemism that does a disservice to blacks. He's right about that, in part because it's a moving yard stick. What one person considers black - let's say eating watermelon and fried chicken, listening to James Brown and playing spades - often differs with what another thinks is black...

Some life events are so destined to be life-changing that they must be providential. They force a new world view on you. That happened to me nearly a decade ago. It's the kind of experience I wish everyone could have. Right now, I just wish President Bush could have shared it. I reconsidered my epiphany this week as I watched news accounts from South Africa. Media reports flashed off and on from the international environmental summit held in my adopted country Aug. 26 through Sept. 4. Our president didn't make the trip. He was too busy. That's too bad. The...