Professor Reinstated: Popular UTSA engineering professor reinstated
SAN ANTONIO — One of two tenured engineering professors suspended from the University of Texas at San Antonio for allegedly violating the school's ethics policy said he has been reinstated and will return to work this week.

Last week, on the eve of a faculty tribunal hearing, the school dropped its case against Alberto Arroyo and gave him his job back.

"I am in heaven. I am alive again," Arroyo said in a story in the San Antonio Express-News. "Finally, somebody put the file together and read it and said, `We are going to hang an innocent man.'"

UTSA officials are proceeding with their case against the other professor, Chia Shun "Rocky" Shih. He appealed his firing to a faculty tribunal, which heard his case last week and will send its conclusions to University of Texas System regents for a final decision.

As for droppings their case against Arroyo, university officials said only that it was best for the students and the university.

Arroyo and Shih were suspended without pay earlier this year as the school began termination proceedings against both men. Shih has been at the university since 1974; Arroyo has been there since 1982.

The university's ethics investigation focused on a land deal in which several people, including Shih and Arroyo, bought 33 acres near Helotes. The land, proposed as a park by the city of Helotes, had been the topic of a semester-long student project in Shih's class.

UTSA's ethics policy "prohibits faculty or staff from making personal investments which could reasonably create a substantial conflict between the employee's private interests and the public interests."

Shih has denied his students did a project involving the property but rather just proposed it. Arroyo has said he found out about the property by looking at parcels in the area.

Murder Trial, No Body; Murder trial begins, body of victim never found
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Prosecutors face a difficult task this week in trying the man accused of murdering a 51-year-old Fort Worth woman.

Glenda Gail Furch's body has never been found.

"It's pretty unusual," Tarrant County prosecutor Bob Gill said in a Fort Worth Star-Telegram story. "This is the first one I've handled."

Rodney Owens, 41, is accused of killing Furch, a former neighbor. She has not been seen since Sept. 28, 2007, when she clocked out at midnight from her job at the General Motors plant in Arlington, police said.

Owens is linked to her disappearance by a thumbprint on some duct tape found in a trash bin outside Furch's apartment. Also found in the same trash bag were electrical and telephone cords tied in unusual knots, a towel, clothes and other items belonging to Furch, police said.

In Furch's bedroom, police said, they found a bleach stain and fresh vacuum marks on the carpet. A vacuum cleaner was missing from the apartment.

About a week after she disappeared, Furch's car was found burned at an abandoned car wash, about 1.4 miles from where another car was reported stolen. Owens wrecked that stolen car on Oct. 28, 2007, during a police chase. In the trunk, there was a backpack containing duct tape, a cut electrical cord, surgical gloves, a gun and ammunition, police said.

Owens has pleaded not guilty. During jury selection Monday, defense attorney Mark Rosteet emphasized the state's burden of proving Owens' guilt. Rosteet did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press on Monday.

Drug Death-Suit: Woman sues oil exec over daughter's drug death
HOUSTON (AP) — The mother of a stripper who died of a cocaine overdose has filed a lawsuit against a Houston oil industry executive, accusing him of supplying the drugs and not calling for help immediately when her daughter became ill.

Geneva Cloud sued Robert Pace Andrews for $2 million in a lawsuit filed Monday. Andrews is owner, president and CEO of Houston-based Andrews Technologies Inc., a provider and contractor to the oil industry. His ex-wife is married to Neil Bush, a brother of President Bush.

Andrews is serving two years' probation after pleading guilty in April to possession of less than a gram of cocaine. He was granted deferred adjudication, which means he will not have a conviction on his record if he successfully complies with the terms of his probation.

Geneva Cloud alleged that Andrews supplied cocaine to her daughter, 19-year-old Jessica Lynn Cloud.

On Nov. 2, Andrews called 911 to report that a guest at his town house became unconscious after ingesting cocaine. Jessica Lynn Cloud, a part-time dancer at Centerfold's nightclub, died the next day at a hospital. An autopsy found she died from complications of acute cocaine intoxication and her death was ruled an accident.

Andrews' attorney, John Spalding, said Andrews did not delay summoning help and did not supply the woman with drugs, the Houston Chronicle reported in its online edition Monday. He called the lawsuit a money grab.

Geneva Cloud's attorney, Neal Cannon, denied money was the only motivation for the lawsuit.

"Unfortunately, the law can't bring back a person who has died," Cannon told the newspaper. "This is a mother who is upset about the death of her daughter. We can't bring her daughter back."

Candidate Lawsuit: Appeals court rejects lawmaker's suit to bar rival
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — An appeals court has stopped a Republican state senator's attempts to disqualify his Democratic opponent.

The 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas upheld a July ruling by state District Judge Tom Lowe, who said former Fort Worth City Councilwoman Wendy Davis is eligible to challenge state Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, on the November ballot.

The appeals court said in its opinion that "Brimer's only legally recognized interest in pursuing this appeal is to avoid being opposed by an ineligible candidate." The case had been transferred from the Fort Worth appeals court.

Justice Mark Whittington wrote that Brimer's challenge was moot because the Aug. 22 deadline had passed to remove a candidate from the ballot.

"Even if Davis is ineligible to hold office — an issue we do not reach in this appeal — her name will be included on the ... general election ballot in opposition to Brimer. We cannot, at this point, change that outcome and, therefore, this appeal is moot," the justices wrote.

Brimer filed a lawsuit in July, claiming that Davis should be kicked off the ballot because she filed to run for the seat while still serving on the City Council.

Davis resigned in August 2007 but remained on the council until her successor was deemed qualified in January.

Brimer could next take the case to the Texas Supreme Court.