Gasoline prices up a penny in Texas, across the nation

COPPELL — Retail gasoline prices in Texas and across the rest of the country rose a penny this week.

The statewide average price at the pump was $2.20 per gallon on Thursday, AAA Texas reported. Drivers across the U.S. are paying an average of $2.38 per gallon.

The survey found Amarillo has the cheapest gasoline in Texas this week at an average $2.10 per gallon, while drivers in Fort Worth face the highest prices statewide at an average $2.25 per gallon.

Association experts say the market remains lukewarm after a late May meeting with OPEC and non-OPEC producers regarding an extension of production cuts, now planned through March 2018.

Texas coach Brown debuts on Football Hall of Fame ballot

IRVING — Former Texas coach Mack Brown and longtime Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, along with former players Charles Woodson, Ed Reed and Calvin Johnson, are among those making their first appearance on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot this year.

The ballot released Thursday by the National Football Foundation includes 75 players and six coaches who competed in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the NCAA. An additional 98 players and 31 coaches from lower divisions and NAIA are also up for consideration.

Beamer coached Virginia Tech from 1987-2015 and won 238 games. Brown won 158 games in 15 seasons with Texas, including a national title in 2005.

The newest Hall of Fame class will be announced Jan. 8 in Atlanta, the site of the College Football Playoff championship game.

Texas man, 84, accused of killing 80-year-old neighbor

KILLEEN — Investigators say an 84-year-old Central Texas man has been accused of using a cane to beat an 80-year-old neighbor and fatally shooting him.

Killeen police on Thursday announced Santiago Vasquez of Killeen was arrested on a murder charge, with bond set at $1 million.

Police spokeswoman Ofelia Miramontez had no specifics on what she calls a neighborhood dispute going on for years and leading to Tuesday’s death of John Wesley Seth Jr. of Killeen.

Miramontez said police believe a verbal argument between the two men turned physical and Seth was attacked. Officers responding to reports of shots fired located Seth’s body on a road.

2 drown in rescue attempt in water-filled Texas quarry

TERRELL — Authorities say two men drowned while trying to rescue others after a boat capsized in a water-filled quarry in North Texas.

Kaufman County sheriff’s spokesperson Jolie Stewart says officials were called to the abandoned sand quarry just north of Terrell on Wednesday evening.

She says three adults and two children, ages 6 and 8, were on board a flat-bottomed boat in the quarry when it capsized.

She says 51-year-old Eric Knight and 32-year-old Brandon Stayton tried to help them, but both drowned. She says neither man was wearing a life jacket.

No one on the boat was injured.

Stewart says the bodies of the two men have been transported to the Dallas County medical examiner.

Texas to study record maternal mortality

AUSTIN — Texas, where the rate of maternal mortality has spiked in recent years for reasons not fully understood, is poised to take an initial step toward examining the problem.

The state could soon be required to post guidelines for reporting pregnancy-related deaths. There’s currently no uniform method of investigating maternal mortality, meaning some women’s deaths might not have been properly referred to the medical examiner.

The proposal passed the state House on Monday, after already clearing the Senate. Under it, Texas’ health department must prepare online guidelines about when maternal deaths should be investigated, how to complete death certificates, and when to perform toxicology screenings.

A study last year found that more than 600 Texas women died between 2010 and 2014 either while pregnant or within six weeks after giving birth.

North Texas officer accused of stabbing wife

MCKINNEY — A North Texas police officer is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after his wife accused him of stabbing her in the stomach.

Sgt. Audrey Lee Palmer is a 21-year veteran of the McKinney Police Department. He’s free on $50,000 bond.

An arrest affidavit says he and his wife were on a date night when a text message arrived on Palmer’s cellphone from a number unfamiliar to his wife. When his wife called the number, a woman answered by saying, “Hey, babe.”

Palmer and his wife had begun to argue when, according to the affidavit, his wife picked up a steak knife in the kitchen “out of anger.” A struggle ensued for the knife and the wife was wounded.

ASSOCIATED PRESS