Thursday, January 27, 2011

Bay City Substitute Teacher Arrested For Making Death Threats



by khou.com staff
khou.com
Posted on January 27, 2011 at 11:23 AM
Updated today at 11:23 AM


BAY CITY, Texas – A substitute teacher has been arrested and charged in connection with death threats made to students in Bay City ISD, the Matagorda County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.

Paul Nolen May, 41, was arrested on Wednesday.
He’s charged with 12 counts of making a terroristic threat – all of which are third-degree felonies.

The threats began on December 28 when the district received a hand-written, profanity-laced letter, purportedly from the parent of a student.

In the letter, the sender expressed anger over their child being disciplined at school. The letter detailed new "rules" for the school to follow regarding discipline and threatened to "kill a random student" if the demands were not met.
About a week later, a second threat was sent via text message.

The message, sent from an anonymous source and forwarded among Bay City ISD students, said this: "Hey! Forward this to everyone…1 rule broken, two girls dies at the jr. high and 2 from high school, dnt go! The school will be on lockdown."

It was not clear if May was suspected in both threats. Investigators declined to release any additional information Thursday.

May was being held in the Matagorda County Jail on bonds totaling $240,000.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Shuttle cracks cause found ...


CAPE CANAVERAL, FL -- NASA finally knows what caused the cracking in space shuttle Discovery's fuel tank, a potentially dangerous problem that likely existed on the previous flight, managers said Tuesday.

Discovery's final voyage has been on hold since the beginning of November. If the remaining repair work goes well, the shuttle could fly to the International Space Station as early as Feb. 24.

At a news conference, NASA officials refused to discuss the flight status of astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in Arizona last weekend. He's supposed to command shuttle Endeavour's last mission in April. His identical twin brother, Scott, is currently serving as the space station's skipper.
"Out of respect to the family, we really are not ready to answer those questions today. We're going to let Mark decide really kind of what he needs to do," said Bill Gerstenmaier, head of NASA space operations. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the family, and we're really thinking about Mark in everything we do."

On the orbiting lab, Scott Kelly took a call Tuesday from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"There are no people in Russia who are not touched by this terrible news," Putin said through a translator.

The Endeavour mission is the last on NASA's official shuttle flight lineup before the fleet is retired. The space agency hopes to add one last trip to the space station by Atlantis at the end of August to bring up extra spare parts, provided there's funding. Officials initially were targeting the end of June for the launch, but said Tuesday they would prefer more time between flights.

As for Discovery's prolonged grounding, shuttle program manager John Shannon said a combination of inferior material and assembly issues is to blame. Cracks occurred in five of the 108 aluminum alloy struts in the center of the tank, which holds instruments. The damaged struts have been patched. Technicians will reinforce the remaining struts as a safety precaution, using thin 6-inch strips of aluminum.
Shannon called it "a very simple, elegant fix to the problem."

"We're going to fly with a lot of confidence in this tank," he told reporters. "We've gotten rid of the uncertainty."
The tank is covered with foam insulation, and NASA was concerned the cracks could force pieces to break off during liftoff, with chunks possibly striking the shuttle.

A slab of foam doomed Columbia in 2003.
Engineers also worried that if four or more struts in a row failed, the entire structure could catastrophically buckle.

The cracking was discovered after an unrelated problem -- a hydrogen gas leak -- halted Discovery's launch countdown on Nov. 5.
Shannon said a batch of the material used for some of the 21-foot support struts, through heating, ended up more brittle.

In addition, weaknesses were introduced during assembly of the pieces.
The bad batch of material likely ended up on the fuel tank that launched Atlantis last May, Shannon said. Every indication is that the tank performed normally, even if cracks were, indeed, present, he noted.

The tank currently being prepared for Atlantis also has struts made of the suspect material and will need to be repaired. Engineers believe Endeavour's tank is unaffected, but extra tests are likely, which would push that mission into mid- to late April.

Once the 30-year shuttle program ends, the White House wants NASA focusing on expeditions to asteroids and Mars, rather than servicing the space station.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Death Threat Concerns Parents/FBI Investigating


BAY CITY, Texas -- A hand-written death threat letter to a South Texas school district prompted the parents of hundreds of students to keep their children home.

