Clouds 'line up' in rows as a week of turbulent weather engulfed the area north of McAllen Texas. The brooding skies over the area have showered Texans with hail and violent thunderstorms over the past week. The picture was captured by photographer Delcia Lopez, for the local The Monitor newspaper. Locals reported roads swimming in water and violent hailstorms and thunder sweeping the area.
AUSTIN, Texas – A federal judge on Monday stopped Texas from preventing Planned Parenthood from getting state funds through the Women's Health Program.
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin ruled there is sufficient evidence that a law banning Planned Parenthood from the program is unconstitutional. He imposed an injunction against enforcing it until he can hear full arguments.
The law passed last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature forbids state agencies from providing funds to an organization affiliated with abortion providers. Eight Planned Parenthood clinics that do not provide abortions sued the state. The clinics say the law unconstitutionally restricts their freedom of speech and association.
"The court is particularly influenced by the potential for immediate loss of access to necessary medical services by several thousand Texas women," Yeakel wrote in his ruling. "The record before the court at this juncture reflects uncertainty as to the continued viability of the Texas Women's Health Program."
Texas officials have said that if the state is forced to include Planned Parenthood, they will likely shut down the program that serves basic health care and contraception to 130,000 poor women.
TORNADOES tore through the US city of Dallas this morning, tearing roofs off homes, tossing trucks into the air and flattening semi-trailers. The US National Weather Service reported at least two separate "large and extremely dangerous" tornadoes south of the twin Texas cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. Several other developing twisters were reported as a band of violent storms moved north through the metropolitan area. Officials had no immediate information about injuries.
A spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration said late tonight that the flying fireball in the sky was most likely a meteor.
“Given that it was seen by a large number of people across so many miles makes it likely it was a meteor or a piece of space junk, but most likely a meteor,” said spokesman Lynn Lunsford with the FAA’s Southwest region office.
The administration has received reports from as far north as Oklahoma to as far south as Houston, Lunsford said.
Earlier: Possible meteor sightings have been reported in Texas and Oklahoma this evening, according to news reports.
Multiple reports of sightings have come in to officials from across Travis County, including Pflugerville, Manor and Bee Cave, but so far deputies have not found any damage, according to the Travis County sheriff’s office.
One caller from Manor reported seeing an object with flying sparks fall from the sky for about eight seconds, the office reported.
TV stations in Waco and Oklahoma City both quoted the Federal Aviation Administration as saying the object was a meteor.
In Austin, KVUE meteorologist Mark Murray noted on Twitter that “These fireballs look a lot closer than they really are.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a Texas congressional redistricting plan drawn up by judges of a lower court there, in a ruling that would favor Republicans in November's state and national elections. The high court unanimously ordered the lower court to redraw districts more in line with those crafted by the Republican-dominated state legislature last year in Texas. The decision is seen as a victory for the state's Republican governor, Rick Perry, who had opposed the Texas judges' redistricting as too favorable to the state's new residents, who are mainly Hispanics and blacks, minorities who as a whole lean more Democratic than Republican. The Supreme Court issued its decision just 11 days after oral arguments, reflecting an urgency of the dispute, which needed to be settled before a February 1 deadline for creation of new district maps. The maps are used in elections for the Texas state legislature and the state's 36 seats in the US House of Representatives -- an increase of four lawmakers due to the Lone Star state's population growth. Texas lawmakers redrew the districts -- a process that occurs about once a decade -- but the Obama administration complained that they were unfair to growing minority populations. To address those concerns, the federal court in San Antonio redrew the districts, sparking a bitter legal fight, with both parties seeking advantage ahead of the November 6 election. The Supreme Court ruled that Texas did not comply with "appropriate standards in drawing interim maps for the 2012 Texas elections," and that the judges were "somewhat ambiguous" in their redistricting and did not pay "adequate attention" to the intent of elected state officials. The court ordered the San Antonio judges to be guided by "the state's policy judgments on where to place new districts and how to shift existing ones in response to massive population growth." Perry, who this week withdrew from the US presidential race after a flawed campaign, has been seeking a redistricting more favorable to Republicans, who have dominated the Texas delegation of lawmakers for decades. The redistricting has yet to be pre-approved at the federal level, as required under terms of the Voting Rights Act. But with Republican primaries in Texas set for April 3, a federal court in Washington must decide soon on the new redistricting plans that the San Antonio court has been ordered to present.
