Quote of the Day
“Take the F U train, Ted!”
—The New York Daily News, on its own front page, to Ted Cruz. Fresh off of a key Wisconsin primary win, Cruz just isn’t feeling the love on his current trip to the Big Apple. Maybe that’s because of the whole “New York values” thing—remember, after Cruz made that rude comment in January, the Daily News recommended he “drop dead.”
Daily Roundup
Campus Killing—The body found on campus at the University of Texas was identified yesterday as eighteen-year-old freshman Haruka Weiser, a dance and theater student from Oregon. Weiser’s death is being investigated as a homicide. According to The Oregonian, Weiser was a talented ballet dancer and was attending UT on a full dance scholarship. A family member told the Austin American-Statesman that Weiser hoped to become a doctor. Hundreds of students attended a vigil on campus on Thursday, and many were visibly shaken—Weiser’s murder is the first on-campus homicide investigation at UT since the 1966 clock tower shooting. Little is known about the circumstances of Weiser’s tragic death. She was last seen on Sunday night leaving one of the school’s drama buildings, but never arrived at her dorm and was reported missing by her roommate the next morning. Her body was discovered early on Tuesday along a campus creek trail near the alumni center. APD has yet to apprehend any suspects, but did release surveillance video showing a person of interest riding a pink bicycle. APD is offering a $15,000 reward for anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest. Meanwhile, university president Greg Fenves is stepping up police patrols on campus, and has asked the Texas Department of Public Safety to “conduct a comprehensive security review,” the Texas Tribune reported. “To our students: You expect and deserve to be safe,” Fenves said at a press conference on Thursday, according to the Tribune.
Tale of the Tape—Days after a video emerged showing a San Antonio Independent School District police officer body slamming a twelve-year-old middle school girl onto a concrete floor, more details have emerged about the girl and the circumstances of the incident. For example: what was the school’s initial reaction? Suspend the girl who was thrown to the ground by a grown man, of course. The girl’s mother told the San Antonio Express-News that her daughter was given a two-day suspension after the March 29 incident. It wasn’t until the video went viral this week that the district launched an investigation and placed the officer, Joshua Kehm, on paid leave. According to the Express-News, a district spokesperson said Kehm “intervened after two female students became verbally aggressive toward each other.” Again, the girl is twelve. Her mother told the Express-News that her daughter had been in fights before, and was a victim of bullying since the beginning of the school year. “I talked to a counselor, the vice principal and principal, and they said they’d look into it,” the mother told the Express-News. “I just want something done,” she said of the incident with the officer. “Because he could go back and do it again to my daughter or another student.”
Crime Fight— Dallas is still struggling to deal with that whole skyrocketing crime rate thing. At a press conference on Thursday, Mayor Mike Rawlings admitted that the city’s “communications to citizens could’ve been better,” after Chief of Police David Brown irked area police associations by announcing a plan last week to change shifts for more than 600 officers and accept aid from state law enforcement agencies, though at the time it was unclear if that meant state troopers would be patrolling Dallas’s streets. The plan’s early lack of clarity led to two police associations publicly calling for Brown’s ousting, and some City Council members “have even questioned his ability to lead,” according to the Dallas Morning News. The plan, clarified: only 247 Dallas police officers will be reassigned, while state troopers and county sheriff’s deputies will “help police officers serve domestic violence and drug warrants,” writes the Morning News. The press conference seems to have eased political tensions for now, but it remains to be seen whether it will be enough to curtail the city’s spike in family assaults and astounding 75 percent uptick in murders.
Clickety Bits
This guy did a hilarious/sad Reddit AMA while waiting to be laid off by Chevron. (Houston Press)
The town of Bowie unveils its new tourist trap: a 3,000 pound knife. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
