Author: Maggie Kerkman

Two men are behind bars in connection with a string of church fires in East Texas, but the question that looms large is- why? Over the weekend, police arrested 19-year old Jason Robert Bourque in Van Zandt County, where two of the fires occurred, and 21-year old Daniel George McAllister in San Antonio, where he had recently moved (their pictures are inside our slideshow).

The two had attended church together in East Texas, but other than that, police aren’t saying much about them or why they might have targeted the churches. A total of ten churches have burned since just the beginning of this year. Another three were the site of attempted break-ins. No particular denomination nor race was targeted.

The pair is charged with only one of the fires, but police say the two men are suspected in all of them and more charges will follow. As Robert Champion, the head of the Dallas ATF told the media, “They were on quite a spree.” Bourque and McAllister each face a $10 million bond. Three sketches released earlier in the case were not related to the suspects arrested over the weekend.

The arrests end weeks of worry for hundreds of churches. In Smith County alone, where five churches burned, there are more than 700 houses of worship. That left a lot of ground for law enforcement officers to cover. They mounted a huge patrol combing police and people in the community to watch different locations. The watches and a tip line paid off. No more churched burned since the last two on February 8th and a tip came in that led police to the two suspects. Police say they have DNA evidence from one of the suspects to tie him to the crimes, although they won’t specify which suspect.

A map of where the churches are that burned can be found here: (http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/director_staff/public_information/pr022110a.pdf)

We now know the IRS worker who was killed in the attack on an office building in Austin. He was Vernon Hunter, a 67-year old Revenue Office Manager. He was responsible for collections. Correspondent Kris Gutierrez talked with his wife, Valerie, who also works for the IRS and was in the same building when the attack happened. They have six grown children who live outside of Austin and who are flying in to be with their mother.

Valerie Hunter says before yesterday, she had never heard the name Joseph Stack. He’s the man investigators say set fire to his own home before getting in a plane and flying it into the office building. Witnesses confirm it was a deliberate attack. They say the plane looked like it was “dive-bombing” the building that is next to a busy Austin freeway. Stack left behind a lengthy, obscenity-filled internet post expressing his frustration with the IRS. Within hours of the attack, several Facebook pages were created in support of Stack’s barbaric attack. Looking at the building and the surrounding area, it’s amazing more people were not killed or injured. Another person was also severely hurt in the attack, a worker for the Texas Comptroller’s office.

Stack’s wife has decided not to talk with the media at least for now.

Texas politics is nothing if not interesting. Republican Governor Rick Perry has been in office for more than nine years. If he hopes to stay there, he’ll have to get past Republican opponents U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and businesswoman Debra Medina.

This was supposed to be the clash of the titans, but Senator Hutchison has been unable to turn her popularity as a Senator into support for her gubernatorial campaign. Back in July, it was a tight race. A Rassmussen Reports poll showed Perry leading Hutchison by 10 points, 46% to 36%. Since then, Perry has held onto his numbers as Hutchison’s have slipped. 

Enter the third candidate into the race. Debra Medina is a business woman and former GOP chair in Wharton County Texas. Pretty much everyone but her campaign counted her out early on in the race. Medina battled to be included in the two GOP debates (she eventually participated in both). Medina started out with polling numbers in the 3% or 4% range, but after the televised debates, Medina surged to 16 or 17%. Tea Party organizers claimed her as their candidate. 

Then came her interview on Glenn Beck’s radio show last week. Here’s the exchange:

BECK: Do you believe the government was any way involved with the bringing down of the World Trade Centers on 9/11?

MEDINA: I don’t, I don’t have all of the evidence there, Glenn. So I don’t I’m not in a place, I have not been out publicly questioning that. I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard. There are some very good arguments, and I think the American people have not seen all of the evidence there. So I’ve not taken a position on that. 

After the interview, Medina issued a statement that read, in part:

“…there is no doubt in my mind that Muslim terrorists flew planes into those buildings on 9/11.  I have not seen any evidence nor have I ever believed that our government was involved or directed those individuals in any way. “

Medina also said that the 9/11 question surprised her and that it was “…not relevant to this race or the issues facing Texans.”

No polls have been released since Medina’s comments, but Medina says her campaign has seen a recent infusion of about $50,000 in donations. 

With Governor Perry comfortably leading the pack, why does all this even matter? The Governor’s polling is hanging around 45%. He needs 50% to avoid a runoff and another costly and bruising six weeks battling a fellow Republican before being able to turn his attention to his Democratic opponent. Prior to her comments on Beck, some had suggested Medina might be able to push past Kay Bailey Hutchison and into a runoff. Tea Party activists predicted a Scott Brown type upset.

What happens now is anyone’s guess. Cal Jillson, a professor at Southern Methodist University, thinks Medina will take a hit in the polls, but also says, this, after all, is Texas politics, where anything can happen. Early voting for the primary has already begun. The main event is  March 2^nd.

The average snowfall yearly in Dallas is 2.5 inches. In the space of 24 hours, we have received more than a foot of snow.  The National Weather Service says the snow we’ve received is the greatest calendar day snowfall total on record the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

The snow has brought down tons of tree limbs, which in turn take out power lines, which left 180,000 people in the DFW area are without power according the main service provider, Oncor. The company is calling in extra help from inside and outside the state.

Roads continue to be slick. The main roads and highway are slushy and drivable, but when you get back on roads in to residential areas, forget about it. DFW airport, usually one of the busiest airports in the country, cancelled 240 flights this morning. That’s more than half the flights.

