13 killed in church van crash in Hill Country
On Wednesday, a van carrying attendees of a senior retreat at Alto Frio Baptist Camp and Conference Center was struck head-on by a truck on the way back to New Braunfels, killing 13 of the 14 passengers.
The 20-year-old driver of the truck was in stable condition following the crash. The lone surviving church member, who was taken by air to San Antonio Military Medical Center, was in critical condition.
Federal investigators said most, if not all, of the 14 occupants of the church minibus were wearing seat belts. The National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating why the elderly passengers did not survive, despite the use of lap belts.
Distracted driving has been cited on the part of the truck’s driver, who appeared to have crossed the center line.
Texas is unusual in that it has no statewide ban on texting while driving. Dozens of cities across the state prohibit the practice, but local ordinances may not have applied where the crash occurred in a rural area.
As curtain falls on rodeo, attendance records fall with it
The Houston Rodeo busted through its all-time attendance record this year, bolstered by a massively popular Go Tejano Day concert and three weeks of beautiful, balmy Texas weather.
Despite a shooting scare and concerns about Border Patrol’s presence, the festivities drew more than 2.6 million people, about 100,000 more than the previous 2013 record.
Thousands of Texans snagged last-minute fried Oreos, snuck closing peeks at livestock in NRG Center and took final trips to the 65-foot SkyRide overlooking it all as the nearly three-week rodeo roped in its final hours last Sunday.
This year’s festivities broke records for single-day attendance total, Go Tejano Day paid rodeo/ concert attendance and day one barbecue contest attendance.
A shooting scare sparked an evacuation during the rodeo’s second week, although no one was injured. Days later, a chuck wagon driver ended up in the hospital after a nasty spill during a race. Reports of Border Patrol’s presence stoked fear in the Latino community, although the agency was only on scene to recruit potential employees.
Houston doctors’ immigration saga a sign of new ‘rigid’ regulation
On Wednesday afternoon, Dr. Pankaj Satija and his wife, both immigrants from India living and working legally in Houston, were abruptly told by immigration officials they had 24 hours to leave the United States. A new policy, they were told, no longer allowed them to extend their temporary permission to stay while they waited for permanent authorization.
The couple had never even been issued a parking ticket and pay their taxes quarterly, rather than once a year. Satija’s wife, Dr. Monika Ummat, is also a neurologist specializing in epilepsy at Texas Children’s Hospital. They have two young U.S.-born children.
On Thursday, desperate, they called their legislators. And they reported, as ordered, ready to leave the country, to customs officials at Bush Intercontinental Airport, where they were told the agency had suddenly reversed course.
Texas’ senior U.S. Sen. John Cornyn was responsible for helping the couple win a temporary reprieve after a government mix-up left them with hours to leave the country. The couple won a 90-day reprieve from removal.
St. Luke’s Health System announces biggest round of layoffs yet
On Thursday, St. Luke’s Health System said that it and a sister network in Bryan-College Station had cut their payrolls by another 620 employees, the biggest fallout yet from the Colorado-based parent company’s continuing financial slide.
The purge, which includes 459 layoffs, has brought the total number of cuts at Catholic Health Initiatives Texas division since August to 1,295.
Analysts blamed the hospital chain’s rapid growth over the past five years, including its aggressive entrance into Houston.