Bus Driver Stabbed at Wheaton Metro Station

Montgomery County Police say a 28-year-old Metro bus driver was stabbed trying to help a female passenger.

The incident happened overnight at the Wheaton Metro station, on Georgia Avenue near Reedle Drive.

According to authorities, passengers began to complain about a passenger exposing himself on the Y7 bus at the Silver Spring station.

The bus driver confronted the 52-year-old man, according to witnesses, and asked him to stop his behavior.  However, passengers told police that the man continued.

When the Metro bus pulled into the Wheaton station, everyone was ordered off the bus because of the disruption.  Officers said during the evacuation, the suspect got into a confrontation with one of the female passengers.

A fight ensued, and the bus driver intervened to break it up.  That's when the suspect is accused of stabbing the driver repeatedly in the abdomen.  He fled the scene, but officers apprehended him 2 blocks away on Georgia Avenue.  Police said the man was carrying a knife when he was arrested.

Despite the multiple wounds, authorities said the bus driver's injuries are non-life threatening.

Check back for more updates.

Bloomberg: Protesters Can Stay

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday the Occupy Wall Street protesters can camp out in Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan for as long as they want.

Zuccotti Park, the movement’s unofficial headquarters located just blocks from Wall Street, is a privately owned, publicly accessible park where protesters have gathered for 24 days. Bloomberg said as long as demonstrators do not break the law, the city will permit them to stay, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“The bottom line is – people want to express themselves. And as long as they obey the laws, we’ll allow them to,” Bloomberg said before marching in the Columbus Day Parade on Fifth Avenue. “If they break the laws, then, we’re going to do what we’re supposed to do: enforce the laws.”

The mayor told the WSJ he has “no idea” how long the protest will last, but added that he thinks “part of it has probably to do with the weather.”

Bloomberg has previously spoken out against Occupy Wall Street and slammed the protesters last week, saying their attack on banks could harm one of the city’s major employers.

“The protests that are trying to destroy the jobs of working people in this city aren’t productive,” Bloomberg said during his weekly radio show on Friday.

Brookfield Office Properties, the owner of the park, had no statement on Monday in light of Bloomberg’s comments. Last week, Brookfield said many of the protesters are ignoring basic park rules such as the ban on tents and sleeping bags. In the statement, the company added that the park has not been cleaned since Sept. 16 and sanitary conditions have “reached unacceptable levels.” Brookfield wrote that “we continue to work with the City of New York to address these conditions and restore the park to its intended purpose.”

Gov. Tom Corbett to Announce Education Plan

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to reveal more about his education agenda at a news conference in York.

Corbett plans to speak Tuesday at the Lincoln Charter School.

The Republican has not revealed many details, but legislators involved in education issues expect him to call for a taxpayer-financed voucher program to help more children attend private schools and an expansion of tax credits for businesses that help underwrite scholarship programs.

Corbett also is expected to advocate an overhaul of the state's charter school law and changes that would base teacher evaluations partly on the improvement in their students' test scores.

Corbett has spoken often about the need for education reform, but was sharply criticized for making deep cuts in aid to public schools to help balance the state budget.

 

East Dallas Times Blogger, NBCDFW Writer in a Coma

Bruce Felps, the writer, editor and publisher of EastDallasTimes.com who also writes commentary  for NBCDFW.com is currently in a coma.

Felps, 55, suffered a brain aneurysm Wednesday night. According to his sister, Kathy, he was in a coma when he arrived at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas and not expected to make it through the night.

(We know Bruce; he doesn't care what doctors think.)

According to the CaringBridge.org page set up so his sister can keep family and friends updated, doctors were able to remove some fluid from his brain on Thursday and he was somewhat stabilized.

Felps' nurse told his sister that doctors would know something about his prognosis in five to seven days.

Felps is currently in the intensive care unit. His sister posted on his Facebook page, "No idea of when and if he will come out, so that's where your prayers come in!"

We can tell you the prayers of NBCDFW and NBC 5 are with Bruce and his family.

