(Caitlyn Jones / Staff)

State Senator Jane Nelson speaks at an assembly on dating violence Friday morning at Creekview High School in Carrollton while members of the student club, the Be Project, look on.

Staff writer Caitlyn Jones reports:

“Is texting someone 50 times in one hour ok?”

Brian Pinero, director of digital services for the National Domestic Violence Hotline, got mixed answers Friday morning during an assembly on teen dating violence at Creekview High School in Carrollton.

What if you’re in a long distance relationship? What if it’s your mom?

One in 3 adolescents are victims of physical, verbal or sexual abuse by their partner, exceeding the adult average of 1 in 4, according to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency Focus.

“There are things that occur in your community that shouldn’t be happening,” State Senator Jane Nelson told students Friday morning. “Dating violence happens everywhere, and it’s one of the saddest and most heartbreaking things.”

Nelson, along with representatives from the National Domestic Violence Hotline, Verizon and Mary Kay, spoke at a rally at the high school to educate students on the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships.

The senator worked to add a section to the Education Code for Texas public schools in 2007 that addresses teenage dating violence. The National Domestic Violence Hotline also sends out tool kits on the issue to schools across the state.

The assembly was organized by Be Project, a club for Creekview students to take a stand against bullying and dating violence. The group partnered with loveisrepect, the National Domestic Violence Hotline project to stop dating violence.

Loveisrespect recently launched Love is Digital, a campaign that allows teenagers to text or chat online with trained peer advisers and counselors about abusive relationships. The program offers mentoring, resources and sometimes even legal services to the teens.

The number of callers on the hotline increases each year, especially when domestic violence is prominent in the media, said Katie Ray-Jones, president of the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

“When you have situations like Chris Brown and Rhianna or Ray Rice and Janay Rice, that definitely contributes heavily to our uptick,” she said. “We’ll see an uptick but I think there’s more awareness about what domestic violence is and what it’s not.”

While cell phones may offer a solution, they are often a tool used in abuse.

“In the 1990’s, cell phones were differentiators between life and death for those in abusive relationships,” said Michelle Miller, president of the central Texas region for Verizon Wireless, a sponsor of the loveisrespect program. “Now, it’s used as a device for unhealthy relationships.”

Common signs of digital abuse include constant texting, social media stalking, looking through texts or calls, and forcing your partner to share their passwords.

While the majority of hotline participants are female, about 5 percent include men who are either being abused or have been an abuser, Ray-Jones said.

Mary Kay Vice President for Corporate Responsibility Crayton Webb said it was his duty as a male to educate and stand up against dating violence.

“Everyone is so afraid to offend our friends but it’s offensive that one in three of you will experience dating violence,” he said at the assembly. “It’s time for men to be part of the solution instead of the problem. Real men don’t hit women.”

Nelson summed up the message of the day, saying no one should ever be afraid of the ones they love.

“Love is not violent. Love is not harmful,” she said. “Love is respect.”

Updated at 3:45 p.m.: Transportation officials said they plan to completely open Loop 12 and partially open eastbound 183 this evening.

However, the right shoulder and rightmost lane will remain closed for “the foreseeable future” because the three beams under them need to be replaced, Lafontaine said.

About a dozen TXDOT workers were at the crash site this afternoon, removing loose concrete and metal that fell onto Loop 12.

Officials have not established a plan for the long-term repairs on 183.

“It takes a lot of planning and shutdowns,” said McClellan, the police spokesman. “It’s a big undertaking.”

In the meantime, he said motorists trying to get from the Mid-Cities area to Dallas should take alternate routes such as Interstate 30, LBJ Freeway or Highway 114.

“It’s no man’s land because there’s no other route other than a big detour,” McClellan said. “But it’s better than being stuck out here, I will tell you that.”

Original post at 12:54 p.m.: A commercial vehicle struck the bottom part of a Highway 183 bridge in Irving this afternoon, forcing authorities to close off the highway and divert traffic through the service road.

Irving police spokesman James McClellan said northbound Loop 12 and eastbound 183, where the two roadways intersect, will likely be closed 7 to 10 hours as authorities assess the damage.