Fire investigators are in a desperate race against time. They’re trying to catch the arsonist, or arsonists, who are setting fire to churches in East Texas. So far, there have been nine since just the first of this year. So far, no one has been hurt, but law enforcement officials are worried that as the fires continue, it’s only a matter of time.

Today we’re live in front of the Dover Baptist Church, which is one of two churches that burned Monday night. We talked to the woman who lives right next to the church. She had no idea there was a fire until she heard the frantic knocks from two people who happened to be driving by and saw smoke.

Minutes later, she watched helplessly as flames consumed the small church her great grandfather helped build. While firefighters were trying to save Dover Baptist, another fire started, just a few miles down the road at the Clear Spring Missionary Baptist Church. Both churches are a total loss.

These two churches were not the arsonists’ only target Monday night. We talked with an elder at Clearview Church, which is just a few miles from both Dover and Clear Spring. On the night of the fire, someone tried to get in to Clearview. Says Monty Nations, the elder, says “I can’t imagine someone wanting to do that.” The person or persons broke the front glass doors of the church but apparently got spooked when they realized the church had an alarm system. The church had just installed the system the week before because they worried their church might be next. Other churches are now taking similar actions, installing security systems or having members guard their churches in shifts.

Why is someone targeting churches? Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives say that’s what they’re trying to figure out. They have a national response team investigating the fires. So far, many of the churches have been located in rural areas, but not all of them. The targets aren’t racially motivated and they’re not aimed at any particular faith. In Clear Spring, the last church to be targeted, the fire was started in the pulpit, something that sends chills up the spine of Pastor Brandon

There have been a few times in my life where I have been in the presence of pure joy. One was last night on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. After the Super Bowl ended, people poured out from bars and restaurants and into the streets… hugging, high-fiving, and screaming “Who Dat!” There were no strangers in the French Quarter last night. By a half hour after the game, people were packed in next to each other on Bourbon moving almost like they were one solid mass. There’s no official count, but one business owner we talked to said it was at least the crowd they had at New Year’s— and that was half a million. I heard over and over again from people who have lived in New Orleans all their lives, “I’ve never seen anything like this…”

This morning the party wasn’t over, but on hold. The streets of the Quarter were littered thick with last night’s trash. Within an hour or two, they were wiped clean by street crews, ready for the next round. Tonight the party continues. Bourbon Street is rocking with another night of revelry. The Saints came home to a hero’s welcome this afternoon. Tomorrow evening, they’ll take part in a parade. Expect more partying. In fact, they might as well just roll on through to Mardi Gras next Tuesday.

I know crazed football fans. After all I lived in Philadelphia for almost two years, where fans would tailgate in sub-zero temperatures in set-ups that looked more like full living rooms than parking spots. Then I moved to Dallas, home of America’s team, as my co-worker Kris Gutierrez likes to remind me. None of this I think will prepare me for New Orleans tonight. We flew in this morning and the gate agent promptly welcomed us to “…the Who Dat Nation.” Inside the airport, we walked into a sea of black and gold… as one last chartered flight of fans was getting ready to takeoff to Miami.

Economic experts talk about the Super Bowl being a boon to the host city. Today’s game is also a big windfall to the city of New Orleans, where hotels have been booked up ever since the Saints found out they’d be marching to Miami. It’s a mixture of locals coming downtown to watch the game and party—and former residents coming back for one wild homecoming. Saints gear is flying off the shelves. Last week the team’s gear ranked 6th in the nation for sales.

Last week folks here in the Quarter told us it was worse than any Mardi Gras right after the Saints won the NFC title. It was the first time the city hosted the game and certainly the first time the formerly-known-as-“Ain’ts” have won it. Today when we arrived at our live location in the Quarter at 10am, everyone, without exception, was dressed in black and gold and more than a few were getting their drink on. Churches have cancelled services in anticipation of the game. The beer truck we just passed had 140 kegs on it and was empty by noon.  I have seen not one but two guys on stilts. Beads are flying. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like here in a few hours, much less later– if the Saints win. I can only say that if any city knows how to handle a big party, it’s this one.

And then there were five. As NASA prepares for the next space shuttle launch February 7th, the reality that the program is coming to an end is really beginning to sink in. And with word that the Obama administration is nixing funding to the Constellation program, there are a lot of questions about what, if anything, will fill the gap once the shuttle is gone. The administration says NASA will actually get more money in a budget plan to be revealed Monday, but critics say that increase will not be large enough to cover the costs of Constellation, the program that was supposed to get the U.S. back to the moon.

Even prior to this news, there was talk about a five year gap between the shuttle and Constellation programs. Now without Constellation on the table, it’s unclear what NASA’s future would hold. Some have suggested private companies step into human spaceflight, providing a sort of space taxi. There are companies interested in doing this. But when we did a story last August on a NASA program designed to help such companies, it sounded like the idea was far from fruition. In an interview with Fox News, former Apollo astronaut Walt Cunningham said of commercial attempts, “They have no idea what kind of problems they’re going to encounter.” Still, another astronaut, Leroy Chiao, who was on an Obama commission reviewing NASA, says something has to be done. “If NASA’s budget is going to be more or less flat for the next few years, then we cannot sustain what’s been going on,” Chiao says.

The mood here at Johnson Space Center is somber. A lot of people are wondering what will happen to their jobs after the shuttle program ends, which is scheduled to wrap up by the end of this year. Much of Clear Lake, the community that surrounds Johnson Space Center depends upon NASA employees to keep it thriving. What happens to all of them remains to be seen.