Wreck slows rush hour traffic in Frisco
Driver of 18-wheeler killed; Dallas Parkway closed 2 hours
DALLAS, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) - Northbound traffic on Dallas Parkway was diverted for two hours following a single-vehicle crash that killed the driver of an 18-wheeler Thursday afternoon in Frisco.
A traffic signal at Lebanon and Dallas Parkway was damaged in the incident, which happened around 3 p.m.
The driver's identity and other details of the wreck were not immediately available.
Northbound lanes on Dallas Parkway were closed for two hours following the crash. Traffic was diverted to the east and west, officials said.
The intersection of West Lebanon and Parkwood was to remain closed until 8 p.m. while the crash was investigated, officials said.
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TexasStooge
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Dallas ISD budget would empower principals
Hinojosa wants more school autonomy on spending decisions
By KENT FISCHER / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas school Superintendent Michael Hinojosa on Thursday gave trustees a proposed budget for next year that eliminates the district's school hall monitors and trims central office staff and employee car allowances by a combined $3.2 million.
On the other side of the ledger, there's an additional $6.3 million allocated to reduce class sizes in core high school courses and $3.9 million to expand pre-kindergarten programs districtwide. There's also an additional $3 million to expand music and art programs in elementary schools.
Dr. Hinojosa said the budget reflects his belief that principals should have more autonomy in running their schools, a central component of his plan to transform the district. To that end, he wants to allocate half of the money saved on hall monitors, roughly $2 million, to schools to spend as they see fit.
"Some will hire the hall monitors back, but some will hire more teachers or social workers," Dr. Hinojosa said. "This is empowering to principals."
Even with that, officials cautioned that there are still uncertainties. The new state funding method is a work in progress, and the district may have to enforce a 3 percent cut across all department spending to pay for proposed pay raises for teachers and administrators.
The budget presented Thursday includes an additional $58 million for those raises and benefit increases. All told, the average district teacher should see a $4,100 raise next year, administrators said.
The end result is a $1.08 billion budget – $55 million more than for last fiscal year. The good news for taxpayers is that the state will pick up a larger share of the tab. Local tax revenues are expected to fall by $115 million, but state aid is expected to increase by $173 million.
The average district homeowner should see a $90 reduction in his or her school property tax bill next year. The new budget includes a proposed tax rate of $1.52 per $100 of assessed valuation, down from $1.69.
Trustees are to vote on the budget June 22.
Also on Thursday, Dr. Hinojosa presented a plan to reward principals with bonuses tied to student achievement.
The plan, which is to go to trustees for a vote this month, could put between $7,500 and $10,000 into the pockets of about 54 principals, based on academic performance.
Principals would get the bonuses if their students' scores rise on state and national exams. Schools would have to receive a "recognized" or "exemplary" rating from the state. Several other academic requirements also play into the bonus structure.
Trustee Jerome Garza said he backed the proposal but asked if the bonus requirements could be tweaked so a larger number of district principals would be eligible for the money.
"We have to make it attainable for them," he said.
Board members also voiced support for a proposed policy change that would ban student cellphones in elementary schools.
Currently, students can have phones at school but can't use them during the instructional day. The policy change would keep those rules for middle and high school students and would completely ban the phones for students in the lowest grades.
Hinojosa wants more school autonomy on spending decisions
By KENT FISCHER / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas school Superintendent Michael Hinojosa on Thursday gave trustees a proposed budget for next year that eliminates the district's school hall monitors and trims central office staff and employee car allowances by a combined $3.2 million.
On the other side of the ledger, there's an additional $6.3 million allocated to reduce class sizes in core high school courses and $3.9 million to expand pre-kindergarten programs districtwide. There's also an additional $3 million to expand music and art programs in elementary schools.
Dr. Hinojosa said the budget reflects his belief that principals should have more autonomy in running their schools, a central component of his plan to transform the district. To that end, he wants to allocate half of the money saved on hall monitors, roughly $2 million, to schools to spend as they see fit.
"Some will hire the hall monitors back, but some will hire more teachers or social workers," Dr. Hinojosa said. "This is empowering to principals."
Even with that, officials cautioned that there are still uncertainties. The new state funding method is a work in progress, and the district may have to enforce a 3 percent cut across all department spending to pay for proposed pay raises for teachers and administrators.
The budget presented Thursday includes an additional $58 million for those raises and benefit increases. All told, the average district teacher should see a $4,100 raise next year, administrators said.
The end result is a $1.08 billion budget – $55 million more than for last fiscal year. The good news for taxpayers is that the state will pick up a larger share of the tab. Local tax revenues are expected to fall by $115 million, but state aid is expected to increase by $173 million.
The average district homeowner should see a $90 reduction in his or her school property tax bill next year. The new budget includes a proposed tax rate of $1.52 per $100 of assessed valuation, down from $1.69.
Trustees are to vote on the budget June 22.
Also on Thursday, Dr. Hinojosa presented a plan to reward principals with bonuses tied to student achievement.
The plan, which is to go to trustees for a vote this month, could put between $7,500 and $10,000 into the pockets of about 54 principals, based on academic performance.
Principals would get the bonuses if their students' scores rise on state and national exams. Schools would have to receive a "recognized" or "exemplary" rating from the state. Several other academic requirements also play into the bonus structure.
Trustee Jerome Garza said he backed the proposal but asked if the bonus requirements could be tweaked so a larger number of district principals would be eligible for the money.
"We have to make it attainable for them," he said.
Board members also voiced support for a proposed policy change that would ban student cellphones in elementary schools.
Currently, students can have phones at school but can't use them during the instructional day. The policy change would keep those rules for middle and high school students and would completely ban the phones for students in the lowest grades.
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Arlington police warn of sexual predator
By BOB GREENE / WFAA ABC 8
ARLINGTON, Texas — Police are searching for a sexual predator they say is targeting one southeast Arlington neighborhood.
Police said they believe the same assailant is responsible for three aggravated sexual assaults and five burglaries in the same two townhouse complexes: Heather Glen and Windy Meadows, located just northwest of Interstate 20 and Highway 360.
"This is occuring very early in the morning, in the dark—often when people are half-asleep," said Arlington police spokeswoman Christy Gilfour.
Police said the latest incident took place the evening of June 1 at the Windy Meadows complex. The suspect entered a residence around 8 p.m. and damaged an upstairs window, but there was no contact with the victim.
Gilfour said the same suspect is believed to be involved in these previous crimes:
May 20, 2006, 5:30 a.m.: A man attacked a 31-year-old woman at Windy Meadows townhomes; she was injured.
May 12, 2006, 5:30 a.m.: A man assaulted a 33-year-old woman at Windy Meadows. She screamed and the suspect fled.
May 9, 2006, 5:31 a.m.: A man entered a residence at the Heather Glen complex through a patio door, but fled when discovered.
April 19, 2006, 5 a.m.: A man sexually assaulted and injured a 37-year-old woman at Windy Meadows.
March 20, 2006, 5:49 a.m.: A man was deterred by the screams of a child after entering a residence at Heather Glen through a window.
Sept. 19, 2005, 5:23 a.m.: A woman was sexually assaulted and injured after a man entered her residence at Heather Glen.
"We do believe that the burglaries are sexually motivated," Gilfour said. "It appears that sexual offense was his intent, but it was not completed before he fled."
Victims were able to provide only a vague description of the suspect, a black male in his 20s or 30s, 5'-7" to 6'-2" tall, with a large build.
Police advise residents to keep doors and windows locked, to keep porch lights on at night, and to make sure blinds are closed and curtains are drawn.
Any suspicious activity should be reported to the Arlington Police Sex Crimes Unit, 817-459-5335.
By BOB GREENE / WFAA ABC 8
ARLINGTON, Texas — Police are searching for a sexual predator they say is targeting one southeast Arlington neighborhood.
Police said they believe the same assailant is responsible for three aggravated sexual assaults and five burglaries in the same two townhouse complexes: Heather Glen and Windy Meadows, located just northwest of Interstate 20 and Highway 360.
"This is occuring very early in the morning, in the dark—often when people are half-asleep," said Arlington police spokeswoman Christy Gilfour.
Police said the latest incident took place the evening of June 1 at the Windy Meadows complex. The suspect entered a residence around 8 p.m. and damaged an upstairs window, but there was no contact with the victim.
Gilfour said the same suspect is believed to be involved in these previous crimes:
May 20, 2006, 5:30 a.m.: A man attacked a 31-year-old woman at Windy Meadows townhomes; she was injured.
May 12, 2006, 5:30 a.m.: A man assaulted a 33-year-old woman at Windy Meadows. She screamed and the suspect fled.
May 9, 2006, 5:31 a.m.: A man entered a residence at the Heather Glen complex through a patio door, but fled when discovered.
April 19, 2006, 5 a.m.: A man sexually assaulted and injured a 37-year-old woman at Windy Meadows.
March 20, 2006, 5:49 a.m.: A man was deterred by the screams of a child after entering a residence at Heather Glen through a window.
Sept. 19, 2005, 5:23 a.m.: A woman was sexually assaulted and injured after a man entered her residence at Heather Glen.
"We do believe that the burglaries are sexually motivated," Gilfour said. "It appears that sexual offense was his intent, but it was not completed before he fled."
Victims were able to provide only a vague description of the suspect, a black male in his 20s or 30s, 5'-7" to 6'-2" tall, with a large build.
Police advise residents to keep doors and windows locked, to keep porch lights on at night, and to make sure blinds are closed and curtains are drawn.
Any suspicious activity should be reported to the Arlington Police Sex Crimes Unit, 817-459-5335.
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Plano: Body found in trunk of car
By TIARA M. ELLIS / The Dallas Morning News
PLANO, Texas - Plano police and fire officials discovered a decomposed body in the trunk of a car in a discount retail store parking lot Friday morning, officials said.
A Sam’s Club employee called police at 8:07 a.m. to report that a car had been sitting in the parking lot on Coit Road south of Plano Parkway for some time, and a strong odor was coming from it.
When fire officials opened the trunk of the silver Toyota Camry, they found the body, said a Plano police spokesman Detective Jerry Minton.
"Due to the condition of the body, we couldn’t tell if it was male or female," Detective Minton said, adding that race and age were also unidentifiable. "We are going to have to wait for that determination from the ME’s [medical examiner's] office."
Police have contacted the owner or previously registered owner of the car, and are investigating this case as a suspicious death. Police will wait for Collin County Medical Examiner Dr. William Rohr to declare a cause of death to determine how to proceed with their investigation, said Detective Minton.
By TIARA M. ELLIS / The Dallas Morning News
PLANO, Texas - Plano police and fire officials discovered a decomposed body in the trunk of a car in a discount retail store parking lot Friday morning, officials said.
A Sam’s Club employee called police at 8:07 a.m. to report that a car had been sitting in the parking lot on Coit Road south of Plano Parkway for some time, and a strong odor was coming from it.
When fire officials opened the trunk of the silver Toyota Camry, they found the body, said a Plano police spokesman Detective Jerry Minton.
"Due to the condition of the body, we couldn’t tell if it was male or female," Detective Minton said, adding that race and age were also unidentifiable. "We are going to have to wait for that determination from the ME’s [medical examiner's] office."
Police have contacted the owner or previously registered owner of the car, and are investigating this case as a suspicious death. Police will wait for Collin County Medical Examiner Dr. William Rohr to declare a cause of death to determine how to proceed with their investigation, said Detective Minton.
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Fireman's Fund plans offices downtown
Insurer's move could prove biggest employment boost since Blockbuster's relocation
By ANGELA SHAH and STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. has chosen Dallas as home to a national service center.
The 143-year-old insurer, based in Novato, Calif., already has 180 employees downtown in a regional office and expects to add 70 more people to that staff, said Janet Ruiz, a Fireman's Fund spokeswoman.
But the firm eventually could add far more new jobs, she said.
Real-estate sources said the figure could be as high as 400.
Such an expansion could mark one of the biggest employment boosts to the downtown area since Blockbuster Inc. moved its headquarters to the central business district in 1997.
At Fireman's Fund, the national customer service center will have teams in direct sales and sales support, as well as a centralized call center.
