DALLAS – Three Texas men have been arrested and charged in a bank “jugging” incident in Illinois, according to the Elmhurst Police Department. The men are from Dallas, Houston, and Windemere, which is just outside of Austin.

Bank Jugging

The backstory:

Elmhurst Police Chief Michael McLean says, “Jugging is when criminals watch victims withdrawing money from their bank, then follow them to another location to steal cash either by breaking into their cars or robbing them.”

Chief McLean says on May 29, around 10 a.m., Elmhurst Police received a 911 call to a parking lot for a vehicle burglary. When officers arrived, a witness reported seeing a man break the window of a parked car, then get into the backseat of a gray SUV that drove away from the scene.

Officers found the owner of the car, who said he withdrew cash from the bank across the street, then went straight to the store. He said the cash he withdrew was stolen from his locked vehicle. He said there was a gray SUV parked next to him when he was at the bank parking lot.

Surveillance video revealed the gray SUV had a fake paper Tennessee temporary registration tag. 

At 1 p.m., officers were notified the same vehicle was involved with another vehicle burglary and was headed west on the expressway. 

At 1:25 p.m., Elmhurst officers found the gray SUV parked in an accessible parking spot at the front doors of a Wells Fargo Bank in Elmhurst, IL. There were three men inside the vehicle. 

They were taken into custody. 

Police say they found a metal window punch, stolen cash, cannabis and a pill containing a controlled substance.

Suspects Identified

What we know:

Jamond D. Johnson, age 27, of the 5400 block of St. Lo, Windemere, Texas, was charged with burglary of a motor vehicle, theft, and unlawful possession of cannabis by passenger.

Jontrey R. Houston, age 24, of the 5800 block of Overdale St., Houston, Texas, was charged with burglary of a motor vehicle, theft, improper use of registration, and unauthorized use of handicapped parking.

Anthony D. Mackintrush, age 24, of the 9700 block of Forest Ln., Dallas, Texas, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance.

They were booked into the DuPage County Jail.

What they’re saying:

“Fortunately, Elmhurst’s network of public safety cameras was able to identify the suspects and their vehicle, leading to their quick apprehension when they made the mistake of coming back to our community,” said Chief McLean.

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — NiJaree Canady gave up just four hits and struck out seven, and Texas Tech defeated UCLA 3-1 on Saturday to reach the Women’s College World Series semifinals for the first time.

The Red Raiders (52-12) need one win against Oregon or Oklahoma on Monday to reach the best-of-three championship series.

UCLA (55-12) is still alive in the double-elimination format. The Bruins will play Tennessee in an elimination game on Sunday.

Saturday’s contest matched programs with very different histories. UCLA has a record 12 World Series championships while Texas Tech just won its first World Series game on Thursday.

Canady has plenty of World Series experience. She led Stanford to the semifinals the past two years and eliminated UCLA from the World Series last year before transferring to Tech.

Canady ran into trouble against UCLA a few times on Saturday before coming through.

UCLA loaded the bases with one out in the second, yet Canady, the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s Pitcher of the Year, escaped without allowing a run.

Texas Tech’s Makayla Garcia stole home in the fifth to open the scoring. Kaniya Bragg answered with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning.

Hailey Toney’s solo blast in the sixth put Tech ahead 2-1 and Raegan Jennings’ RBI single in the seventh made it 3-1.

UCLA got two on with no outs in the seventh, and Canady again avoided damage.

___

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

A nuclear reactor isn’t the first image conjured by the words “Texas energy.” But that’s quickly changing — and must — as the state’s energy demands balloon.

Texas has never needed more reliable and affordable energy than now. Within five years, electricity demand could more than double, straining our grid by truly Texan proportions, according to a higher-end estimate by ERCOT.

That demand is driven in large part by the rapid growth of new data centers, which are critical to advancing our strategic interests in artificial intelligence. But it’s also about personal choice. With a welcoming business environment, people from across the country have been choosing Texas as the new home for their families and businesses, pushing the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to become the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country.

This is a perfect example of the Texas miracle. Yet, the scale and speed of this growth is unprecedented, and we cannot rely solely on existing tools and market incentives. To meet rising Texas demand, we need to embrace a bigger vision for our energy mix. We need to go nuclear.

The recent executive orders issued by the Trump administration are a clear signal that America — and Texas — are ready to win on nuclear power. They are also an important step toward the bold action needed to ensure American technologies can compete against state-owned entities from Russia and China. We are at a pivotal moment and must act on the opportunity to embrace nuclear energy to protect our country’s energy, technological and economic strength.

Today, reliability matters more than ever. With hot summer days and icy winter nights, the grid is constantly whipsawed between the peaks and valleys of demand. Data centers, with large energy demands of their own, need a stable baseload of power to run smoothly. Curtailing operations even for a short time will incur massive costs.

Nuclear energy is better than any other energy source at consistently producing at expected levels year round. Wind and solar generate only when the weather allows. Natural gas can be ramped up and down, but it can (and often does) face infrastructure constraints, along with other supply chain challenges.

The good news is Texas and its leaders are positioning the state to be the national leader in advanced nuclear energy. Through university-led initiatives, state investment and strong bipartisan support, the momentum for more investment in Texas advanced nuclear has never been greater.

As Jimmy Glotfelty, a former member of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, noted: “Everybody in the nuclear space would like to build plants here in Texas. We are the low regulatory, low cost state. We have the supply chain. We have the labor.” Simply put, we know how to build big things.

My company, X-energy, is proposing to install next-generation nuclear facilities in Texas at commercial scale. We will provide Dow’s UCC Seadrift manufacturing site in Calhoun County with reliable and clean power and industrial steam with our Xe-100 small modular reactors.

Three years ago, China beat the U.S. and connected its first commercial advanced nuclear reactor to the grid. China’s nuclear program is growing faster than any other nation’s. If this trend persists, China will overtake the U.S. as the world’s top nuclear energy producer by 2030. We cannot let China win the advanced nuclear race, and we’re already well behind.

The Texas energy sector has underpinned America’s global dominance in many decades over the last century, supporting communities with good-paying jobs and bolstering national security by reducing our reliance on foreign energy sources. Nuclear is now a critical piece of this energy puzzle, and Texas can — indeed must — lead the next generation of this technology.

The time to expand nuclear energy in Texas is now.

J. Clay Sell is CEO of X-energy. He was deputy secretary of energy in the George W. Bush administration.