BEIJING (AP) -- New Zealand's foreign minister said he assured Chinese leaders on Thursday of his country's commitment to the safety of its milk following a botulism scare.

New Zealand, a major milk exporter, has launched a national-level effort to reassure foreign customers after its dairy giant, Fonterra, announced the discovery of bacteria that can cause botulism in whey powder used in infant formula. That sparked a global recall.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully met with China's foreign minister and another Cabinet official and said he assured them of his government's "total and absolute commitment" to food quality.

"I believe that New Zealand's unambiguous commitment to meeting quality standards in the export of food has been appropriately underlined," said McCully at a news conference.

China became a major market for milk exporters because parents turned to higher-priced supplies from New Zealand and other countries in 2008 after tainted domestic supplies killed six babies and sickened thousands.

New Zealand's government announced an investigation this week led by two Cabinet ministers into dairy quality standards.

In a separate incident, another New Zealand supplier said this week it found high levels of nitrate in lactoferrin powder shipped to China. The Chinese product quality agency impounded the powder and ordered suppliers of lactoferrin to submit results of quality tests.

McCully said his government will watch closely as Fonterra tries to rebuild Chinese consumer confidence.

"Fonterra has a job ahead of it rebuilding consumer confidence here. But I do not want to pretend that is a matter only for the company. This is something the New Zealand government will be watching very carefully as well," said McCully.

"This is an export trade that is part of our international brand," he said. "All New Zealanders take that very seriously."

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Former Penn State officials accused of covering up Jerry Sandusky's child sexual abuse return to court on Tuesday, a day after a key witness recalled legendary coach Joe Paterno criticizing their handling of the case.

At the heart of the coverup case against former Penn State president Graham Spanier, former athletic director Tim Curley and former senior vice president Gary Schultz is an account by former football coach Mike McQueary, who testified on Monday he saw Sandusky sexually abuse a child in the locker room showers in February 2001.

The next morning, McQueary testified, he told Paterno what he saw and also told Curley and Schultz. No one told police.

Sandusky, 69, a former assistant football coach, was convicted in June 2012 of 45 counts of sexual abuse involving 10 boys. He is serving a sentence of 30 years to 60 years in a state prison.

Spanier, 65, Curley, 59, and Schultz, 63 are accused of a "conspiracy of silence" for failing to report the shower incident to authorities, which permitted Sandusky to continue preying on boys, most of whom he met through a charity he founded for at-risk youth.

McQueary testified about a series of talks he had with Paterno, including one in which Paterno told him "Old Main screwed up," using a nickname for the administrative center of Penn State.

McQueary lost his job as a receivers coach after charges were filed against Sandusky in November 2011.

Sandusky was arrested in November 2011 and charged with molesting boys. A year later, in November 2012, a grand jury charged Spanier, Curley and Schultz with endangering the welfare of children, criminal conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Spanier also was charged with perjury.

Curley and Schultz were previously charged in November 2011 with perjury and failure to report suspected abuse.

Spanier was fired from Penn State; Curley was placed on administrative leave and Schultz had already retired from the school.

Harrisburg District Judge William Wenner will decide if there is enough evidence to bring the case to trial after the preliminary hearing.

Within weeks of Sandusky's arrest, Penn State Trustees fired Spanier, at the time the nation's highest-paid public university president. Trustees also fired Paterno, Sandusky's boss. Months later, Paterno, a legendary figure in college football died of lung cancer at the age of 85.

Civil lawsuits filed by the victims, now grown men, against the university are close to being settled, with the school putting aside $60 million to cover the claims, according to a lawyer for one of the plaintiffs. The attorney said there were as many as 32 claims from alleged victims.

McQueary also has filed a whistleblower and defamation lawsuit against Penn State, accusing the school of not renewing his contract because he cooperated with authorities investigating Sandusky and the Penn State officials.

And, Spanier's lawyers have served legal notice that they intend to file defamation charges against Louis Freeh, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Freeh was the author of a study, commissioned by the university, spelling out a narrative of the scandal that many in the state rejected, including the Paterno family.

The Freeh report prompted the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the governing body for college sports, to issue sanctions against Penn State. The NCAA imposed a $60 million fine and voided the 14 seasons of football victories Sandusky coached.