The operation will provide field support for the company's employees working in remote locations and support for independent agents who sell the insurer's products and services, Ms. Ruiz said.
Real estate brokers say that Fireman's Fund will need as much as 125,000 square feet of office space in locations downtown and in central Dallas.
But the office could grow even larger if the company decides to shift more workers here, rather than to a similar facility in St. Louis. Getting the extra workers will depend on what economic incentives the insurance company can secure, brokers say.
The Dallas City Council is expected to review an incentive package in August. Details were not available Friday, but typically, the city can provide help with infrastructure, tax abatements and development fee rebates.
No one from the state's office of economic development was available to comment on any application made by Fireman's Fund for a state package, said a governor's spokeswoman.
The state of Missouri and St. Louis are also expected to offer incentives to lure additional jobs.
With many large blocks of office space available, Fireman's Fund won't have any trouble increasing its operation in downtown Dallas or in other close-in office markets.
Rick Hughes of real estate broker Cushman & Wakefield of Texas is representing the insurance company in its search for office space in Dallas. Mr. Hughes was out of the office on Friday.
The company now occupies more than 80,000 square feet in the Harwood Center building at Bryan and Harwood streets under a lease that will expire in 2008.
The 70 new employees will work in the company's existing space. No decisions have been made about where an expansion might take place, Ms. Ruiz said.
The first to insure the "horseless carriage" and airplanes, Fireman's Fund was founded in 1863 and gets its name because it used to pay widows and orphans of firefighters 10 percent of its profits.
Insurer's move could prove biggest employment boost since Blockbuster's relocation
By ANGELA SHAH and STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. has chosen Dallas as home to a national service center.
The 143-year-old insurer, based in Novato, Calif., already has 180 employees downtown in a regional office and expects to add 70 more people to that staff, said Janet Ruiz, a Fireman's Fund spokeswoman.
But the firm eventually could add far more new jobs, she said.
Real-estate sources said the figure could be as high as 400.
Such an expansion could mark one of the biggest employment boosts to the downtown area since Blockbuster Inc. moved its headquarters to the central business district in 1997.
At Fireman's Fund, the national customer service center will have teams in direct sales and sales support, as well as a centralized call center.
The operation will provide field support for the company's employees working in remote locations and support for independent agents who sell the insurer's products and services, Ms. Ruiz said.
Real estate brokers say that Fireman's Fund will need as much as 125,000 square feet of office space in locations downtown and in central Dallas.
But the office could grow even larger if the company decides to shift more workers here, rather than to a similar facility in St. Louis. Getting the extra workers will depend on what economic incentives the insurance company can secure, brokers say.
The Dallas City Council is expected to review an incentive package in August. Details were not available Friday, but typically, the city can provide help with infrastructure, tax abatements and development fee rebates.
No one from the state's office of economic development was available to comment on any application made by Fireman's Fund for a state package, said a governor's spokeswoman.
The state of Missouri and St. Louis are also expected to offer incentives to lure additional jobs.
With many large blocks of office space available, Fireman's Fund won't have any trouble increasing its operation in downtown Dallas or in other close-in office markets.
Rick Hughes of real estate broker Cushman & Wakefield of Texas is representing the insurance company in its search for office space in Dallas. Mr. Hughes was out of the office on Friday.
The company now occupies more than 80,000 square feet in the Harwood Center building at Bryan and Harwood streets under a lease that will expire in 2008.
The 70 new employees will work in the company's existing space. No decisions have been made about where an expansion might take place, Ms. Ruiz said.
The first to insure the "horseless carriage" and airplanes, Fireman's Fund was founded in 1863 and gets its name because it used to pay widows and orphans of firefighters 10 percent of its profits.
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TexasStooge
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11 injured in Downtown Dallas shooting
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A gunman opened fire on a crowd of people in downtown Dallas early Saturday morning, injuring as many as 11 people.
The shooting spree happened shortly after 2 a.m. outside the Thomas & Leggitt Tavern in the 1500 block of Main Street.
Police said two men started arguing outside the pub shortly after it closed.
A third man reportedly tried to intervene when one of the other men pulled a gun and started firing randomly into the crowd.
"He ran, not steadying his shot," said Brady Carl, who saw what happened. "And he fired, fired, fired, fired, fired, fired. And then he finally turned and just started running."
As many as 11 people were wounded. One man, critically injured, was rushed to nearby Baylor University Medical Center.
"A couple was standing outside on the sidewalk; they became involved in a confrontation with what looked like two male suspects," said Dallas police spokesman Sgt. Gil Cerda. "The husband, we belive at this time, tried to defuse the situation. However, one of the suspects pulled out a gun—we don't know what type at this time—and started shooting multiple victims."
The gunman and two companions reportedly fled on foot.
"It seemed unreal. People hit the deck," Carl said. "There's blood all over the concrete. It seemed like a movie."
Police were searching in and around the downtown area for the suspects.
WFAA-TV photojournalist Robert Flagg and WBAP Radio contributed to this report.
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A gunman opened fire on a crowd of people in downtown Dallas early Saturday morning, injuring as many as 11 people.
The shooting spree happened shortly after 2 a.m. outside the Thomas & Leggitt Tavern in the 1500 block of Main Street.
Police said two men started arguing outside the pub shortly after it closed.
A third man reportedly tried to intervene when one of the other men pulled a gun and started firing randomly into the crowd.
"He ran, not steadying his shot," said Brady Carl, who saw what happened. "And he fired, fired, fired, fired, fired, fired. And then he finally turned and just started running."
As many as 11 people were wounded. One man, critically injured, was rushed to nearby Baylor University Medical Center.
"A couple was standing outside on the sidewalk; they became involved in a confrontation with what looked like two male suspects," said Dallas police spokesman Sgt. Gil Cerda. "The husband, we belive at this time, tried to defuse the situation. However, one of the suspects pulled out a gun—we don't know what type at this time—and started shooting multiple victims."
The gunman and two companions reportedly fled on foot.
"It seemed unreal. People hit the deck," Carl said. "There's blood all over the concrete. It seemed like a movie."
Police were searching in and around the downtown area for the suspects.
WFAA-TV photojournalist Robert Flagg and WBAP Radio contributed to this report.
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Drug dealer accused of ordering hit on Dallas officer
By GARY REAVES / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - It sounds like the plot of a movie - drug dealers take over an east side apartment complex, and call for the murder of a pesky cop.
But those are facts from a federal indictment in Dallas.
In the shadow of Central Expressway's gleaming Cityplace Tower, the Park Place Apartments are a few blocks and a whole world away.
The sign says 'no drugs,' but the manager was just indicted for letting members of two notorious gangs move in and deal drugs with impunity.
"They all have one common denominator, in that they are ruthless, will kill and sell drugs," said Phil Jordan, former Dallas DEA chief.
Nicknamed Cubano, federal authorities say Emiliano Martinez, and his wife, Monica Chavez, ran a major drug operation, turning their Fitzhugh home into a drug house where agents bought three ounces of crack cocaine.
They also believe he ordered a hit on a Dallas police gang unit member. Officers now plan to turn up the heat.
"We're gonna be aggressive in our pursuit of individuals involved in this kind of stuff and these kind of threats will only intensify our investigation," said Sgt. Mark Langford, from the DPD gang unit.
Back at Park Place Apartment office, we found the indicted manager, Elizabeth Lozano, out of jail and back on the job. She wouldn't talk and nor would the owner.
"If he knows she is doing this, then that apartment could possibly be seized and forfeited to government," said Jordan.
The warning is the same as the one left scrawled on the alleged dealers' door - 'you are being watched.'
By GARY REAVES / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - It sounds like the plot of a movie - drug dealers take over an east side apartment complex, and call for the murder of a pesky cop.
But those are facts from a federal indictment in Dallas.
In the shadow of Central Expressway's gleaming Cityplace Tower, the Park Place Apartments are a few blocks and a whole world away.
The sign says 'no drugs,' but the manager was just indicted for letting members of two notorious gangs move in and deal drugs with impunity.
"They all have one common denominator, in that they are ruthless, will kill and sell drugs," said Phil Jordan, former Dallas DEA chief.
Nicknamed Cubano, federal authorities say Emiliano Martinez, and his wife, Monica Chavez, ran a major drug operation, turning their Fitzhugh home into a drug house where agents bought three ounces of crack cocaine.
They also believe he ordered a hit on a Dallas police gang unit member. Officers now plan to turn up the heat.
"We're gonna be aggressive in our pursuit of individuals involved in this kind of stuff and these kind of threats will only intensify our investigation," said Sgt. Mark Langford, from the DPD gang unit.
Back at Park Place Apartment office, we found the indicted manager, Elizabeth Lozano, out of jail and back on the job. She wouldn't talk and nor would the owner.
"If he knows she is doing this, then that apartment could possibly be seized and forfeited to government," said Jordan.
The warning is the same as the one left scrawled on the alleged dealers' door - 'you are being watched.'
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Downtown mass shooting: 'may have been over man's wife'
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Police say a gunman who opened fire on a crowd in downtown Dallas on Saturday, injuring as many as 11 people, may have argued with a man after he touched his wife.
The shooting spree happened shortly after 2 a.m. outside the Thomas & Leggitt Tavern in the 1500 block of Main Street.
Police said two men started arguing outside the pub shortly after it closed.
A third man reportedly tried to intervene when one of the other men pulled a gun and started firing randomly into the crowd. The target was said to be a woman's husband.
"[It may have been] for even touching the wife," said Sgt. Gil Cerda.
"He ran, not steadying his shot," said Brady Carl, who saw what happened. "And he fired, fired, fired, fired, fired, fired. And then he finally turned and just started running."
Of the 11 people who were wounded, 9 were hospitalized. One man, critically injured, was rushed to nearby Baylor University Medical Center.
Diana Lopez, 21, a UNT student and model, was shot in hip.
"She is traumatized. They gave her morphine and other drugs they have. She cried the whole time. I want to cry, too," said her mother, Silvia Lopez.
The gunman and two companions reportedly fled on foot.
"It seemed unreal. People hit the deck," Carl said. "There's blood all over the concrete. It seemed like a movie."
Police were searching in and around the downtown area for the suspects.
WFAA-TV photojournalist Robert Flagg, Debbie Denmon and WBAP News/Talk 820 AM Radio contributed to this report.
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Police say a gunman who opened fire on a crowd in downtown Dallas on Saturday, injuring as many as 11 people, may have argued with a man after he touched his wife.
The shooting spree happened shortly after 2 a.m. outside the Thomas & Leggitt Tavern in the 1500 block of Main Street.
Police said two men started arguing outside the pub shortly after it closed.
A third man reportedly tried to intervene when one of the other men pulled a gun and started firing randomly into the crowd. The target was said to be a woman's husband.
"[It may have been] for even touching the wife," said Sgt. Gil Cerda.
"He ran, not steadying his shot," said Brady Carl, who saw what happened. "And he fired, fired, fired, fired, fired, fired. And then he finally turned and just started running."
Of the 11 people who were wounded, 9 were hospitalized. One man, critically injured, was rushed to nearby Baylor University Medical Center.
Diana Lopez, 21, a UNT student and model, was shot in hip.
"She is traumatized. They gave her morphine and other drugs they have. She cried the whole time. I want to cry, too," said her mother, Silvia Lopez.
The gunman and two companions reportedly fled on foot.
"It seemed unreal. People hit the deck," Carl said. "There's blood all over the concrete. It seemed like a movie."
Police were searching in and around the downtown area for the suspects.
WFAA-TV photojournalist Robert Flagg, Debbie Denmon and WBAP News/Talk 820 AM Radio contributed to this report.
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Parkland is brimming with babies
By SHERRY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - The baby was born healthy and crying, and his mother managed a faint smile before anyone realized that a routine C-section was going terribly wrong.
Suddenly, blood was everywhere in the operating room at Parkland Memorial Hospital, and a call went out to a third-year medical resident to get there "stat" and take over the surgery.
It was Dr. Lisa Remedios' job that day to grapple with any surgical complications that came up at the second-busiest maternity unit in America. In this case, she had to stop Fabiola Oviedo from hemorrhaging to death.
"I ran all the way to the operating room because I knew she'd be bleeding until I got there," the doctor recalled. "There was no screaming or yelling, but the situation was tense."
