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Top Stories: North Texas To Get Nearly $400 Million In Disaster Floodway Funding

Brandon Wade / AP Photo
A swollen Lake Lewisville forced boat house to break free from their moorings, Friday, May 29, 2015.

The top local stories this morning from KERA News:

Some of the $5 billion in federal funding announced for disaster recovery projects in the state will come to North Texas. The governor's office said on Thursday that about $275 million will go to the Dallas Floodway and Floodway Extension.

The Lewisville Dam feeding into the Dallas Floodway between the Trinity River levees will get an additional $92 million.

TheDallas Morning News reports that's welcome news for residents who live, work and own businesses in parts of the city prone to flooding. Promised levees and pump stations have been repeatedly shelved for decades because of federal inaction.

Other stories this morning:

  • It’s been two years since four city police officers and a DART officer were killed during an ambush in downtown Dallas. The police department will honor those officers at a ceremony outside the main entrance of the Jack Evans Police Headquarters on Friday morning.

  • Granbury has temporarily closed its City Beach to make safety improvements. The city will add water markers at the 5.5 and 6 feet marks, and a security company will be hired to re-enforce park rules. The decision follows two recent deaths at the park. Granbury officials say there’s no timetable for when the beach will reopen.

  • A big, chunky building with tiny, obscured windows along Bryan St. in old east Dallas has been a bit of a mystery. A pair of reporters from the online news site The Intercept think it’s a National Security Agency spy hub. For this week's Friday Conversation, KERA's Rick Holter talked with one of those reporters, Ryan Gallagher, via Skype from London.

You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.

Gus Contreras is a digital producer and reporter at KERA News. Gus produces the local All Things Considered segment and reports on a variety of topics from, sports to immigration. He was an intern and production assistant for All Things Considered in Washington D.C.