The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.
Hundreds of people violated Texas election law in November, and some of them could be prosecuted.
Voters were required to show identification at the polls – and they didn’t have an acceptable form of ID, they had to sign an affidavit stating they had an impediment to getting one. An Associated Press investigation found that hundreds of voters signed the affidavit despite indicating they possessed one.
Officials in some counties have chalked that up to confusion surrounding the law, but others plan to prosecute those who intentionally flaunted the rules. Stephen Vickers, the chief deputy elections administrator for Tarrant County, told the Associated Press that cases of voters possessing ID but refusing to show it will be turned over to the district attorney.
Severe weather ripped through many parts of Texas last night – heavy rain, high winds, and hail hit caused thousands of power outages throughout the state.The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched down in San Antonio, damaging over 100 structures.
Meteorologist Bob Fogerty said crews confirmed the tornado by how debris was scattered Monday morning.
“If it’s straight line winds, everything seems to be blown over in one direction,” he says. “When there’s tornadoes – because tornadoes are circulating – we expect to see things thrown around in sort of a random pattern. Sometimes you can even see the circular pattern – that’s not necessarily the case but things get to be sort of random instead of all one direction.”
Rains continue in southeast Texas, bu tJeff Lindner, a meteorologist with the Harris County Flood Control District, doesn’t think they’ll be as damaging as some of the region’s recent floods.
“This is not going to be a Tax Day flood event or even a Memorial Day flood event, and I don’t even think it’s going get as bad as what we had a couple weeks ago on January 18th,” he says. “This is mainly some street flooding and also some wind damage is possible with the severe weather.”
Two hunting guides in west Texas have been indicted in a shooting they previously blamed on undocumented immigrants – a grand jury in Presidio County indicted Michael Bryant and Walker Daugherty on deadly conduct charges. On the night of January 6, local law enforcement responded to a shooting at a hunting ranch along the border. They found that Daugherty had been shot, and so had one of his clients, Edwin Roberts.
A friend of Daugherty’s set up a GoFundMe account to help pay for his medical expenses. The account claimed that the injuries were part of a shootout with illegal immigrants who were trying to steal his vehicle. But the grand jury decided this was actually a case of friendly fire.
Deadly conduct involving a firearm can be punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
