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The Texas Tribune-
The number of people killed on the job in Texas increased in 2014, and the state retained its grim perch atop all others in workplace deaths, according to preliminary federal data released Thursday.
Texas saw 524 fatal workplace injuries last year, compared with 508 a year earlier, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. That 3 percent increase was slightly higher than the growth of workplace fatalities nationwide (2 percent). The 2014 figures are preliminary, and the agency will revise them next spring.
The next highest death toll behind Texas was in more populous California, where 334 workers died last year.
Texas has led the nation in total workplace deaths in 11 of the past 14 years.
Besides California, other large states saw far fewer on-the-job deaths last year than Texas. Florida, for instance, had 239 and New York registered 178, the latest figures show.
Adjusting for population, Texas ranked 17th in workplace deaths in 2014.
Of course, Texas’ booming economy over the past decade has kept most of its residents employed, while drawing thousands of workers from other states — a significant factor when considering nationwide fatality data. The phenomenon meant a surge of jobs in particularly dangerous industries such as trucking, construction and oil and gas production.
Still, last July, David Michaels who heads the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, lamented lax safety efforts in the state’s construction industry in particular, saying, “workers are not being given adequate protection” on job sites and in the state's safety net.
Texas, for instance, is the only U.S. state that does not require employers to carry workers' compensation insurance. Some companies offer private insurance instead, but last spring, state officials said at least a half-million workers are not covered at all.
In 2014, transportation accidents killed far more Texas workers — 237 — than any other event.
Nationwide, transportation accidents accounted for 40 percent of all workplace deaths. The bureau says those numbers will probably rise when it revises the data, because it has yet to receive some key sources of information.
Hispanic or Latino workers accounted for nearly 17 percent of the U.S. deaths. About 40 percent of those workers were born in Mexico. State-by-state ethnic and racial data were not available Thursday.
The Texas Tribune-
More than 18 percent of female undergraduates at the University of Texas at Austin and about 15 percent at Texas A&M say they have been sexually assaulted since arriving on campus, according to comprehensive surveys released this week.
Those rates are too high, school officials say, but appear to be lower than the schools’ peers. The numbers were compiled through surveys conducted at 27 schools that are members of the “tier one” Association of American Universities.
“One sexual assault is too many,” said UT-Austin President Gregory L. Fenves in a statement. “It is essential that we foster a campus that does not tolerate sexual assaults while strongly encouraging victims to come forward and report incidents."
But while the reported incidents were lower than average, a significant portion of students at both schools didn’t express confidence that allegations of assault would be taken seriously by their university. Other campuses had the same problem.
At UT-Austin, 62 percent of students said they thought it was likely or extremely likely that a report of sexual assault would be taken seriously. That is just below the national average of 63 percent. Confidence was higher at A&M, where 73.4 percent of students thought it was likely or extremely likely that school officials would take a report seriously.
A&M also fared much better than its peers in students’ confidence in how an on-campus investigation would play out. More than 64 percent of students said A&M would be likely or extremely likely to conduct a fair investigation. At UT-Austin, that number was 47 percent, below the national average of 49 percent.
"Everybody here at A&M really understands from the deepest level that the students are the focus of the enterprise," said A&M President Michael K. Young. "There is a sense here that their concerns matter and we are going to address them."
Young said he thinks A&M's numbers may be slightly better because of the culture of respect and service on the A&M campus. Still, he said the university won't be satisfied until all students have confidence in the school's ability to handle cases.
Federal law requires schools to investigate and consider taking action when a student accuses another student of sexual assault. Schools are expected to ensure that the victim is taken care of and able to continue his or her schooling safely and comfortably. The alleged assaulter can be suspended or kicked off campus.
Both Texas schools have ramped up their efforts to combat sexual violence. The UT System recently launched a $1.7 million initiative that includes in-depth surveys of all campuses, along with studies that closely follow smaller cohorts of students throughout their four years on campus. The effort is "the most comprehensive sexual assault study in higher education," system officials said.
Meanwhile, A&M has launched a publicity campaign that encourages students to speak out against sexual assault and to intervene in cases where a student appears at risk.
Still, the survey indicates that much more work is needed. Just 26 percent of female respondents who said they were were raped while students said they reported the incident to a proper authority. At A&M, that rate was 23 percent. Female students who said they were incapacitated during a rape reported at an even lower rate — 15 percent at UT-Austin and 14 percent at A&M.
Young said he suspects that many students don't know the full range of options available to them if they report a sexual assault.
"We need to do a good job to communicate that, no, we aren't going to blame the victim and we want to make sure that services are provided that are in line with their needs," he said.
At both schools, about 6 percent of females who said they were victims of "nonconsensual sexual touching" reported the assault to authorities.
Women at both schools listed feelings of shame, embarrassment or fear of emotional difficulty as the top reasons they didn’t report the assaults. The other primary reason was that the women didn’t think their cases were serious enough to report.
It's a sign, school officials said, that more outreach is needed. Simply conducting the survey and publishing its results should help show students that sexual assault prevention is a priority, said LaToya Hill, who presides over the UT-Austin office that handles assault cases. UT-Austin leaders plan to meet with student groups and conduct focus groups to reinforce that impression, she said.
"We have to go in a grassroots type of way, and just listen to those students," she said.
EDNA, Texas (AP) —
Six people who were killed when the SUV they were in crashed following a police chase were being transported by a smuggling organization, federal officials said Thursday.
The driver, a U.S. citizen, and two others in the vehicle are believed to be members of the smuggling organization, Leticia Zamarripa, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement.
The driver was one of the individuals who died in the accident, while the other five killed were immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
Officials say the vehicle was packed with the three smuggling ring members and 13 people who were in the country illegally.
Those being smuggled in the vehicle were adults from Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, Zamarripa said. One of the smuggling suspects is from Mexico, and the nationality of the other is unknown, she said.
The chase began early Thursday as officers in Edna, 90 miles southwest of Houston, tried to stop the 2003 Ford Explorer for a traffic violation, said city police Chief Clinton Wooldridge.
As the vehicle veered onto Highway 59, the driver seemed to overcorrect and the SUV flipped several times, police said.
Four people died at the scene and two more died at hospitals, Wooldridge said.
"It is a tragedy and it is a horrible situation," Wooldridge said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
Two of the immigrants were being treated at a hospital in nearby Victoria for fractures, while another was in critical condition at a Houston hospital, Wooldridge said. The other immigrants who were injured in the crash were treated at Jackson County Hospital in Edna and later released into the custody of U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Two people who ran from the scene were tracked down and detained. A third person was found around 3 p.m. Thursday across the roadway from the crash site, near a home, Wooldridge said.
"We've been in contact with consulates and they are working with the medical examiner's offices to try and find these people's families," he said.
The car had been modified so it would hold 16 people, with the center seat having been removed, Wooldridge said.
"I believe the Ford Explorer is built on a half-ton chassis and it had ¾ of a ton of people. So that probably had something to do with the instability of the vehicle," he said.
It is not uncommon for vehicles packed with immigrants who have entered the U.S. illegally to be involved in deadly crashes as they are shuttled away from the border.
Last year, a South Texas teenager was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted in a 2012 accident that killed nine immigrants. The teenager had been fleeing Border Patrol agents when the van he was driving with at least 17 immigrants inside flipped. Also, a Mexican man was sentenced to 45 years in prison over a crash that left seven immigrants dead in 2013.
Wooldridge said his agency and others in the area have a lot of experience stopping northbound vehicles that are transporting drugs and immigrants in the country illegally.
"That's fairly common in our area," he said.