Coming up, why it's not just important to avoid the flu for your health, it's important
for your pocketbook too.
What a little boy says happened to him after he escaped from being locked in a closet for
the last four years.
I'm just trying to figure out why, but it's just a tough situation and I've got to get
through it.
Robert Griffin talks about his injury and what his plans are next.
You're watching News 10 at 6.
KWTX News 10 at 6 starts now.
State Health Services is reporting widespread flu throughout Texas in more than 1300 cases
were reported last week in McClinton County alone.
Megan Fleetwood reports on how the cost of treating the flu or missing work to care for
kids can impact families.
You know, when the fever doesn't go away in 24 hours, I know they have something, an infection
or something.
As a mother of three boys, Gloria Sacedo says she knows the signs of sickness.
I had that six-year-old sick with the flu symptoms and then three days later, the ten-year-old
got sick again with the same symptoms, but this one was a little worse.
He had the vomiting, the diarrhea.
We met this mom at a state-organized swine flu informational meeting in Gatesville.
When two of her sons needed Tamiflu in the same week, she and her husband could barely
afford it.
So when the boys got sick, they were treated like if they had the swine flu and given the
Tamiflu.
We had to pay 15 for each one.
The average cost of the medicine used to treat seasonal and swine flu is around $100 without
insurance, but labor law attorney John Culler says the real cost that hits parents is missing
work to care for sick children.
It's a very difficult position to be in to have to decide, am I going to take unpaid
leave to take care of this child who needs me or am I going to stay at work and find
some alternative?
Culler says the Family Medical and Leave Act guarantees employees who qualify 12 weeks
of unpaid leave to care for a sick family member or take care of personal illness, or
26 weeks of leave to care for sick family members in the armed forces.
Culler says the first thing to do if your child gets sick is to check with your boss
on these or other benefits they may offer.
My husband, they cut down the hours at work.
But Saucero says even when your job guarantees you time off without pay to take care of illness,
it's hard for many families to afford taking advantage of it.
Megan Fleetwood, News 10.
State Health Services is planning informational forums on flu and swine flu vaccines in cities
across Central Texas through next month.
For more information on those and the Family and Medical Leave Act, you can visit our web
channel at kwtx.com and click the Find It button.
Well, just this past Sunday, a 14-year-old Fort Worth eighth grader died after she was
diagnosed with swine flu.
Chloe Lindsay's father says she didn't have any underlying health conditions.
Meanwhile, all schools in the Huntsville Independent School District are closed until Thursday
due to students and staff being sick.
Classes and extracurricular activities today and tomorrow have been canceled due to a high
rate of absences.
Concerns about swine flu and other illnesses have led to numerous absences at schools statewide.
Fort Hood will not have to wait as long as we thought to see its new hospital completed.
The Department of Defense approved a request for construction of the new Darnell Army Medical
Center to start in one phase next year instead of two.
That means the hospital will expect its new clinic, ER and surgery center, among other
departments to be built in the next four years.
Congressman John Carter and Chet Edwards announced the approval today, saying it will save an
estimated $100 million tax dollars in construction costs.
Tonight a Central Texas man is in the hospital after two pickup trucks crashed head on in
Nolanville this morning.
The driver of a red pickup truck was taken to Scott and White Hospital with serious injuries.
The driver of the blue pickup truck was not hurt.
It happened on FM 439 near Avenue I in Nolanville.
Authorities say the eastbound blue pickup tried to turn left into a driveway, didn't
see the oncoming red truck causing the vehicles to slam into one another head on.
Neighbors say FM 439 is a dangerous road and drivers not paying attention could be to blame.
Slow down and pay attention to what you're doing, yes.
Officials say both men were wearing seatbelts but neither vehicle had airbags.
Since July 1st of 2008, Textnot says it has seen 313 crashes on FM 439.
A 23-year-old Waco man faces some serious prison time after reaching a plea on sexual
assault charges.
Joseph Robert Ratliff reached a plea deal with prosecutors on two counts of aggravated sexual
assault and two counts of indecency with a child.
Ratliff was sentenced this morning to two 20-year and two 30-year sentences.
The sentences will run concurrently.
A Central Texas jailer recently ended up in jail because of a secret relationship she
had with a jail inmate.
Chastity Withers, a former Falls County jail guard, was married last August to Timothy
Hargrove, a man serving 30 years in prison for drug possession.
The Falls County jail later found out about their marriage through a tip, then discovered
a cell phone in the jail.
Sheriff's deputies arrested Withers, charging her with having prohibited items in a correctional
facility.
She was also fired from her job.
A former Plano minister convicted of trying to solicit sex from a 13-year-old has been
sentenced.
53-year-old Joe Barron, the former minister of Prestonwood Baptist Church, was sentenced
to seven years behind bars following a plea deal reached earlier this month.
