Lawmakers Add Millions Towards Veterans Health & Nightly Roundup

By KERA News & Wire Services

Dallas, TX –

State lawmakers say mental health programs for Texas veterans will receive $5 million for expanded services.

Gov. Rick Perry on Monday announced the plan that calls for directing money from the state Health and Human Services Commission budget toward mental health treatment programs for veterans and their families.

Perry said the money will supplement $1.2 million in similar funding passed by the Legislature earlier this year. The funds will be partly used to establish veteran-to-veteran peer support groups.

Defendant sentenced in immigrant smuggling case

A South Texas man has been sentenced to more than 14 years in prison for his role in a 2003 human smuggling attempt, which became the deadliest in U.S. history.

Prosecutors say Abelardo Flores was part of a smuggling ring that packed more than 70 illegal immigrants into the back of a stifling tractor-trailer in May 2003 and tried to transport them from South Texas to Houston.

Flores had previously pleaded guilty to a smuggling conspiracy charge and was given a reduced sentence on Monday as part of a plea agreement.

The immigrants were found after the driver abandoned the trailer at a truck stop in Victoria, about 100 miles southwest of Houston. Seventeen people were found dead in the trailer, and two others died later, all of dehydration, overheating and suffocation.

Perry: Cap-and-trade would harm Texas

Gov. Rick Perry told renewable energy industry officials that a cap-and-trade climate bill in Congress would increase taxes and devastate Texas' energy sector.

Perry, contending that the climate bill would mean "economic disaster" in Texas, said Texas is encouraging alternative energy sources while improving the environment.

He told the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association on Monday that the state is achieving those goals through incentives and innovation. He said the federal climate legislation would negate the work Texas has done.

Environmentalists see cap-and-trade as the best way to control carbon emissions.

Perry said Texas is a world leader in wind energy production and said progress is being made to spur production of solar, biomass and other alternative energy sources.

Texas death over alleged reckless driving by teens

Police say five teens are charged with murder in the beating death of a Dallas-area man who argued with them about reckless driving in his neighborhood.

Wylie police Detective Venece Perepiczka said the suspects were arrested in Wylie and Garland and remained in custody. She did not immediately return a message Monday from The Associated Press.

Police say 28-year-old Jonathan Bird of Wylie was fatally beaten around midnight Saturday after exchanging words with some youths in a truck.

Four boys are juveniles, age 16. One is an adult, 17-year-old Ethan Dorris of Wylie.

Dorris was in the Collin County Jail on bail of $250,000. A jail officer, who declined to provide his full name, said no attorney was listed for Dorris. Wylie is 20 miles northeast of Dallas.