12 Year Old Boy Dies On Schlitterbahn Water Slide Ride
By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times
Tourists visiting Padre Island won"t need to travel far for suggestions on what to check out any longer.
The Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau on Monday opened a new Visitor Information Center at the Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi water park. The additional location will serve tourists who visit the island instead of the Bayfront.
"Padre Island draws many visitors, and this partnership with Schlitterbahn allows us to have a presence near those visitors," said Paulette Kluge, CEO of the Corpus Christi CVB.
The move was celebrated with a ribbon cutting that was attended by the bureau, Schlitterbahn officials and the Padre Island Business Association.
Twitter: @Caller_Fares
About Fares Sabawi
Fares Sabawiis a breaking news and general assignment reporter for the Caller-Times
12 Year Old Boy Dies On Schlitterbahn Water Slide Ride
Caleb Thomas Schwab was the son of Rep. Scott Schwab and his wife, Michele, who issued a statement Sunday night.
"Since the day he was born, he brought abundant joy to our family and all those who he came into contact with," the parents said. "As we try and mend our home with him no longer with us, we are comforted knowing he believed in his savior, Jesus, and they are forever together now. We will see him another day."
Kansas state police are investigating Caleb"s death at the Schlitterbahn water park, which has been closed for the investigation, said spokeswoman Winter Prosapio.
The boy died while riding the Verrckt, the world"s tallest water slide, she said. The park has released no other details into how the boy died.
The slide requires two to three riders to be strapped in a raft with a total weight between 400 and 500 pounds. The raft then "will slide down a jaw-dropping 168 foot 7 inch structure, only to be blasted back up a second massive hill and then sent down yet another gut wrenching 50 foot drop for the ultimate in water slide thrills," the park"s website says.
Some park guests say the slide"s harness wasn"t working properly earlier in the day.
"A lady in front of me said that multiple times she rode the ride today, the Verruckt, and that the front harness did not work any of the times that she rode it," park guest Jessica Lundquist told KSHB.Verrckt riders are required to be at least 54 inches tall, according Schlitterbahn"s website. It was not immediately known whether Caleb met the height requirement.Leslie Castaneda was at the park Sunday and told CNN affiliate KMBC that the victim"s brother saw what happened. "The little boy said to a worker, "I just saw my little brother die because of one of your attractions,"" Castaneda told KMBC. "(Caleb) looked skinny. He shouldn"t have been on that ride."
Thousands injured annually at amusement parks
Thousands of children are hurt annually on amusement rides, according to a 2013 study by Nationwide Children"s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, which examined data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Head and neck injuries were the most common at 28%, with 1.5% of the injuries requiring hospitalization, the study said.
Consumer Product Safety Commission statistics for 2015 are not available, but a review of the raw data found 45,000 injuries associated with amusement rides and water slides nationwide. About 30,000 of these cases involved those under age 18.
Verrckt, trouble from the start?
At 17 stories high -- higher than Niagara Falls -- Verrckt propels riders at 50 mph. Its name translates as "insane" in German.
Standing at exactly 168 feet 7 inches, the slide was certified by Guinness World Records in May 2014 as the world"s tallest water slide. It is 5 feet taller than the previous record holder, a water slide at a Rio de Janeiro country club.
The slide opened to the public in July 2014 after several weeks of delays. Technical glitches forced the original May 23 opening date to be pushed back three times, a park spokesperson told CNN at the time.
"We always ride our rides first," Schooley said. "And we found out it was too steep and too short. So we were able to redesign it from what we learned. We tore down two-thirds of the slide and rebuilt it into the design we have now."
The slide will remain closed during the investigation, Schlitterbahn said in a statement.
Milwaukee passengers stranded following Delta outage
Delta Airlines has lifted its widespread grounding of flights blamed on a Monday computer outage, though hundreds of cancellations and delays continued, the airline said in a statement.
The airline reports it canceled 427 flights Monday morning due to a power outage impacting Delta operations system wide. As of 1 p.m. Delta while operating about 1,590 of its nearly 6,000 scheduled flights so far today. While systems are improving and flights are resuming, delays and cancellations continue.
Customers heading to the airport should expect delays and cancellations, the airline said in a statement.
While inquiries are high and wait times are long, our customer service agents are doing everything they can to assist. There may also be some lag time in the display of accurate flight status at delta.com...and from Delta representatives on the phone and in airport, the statement said .
The power outage in Atlanta, which began at 2:30 a.m., prompted a Delta Airlines to predict large scale flight cancellations and delays for its worldwide operations.
Customers heading to the airport should expect delays and cancellations, the airline said in a statement.
Computer outages were an issue earlier this summer for Southwest Airlines, which was forced to cancel more than 2,000 flights across the U.S. last month after technology problems prevented many travelers from checking in or boarding flights.
Olympic Gymnastics Trials | Laurie Hernandez Performs On Balance Beam
So much for the gymnasts staying off social media.
In this case, it turned into a newsworthy event. OK, maybe slightly newsworthy during this quiet period before action really picks up at the Olympics.
International Gymnast Magazine, a respected industry publication, reported Friday that 16-year-old U.S. gymnast Laurie Hernandez hadsuffered a pulled hamstring, wondering if she would compete at all or be replaced by an alternate.
(An hourlater, it turned into a pulled stomach muscle, according to the magazine.)
Hernandez quickly hit back on social media, tweeting: This is false info! Our team is healthy and prepared to compete.
She was seconded by her personal coach, Maggie Haney, and later by USA Gymnastics, which tweeted, At this time, she is fine and training on all apparatus.
The magazine offered the scenario as a possible explanation as to why Hernandez may not compete on the uneven bars in the team qualification round, which would keep her out of contention for the later all-around event.