(Additional reporting by Teresa McMinn; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Andrew Hay)

Colleges and prospective students are hopping on the social video bandwagon to catch each other's attention. Students can get a glimpse of anfashion show, a business school reunion ator statues atthrough Vine.

Since Vine launched in January, at least 36 colleges have started using it, according to .

"We thought it's something we should jump on," says Colin Huber, a writer and social media coordinator for Oregon State University. The school posted its first Vine video in February.

"When new platforms come out with social media, if it's something that you think could be of use, it's important to be one of the first ones on there," Huber says.

[Strategize for .]

Vine was created by Twitter, the text-based social media heavyweight, and allows users to create six-second videos. Common edits include showing several different scenes or a panoramic view of a single destination.

Months after Vine launched, it got some competition from Instagram. Popular for letting users add filters to and share images, Instagram began to let users upload 15-second videos in June. Colleges use these apps - as well as othersuch as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube - as marketing tools to draw in new students and engage current ones.

"I see social media as a way to kind of showcase the university," says Joe Kuffner, assistant director of media relations at the . He also manages the school's Vine and Instagram accounts. "Just kind of telling our story, showcasing our people, highlighting the great work our students are doing," he says.

New platforms for short videos may also create new opportunities for prospective students who want to get a school's attention.

"They give more facets to the student," says Clinton Lanier, author of "Recruiting With Social Media: Using Social Networks to Drive College Admissions." Lanier, who consults with several universities on how they can use social media effectively, says the videos can make an admissions officer look at students a little more.

[Leverage .]

When prospective students engage with a school on social media, university officials managing the account will sometimes forward a student's message or question to the admissions staff. If a student wants to make a good impression or enhance their application with a video message, they have a number of options, says Lanier.

Athletes may show themselves swimming, diving or running. Other students can use their high school network to speak for them.

"Endorsements from their teachers and professors would be a lot of fun," says Lanier. He suggests students ask different teachers to say one word that describes them, having the video play as a more digitally savvy version of the typical recommendation letter.

Showing school spirit may also catch the eye of a university official. If a student wore Beaver gear, as a nod to Oregon State's mascot, "we would absolutely reach out to them," Huber says.

Because Vine and Instagram don't allow users to make long videos, Lanier suggests enhancing these short films by including multiple scenes.

"It makes it more exciting that way," he says.

[Prepare for .]

A dull video, in contrast, can be one that features students simply stating their name and talking about themselves.

That kind of video won't be taken seriously, Lanier says.

Prospective students may also diminish their chances of attracting a school's attention in a positive way if they create a video showing them doing drugs, spewing hate speech or participating in other activities that would typically lead to trouble.

Even if they make a great video that a university's staff likes, there could be other content on their account that doesn't speak well for them.

Kuffner says he has come across a prospective student on social media who seems interesting, but once he clicks on the student's profile other unflattering content puts the student in a bad light.

It's a matter of realizing that once students interact with a school, the school may then see their profiles and all of the good and bad that may come with it.

To figure out how to capture a school's attention, Lanier suggests searching for hashtags that the school and its students use and viewing the video content attached to these tags.

"There are people out there really monitoring social media," he says. Students should be optimistic that reaching out to a university with a quick video will likely grab a school's attention. "It'll get noticed."

Searching for a college? Get ourof Best Colleges.

At the premiere of her new film, "Lee Daniels' The Butler," in Los Angles on Monday evening, the U.S. actress and talk show host, recently named by Forbes as the world's most powerful celebrity, said she regretted saying it took place in Switzerland.

"I'm really sorry that it got blown up. I purposefully did not mention the name of the store. I'm sorry that I said it was Switzerland," she told reporters on the red carpet.

"I was just referencing it as an example of being in a place where people don't expect that you would be able to be there," she added.

Winfrey, 59, said in television interviews last week that while she was in Switzerland for the wedding of singer Tina Turner last month a sales assistant in a Zurich shop had refused to show her a luxury handbag by designer Tom Ford, saying it was "too expensive" and instead suggested cheaper bags.

Swiss tourism officials said it regretted the incident and the owner of the Tom Ford boutique, luxury shop operator Trois Pommes, denied racism, saying it was a misunderstanding.