Doctors determined that the placenta that cradled Ms. Oviedo's baby had grown into the wall of her uterus, a potentially life-threatening condition that occurs once in every 2,500 deliveries. The 24-year-old Duncanville woman underwent an emergency hysterectomy and required the infusion of 10 units of blood – essentially replacing her blood supply.
Ms. Oviedo probably would have died at another hospital – but not at Parkland.
"The whole system is poised to take care of a patient like this," said Dr. Remedios, who was covered in blood by the end of Ms. Oviedo's successful surgery.
It was a particularly hectic April day at Parkland, with 57 babies born, a third more than normal. Women were in labor in the hallways, doctors and nurses were too busy to break for lunch or dinner, and, suddenly, Ms. Oviedo's emergency cropped up.
Still, it wasn't too much to handle at Dallas County's public hospital, where delivering healthy babies has become a primary focus and a source of deep pride.
Last year, Parkland's doctors and nurse-midwives delivered 15,590 babies – a diaper-wearing contingent that was double the population of Highland Park.
Babies arrive at Parkland at an average rate of 42 infants per day. Feeding this birthing frenzy: the growing number of Hispanic immigrants using the hospital.
More than 80 percent of the women who gave birth at Parkland last year had Hispanic surnames. The hospital does not focus on whether these women are legal residents of the U.S. Federal law requires hospitals to care for any woman who shows up in labor.
"We are the safety net hospital for Dallas County, and these folks are residents of our county," said Dr. Ron Anderson, president and chief executive officer of Parkland.
The hospital spent almost $71 million to deliver the babies born there in 2004, with Dallas County taxpayers covering about 40 percent of the cost and federal and state funds making up the difference – and then some. The maternity program ended the year with a surplus of almost $8 million.
The magnitude of the annual baby boom tends to overshadow Parkland's highly successful method for delivering babies and the way it can quickly respond when anything goes awry.
It's called "The Parkland Way," and Dallas County's charity hospital is famous for inventing it.
"People at Parkland respond very quickly and effectively to situations like this," said Dr. George Wendel, the obstetrician-gynecologist who oversaw Ms. Oviedo's life-saving surgery. "They go back to what they were taught, and, in general, things work out."
Later in the recovery room, Ms. Oviedo was grateful to the doctors who saved her life. Pushing aside her oxygen mask, she whispered through an interpreter, "They knew what they were doing."
Standard for care
A pregnant woman who makes it to Parkland – or one of its nine prenatal clinics – does not step onto a conveyor belt that carries her through an impersonal birthing factory. But, she does turn herself over to doctors and nurses who have created a massive delivery system that standardizes nearly every facet of care.
Each woman gets the same number of prenatal visits, the same tests, the same vitamins and, virtually, the same medical care – as long as her pregnancy is normal.
She doesn't get a sonogram unless there is a medical reason for one. She might not see a doctor unless there are complications. Nurse practitioners routinely oversee routine prenatal care, and nurse-midwives handle thousands of uncomplicated deliveries.
The key: No one does anything on a whim.
"One of the reasons we do things so well is that we have these algorithms set up to make it work," said Kim Brinkman, a registered nurse at Parkland for nine years. "It's a step-by-step approach to how we take care of our patients and handle certain emergencies."
If there is a code word that describes Parkland's approach to obstetrics care, it is algorithm, a mathematical rule or complex recipe that directs every aspect of patient care.
Although some experts criticize Parkland for taking a "cookbook" approach, the hospital's nurses and doctors endorse it as the only way to cope with the overwhelming number of deliveries.
"You go through a series of questions and answers to figure out what needs to be done for the patient. It's the way we've all been trained to think," said Miriam Sibley, a registered nurse and Parkland's senior vice president of Women and Infants' Specialty Health.
The approach is so well-regarded that Parkland's doctors are the primary authors of the nation's premier maternity textbook, Williams Obstetrics, which is used to train most U.S. obstetricians.
"The book is important to many people because it's based on experiences at Parkland hospital. There's been a long history of evidence-based medicine here over the years, and we've codified how we do things," said Dr. Kenneth Leveno, chief of obstetrics at Parkland and a co-author of the 22nd edition of the 1,441-page book.
Dr. I. Murphy Goodwin, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Southern California, said Parkland's delivery system has kept pace with medical developments.
"Parkland has a signature way of doing things – and it's constantly improving it," he said. "If doctors across the country don't know the name of Parkland hospital, they are still affected by it."
Parkland doctors, who also are affiliated with UT Southwestern Medical School, have been refining their maternity protocols since the 1950s to accommodate more and more births as well as assure quality care.
"What's really remarkable about this place is that these things work," said Dr. Leveno, who also is the vice chairman of maternal-fetal medicine at UT Southwestern. "The patients can go through the system with rather consistent health care based on our experiences. Our computer system has been set up since 1982 to measure their outcomes."
In 2002, Parkland's neonatal mortality rates – deaths that occur within the first 28 days of life – were far lower than the national average, which stood at 4.7 deaths per 1,000 U.S. births. At Parkland, the mortality rate for newborns whose mothers received prenatal care was 2.7 per 1,000 births.
For black babies, the hospital's mortality rate was about half the national average, and for Hispanic babies, the rate was a third better than the rest of the nation.
Seeing mothers early on
The path to Parkland's successful deliveries nearly always starts in the hospital's prenatal clinics. Studies have suggested that for every dollar spent on prenatal care, hospitals save several dollars on delivery and postpartum care because fewer babies are underweight at birth or suffering unexpected complications.
"It's a public health program predicated on the assumption that by the time a woman gets to delivery, it is too late to change the course of the outcome," Dr. Leveno said. "You need to get to her first in the community to affect the outcome of the delivery."
More than 90 percent of women who deliver at Parkland receive care at the hospital's prenatal clinics scattered throughout low-income areas in Dallas County.
Word-of-mouth generally spurs pregnant women to call Parkland when they first suspect they're pregnant, noted William Lodriguez, a nurse practitioner, who formerly supervised the Maple Plaza Prenatal Clinic.
"The hospital's goal is to give a woman an appointment within two weeks of that first call," he said. "We overbook, but it's not a problem."
About 20,000 women annually seek prenatal care in the county hospital system, although 5,000 of them eventually choose to have their babies at other hospitals.
Losing patients to other hospitals doesn't alleviate Parkland's heavy load. It has relied heavily on those medical formulas to move an ever-increasing number of pregnant women through a facility that officials say is half the size needed to accommodate them.
The main hospital building was completed in 1954, when 3,596 women delivered babies there, less than a quarter of the 2005 baby boom.
"We're 200 percent undersized for the current patient population," Dr. Anderson said. "We know that renovation costs would exceed replacement costs. The question becomes, What will we do with overcrowding if the number of births continues to rise?"
Parkland supporters have tried to inspire community backing to build a new facility to house women and infants' services as well as meet government safety and patient-privacy standards.
As recently as 2002, the hospital's board of managers unanimously endorsed a $300 million construction plan for a new birthing center. But the proposal quickly evaporated in favor of a larger, but ill-fated, facility that would replace the entire hospital at an estimated cost of $1.6 billion.
"There was sticker shock when the plan came out, and we never got a chance to take it to the public," Dr. Anderson said. "Next time, we have to bring the idea along more openly so that everyone understands the need to build it."
A blue ribbon panel has endorsed the idea of replacing all of Parkland, possibly with several smaller facilities throughout the county. A final recommendation is expected later this year.
Spilling into the halls
Friday is usually the busiest and most overcrowded delivery day at Parkland because patients nearing their due dates – as well as those who are overdue – attend a weekly clinic at the hospital, said Becky Scasta, former associate unit manager. These women are placed briefly on fetal monitors before they can leave the building.
"They want to make sure the patients are OK before they send them home for the weekend," Ms. Scasta said. "The patients come here to rule out problems. They may have blood pressure issues but it's too early for delivery. Some get to go home. Some don't."
Often, the patients end up in beds lining the corridors of Parkland's three labor and delivery units. An eerie background noise of fetal heartbeats fills the air.
One patient, Lizbeth Sosa, 19, highlighted the hazards of being relegated to a hallway bed. Thirty-seven weeks pregnant and suffering from high blood pressure, she was required to lie still for two hours to see whether medication would bring down the rate.
To give her a physical exam, the staff outlined her hallway bed with six blue screens, from which a rusty rod jutted into the narrow aisle alongside her bed. Through the space between the panels, anyone nearby could see what was happening behind the screen.
Asked later how she felt lying in the hallway bed, Ms. Sosa said she didn't mind the lack of privacy because she'd given birth three years earlier at Parkland, and everything worked out fine that time.
The women receiving Parkland's special brand of obstetrics care do not always understand the basis for it.
Jasmine James, 25, was a week overdue and expecting to have her delivery induced on a busy Friday afternoon. The Hurricane Katrina evacuee said she was surprised to find herself lying in a hallway, waiting to be examined.
She had given birth five years earlier in New Orleans and had a private labor and delivery room. "I know back home, I wouldn't be in a hallway," she said.
Three hours later, Ms. James was sent home to await a spontaneous delivery in the belief it would reduce her risk of having an unnecessary Caesarean delivery. But she was unaware of medical studies supporting this approach.
"I didn't think I'd be waiting at 41 weeks," she said as she trudged toward the elevator. "I guess this is a Texas thing."
Patient communication can be a problem at Parkland, particularly because so many of its maternity patients speak only Spanish.
Although many hospital staffers have picked up limited Spanish, including basic conversational phrases and words for medical procedures, interpreters often must be called to help explain medical options to the patients.
Pam Krywalski, a longtime obstetrics nurse who is fluent in Spanish, takes it upon herself to help the resident physicians learn Spanish. She even developed a "cheat sheet" of basic terms to get them started.
"It's a tremendous help to be able to speak Spanish to these women," she said. "By the time they're out of residency, the doctors can get through an admission or delivery in Spanish."
A place to learn
Parkland is a giant educational institution for doctors. For annual salaries that start at $40,000, resident physicians who want to learn medical specialties are the main providers of health care to Dallas County's indigent and uninsured patients.
"It's great training," said Dr. Shana Wingo, who is finishing her fourth year of obstetrics/gynecology training. "At the end of the day, some of us are probably overtrained because you won't see all this intensity in private practice. We work hard here, but I wouldn't trade it for the world."
The 72 doctors training to become obstetrician-gynecologists are handling about 60 percent of Parkland's deliveries – mainly the complicated ones. They work in groups headed by an attending physician, who also is a UT Southwestern faculty member.
"During your residency, you're not doing anything alone. There's always an upper-level resident or a nurse around," said Dr. Stephan Shivvers, an attending physician who specializes in maternal-fetal medicine.
"During a nine-month pregnancy, a lot of things can go wrong," he said. "Anything that can go wrong, you will find us dealing with here on top of a pregnancy. But when things go bad, they can go really bad."
Unless complications arise, however, nurse-midwives deliver about 40 percent of the total annual births.
It was Dr. Leveno's suggestion that Parkland add midwives in the 1980s, when births at the hospital topped 13,000. He had toured Great Britain hospitals in 1985 and seen how credentialed midwives were a key part of the birthing network.
"That was a good idea, given the situation at Parkland," he said. "The physicians were too busy to spend time with the patients. We had medical students delivering babies without supervision."
Parkland employs about 45 nurse-midwives, who follow "very strict protocols," said nurse-midwife Nancy Thamel, "because there's so many levels of education and so many people who work here. We all have to practice the same or it would be chaos."
Many of Parkland's low-risk patients have come to prefer the midwife care.
Patient Cristina Orendain compared a midwife delivery and a doctor delivery when she gave birth to her son, Manuel Eduardo, at Parkland in December. A doctor at St. Paul's hospital had delivered her daughter three years ago.
"The midwife was more involved than the doctor in checking on you," she said. "With the doctor, it was the nurse who checked."
But Parkland will never be mistaken for a private facility, given the overcrowding and the lack of amenities in the aging hospital. Most of the patient bathrooms, for example, do not have showers.
"It's not like a private world where they fluff your pillow, rub your back and refill your ice," said charge nurse April Malone, who must oversee two to six women in labor simultaneously.
