| Around Texas & Southwest 04/08/2001 From Wire Reports
Texas: Rare book missing from UT turns up in auction
A book missing from a University of Texas at Austin collection since 1992 has turned up in a New York City auction house. FBI investigators are now hoping that the discovery will lead to 11 other missing rare volumes. Il Petrarcha, a collection of poems written in Italian by Petrarch and published in 1514, was discovered in an auction catalog for an April 19 sale. The small, inch-thick volume is so distinctive that officials with UT's Ransom Center say all it took was an astute collector to pick up the clues, according to Saturday's editions of the Austin American-Statesman. UT received the book in 1984 as part of a collection by Giorgio Uzielli. University officials say the book is worth $40,000, though Swann Galleries' catalog suggests a value of $4,000 to $6,000. Officials would not comment on how the book was taken from UT's collection or how it ended up at the auction.
Texas: Death-row inmates held an average of 10 years
Inmates on death row now spend an average of 10 years there before they are executed, the Houston Chronicle reports in its Sunday editions. Texas prison officials say they expect that to shrink to five or six years. But even as inmates spend less time waiting to be executed, almost one of every 10 prisoners on death row has been there 15 years or more already. The newspaper also noted that 17 prisoners have been on death row for 20 years or more, and three more inmates will observe their 20th year on death row by the end of the year. Some of these inmates have been waiting for obscure legal issues to be resolved. Others got lost in the exhaustive appeals process. At least three slipped into dementia and could not be executed.
Louisiana: Dallas woman admits running down husband
A Dallas woman who ran down and killed her husband on Interstate 49 faces up to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Lalette Johnson, 26, entered the plea Friday before State District Judge Steve Beasley in Mansfield, La. She had been scheduled to stand trial Monday. Police said Jeremiah Johnson, 26, of Dallas and formerly of Mansfield, got out of the couple's car after an argument last year and started walking along the highway. Mrs. Johnson admitted following her husband and ramming him with the vehicle. She will be sentenced June 1.
Texas: INS faulted for not protecting workers from TB
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited the Immigration and Naturalization Service office in Houston for letting its employees be exposed to potentially lethal tuberculosis while working in the Harris County Jail. The notice, issued Thursday, marks the third time in a year that OSHA has cited the local INS office for failing to properly protect its workers from the disease. OSHA told the INS that workers in the jail were not provided proper respirators or training for dealing with the disease, the Houston Chronicle reported Saturday. "We are addressing these issues and take them very seriously," said Mariela Melero, of the INS Houston office. The INS office declined to comment on whether any local INS employees had been infected with tuberculosis.
Texas: San Antonio air base cuts 2,000 workers
Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio cut 2,000 jobs Saturday in the fourth and final in a series of job cuts, leaving a skeleton crew of 200 to act as caretakers of the 85-year-old facility until it closes. Kelly, which served the country during five wars, will close July 13. "The day I started out here back in the mid-'60s, I never envisioned in all my life that the place would ever close," retired Kelly worker David Lytle told the San Antonio Express-News in Saturday's editions. The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission in 1995 ordered Kelly, the oldest continuously operating installation in the Air Force, to close this year. During the past two years, 10,500 workers have been let go in waves, with the last 2,000 of them going Saturday. Companies still employ about 5,000 private-sector workers at the base.
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