TXDOT officials said the crash involved a tractor trailer that hauls dumpsters.

The truck was traveling northbound on Loop 12, when the driver saw the dumpster behind him lift up and scrape the bottom part of eastbound 183, TXDOT spokesman Ryan Lafontaine said.

He said preliminary reports show the truck hit three concrete beams under the road that the bridge supports.

Pockets of concrete fell off the bottom side of the bridge, and authorities shut the roadway down.

TXDOT “will have to assess the damage and see what it’s going to take to make sure it’s safe before we can keep reopen it,” Lafontaine said.

Police and fire are helping divert traffic to the service roads. Traffic, of course, is heavy in that area.

(TXDOT)

A tractor trailer hit the bottom side of Highway 183, causing a total shut down of the road near Loop 12.

Ruben Paul Nelson

Updated at 11:56 a.m.: A missing elderly man has been found, Dallas police said. He is safe.

Original post at 6:28 a.m.: Dallas police are asking for help finding an 88-year-old man who was reported missing Thursday.

Ruben Paul Nelson was last seen around 4 p.m. Thursday leaving the Dallas Athletic Club in far east Dallas. He drives a 1997 red Jeep Cherokee with the Texas license plate BJZ5200, police said.

Nelson is described as 5-foot-11 and weighs about 140 pounds. He has green eyes and brownish-gray hair. Police believe he may be in danger.

Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the missing person’s unit at 214-671-4268.

(Claire Z. Cardona)

Protesters under I35E in Dallas days after decision not to indict officer in chokehold death of Eric Garner.

UPDATE AT 12 a.m.

Four women and one man were arrested Thursday night. They face a charge of obstructing a highway or passageway, a class B misdemeanor, police said.

No one was injured during the protests, which were mainly peaceful.

UPDATE AT 11:35 p.m.

The group has arrived at Dallas Police headquarters and is dispersing.

The protesters are planning another night of demonstrations Friday night, starting at 8 p.m. at 1100 Commerce St. in downtown Dallas.

UPDATE at 11:25 p.m.

About 25 people remain in the protest group, and the chanting has slowed down. The group is making its way to Dallas Police headquarters.

UPDATE AT 11:15 p.m.

The group of protesters, which continues to get smaller, is once again on the move. They are walking south on Lamar in the direction of the Dallas Police headquarters just south of downtown.

Although the group is dropping in size — fewer than 50 are with the group — police presence remains strong. There are more officers than demonstrators.

UPDATE AT 10:45 p.m.

Though the group of protesters has gotten smaller, about 50 people have taken up location just outside the Earl Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse in downtown Dallas.

Officers in patrol cars have surrounded the group, and at least one other person has been detained.

UPDATE at 10:30 p.m. 

Close to 100 protesters have turned around and appear headed back in the direction of the Dallas police headquarters.

A small number of demonstrators seem determined to stay put, despite police objection and the detainment of other protesters.

UPDATE at 10:20 p.m.: 

The group appears to be splintering, with the majority turning around a smaller number of protesters focused on making it on to the highway.

A line of police officers are creating a blocking the group from doing so.

The situation has created the most tense moments of the evening.

Police have begun to detain people who were seated in the middle of the road. At least two women were removed.

“We asked you to clear the streets,” officers said. “We asked you not to be in the streets.”

UPDATE at 10:05 p.m.:

The protesters are marching south on Houston Street and have reached the east-west streets at Dealey Plaza. There, police have blocked off all eastbound access that might otherwise allow the group to reach I-35E and the site of last week’s dangerous incident.

UPDATE at 9:40 p.m.:

Dallas police said they briefly shut down northbound I-35E in anticipation of the threat of protesters entering the freeway, but the department just announced all lanes are reopened. No marchers ever got onto the highway.

UPDATE at 9:30 p.m.:

Protesters have made their way to a spot under Stemmons Freeway at the convergence of Hi Line Drive and Victory Avenue. While activists chant “No justice, no peace!” officers have surrounded the crowd on all sides, blocking access to I-35E in an attempt to prevent a repeat of last week’s mayhem.