"This has nothing to do with racism. I am here for everyone and the customer is king," shop owner Trudie Goetz said last week.

Goetz added that the sales assistant had wanted to show Winfrey, who earned an estimated $77 million in the year to June 2013, that the bag was available in other materials, which may have given the impression that the shop did not want to sell it to her.

"It's not an indictment against the country or even that store," Winfrey explained. "It was just one person who didn't want to offer me the opportunity to see the bag, so no apologies necessary from the country of Switzerland."

In "The Butler," which deals with race issues and opens in U.S. theaters on Friday, Winfrey plays the wife of an African-American butler who worked at the White House for eight U.S. presidents.

The handbag incident sparked criticism in Switzerland where media reported last week that local governments were given authority to prohibit asylum seekers from using public sports venues like municipal pools, prompting criticism from advocacy group Human Rights Watch. A government minister denied the reports.

(This story is refiled to fix typographical error in first paragraph)

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; additional reporting by Katharina Bart and Emma Farge; Editing by Eric Kelsey and Cynthia Osterman)

PARIS (Reuters) - When the world's first test-tube beef burger was cooked and eaten this week, food critics all asked about its taste. For many Jews, Muslims and Hindus, the first question was whether their faith allowed them to try it.

Religious websites were abuzz with questions and opinions this week after biologist Mark Post of Maastricht University presented his innovation to the media in London on Monday.

"Is the lab-created burger kosher?" the Hasidic Jewish movement Chabad Lubavitch asked on its website.

Dietary laws exist in many religions, but came about so long ago that not even their prophets could have imagined a ready-to-fry beef patty grown in-vitro from the stem cells of a cow.

If religious authorities interpret their ancient texts in a way that allows them to give this new food their blessing, now-banned kosher cheeseburgers and Hindu hamburgers, as well as an undisputed method of producing halal meat, could be possible.

Chabad's Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin wrote the Talmud tells of "miraculous meat" that fell from heaven or was conjured up by rabbis studying a mystic text.

Since it was automatically kosher because it wasn't from a real animal, this could be a model for test-tube meat.

But he said if the stem cells are real meat, they have to come from a cow slaughtered according to kosher law, which says the animal's throat must be slit while it is still conscious.

Expert rabbis need to study this more carefully "when the issue becomes more practical and petri-dish burgers become and affordable option," Shurpin concluded.

The kosher ban on mixing meat and dairy products presents another hurdle for observant Jews considering a cheeseburger.

Rabbi Menachem Genack of the Orthodox Union in New York told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that test-tube beef could be considered "parve" (neither meat nor dairy) under certain conditions and so kosher cheeseburgers could be allowed.

LIKE YOGURT AND PICKLES

Islam's halal laws require ritual slaughter similar to kosher butchering, but with fewer restrictions.

"There does not appear to be any objection to eating this type of cultured meat," the Islamic Institute of Orange County in California responded to a questioner on its website.

Animal rights activists see the Muslim and Jewish slaughter methods as unnecessary cruelty and calls to ban this kind of butchering have grown in Europe in recent years as halal meat has become increasingly available in shops and restaurants.

Gulf News in Dubai quoted Abdul Qahir Qamar of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, as saying in-vitro meat "will not be considered meat from live animals, but will be cultured meat."

As long as the cells used are not from pigs, dogs or other animals banned under the halal laws, he said, the meat would be vegetative and "similar to yogurt and fermented pickles."

Several Muslim websites left fresh questions about this new meat unanswered, probably because Muslims were more concerned this week with celebrating the end of the fasting month Ramadan.

NOT FOR VEGETARIANS

The prospect of meatless beef has also prompted debate in India, where the Hindu majority shuns steaks and burgers because it considers the cow sacred.

"We will not accept it being traded in a marketplace in any form or being used for a commercial purpose," Chandra Kaushik, president of the Hindu nationalist group Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, told the India Real Time blog.

Religious websites have been debating the test-tube meat issue for some time now, especially since news about biologist Post's project began circulating about four years ago.

Many Hindus and Sikhs are vegetarians, so several of them posted comments saying they probably wouldn't like the taste of artificial meat even if it was declared permissible.

"Who wants to eat a carcass anyways, lab grown or not?" one reader asked on the Hindu Dharma Forums website.

