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BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) — Two people died and more than 80 people were hurt Thursday when at least 100 vehicles collided in Southeast Texas in a pileup that left trucks twisted on top of each other and authorities rushing to pull survivors from the wreckage. The collision occurred in extremely foggy conditions at about 8:45 a.m. Thanksgiving Day on Interstate 10 southwest of Beaumont, a Gulf Coast city about 80 miles east of Houston. A man and a woman were killed in a Chevy Suburban SUV crushed by a tractor trailer, the Texas Department of Public Safety told KFDM-TV. Officials...

November 12 was the first day that bills could be pre-filed for the upcoming session of the Texas Legislature. State Representative Dan Flynn (R-Van) has pre-filed House Bill 47, an NRA-backed measure that reduces the number of classroom instruction hours required for issuance of an original Concealed Handgun License (“CHL”) to four hours. Currently, students taking a Department of Public Safety (“DPS”) approved course for their first CHL must receive at least ten but not more than fifteen hours of classroom training from a qualified handgun instructor. Under this proposed legislation, the existing core elements of classroom instruction (firearms laws...

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- One suspected robber is dead and another in the hospital after their intended robbery victim pulled a gun and shot them last night in southwest Houston. It happened at an apartment complex on Medfield near Dairy Ashford. According to investigators, the suspects robbed the two men and took their car keys. They then reported tried to get the victims to drive them to the ATM to get more money, but their plan was cut short. One of the victims apparently has a concealed handgun license. He pulled out his pistol and shot at all three suspects. Two...

The Department of State has issued this Travel Warning to inform U.S. citizens about the security situation in Mexico. General information on the overall security situation is provided immediately below. For information on security conditions in specific regions of Mexico, which can vary, travelers should reference the state-by-state assessments further below. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning for Mexico dated February 8, 2012 to consolidate and update information about the security situation and to advise the public of additional restrictions on the travel of U.S. government (USG) personnel. General Conditions: Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year...

For the last few years, Donna Pulkrabek was the manager of UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, a group of scientists and vets and other folks tasked with keeping an eye on how the school treats its animal research subjects, among them dogs, goats, frogs and sheep and mice. It was her job to make sure UTSW complies with Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare guidelines concerning the treatment of animals....

Current hard-drive designs are reaching their limit in data storage, but a new manufacturing technique could allow drive capacities to keep expanding. A technique that enables the nanopatterned layers that store data in hard disk drives to assemble themselves has been improved to better suit mass production, and could enable disks that store five times as much data as the largest available today. Using self-assembly instead of machines that print or etch out features has long been considered a potential solution to a looming barrier to expanding the capacity of hard-disk designs. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin...

AP) -- AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Texas is the only border state that allows and trains its officers to fire on suspects from airborne helicopters

Nov 18, 2012 Father, Son and Daughter Arrested in Bank Robberies A father, son and daughter may be responsible for robbing as many as seven banks in two states, according to authorities. Ronald Scott Catt, 50, and his two children, 20-year-old Hayden and 18-year-old Abby were arrested last week on charges they robbed a credit union in Katy, Texas. Deputies with the Fort Bend Sheriff’s Office in Texas say the family, which recently moved to the area, could also be responsible for several other robberies in Texas and their native Oregon. During the Oct. 1 robbery in Texas, two figures,...

Police stationed along Texas border fight endless battle against drug trafficking and human smuggling: NBC NATIONAL NEWS — Brooks County, Texas is a less than five-hour drive from Houston, but the rural community of just over 7,200 people is facing an overwhelming amount of crime. High-speed chases, smugglers and a rising body count has become a fact of life in a county made up largely of ranchers and farmers. "We have a lot to contend with," said Brooks County Chief Deputy Urbino Martinez. "It takes a toll." Houston's connection to this rise in crime can be clearly seen in the...

the estate tax -- also known as the "death tax."... set to soar at the beginning of 2013 ... The estate tax dates back to 1916 when then-President Woodrow Wilson imposed the tax of 1 to 10 percent on the wealthy because World War I reduced federal government revenues. Under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the tax rose to 77 percent, as Congress tried to prevent wealth from becoming concentrated among a few powerful and super-rich families. Ironically, many nations historically more concerned with class and wealth -- namely Russia and China -- have since abandoned their estate taxes.