ORIGINAL POST:

Dozens of people are marching through downtown Dallas to protest the decision by grand jurors not to indict the New York police officer accused of killing an unarmed black man this summer — and what activists say is a nationwide pattern of police abuse of black men.

The protest began mid-evening outside Dallas police headquarters on Lamar Street just south of downtown.

Many people held signs saying “We can’t breathe,” a reference to some of the final words that 43-year-old Eric Garner of Staten Island could be heard saying in videotaped footage of the incident in which Officer Daniel Pantaleo had placed him in an apparent chokehold.

The gathering outside Dallas police headquarters was low-key, but activists became more animated as they began marching toward downtown, chanting “No justice, no peace!” and “I can’t breathe!”

Dozens of police in squad cars and on bicycle accompanied the crowd as it made its way through downtown toward American Airlines Center. At the center’s south end, protesters laid down, chanting “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” and “I can’t breathe!”

Tonight’s marchers — a mixture of races and ages — have been consistently peaceful. It’s a departure from some of last week’s protests that involved combative activists briefly taking over Interstate 35E near Dealey Plaza in response to a grand jury’s decision not to indict the white officer who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Several people were arrested in that protest.

This is a rendering of the regional performing arts hall that was to be built in Allen.

The end has finally come for The Arts Center of North Texas, a joint effort of the cities of Allen, Frisco and Plano to build a regional performing arts hall.

On Wednesday, District Court Judge Angela Tucker approved the nonprofit board’s proposal to divvy up the $2.3 million in remaining donations among the three cities and return the 124 acres of donated land in Allen back to the original donor.

The nonprofit sought the court’s approval to release any restrictions on its remaining donations since it couldn’t deliver on building the performing arts hall as planned. The law requires that the money be used for similar purposes, so the cities must distribute the money to organizations and projects related to arts and culture. The money will be divided evenly among the three cities.

The arts board also sought the court’s permission to return the land along State Highway 121 to its donor. When the land was originally donated, arts hall officials and the landowner, Janice Brittingham, had agreed to include a provision requiring the land be returned if the arts hall weren’t built. But that provision was mistakenly left out of the legal documents.

Planning for the 2,100-seat arts hall began more than a decade ago. Voters in each city approved spending more than $19 million in bonds. Voters in McKinney opted not to join in the project. The remaining costs were to be covered by private donations. But fundraising slowed with the recession, and no major donors stepped up.

But with the recession came lower construction prices. Project officials decided to put the project out for bid. With a $5 million loan guarantee from the city of Allen, they announced in early 2010 that ground-breaking could come as early as that spring. But city of Frisco officials said they weren’t ready to fund their share. Opposition to the project grew. In May 2011, Frisco voters revoked the city’s authority to spend its remaining $16.4 million on the project.

Project officials weren’t able to recover from the blow. The organization changed its name in June 2011 from the Arts of Collin County to The Arts Center of North Texas to emphasize its regional nature. But it didn’t help. Plano and Allen soon withdrew their funding as well.

Efforts to separate from the cities and become a private nonprofit and continue fundraising were rejected. All that was left to do was work through the legal issues of dissolving, which has been ongoing.

The final judgment also spells out how each city plans to distribute its share of funds.

Allen will give $250,000 to The Allen Arts Alliance Association Inc. and split its remaining money, pro rata, among Allen Civic Ballet, Allen Philharmonic Symphony Inc., Allen’s Community Theater, The Allen Heritage Guild Inc., Allen Public Art Committee, The Allen Arts Alliance Association Inc., and Allen Friends of the Library (specifically restricted to be used for arts education at the library).

Frisco will give $250,000 to the Frisco Association for the Arts and the remaining money to the Frisco Community Development Corporation for infrastructure and capital improvements at the Frisco Discovery Center, which is managed by the Frisco Association for the Arts.

Plano will give $250,000 to The ArtCentre of Plano, Inc. and the remaining money will be used by the city for renovations and related capital costs for the Saigling House Project in coordination with The ArtCentre of Plano Inc. DMN’s Wendy Hundley has more details here.

