For the eighth time, Parkland Hospital’s Trauma Center has passed a critical review by the American College of Surgeons. The recent survey reverified Parkland as a Level One trauma center, the highest classification.
Jorie Klein, director of trauma and disaster management, says this is good news at a time when Parkland is struggling to correct some 50 care and safety violations found by federal inspectors last summer. Many of those infractions were in the emergency department, but Klein says the trauma center is a separate system.
“A lot of people think well, I’m going to the E.R. In a trauma patient, they’re really not going to the E.R.. They’re going to the trauma center and they will be met by trauma nurses and trauma surgeons who will move those patients rapidly through the system,”said Klein.
Klein says trauma is defined as an injury to the body from a car crash or other event that could be disabling or life threatening.
Seven thousand cases a year pass through the Parkland Trauma Center.
BJ Austin, KERA News
Extra Patrols On Roads For Holiday
Texas Department of Public Safety troopers are already on the roads in extra numbers this Fourth of July holiday. They’re looking for suspected drunk drivers and people not wearing their seatbelts.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says July 4th ranks as number one nationally for alcohol-related crashes.
Last year in Texas, DPS troopers made more than a thousand arrests during the holiday, and issues more than 21 thousand tickets for speeding and seat belt violations.
BJ Austin, KERA News
AAA Texas Offers Free Rides Home For July 4th Party-Goers
The Tipsy Tow program from AAA Texas is gearing up for the Fourth of July holiday.
Free tows home within ten miles are FREE. A standard mileage fee applies thereafter; one agreed upon by tow truck operator and passenger.
The program is designed to keep drunk drivers off the road and get holiday partiers home safely.
It begins at 6pm Tuesday and runs through midnight July 4th.
The number to call is 800-222-4357, and ask for a Tipsy Tow.
BJ Austin, KERA News
North Texas Police and Tarrant D-A Tough On Suspected Drunk Drivers
Tarrant County officials join law enforcement around North Texas in a No Refusal Fourth of July holiday. That means police will use warrants to draw blood from drivers arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and refuse to take a breath test.
The Tarrant County District Attorney plans to post the names and ages of those charged with drunk driving from 6pm July 3rd to 6am July 5th on their website. The D-A began the public list of those charged with holiday drunk driving last New Year’s Eve.
BJ Austin, KERA News
Nearly 3 Million Texans To Travel For Holiday
AAA Texas says nearly 3 million Texans will travel to celebrate the Fourth of July.
With the holiday falling on Wednesday, AAA Texas is considering the holiday travel period as Tuesday through Sunday. The organization forecasts that 54 percent of the travelers already left over the weekend and the remaining 46 percent will leave Monday through Wednesday.
Most of the 2.98 million Texans who will travel this week will go by vehicle.
The group found that 2.5 million will travel by automobile, 276,000 will travel by air and 217,000 will travel by other means, including trains, buses and cruise ships.
AAA Texas says a recent decline in gas prices may have encouraged more people to travel. The statewide average price for gas is $3.20 for a gallon of regular unleaded.
AP
Workers' union back at talks with American
Workers at American Airlines' Tulsa maintenance base are hopeful the bankrupt air carrier can reach labor agreements this week with the Transport Workers Union.
American had announced it would resume negotiations with flight attendants and mechanics this week. Company pilots are expected to vote on a new contract in mid-July.
Several workers at the Tulsa hub say the union realizes there will be layoffs with almost any version of a new labor agreement, but the cuts would be far less if a union-approved contract was in place with the company.
American, which has about 73,000 employees, filed for bankruptcy protection in November and announced a plan in February to eliminate 13,000 union jobs as part of a cost-cutting move.
American is Tulsa's largest private employer, with about 7,000 workers.
AP
Tax on Amazon purchases from Texas
Texans shopping on Amazon DOT com will start paying state and local sales taxes today.
Under a deal with Texas Comptroller Susan Combs, the online retail giant is to begin collecting sales taxes July 1st on purchases from Texas.
Amazon has also promised 2,500 new jobs for the state and $200 million in capital investment over four years.
Before the deal struck in April, Texas store owners had complained that Internet retailers had an unfair price advantage because they were not required to collect state sales tax.
But that's about to change.
An Amazon spokesman wrote in an email to the Austin American Statesman that "Amazon customers in Texas will see the appropriate sales taxes (automatically) applied to their order when they proceed to check out."
AP
Fugitive accused of taking ring in Dallas arrested
A fugitive accused of violently taking a woman's $90,000 wedding ring in a Dallas grocery store parking lot two years ago was arrested in East Texas.
Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor tells The Dallas Morning News 56-year-old Brian Maurice Fuller was arrested Sunday in Anderson County.
Daniel Monk of the U.S. Marshals Service says Fuller had been living there for two years under an alias.
Fuller was first arrested shortly after the January 2010 mugging. Authorities say his bail was supposed to be $500,000, but he was released on $50,000 after a court mix-up.
Taylor says Fuller will be extradited to Dallas. On Monday, Fuller remained in Anderson County Jail, where an official said no attorney was listed for him.
Police have linked him to other ring robberies.
AP
Report: Justifiable homicides in Texas on rise
A newspaper analysis says justifiable killings in Texas have steadily increased since the state expanded its version of a stand-your-ground law in 2007.
The Houston Chronicle reported Monday that a review of FBI data showed the number of justifiable killings in Texas under the law increased from 32 in 2006 to 48 in 2010.
About half of the killings occurred in the Houston area. Dallas, with nine, and San Antonio, with eight, also showed increases.
The law, known as the Castle Doctrine, was revised to expand the right to use deadly force. It allows people to defend themselves in their homes, workplaces or vehicles. It also says a person using force cannot provoke the attacker or be involved in criminal activity at the time.
AP
Bush helps renovate health center on Africa trip
Former President George W. Bush has been helping to renovate a women's cancer screening center in Zambia during a weeklong trip to Africa.
Bush, clad in a T-shirt and jeans, painted and hauled lumber at the Ngungu Health Center in Kabwe, about 90 miles north of the Zambian capital, Lusaka. The center will start screening and treating women Tuesday for cervical cancer and pre-cancer.
The former president and his wife, Laura, are in Africa to promote a partnership between the George W. Bush Institute, the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, UNAIDS and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, that aims to fight cervical and breast cancer in sub-Saharan Africa.
The George W. Bush Presidential Center says the Bushes arrived in Africa at the weekend.
AP