Barron was arrested last May when he came to Bryan, thinking he was going to meet a
13-year-old girl he had been chatting with online.
A 14-year-old boy in Oklahoma City has escaped after being locked in a closet and tortured
for at least four years.
According to a police report, the boy was beaten, stabbed and even set on fire.
A sibling reportedly helped him break free from the locked closet last Friday.
Police say they don't believe the other seven siblings were abused.
The boy's mother, LeHondra McCall, and her friend Steve Hamilton, are in jail facing
20 counts of child abuse and 20 counts of child neglect.
The suspects have not been charged but are being held on a $400,000 bond.
One Central Texas woman's only chance to live is a bone marrow transplant, but there isn't
a match for her on the National Registry.
Last week we brought you the story of 33-year-old Susan Wehmeyer.
Right now her church is holding a drive to help find her a match that could save her
life.
One local man donated bone marrow to a complete stranger nearly two years ago.
He saw Susan's story last week on News 10 and wanted to share his experiences to encourage
people to become donors and possibly save a life.
Lauren Westbrook has more.
Nearly two years ago, 41-year-old Brian Thomas put himself on the National Registry as a
bone marrow donor.
Just a few months later, out of the blue, he got a phone call from the donor program.
I got a call from the registry saying that I was a match, not for the original patient
but for someone else.
Thomas went to Dallas with his wife for the transplant procedure he says he'd do again
in a heartbeat.
The pain level is very minimal.
It's easier than going to the dentist by far.
And Thomas did it all for a perfect stranger.
He was a 60-something man with multiple myeloma.
That's all they could tell me.
A few months after the procedure, Thomas received a package in the mail from a man named Lee.
It was the man whose life he saved.
Inside the package were pictures and handwritten letters from Lee and his family thanking Thomas
for going through with the transplant.
It's hard to believe in these days that there are still blood brothers, but I truly believe
that we are.
How do I say thank you to someone who could do and give to a stranger what his own family
couldn't?
Now Thomas is trying to share his story so that people like Susan Waymire might find
their match.
The idea that this simple act could actually have a huge impact on someone's life and either
by them years or perhaps decades of life.
That was one of the things that I wanted to do.
And for patients like Susan, the rewards would be endless.
To be able to meet our grandchildren one day.
I love it.
In Waco, Lauren Westbrook, News 10.
The bone marrow drive for Susan is happening tomorrow at Crestview Church of Christ in
Waco.
It's from 5.30 to 9 p.m. and you have to be between the ages of 18 and 60 to take part,
seeing if your match tomorrow won't cost you a thing through Scott and White.
And it only takes about ten minutes just to swab of the cheek and ten minutes of paperwork.
Not much of an investment to possibly save a life.
Gordon, we just wanted to show everybody out there how easy it is.
Literally you show up and they give you something like this.
And here you are, you just swab of the cheek, put it in there.
Like you said, ten minutes of paperwork and you're done.
And it could literally mean the difference in life or death for so many people out there.
Absolutely.
Certainly a worthwhile investment there.
Yes, it is.
A cooler day today.
Rusty's coming up with more on what to expect the rest of the week.
But first, why the second time might be the charm at Cowboy Stadium.
News 10 at 6 continues after these messages.
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Fifteen acres of new and pre-owned cars and trucks.
Well, it appears that both stadium officials and fans learned a great deal from the mistakes
made during the Cowboys' home opener.
The second game at the new stadium was a little more streamlined.
Jay Gormley has more on a night of lessons learned.
Lesson one, tailgating.
With stricter rules, Cowboy fans are quickly learning if you want to tailgate, then you
better not be late.
You've got to get here real early.
We got here at about 10 after 12 today.
It's now first come, first served.
No more saving parking spots for your buddy.
Once you find a spot, then pop open that grill.
Baby Cowboy number one, yeah!
Lesson two, security.
This was really more of a precautionary measure, but last week the FBI issued an alert warning
that terrorists may target stadiums.
So when you're the crown jewel, you beef up security.
The biggest lesson is lesson three, don't oversell party passes.
Last week there was pushing and shoving all because someone okayed the sale of 30,000
party passes.
This week, well it was hard to tell, but it appears about 10,000 were sold.
Stacey Henson worked the party platform last Sunday and says, oh what a difference a week
makes.
If it'll keep the tension down, I think it'll be much better.
Now you would think all the attention the party pass fiasco received last week would
chase away fans this week.
Not if you share the same philosophy as this girl.
That's what you gotta do when you make $30, you gotta make sure you end time.
If we didn't want to be on time, we would've made $500 and sat down there.
Jay Gormley for CBS News.
All right, Rusty, nice day today.
Yeah, it really was.
Blue skies, we're gonna show you the sky cam in a moment, and while it will be cool,
it probably won't be quite as cool as this morning.
