CUP: Late-Race Troubles Deny Johnson Shot At Win(Photo)

Five-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson succinctly summed up his Saturday night following the Samsung Mobile 500. "Second sucks," Johnson said . Johnson, who led more laps than any driver in the 334-lap race at Texas Motor Speedway, used some more colorful language on

Did Bachmann's drug lobbyist claims ring true?

During Monday's CNN/Tea Party debate, Rep. Michele Bachmann criticized Texas Gov. Rick Perry's short-lived 2007 executive order requiring girls to get a vaccination for human papillomavirus, claiming in part that his former chief of staff lobbied for the drug maker, and that the company made millions of dollars because of the order.

"I just wanted to add that we cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order there is a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate. We can't deny that ... What I'm saying is that it's wrong for a drug company, because the governor's former chief of staff was the chief lobbyist for this drug company," Bachmann said. "The drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor, and this is just flat-out wrong. The question is, is it about life, or was it about millions of dollars and potentially billions for a drug company?"

Perry replied, "The company was Merck, and it was a $5,000 contribution that I had received from them. I raise about $30 million. And if you're saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I'm offended."

The exchange involves multiple claims. We'll examine each:

Statement No. 1:

Bachmann: "We cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order, there was a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate. We can't deny that."

The facts:

Perry in February 2007 signed an executive order directing the state Health and Human Services commissioner to mandate human papillomavirus vaccination for all girls before admission to the sixth grade. Perry at the time released a statement saying that the vaccine "provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer," which HPV can cause.

At the time, the only such vaccine that the Food and Drug Administration had approved was Gardasil, made by Merck & Co.

Texas' rules were to take effect in September 2008. However, the Texas Legislature passed a bill overturning Perry's order in April 2007. Perry declined to veto the bill, which went into effect in May 2007, killing his order.

The verdict:

False. The executive order didn't last long enough to produce a mandate. Therefore, there was no mandate that would have caused Merck to make millions of dollars.

Statement No. 2:

Bachmann: "The governor's former chief of staff was the chief lobbyist for this drug company."

The facts:

Michael Toomey, a former three-term state representative from Houston, served as Perry's chief of staff from December 2002 to September 2004.

Toomey was a lobbyist for a number of companies -- including Merck -- before and after he served in Perry's office, according to the Texas Ethics Commission. He was registered in Texas to lobby for Merck from at least 1998 to 2002, and from 2004 to the present, according to the commission.

The verdict:

True. Toomey was as a lobbyist for Merck. However, CNN could not find evidence to confirm or dispute that he was the company's "chief lobbyist."

Statement No. 3:

Perry's defense: "The company was Merck, and it was a $5,000 contribution that I had received from them."

The facts:

Merck's political action committee did give Perry $5,000 in 2006, when he was seeking a second full term. But it also gave him nearly $25,000 more over the course of his career, including a $10,000 donation in 2004; $5,000 in 2002; $1,000 in 2005; $1,000 in 2000; $2,500 in 2008; and another $5,000 in his most recent run, in 2010.

The verdict:

Misleading.

Don unlikely to bring relief to North Texas (Photos-Video)

Tropical Storm Don's new name is just about right.

"As of a few minutes ago, Don became a tropical depression," Jesse Moore, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, said shortly before 10 p.m. Friday.

Depressing, indeed. North Texans were hoping for at least a little cloud cover today that might bring the triple-digit temperatures down a bit.

No such luck, Moore said.

The high forecast for today is 101, which would keep the streak of consecutive triple-digit days going. (Friday got us to 28 straight days.) And the weather service is predicting only a slight chance of rain today, which really means no chance.

About 10 p.m., Don moved inland near Baffin Bay, about 40 miles south of Corpus Christi with maximum winds of 35 mph. All storm warnings were canceled, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

At least South Texas could still look forward to a few inches of precious rain.

The historic King Ranch covers a large part of the drought-stricken territory where Don was headed.