Still, staff members such as Ms. Malone are choosing to have their babies at Parkland, rather than a private hospital. She gave birth to a daughter in a Parkland birthing room in January, and three months later was back at work.
"I like all of the drama, all of the running up and down the halls," she said. "It's like a giant chess game where you're trying to make all the pieces fit every day. I just love it."
By SHERRY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - The baby was born healthy and crying, and his mother managed a faint smile before anyone realized that a routine C-section was going terribly wrong.
Suddenly, blood was everywhere in the operating room at Parkland Memorial Hospital, and a call went out to a third-year medical resident to get there "stat" and take over the surgery.
It was Dr. Lisa Remedios' job that day to grapple with any surgical complications that came up at the second-busiest maternity unit in America. In this case, she had to stop Fabiola Oviedo from hemorrhaging to death.
"I ran all the way to the operating room because I knew she'd be bleeding until I got there," the doctor recalled. "There was no screaming or yelling, but the situation was tense."
Doctors determined that the placenta that cradled Ms. Oviedo's baby had grown into the wall of her uterus, a potentially life-threatening condition that occurs once in every 2,500 deliveries. The 24-year-old Duncanville woman underwent an emergency hysterectomy and required the infusion of 10 units of blood – essentially replacing her blood supply.
Ms. Oviedo probably would have died at another hospital – but not at Parkland.
"The whole system is poised to take care of a patient like this," said Dr. Remedios, who was covered in blood by the end of Ms. Oviedo's successful surgery.
It was a particularly hectic April day at Parkland, with 57 babies born, a third more than normal. Women were in labor in the hallways, doctors and nurses were too busy to break for lunch or dinner, and, suddenly, Ms. Oviedo's emergency cropped up.
Still, it wasn't too much to handle at Dallas County's public hospital, where delivering healthy babies has become a primary focus and a source of deep pride.
Last year, Parkland's doctors and nurse-midwives delivered 15,590 babies – a diaper-wearing contingent that was double the population of Highland Park.
Babies arrive at Parkland at an average rate of 42 infants per day. Feeding this birthing frenzy: the growing number of Hispanic immigrants using the hospital.
More than 80 percent of the women who gave birth at Parkland last year had Hispanic surnames. The hospital does not focus on whether these women are legal residents of the U.S. Federal law requires hospitals to care for any woman who shows up in labor.
"We are the safety net hospital for Dallas County, and these folks are residents of our county," said Dr. Ron Anderson, president and chief executive officer of Parkland.
The hospital spent almost $71 million to deliver the babies born there in 2004, with Dallas County taxpayers covering about 40 percent of the cost and federal and state funds making up the difference – and then some. The maternity program ended the year with a surplus of almost $8 million.
The magnitude of the annual baby boom tends to overshadow Parkland's highly successful method for delivering babies and the way it can quickly respond when anything goes awry.
It's called "The Parkland Way," and Dallas County's charity hospital is famous for inventing it.
"People at Parkland respond very quickly and effectively to situations like this," said Dr. George Wendel, the obstetrician-gynecologist who oversaw Ms. Oviedo's life-saving surgery. "They go back to what they were taught, and, in general, things work out."
Later in the recovery room, Ms. Oviedo was grateful to the doctors who saved her life. Pushing aside her oxygen mask, she whispered through an interpreter, "They knew what they were doing."
Standard for care
A pregnant woman who makes it to Parkland – or one of its nine prenatal clinics – does not step onto a conveyor belt that carries her through an impersonal birthing factory. But, she does turn herself over to doctors and nurses who have created a massive delivery system that standardizes nearly every facet of care.
Each woman gets the same number of prenatal visits, the same tests, the same vitamins and, virtually, the same medical care – as long as her pregnancy is normal.
She doesn't get a sonogram unless there is a medical reason for one. She might not see a doctor unless there are complications. Nurse practitioners routinely oversee routine prenatal care, and nurse-midwives handle thousands of uncomplicated deliveries.
The key: No one does anything on a whim.
"One of the reasons we do things so well is that we have these algorithms set up to make it work," said Kim Brinkman, a registered nurse at Parkland for nine years. "It's a step-by-step approach to how we take care of our patients and handle certain emergencies."
If there is a code word that describes Parkland's approach to obstetrics care, it is algorithm, a mathematical rule or complex recipe that directs every aspect of patient care.
Although some experts criticize Parkland for taking a "cookbook" approach, the hospital's nurses and doctors endorse it as the only way to cope with the overwhelming number of deliveries.
"You go through a series of questions and answers to figure out what needs to be done for the patient. It's the way we've all been trained to think," said Miriam Sibley, a registered nurse and Parkland's senior vice president of Women and Infants' Specialty Health.
The approach is so well-regarded that Parkland's doctors are the primary authors of the nation's premier maternity textbook, Williams Obstetrics, which is used to train most U.S. obstetricians.
"The book is important to many people because it's based on experiences at Parkland hospital. There's been a long history of evidence-based medicine here over the years, and we've codified how we do things," said Dr. Kenneth Leveno, chief of obstetrics at Parkland and a co-author of the 22nd edition of the 1,441-page book.
Dr. I. Murphy Goodwin, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Southern California, said Parkland's delivery system has kept pace with medical developments.
"Parkland has a signature way of doing things – and it's constantly improving it," he said. "If doctors across the country don't know the name of Parkland hospital, they are still affected by it."
Parkland doctors, who also are affiliated with UT Southwestern Medical School, have been refining their maternity protocols since the 1950s to accommodate more and more births as well as assure quality care.
"What's really remarkable about this place is that these things work," said Dr. Leveno, who also is the vice chairman of maternal-fetal medicine at UT Southwestern. "The patients can go through the system with rather consistent health care based on our experiences. Our computer system has been set up since 1982 to measure their outcomes."
In 2002, Parkland's neonatal mortality rates – deaths that occur within the first 28 days of life – were far lower than the national average, which stood at 4.7 deaths per 1,000 U.S. births. At Parkland, the mortality rate for newborns whose mothers received prenatal care was 2.7 per 1,000 births.
For black babies, the hospital's mortality rate was about half the national average, and for Hispanic babies, the rate was a third better than the rest of the nation.
Seeing mothers early on
The path to Parkland's successful deliveries nearly always starts in the hospital's prenatal clinics. Studies have suggested that for every dollar spent on prenatal care, hospitals save several dollars on delivery and postpartum care because fewer babies are underweight at birth or suffering unexpected complications.
"It's a public health program predicated on the assumption that by the time a woman gets to delivery, it is too late to change the course of the outcome," Dr. Leveno said. "You need to get to her first in the community to affect the outcome of the delivery."
More than 90 percent of women who deliver at Parkland receive care at the hospital's prenatal clinics scattered throughout low-income areas in Dallas County.
Word-of-mouth generally spurs pregnant women to call Parkland when they first suspect they're pregnant, noted William Lodriguez, a nurse practitioner, who formerly supervised the Maple Plaza Prenatal Clinic.
"The hospital's goal is to give a woman an appointment within two weeks of that first call," he said. "We overbook, but it's not a problem."
About 20,000 women annually seek prenatal care in the county hospital system, although 5,000 of them eventually choose to have their babies at other hospitals.
Losing patients to other hospitals doesn't alleviate Parkland's heavy load. It has relied heavily on those medical formulas to move an ever-increasing number of pregnant women through a facility that officials say is half the size needed to accommodate them.
The main hospital building was completed in 1954, when 3,596 women delivered babies there, less than a quarter of the 2005 baby boom.
"We're 200 percent undersized for the current patient population," Dr. Anderson said. "We know that renovation costs would exceed replacement costs. The question becomes, What will we do with overcrowding if the number of births continues to rise?"
Parkland supporters have tried to inspire community backing to build a new facility to house women and infants' services as well as meet government safety and patient-privacy standards.
As recently as 2002, the hospital's board of managers unanimously endorsed a $300 million construction plan for a new birthing center. But the proposal quickly evaporated in favor of a larger, but ill-fated, facility that would replace the entire hospital at an estimated cost of $1.6 billion.
"There was sticker shock when the plan came out, and we never got a chance to take it to the public," Dr. Anderson said. "Next time, we have to bring the idea along more openly so that everyone understands the need to build it."
A blue ribbon panel has endorsed the idea of replacing all of Parkland, possibly with several smaller facilities throughout the county. A final recommendation is expected later this year.
Spilling into the halls
Friday is usually the busiest and most overcrowded delivery day at Parkland because patients nearing their due dates – as well as those who are overdue – attend a weekly clinic at the hospital, said Becky Scasta, former associate unit manager. These women are placed briefly on fetal monitors before they can leave the building.
"They want to make sure the patients are OK before they send them home for the weekend," Ms. Scasta said. "The patients come here to rule out problems. They may have blood pressure issues but it's too early for delivery. Some get to go home. Some don't."
Often, the patients end up in beds lining the corridors of Parkland's three labor and delivery units. An eerie background noise of fetal heartbeats fills the air.
One patient, Lizbeth Sosa, 19, highlighted the hazards of being relegated to a hallway bed. Thirty-seven weeks pregnant and suffering from high blood pressure, she was required to lie still for two hours to see whether medication would bring down the rate.
To give her a physical exam, the staff outlined her hallway bed with six blue screens, from which a rusty rod jutted into the narrow aisle alongside her bed. Through the space between the panels, anyone nearby could see what was happening behind the screen.
Asked later how she felt lying in the hallway bed, Ms. Sosa said she didn't mind the lack of privacy because she'd given birth three years earlier at Parkland, and everything worked out fine that time.
The women receiving Parkland's special brand of obstetrics care do not always understand the basis for it.
Jasmine James, 25, was a week overdue and expecting to have her delivery induced on a busy Friday afternoon. The Hurricane Katrina evacuee said she was surprised to find herself lying in a hallway, waiting to be examined.
She had given birth five years earlier in New Orleans and had a private labor and delivery room. "I know back home, I wouldn't be in a hallway," she said.
Three hours later, Ms. James was sent home to await a spontaneous delivery in the belief it would reduce her risk of having an unnecessary Caesarean delivery. But she was unaware of medical studies supporting this approach.
"I didn't think I'd be waiting at 41 weeks," she said as she trudged toward the elevator. "I guess this is a Texas thing."
Patient communication can be a problem at Parkland, particularly because so many of its maternity patients speak only Spanish.
Although many hospital staffers have picked up limited Spanish, including basic conversational phrases and words for medical procedures, interpreters often must be called to help explain medical options to the patients.
Pam Krywalski, a longtime obstetrics nurse who is fluent in Spanish, takes it upon herself to help the resident physicians learn Spanish. She even developed a "cheat sheet" of basic terms to get them started.
"It's a tremendous help to be able to speak Spanish to these women," she said. "By the time they're out of residency, the doctors can get through an admission or delivery in Spanish."
A place to learn
Parkland is a giant educational institution for doctors. For annual salaries that start at $40,000, resident physicians who want to learn medical specialties are the main providers of health care to Dallas County's indigent and uninsured patients.
"It's great training," said Dr. Shana Wingo, who is finishing her fourth year of obstetrics/gynecology training. "At the end of the day, some of us are probably overtrained because you won't see all this intensity in private practice. We work hard here, but I wouldn't trade it for the world."
The 72 doctors training to become obstetrician-gynecologists are handling about 60 percent of Parkland's deliveries – mainly the complicated ones. They work in groups headed by an attending physician, who also is a UT Southwestern faculty member.
"During your residency, you're not doing anything alone. There's always an upper-level resident or a nurse around," said Dr. Stephan Shivvers, an attending physician who specializes in maternal-fetal medicine.
"During a nine-month pregnancy, a lot of things can go wrong," he said. "Anything that can go wrong, you will find us dealing with here on top of a pregnancy. But when things go bad, they can go really bad."
Unless complications arise, however, nurse-midwives deliver about 40 percent of the total annual births.
It was Dr. Leveno's suggestion that Parkland add midwives in the 1980s, when births at the hospital topped 13,000. He had toured Great Britain hospitals in 1985 and seen how credentialed midwives were a key part of the birthing network.