(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

August 9, 2013: U.S. equity markets opened lower this morning and bounced around below the break-even line most of the day. The days biggest economic news came from China, where the CPI rose 2.7% year-over-year, flat with the prior reading and slightly below expectations. Chinese retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment all rose as well. In Europe, Britains trade deficit was down and France reported a budget deficit of 59.3 billion for July. In the U.S., wholesale inventories fell again in June.

The U.S. dollar index is trading higher today, now up 0.20% at 81.1420. The GSCI commodity index is down 0.3% at 627.95. WTI crude oil closed up 2.5% today, at $105.97 a barrel, closing the week down 0.9%. Brent crude trades up 1.1% at $107.86 a barrel. Natural gas is down 1.1% today at about $3.26 per million BTUs following the weekly storage report. Gold for December delivery settled up 0.2% today at $1,312.20 an ounce, to close the week up about 0.1%.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down nearly 73 points to 15,425.44 (-0.47%), the NASDAQ fell about 9 points (-0.25%) to 3,660.11, and the S&P 500 fell -0.36% or about 6 points to 1,691.42.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgradestoday, including:

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some prices move today:

Before markets open Monday morning we are scheduled to hear earnings results from Codexis Inc. (), Petroleo Brasileiro SA (), and Sysco Corp. ().

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

Cvent Inc. () is up 58.6% at $33.23. The cloud software company held its IPO today, after pricing above its expected range and rising as much as 87%.

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. () is down 5.6% at $12.90. The retailer is getting hit by demands that it speed up its hunt for a new CEO.

Dendreon Corp. () is down 25.9% at $3.40, a new 52-week low. The biotechnology company cut its outlook after missing earnings estimates last night.

Stay tuned for Monday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

Have a great weekend!

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Concern that Milan is losing prestige to London, Paris and New York is starting to crack the composure of the city's usually reserved fashion world.

The Italian National Fashion Chamber has been moved to action, announcing a reorganization this spring and making Prada's outspoken CEO Patrizio Bertelli the chamber's No. 2 with the goal of revitalizing Milan fashion.

Bertelli's first act: a letter to restaurants to stay open late during this week's menswear fashion previews that start Saturday. That may seem a small step, but consider that the fashion world spent 120 million euros ($157 million) in Milan over four fashion weeks in 2009, according to Bain & Company figures, a slow year as the key U.S. market was mired in crisis at the time.

Milan may have built-in fashion pedigree, but it does not have the same inherent tourist appeal as the other fashion capitals, which is reflected in their luxury sales that eclipse Milan's 4.5 billion ($5.9 billion) in 2012. New York was four times that, Paris double and London more than one-third higher, according to Bain.

As for the source of the malaise, the economic crisis that has now stalled over Italy has zapped resources from the fashion houses, local government that might otherwise provide a boost and the world of fashion media and fashion buyers that feed the system.

Fashion insiders and analysts say Milan doesn't do as much as other fashion cities to integrate cultural and artistic events and promote new designers to create buzz.

"For sure, some cities have invested more in creating a very powerful setting," said Claudia D'Arpizio, a Bain partner who analyzes the luxury goods market. "I think that is what the new fashion chamber is going to do, to make Milan very visible."

More recently, designer spats, not cooperation, have been the norm. The summit called by Versace apparently never took place, pre-empted by the fashion chamber's own reorganization.

Armani has put pressure on Italian designers to regularly show their collections in Milan, and not in other fashion capitals, reportedly making their return a condition for his participation on the policy-setting fashion chamber board.

The remarks targeted Prada's second line, Miu Miu, which shows in Paris, along with Valentino's ready-to-wear and couture collections.

Armani pointed out that he has done his part, long taking the last major fashion week slot at the chamber's request to keep the fashion crowd from rushing off to Paris. "Of course, this over time has brought various problems, such as, in some cases, the absence of some of the most important writers," Armani was quoted by Corriere della Sera as saying recently.

He also debunked any logistical difficulties that other fashion houses might have showing two lines in a single week, pointing out that he does it with the Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani collections, four times a year.

The fashion chamber's long-time president Mario Boselli expressed confidence that the issue would be resolved and Armani would join the board.