Take a look at some of these forecasted lows overnight.
Probably the coolest air up around Corsican and Fairfield from there south and west, still
comfortable.
We'll be right back with the forecast.
Fridays this fall.
You're not gonna believe this, I had a crazy dream.
Medium is waking up on a new network.
New season only CBS.
Welcome back everybody.
It's a soggy lunchtime at Laredo, at Corpus Christi, and even up here in parts of southeast
Texas.
These showers have been ending as the day wore on today.
Still quite a bit of cloud cover and a couple of showers out there to the north of Laredo.
We saw a little bit of rain this morning, but boy, look at the clearing this afternoon.
Just a great day across central Texas winding down.
Temperature wise, we're in the upper 70s to the lower 80s, middle 80s out around San
Angelo.
Full sunshine from our area back out to the west.
Showers right now compared to 24 hours ago are still 2 to 3 degrees milder.
And as we showed you before the break, we're gonna be enjoying some lower to middle 60s
between now and tomorrow morning.
Little cooler, nearer to the center of high pressure up here to the north and east of
our area.
And then tomorrow afternoon we'll likely be climbing up pretty close to within a few degrees
of 90 for a fairly warm and windy day as well.
Look at those blue skies as we look live with Colleen Skycam.
At 65 to 82 the range of temperatures today, hour by hour, will be clear and 75 at 8 o'clock.
Down to 70 by the time you rejoin us for 10 at 10.
And we're dropping back into the low 60s with just a handful of clouds and southeasterly
winds.
In the morning fairly light, but winds will be increasing Wednesday afternoon.
Big robust weather system blowing into the western states right now.
This one will crank out rain and a lot of mountain snow.
This is the weather system that will visit us Thursday with a round of thunderstorms.
In the meantime, most of the clouds and all the rain has pretty much moved out of Texas
now into Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana.
Still some lingering clouds out here across the northeast.
These were the high temperatures this afternoon.
Hot in the deserts, but cool in the northwest and across the Great Lakes and northeast.
We were fairly warm today.
Look what happens tomorrow.
This cool air kind of slides a little closer and closer to us.
And I think there'll be at least a possibility of some cooling air by the time Friday night
rolls around.
That's something to look forward to.
The time cast shows that we'll be quiet between now and tomorrow morning.
And again, we'll drop down into the low 60s, maybe a few upper 50s.
Tomorrow, watch these isobars, these lines of equal pressure kind of tighten up.
That means we'll have quite a bit of wind in the offing for tomorrow afternoon with
temperatures climbing into the upper 80s.
And again for tonight, we'll look for mostly clear skies.
Temperatures drop to between 58 and 64.
The winds again, the biggest factor tomorrow, 15 to 20.
It'll be breezy and warm between 87 and 90 degrees.
Then on Thursday, here comes that cold front.
This gives us a pretty good chance of showers, maybe a few strong thunderstorms.
Right now, the Storm Prediction Center says the biggest threat for severe weather, that
would include high winds and hail, will be generally to our north.
But it'll be something day after tomorrow that we'll be watching keenly here in central
Texas.
We get a little shot of that cooler air for Friday.
We drop down to 82 for the high.
And Friday night, by golly, 57.
That will feel good for overnight and early Saturday morning.
The bad news is that the unsettled weather comes right back with at least a slight chance
for rain and thunderstorms on Saturday afternoon.
Perhaps a little better chance Sunday into the early part of next week.
We're going to be definitely catching up on our rainfall as we move into the month of
October.
Still no signs of a blue northern yet, but 57 degrees Friday night will be good.
The sports guys will like that, covering the football.
No rain and cooler weather.
They will enjoy that.
Looks like a pretty good forecast for them.
Yes, it does.
Thanks, Rusty.
His voice won't be heard in the Baylor huddle anytime soon, but you will hear from Robert
Griffin after this break.
In his first interview since learning that he could be out for the season with a torn
ACL, here with the super sophomore, is thinking about surgery.
This is not a bubble.
It's Wi-Fi, the little signal you find in a coffee shop or a bookstore.
This is the internet the cell phone companies offer.
It lets you get online more places, but it's not that fast.
And this is Clear.
Clear uses WiMAX to cover entire towns with a super fast mobile internet.
Welcome to the future.
If you need anything we should know, or have you seen news happening, call us, email us
or find us on Twitter at KWTX.
News 10 on your side.
Live from the sports zone, Adam Winkler.
With so many people counting on me, and just to have it all taken away like that, it was
kind of hard.
A torn ACL managed to accomplish what many college defenses could not do, bring down
Robert Griffin.
In his first interview since the MRI results came back on Sunday, this afternoon the Baylor
sophomore quarterback told News 10 that not until he got ready to go to sleep on Saturday
night did he think there was any major damage to his right knee.
