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Union Pacific railway and military veterans involved in the deadly collision of a freight train with a parade float in 2012 are now facing off in a Midland court room.

On day one of testimony (Wednesday 28 Jan 2015) the court heard about the service the four veterans who were killed gave to their country.

They’ re Marine Gary Stouffer, Army Sgt. Maj. William Lubbers, retired Army Sgt. Maj. Lawrence Boivin and Army Sgt. Joshua Michael.

Michael earned two two Purple Hearts in Iraq. He threw his wife off a float as it was struck. Veterans and some relatives are suing the railway alleging it was negligent in operating the railroad crossing where its train hit a float.

There originally were 43 plaintiffs but eight families reached a pre-trial settlement with the railroad.

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You’re driving on the interstate on a windy West Texas day and all of a sudden out of the corner of your eye, you see something barreling across the road.  Before you can react, it hits your car.  You’ve just met the tumbling tumbleweed.

It’s an iconic image, and some believe tumbleweeds originated in the West, but they didn’t. They’re actually invaders from Russia, and are called Russian Thistle.

It’s considered a pest by farmers and landowners. According to Midland Naturalist Burr Williams, tumbleweeds are a plant that only grows where the soil is disturbed one way or the other.

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Millions of rabies vaccinations have been dropped from planes along the Texas-Mexico border this month. The vaccinations target wildlife, an effort by the Department of State Health Services to stop rabies from crossing the border. Today is the final day of the program.

At the Alpine-Casparis Municipal Airport, a crew is loading tens of thousands of rabies vaccines into an aircraft. The plane will scatter the vaccines along the border from Presidio to Big Bend National Park. Almost three million packets of vaccines have been dropped statewide since mid-January— all the way east to the Gulf of Mexico. It is all part of the Oral Rabies Vaccination Program.
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House leaders in Congress have postponed indefinitely a vote on a border security bill, known as the “Secure Our Borders First Act.”

The bill would penalize the Department of Homeland Security if it fails to stop all illegal border crossings within five years.

The postponement comes as Congress faces a February 27th deadline to fund DHS.

The border bill is sponsored by newly-named Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul.

He’s a Texas Republican who calls the bill the “strongest border security bill” ever.

But Democrats, some conservative Republicans and union that represents U.S. Border Patrol agents disagree.

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For Jon Kalb, each step on the desert floor brings a measure of excitement with the possibility of discovering something new.

A retired research geologist with the Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory (Texas Memorial Museum) at the University of Texas, Kalb has been visiting Big Bend for over a decade conducting paleontological surveys.

“Big Bend, with its arid landscape and minimal vegetation, is an ideal place to look for artifacts and fossils,” Kalb says.

The intensely faulted terrain of the Sierra Viejas stretching northward from Candelaria is reminiscent of Africa’s Great Rift Valley where Kalb spent much of his professional life.

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Never miss a city council meeting? Always finding interesting stories in the Big Bend? Go to a lot of community events or concerts? If you’re interested in sharing your knowledge and experience with Marfa Public Radio listeners, become one of our volunteer Community Correspondents.

We’re looking for engaged citizens from across the Big Bend. A Community Correspondent assists Marfa Public Radio with news gathering and producing stories from the community you live in.
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