Prairie View A&M capturing sufferer remembered
An worker at Prairie View A&M College who was shot and killed by a former co-worker on the college’s farm has been recognized as 31-year-old Hempstead native Kendrick Wilder. Police say former worker Devon Elliott Rhodes went to the Governor Invoice and Vera Daniels Farm and Ranch on Nov. 13. The 2 males reportedly had beforehand labored collectively and had “conflicts” in the previous couple of months. Rhodes was fired three months in the past and returned to campus, the place police say he shot Wilder a number of instances within the again. Along with being an worker of the college, Wilder was a husband, a father of 4 youngsters, and a Prairie View alumnus. Moreover, Wilder was a coach of the non-profit youth soccer crew, the Waller Pee Wee Bulldogs. Rhodes was out on a $100 bond on a separate, unrelated cost in Harris County on the time of the capturing.
Report: Texas college students aren’t making the grade
Class of 2023 Texas highschool graduates scored decrease on the ACT school entrance examination than earlier courses, in keeping with a report by the nonprofit group ACT. The nonprofit group that administers the take a look at reported that Texans scored 19.3 out of an ideal rating of 36 for the common composite rating, simply barely behind the nationwide common. In comparison with different massive states, Texas’s highschool graduates’ common composite scores ranked larger than Florida’s at 18.9 however decrease than California’s at 25.7 and Alaska’s at 20.2. The scores replicate the latest indication of how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted college students. College students within the class of 2023 whose scores have been reported have been of their first 12 months of highschool when the virus reached the U.S. In keeping with knowledge obtained by Axios, the state common composite rating has dropped by 1.6 factors within the final 9 years.
Metropolis shopping for extra weapons from residents
The town of Houston will maintain its fifth gun buyback occasion on Sat., Nov. 18, on the Westchase Park and Experience. The buy-back program is a part of the One Protected Houston initiative town launched in 2021 to lower violent crime. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez mentioned this system is a chance for folks to voluntarily do away with firearms. Officers say the buyback program additionally helps forestall unintentional shootings and reduces the chance of stolen weapons. In keeping with metropolis officers, the final buyback occasion collected a file variety of over 1,400 firearms in June. Turner mentioned Houston Police Division volunteers may even be distributing 400 gun safes on the occasion. He mentioned town may have $170,000 value of present playing cards to be distributed to those that flip in a firearm. The town has spent a complete of $77 million on the One Protected Houston initiative, in keeping with Turner. The initiative was first funded from federal {dollars} by way of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Turner mentioned the funds for the initiative ought to final by way of 2024 or 2025. The buyback occasion will go from 8 a.m. to midday.
Texas Kids’s Hospital closing facilities serving low-income households
Texas Kids’s Hospital is closing each of its Houston healthcare facilities devoted to serving low-income households. The Greenspoint facility at 700 North Sam Houston Parkway West might be closing on Dec. 1, and the opposite heart at 9700 Bissonnet St. Suite 1000 W – which already has stopped accepting new sufferers – will shut on June 30, 2024. Each facilities completely serve sufferers with medical protection by way of the Texas Kids’s Well being Plan, which is obtainable to those that qualify for Medicaid or the federal Kids’s Well being Insurance coverage Program (CHIP). The services supply a variety of healthcare providers for youngsters and ladies, together with being pregnant care, dentistry, optometry, speech remedy, behavioral well being providers and a pharmacy. A Texas Kids’s spokesperson mentioned the closures are obligatory as a result of they “recognized a chance to create a special paradigm and care mannequin that can enhance the standard of care and affected person expertise in addition to broaden the entry we offer to not solely the particular inhabitants of our Well being Plan households however to all our sufferers and households.”