"That was a good idea, given the situation at Parkland," he said. "The physicians were too busy to spend time with the patients. We had medical students delivering babies without supervision."
Parkland employs about 45 nurse-midwives, who follow "very strict protocols," said nurse-midwife Nancy Thamel, "because there's so many levels of education and so many people who work here. We all have to practice the same or it would be chaos."
Many of Parkland's low-risk patients have come to prefer the midwife care.
Patient Cristina Orendain compared a midwife delivery and a doctor delivery when she gave birth to her son, Manuel Eduardo, at Parkland in December. A doctor at St. Paul's hospital had delivered her daughter three years ago.
"The midwife was more involved than the doctor in checking on you," she said. "With the doctor, it was the nurse who checked."
But Parkland will never be mistaken for a private facility, given the overcrowding and the lack of amenities in the aging hospital. Most of the patient bathrooms, for example, do not have showers.
"It's not like a private world where they fluff your pillow, rub your back and refill your ice," said charge nurse April Malone, who must oversee two to six women in labor simultaneously.
Still, staff members such as Ms. Malone are choosing to have their babies at Parkland, rather than a private hospital. She gave birth to a daughter in a Parkland birthing room in January, and three months later was back at work.
"I like all of the drama, all of the running up and down the halls," she said. "It's like a giant chess game where you're trying to make all the pieces fit every day. I just love it."
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TAKS analysis suggests many graduates cheated
Exclusive: Dallas ISD, other districts unlikely to look into suspicious scores
By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News
An alarming number of students who graduated from Texas high schools last month probably cheated to get there – and state education officials are in no hurry to catch them.
A state-sponsored analysis found thousands of suspicious scores on the 11th-grade TAKS, the test students must pass to graduate.
The study found 96 Texas high schools where groups of last year's 11th-graders turned in unusually similar answer sheets – suggesting they may have been copying each other's answers. Scores in almost every Dallas neighborhood high school raised red flags.
Eleventh-grade classrooms were more than eight times more likely to have suspicious scores than those in other grades, researchers found.
The study's results don't surprise experts. "Levels of cheating in high school are at astronomical levels," said Tim Dodd, executive director of the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University.
But in Texas, state and local officials say that these unusual patterns in data – even those that researchers say are millions of times less likely to occur than your being struck by lightning tomorrow – are not enough to trigger scrutiny.
The result is that many of the most egregious cases of likely cheating will go uninvestigated.
"Yeah, kids cheat," said Devin Gustafson, 2006 valedictorian at Seagoville High School, one of the 18 Dallas schools that made the list.
"If you want to cheat on the TAKS, it's not hard."
The findings are the result of a comprehensive analysis performed, at the state's request, by a Utah company called Caveon. It was hired last summer after a series of Dallas Morning News stories found evidence of educator-led cheating in many Texas schools.
The Texas Education Agency paid Caveon more than $500,000 to examine test scores and search for the sort of statistical anomalies that could indicate cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. The analysis looked for a variety of patterns, such as a classroom where students made performance gains of unlikely size, or where students answered very difficult questions with ease but struggled with more simple ones.
But the most common anomaly Caveon found was what it called "very similar test responses." That means, in a particular classroom or grade, an unusual number of students answered all or nearly all questions in the same way – including both wrong and right answers.
In its report to Texas officials, Caveon said it only flagged cases with "a low probability of occurring by chance." While it acknowledges that statistics alone are not conclusive proof of cheating, the report says Caveon used a "very conservative statistical approach."
"The conservative approach ensures that while not every potential instance of a statistical inconsistency is identified, those that are identified will be so anomalous that reasonable explanations of these inconsistencies by referring to normal circumstances become improbable," the report states.
'Anomalies'
State officials say that just because a large number of a classroom's students had identical answer sheets doesn't necessarily mean it's worthy of investigation.
"Caveon is pretty much the national expert on this sort of thing," said Shirley Neeley, the state's education commissioner. "But I look at that list and think these are anomalies. I didn't immediately think the worst."
Is it cheating? Perhaps the key piece of supporting evidence is how much more common the "very similar" anomalies are in 11th grade than at other grades.
Caveon found 486 Texas classrooms with an unusual cluster of "very similar" answer sheets.
If those findings were not the result of cheating – if they were just statistical background noise – one might expect them to be evenly distributed among the nine grades in which Texas tests.
But that's not what Caveon found. In grades three to 10, it identified an average of 29 classrooms where test scores suggest answer copying.
In 11th grade, Caveon found 253.
"That's exactly what you would expect: The higher the stakes, the more likely you're going to have some kind of dishonest behavior," said Jason Stephens, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut who studies high school cheating.
The "very similar" answer sheets were concentrated in the two school districts that have faced the most cheating allegations in the past: Dallas and Houston. Both urban districts had 18 high schools earn the "very similar" flag at 11th grade.
Of Dallas' 21 traditional neighborhood high schools, 17 made Caveon's list. So did one magnet school, the School of Education and Social Services.
That's the district's school for aspiring teachers.
In contrast, none were found in San Antonio or El Paso, and only one was found in Austin, again suggesting the pattern is not random.
Only one school in the Dallas suburbs – McKinney North – had an unusual cluster of similar test scores. Four Fort Worth high schools also had the pattern.
But state and local officials insist there must be some explanation for the 11th-grade scores – something other than cheating.
"We are not going to speculate on the reason that that number occurred," said Susan Barnes, the state's associate commissioner for standards and programs.
"I just believe there's a logical explanation somewhere," Dr. Neeley said. She added that she did not know what that explanation might be.
Inquiries unlikely
It's unclear whether an explanation will ever be found, because many of the schools will probably go uninvestigated.
Initially, TEA chose not to even tell districts that their schools had suspicious score patterns. Dr. Barnes said the agency informed schools only because The News had requested the testing data under open-records law.
"We would not have done it otherwise," she said.
Dr. Neeley informed the districts on Caveon's list in a May 31 letter. But the commissioner did not demand that they begin even a cursory investigation into the suspicious numbers. Instead, she asked districts only to "conduct any investigations you deem necessary to explain" the results.
Many districts are interpreting that to mean it's OK not to investigate Caveon's findings.
The Dallas school district is one.
"We have no investigations planned," said Donald Claxton, the district's spokesman. "This [the Caveon report] just identifies unusual patterns. It's nothing conclusive."
Dr. Barnes said that TEA did not feel comfortable asking districts to investigate Caveon's findings without any additional supporting evidence, such as eyewitness testimony of cheating.
1999 investigation
But TEA has done precisely that in the past. In 1999, a TEA analysis of the erasure patterns on student answer sheets identified 11 districts with one or more schools with questionable results over a period of three years. Based on that data, TEA demanded that all 11 launch investigations. Four concluded there had been cheating by teachers.
Districts on the Caveon list have been told the grade level and subject area in question and what type of statistical anomalies Caveon found.
But they haven't been told other crucial facts. How many students had answer sheets identical to their neighbors? Which students made unlikely gains on the test? Which patterns of answers are suspicious?
"We don't know the parameters that would cause us to be flagged," said Joe Miniscalco, McKinney's senior director of secondary education. "Is it two tests? 200 tests?"
Dr. Barnes said her agency does not plan to give all districts that extra information. "I do believe districts already have the information they would need," she said.
In any case, accurate investigations will be hard at this late date. The report examines scores on a test given more than a year ago. TEA officials said they had draft copies of the report as early as last fall but did not send findings to districts until a few days ago.
By then, most 11th-graders who might have cheated had already graduated.
Cheating common
Teenagers cheating on tests is nothing new.
In 2004, researcher Michael Josephson surveyed nearly 15,000 American high school students and asked whether they had cheated on a test in the previous year. Sixty-two percent said they had – roughly the same number who said they had had at least one beer over the same time span.
Researchers report that public school systems historically have not been particularly interested in uncovering cheating by students or teachers. Don McCabe, a Rutgers University professor who has studied cheating for 15 years, often surveys high school students on cheating. But when he approaches a public school, he usually runs into roadblocks.
"They don't want to know their students are cheating," he said. "They don't want the information, because then they have to deal with it."
Devin Gustafson, the Seagoville valedictorian, said he heard a number of his fellow students talking about cheating on the 11th-grade TAKS test. An example: "One girl, she snuck her cellphone into the test and was text messaging some of her friends to get answers," he said. "She said she only got one or two answers because it was too hard."
He said he didn't cheat, but if he had wanted to, it wouldn't have been hard. "I definitely could have. A couple of times, the teacher left the room and all you would have had to do is turn around and ask somebody for the answer."
Matthew Ramirez, who will be a senior at Skyline High School this fall, said it was easy for students to cheat there. Students who have to turn in their cellphones on test day, he said, are allowed to take them back after lunch – even if they haven't completed the test. "It's not hard to cheat," he said.
Researchers say school systems and state officials don't take their policing responsibilities seriously.
"It's making a mockery of the whole system," Dr. McCabe said. "You invest a lot of taxpayer money and a lot of teacher and student time in a test. And there's evidence there's a problem with the test. And they're not going to do anything about it? They're just going to say, 'Oh, it's just statistics; you can't trust that'?
"It's just going to get worse."
Exclusive: Dallas ISD, other districts unlikely to look into suspicious scores
By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News
An alarming number of students who graduated from Texas high schools last month probably cheated to get there – and state education officials are in no hurry to catch them.
A state-sponsored analysis found thousands of suspicious scores on the 11th-grade TAKS, the test students must pass to graduate.
The study found 96 Texas high schools where groups of last year's 11th-graders turned in unusually similar answer sheets – suggesting they may have been copying each other's answers. Scores in almost every Dallas neighborhood high school raised red flags.
Eleventh-grade classrooms were more than eight times more likely to have suspicious scores than those in other grades, researchers found.
The study's results don't surprise experts. "Levels of cheating in high school are at astronomical levels," said Tim Dodd, executive director of the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University.
But in Texas, state and local officials say that these unusual patterns in data – even those that researchers say are millions of times less likely to occur than your being struck by lightning tomorrow – are not enough to trigger scrutiny.
The result is that many of the most egregious cases of likely cheating will go uninvestigated.
"Yeah, kids cheat," said Devin Gustafson, 2006 valedictorian at Seagoville High School, one of the 18 Dallas schools that made the list.
"If you want to cheat on the TAKS, it's not hard."
The findings are the result of a comprehensive analysis performed, at the state's request, by a Utah company called Caveon. It was hired last summer after a series of Dallas Morning News stories found evidence of educator-led cheating in many Texas schools.
The Texas Education Agency paid Caveon more than $500,000 to examine test scores and search for the sort of statistical anomalies that could indicate cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. The analysis looked for a variety of patterns, such as a classroom where students made performance gains of unlikely size, or where students answered very difficult questions with ease but struggled with more simple ones.
But the most common anomaly Caveon found was what it called "very similar test responses." That means, in a particular classroom or grade, an unusual number of students answered all or nearly all questions in the same way – including both wrong and right answers.
In its report to Texas officials, Caveon said it only flagged cases with "a low probability of occurring by chance." While it acknowledges that statistics alone are not conclusive proof of cheating, the report says Caveon used a "very conservative statistical approach."
"The conservative approach ensures that while not every potential instance of a statistical inconsistency is identified, those that are identified will be so anomalous that reasonable explanations of these inconsistencies by referring to normal circumstances become improbable," the report states.
'Anomalies'
State officials say that just because a large number of a classroom's students had identical answer sheets doesn't necessarily mean it's worthy of investigation.
"Caveon is pretty much the national expert on this sort of thing," said Shirley Neeley, the state's education commissioner. "But I look at that list and think these are anomalies. I didn't immediately think the worst."
Is it cheating? Perhaps the key piece of supporting evidence is how much more common the "very similar" anomalies are in 11th grade than at other grades.
Caveon found 486 Texas classrooms with an unusual cluster of "very similar" answer sheets.
If those findings were not the result of cheating – if they were just statistical background noise – one might expect them to be evenly distributed among the nine grades in which Texas tests.
But that's not what Caveon found. In grades three to 10, it identified an average of 29 classrooms where test scores suggest answer copying.
In 11th grade, Caveon found 253.
