Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, and Newt Gingrich are hoping their bus tours can form enough of a roadblock for Mitt Romney.
Perry, Bachmann, and Gingrich are ready to start bus tours through Iowa Tuesday, making their final pitch as conservative alternatives to Romney. The former Massachusetts governor is set to visit with voters in New Hampshire in the morning before returning to Iowa.
Their campaigns are weighing the challenge they face from Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who has deep support among libertarians. Paul's supporters have not really stopped organizing in the state since his 2008 bid, and he could have a better-than-expected showing in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses. The caucuses begin the GOP nominating calendar.
Associated Press
Southwest flight attendants reach seniority deal
Southwest Airlines Co. flight attendants are the latest group of workers to agree on how they will integrate their seniority with that of workers at AirTran Airways.
The agreement, announced Monday, must be ratified by members of the Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents roughly 10,000 Southwest flight attendants, and the Association of Flight Attendants Council 57, which represents about 2,400 at AirTran, the airline and the unions said.
The unions said the pact provides seniority enhancements and job security for Southwest flight attendants and boosts wages and benefits for AirTran flight attendants. Southwest Airlines also will open an Atlanta flight attendant base.
Dallas-based Southwest bought AirTran in May. The airline's flight instructors and mechanics are to vote soon on seniority agreements.
Associated Press
Supreme Court gay privacy case victor dead at 68
The Texan whose gay privacy case led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that granted privacy rights to gay men and lesbians has died at the age of 68.
John G. Lawrence died in Houston Nov. 20, according to Sarah Wilson of R.S. Farmer Funeral Home in Silsbee, Texas. His partner, Jose Garcia, says Lawrence died of a heart condition.
Mitchell Katine, a Houston attorney who represented Lawrence in the case Lawrence vs. Texas, said he learned of his client's death Saturday while inviting him to an April celebration of the ruling.
Lawrence and Tyrone Garner were arrested in 1998 at Lawrence's home near Houston by sheriff's deputies who found them having sex. The 2003 Supreme Court ruling struck down the Texas state law that made sodomy a crime.
Associated Press
State estimates 68,000 Texans living with HIV
The Texas Department of State Health Services estimates 68,000 Texans are living with HIV, which is about an eight percent increase over the past two years.
The agency says about a third of those diagnosed between 2003 and 2009 had a late diagnosis, meaning they got an AIDS diagnosis within a year of their first positive HIV test.
Associated Press
Lost football title ring returned after 23 years
An Arlington teacher has been reunited with a ring marking his football championship at Abilene's McMurry University more than two decades after he lost it.
A Fort Worth man bought a desk at a thrift store and found the ring in a drawer. David Garcia contacted the university, which tracked down alumnus Kelly Bonner, a defensive end on the team that won the 1983 Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association title.
Bonner forgot the ring was in the ashtray of his truck when in 1988 he traded it in.
Garcia told the Abilene Reporter-News he was motivated to find the owner because his son was on a championship high school football team. Bonner says he got teary-eyed and he didn't realize how much it meant to him until it was returned.
Associated Press
Peggy Railey Dies
Peggy Railey, former wife of a Dallas minister found not guilty of trying to kill her, has died. A funeral home in Tyler confirms Peggy Railey’s death, nearly 25 years after the choking attack that left her incapacitated.
Railey was 38 at the time she was attacked in her home in April of 1987. She remained in a vegetative state.
Walker Railey, her husband, senior minister at Dallas’ First United Methodist Church, was charged but acquitted in a sensational trial.
Railey later acknowledged he lied about his whereabouts the night of the attack to hide an affair.
Associated Press
School Finance Lawsuits To Consolidate in New Year
The New Year will find a majority of Texas school districts suing the state over funding.
Three new groups late this year, filed school finance lawsuits, in addition to the original petition filed in October by the Texas Taxpayer and Student Fairness Coalition. It’s expected that the lawsuits will be combined into one big court case early next year.
If that happens, the four plaintiff groups would represent more than half of the one thousand Texas school districts and more than three quarters of public school students.The lawsuits claim the state Legislature has failed to meet its constitutional mandate to adequately fund public education, and that the finance system has created inequities in funding among districts.
Associated Press
Texas Murder Suspects Arrested In Mississippi
A Christmas stakeout in Sharkey County Mississippi netted three men wanted for murder in Texas.
The Sheriff says the security system of a stolen car led police to the home of a relative of the two of the men.
The three are wanted for the December 20th robbery and murder of 21 year old Trevor Kronbach at his Lewisville home.
The Sheriff’s says the suspects have waived extradition and will be returned to Texas to face charges.
Associated Press