Dallas

Debra Nixon-Bowles has been to hell and back. She knows firsthand why so many women stay with their abusive partners. But she also knows what it's lik...

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines Co. has agreed to settle a shareholder lawsuit that grew out of safety violations at the carrier and will pay the investors' lawyers $3.5 million.

Southwest disclosed the proposed settlement in a regulatory filing made Friday. A hearing on the deal was scheduled for Dec. 7 in state district court in Dallas.

The lawsuit was filed in August 2008, after the Federal Aviation Administration announced it would fine Southwest $10.2 million for operating some planes that had not gone through a required inspection for structural soundness. Southwest settled by agreeing to pay a $7.5 million penalty.

The Dallas-based company agreed to adopt several reforms sought by the investors who filed the lawsuit. Some changes related to Southwest's safety and maintenance programs, including steps to ensure compliance with federal regulations. It also agreed to pay $3.5 million for the plaintiff's legal fees and expenses, if the court approves.

In exchange, the plaintiffs agreed to drop claims against Southwest and several directors and executives, including CEO Gary Kelly and former CEO Herb Kelleher. Southwest also said in the Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it agreed to make reforms in governance practices.

DALLAS — A Jordanian man accused of trying to blow up a Dallas skyscraper with what he thought was a car bomb pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Monday.

Hosam Maher Smadi, 19, told the judge "I'm not guilty on both counts" before she formally asked for his plea on one count of attempting to use of a weapon of mass destruction and one count of bombing a public place.

U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn set a trial date of Dec. 7. But Smadi's court-appointed attorneys said they plan to ask that the trial begin sometime after March.

During the hearing, a court interpreter stood next to Smadi, speaking softly in Arabic. The teenager told the judge he studied English while attending a Baptist school in Jordan and understood some of what was said in court. Smadi, who wore an orange prison-issued jumpsuit, also said he had an 11th-grade education.

Authorities arrested Smadi on Sept. 24 after he allegedly parked a truck in a garage beneath the 60-story Fountain Place office building in downtown Dallas. Once he was at a safe distance, Smadi dialed a cell phone he thought would ignite a bomb in the vehicle – but the device was actually a decoy provided by FBI agents posing as al-Qaida operatives, according to the FBI.

AUSTIN, Texas — U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice, whose rulings shattered old Texas by changing the way the state educated children, treated prisoners and housed its poorest and most vulnerable citizens, has died. He was 89.

His law clerk, Kelly Davis, said the judge died Tuesday in Austin.

The soft-spoken jurist spent three often tumultuous decades on the bench following his appointment by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. To some, Justice was a judicial renegade who disregarded the public's will by imposing his own concepts on a conservative state.

"Judge Justice dragged Texas into the 20th century, God bless him," said former Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, who presided over the Texas Senate from 1973 to 1991. "He was very unpopular, but he was doing the right thing."

His decisions are widely credited for creating a modern Texas. They forced the state to dramatically expand and improve its prison and juvenile justice systems, and to dismantle racial barriers in public housing and education. He opened public schools to the children of illegal immigrants and provided bilingual education in rulings that were later used as the foundation of national policy.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Former men's basketball coach Billy Gillispie and the University of Kentucky have settled their cases over his firing for nearly $3 million, the school said Tuesday.

Gillispie was dismissed earlier this year and sued for breach of contract and fraud in May, seeking at least $6 million. The university countersued.

He had not signed a contract during his two years coaching the Wildcats to a 40-27 record but was working under a memorandum of understanding. He charged that he should have been paid $1.5 million per year for four of the five years left on the deal.

In a statement, the university said the lawsuits were settled through mediation and that Gillispie would receive a little more than $2.98 million. Another $260,000 will be paid by the university for attorney's fees, as well as $5,600 in mediation fees.

Gillispie's attorney Demetrios Anaipakos of Houston, did not immediately return a telephone message and e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment. He told KRIV-TV in Houston that Gillispie was glad to have the case behind him.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A Maryland private equity fund whose chief investment officer is barely old enough to roll the dice or have a legal drink wants to become a player in the Atlantic City casino industry.

New Century Investment says it has $500 million to invest and is willing to partner with either Donald Trump or the bondholders with whom Trump is struggling in bankruptcy court.

The company, including 21-year-old Artin Afsharjavan (ahf-SHAR'-juh-vahn), wants to buy a controlling interest in Trump Entertainment Resorts' three casinos.

Failing that, it is looking elsewhere in Atlantic City, which has no shortage of distressed gambling halls.

Trump CEO Mark Juliano says New Century hasn't yet proved it can back up its bid.

DALLAS — A 19-year-old Jordanian man living in Texas was arrested Thursday on charges he intended to bomb a downtown Dallas skyscraper, federal ...

Special education teacher Todd Henry worked with troubled students for years and had been injured at school before.

The onetime prison therapist who died Wednesday after being stabbed in a classroom, allegedly by one of his students, missed the first two weeks of this school year recovering from shoulder surgery after breaking up a fight at John Tyler High School last year.

"He worked in a prison for 10 years. Do you think this man was afraid? Get real," said his wife, Jan Shaw Henry.

A 16-year-old male student was being held at a juvenile detention facility, according to the Tyler school district, after authorities said he fatally stabbed Henry, 50, on Wednesday.

The student approached Henry around 8:50 a.m. and stabbed him in the neck with a sharp object, District Superintendent Randy Reid said. A teacher's aide and two other students were in the classroom, and the aide subdued the suspect before calling district police, Reid said.

If your normally reliable fantasy football stars are struggling, you can probably blame somebody who wasn't on any preseason draft board: linemen.

The early season failures of this normally anonymous bunch is getting the notice of fantasy geeks everywhere, especially owners of Aaron Rodgers. He's been sacked an NFL-worst 10 times and hit a bunch more. Kurt Warner was flawless against the terrible Jags, but the week before his line couldn't stop anybody. Numerous others have looked far from comfy in the pocket.

It's not just quarterbacks who've been regularly confronted by unblocked defenders. First-round picks Steve Slaton (51 yards, 2.0 yards per carry) and Matt Forte (84 yards, 2.2 yards a carry) haven't sniffed the end zone. Willie Parker has 66 yards while tiptoeing for 2.4 yards per carry. Kevin Smith was decent last week, bringing his average up to 2.6 yards a pop.

The good news is, this surely can't last. After all, many struggling lines are the same ones that did well last year and their coaches should adjust. By now coaches are figuring out which 350-pounders need more help or need benching, so it seems safe to assume most of them will fix the problems.

As you wonder how much longer Rodgers can remain upright, here are some players to start and some to avoid in Week 3:

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Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the networks' golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called "the most trusted man in America," died Friday. He was 92.

Cronkite's longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, said Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. at his Manhattan home surrounded by family. She said the cause of death was cerebral vascular disease.

Adler said, "I have to go now" before breaking down into what sounded like a sob. She said she had no further comment.

Cronkite was the face of the "CBS Evening News" from 1962 to 1981, when stories ranged from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to racial and anti-war riots, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis.

It was Cronkite who read the bulletins coming from Dallas when Kennedy was shot Nov. 22, 1963, interrupting a live CBS-TV broadcast of the soap opera "As the World Turns."

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