"That's exactly what you would expect: The higher the stakes, the more likely you're going to have some kind of dishonest behavior," said Jason Stephens, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut who studies high school cheating.
The "very similar" answer sheets were concentrated in the two school districts that have faced the most cheating allegations in the past: Dallas and Houston. Both urban districts had 18 high schools earn the "very similar" flag at 11th grade.
Of Dallas' 21 traditional neighborhood high schools, 17 made Caveon's list. So did one magnet school, the School of Education and Social Services.
That's the district's school for aspiring teachers.
In contrast, none were found in San Antonio or El Paso, and only one was found in Austin, again suggesting the pattern is not random.
Only one school in the Dallas suburbs – McKinney North – had an unusual cluster of similar test scores. Four Fort Worth high schools also had the pattern.
But state and local officials insist there must be some explanation for the 11th-grade scores – something other than cheating.
"We are not going to speculate on the reason that that number occurred," said Susan Barnes, the state's associate commissioner for standards and programs.
"I just believe there's a logical explanation somewhere," Dr. Neeley said. She added that she did not know what that explanation might be.
Inquiries unlikely
It's unclear whether an explanation will ever be found, because many of the schools will probably go uninvestigated.
Initially, TEA chose not to even tell districts that their schools had suspicious score patterns. Dr. Barnes said the agency informed schools only because The News had requested the testing data under open-records law.
"We would not have done it otherwise," she said.
Dr. Neeley informed the districts on Caveon's list in a May 31 letter. But the commissioner did not demand that they begin even a cursory investigation into the suspicious numbers. Instead, she asked districts only to "conduct any investigations you deem necessary to explain" the results.
Many districts are interpreting that to mean it's OK not to investigate Caveon's findings.
The Dallas school district is one.
"We have no investigations planned," said Donald Claxton, the district's spokesman. "This [the Caveon report] just identifies unusual patterns. It's nothing conclusive."
Dr. Barnes said that TEA did not feel comfortable asking districts to investigate Caveon's findings without any additional supporting evidence, such as eyewitness testimony of cheating.
1999 investigation
But TEA has done precisely that in the past. In 1999, a TEA analysis of the erasure patterns on student answer sheets identified 11 districts with one or more schools with questionable results over a period of three years. Based on that data, TEA demanded that all 11 launch investigations. Four concluded there had been cheating by teachers.
Districts on the Caveon list have been told the grade level and subject area in question and what type of statistical anomalies Caveon found.
But they haven't been told other crucial facts. How many students had answer sheets identical to their neighbors? Which students made unlikely gains on the test? Which patterns of answers are suspicious?
"We don't know the parameters that would cause us to be flagged," said Joe Miniscalco, McKinney's senior director of secondary education. "Is it two tests? 200 tests?"
Dr. Barnes said her agency does not plan to give all districts that extra information. "I do believe districts already have the information they would need," she said.
In any case, accurate investigations will be hard at this late date. The report examines scores on a test given more than a year ago. TEA officials said they had draft copies of the report as early as last fall but did not send findings to districts until a few days ago.
By then, most 11th-graders who might have cheated had already graduated.
Cheating common
Teenagers cheating on tests is nothing new.
In 2004, researcher Michael Josephson surveyed nearly 15,000 American high school students and asked whether they had cheated on a test in the previous year. Sixty-two percent said they had – roughly the same number who said they had had at least one beer over the same time span.
Researchers report that public school systems historically have not been particularly interested in uncovering cheating by students or teachers. Don McCabe, a Rutgers University professor who has studied cheating for 15 years, often surveys high school students on cheating. But when he approaches a public school, he usually runs into roadblocks.
"They don't want to know their students are cheating," he said. "They don't want the information, because then they have to deal with it."
Devin Gustafson, the Seagoville valedictorian, said he heard a number of his fellow students talking about cheating on the 11th-grade TAKS test. An example: "One girl, she snuck her cellphone into the test and was text messaging some of her friends to get answers," he said. "She said she only got one or two answers because it was too hard."
He said he didn't cheat, but if he had wanted to, it wouldn't have been hard. "I definitely could have. A couple of times, the teacher left the room and all you would have had to do is turn around and ask somebody for the answer."
Matthew Ramirez, who will be a senior at Skyline High School this fall, said it was easy for students to cheat there. Students who have to turn in their cellphones on test day, he said, are allowed to take them back after lunch – even if they haven't completed the test. "It's not hard to cheat," he said.
Researchers say school systems and state officials don't take their policing responsibilities seriously.
"It's making a mockery of the whole system," Dr. McCabe said. "You invest a lot of taxpayer money and a lot of teacher and student time in a test. And there's evidence there's a problem with the test. And they're not going to do anything about it? They're just going to say, 'Oh, it's just statistics; you can't trust that'?
"It's just going to get worse."
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S. Dallas development hindered by slow start
After 7 months, board to guide tax increment district still not formed
By SCOTT GOLDSTEIN / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - The promise of hundreds of millions of dollars in new housing and retail development near Fair Park should be good news.
But the primary vehicle to fulfill this promise – a tax increment finance district – is a tool that some in South Dallas know little about, though it was approved by the City Council more than seven months ago.
And the fact that the 10-member board that will set policy and develop a final plan for the area's first TIF is not yet formed is further complicating efforts to get the word out and, more important, start moving dirt.
"The biggest problem that we have in front of us is the education of people of what the TIF is really all about," said Jim Slaughter, a South Dallas landowner who is secretary to the Fair Park Merchants Association's board. "When you say TIF, most people look at you like, 'Well, what is that?' "
TIFs are typically established to spark development in run-down areas of the city. They are drawn in a specific area for a set period of time, during which any increase in property taxes is put into a pot used to reimburse developers for public improvements. Improvements include utilities, roads, lighting and streetscapes.
They can also fund historic building restoration and environmental remediation. Leftover money can fund these improvements directly.
The city receives all sales tax and business property tax revenue during the TIF period. And any increase in property tax revenue goes into that special pot. When the TIF ends, the city again receives all property tax revenues.
Hank Lawson is executive director of SouthFair Community Development Corp. His organization led the creation of the Grand Park South TIF and is helping seek out board members. He said last week that three applications have been submitted – including one from Mr. Slaughter – for the five board seats that would be held by city residents.
The five remaining seats typically break down as follows: one member from Dallas County, one from the county hospital district, one from the county community college district and two from the Dallas Independent School District. The county and school district seats have been filled.
"The real trick of setting up a TIF district is trying to create a vision of what the community is going to be in the future," Karl Stundins, the city's area redevelopment program manager, said at a community meeting concerning the TIF last month. It is the TIF board, however, that is charged with articulating that vision and such boards typically do not take this long to form, Mr. Stundins said.
Although some development projects are already in the works in the TIF – including SouthFair's Park Row Estates project that should start this month and will eventually include 30 housing units – Mr. Stundins said more developers probably won't make formal commitments until the TIF board and final plan are completed and the first developments show they can succeed. The board and final plan should be complete by the end of the year, he said.
The Grand Park South TIF includes 333 acres south of Fair Park including the Grand Avenue, Martin Luther King Boulevard and Malcolm X corridors. City officials estimate that in its 30-year life span, it will bring more than 1,800 residential units and 560,000 square feet of retail and office space. Officials expect $294 million in additional taxable value from new private investment over 25 years. The early estimate for TIF public improvements totals about $16 million.
With the crucial vision in limbo, however, some are acknowledging lingering fears often revisited when new development and South Dallas are mentioned together.
At last month's meeting, city economic development officials pointed to the success of the Cityplace and State-Thomas TIF districts, which rapidly became some of the city's hottest areas.
But for many in South Dallas, those communities represent what they fear.
"That State-Thomas district, at one time, was affordable housing to us, and it's not affordable anymore," said Donald Payton, an African-American Dallas historian.
Charles O'Neal, vice president of the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, added that he is not convinced a TIF is the best way to spur economic development. Among other concerns, Mr. O'Neal said he worries about areas just outside the TIF district.
"Closely abutting areas that may have pressing development needs of their own are virtually blocked from ever tapping into the resources or ever meeting their own development goals," he said.
Still, Mr. Lawson argues that with DART's southeast corridor extension in the works, new development in South Dallas is inevitable. The TIF, he said, creates a way for the community to have a voice in the process and ensure that development spreads throughout the neighborhood.
"Development is coming and unless we get out in front ... it's going to run over us," Mr. Lawson said at last month's meeting. "I don't think any of us want the South Dallas that looks the way it looks today."
After 7 months, board to guide tax increment district still not formed
By SCOTT GOLDSTEIN / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - The promise of hundreds of millions of dollars in new housing and retail development near Fair Park should be good news.
But the primary vehicle to fulfill this promise – a tax increment finance district – is a tool that some in South Dallas know little about, though it was approved by the City Council more than seven months ago.
And the fact that the 10-member board that will set policy and develop a final plan for the area's first TIF is not yet formed is further complicating efforts to get the word out and, more important, start moving dirt.
"The biggest problem that we have in front of us is the education of people of what the TIF is really all about," said Jim Slaughter, a South Dallas landowner who is secretary to the Fair Park Merchants Association's board. "When you say TIF, most people look at you like, 'Well, what is that?' "
TIFs are typically established to spark development in run-down areas of the city. They are drawn in a specific area for a set period of time, during which any increase in property taxes is put into a pot used to reimburse developers for public improvements. Improvements include utilities, roads, lighting and streetscapes.
They can also fund historic building restoration and environmental remediation. Leftover money can fund these improvements directly.
The city receives all sales tax and business property tax revenue during the TIF period. And any increase in property tax revenue goes into that special pot. When the TIF ends, the city again receives all property tax revenues.
Hank Lawson is executive director of SouthFair Community Development Corp. His organization led the creation of the Grand Park South TIF and is helping seek out board members. He said last week that three applications have been submitted – including one from Mr. Slaughter – for the five board seats that would be held by city residents.
The five remaining seats typically break down as follows: one member from Dallas County, one from the county hospital district, one from the county community college district and two from the Dallas Independent School District. The county and school district seats have been filled.
"The real trick of setting up a TIF district is trying to create a vision of what the community is going to be in the future," Karl Stundins, the city's area redevelopment program manager, said at a community meeting concerning the TIF last month. It is the TIF board, however, that is charged with articulating that vision and such boards typically do not take this long to form, Mr. Stundins said.
Although some development projects are already in the works in the TIF – including SouthFair's Park Row Estates project that should start this month and will eventually include 30 housing units – Mr. Stundins said more developers probably won't make formal commitments until the TIF board and final plan are completed and the first developments show they can succeed. The board and final plan should be complete by the end of the year, he said.
The Grand Park South TIF includes 333 acres south of Fair Park including the Grand Avenue, Martin Luther King Boulevard and Malcolm X corridors. City officials estimate that in its 30-year life span, it will bring more than 1,800 residential units and 560,000 square feet of retail and office space. Officials expect $294 million in additional taxable value from new private investment over 25 years. The early estimate for TIF public improvements totals about $16 million.
With the crucial vision in limbo, however, some are acknowledging lingering fears often revisited when new development and South Dallas are mentioned together.
At last month's meeting, city economic development officials pointed to the success of the Cityplace and State-Thomas TIF districts, which rapidly became some of the city's hottest areas.
But for many in South Dallas, those communities represent what they fear.
"That State-Thomas district, at one time, was affordable housing to us, and it's not affordable anymore," said Donald Payton, an African-American Dallas historian.
Charles O'Neal, vice president of the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, added that he is not convinced a TIF is the best way to spur economic development. Among other concerns, Mr. O'Neal said he worries about areas just outside the TIF district.
"Closely abutting areas that may have pressing development needs of their own are virtually blocked from ever tapping into the resources or ever meeting their own development goals," he said.
Still, Mr. Lawson argues that with DART's southeast corridor extension in the works, new development in South Dallas is inevitable. The TIF, he said, creates a way for the community to have a voice in the process and ensure that development spreads throughout the neighborhood.
"Development is coming and unless we get out in front ... it's going to run over us," Mr. Lawson said at last month's meeting. "I don't think any of us want the South Dallas that looks the way it looks today."
