BELTON - Texas Department of Transportation officials say the funding situation in the agency is so dire that previously planned Interstate 35 expansion projects may be delayed or even scrapped. The funding shortages would not affect projects already under way like the Temple Loop 363 project or the project south of Salado, said Ken Roberts, TxDOT spokesman.

BELTON - Business and community leaders joined leadership from the Belton school district Monday to look at the needs of the growing district and begin to develop a plan to meet those needs. About 96 stakeholders in the district took part in the meeting at Sparta Elementary. The group analyzed district demographic data from DeskMap Systems that was made available to the school board only last week.

With multiple deployments of Fort Hood troops over the last few years, families of 1st Cavalry and 4th ID soldiers are feeling the stress. Maxine Trent and Leona Delano, both licensed counselors, will be providing free counseling to families of service members who have or are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan through Project Home Front.

A local family is mourning the death of a 10-year-old Temple boy who drowned in a pond Sunday evening. On Sunday at about 8:35 p.m. Temple police were notified of the missing boy, identified as Marcus Woodruff, according to a press release from the police department.

COPPERAS COVE - The prospect of removal from the city council is apparently not in the cards for Councilman Larry Sheppard. A week of speculation about whether Sheppard would continue to serve on the council ended with a public reprimand during an executive session Monday night by City Manager Andrea Gardner.

BRENHAM - Two years ago, Belton couldn´t believe it was in the Class 5A Region II quarterfinals. Last season, the Lady Tigers hoped they could win their quarterfinal match. This year, they believe they can. And that might be all the Lady Tigers need to put them over the top.

SEATTLE - Erik Bedard had a wild beginning with the Seattle Mariners. The new ace fanned Ian Kinsler on three pitches to open his career with the Mariners, the last a wicked curve. Then he gave up a homer to Michael Young and struggled to throw strikes.

North Carolina´s Tyler Hansbrough and Kansas State´s Michael Beasley were unanimous selections to The Associated Press´ All-America team Monday. For the first time, no senior was chosen. Beasley and Kevin Love of UCLA made it two straight years there were two freshmen chosen. Sophomore D.J. Augustin of Texas and junior Chris Douglas-Roberts of Memphis rounded out the selections, shutting out the seniors.

OKLAHOMA CITY - doubt about it, Texas A&M coach Gary Blair is a charmer. He´ll talk about how his team is doing more with less, taking the chance every stop along the way to say the Aggies are just happy to still be playing. He´ll tell you about his roster that doesn´t feature a single healthy McDonald´s All-American but is loaded with players just about nobody else wanted.