Daily News Recap (2-20-15)

By Holly Henrichsen
Assistant Web Content Manager

New reports from British police officers are showing three young school girls have fled their homes to join the Islamic State in Syria. According to ABC News, the girls, whose ages range from 15 to 16, fled tuesday night but have only recently been discovered to be traveling to become Jihadist brides.The U.S. Senior Adviser for Foreign Fighters, Ambassador Thomas Krajeski, said during a news briefing today that young girls traveling to Syria and Iraq are being considered as problematic as those traveling to fight. Officials said the case of the 3 missing girls was related to one concerning another 15 year old girl who was stopped by police in December while allegedly trying to get to Syria to join ISIS. Officials said the 3 missing girls were friends with the 15 year old.

Not long after the first same-sex marriage license was issued yesterday in Travis County, Texas’ attorney general said the marriage is void. Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement that the marriage license is void, like any marriage license would be if it violated state law. Paxton was granted by the Texas Supreme Court the right to stay two court rulings declaring the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. The Texas Supreme Court issued an emergency order to block gay couples from obtaining marriage licenses. Despite Paxton declaring the marriage void, Travis County Clerk Dana Debeauvoir said the actions she took in issuing the license is legally correct and the marriage still stands.

Liberia will be reopening its borders this Sunday in wake of the Ebola virus, now that new cases have dropped to one tenth of what they were when the virus was at it’s peak. Over ninety three hundred people have died since the initial ebola outbreak early last year, and world health organization officials are still concerned about the small number of new cases of ebola. Liberia also reopened public schools in the last few weeks, arming their staff with thermometers to take students temperatures and buckets of chlorinated water to prevent the spread of viruses.

Hays county has been issued a special weather statement for Monday night. An arctic air mass coming through Texas has the potential to meet with some precipitation and form sleet or frozen rain. This will most likely occur Monday night and go into Tuesday.

The next phase of the Hunter Road widening project will begin on February 23 and last through May 2015. Construction includes a street widening and the installation of a new water, wastewater and drainage pipe. Traffic will move one-way northbound on Hunter between Dixon and Bishop and southbound traffic will detour at Bishop, Craddock and Wonder World. Residents along Hopkins south of Bishop will be able to access their homes by taking Bishop to Belvin and back to Hopkins. The City of San Marcos Street Department is asking residents to use caution and obey all proper signage.