KRGV.com

DALLAS (AP) Nearly two-thirds of the state's 254 counties have been declared federal primary natural disaster areas from drought and heat in a step toward providing help. The U.S. Department of Agriculture today included 157 Texas counties in the 2013 designation. Qualified farm operators are eligible for low-interest emergency loans.

BAY CITY, Texas (AP) Officials at a Texas Gulf Coast nuclear plant are assessing damage and trying to find a cause for a transformer fire that's shut one of the two generating units. No injuries were reported in last night's fire at Unit 2 of the South Texas Project about 90 miles southwest of Houston. A South Texas Electric Generating Station spokesman said today that firefighters stationed at the plant put out the blaze within 10 minutes and Unit 2 automatically was shut. There's no immediate timetable for the plant to come back on line.

DALLAS (AP) A former Dallas firefighter who robbed a bank and tipped a teller $20 from the loot has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison. A federal judge in Dallas today sentenced 37-year-old Jesus Ventura of Irving to 46 months behind bars. Ventura in September pleaded guilty to bank robbery.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) The Texas House will adjourn next week and remain out of session for six days in observance of Marin Luther King Junior Day and the U.S. presidential inauguration. The Legislature reconvened for its 140-day session beginning yesterday.