BROWNSVILLE — A Department of Public Safety video of an airborne sniper shooting that left two Guatemalan immigrants dead backs up DPS statements that the immigrants were not visible to troopers, according to state lawmakers granted requests to view the footage. State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said the clip, which he viewed in his capitol office on Thursday, contradicts reports by the Guatemalan consulate that a covering concealing the immigrants in the back of the truck had blown off, exposing them to the trooper firing from a DPS helicopter.

Texas A&M student senators want handguns in classrooms, and with a little help from the Legislature, they might soon get their wish. The student senate voted 38-19 Wednesday to ask A&M university officials and state lawmakers to permit concealed carry license holders to bring handguns inside university buildings, said Rusty Thompson, interim director of Student Activities. Student Body President John Claybrook said he has not decided whether to sign or veto the senate's recommendation but wants to have a decision by Monday. The student senate's "Texas A&M Personal Protection Bill," reads, in part: "Seeing a need for self-preservation against criminals,...

McALLEN - A team of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are tracking down illegal immigrants with criminal records. CHANNEL 5 NEWS joined the team during a recent operation. The officers' first target was a known gang member and child sex offender. "This tip came in within the last week," ICE Field Office Director Enrique Lucero said. "Convicted of indecency with a child and sentenced to seven years," Lucero said of the suspect. Lucero is familiar with the felon's record. "(He) also been convicted of four DUIs," Lucero said. The suspect is a repeat immigration violator, Lucero said. The man is...

<p>Presumably, a proposal being developed in Texas right now won’t be necessary should its petition on the White House website to secede from the union be successful.</p> <p>But if not, the Lone Star state apparently wants to be prepared to challenge whatever it views as a federal encroachment on the rights of the state, or its citizens.</p>

After a day of testimony from witnesses for the city of Rowlett, Judge Ken Molberg will see for himself whether safety improvements at the Garland Public Shooting Range are enough to protect a neighborhood more than a mile downrange. The city and residents who have had a problem with rifle bullets on their property and the owners of the gun range returned to Dallas’ 95th District Court on Thursday to settle a request for a temporary injunction to shut the rifle portion of the range down. Early in the proceedings, Rowlett City Attorney David Berman challenged Molberg to visit the...

The San Francisco-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence has released a new report that examines gun laws and violence in all 50 states. The report, titled “Gun Laws Matter 2012: Understanding the Link Between Weak Laws and Gun Violence,” looks at the relationship between state gun laws and gun violence — as well as assigning a grade to each state based on the strength or weakness of these laws. Texas’ grade: F. In fact, the Lone Star State was one of 21 states that received an F in the report. The center takes issue with the fact that Texas...

Three hours west of Washington, D.C., U.S. Route 50 emerges from the West Virginia forest in a gentle curve. On the south side of the highway rises an enormous natural gas drilling rig. To its left and slightly behind it is a gas separation plant under construction. This is the “wet gas” portion of the Marcellus shale-gas play that underlies Appalachia. The separation plant will divide the wet gas into propane, pentane, butane and the like. In front of the rig and closest to the highway is a kind of filling station with color-coded fittings instead of hoses on the...

HUNTSVILLE -- Proclaiming his innocence to the end, a 46-year-old Houston man was executed Thursday for the fatal stabbing of a 3-year-old boy and the child's teenage cousin who told police his first name in her dying breaths 24 years ago. Preston Hughes III, 46, insisted that police planted evidence and coerced his confessions to the September 1988 slayings of Shandra Charles, 15, and her cousin Marcell Taylor. Hughes' mother and sister were among those witnessing his lethal injection.

CBS 7 has just learned that at least 20 people have been transported and Midland Memorial has gone Code 1 meaning all emergency hospital personal must report to the hospital UPDATE 5:12 ***Eyewitnesses tell CBS7 the trailer was carrying the veterans ****

The petition has received more than 5,000 votes out of 25,000 needed for a White House response.