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     Kilgore Police Department received a $2,700 grant from the Texas Association of Property and Evidence Inventory Technicians to purchase a bar-coding system to track evidence and maintain complete chainof custody records. Angela Burch, KPD property and evidence officer, right, accepted the grant on behalf of the department during a recent TAPEIT convention in Corpus Christi. KPD Captain Randy Hancock, left, and Burch said the new system will be a great asset in Photo by Brenda Brown cataloging evidence in KPD's property room, constructed two years ago in order to centralize evidence and property then located in seven different rooms and storage buildings. Officer Burch said TAPEIT, formed 10 years ago, promotes professional education, laws, rules and guidelines for maintaining the integrity, chain of custody and disposal of property and evidence.
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Teen sentenced to 30 years for bank robberies
      AUSTIN (AP) — A 17-yearold boy was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison after being convicted of two counts of aggravated robbery for robbing a bank twice in January. A jury found Charles Blackburn Jr. guilty last week of entering a Bank of America branch in Round Rock, an Austin suburb, on Jan. 10 and Jan. 30 with a BB gun and demanding cash.
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Once-dying ND town sits on potential oil jackpot
By JAMES MacPHERSON Associated Press Writer
      PARSHALL, N.D. (AP) — In this tiny reservation town a hundred miles from the Canadian border where temperatures once hit 60-below zero, a Southern twang is sometimes heard over the din at the local diner and there is talk of Texas tea beneath the streets.
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Banks reap tax breaks atop bailout
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER Associated Press Writer
      WASHINGTON (AP) — Some of the nation's biggest banks are in for a windfall — on top of the $700 billion government bailout — thanks to a new tax policy quietly issued by the Treasury Department. The notice gives big tax breaks to companies that acquire struggling banks hit hard by the mortgage crisis.
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Congressman warns of Obama dictatorship
By BEN EVANS Associated Press Writer
      WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist dictatorship. "It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep.
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