More: CaringBridge.org Bruce Felps Journal Updates, Bruce Felps on Facebook

'Occupy' Protests Continue in Dallas, Fort Worth

Groups aligned with the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City continue to demonstrate in Dallas and Fort Worth.

Dallas spokesman Frank Librio said the city is working with demonstrators in the Pioneer Plaza area near the Convention Center to obtain a special use permit for the area.

"The city is balancing this group’s First Amendment rights with a focus on protecting the protesters and the public -- like many other cities across the country experiencing similar protests," he said in a press release Monday afternoon.

In Fort Worth, about 50 people gathered in the Burnett Park area and reportedly marched on several area banks in Downtown Fort Worth.

The "Occupy" Movement

The "Occupy" movement began in New York with the Occupy Wall Street group that has organized in Zuccotti Park for four weeks.

The "Occupy" groups are self-described as a "leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants."

Much of the protests have been leveled at the banking industry, large corporations and government organizations.

More:

• OccupyDallas.org
• OccupyFortWorth.org
• OccupyWallSt.org

Want to Earn Extra Money? There's an App for That

Some North Texans are using an iPhone application to earn extra spending money while they're out shopping.

Field Agent, made by a company in northwest Arkansas, has more than 125,000 "agents" in the United States.

The app pays people to take pictures of stock at various retail stores and answer a few questions. Most jobs pay less than $10, but a few pay more.

"I can remember one where I was paid over $16, and it was going into a convenience store and looking at different beers, Coors, Miller and looking at different ads," said Andrew Tatsak, one of the app's agents.

Tatsak, who has a full-time job in sales, said he has made close to $700 in the past two years with Field Agent.

"The highest earning agent to date has made $3,634.75 and $2,642.25 year-to-date," said John Scott Bull, Field Agent's co-founder. "We have more than a dozen agents who have made over $2,000 in the last year."

Tatsak said he is always looking for extra ways to make money and did a search of iPhone applications.

"I plugged in something like 'make money,'" he said. "At first I thought it was a fluke -- 'This is just a joke.'"

He found and downloaded Field Agent.

"Within a few days, I started doing some jobs and was getting paid a few bucks here and there," Tatsak said. "I've made $250 this year."

Agents search for "jobs" in the app. Once they select a job, they have two hours to complete it.

Many of the jobs entail going into retail stores such as Walmart, Kohl's and Best Buy to check the stock of certain items.

Tatsak earned $4 for a job that required him to check the stock of Pantene hair products at a Dallas Walmart. He snapped a photo on his iPhone and uploaded it to Field Agent and answered a few questions.

He also earned $4.50 for photographing the stock of Heinz ketchup with the price tag included and counted the stock of the store's 4.5-quart Country Charm ice cream.

Tatsak said he selects jobs at locations he is already going to so he doesn't spend money on gas getting to each job.

"So if you're away from your house, it will sort by what's actually near you. ... And the great thing about it [is], you click on the map, and it will tell you where it is in relation to where you're at," he said.

Bull said the app plans to launch an Android version in the next several months.

More: Field Agent App Website

Texas Tech: Fish Bait, Not Manure, Put in A&M Bus

Texas Tech officials "strongly condemned" vandalism that targeted a Texas A&M bus before the Aggies played the Red Raiders, but said fish bait, not manure, was used in the incident.

Texas Tech said in a statement Monday that bait was dropped on the floor of one bus parked at a Lubbock hotel before the Aggies' 45-40 victory.

Before Saturday night's game, A&M athletic director Bill Byrne said that manure went "from one end to the other" in one bus and was spread on the outside of three others. He tweeted the buses were "spray-painted."

Tech said washable shoe polish was on the windows of one bus, adding that the buses were cleaned before Byrne saw them and calling Byrne's tweet "careless."

No one has admitted to the prank, and Tech was relying on information it received from the hotel management and the bus company.

Aggies spokesman Alan Cannon had no comment Monday.