The storm won't bring all the rain that's needed but "as far as we're concerned, we're anticipating something and look forward to it," said Dave Delaney, King Ranch's vice president and general manager. "Maybe it's the start of something."

On Friday afternoon, lightning flashed in the distance above a darkening Gulf, but the beach remained packed on Padre Island. Surfers carried boards to the water, and children frolicked in sand. People on parasails glided behind boats in the Laguna Madre. Traffic backed up across the causeway connecting Padre Island to the mainland, but it appeared to be due more to construction than the volume of traffic. No one appeared to be boarding up windows or taking other precautions associated with stronger storms.

The Padre Island National Seashore closed its beaches late Thursday. Nueces County, where Corpus Christi is located, restricted primitive camping on its beaches, and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Del Mar College and the University of Texas-Brownsville closed their campuses.

But an annual fishing tournament in Port Mansfield, north of Brownsville, began Friday as scheduled. The offshore division was canceled, but fishermen still cast their lines closer to shore. A decision about today's fishing had not been made early Friday.

The only people hoping Don would miss them were cotton farmers in the midst of harvesting their crop with two weeks to go, said Rogelio Mercado, Texas AgriLife extension agent for Jim Wells County.

"All in all, everyone would welcome a good rain," Mercado said, but strong winds could make a mess of the cotton harvest. As long as the cotton bolls aren't knocked over, a couple of sunny days after the storm should allow the harvest to continue. Corn and sorghum have already been collected, he said.

In North Texas, Moore said the high for Sunday is forecast to be 102. If it gets to even 100, that will mean 30 consecutive triple-digit days, lofting 2011 into the No. 2 spot. But, Moore said, "We have a long way to go" to No. 1, which is 42 consecutive days set in 1980.

Unfortunately, the traditionally hottest month of August begins next week. Highs are expected to top 100 all week with "no rain in sight," Moore said.

At its height, Don forced the shutdown of more than 11.9 percent of oil production and 6.2 percent of gas output from the Gulf of Mexico, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said Friday. Personnel were evacuated from 56 oil and gas platforms and four rigs in the Gulf.

Prosecutors to use DNA against polygamist leader

Prosecutors trying polygamist leader Warren Jeffs on child sexual assault charges plan to use the DNA of a child conceived in a union with a 14-year-old girl to convict him in a Texas court.

Jeffs, the leader of a breakaway Mormon sect, is charged with child sexual assault and aggravated child

sexual assault in connection with his "spiritual marriages" to two girls, ages 12 and 14, at the remote Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas.

"You will hear and see evidence that as a result of sexual activity a child was conceived, and from the DNA evidence you will be able to determine that Warren Steed Jeffs is the father of this child," Assistant Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols told the jury at the start of the trial.

Prosecutors said they would also present an audio tape of a sexual encounter between Jeffs, 55, and the 14-year-old that he secretly recorded.

Jeffs is considered the spiritual leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which has been condemned by the mainstream Mormon Church and is accused of promoting marriages between older men and girls.

The sect, which experts estimate has 10,000 followers in North America, also teaches that for a man to be among the select in heaven, he must have at least three wives.

Nichols also called a string of law enforcement witnesses who testified about a 2008 raid on the Texas ranch in which the two girls and more than 400 other children were taken into protective custody, and about Jeffs' 2007 arrest in Nevada.

Jeffs sat silently, alone at the defense table, with his head bowed and his hands folded in his lap, in what appeared to be a position of prayer. He never spoke to question witnesses or to object to testimony.

Danny Guajardo, a Texas Attorney General's Office investigator who took DNA samples from the two girls and the baby, was expected to discuss his findings on Friday.

WILL REPRESENT HIMSELF

Jeffs had thrown the trial into disarray earlier on Thursday when he fired his defense lawyers and demanded the right to represent himself, which the judge then granted.

"It's not as easy as it looks on TV, Mr. Jeffs," State District Judge Barbara Walther told him. "You're on your own."