"We are confident that with the relaunch of Milan, and some brands will come home," Boselli said in an interview.

He is not promising quick fixes to what are very complex problems, and won't give hints of what's to come, but says some changes will be in place by the September preview shows.

As an early sign of progress, Boselli points out that there will be 78 designers showcased at this week's menswear shows more than in previous editions and they include runway shows by four new names: two Italians, a German and a Chinese. Armani has opened up his theater to one of them, Andrea Pompilio.

Boselli also was understanding of the Prada Group's decision to show Miu Miu in Paris, especially at a time when many fashion houses, from Versace to Dolce&Gabbana, have abandoned their second lines. In Milan, Miu Miu risks being overshadowed by Prada. "By going to Paris, it's as if there were two first lines, each with its own identity," he said.

As for Burberry's decision to decamp, Boselli accepts it as part of the business. But he takes it as a victory for Milan that British designer Vivienne Westwood did not follow, despite apparent attempts to woo her.

"The people who decide to stay in Milan, do so because they believe in Milan, period," Boselli said.

Cuba's first solar farm opened this spring with little fanfare and no prior announcement. It boasts 14,000 photovoltaic panels which in a stroke more than doubled the country's capacity to harvest energy from the sun.

The project, one of seven such farms in the works, shows a possible road map to greater energy independence in cash-poor Cuba, where Communist leaders are being forced to consider renewables to help keep the lights on after four failed attempts to strike it rich with deep-water oil drilling and the death of petro-benefactor Hugo Chavez.

"For us this is the future," said Ovel Concepcion, a director with Hidroenergia, the state-run company tasked with building the solar park 190 miles (300 kilometers) east of Havana in the central province of Cienfuegos.

"This is just like having an oil well," he told The Associated Press on a recent tour of the facility.

Outside experts have chastised Cuba for missing an opportunity to develop alternative energy sources; just 4 percent of its electricity comes from renewables. That lags behind not only standard-setter Germany (25 percent) but also comparable, developing Caribbean nations such as the Dominican Republic (14 percent).

Located on rural land unfit for farming, the solar park at Cantarrana, which translates roughly as "where frogs sing," is a tentative step toward redressing that oversight.

Construction began at the end of last year, about the same time that officials announced that a fourth exploratory offshore oil well drilled in 2012 was a bust and the only rig in the world that can drill in the deep waters off Cuba under U.S. embargo rules set sail with no return date.

In April, the solar farm came online and began contributing the first solar power to the island's energy grid. Cuba already had about 9,000 panels in use, but all of them were for small-scale, isolated usage such as powering rural hamlets, schools and hospitals.

The solar farm now generates enough electricity to power 780 homes and had saved the equivalent of 145 tons of fossil fuels, or around 1,060 barrels of crude, through the end of July. Peak capacity is expected to hit 2.6 megawatts when the final panels are in place in September.

That's just a drop in the energy bucket, of course.

Cuba gets about 92,000 barrels of highly subsidized oil per day from Venezuela to meet about half its consumption needs, according to an estimate by University of Texas energy analyst Jorge Pinon.

But hopes are high that solar can be a big winner in Cuba, which enjoys direct sunlight year-round, allowing for consistent high yields of 5 kilowatt-hours per square meter of terrain.

"The possibility of solar energy on a large scale could contribute to the island's future energy security," said Judith Cherni, an alternative energy expert at the Imperial College London Center for Environmental Policy who is familiar with Cuba's efforts.

Six other solar parks will come online in the coming months in Havana and the regions of Camaguey, Guantanamo, the Isle of Youth, Santiago and Villa Clara, though Concepcion did not specify their size.

Concepcion did not say how much the Cantarrana park cost, but said the industry standard for a facility of its size is $3 million to $4 million. The government, which controls nearly all economic activity in Cuba, financed construction, and the panels were manufactured at a factory in the western province of Pinar del Rio.

Cantarrana is already saving the island around $800 a day and Concepcion said it should pay for itself after a little more than a decade into its 25-year expected lifespan.

The project is a notable change in mindset for a country that relies on imports for half its energy consumption and is vulnerable to the political ebb and flow in other countries.