But now that he's been diagnosed with an isolated tear of the ACL, surgery is an option.
But not the only option.
Griffin has three to four weeks before he has to decide whether or not to repair the
ACL or rehab the knee, play on it and try and lead the Bears to a bowl game.
Today he told us which way he's leaning.
It's probably you know 80, 20, 90, 10 right now to go ahead and get the surgery.
I'd have to progress pretty quickly to be able to play on it and have the doctors clear
me because I can think one thing and if they don't clear me I still can't play.
So I probably shouldn't have been playing in the game but I know I had to get back out
there for the guys and they appreciate it and now it's history.
If Griffin does elect to have surgery he would be eligible to receive a medical hardship
waiver granting him an extra year of eligibility.
Surgery or no surgery, Griffin will be on the sidelines for at least the next few games.
So if his bruised throwing shoulder makes enough progress this week to play on Saturday,
the Bears will turn to former starting quarterback, turn back up, now turn starter again, Blake
Simanski.
You know Robert's a good player and he came in, won the job and deservingly so he's a
good football player.
So I wasn't going to sit there and to the side and kind of pout about it.
The thing I like about him is that he's weathered.
You know he's a veteran.
His path hasn't been easy.
You know he's got a lot to prove, a lot to live for and he's going to fight hard.
When asked if his injured shoulder would have him ready to play in the game if the game
was tomorrow, Simanski said maybe.
Maybe you want to hear more of what Robert Griffin and Blake Simanski had to say this
afternoon.
If so, click to the sports page of KWTX.com.
Newman made like a mailman and delivered for Dallas last night.
Terrence Newman's fourth quarter interception return for a TD put Dallas' first win in New
Cowboys Stadium on ice.
The boys scored 21 unanswered points after trailing 7-zip at the half and their halftime
point total equaled their giveaway total for the entire game and that makes their QB quite
happy.
I don't think we had any turnovers so in that regard yeah I thought we accomplished
the goal set out to this week and you know I feel as though each week when we come out
here and play the game that there's two things we're trying to do.
Obviously win the game.
That's the number one goal every week.
But the other part of it is to continue to grow and get better.
Apparently Romo likes his wardrobe to match his quarterback rating.
The late 80s.
The Cowboys have a date with undefeated Denver next Sunday.
Height restrictions put in place by the U.S. Navy prohibit men taller than 6'6 from being
a naval flight officer.
So it's a good thing the U.S. Army is the sponsor of the high school All-American game
because this afternoon news 10's own 6'8 Dan Ingham was the master of ceremonies for the
kickoff of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl selection tour in Temple.
The nation's top running back recruit Lake Seastrunk was announced as one of the first
three official selections to the All-American Bowl which we played January 9th in San Antonio
and Lake says he's flattered to have his name join that elite fraternity.
This is a blessing.
This is like so cool.
I get to play in the game with one of my favorite players playing and Reggie Bush is like my
favorite player.
My favorite player in college now is Javid Biss.
So that's all cool.
You know the Army is all about teamwork.
It's about strength.
It's about working together to achieve a goal.
We're partying something bigger than yourself and football embodies all that.
In April, eight U.S. Army All-American Bowl alumni were selected in the first round of
the NFL draft.
All that tells you is they know what they're doing when they select those players.
So congratulations to Lake and look for many more of those names to come here soon.
All right, very good.
Thanks Adam.
Rusty has a weather recap coming up after this break.
Churches is serving up a hot fresh change of pace.
Our shrimp is back.
Right now get a big basket of shrimp with fries for only $2.99.
Churches.
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I knew the Subaru Legacy was the smart choice.
What I didn't expect was the fun.
The all-new Subaru Legacy.
Feel the love.
Well here's the plan for your evening and overnight, hour by hour, 10 o'clock, 70 and
clear, southeast winds 5 to 10.
No problem with the winds all the way through morning.
We'll be dropping back to 62 with just a few clouds early.
And then 88, a little warmer tomorrow afternoon.
Winds kicking up out of the south, 15 to 20, humidity will be back.
That'll force a chance for thunderstorms as the front moves in Thursday evening.
Friday looks good, but the weekend and early next week offers another, at least slight
chance for rain.
All right, thanks Rusty.
And Adam, we got a dog fight going on in the marquee matchup.
Marquee matchup, top two vote gutters, Troy versus Crawford and Wakeover's University.
Only one can win.
Go online and vote.
Great.
I mean, don't listen to me, but you should want to.
That's all our time.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Don't forget about our web channel.
KWTX.com.
Did you just shush me?
Yes, I did.
Dance, dance, escape.
And you can do all three at the same time, I find.
Every day, without.
Watch Ellen on KWTX News 10, weekdays at 3.