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AUSTIN, TEXAS
Governor released from hospital
TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY
Abbott was being treated for sustaining burns By Will Weissert ASSOCIATED PRE SS
Tony Gutierrez / AP file
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was released from the hospital Friday for treatment of severe burns suffered while vacationing last week.
AUSTIN, Texas — Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was released from the hospital Friday after a four-night stay for treatment of severe burns suffered while vacationing last week. Abbott left San Antonio’s Brooke Army Medical Center and returned to the governor’s mansion in Austin, spokesman Matt Hirsch said, adding that the governor was in “good spirits.” “He was staying there to get
a better grasp on the healing,” Hirsch said of the hospitalization. “So far, everything’s been successful.” Abbott’s office subsequently announced that he will “continue to recover and carry on with a schedule,” though Abbott already said he won’t attend next week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where he had been set to chair Texas’ 155-member delegation. Hirsch said Abbott, who has used a wheelchair since 1984, may have to return to San Abbott continues on A6
FRENCH RIVIERA TOWN OF NICE
TERROR ATTACK VICTIMS Father, son from Texas among those killed
THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
Victims continues on A6
STAAR continues on A6
Jess Davis / AP
This photo shows the Copeland family, from left, Sean, Maegan, Brodie, Austin and Kim. Davis, a family friend, said Sean Copeland and his son Brodie were killed Thursday when a Frenchman of Tunisian descent drove a truck through crowds celebrating Bastille Day.
“overwhelmed” and will not be talking to reporters, Davis said. The Copeland’s vacation was in part to celebrate the birthdays of Copeland’s wife, Kim, and his son, Austin, Davis said. Kim Copeland will turn 40 on Monday and Austin Copeland turned 22 on July 6. Maegan Copeland, Sean Copeland’s 29-year-old daugh-
By Kiah Collier
ter, also was on the trip. Austin and Maegan Copeland are Sean’s children from a previous marriage. Sean Copeland was a vice president for North and South America at a software division of Lexmark Inc., a business automation firm. Lexmark spokesman Jerry Grasso described Copeland as
A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
man John Kirby said earlier that two Americans were among the scores of people killed, but he didn’t identify them citing privacy. Davis said State Department officials would accompany two of Sean Copeland’s brothers when they fly to Nice to bring the family home. The surviving Copeland family members in Nice are
Student’s STAAR scores improve Elementary and middle school students appear to be performing better on required state exams after four years of stagnant scores, according to passing rates the Texas Education Agency released Thursday for 2016 exams. But the improvement is compared to old passing standards that no longer apply and which some critics of the current test say are too low of a bar. Late last year, then-Education Commissioner Michael Williams announced he would increase the number of questions 3rd through 8th graders would have to get right on 2016 exams in order to pass. Students in those grades take exams on reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies. Compared to the old passing standards, 3rd through 8th graders this year performed better on 13 of 17 the exams than they did in 2015, some by significant margins. But compared to the new, higher ones, they performed better on only six assessments and worse — or the same — on 11 of them. The difference in performance under the old and new passing standards was particularly stark for math exams. Under the old passing standards, performance for all grades improved from last year with passing rates in the upper 70-percent range. But under the new, harder passing standards, students in most
By Michael Graczyk
HOUSTON — An Austinarea father and son who were vacationing with their family are among the victims of the deadly truck attack in Nice, France, relatives said Friday. Sean Copeland, 51, and his son Brodie, 11, were killed Thursday evening in what French authorities have described as a terror attack, family friend Jess Davis said. “We are heartbroken and in shock over the loss of Brodie Copeland, an amazing son and brother who lit up our lives, and Sean Copeland, a wonderful husband and father,” the Copeland family said in a statement released by Davis. “They are so loved.” Davis said the Copeland family from Lakeway, 20 miles northwest of Austin, were on a European vacation that began in Spain with the running of the bulls in Pamplona. “Then on to flamenco dancing in Barcelona and they had been celebrating Bastille Day in Nice when this unthinkable and unfair act of terror took Sean and Brodie from the world far too soon,” Davis said. “It is a terrible loss.” State Department spokes-
Paul Buckowski / Times Union
According to the Texas Education Agency, elementary and middle school students appear to be performing better on required state exams after four years of stagnant scores.
MEXICO CITY
Dump investigation didn’t confirm student fire By Maria Verza A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
MEXICO CITY — The most recent forensic investigation of the southern Mexico garbage dump where the government says 43 students were incinerated did not confirm there was a fire there that night. The report from international fire experts convened by the government was obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request. It shows the experts found evi-
dence the Cocula dump had been the site of at least five fires, but could not determine when. Remains of 17 people were also found, but it was unknown when they were burned. “The duration and dates of the fires could not be established based on the available physical data,” the report said. In April, when the Attorney General’s Office and one of the fire experts publicized the findings, they said only that there was evidence of a large fire at
the dump and that remains of at least 17 adults were found. They did not release the report itself, citing confidentiality, and left the impression the investigation supported the government’s theory that the students were burned there. The 43 students from a rural teachers college in Guerrero state were detained by local police in the city of Iguala on Sept. 26, 2014, and were turned over to a crime gang. After an initial investigation, the government said it had determined
the “historical truth” and said all of the students were killed and their bodies were incinerated at the dump and then tossed into a river. A team from the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, which spent months reviewing the government’s investigation, had criticized the April presentation by the Attorney General’s Office, suggesting it gave a false impression. The nine-page report established that it drizzled the night the students were taken and
the following morning. But the experts did not say whether the recorded rain amounts would have impeded a fire of the magnitude needed to incinerate 43 bodies. There was no information about the identities of the 17 remains found, but it was known that the remote dump had become a place to dispose of bodies for some time in an area where hundreds have gone missing. A previous forensic examMexico continues on A6