After the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc in the early 1990s, a loss of Soviet subsidies plunged Cuba into a severe crisis. Blackouts sometimes darkened Havana for 12 hours at a time.

Chavez's election in Venezuela in 1998 helped ease the crunch, but his death this March made clear that Havana can hardly depend on the tap staying open forever.

Chavez's handpicked successor, Nicolas Maduro, has vowed to maintain the special relationship with Cuba. But he won election by a razor-thin margin, and the Venezuelan opposition will almost certainly cut the Cuba subsidy if it wins power.

Pinon, of the University of Texas, predicted it will be at least three to five years before serious deep-water oil drilling can resume in Cuba.

Cuba's fuel uncertainty apparently prompted President Raul Castro to issue a decree in December creating seven working groups to chart a 15-year plan to develop alternative energy including solar, wind, biomass and others.

Cuba already has a handful of experimental wind farms and some small, isolated hydroelectric facilities, though experts say Cuba's shallow rivers are not ideal for large-scale power generation. The island has had the most success burning biomass from sugarcane, but harvests have fallen in recent years.

According to a government report from May, the island hopes to get 10 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030.

"The reality is that cheap, abundant oil is over, and we have to turn toward these technologies," said Vicente Estrada Cajigal, a specialist on regional alternative energy initiatives and the former president of Mexico's National Association for Solar Energy. "That treasure in the Gulf (of Mexico), I have my doubts."

Estrada Cajigal said the cost of solar panels has fallen by 80 percent in recent years, making it an ever more attractive option.

But other experts were cautious about how much photovoltaic energy can contribute to the island.

Mexican energy consultant Francisco Acosta said that the shaky Cuban economy's intricate ties to fossil fuels are not easily undone, and the country has no choice but to continue to rely heavily on petroleum and derivatives.

Solar "is a good idea, but to a certain point. ... In a country like Cuba, stable energy is that which comes from hydrocarbons," Acosta said.

Cherni said unanswered questions remain about how Cuba will fund its alternative energy ambitions. But she said the island's goal for 2030 seems about right, given that more-developed nations with greater resources are committing to 15 or 20 percent from renewables by 2020.

"So 10 percent is a good start," Cherni said.

___

Andrea Rodriguez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ARodriguezAP

Erbie Bowser, 44, was arrested by police outside a home in DeSoto, a bedroom community just south of Dallas. , Bowser allegedly threw a hand grenade into the living room of the home before shooting and killing his estranged wife, Zina Bowser, and her daughter, 28-year-old Neima Williams, and wounding two boys, ages 11 and 13, before running out of bullets.

A neighbor in DeSoto, Tommy Johnson,that he heard a loud boom on Wednesday night coming from the direction of the home where the victims were later found.

We thought it was coming from upstairs, because the kids are always upstairs making noise, Johnson said. I went up and asked, 'Did y'all hear anything?' and one of my daughters said it came from outside. So I peeped out the front, and that's when I saw a bunch of officers walking down the sidewalk and about 10 houses up.

obtained court records describing a previous death threat Bowser had allegedly made to Zina Bowser:

She said he refused to give her anything in the split and if she tried to take anything, you are going to see what happens.

Whats going to happen? she asked.

At that point, she said, Bowser approached her menacingly, bumped her with his stomach, pointed a finger in her face and said, I will bury you.

Zina Bowser said he then grabbed a pocketknife out of the nightstand, flipped it open and warned her, Call the police and I will execute your kids.

She called 911 anyway, and Bowser was arrested after she and her boys ran from the home.

From 2002 to 2009, Bowser was a member of the Mavs ManiAACs, a hip-hop dance troupe of beefy guys who entertain fans at Dallas home basketball games.

A Facebook page belonging to an Erbie Bowser from Dallas includes promotional Mavs ManiAAC photos posted in 2009 and 2011. An old bio on a Mavericks webpage listed Bowser (nicknamed E-Luv) as being 6-foot-7, 399 pounds and employed as a special education teacher.

An official with a Dallas-area school districtthat Bowser taught there for nearly nine years before leaving on good terms in 2010.

From what I understand, he was a very likeable guy, Laura Jobe, an administrative officer for the Mesquite ISD, told the newspaper. He was described to me as a gentle giant; never anything violent about him. In fact, just the opposite.