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EL PASO, Texas (AP) — People have begun walking from the West Texas city of El Paso to Juarez, Mexico, where Pope Francis is holding a large outdoor Mass to cap his visit to the country.
A steady stream of pedestrians walked across the Bridge of the Americas on Wednesday morning from El Paso into Juarez. Volunteers from the Catholic Diocese handed out free water bottles to those crossing the bridge.
Luis Trillo was among the pedestrians despite pain from arthritis in his legs. He said he's excited to hear the pope's blessing at the afternoon Mass.
Another of those walking, Maria Hermosillo, says she looks forward to being "in the presence of the spirit that the pope has."
DALLAS (AP) — Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp apologized Tuesday to high school students for racial insults that some minority students say they heard while visiting the College Station campus last week.
Sharp and Texas A&M President Michael Young met privately with the junior class at Uplift Hampton Preparatory, according to a statement from Uplift Education CEO Yasmin Bhatia. State Sen. Royce West joined the A&M leaders at the public charter school in South Dallas.
University officials are investigating allegations that some white A&M students made racial comments or flaunted Confederate flag jewelry on Feb. 9 to taunt the visiting high school students, some of whom were black and Latino. Two black high school students say they were confronted.
"The leadership team extended an apology to the class, praised them for the manner in which they handled a difficult and offensive situation, and offered them the opportunity to ask questions," Bhatia said. The A&M officials and West had expressed outrage last week over treatment of the teens.
Texas A&M Student Body President Joseph Benigno, who also made the trip, presented letters from thousands of students at the college who disavowed racism and supported the high school students. Organizers had hoped to send 10,000 handwritten notes. Letter-writing stations were set up Monday across campus.
Uplift Education spokeswoman Sara Ortega did not have an estimate on how many letters the students received but said there were thousands.
"I encouraged our scholars to keep the letters as a symbol of time when they overcame an obstacle on their journey to a college degree," Bhatia said. Uplift Education is largest charter school network in North Texas, with 16 campuses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to its website.
University officials did not immediately comment on Tuesday morning's private meeting or provide an update of the status of the investigation. West earlier called for possible expulsion of any A&M students involved in the incident.
The Texas A&M University System, with 11 universities and other operations including a health science center, has more than 140,000 students.
MARFA, Texas (AP) — A county judge's determination via telephone that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died of natural causes and required no autopsy was unusual, Texas officials said, but sometimes happens in rural areas of Texas where a county can be bigger than some U.S. states.
Within two hours of Scalia's body being found Saturday at Cibolo Creek Ranch in remote West Texas, Presidio county Judge Cinderela Guevara, who was 60 miles away, consulted by phone with the county sheriff and a U.S. marshal and concluded there was no foul play. After speaking to Scalia's personal doctor later that evening, she decided that he had died of natural causes and no autopsy was necessary.
"I have no issue with how she handled his death," said David Beebe, a justice of the peace in Presidio County, where Scalia died.
Beebe is one of two justices of the peace in the county who are routinely called by authorities to verify a death. Both Beebe and the second justice of the peace were out of town Saturday. Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez, in need of a justice to conduct a death inquest, then called Guevara, who offered to hear the matter.
In rural areas, a justice of the peace typically makes the determination of the cause of death in cases when no witnesses were present. An inquest by phone is as valid as one in person under state law, said Bronson Tucker, an attorney for the Texas Justice Courts Training Center who offers instruction to justices of the peace.
"The huge majority of the time, if you have a 79-year-old overweight person and you have a statement from the physician and zero indicators of foul play, then it's not unusual for there to be no autopsy," said Tucker. "I didn't see any red flags and nothing to say that the judge didn't follow her statutory obligation."
Guevara issued a statement Tuesday defending how she handled the inquest. She said the attorney for Scalia told her the family did not want an autopsy performed because they believe he died of natural causes and they preferred not to delay his body's return to them. Guevara said she consulted with Scalia's physician and the sheriff before deciding against an autopsy.
"I respected the wishes of the Scalia family. ... I did this based upon credible reports to me from law enforcement and from Justice Scalia's personal physician," Guevara said.
Susana Gonzales, a justice of the peace in adjacent Brewster County, said she's never done an inquest by phone but understands there may be situations where it's necessary.
"There's not a procedural mechanism to challenge or appeal the determination by the justice of the peace," Tucker said.
WACO, Texas (AP) — Baylor University President Ken Starr says the Southern Baptist school won't allow concealed handgun license holders to bring their guns on the Waco, Texas, campus.
Texas lawmakers in 2015 forced the state's public schools to allow guns inside campus classrooms and buildings but allowed private schools to continue banning them. Baylor announced the school's position on Tuesday.
Baylor is just the latest large private school to ban guns. Southern Methodist, Rice and Texas Christian universities previously announced they will ban weapons.
The law takes effect Aug. 1. State lawmakers said when they passed the bill they wanted to respect the property rights of private schools.
