ASSOCIATED PRESS
Texas is officially in the midst of its second-worst drought on record.
National Weather Service meteorologist Victor Murphy said Tuesday this year’s drought has now surpassed one that ended in 1918 as the second-driest period in the state.
Texas’ most severe overall drought remains one that persisted from 1950-1957. The state climatologist last week declared the current drought the state’s most severe one-year drought on record.
Texas saw less than an inch of rain statewide in July, and more than 90 percent of the state already is in the two most extreme stages of drought. It has endured its driest 10 consecutive months on record.
A newly updated weather map shows the drought holding firm through at least October.
DALLAS
Dallas police say a mother has been accused of forcing her 6-year-old daughter to use cellphone video to record the woman having group sex.
The Dallas Morning News has not identified the mother, to protect the identity of the child in the sex-related case.
The woman was held Monday in the Dallas County Jail on a charge of indecency with a child, with bond set a $50,000.
Police didn’t immediately return a message Tuesday on whether the mother was still in custody following her arrest Saturday. Police said the investigation involves three incidents since March and several men.
DALLAS
Authorities said a man died after falling from the third level of an upscale mall onto an ice rink.
Dallas Fire Rescue said that when firefighters and paramedics arrived at the mall Tuesday afternoon, the man was unresponsive. Paramedics then took him to Medical City Dallas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Dallas Fire Rescue said the cause of the fall was not known. Dallas police said they were gathering information on the fall and had no additional information to release.
LAREDO
A South Texas deputy constable has made his first appearance in federal court on charges he accepted bribes and accessed protected computer information.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that FBI agents arrested Webb County Deputy Constable Eduardo Garcia on Monday, a day before he appeared in U.S. Magistrate Judge Guillermo Garcia’s court.
The indictment alleges the 44-year-old Garcia accepted bribes to escort what he believed to be loads of cocaine through Laredo and ran a license plate number through a law enforcement database.
Garcia has been a peace officer since 1993, usually driving a prison transport van.
EL PASO
A former West Texas beauty queen has been accused of shoplifting a $69 shirt from a mall store.
Miss El Paso USA 2008 Lorena Tavera on Monday denied the theft allegation and said she planned to contact an attorney.
El Paso police arrested the 21-year-old Tavera after store workers Friday night noticed the theft and followed her outside the business. Tavera, who allegedly concealed the shirt in a shopping bag, was confronted and detained for police.
Compiled from wire reports