A message Wednesday on the Bay City Independent School District website says classes continue with increased emphasis on safety and security.

The FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety are investigating.
Parents on Monday were advised by Superintendent Keith Brown of the anonymous letter received Dec. 28. The letter to Brown contains profanity, misspellings and refers to the sender’s child getting in trouble. The sender included new "rules" on discipline and threatened to "kill a random student" if the demands were not met.

About half the students in the nearly 3,800-student district missed school Tuesday.
Bay City is about 70 miles southwest of Houston.

Michael Jackson's Doctor Clueless


Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- The pretrial hearing for Dr. Conrad Murray continues Wednesday as a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge decides whether there is "probable cause" to try him on an involuntary manslaughter charge in the death of pop star Michael Jackson.

The hearing, which began Tuesday, is expected to last two or three weeks, with 20 to 30 witnesses testifying.
On Tuesday, Jackson's former security chief testified that Murray seemed not to know how to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation as he waited for paramedics to arrive at the singer's house.
Faheem Muhammed said he and and guard Alberto Alvarez saw Murray crouched next to Jackson's bed "in a panicked state asking, 'Does anyone know CPR?' "

"I looked at Alberto because we knew Dr. Murray was a heart surgeon, so we were shocked," Muhammed said.

Jackson's doctor heads to court Murray faces court hearing Events surrounding Jackson's death

When defense attorney Ed Chernoff asked if perhaps Murray was asking for help because he was tired, Muhammed said, "The way that he asked it is as if he didn't know CPR."

Jackson appeared to be dead at that time, with his "eyes open and his mouth open, just laying there," Muhammed said.

Prosecutor David Walgren earlier said that Murray used "ineffectual CPR with one hand while the patient was prone on a soft bed." Two hands with the patient prone on a hard surface is the proper method, he said.
Muhammed, the third witness on the opening day of the hearing, said he never saw

Murray performing CPR on Jackson before paramedics arrived and carried him to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
Jackson's mother, Katherine, sister La Toya and brothers Randy and Jackie sat in the second row of the courtroom during Tuesday's opening session.
Jackson's two oldest children, Prince and Paris, were at their father's bedroom door as the drama unfolded just after noon on June 25, 2009, Muhammed said.

"Paris was on the floor on her hands and knees and she was just crying," he said.
The children would learn two hours later that their father had died when Murray and Jackson manager Frank Dileo talked to them in a hospital room.
"Frank blurted out and said, 'Your daddy had a heart attack and died,' " Jackson personal assistant Michael Williams testified.

At the start of the hearing Tuesday, the prosecutor said that Murray waited at least 21 minutes after he found Jackson unresponsive before calling for an ambulance.

"By all accounts, Michael Jackson was dead in the bedroom at 100 North Carolwood prior to the paramedics' arrival," Walgren said.
The coroner concluded Jackson died from "acute propofol intoxication" in combination with "the contributory effects of the benzodiazepines," Walgren said.
Propofol is a powerful anesthetic used to "put people under for surgery," and the benzodiazepines were sedatives Murray later acknowledged giving Jackson in the morning before his death, he said.

"Michael Jackson was preparing for one of the most important tours of his life" in the months before his death, Walgren said.
Murray's defense team has hinted it would argue that Jackson was under pressure from the concert promoter, which led him to demand treatments to help him sleep.
Kenny Ortega, who was directing what would have been Jackson's comeback concerts, was the first of about 30 witnesses the prosecution is calling.
Ortega described Jackson as "involved, active, participating" at his last rehearsal, which ended 12 or 14 hours before his death.
"He was in a delightful mood, and we had an absolutely fantastic day," Ortega testified.

But Ortega described a different, "scary" Jackson at the Staples Center rehearsal on June 19, six nights before his death.
"I just felt that he appeared, you know, really lost," Ortega said. "It was scary. I didn't know what was wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it."


READ THE FULL STORY AT CNN

Your BEST business option!

Begin your search here:

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin

Chron TV