Several public schools, notably the University of Texas at Austin, have seen fierce protests to guns on campus from faculty, students and staff.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — University of Texas President Greg Fenves has approved rules that will allow concealed handgun license holders to bring their weapons into classrooms.
State law requires public universities to allow concealed handguns in classrooms and buildings starting Aug. 1, but also gives campuses some leeway to carve out gun-free zones.
The rules approved by Fenves on Wednesday were recommended by a study panel in December.
The Austin campus has been a flashpoint of protests from faculty, students and staff who want to keep guns out of classrooms. Fenves has said he doesn't want guns on campus but the school must comply with state law.
Gun-rights advocates insist the right to have weapons on campus falls under the Second Amendment, and they call it a critical self-defense measure.
CRYSTAL CITY, Texas (AP) — The mayor of a remote South Texas town who faces federal corruption charges was led from a city council meeting in handcuffs late Tuesday night after an apparent scuffle ended the gathering in pandemonium.
Mayor Ricardo Lopez was "inciting a riot" at the meeting Tuesday, Police Chief Jesus Lopez told the San Antonio Express-News. The chief is not related to the mayor, the newspaper reported.
Photographs and TV footage showed Lopez being handcuffed and put in a police car.
The incident came after Lopez and two council members were indicted in a bribery and conspiracy investigation earlier this month. The indictment accuses the town's leadership of using their positions "to enrich themselves by soliciting and accepting payments and other things of value."
One of those council members has resigned. Another faces human smuggling charges, leaving only one council member not under indictment.
"I think the whole town has gone crazy. This has never happened before," Dora Paloma, a former municipal judge, told the Express-News.
A dispute began at the meeting when City Clerk Selina Ramos told the council a five-day period for Lopez and two other council members to resign or face recall elections had ended.
The mayor, however, argued the five-day period only began on Tuesday. After more discussion, Lopez recessed the meeting so he could go home to collect documents that he said supported his position.
After he returned, Lopez faced an angry crowd. After some shoving and angry words, the mayor was clapped in handcuffs. "Only in Crystal City," Lopez told KSAT-TV in San Antonio as police led him to a patrol car as cameras rolled.
The meeting was recessed for at least 24 hours.
"I'm just sorry it's such a fiasco," former mayor Frank Moreno told the Express-News. "It's not good for our community.
The Zavala County Sheriff's Office said the mayor would remain in custody overnight until a magistrate sets bond.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Early voting starts this week for the March 1 Texas primary election.
Texas Secretary of State Carlos Casco says early voting begins Tuesday and runs through Feb. 26.
Casco says Texans can cast their ballots at any early voting location in the county where they are registered.
Voters must present one of seven acceptable forms of photo identification, including a Texas driver's license.
Other forms of approved ID are a Texas election identification certificate, a personal identification card or a concealed handgun license — all issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The other acceptable forms of photo identification are a U.S. military ID, a U.S. citizenship certificate or a U.S. passport.
The general election is Nov. 8.
ORANGE, Texas (AP) — A South Texas truck driver has been accused of trying to smuggle nearly $5 million worth of cocaine.
Orange County jail records show 30-year-old Mauro Cano Moreno of Alamo was being held Monday on a charge of possession of a controlled substance.
Jail records did not list an attorney to speak for the suspect, who was arrested Thursday following a traffic stop on Interstate 10 in Southeast Texas.
Investigators say about 60 bundles of white powder found in the rig tested positive for cocaine. A sheriff's department statement says the 132 pounds of cocaine has a street value of at least $4.8 million.
Bond was set at $200,000.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A suburban Dallas convenience store clerk was on the phone with his girlfriend when two people, one of them carrying a sawed-off shotgun, walked in. Gregory Martin told her he believed he was about to be robbed and to call police.
Plano officers found 15-year-old Christopher Vargas standing over Martin's lifeless body and 18-year-old Gustavo Garcia hiding in a beer cooler with the shotgun near him. Authorities later determined the weapon had been used a month earlier in a robbery at a Plano liquor store where the cashier, Craig Turski, was fatally shot.
Garcia, now 43, is set for lethal injection Tuesday night in Turski's 1990 slaying. He'd be the third prisoner executed this year in Texas, which puts more inmates to death than any other state.
A federal judge said Friday he won't stop the execution, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused a clemency petition. No additional appeals are expected, Seth Kretzer, one of Garcia's lawyers, said Monday.
In the federal court appeal, Garcia's attorneys had argued that lawyers at his trial and in earlier appeals failed to uncover details of an abusive and alcohol- and drug-influenced youth — disclosures that could have convinced jurors to spare him from a death sentence. They also said they needed additional time to investigate those claims.
"Garcia's guilt is clear," responded Fredericka Sargent, an assistant Texas attorney general.
The U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to review an appeal that raised questions about deficient legal help, and last week turned down a request for a rehearing.
Court documents show Garcia, who has spent more than half of his life on death row, shot Turski in the abdomen on Dec. 9, 1990, then reloaded and shot the 43-year-old cashier in the back of the head. A month later, Martin, 18, was shot in the head after he was taken to a back room.