Jeffs, who founded the ranch in 2003 as an outpost for his church after decades on the Utah-Arizona border, refused to enter a plea, so the court recorded a "not guilty" plea.

"My counsel doesn't have the full understanding of the facts and are unable to assist in my defense," Jeffs told the court in a slow, halting voice as he explained his move to fire his counsel.

"I have trained my defense, but they were unable to do what I said. I am presenting the need for true justice to be presented, and for the truth to come out."

Jeffs has fired myriad attorneys in what prosecutors said was an attempt to delay the trial on charges that could send him to prison for life. Judge Walther instructed his attorneys to remain on standby although they do not have to appear in court as his advisers.

There were no signs of any sect members or supporters of Jeffs in the half-full courtroom.

Before being fired, defense attorneys had worked to exclude evidence seized when Jeffs was arrested in Nevada in 2007, as well as items seized from the ranch in 2008.

Defense lawyers said those items shouldn't be used. They include a list of adult male members of the sect detailing their numerous wives and a photograph of a grinning Jeffs kissing one of his brides.

They argued against that evidence because the raid was prompted by a false report to a San Angelo domestic violence hotline by a woman falsely claiming to be a 16-year-old child bride. The raid resulted in hundreds of children being temporarily removed from the compound.

Residents flee Missouri flooding; 5 killed in severe weather in Arkansas

Thunder roared and tornado warning sirens blared, and all emergency workers in the southeast Missouri town of Poplar Bluff could do was hope the saturated levee holding back the Black River would survive yet another downpour.

Murky water flowed over the levee Monday at more than three dozen spots and crept toward homes in the flood plain. Some had already flooded. If the levee broke — and forecasters said it was in imminent danger of doing so — some 7,000 residents in and around Poplar Bluff would be displaced.

Meanwhile, in Arkansas at least five people were killed — three in floodwaters and two in a small town where it was likely a tornado ripped through.

In Poplar Bluff, 1,000 homes were evacuated earlier in the day. Sandbagging wasn't an option, Police Chief Danny Whitely said. There were too many trouble spots, and it was too dangerous to put people on the levee. Police went door-to-door encouraging people to get out. Some scurried to collect belongings, others chose to stay. Two men had to be rescued by boat.

It could be a long week of waiting for the rain to stop in Poplar Bluff and other river towns in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. Storms have ripped through parts of middle America for weeks, and they were followed Monday by heavy rain and possible tornadoes that pelted an area from northeast Texas to Kentucky.

Three people were killed in Arkansas when floodwaters swept their vehicles off of roadways, authorities said. Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokesman Tommy Jackson said at least two people died in the central Arkansas town of Vilonia, where a path of damage stretched three miles (five kilometres) wide and 15 miles (24 kilometres) long.

Residents of Vilonia told The Associated Press that storms destroyed much of the town of about 3,800 people about 25 miles (40 kilometres) north of Little Rock. Authorities had closed off the roadways leading into the city.

"The town's gone," said Vilonia resident Sheldon Brock, although he said his house was spared.

Vilonia's fire chief, Keith Hillman, said 50 to 60 residents weren't accounted for, but he expected many simply weren't reachable. He said he didn't expect the death toll to rise significantly.

More than a dozen tornadoes were reported in Texas and Arkansas on Monday night. Widespread damage was reported in largely rural Houston County in East Texas, but the severity wasn't clear because much of the area was without power, Fire Marshal David Lamb said.

The storm system that blew through northeast Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas on Monday was expected to move into Illinois and Wisconsin on Tuesday, said Greg Carbin, a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. At the same time, a second storm system will start along the same path, meaning several more days of rain. That system will continue east through Thursday, he said.

"I think we'll see substantial flooding," Carbin predicted, adding later, "Arkansas to Illinois, that corridor, they've already have incredible rainfall and this is going to aggravate the situation."

