Texas&Region
Five educators in a Houston-area district have quit after alleged evidence of cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam.
Two administrators and three teachers resigned Monday from the Galena Park Independent School District.
District spokesman Craig Eichhorn says the resignations include Dianne Edwards, who was principal of Normandy Crossing Elementary School, assistant principal Tonia Bush and three teachers whose names were not immediately released.
The Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday that all fifth-graders at Normandy Crossing in June must retake the math and reading sections of the TAKS test. A district investigation turned up evidence that some educators changed wrong answers during the April testing.
The federal government has removed Texas' authority to issue an operating permit to a Southeast Texas refinery, saying the state is violating the federal Clean Air Act in dozens of cases.
Al Armendariz, the regional head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, says the EPA objected to 40 permits late last year largely because they allowed flexible rules for emitting pollutants. He says months of talks failed, so the EPA blocked Texas from issuing its permit. Instead, the EPA will issue a stricter one for the independently owned Flint Hills Corpus Christi East Refinery.
Armendariz says the EPA will also block Texas from issuing permits in 39 other cases, including those for facilities owned by Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Dow Chemical.
Corpus Christi police say a 3-year-old boy died after being struck while trying to run from the family's vehicle to the entrance of a Chuck E. Cheese theme restaurant.
Sgt. Tony Acevedo says the accident happened Monday night when the child darted out of the vehicle and was hit by a pickup in the restaurant parking lot.
Acevedo says the victim, whose name was not immediately released, suffered head trauma and was transported to a Corpus Christi hospital, where he died.
BRIEFLY ...
l HOUSTON - Jailed Texas financier R. Allen Stanford is at odds with the insurer paying his legal bills. Lawyers for Lloyd's of London, during a hearing Tuesday in Houston, told a federal judge that the company is refusing to pay for Stanford's newest criminal defense attorney.
l ROCKDALE - The Department of Public Safety says two children from Rockdale died and two other people were hurt after their car was hit by a train in Milam County. DPS spokesman Tom Vinger on Tuesday identified the children who died as 9-year-old Monterious Hancock and 8-year-old Ahkeem Williams.
l SAN ANTONIO - Federal agents say nine people have been charged in a fake identification ring targeting Austin and San Antonio. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Timothy McElligott on Monday testified, during a hearing in San Antonio for one suspect, that raids turned up document-making equipment, blank ID's and Social Security cards.
Compiled from wire reports