In a statement to police following his arrest for Martin's killing, Garcia said he'd ordered Turski to his knees when a customer entered the store.
"I then panicked," he said. "I shot the clerk with the shotgun."
On Thanksgiving in 1998, Garcia and five other inmates were scaling a pair of 10-foot-high prison fences when corrections officers opened fire on them and they surrendered. A seventh convict, Martin Gurule, was shot but managed to flee, making him the first inmate to escape Texas death row since a Bonnie and Clyde gang member broke out in 1934. Gurule's body was found about a week later in a creek a few miles from the prison, and an autopsy showed he drowned.
"At least I can say I tried," Garcia said of the escape attempt in a 1999 interview with The Associated Press. "Facing execution is scarier." He declined an interview request as his execution date neared.
Vargas, Garcia's partner in both fatal robberies, was tried and as an adult, convicted and is serving life in prison. His age made him ineligible for the death penalty.
At least nine other Texas inmates have execution dates set for the coming months, including three in March.
PHOENIX (AP) — Halfway through 2014, three Arizona men were falling under the sway of the Islamic State group, authorities say.
The trio watched videos depicting violence by jihadists, tried to get pipe bombs, planned an attack at a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas last year and researched travel to the Middle East so they could join Islamic State fighters, investigators say.
Two of the men brought semiautomatic rifles and an Islamic State flag to the May 3 contest featuring cartoons deemed offensive to Muslims and died in a shootout with police before hurting anyone attending the event in suburban Dallas.
The third man goes on trial Tuesday in Phoenix in what is believed to be the first time the U.S. government has put a person on trial on terror charges related to the militant group.
Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, a 44-year-old moving company owner, is accused of hosting the two gunmen at his home to discuss plans for the attack, going target shooting in the remote Arizona desert with the pair and providing the guns used at the contest.
Prosecutors say Kareem also encouraged Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi to carry out violence in the United States in support of the Islamic State group and inquired about explosives to blow up a stadium in metro Phoenix during the 2015 Super Bowl.
Kareem denies the allegations.
It's unknown whether the thwarted Texas attack was inspired by the Islamic State or carried out in response to an order from the group.
Prosecutors paint a picture of three men being influenced by the group, which has amassed thousands of fighters around the globe and taken control of parts of Syria and Iraq while carrying out beheadings, mass shootings and other violence.
Six weeks before the cartoon contest, Simpson accessed an Islamic State list of residential addresses of U.S. military service members whom the group wanted attacked. Simpson and Soofi also drove to Yuma and elsewhere in Arizona near military installations after having discussed plans to attack a base.
FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers in December that one of the attackers exchanged more than 100 messages with an overseas terrorist in the days before the attack in Garland, Texas. Kareem's indictment says Simpson used social media to communicate with Islamic State extremists and other violent jihadists.
The U.S. Justice Department didn't respond to questions about the case.
"I believe the shooters were motivated by what they thought was the Islamic State, but I'm not sure they were directed by the Islamic State," said Scott Stewart, a vice president for the Texas-based global intelligence company Stratfor and a former U.S. State Department investigator who examined the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
The U.S. government has charged 78 people with crimes related to the Islamic State group since March 2014, said Karen J. Greenberg, director of the Fordham Law School's Center on National Security, which tracks terrorism cases. While 24 people charged with crimes related to the radical group have pleaded guilty, no one has yet gone to trial on such charges.
Kareem and his lawyer, Daniel Maynard, declined requests for an interview. Maynard has previously said the case was trumped up and based largely on the work on an unreliable confidential informant.
Two days after the Texas attack, Kareem went to the FBI's office in Phoenix for an interview with investigators in which he denied any involvement. He was arrested five weeks later.
James Newman, Kareem's younger brother, told The Associated Press that his brother never expressed a radical political or religious view to him and is a victim of guilt by association with the two Muslims who carried out the attack. He vehemently rejects the government's portrayal of his brother as a supporter of terrorists.
Newman said Kareem was a Muslim throughout his adulthood, but his faith deepened over the last five years after he was jailed on a drunken driving conviction. He used his religion as a way to cope with his longtime struggle with alcohol. He abandoned his birth name of Decarus Lowell Thomas and legally became Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem in 2013.
"It probably wasn't the smartest decision to hang with these guys, but he was probably just building his faith," Newman said of Simpson and Soofi.
Kareem, sporting a shaggy salt-and-pepper beard and bound by handcuffs and a belly chain, has remained silent through his latest court hearings. Six deputy U.S. marshals stood watch in the courtroom during a late December hearing. He faces charges including conspiracy and conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Authorities say they first interviewed Kareem in a terrorism investigation in late 2011 and later searched his apartment when one of his roommates tried to get a fraudulent Arizona State University degree as part a plan for the roommate to gain admission into an Islamic university in Saudi Arabia.
During the apartment search, authorities say they found al-Qaida promotional materials on Kareem's laptop and an attached flash drive. Kareem has denied the flash drive was his. His lawyer unsuccessfully tried to bar prosecutors from using the promotional materials as evidence at trial