Final Judgment on The Arts Center of North Texas

(DMN/Photo)

Flu shots drew crowds last season at Dallas County''s vaccination clinics.

A bad flu season was forecast Thursday by federal officials, who warned that this year’s vaccine is not a good match for the virus hitting hardest so far.

Still, local and national health officials are urging people to get a flu shot as soon as possible.

Influenza activity is increasing in Dallas County with 18.9 percent of tests returning positive in the week ending Nov. 22. Nationally, 9.3 percent of reported specimens were positive for influenza during the same week.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the H3N2 viral strain appears to be causing more flu cases this year than any other variety. The strain seems to have mutated enough that it isn’t covered well by the vaccine manufactured for this flu season, officials said during a media briefing Thursday.

“The H3N2 virus tends to be more severe on young and elderly people and those with underlying health issues,” said Dr. Christopher Perkins, medical director of Dallas County Health and Human Services.

So far this year, Dallas County has confirmed 507 flu cases of which 85 percent were a type A strain. H3N2 is type A as is H1N1, more commonly called swine flu and a heavy hitter locally since 2009.

Daily numbers of emergency department visits for influenza-like illness and numbers of new influenza-associated hospitalizations are increasing in Dallas County, although the outbreak is starting slow.

Earlier this week, the first flu-related death was reported in the county, involving an unidentified adult. Last season’s tally was 55 adult and three pediatric deaths related to the outbreak.

Officials are urging people who develop flu symptoms — fever, chills, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches and fatigue — to see a doctor and be tested. Anyone positive for the flu should get a prescription for antiviral medication. The drug must be taken within 48 hours of flu symptoms appearing.

In the United States, all circulating influenza viruses have been susceptible to the neuraminidase inhibitor antiviral medications, oseltamivir and zanamivir. However, rare sporadic instances of oseltamivir-resistant 2009 H1N1 and H3N2 viruses have been detected worldwide.

Perkins said the flu vaccine is still widely available from doctors, pharmacies and many grocery stores. The health department’s shot clinics also are well stocked.

The adult vaccine is available in the county’s adult immunization clinic on the first floor of the main health department building at 2377 N. Stemmons Freeway in Dallas. The children’s vaccine is available at all county immunization clinics.

Clinic hours are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Appointments aren’t necessary. For more information call 214-819-2162.

((Ron Baselice/Staff Photographer)

Arlington police were still at the home on Golden View Court hours after the shooting.

Update at 3:19 p.m.: The 16-year-old has been charged with criminal negligent homicide, Arlington police said in a news release this afternoon.

Police said the boys were unattended in a room when the gun discharged, striking the 17-year-old in the head. The 16-year-old’s grandparents who owned the home were not in the room where the shooting happened.

Police are investigating how the firearm, which was reported stolen in November, ended up at the house.

Update at 9:49 a.m.: Arlington police detectives said Thursday they have not decided whether to charge a 16-year-old male in the shooting death of his 17-year-old friend.

Neighbors said the 16-year-old lives with his grandparents in the home where the shooting occurred early Thursday in the 1200 block of Golden View Court. The teen’s relatives were at the house when police left but declined to comment.

Some neighbors, who asked not to be identified, described the home where the shooting occurred as a “hangout house. One neighbor, who said she has known the 16-year-old since elementary school, described the teens involved in the shooting close friends. She said she often saw them in the neighborhood, hanging out and smoking, at times when they should have been in school.

One neighbor, Tony Glenn, said the slain 17-year-old had a rocky relationship with his father. Glenn said the teen told him he thought his parents were too hard on him, while the father told Glenn he worried about the company his son was keeping.

“He wanted to do what he wanted to do,” Glenn said. “His dad wanted him to straighten up and finish school.”

Glenn said he had started hiring the teen for small jobs around his house.

“From talking to him, I just felt he needed some guidance,” Glenn said.

But on Thursday, the teen’s father’s fears became an unfortunate reality.

“He said he was worried one day something would happen to his son,” Glenn said. “And now it happened. It’s just sad.”

