Friends, family remember Ivins’ humor, relentlessness

AUSTIN (AP) — Texas journalist Molly Ivins was relentless in pursuing justice and defending the powerless, yet never lost her optimism and sense of fun, family and friends said as they celebrated her life Sunday.

In a lively, laughter-filled church memorial service that featured gospel singers and finished with Austin blues musician Marcia Ball performing “Great Balls of Fire,” hundreds of admirers clapped and cheered Ivins’ words and spirit.

Ivins, who died Wednesday at age 62 after a long battle with breast cancer, smiled down on the crowd from a portrait at the front of First United Methodist Church as numerous friends read from her writings and told funny stories of their adventures with her.

Advisory group split on futile-care debate

HOUSTON (AP) — A group charged with proposing changes to the state’s futile-care law is at an impasse over the amount of time a family should have to transfer a patient if the hospital decides to end life-sustaining treatment.

Group chairman Greg Hooser said in a new report that he hopes members will find a compromise extending the transfer window, which is now set at 10 days.

The coalition, which is made up of doctors, hospitals, right-to-life groups and disability activists, was formed a year ago by the state House Committee on Public Health to investigate reforming the futile-care law.

Under the law, a hospital can discontinue treatment for a patient if a doctor decides treatment is medically futile and a hospital committee backs the decision. The patient’s family then has 10 days to find a different facility that will take the patient.

Two arrests made in slaying of Dallas couple

DALLAS (AP) — Two people have been charged with capital murder in the slayings of a Dallas couple whose bodies were found in southeast Dallas after being missing almost a month, Dallas police said Sunday.

The bodies of Luis Campos, 20, and Linoshka Torres, 18, who were expecting their first child in April, were found Friday.

Jorge Guzman Banda, 51, who was being held in the Dallas County jail on unrelated charges, has now been charged with capital murder in the deaths Campos and Torres, police said. Bond is set at $1 million.

Frank Estrella, 20, was arrested Sunday morning in Anaheim, Calif., and was charged with capital murder in the deaths, police said. He’s also being held on $1 million bond.

A kidnapping arrest warrant for a third suspect, 30-year-old Nicolas Monarrez, has been issued.