News Roundup: Southwest Airlines Founder Herb Kelleher Has Died

Our daily look at Texas headlines.

By Becky FogelJanuary 4, 2019 1:40 pm

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

Herb Kelleher, co-founder of Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, died Thursday.

In a 2016 interview with the NPR program “How I Built This,” Kelleher says when the airline started out, it was the underdog.

“It was sort of David versus the Goliaths – not just one but three of them,” he said.

KERA’s Stella Chavez has more on Kelleher’s life and legacy.

Kelleher was considered a pioneer in the airline industry. Southwest Airlines was founded on the idea of offering passengers low-cost airfare and service across Texas. The airline began flying in June 1971. During his long tenure, Kelleher served as the company’s executive chairman as well as president and CEO. Fortune magazine called him the Best CEO in America. Kelleher was 87. He’s survived by his wife, Joan and three children.

 


 


 


High-quality preschool can improve children’s health, according to an analysis from Rutgers University. But as Houston Public Media’s Laura Isensee reports, many programs in Texas may be missing that opportunity.

Analysts at the National Institute for Early Education Research looked at extensive studies on pre-K. They found that it can create direct, positive impacts on children’s mental and physical health. Allison Friedman-Krauss is with Rutgers.

“If programs have specific focuses on getting children getting engaged in physical activity, you can see reductions in obesity or children’s BMI,” she says.

Friedman-Krauss says they also found indirect effects that can last for decades, like lower blood pressure and better job prospects.

But it all depends if the pre-K is high quality, with small classes and trained teachers. And in Texas, early education programs fall short on most benchmarks. Governor Greg Abbott tried to raise standards with a grant program in 2015. But many districts felt it wasn’t enough money and lawmakers didn’t renew any of it last session.

 


 


 


Texas law enforcement has released a composite sketch of the suspect wanted in connection with the murder of a 7-year-old girl.

Jazmine Barnes was in her family’s car near a Houston Walmart, Sunday when a man pulled up alongside them in a red pickup truck and began shooting. Jazmine was killed – her mother, LaPorsha Washington was shot in the arm.

The sketch shows a pale, white male in his 30s or 40s, with blue eyes.

Officials updated some details from the original description, including the fact the gunman was wearing a black hoodie, not a red one. Another change, said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez at Thursday press conference, is that the suspect was initially described as having a beard.

“We’ve determined that at least for now it looks more like a 5 o’clock shadow is what we’re being told, so it could have grown out by now. Remember what I said: It’s very easy to change one’s facial features,” Gonzalez says.

Gonzalez added they’re not tone deaf to concerns the attack was racially-motivated, because the white gunman targeted a black family. But he says they have not established a motive yet.