Compass Bank announced Tuesday Wendell Williams has left the bank to pursue other interests. Williams was the regional president for the bank's Central Texas region."I have had a great four years working with the people at Compass, but I have already stayed two years longer than I originally planned," Williams said in a Tuesday release."It is time to enjoy my other, non-bank related interests, and then look for the next business opportunity."Williams joined Compass in May 1996 when Compass acquired Peoples National Bank. He had served as the chief executive officer for Peoples since 1988. He had previously worked as the president of InterFirst Bank, currently Bank of America, in Temple.

To some, it looked like a scene out of the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds.To the residents of East Drive in Temple, it was more serious than Hollywood make-believe.The citizens became concerned about a flock of hundreds of egrets that decided to roost two to three weeks ago in trees on a property on the road.Keith Oltmann, a resident of Lilac Lane where the road intersects East, said residents were worried about the birds eating the trees, the animals' odor and possible diseases caused by the egrets' droppings.Oltmann said the lot originally housed "two or three dozen" birds but that the number had "quadrupled" since then.Leroy Gossett, an East Drive resident, estimated that there were about 300-500 birds on the lot.To the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Temple Fire Department the birds have become a challenge. by Jonathan Walburgh

COLLEGE STATION (AP)

COLLEGE STATION (AP)

Area early voting ended Tuesday for the city and school general election scheduled for Saturday.In Temple, 387 voters came out on the final day bringing the eight-day total to 1,355 early votes, according to Temple City Secretary Clydette EntzmingerShe said District 1 totaled 99 voters, and District 2 had 12. District 3 reported 148 voters, and District had 128, resulting with a cumulative 968 voters coming out during the early voting period.The ballot includes incumbent Keifer Marshall Jr. and District 3 councilman Scott Brookshire in the mayoral race, and incumbent George English and Fred Parker, publisher of the weekly newspaper Cen-Tex Community Times, for the District 2 council position.Veterinarian Lance Crews; Connie Madsen, director of volunteer services and quality coordinator at King's Daughters Hospital; and Martha Tyroch, vocational rehabilitation specialist at the Olin E. Teague Veterans' Center, are competing for the District 3 council post, and incumbent Sally Myers and Jimmy Ray, visually-impaired president of the Temple chapter of the National Federation for the Blind, are opponents in the District 4 council race.

NEW YORK (AP)

KERRVILLE

GATESVILLE

AUSTIN

PHOENIX (AP)

CHICAGO (AP)