AUSTIN, Texas—A federal appeals court cleared the way Friday for the immediate enforcement of a new abortion law in Texas requiring doctors to conduct a sonogram before the procedure.
Imagine coming back from an extended stay away from home only to find someone has set up shop in your house, claiming it now belongs to them. That’s just what’s happened in dozens of cases in Tarrant County, Texas, where the District Attorney says crooks are trying to use a decades old law to conduct a new scam.
“It's just people trying to get something for nothing,” says Tarrant County DA Joe Shannon.
The problem first came to Shannon’s attention this year, when police agencies started calling about strange but similar cases. One of them involved Joe Brunner, the head of a homeowners association in Arlington, Texas.
His neighbor had been in Houston for months getting chemotherapy when the HOA’s security detail called Brunner saying someone else was in the home. When Brunner contacted the man living inside, the man claimed he now owned the home. But that wasn’t all.
“There was a large dumpster in the driveway,” says Brunner. “He filled it up with items from the house.”
Brunner called the police. When they arrived, the squatter showed them a document claiming something called “adverse possession.”
“Adverse possession is a concept that's been around for a long time. It was created when Texas was a Republic to resolve land disputes," Shannon explains. "So for example, if one man’s land had a river as a boundary, and the river changed course over the years, who’s entitled to that land? The adverse possession allowed a new owner to claim the land, but only after openly possessing it and using it for years."
The law is still used to resolve rural land disputes today, but has created complications in the big city.
“There's nothing in the statute that says you can't, so conceivably you could set up camp for 10 years,” says Shannon, “but the chances are there's some mortgage company or somebody that's not getting the payments on it, so it's not real practical in the cities.”
The Tarrant County Clerk’s office accepted about 60 of these adverse possession filings this year before it stopped taking them. Some of the more egregious cases include Brunner’s neighbor, the woman receiving chemotherapy, and a travelling nurse who had been gone for a few months because of work.
“I will say this is the most amazing situation we’ve ever dealt with,” says Tarrant County Constable Clint Burgess. “How anyone thinks they can take a home for $16 and live in it and then grief to a homeowner after that, it just amazes us.”
The squatters have even gone so far as to file mechanic’s liens against the homeowners to reclaim funds for supposed “improvements” to the house. Then they offer to settle with the homeowner, for a price.
To District Attorney Shannon, these cases are criminal, pure and simple.
“A person who moves in without the consent of the owner with the intent to commit felony or theft or assault, then that's a burglary of a habitation,” said Shannon.
So far, Shannon is prosecuting about five of these cases with more to come. Investigators are trying to figure out why these cases have popped up in Tarrant County this year and if any of them are related.
For Brunner, the HOA president whose neighbor was victimized, the damage is done. He says his neighbor is now considering selling the half million dollar home.
The first pictures emerged today of seven people gunned down as they opened their presents on Christmas morning by an estranged husband and father wearing a Santa suit.
Aziz Yazdanpanah, who had separated from his wife in March, is believed to have opened fire at an apartment in Grapevine, Dallas - just after the family opened their gifts - killing seven people including his children and wife before turning the gun on himself.
Just hours before the families were killed, the Yazdanpanah and Zarei families had thrown a large Christmas Eve party at their ranch. Dozens of friends and relatives celebrated late into the night, according to WFAA8.com.
Scroll down for video
Family: Daughter Nona Yazdanpanah and her cousin Sahra Zarei were both gunned down on Christmas day
Gunman: Aziz Yazdanpanah murdered his family and himself on Christmas morning while dressed as Santa
Son: Ali Yazdanpanah, 15, pictured here with his family, was also shot by his dad
Friends say Aziz Yazdanpanah, 56, likely showed up unexpectedly the next morning as he had not been invited to the party as he had separated from his wife in March.
The victims have been identified as his wife Nasrin Rahmaty, 55, the couple's two children Nona Yazdanpanah, 19, and her brother, Ali, 15.
Yazdanpanah also killed his sister-in-law's family. Zohreh Rahmaty, 58, and her husband, Hossein Zarei, 59. Their daughter Sahra Zarei, 22, was also shot.
