Officials in scorched Texas county call for prayer

Local officials in a parched Texas county have resorted to asking their constituents to pray for rain, hoping divine intervention can alleviate the severe drought gripping much of the state and fueling wildfires that have scorched large swaths of ranchland. Commissioners in Tom Green County, where fires have seared nearly 13,000 acres this week, issued a proclamation Tuesday encouraging people to pray for rain. "We certainly need it," said County Judge Mike Brown. Conditions were only expected to get riper for wildfires across a larger expanse of the western half of Texas, according to a Texas Forest Service statement Wednesday...more