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DALLAS (AP) —
As the Alamo prepares for a face-lift of at least $48 million, some critics say the landmark — one of the most recognizable in U.S. history — must be transformed from a one-dimensional attraction that's struggled to find its footing amid the clamor of downtown San Antonio.
The 18th-century former Spanish mission is poised to undergo one of its most significant alterations as Texas moves to buy nearby commercial buildings and hire a firm to develop a master plan over the next year that could change the area dramatically.
Some with a stake in the area say nearby attractions like Ripley's Haunted Adventure are too garish for the setting where some 190 men died defending the mission against the forces of Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Others say the landmark focuses too much on the battle that eventually gave way to Texas independence and not enough on its role as a cultural and commercial gateway.
"We've overly focused on March 6, 1836," said Jesus F. de la Teja, director of the Center for the Study of the Southwest at Texas State University.
Some critics say the Alamo could learn from neighboring attractions and offer catchier exhibits and displays.
"History in and of itself will not sell," said Davis Phillips, president and CEO of Phillips Entertainment. "History, presented in the right way, can sell."
Phillips owns three Alamo Plaza attractions including Ripley's and Guinness World Records Museum. The Texas General Land Office is moving to acquire the buildings housing those businesses across from the Alamo and possibly incorporate them into the mission's original footprint.
Phillips' ventures and other plaza businesses presumably would be relocated and the buildings used for other purposes, such as a museum with more than 200 artifacts donated by musician and Alamo aficionado Phil Collins.
State lawmakers have approved spending $31 million for repurposing the site. San Antonio officials have OK'd spending $17 million. But both state and city officials say private donations could raise the tally by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Phillips said neighboring family entertainment attractions that complement the Alamo experience should be included in the vision behind the changes. He said most visitors only spend a short time at the mission before heading to nearby businesses.
"There's been 170 years of development in the area," he said. "What I'm trying to tell everybody is that San Antonio is the No. 1 destination for leisure (in Texas) so let's be careful to not harm that."
The Daughters of the Republic of Texas managed the Alamo grounds for more than a century before the state took over the operations earlier this year. The Daughters of the Republic still maintains a research center there that includes a 38,000-item archival collection considered one of the most important in the state.
Daughters of the Republic president general Betty Edwards said any Alamo-related changes must be done with "reverence and respect" given its history as a burial site for Native Americans and the place where the bodies of the defenders of 1836 were piled and burned by Santa Anna's troops.
Edwards supports restoring the original footprint, but said a hotel, courthouse and other buildings encroach on that plan.
"We can combine entertainment with history without being Disneyland," she said.
She said a long-running dispute between her organization and the state, including an ongoing civil lawsuit over ownership of artifacts in the collection, has led to discussions with Texas A&M-San Antonio about moving the collection there.
San Antonio Conservation Society board member Sue Ann Pemberton said an Alamo alteration must include explanations about early settlements in the region, how commerce grew and the development that followed.
"The key issue is that we haven't told the story of that mission very well," she said.
De la Teja said the Alamo has been turned into a "living ruin" that doesn't capture the dynamic rise of the area in which many cultures built an important commercial hub over time.
"San Antonio grew up around it, so let's tell that story," he said.
HOUSTON (AP) —
A former member of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's platoon said Sunday he's angered by an Army officer's recommendation that Bergdahl face a lower-level court martial and be spared the possibility of jail time for leaving his post in Afghanistan.
Josh Korder, an ex-U.S. Army sergeant, said Bergdahl should face life imprisonment because he holds him responsible for several deaths that occurred after Bergdahl abandoned his post in 2009, leaving his platoon in Blackfoot Company.
"Was it during the search for Bergdahl that we lost men in Blackfoot company? No. But was it as a result of that search and as a result of him leaving that we lost members of Blackfoot company? Yes," Korder said in a telephone interview.
The Pentagon has said there's no evidence anyone died searching for Bergdahl. But his commanding officers in Afghanistan testified last month at an Article 32 hearing — which reviewed evidence against Bergdahl — that a 45-day search for him put soldiers in danger.
Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban after leaving his post in June 2009, and held until last year, when he was exchanged for five Taliban commanders. Bergdahl was charged in March with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, a charge that carries up to life in prison.
Eugene Fidell, Bergdahl's attorney, said Saturday Lt. Col. Mark Visger has recommended that Bergdahl's case be referred to a special court martial, which is a misdemeanor-level forum. It limits the maximum punishment to reduction in rank, a bad-conduct discharge and a term of up to a year in prison.
Fidell also said Visger, who presided over last month's hearing in Texas, recommended that there be no prison time or punitive discharge against Bergdahl.
Korder, who now lives outside Detroit, said other platoon members he's kept in contact with since leaving the Army have long believed Bergdahl will not face legal consequences for his actions.
"They're very disheartened with the whole procedure and a lot of them saw it coming, that they felt like he was not going to be punished," he said.
Gen. Robert Abrams, the commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command, will ultimately decide whether the case should be referred to a court-martial. No timeline has been given for a decision from Abrams.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) —
A man was shot and critically injured during an altercation at a tailgate party in a parking lot outside the stadium where the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots played on Sunday, police said.
Arlington police spokesman Christopher Cook said officers were alerted to a fight in a parking lot of the NFL stadium. They heard a gunshot as they arrived and found a man in his early 40s injured. The man was transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. He was later flown by helicopter to a hospital in Fort Worth for treatment.
The suspected shooter apparently fell while attempting to flee, was injured and was also taken to the hospital, Cook said. The suspect was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and will be jailed once he is released from the hospital.
The incident happened about 90 minutes after the game had ended but many fans remained and there were numerous witnesses, Cook said.
"There were still a lot of people who were tailgating after the game," he said.
The Cowboys lost the game to the Patriots. The Texas Rangers were also playing at the time in a baseball playoff with the Toronto Blue Jays on the other side of the grounds.
Cook said the cause of the fight was not immediately known. The identities of the two men have not been released.