Mona Hosseiny, 27, who grew up with the children, told WFAA8: 'They were as close as siblings. They basically called each other sister, brother. They were everybody's best friend and everybody loved them so much.'
Wife: Nasrin Rahmaty, centre, was also murdered by her estranged husband on Christmas day
Gunned down: The Zarei family - Hossein Zarei, Zohreh Rahmaty and Sahra Zarei were also shot by Aziz on Christmas morning
After the Yazdanpanahs separated, Ms Rahmaty moved with her children to the Grapevine apartment. They were having financial troubles and recently declared bankruptcy.
Despite their problems, family friends say they never expected anything like this: 'During the years, we sensed things, but not to the point he would take his own children's lives.'
Two pistols were recovered from the home, said Sergeant Robert Eberling of the Grapevine police department, who called it a 'gruesome crime scene' and the worst outburst of gun violence in the town's history.
Crime scene: Police officers stand outside an apartment where seven people were shot and killed on Christmas day in Grapvine, Texas
Comfort: The close friends and family of the Yazdanpanahs and Zahreihs mourned their passing yesterday as the shock news of their murder reached them
A community of about 46,000 people some 20 miles northwest of downtown Dallas, Grapevine is known for its wine-tasting salons and was recently proclaimed by the state Senate as the 'Christmas Capital of Texas' for its abundance of annual holiday-season events.
'This is obviously a terrible tragedy,' Mayor William Tate said on Sunday night in a statement given to Reuters. 'The fact that it happened on Christmas makes it even more tragic. This appears to be a family situation and anyone who has a family will be incredibly saddened by that happened.'
Police dispatched at about 11:30am local time on Sunday, found the bodies in the first-floor living room of a two-story unit in the Lincoln Vineyards apartments, police said.
The 911 caller never spoke to police, and officers did not see the telephone when they arrived, officials said.
Eberling said he believed police had to kick in the door to enter. No neighbors reported hearing gunshots, he said.
Crime scene: Two handguns were found near the bodies in the apartment that was decorated for Christmas with a tree, police said
Investigate: Police officers investigate a Toyota 4Runner vehicle parked outside an apartment where seven people were shot and killed
Inside: A crime scene photographer is silhouetted against blood splattered window blinds in the apartment
Police and firefighters first rushed to the Lincoln Vineyards complex after receiving an open-ended 911 call at about 11:30am, Eberling said.
'There was an open line. No one was saying anything,' he explained.
So police went into the apartment, located in a middle-class, suburban neighborhood of Grapevine, not far from the upscale Fort Worth neighborhood of Colleyville. The apartment is at the back of the complex, overlooking the athletic fields of Colleyville Heritage High School.
But many of the nearby apartments are vacant, and police said no neighbours reported hearing anything on a quiet Christmas morning when many people were not around.
Jose Fernandez, a 35-year-old heavy equipment mechanic who moved to the complex with his family about six months ago, said he always felt safe in the area, but is now afraid to let his ten-year-old son play freely outside.
'This is really outrageous especially on Christmas,' said Mr Fernandez, who was visiting family for the holiday and returned to find several police cars parked outside his home.
Area: The middle-class, suburban neighbourhood of Grapevine, Texas is about 20 miles northwest of Dallas
'This has shocked everybody. It has scared everybody. I guess something like this can happen anywhere, but seven people dead. It's just very scary,' he added.
Eberling agreed the area is fairly quiet, noting this would be the first homicide in Grapevine since 2010.
Mon Dec 26 15:11:51 PST 2011
Grapevine massacre victim sought divorce from gunman
Police revealed Monday that the gunman was dressed in a Santa Claus outfit and waited until the presents were opened on Christmas Day to kill the victims and then himself. Sources identified the shooter as Aziz Yazdanpanah. view full article
Aziz Yazdanpanah, a Muslim, didn't like his daughter's non-Muslim boyfriend and was exhibiting stalker behavior. “She couldn’t date at all until she was a certain age, but when he was going to let her date she couldn’t date anyone outside of their race or religion.”
Again and again we have seen honor killings in which fathers kill daughters who are dating non-Muslims or have supposedly besmirched the family honor by some sexual indiscretion. Lt. Todd Dearing says that motive isn't important -- which is generally only the case when Islam is involved.
