News You Ought to Know
Dallas police officer charged with false overtime report
DALLAS (AP) — A Dallas police officer has agreed to plead guilty to falsely reporting 160 hours of federally funded overtime work hours after submitting 29 fake traffic citations.
A statement Monday from the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation says Officer Matthew Alan Rushing was charged last week with the federal offense.
The charge alleges Rushing wrote and submitted the fake citations from February through May to justify the fraudulent overtime pay funded from a federal grant.
Rushing was placed on administrative leave. A federal judge still must accept Rushing’s plea, and no sentencing date has been set. He could be sentenced to up to five years in federal prison.
Former Texas Tech standout Andre Emmett killed in Dallas
DALLAS (AP) — Former Texas Tech basketball standout Andre Emmett, the team’s all-time leading scorer, was shot to death early Monday near his home in Dallas.
Emmett, 37, was sitting in his vehicle outside his home at about 2:30 a.m. when he was approached by two people who displayed a handgun, police said. An altercation ensued and Emmett was shot as he ran away, police said.
Police said the suspects fled and a passer-by called 911 after finding Emmett several hundred feet from his home.
Emmett died at a hospital. Texas Tech spokesman Wes Bloomquist said a university administrator had spoken to Emmett’s family to confirm his death.
Emmett scored 2,256 career points from 2001-04 with the Red Raiders. He averaged 17.6 points per game.
After college, Emmett played one season each with the Memphis Grizzlies and New Jersey Nets and also played overseas and in the BIG3 3-on-3 basketball league.
He was inducted into the Texas Tech Hall of Fame last year.
Current head coach Chris Beard, who was an assistant to Bob Knight when Emmett played for the Red Raiders, said Emmett was “arguably the best player in program history and an even better person.”
Beard, who said he’d just talked to Emmett a few days ago, said Emmett had established a foundation in his hometown of Dallas to help kids.
In a statement BIG3 described Emmett as kind and easy-going, and said he was “a joy to be around.”
Police: Shooting of Dallas transgender woman was hate crime
DALLAS (AP) — Police in Dallas say a transgender woman was seriously wounded after being shot multiple times and are investigating the attack as a hate crime.
Investigators say a man driving a pickup pulled alongside the woman late Friday, yelled slurs about her gender identity and fired several times, striking her in the chest and arm.
Authorities say the woman’s injuries prevented her from speaking with them until Sunday when she relayed details of the shooting.
Police are searching for a red, four-door pickup with large rims.
The shooting comes after two men were arrested in June in separate Texas killings of transgender women.
A 22-year-old man is accused of killing a woman and dumping her body in a Dallas lake. A 33-year-old man is accused in the deaths of three women , including one who was transgender.
2 Muslim men from Texas say American Airlines profiled them
DALLAS (AP) — Two Muslim men from Texas say American Airlines profiled them and canceled their flight after crew members said they “didn’t feel comfortable” flying with the pair.
Abderraoof Alkhawaldeh and Issam Abdallah said they filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation against the Fort Worth-based airline, asking the federal agency to investigate the incident. The men say American Airlines discriminated against them Saturday for appearing Muslim and Middle Eastern during a flight from Birmingham, Alabama, that was headed to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
The pair says flight attendants reported them because a crew member noticed Abdallah flush the toilet two times while in the airplane restroom, according to a letter the men’s attorney sent to the DOT. The men also waved to each other on the plane.
“It was the most humiliating day of my life,” said Abdallah, who spoke Thursday at the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The passengers were put on a later flight. Alkhawaldeh and Abdallah were questioned and searched by the FBI and the Transportation Security Administration before they were cleared to board.
“I have taken hundreds of flights — and to be treated with such disrespect, suspicion, to be questioned in public and to be singled out and followed around in front of other airport customers — I am really worried as to what my next flying experience will be,” said Alkhawaldeh, adding that he flies with American often and is an AAdvantage Executive Platinum member, the company’s highest frequent flier ranking.
American Airlines spokeswoman LaKesha Brown said the flight was canceled as a result of “concerns raised by a crew member and a passenger.”
Auction: Bonnie Parker’s poetry book, Clyde Barrow’s watch
DALLAS (AP) — A book of poetry handwritten by Bonnie Parker and a watch belonging to Clyde Barrow are among items from the outlaw Texas couple being offered at auction.
RR Auction will offer the items Saturday in Boston. Parker and Barrow were shot to death by lawmen in Louisiana in 1934 following a massive manhunt.
The auction house says Parker wrote the poetry in the bank book while in jail. Auction house executive vice president Bobby Livingston says half the poems appear to be original compositions.
Other items being offered are a Bulova watch Barrow wore when he was killed, a draft of a Dallas police “wanted” poster for Barrow and a shotgun confiscated after a 1933 shootout in Joplin, Missouri, in which two lawmen were killed and the gang sped away.
- In this July 29, 2019, photo provided by RR Auction, a wanted poster of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are shown. A book of poetry handwritten by Bonnie Parker and a watch belonging to Clyde Barrow are among items from the outlaw Texas couple being offered at auction. (AP Photo/RR Auction, Nikki Brickett)
- In this July 23, 2019, photo provided by RR Auction, a book of poetry belonging to Bonnie Parker is shown. A book of poetry handwritten by Parker and a watch belonging to Clyde Barrow are among items from the outlaw Texas couple being offered at auction. (AP Photo/RR Auction, Nikki Brickett)
In this May 9, 2019, photo provided by RR Auction, a watch belonging to Clyde Barrow is shown. A book of poetry handwritten by Bonnie Parker and a watch belonging to Clyde Barrow are among items from the outlaw Texas couple being offered at auction. (AP Photo/RR Auction, Nikki Brickett)