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The lineup for the U.S. men for the qualification round on Saturday was submitted. Sam Mikulak of Newport Coast and Chris Brooks will be competing in all six events, putting them in position to qualify for the all-around final.
Danell Leyva, a bronze medalist in 2012 in London in the all around, will be in three events in the qualification round. Leyva was named an alternate after trials but got on the team when John Orozco required knee surgery after tearing ligaments at training camp.
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USA Gymnastics issued another statement on behalf of its president, Steve Penny. He was not made available to take questions about the Indianapolis Stars report on Thursday, which contended that USA Gymnastics failed to notify authorities to many allegations of sexual abuse by coaches.
It is heartbreaking and unacceptable for a young person to have the intolerable burden that results from being a victim of sexual misconduct, Penny said in Fridays statement.We share the outrage that sexual assault victims and their families feel.
This is why USA Gymnastics has implemented Safe Sport training and created educational materials that encourage members to contact law enforcement first when reporting incidents of abuse.We will continue to work with the USOC and the National Center for Safe Sport, along with our clubs, parents, and athletes to protect every child.
Analisis del MEXICO vs FIJI en Rio 2016 - Futbol Picante [2/4]
Felipe Oliveira/Getty Images
El Tri finished strong, but they were stunned by Fiji in the first half.
Mexico stunned Brazil to win the gold medal in men"s soccer at the last Olympics, but they"re no fluke. They"ve been competitive at numerous youth international tournaments, winning the U-17 World Cup and finishing third at the U-20 World Cup in 2011. They"re expected to compete for a medal again at Rio 2016, so it was shocking when they struggled early against Fiji on Saturday.
Fiji is by far the weakest team in the men"s tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympics -- they lost their opener 8-0 to South Korea -- but they took advantage of multiple mistakes and rules loopholes to make the games. They did not win their group in qualifying, but advanced to the knockout round anyway because the winners of their group, Tahiti, are not IOC members. New Caledonia, also a stronger team than Fiji, aren"t IOC members either. And because New Zealand fielded an ineligible player in their semifinal, Vanuatu were awarded the victory. Fiji -- only the fourth-best team in Oceania -- then went on to beat Vanuatu on penalties in the Olympic qualifying match to make the games.
So it was a shock when Fiji scored in the 10th minute against Mexico, withRoy Krishna getting on the board for his country. And even more shocking than that, Fiji managed to hold the lead all the way until halftime.
But El Tri came alive in the second half, with Erick Gutierrez pulling Mexico level in the 48th minute. Once that goal went in, the floodgates opened and Gutierrez scored three more himself. Carlos Salcido added another as Mexico eventually coasted to a comfortable win, but their fans will be asking questions of their team after a shocking first half.
Mexico drew Germany in their opener, and will face South Korea in their final group stage match. Fiji finishes up against medal favorites Germany.
Analisis del MEXICO vs FIJI en Rio 2016 - Futbol Picante [3/4]
Felipe Oliveira/Getty Images
El Tri finished strong, but they were stunned by Fiji in the first half.
Mexico stunned Brazil to win the gold medal in men"s soccer at the last Olympics, but they"re no fluke. They"ve been competitive at numerous youth international tournaments, winning the U-17 World Cup and finishing third at the U-20 World Cup in 2011. They"re expected to compete for a medal again at Rio 2016, so it was shocking when they struggled early against Fiji on Saturday.
Fiji is by far the weakest team in the men"s tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympics -- they lost their opener 8-0 to South Korea -- but they took advantage of multiple mistakes and rules loopholes to make the games. They did not win their group in qualifying, but advanced to the knockout round anyway because the winners of their group, Tahiti, are not IOC members. New Caledonia, also a stronger team than Fiji, aren"t IOC members either. And because New Zealand fielded an ineligible player in their semifinal, Vanuatu were awarded the victory. Fiji -- only the fourth-best team in Oceania -- then went on to beat Vanuatu on penalties in the Olympic qualifying match to make the games.
So it was a shock when Fiji scored in the 10th minute against Mexico, withRoy Krishna getting on the board for his country. And even more shocking than that, Fiji managed to hold the lead all the way until halftime.
But El Tri came alive in the second half, with Erick Gutierrez pulling Mexico level in the 48th minute. Once that goal went in, the floodgates opened and Gutierrez scored three more himself. Carlos Salcido added another as Mexico eventually coasted to a comfortable win, but their fans will be asking questions of their team after a shocking first half.
Mexico drew Germany in their opener, and will face South Korea in their final group stage match. Fiji finishes up against medal favorites Germany.
Ricky Martin - La Mordidita (Official Video) ft. Yotuel
Ricci Martin, an entertainer and the youngest son of legend Dean Martin has died, according to multiple reports. He was 62.
Family members say Martin was found dead at his home in Utah on Wednesday, according to Variety. A cause of death has not yet been determined, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Martin followed his father into show business, working as a musician and entertainer. In the 1970s, he released a single, "Stop, Look Around" with Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys. The two also worked together on Martin"s album, Beached. Wilson, who died in 1998, went on to marry Martin"s sister Gina in 1987, but the pair divorced one year later.
In the 1990s, Martin began performing at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas and other clubs alongside Desi Arnaz, Jr. (son of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball) and Billy Hinsche. Martin took the gig as a replacement for his older brother Dean Paul Martin, who was killed in a military plane crash in 1987 and had launched the group alongside Arnaz and Hinsche.
In 2002, Martin wrote a memoir, That"s Amore, about growing up in the Martin family in Beverly Hills, California, and the A-list stars who would frequently visit their home.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Martin is survived by his three daughters, Pepper, Montana and Rio; by his mother, Jeanne Martin; an older brother, Craig, and by four sisters, Gail, Deana, Gina and Sasha.