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BREAKING NEWS:
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Northbound Skillman Street is closed at East Northwest Highway, and lanes closed along westbound Northwest Highway, due to bridge damage caused by a stuck crane.
Dallas/Ft. Worth Traffic Reports from Traffic Pulse
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Northbound Skillman Street is closed at East Northwest Highway, and lanes closed along westbound Northwest Highway, due to bridge damage caused by a stuck crane.
Dallas/Ft. Worth Traffic Reports from Traffic Pulse
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TexasStooge
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Crane damages Dallas overpass
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A traffic mishap in Northeast Dallas could have long-lasting and troublesome repercussions for a lot of drivers.
The Skillman Street bridge over Northwest Highway was damaged Monday morning when a crane tried to pass under, and didn't make it.
The jib, or crane arm, hit the overpass—causing chunks of concrete to fall to the pavement below.
Neal Goings, a spokesman for the company that owns the crane, said the driver had raised the crane just inches for a routine maintenance check on Monday morning, and apparently forgot to lower it before driving away.
Officials closed westbound Northwest Highway until the crame could be removed. It has been reopened to traffic.
Only one lane of northbound Skillman will remain open until repairs are made; the two outer lanes are closed.
The Texas Department of Transportation said that could take weeks.
_____________________________________________________________
ALSO ONLINE:
- Dallas/Ft. Worth Traffic Reports from Traffic Pulse
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A traffic mishap in Northeast Dallas could have long-lasting and troublesome repercussions for a lot of drivers.
The Skillman Street bridge over Northwest Highway was damaged Monday morning when a crane tried to pass under, and didn't make it.
The jib, or crane arm, hit the overpass—causing chunks of concrete to fall to the pavement below.
Neal Goings, a spokesman for the company that owns the crane, said the driver had raised the crane just inches for a routine maintenance check on Monday morning, and apparently forgot to lower it before driving away.
Officials closed westbound Northwest Highway until the crame could be removed. It has been reopened to traffic.
Only one lane of northbound Skillman will remain open until repairs are made; the two outer lanes are closed.
The Texas Department of Transportation said that could take weeks.
_____________________________________________________________
ALSO ONLINE:
- Dallas/Ft. Worth Traffic Reports from Traffic Pulse
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TexasStooge
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Family of murdered sailor on leave speaks out
By GARY REAVES / WFAA ABC 8
Petty Officer 2nd Class Kameron Pratt was just 34-years-old when his life ended Friday night in front of his parents' home while visiting his 9-month-old daughter Lailah.
He was on leave from his most recent tour of duty and many said he wanted to spend his time getting to know his daughter.
Pratt had survived two tours in the Middle East, but was gunned down in a Dallas neighborhoods.
"The neighbors overheard him say to the gentleman, 'You have the keys. Don't shoot me,'" said Keanon Pratt, Kameron's brother who found his brother after the shooting.
He was killed him for his truck, which was later found abandoned with its new wheels missing.
The crime is something the family said they struggle to comprehend.
"We're sobbing together, patting each other constantly and trying to console each other," said Leon Pratt, Kameron's father.
Leon Pratt and his wife were taking care of Kameron's daughter while their son wrapped up his tour in the navy.
They talked about their son while digging out photos of Kameron playing pee wee football and hanging with his brother for Lailah's baby scrap book.
"One of our last conversations was, 'I think I'm going to reenlist,'" Keanon Pratt said. "Then he would waiver because of the baby."
Pratt was also expected to return to Dallas as a school teacher.
"I would like people to know Kameron Troy Pratt was a young man who had values, principals," Leon Pratt said.
His family said they hope some will learn a lesson from Kameron's death.
"That people would think twice, if not 100 times, before snuffing out someone's life because of the good that person might be able to do," his brother said.
Funeral services are planned for later in the week for the U.S. sailor.
By GARY REAVES / WFAA ABC 8
Petty Officer 2nd Class Kameron Pratt was just 34-years-old when his life ended Friday night in front of his parents' home while visiting his 9-month-old daughter Lailah.
He was on leave from his most recent tour of duty and many said he wanted to spend his time getting to know his daughter.
Pratt had survived two tours in the Middle East, but was gunned down in a Dallas neighborhoods.
"The neighbors overheard him say to the gentleman, 'You have the keys. Don't shoot me,'" said Keanon Pratt, Kameron's brother who found his brother after the shooting.
He was killed him for his truck, which was later found abandoned with its new wheels missing.
The crime is something the family said they struggle to comprehend.
"We're sobbing together, patting each other constantly and trying to console each other," said Leon Pratt, Kameron's father.
Leon Pratt and his wife were taking care of Kameron's daughter while their son wrapped up his tour in the navy.
They talked about their son while digging out photos of Kameron playing pee wee football and hanging with his brother for Lailah's baby scrap book.
"One of our last conversations was, 'I think I'm going to reenlist,'" Keanon Pratt said. "Then he would waiver because of the baby."
Pratt was also expected to return to Dallas as a school teacher.
"I would like people to know Kameron Troy Pratt was a young man who had values, principals," Leon Pratt said.
His family said they hope some will learn a lesson from Kameron's death.
"That people would think twice, if not 100 times, before snuffing out someone's life because of the good that person might be able to do," his brother said.
Funeral services are planned for later in the week for the U.S. sailor.
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TexasStooge
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Karaoke club owner pleads to forced labor charges
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - The owner of a Dallas karaoke club plead guilty Monday to federal forced labor charges.
Prosecutors said Sung Bum Chang of Coppell was accused of requiring Korean women to work at Club Wa after he paid their debts to be smuggled into the US.
Authorities said the women, who were in the US illegally, lived at his home.
Chang pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide or obtain forced labor and one count of forced labor.
He faces a maximum 25 years in prison, a $500,000 dollar fine and restitution.
His wife, Hyang Kyung Chang, pleaded guilty to one count of employing unauthorized aliens and aiding and abetting. She faces a maximum six months in prison and restitution and agreed to a $21,000 fine.
Sentencing is September 19.
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - The owner of a Dallas karaoke club plead guilty Monday to federal forced labor charges.
Prosecutors said Sung Bum Chang of Coppell was accused of requiring Korean women to work at Club Wa after he paid their debts to be smuggled into the US.
Authorities said the women, who were in the US illegally, lived at his home.
Chang pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide or obtain forced labor and one count of forced labor.
He faces a maximum 25 years in prison, a $500,000 dollar fine and restitution.
His wife, Hyang Kyung Chang, pleaded guilty to one count of employing unauthorized aliens and aiding and abetting. She faces a maximum six months in prison and restitution and agreed to a $21,000 fine.
Sentencing is September 19.
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Some Frisco residents lose phone service
By CYNTHIA VEGA / WFAA ABC 8
FRISCO, Texas — More than 100 homes were without telephone service Tuesday morning after a road construction crew accidentally severed underground cables near Plantation Golf Club in Frisco.
City officials were concerned that residents in the affected area would be unable to make emergency calls until repairs were made.
Additional police patrols were activated in the area bounded by Jereme Trail to the north, Plantation Lane to the west, Coit Road to the east and Lebanon Road to the south.
Phone company crews expected to have service restored by noon. Residents were urged to use cell phones for any emergency calls until then.
By CYNTHIA VEGA / WFAA ABC 8
FRISCO, Texas — More than 100 homes were without telephone service Tuesday morning after a road construction crew accidentally severed underground cables near Plantation Golf Club in Frisco.
City officials were concerned that residents in the affected area would be unable to make emergency calls until repairs were made.
Additional police patrols were activated in the area bounded by Jereme Trail to the north, Plantation Lane to the west, Coit Road to the east and Lebanon Road to the south.
Phone company crews expected to have service restored by noon. Residents were urged to use cell phones for any emergency calls until then.
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TexasStooge
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TAKS math, science lagging
Area students again fared better in reading, writing, social studies
By HOLLY K. HACKER / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - A new set of TAKS scores for Dallas-area school systems reveals that, once again, students struggle with math and science, especially in middle and high school.
Only six in 10 local students passed the ninth-grade math, 10th-grade math and 10th-grade science tests this spring on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Seven in 10 passed middle school math and science tests.
Students fared much better on most of the reading and all of the writing and social studies exams.
Those trends, based on preliminary scores for 45 area districts, mirror state averages – as well as results from past years on the TAKS.
The disappointing math and science scores aren't a problem only in the Dallas area, or even in Texas.
International studies show that despite some gains in math and science, U.S. students lag their peers in many developed countries. It's a growing concern as American workers and companies compete globally.
Changes on horizon?
But Texas educators hope the trends may soon change. They note that math and science education is getting extra attention and money, through efforts under way in Austin and Washington.
"I believe it's going to help everyone raise their level of awareness of the need for math, science and technology education – to believe in its importance," said Michelle King, mathematics director for Coppell Independent School District. "For us to be competitive, we have to have students that are competent, confident problem-solvers."
The 2006 TAKS scores reflect another long-running trend. A school system's success depends mostly on the kind of students it serves. A single factor – family income – explains more than 60 percent of the variation among district TAKS scores, a Dallas Morning News analysis found. The greater the proportion of poor students in a district, the lower scores tend to be.
And in most cases, there's also a link between lower test scores and the percentage of students learning English. Together, family income and English proficiency explain 70 percent of the variation in district scores, The News found.
Preliminary results also show that black and Hispanic students continue to perform below average, particularly in math and science.
"The message is, we have a lot of work to do. But we do see some incremental progress," said Gloria White, managing director of the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, which works to improve public education in Texas.
This is the fourth year of TAKS testing in public schools, and there's ever-increasing pressure to do well.
The state and federal government use the scores to rate schools and districts. Third-graders must pass reading, and fifth-graders must pass reading and math to advance to the next grade. Eleventh-graders must pass all four of their TAKS exams to graduate from high school.
And a new state plan will pay bonuses to teachers who improve their students' test scores.
In some cases, the growing emphasis on testing has led to cheating by teachers or students. The News found strong evidence in 2004 of cheating on TAKS tests, and a new report commissioned by the Texas Education Agency found suspicious scores at more than 600 campuses across the state on the 2005 tests.
This year, most local students aced the writing tests, taken in fourth and seventh grades. Nearly every 11th-grader passed the social studies test. Reading scores were generally good. So why are math and science so hard to master?
Myriad explanations
Teachers list plenty of reasons. Both subjects deal with abstract topics, like electrons and irrational numbers. New topics build on old ones, so kids who never mastered algebra will founder in geometry.
Plus, Dr. White said, there's a shortage of qualified math and science teachers. People with math and science degrees can earn a lot more in the private sector.
Science education has an added challenge in Texas: Students get tested in math every year from third through 11th grades. But science tests are given in only four grades – and one of them, eighth grade, is new this year.
Under the state tests that preceded TAKS, science was tested in only eighth grade.
Schools once largely ignored science because it wasn't tested, said Kevin Fisher, past president of the Science Teachers Association of Texas.
"Now it's getting a lot of attention, and we've got a bit of catching up to do," said Mr. Fisher, who's also a science coordinator in the Lewisville school district.
Educators have long worried about the math and science performance of American students. Now, state and national leaders are backing their efforts with hundreds of millions of dollars.
In Texas, the Legislature recently decided to require four years of math and science to graduate from high school (starting with ninth-graders in 2007-08), up from three years.
Last year, Gov. Rick Perry announced a $71 million plan to establish 35 small schools with a focus on math, science and technology.
And in January, President Bush announced an "American Competitiveness Initiative" that includes $180 million to improve math and science education. The plan calls for training more math and science teachers; helping more low-income students pass Advanced Placement math and science exams; and better preparing students for middle school and high school math.
Make science relevant
Mr. Fisher believes schools need to make science – his area of expertise – more relevant.
"Science classes need to be very engaging so students can see practical applications. A lot of people are turned off to science simply because the way they've been taught is very boring, almost elitist," he said.
Some local districts report improvements in math and science.
Coppell posted the biggest two-year gains of the region in seventh- and eighth-grade math. Nearly all students passed those tests, and half scored high enough to earn the coveted "commended" rating this year.
District officials said they focused their energies on middle school math, where scores had lagged. This year, they doubled the amount of math instruction in middle schools, from 50 minutes to 100 minutes a day.
