Houston

Texas inmate says he shouldn't die for $8 robbery, slaying

Thirty-five-year-old Juan Martin Garcia is to be lethally injected on Tuesday. His execution would be the 11th this year in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state.

No late appeals seeking to block the execution are in the courts.

Garcia says his case is not a capital one. He contends he was railroaded for not testifying in his own defense at his 2000 trial.

Three-year-old girl diagnosed with type 2 diabetes

The girl, from a Hispanic family, was diagnosed in Houston, Texas, by Dr Michael Yafi, a paediatric endocrinologist with the University of Texas. In a written presentation to the European Association for the Study of Diabetes conference in Stockholm, Yafi said she had been brought to his clinic because she was obese.

The girl weighed 35kg (5st 7lbs), putting her in the heaviest 5% of children her age. She was also in the top 5% for height and body mass index (BMI), a measure of obesity.

School bus crash kills 2 students, seriously injures 3

Houston Independent School District released a statement saying a female student died at the scene Tuesday, while another girl died at a hospital.

Houston police spokesman Victor Senties says a car may have hit the bus after swerving to avoid another vehicle, causing the bus driver to overcorrect and go over the overpass. Senties says the investigation is ongoing.

Names and ages of the victims weren't immediately released. The district says the bus driver and two other students are seriously hurt.

Kids killed in shooting had been taken from home by state

The agency filed a lawsuit in 2013 to remove the children. They were placed in foster care but were later returned to the home. The case was dismissed in 2014.

Texas Department of Family and Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins said Tuesday that his agency can't comment on why the Judge Glenn Devlin dismissed the lawsuit. A spokeswoman for Devlin declined comment.

Texas police: 5 children, 3 adults found dead inside home

Deputies were called to a home in the 2200 block of Falling Oaks Road about 9 p.m. Saturday to perform a welfare check, Harris County Sheriff spokesman Thomas Gilliland told KHOU-TV . Gilliland said deputies subsequently received information indicating that a man inside the home was wanted on a warrant for aggravated assault on a family member.

Texas jail where woman died admits breaking rules

 

The Waller County Jail, about 60 miles northwest of Houston, is under investigation in the death of Sandra Bland, a Chicago-area woman whose family disputes authorities' finding that she hanged herself with a plastic garbage bag in her cell.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards last week cited the jail for not providing documents proving that jailers in the past year had undergone training on interacting with inmates who are mentally disabled or potentially suicidal.

Police: Plane diverted to Boston because of unruly passenger

Police say troopers boarded the British Airways plane after it landed safely at Logan International Airport around noon Wednesday.

Authorities say a male passenger was reportedly being disruptive and several other passengers restrained him.

It's unclear what the nature of the disruption was but a statement released by British Airways says customers and crew shouldn't have to suffer any form of abuse. The airline says such behavior will not be tolerated.