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Ex-Cowboys Player Josh Brent Faces Up To 20 Years In Prison

DallasCowboys.com
A Dallas jury on Wednesday convicted former Cowboys player Josh Brent of intoxication manslaughter in a wreck that killed a teammate.

Five stories that have North Texas talking: a former Dallas Cowboys player is convicted of intoxication manslaughter; the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo is underway; Hispanics or Latinos?; and more.

A Dallas jury on Wednesday convicted former Cowboys player Josh Brent of intoxication manslaughter in a wreck that killed a teammate. The jury found Brent guilty in a December 2012 wreck in suburban Dallas that killed Cowboys practice squad player Jerry Brown, who was Brent's close friend and also his college teammate. Brent faces up to 20 years in prison, though he's also eligible for probation. Brent and Brown were heading home from a nightclub, where they had partied with other Cowboys players, when Brent lost control of his Mercedes. He was found to have a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit. Brent's attorneys argued authorities' blood tests were flawed and that their client was a bad driver, but not drunk at the time of the crash. [The Associated Press]

  • The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo is underway at the Will Rogers Memorial Center. It started last Friday and runs through Feb. 8. The Dallas Morning News reports: “At its core, the 118-year-old show is a livestock event, as evidenced by the acres of pickups, trailers and young people tugging cattle through hay-strewn barns. And it’s still a popular one with about 28,000 animals entered this year.” One highlight so far this year: a Western-style wedding featuring a couple from Iowa wearing cowboy regalia, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.

  • By 2040, Hispanics or Latinos will be the largest ethnic minority in the United States. So which is it? Hispanic? Latino? To better understand the views and experiences of Latino Americans, NPR conducted a poll with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. An NPR story featured Mando Rayo, a Texas marketing specialist who says he’s "’part Mexican, part American, 100 percent Tejano!’ Texas trumps everything, although Rayo said if forced to choose, he chooses Latino, because he feels it connects him more to his Latin American roots.” KERA interviewed Rayo last year at the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin.

  • Can’t get enough of KERA’s Jeff Whittington on Friday’s Anything You Ever Wanted To Know? Then join him tonight at 7:30 in the latest installment of State of the Arts at the Dallas Museum of Art. The topic: “A Curator’s Perspective.” Joining Jeff will be Andre Karnes, curator with the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and Gabriel Ritter, the DMA’s Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art.

  • Grand Prairie’s very own Selena Gomez has been nominated for a 2014 Razzie. It’s for her role in last year’s “Getaway.” Billboard reports: “The film was panned, receiving an approval rating of 2 percent at Rotten Tomatoes, and earned Gomez, the female lead, a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress. She'll go up against Halle Berry, Lindsay Lohan, Naomi Watts and, humorously, Tyler Perry.” The $4.97 gold spray-painted Razzie Award is handed out to otherwise great talent who dropped the ball. The Razzie is an opportunity to "own your bad.”
Eric Aasen is KERA’s managing editor. He helps lead the station's news department, including radio and digital reporters, producers and newscasters. He also oversees keranews.org, the station’s news website, and manages the station's digital news projects. He reports and writes stories for the website and contributes pieces to KERA radio. He's discussed breaking news live on various public radio programs, including The Takeaway, Here & Now and Texas Standard, as well as radio and TV programs in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.