The region will get at least 6 inches (15 centimetres) of rain over the next three days, he said. An area east of Little Rock, Arkansas, stretching across Memphis and up to eastern Tennessee will be hardest hit with 8 to 9 inches (20.3 to 22.9 centimetres).

Dozens of roads in multiple states have already closed because of flooding, leading several school districts to cancel classes. Communities such as Paducah, Kentucky, in the Ohio River valley were building flood walls to hold back the water and adding rocks to the top of earthen levees. Others began sandbagging.

The spate of storms has created problems in the U.S. South. Two weeks ago, tornadoes in six states killed 45 people.

In Missouri, the National Guard dispatched dozens of soldiers and rescue equipment to the Poplar Bluff area. Emergency crews rescued a man Monday morning after his pickup truck was swept into a water-filled ditch about 10 miles (16 kilometres) southeast of Poplar Bluff, while state troopers used boats to rescue other people trapped in their homes.

At least 150 people sought shelter at the town's Black River Coliseum, a 5,000-seat concert and meeting venue that overlooks the swollen river and a park that's already under water. Others moved in with friends and relatives.

‘Miracle’ transplant gives dad fresh start

The historic and ground-breaking full-face transplant conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital was aimed at giving hope to scores of severely battle-scarred soldiers of the Iraq and Afghan wars — but it also has given a brave little girl a daddy with a face.

A trailblazing team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital successfully completed the nation’s first complete-face transplant on a Texan left deformed by a high-voltage line accident. The only other full-face transplant was performed in Spain last year.

Dallas Wiens, 25, of Fort Worth underwent more than 15 hours of surgery last week by teams of doctors who worked to attach an anonymous donor’s nose, lips and skin, linking the donor’s facial muscles and nerves to his. The surgery was financed by the Department of Defense, which wants to develop ways to help disfigured soldiers.

“It’s a miracle, and he is determined to get well and make something of his life,” said Wiens’ grandfather, Del Peterson, who accompanied him to Boston. “His faith, and his will to live, and his youth kept him going.”

He also credits Wiens’ daughter, Scarlette, now 4, who was not yet 2 years old when he was injured, as a big reason to live after his world went dark.

“She’s the joy of his life,” Peterson said. Three years ago, doctors at the Parkland Hospital emergency room in Dallas told Wiens’ family he probably wouldn’t live.

“His whole face was gone, right down to the bone, and they called us in to say our goodbyes,” Peterson said. Wiens not only refused to die, he insisted on being with his little girl.

“The hospital introduced her to his injuries before she was 2, after they connected her with a child psychologist. The hospital said she wouldn’t recognize him, but Dallas said, ‘No, she’ll recognize my hands,’” Peterson said. Sure enough, he said, “Before she came in the room, he put his hands on his chest, and she said, ‘Those are Daddy’s hands!’ ”

Scarlette, back home in Texas, hasn’t seen her daddy’s new face, which remains swollen as he recovers. It could be months, but yesterday Wiens chatted with her by phone. With her youthful experience, the family isn’t worried this time that Scarlette won’t know her dad.

“I can recognize him through his personality and sense of humor,” Peterson said. “He’s determined to get well and make something of his life. He wants to go to college, and he has a lot of different interests.

“And I imagine that he’ll help other sightless people, too,” Peterson said.

Wiens already has. The Brigham and Women’s program that gave him a new face received a $3.4 million grant from the Department of Defense.

Facial transplant surgery remains in its infancy, with a few high-profile cases in France, Spain and the United States, while other patients wait, such as Charla Nash, the Connecticut woman mauled by a chimpanzee, a potential candidate for surgery at the Brigham.

Col. Janet R. Harris, a registered nurse with the Army Corps of Nurses, said yesterday that battlefield medical care has improved so much that there are as many as 100 American war veterans who might benefit from similar surgery.

“Many wouldn’t have survived before,” Harris said. “Eventually, we hope that this will move out of research and into the standard of care. We want to make sure our wounded warriors get covered . . . and get well.”