"Neighbors horrified at news of family’s slayings in Grapevine," by Gloria Salinas and Scott Goldstein for the Dallas Morning News, December 26 (thanks to Steve):
GRAPEVINE — Aziz Yazdanpanah seemed to be losing control of his life in recent months — his wife left him, his house was in foreclosure, and his 19-year-old daughter was dating a young man he didn’t like.
Even so, the 58-year-old former real estate agent from Colleyville seemed to be holding it together. Neighbors say he would smile and wave as he drove through his middle-class neighborhood. Recently, he was seen raking leaves in his yard.
“He was very friendly, a very good neighbor,” said Carrie Stewart, who lives across the street. “He was out here often doing yard work and he even watched our house for us when we went to Colorado.”
Yazdanpanah, a volunteer high school debate coach described as a doting father, is the focus of suspicion a day after a Christmas morning massacre in which a man dressed as Santa Claus killed six relatives and then committed suicide.
Grapevine police arrived at the Lincoln Vineyard Apartment Homes a few minutes before noon and discovered bodies sprawled among opened presents and wrapping paper. The victims were ages 15 to 58....
Citing public records and interviews with friends and neighbors, media reports Monday identified Yazdanpanah and others who had died: his estranged 55-year-old wife, Fatemeh Rahmati, their 19-year-old daughter, Nona Narges Yazdanpanah, and 15-year-old son, Ali Yazdanpanah.
Friends of the family said Fatemeh Rahmati’s 58-year-old sister, Zohreh Rahmaty, and her husband, Hossein Zarei, 59, and daughter Sahra Zarei, a 22-year-old pre-med student at the University of Texas at Arlington, also were killed.
Grapevine police Lt. Todd Dearing said investigators were working to piece together a timeline of the murders, but they may never know exactly what set off the gunman.
“Motive is not really the primary point right now,” Dearing said. “It’s more along the lines of what happened, how it transpired and making sure that who we believe to be the shooter is the shooter. Motive is what comes afterward for us if we can get it.”
He said a neighbor at the apartment complex saw the suspected shooter get out of his white sport utility vehicle dressed in a Santa outfit, including a full coat, pants, boots and belt. Based in part on that witness account, police believe the shootings occurred about the time a 911 call rang into the station at 11:34 a.m. Sunday.
The line was silent.... Grapevine police also searched the Colleyville home where Aziz Yazdanpanah had been living since he separated from his wife last spring. Public records show that the couple had filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and that the property was in foreclosure....
Yazdanpanah said he bought a gun after expressing concern that his daughter’s boyfriend was stalking him. He also insisted on picking up his daughter from her job at a phone kiosk inside Sam’s Club in Grapevine because of concerns about the alleged stalker.
The boyfriend has not been publicly identified.
Neighbors said the family was Muslim but had always hung Christmas lights on their home — except this year.
Terri Baum, who lives three homes down from Yazdanpanah, said she had seen him around the neighborhood in the last couple of weeks.
“They were pretty quiet, but kind, very kind,” Baum said. “They were sweet, good parents, and they loved their kids very much.”
Baum’s daughter, Allison, attended Colleyville Heritage High School with Nona, where the girls were part of an academic team focused on developing business leaders. They graduated together in May.
“Allison would take her to school from here, and then when they moved out she would pick her up from the apartments,” Baum said. “It’s unbelievable because of the people we knew them to be, and their children were good kids, very focused.”
Baum said she was horrified at the possibility the killings had been a murder-suicide.
“All I want to say is, it is so unbelievably shocking because they loved their kids,” Baum said. Yes, loved them to death. More
5,000 strong showed up in Athens, Texas to tell a small group of Atheists from Wisconsin who felt the need to come to Texas to take down a town's Christmas Nativity Scene, "Don't Mess With Texas !!!"
The Texas Attorney General has offered to defend a Texas county under attack by a group of Wisconsin atheists who are demanding that a Nativity located on the lawn of the Henderson County courthouse be torn down.
“Our message to the atheists is don’t mess with Texas and our Nativity scenes or the Ten Commandments,” Attorney General Greg Abbott told Fox News & Commentary. “I want the Freedom From Religion Foundation to know that our office has a history of defending religious displays in this state."