The Richardson district pulled the region's biggest two-year gains in fifth-grade science. The passing rates have gone from 67 percent in 2004 to 84 percent this year. The commended rates rose from 16 percent to 38 percent.
This year, the district's fifth-grade teachers reviewed all the science concepts their students are supposed to have learned – such as the order of the planets in third grade and density of objects in fourth grade. That keeps the topics fresh in students' minds.
Comparing results from year to year can be tricky because some tests get harder to pass. Take the 11th-grade scores for local districts. Over the last three years, students have had to answer more questions correctly to pass.
So it might not be a surprise that passing rates are down in math, science and social studies for 11th grade.
Said Mr. Fisher: "The rigor of the test increases each year, and sometimes when it looks like you're not making progress, you really are."
Area students again fared better in reading, writing, social studies
By HOLLY K. HACKER / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - A new set of TAKS scores for Dallas-area school systems reveals that, once again, students struggle with math and science, especially in middle and high school.
Only six in 10 local students passed the ninth-grade math, 10th-grade math and 10th-grade science tests this spring on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Seven in 10 passed middle school math and science tests.
Students fared much better on most of the reading and all of the writing and social studies exams.
Those trends, based on preliminary scores for 45 area districts, mirror state averages – as well as results from past years on the TAKS.
The disappointing math and science scores aren't a problem only in the Dallas area, or even in Texas.
International studies show that despite some gains in math and science, U.S. students lag their peers in many developed countries. It's a growing concern as American workers and companies compete globally.
Changes on horizon?
But Texas educators hope the trends may soon change. They note that math and science education is getting extra attention and money, through efforts under way in Austin and Washington.
"I believe it's going to help everyone raise their level of awareness of the need for math, science and technology education – to believe in its importance," said Michelle King, mathematics director for Coppell Independent School District. "For us to be competitive, we have to have students that are competent, confident problem-solvers."
The 2006 TAKS scores reflect another long-running trend. A school system's success depends mostly on the kind of students it serves. A single factor – family income – explains more than 60 percent of the variation among district TAKS scores, a Dallas Morning News analysis found. The greater the proportion of poor students in a district, the lower scores tend to be.
And in most cases, there's also a link between lower test scores and the percentage of students learning English. Together, family income and English proficiency explain 70 percent of the variation in district scores, The News found.
Preliminary results also show that black and Hispanic students continue to perform below average, particularly in math and science.
"The message is, we have a lot of work to do. But we do see some incremental progress," said Gloria White, managing director of the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, which works to improve public education in Texas.
This is the fourth year of TAKS testing in public schools, and there's ever-increasing pressure to do well.
The state and federal government use the scores to rate schools and districts. Third-graders must pass reading, and fifth-graders must pass reading and math to advance to the next grade. Eleventh-graders must pass all four of their TAKS exams to graduate from high school.
And a new state plan will pay bonuses to teachers who improve their students' test scores.
In some cases, the growing emphasis on testing has led to cheating by teachers or students. The News found strong evidence in 2004 of cheating on TAKS tests, and a new report commissioned by the Texas Education Agency found suspicious scores at more than 600 campuses across the state on the 2005 tests.
This year, most local students aced the writing tests, taken in fourth and seventh grades. Nearly every 11th-grader passed the social studies test. Reading scores were generally good. So why are math and science so hard to master?
Myriad explanations
Teachers list plenty of reasons. Both subjects deal with abstract topics, like electrons and irrational numbers. New topics build on old ones, so kids who never mastered algebra will founder in geometry.
Plus, Dr. White said, there's a shortage of qualified math and science teachers. People with math and science degrees can earn a lot more in the private sector.
Science education has an added challenge in Texas: Students get tested in math every year from third through 11th grades. But science tests are given in only four grades – and one of them, eighth grade, is new this year.
Under the state tests that preceded TAKS, science was tested in only eighth grade.
Schools once largely ignored science because it wasn't tested, said Kevin Fisher, past president of the Science Teachers Association of Texas.
"Now it's getting a lot of attention, and we've got a bit of catching up to do," said Mr. Fisher, who's also a science coordinator in the Lewisville school district.
Educators have long worried about the math and science performance of American students. Now, state and national leaders are backing their efforts with hundreds of millions of dollars.
In Texas, the Legislature recently decided to require four years of math and science to graduate from high school (starting with ninth-graders in 2007-08), up from three years.
Last year, Gov. Rick Perry announced a $71 million plan to establish 35 small schools with a focus on math, science and technology.
And in January, President Bush announced an "American Competitiveness Initiative" that includes $180 million to improve math and science education. The plan calls for training more math and science teachers; helping more low-income students pass Advanced Placement math and science exams; and better preparing students for middle school and high school math.
Make science relevant
Mr. Fisher believes schools need to make science – his area of expertise – more relevant.
"Science classes need to be very engaging so students can see practical applications. A lot of people are turned off to science simply because the way they've been taught is very boring, almost elitist," he said.
Some local districts report improvements in math and science.
Coppell posted the biggest two-year gains of the region in seventh- and eighth-grade math. Nearly all students passed those tests, and half scored high enough to earn the coveted "commended" rating this year.
District officials said they focused their energies on middle school math, where scores had lagged. This year, they doubled the amount of math instruction in middle schools, from 50 minutes to 100 minutes a day.
The Richardson district pulled the region's biggest two-year gains in fifth-grade science. The passing rates have gone from 67 percent in 2004 to 84 percent this year. The commended rates rose from 16 percent to 38 percent.
This year, the district's fifth-grade teachers reviewed all the science concepts their students are supposed to have learned – such as the order of the planets in third grade and density of objects in fourth grade. That keeps the topics fresh in students' minds.
Comparing results from year to year can be tricky because some tests get harder to pass. Take the 11th-grade scores for local districts. Over the last three years, students have had to answer more questions correctly to pass.
So it might not be a surprise that passing rates are down in math, science and social studies for 11th grade.
Said Mr. Fisher: "The rigor of the test increases each year, and sometimes when it looks like you're not making progress, you really are."
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TexasStooge
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Man killed while crossing freeway ramp
ARLINGTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A Fort Worth man died after he was struck while walking across a freeway access ramp in Arlington Monday night.
Arlington police spokeswoman Christy Gilfour said the 60-year-old victim, whose name was not released, was attempting to cross the ramp from eastbound Interstate 20 to southbound U.S. 287 around 9:45 p.m. A 1999 Cadillac DeVille was unable to stop in time and struck the man.
Two adults and a 5-year-old girl in the Cadillac, all from Mansfield, were not injured.
At this time, investigators do not plan any charges in connection with the man's death, Ms. Gilfour said.
_____________________________________________________________
ALSO ONLINE:
- Dallas/Ft. Worth Traffic Reports from Traffic Pulse
ARLINGTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A Fort Worth man died after he was struck while walking across a freeway access ramp in Arlington Monday night.
Arlington police spokeswoman Christy Gilfour said the 60-year-old victim, whose name was not released, was attempting to cross the ramp from eastbound Interstate 20 to southbound U.S. 287 around 9:45 p.m. A 1999 Cadillac DeVille was unable to stop in time and struck the man.
Two adults and a 5-year-old girl in the Cadillac, all from Mansfield, were not injured.
At this time, investigators do not plan any charges in connection with the man's death, Ms. Gilfour said.
_____________________________________________________________
ALSO ONLINE:
- Dallas/Ft. Worth Traffic Reports from Traffic Pulse
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TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
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Compelling prostitution case ends in mistrial
Dallas: Jurors doubted girl who said she was lured into job at age 10
By ROBERT THARP / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Jurors in the trial of a Dallas man accused of luring a 10-year-old girl into prostitution announced that they were hopelessly deadlocked Monday after three days of deliberations, prompting a judge to declare a mistrial.
By the end of deliberations, only one of the 12 jurors believed firmly that 34-year-old Ronnie Bluain was guilty of the charge. The eleven others were concerned that details of the girl's account had changed too many times and that there were no other evidence or witnesses to corroborate her story.
"We wanted to see something to back up her story, and we just didn't see anything," one juror said on condition that his name not be published. "We had a witness saying something that could not be corroborated. ... She was all over the place."
Prosecutors vowed to bring Mr. Bluain to trial again in September. In the meantime, Mr. Bluain is serving a 20-year prison sentence for aggravated assault.
He previously served 10 years in prison for a 1989 murder conviction. Because of his criminal record, he faced up to life in prison if convicted of compelling prostitution.
Police first began investigating the case in 2004 when they found the girl out late at night with three adult prostitutes in an area where prostitution is common. Officers said it was obvious that the girl was underage.
The girl, now 13, testified that she met Mr. Bluain at the downtown bus station after she had run away from home. He took her to his northeast Dallas apartment and had her work with other young women as a prostitute, she testified.
The girl, who is now in foster care, testified that she worked as a prostitute for three weeks in April 2004 and had sex with more than a dozen men for $40 apiece. Mr. Bluain required her to give him all the money, she said.
But Mr. Bluain's attorney, Roger Haynes, focused on inconsistencies in the girl's account. She initially told police that she was 18 and testified in an earlier proceeding that she had not told Mr. Bluain her true age. Mr. Bluain did not testify in the trial.
"She changed her story too many times," Mr. Haynes said. "There were inconsistencies on the stand, and there were inconsistencies between what she said before."
Dallas: Jurors doubted girl who said she was lured into job at age 10
By ROBERT THARP / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Jurors in the trial of a Dallas man accused of luring a 10-year-old girl into prostitution announced that they were hopelessly deadlocked Monday after three days of deliberations, prompting a judge to declare a mistrial.
By the end of deliberations, only one of the 12 jurors believed firmly that 34-year-old Ronnie Bluain was guilty of the charge. The eleven others were concerned that details of the girl's account had changed too many times and that there were no other evidence or witnesses to corroborate her story.
"We wanted to see something to back up her story, and we just didn't see anything," one juror said on condition that his name not be published. "We had a witness saying something that could not be corroborated. ... She was all over the place."
Prosecutors vowed to bring Mr. Bluain to trial again in September. In the meantime, Mr. Bluain is serving a 20-year prison sentence for aggravated assault.
He previously served 10 years in prison for a 1989 murder conviction. Because of his criminal record, he faced up to life in prison if convicted of compelling prostitution.
Police first began investigating the case in 2004 when they found the girl out late at night with three adult prostitutes in an area where prostitution is common. Officers said it was obvious that the girl was underage.
The girl, now 13, testified that she met Mr. Bluain at the downtown bus station after she had run away from home. He took her to his northeast Dallas apartment and had her work with other young women as a prostitute, she testified.
The girl, who is now in foster care, testified that she worked as a prostitute for three weeks in April 2004 and had sex with more than a dozen men for $40 apiece. Mr. Bluain required her to give him all the money, she said.
But Mr. Bluain's attorney, Roger Haynes, focused on inconsistencies in the girl's account. She initially told police that she was 18 and testified in an earlier proceeding that she had not told Mr. Bluain her true age. Mr. Bluain did not testify in the trial.
"She changed her story too many times," Mr. Haynes said. "There were inconsistencies on the stand, and there were inconsistencies between what she said before."
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TexasStooge
- Category 5
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- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
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Fuel spill slows traffic on Loop 820
FORT WORTH, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) — The northbound lanes of East Loop 820 were reduced to one lane at John T. White Boulevard due to a multi-vehicle accident involving an 18-wheeler and at least two other vehicles.
Slippery fuel from a ruptured tank spilled across the highway.
Police were at the scene; there was no word on how long the cleanup would take.
Traffic was also slow on ramps from Interstate 30.
_____________________________________________________________
ALSO ONLINE:
- Dallas/Ft. Worth Traffic Reports from Traffic Pulse
FORT WORTH, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) — The northbound lanes of East Loop 820 were reduced to one lane at John T. White Boulevard due to a multi-vehicle accident involving an 18-wheeler and at least two other vehicles.
Slippery fuel from a ruptured tank spilled across the highway.
Police were at the scene; there was no word on how long the cleanup would take.
Traffic was also slow on ramps from Interstate 30.
_____________________________________________________________
ALSO ONLINE:
- Dallas/Ft. Worth Traffic Reports from Traffic Pulse
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