Critics Protest Against Sen. Hutchison & Nightly Roundup

By KERA News & Wire Services

Dallas, TX –

Critics of the congressional health care overhaul are organizing protests in Dallas, Houston and Austin.

Rally organizers aim to chide U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for voting last week to end a procedural stalemate in the U.S. Senate. They say the Texas Republican's vote, related to a defense spending measure, helped clear the way for a Christmas Eve debate on the health-care legislation.

Hutchison was one of three Republicans who voted to stop a filibuster of the defense spending bill. She said the vote was needed to protect U.S. troops abroad. However, some conservative activists in the anti-tax "tea party" movement say she should have stuck with Republicans leaders trying to delay consideration of the health-care bill.

Hutchison is challenging Gov. Rick Perry in the March Republican primary for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

3 teens killed in 2-car northeast Texas crash

Authorities have released the identities of three teens killed in a two-car crash in northeast
Texas. Killed in the Saturday afternoon crash were 17-year-old Timothy Earl Haskins Jr. and 19-year-olds Cecil Earl Galloway Jr. and Markeevin Deon Eaton, all of Mount Pleasant.

The crash happened about 1 p.m. Saturday on Farm Road 2152, about five miles north of Mount Pleasant.

Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Jason Pearce says the car containing all three of the dead was northbound on the two-lane road when it began to veer back and forth and skidded sideways into
the other car. The victims' car then rolled and came to rest upside down in a roadside ditch.

The driver of the other car was not injured.

Texas company takes aim at $3B Army contract

A Texas defense contractor has restated its opposition to a U.S. Army decision to award a $3 billion contract to a Wisconsin company for 23,000 military trucks and trailers.

Addressing reporters Monday, the president of Sealy, Texas-based BAE Systems-Tactical Defense Systems LP said he supported a U.S. Government Accountability Office ruling that the Army evaluation of its bid and those from Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Corp. and Illinois-based Navistar Defense LLC was flawed.

The BAE bid was nearly $3.5 billion, while the Oshkosh bid was about $3 billion. The Army said it based its decision on the difference in price.

In a statement, Oshkosh said it won the contract because of its competitive price and excellent evaluations for meeting vehicle production and delivery requirements.