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DALLAS-WEST NILE

Dallas area West Nile virus spraying interrupted

DALLAS (AP) After storms interrupted spraying by air for West Nile virus in Dallas County, officials say they will resume the work today.

Dallas County spokeswoman Maria Arita says they were able to spray about 88,000 acres with mosquito-killing pesticide and have about 220,000 acres left to spray. She said planes wouldn't go up Saturday night due to the possibility of high winds and storms.

Arita says they are expected to start spraying again by air on Sunday night.

The virus spread by mosquitoes has left 10 dead and more than 200 sick in Dallas County, which is home to 2.5 million people and the city of Dallas. Officials say it will be a record year for West Nile virus, and about half of the United States' cases are in Texas.

TEXAS A&M-SHOOTER

Slain Texas constable remembered as humble, caring

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) A law enforcement officer among three people killed in a shootout near Texas A&M University is being remembered as a loving family man and a dedicated public servant.

Several thousand people attended a funeral service for Brazos County Constable Brian Bachmann on Saturday in College Station.

Friends and family described Bachmann as compassionate, humble and selfless.

Authorities say Bachmann was fatally shot Monday by Thomas Caffall the Third. The 41-year-old constable was trying to serve Caffall with a court summons for being behind on rent.

Other officers fatally shot Caffall. His family members have said he suffered from an unspecified mental illness.

A bystander checking some property was also killed. Three police officers and a female bystander were wounded.

RIVER DROWNING

Texan drowns in southern Oklahoma river

BROKEN BOW, Okla. (AP) The Oklahoma Lake Patrol says a Texas man has drowned while kayaking on the Mountain Fork River in southern Oklahoma.

Troopers say 64-year-old Gary Burton of Quinlan drowned in the river about three miles east of Broken Bow, Oklahoma

Troopers say a witness reported seeing Burton's kayak flip Thursday afternoon then saw Burton swimming toward the kayak when he stopped swimming.

Investigators say the witness was able to pull Burton to shore but was unable to resuscitate him.

ODESSA-MALL PARKING SHOOTING

Man arrested in death at Odessa mall parking lot

ODESSA, Texas (AP) Odessa police say a 24-year-old man has been arrested after a shooting left one person dead and two injured in a mall parking lot.

Police say Braushlyon Richardson turned himself in at the police department Saturday. Police say an arrest warrant charges Richardson with murder. He was booked into Ector County Law Enforcement Center, where an official said an attorney was not yet listed for him.

Police say no other suspects are being sought.

Police were on their way early Saturday to the Music City Mall because some people were refusing to leave a bar and grill when several 911 calls came in saying that shots had been fired in the parking lot.

Police say 23-year-old Pablo Jimenez died at the hospital from gunshot wounds.

ODESSA-OIL PATCH REVIVAL

Texas rig count hits 442 as oil patch revives

ODESSA, Texas (AP) Nearly three decades ago, Texas Monthly ran a post mortem on the Texas oil industry with headline reading "So long, it was fun while it lasted," and a forlorn James Dean figure hitchhiking out of town.

The oil price crash of 1982 and the long industry decline that followed chased most of the industry majors out of the Permian Basin and an entire generation of oil field workers into other livelihoods.

But, as the saying goes, the obituary proved a trifle premature.

As anyone who has tried to rent a house, navigate traffic or lease drilling equipment around here knows, the good times are rolling again. A strong demand for oil coupled with refined hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques are tapping long untouchable, deep reserves.

What began a decade ago as a modest revival is now a full-fledged boom. The play extends across hundreds of square miles of West Texas and into New Mexico, from Mentone east to El Dorado, and it is reviving long dormant backwaters.

The best indicator, the Baker Hughes rig count for Texas, recently at 442, after bottoming out in 1999 at 51.

PLANE CRASH-PROBABLE CAUSE

Pilot error cited in fatal 2010 Ark. plane crash

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) The National Transportation Safety Board says pilot error led to a fatal plane crash in northern Arkansas that killed two men in 2010.

The September 7th, 2010, crash near Buffalo City in Baxter County killed 62-year-old Robert Ross of Santa Cruz, California and his son, 32-year-old Michael Ross of Austin, Texas.

The NTSB probable cause report dated Wednesday says the pilot flew into a known area of heavy rain and subsequently lost control of the aircraft while flying from Danville, Illinois to Central Texas.

Officials have said both men were pilots and it wasn't clear which was flying the plane at the time.

Witnesses told investigators they saw the Cessna T-210 descending out of clouds in a nose down spiral and that a wing "appeared to fold" before the crash.