DFW News

As more details begin to emerge about AMR Corp’s plans to reorganize, Dallas-area executives are beginning to contemplate the impact of the company’s roughly 13,000 job cuts.

“There is no avoiding the fact that the cost reductions will be deep,” Chairman and CEO Thomas Horton said in a letter to American employees Wednesday. “And there is no sugarcoating the effect on our people.”

The DFW region’s growing economic strength could mitigate the effects of layoffs, experts said.

Last week’s 4-plus inches of rain pulled the Dallas-Fort Worth region out of drought for the first time since July, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday. More >

Authorities say four pit bulls blamed for mauling a North Texas toddler have been euthanized.

Fort Worth Animal Control officials said Tuesday that the dogs will be tested for rabies over the attack on the 18-month-old boy. Cook Children’s Medical Center on Wednesday declined to release details on the boy’s condition.

A Fort Worth toddler has been hospitalized after being mauled by a set of dogs Monday afternoon near Lake Worth. The child was attacked by four dogs around 3:45 in the 7800 block of Eastland Avenue.

The breed of the dogs are unknown. Animal control officers have quarantined the animals. Witnesses say the boy was bitten around his face and ears.

The Eagle Mountain Fire Department transported the child by ambulance to Cook Children’s Medical Center.

Fort Worth has joined a number of Texas cities offering high-tech ways to pay for parking. Officials say the last of about 80 solar-powered pay stations are being installed this week in downtown Fort Worth. More >

Students and faculty at Paschal High School in Fort Worth are in the dark this morning. A press release from the Fort Worth ISD said an off-campus “power pole incident” caused the outage. More >

Heavy rains flooded the kitchen at Hi Mount Elementary School in Fort Worth Wednesday morning. Officials with the district said flooding in the kitchen is not uncommon when heavy rains swell beyond the capacity of drainage canals along the 4100-block of Birchman Avenue.

An email from a viewer said the water level in the kitchen reached the knees of the workers, but officials with the district said the water flowed in through the floor drains and really only rose to a height of an inch or two. Chopper 5 flew by the school and spotted crews working hard to direct the floodwater out of the building.

Thunderstorms bringing heavy rain, quarter-sized hail, gusty winds and cloud-to-ground lightning are possible in parts of Dallas-Fort Worth Tuesday night as a storm system moves through from the south. A large area of showers and thunderstorms were moving north from the Jacksboro-Athens area around 4 p.m., according to the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth.

Another strong thunderstorm was moving into Mansfield and then Arlington around 4:05 p.m., with frequent lightning, very heavy rain, penny-sized hail and wind gusts to 40 mph.

After processing hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops over more than seven years, the Army is shutting down its R&R way station at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport in two months because of the drawdown of troops in the Middle East and Afghanistan. More >

After processing hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops in the past seven-plus years, the Army is shutting down its R&R way station at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport in two months because of the drawdown of troops in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

The decision also signals the end of the Welcome Home A Hero program, a volunteer-led group that has organized a flag-waving, back-slapping, goodies-laden greeting for every flight of troops since June 16, 2004, a total that now exceeds 2,700 days in a row, no matter the hour, holiday or weather.