Original post at 5:44 a.m.: A teenager was killed by a friend early Thursday in an accidental shooting in South Arlington, police say.

Officers were called to the home shortly after midnight and found a 17-year-old dead at the house in the 1200 block of Golden View Court, off South Cooper Street.

Investigators believe he and his 16-year-old friend were playing with a handgun when the younger boy accidentally pulled the trigger.

Police said they are speaking to the 16-year-old and others who were in the house at the time, but KTVT-TV (CBS11) reports that they don’t anticipate filing charges.

The shooting remains under investigation.

A Fort Worth school bus caught fire Wednesday afternoon near Interstate 35, Fort Worth firefighters said.

The bus, which was carrying about 10 Northwest ISD students, caught fire in the 11000 block of the North Freeway Service Road, along Interstate 35W.

Firefighters responded to the scene just after 4 p.m. and safely evacuated all the occupants off the bus. No injuries were reported. The fire was extinguished just before 5 p.m.

Firefighters are investigating how the bus caught fire.

(File 2014/The New York Times)

A 4-year-old boy who had experienced episodes of paralysis attends physical therapy to help rebuild his strength and balance in October at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charleston, Mass.

An expert with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it’s increasingly likely that a cold virus is to blame for dozens of cases of limb weakness and spinal cord damage in children.

CDC neuroepidemiologist James Sejvar told the news site of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy that, while the CDC is not ready to say that enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) definitively caused the neurological symptoms, “several observations are ‘pretty convincing.’”

As The Dallas Morning News has previously reported, the polio-like symptoms — which range from sudden weakness in one limb to a nearly complete loss of movement — have occurred as the largest ever outbreak of EV-D68 swept the country. Between mid-August and late November, the virus infected 1,121 people, mostly children, in 47 states and the District  of Columbia.

First identified in California in 1962, EV-D68 typically causes a cough, runny nose and fever. But, over the summer, physicians began reporting cases of children with difficulty breathing. Some had to be hospitalized and placed on ventilators.

Then, on October 3, the CDC reported a cluster of even more troubling symptoms: nine patients in Colorado had developed unexplained neurological problems, including limb weakness, facial drooping and double-vision. Four tested positive for EV-D68.

The cluster resembled one reported last spring by doctors at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University. There, researchers reported five cases of a “polio-like syndrome” in children; two had evidence of EV-D68 in their nasal passages.

Since those first reports, the CDC has identified 90 cases of what it calls “acute flaccid myelitis” in people ages 21 and younger in 32 states between August 2 and November 26.  Texas has two cases: one each in Collin and Tarrant counties. The agency’s definition of the syndrome includes sudden weakness in one or more limbs, plus an MRI scan showing spinal cord damage.

The agency has not been able to establish that EV-D68 causes paralysis, because the virus has not been found in the spinal fluid of large numbers of patients during this outbreak. However, the virus degrades rapidly outside the body, so its absence does not prove that it is not involved.

Researchers are carrying out further tests to help determine causality.

The good news is that the EV-D68 epidemic is waning. The CDC says it has not seen any new illnesses that fit its definition in about three weeks. EV-D68 infections typically reach their peak in summer and fall, then fade with the arrival of winter.

Dr. Benjamin Greenberg, a pediatric neurologist at Children’s Medical Center Dallas and at UT Southwestern Medical Center, believes the neurological symptoms result from a combination of EV-D68 directly damaging the spinal cord and the body’s immune system responding to the virus.

In some cases, the immune system can “go in with the best of intentions” but end up causing more inflammation and damage, he told The Dallas Morning News earlier this month.

UT Southwestern is hosting a national data repository of paralysis cases related to this outbreak to help determine which patients are most at risk and which treatments work best.

Other EV-D68 developments:

CDC scientists have identified seven distinct strains of EV-D68 that have been circulating in the United States this summer and fall. The different strains may help account for the variety of symptoms associated with the virus, though more studies are needed.

A four-year-old boy from France became the first reported European case of acute flaccid myelitis associated with EV-D68.