By LYNN WALKER, Scripps Howard News Service

WICHITA FALLS, Texas - Gene Jordan waited in line more than an hour and a half to drop off 20 head of cattle to sell at Wednesday's auction at Wichita Livestock Sales. That's the longest he has waited in a lifetime of ranching.

WICHITA FALLS, Texas - Gene Jordan waited in line more than an hour and a half to drop off 20 head of cattle to sell at Wednesday's auction at Wichita Livestock Sales. That's the longest he has waited in a lifetime of ranching.

As the spring storm season begins, the nation's largest private weather forecasting company says Tornado Alley may move east this year.

This season, AccuWeather.com meteorologists expect tornado activity will increase farther east into the Midwest instead of the traditional spring tornado swath, which consists of parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.

Buckle up, there are still rocky times ahead for the oil industry.
"Oil prices need to triple -- then triple again," Matthew Simmons, author of the best-selling book "Twilight in the Desert" said. "If we don't have prices high enough, then we can't sustain the (oil) industry."

More people will kiss their pooch when the New Year rolls in than another human being, according to an end-of-the-year Zogby/Times Square New Year's Eve National Poll.
Women are 4.5 times as likely to spend New Year's Eve with a pet than men are. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to spend New Year's Eve with a pet.

WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- While the number of airline flights serving Wichita Falls will drop from seven to three, the city is faring better than many smaller cities across the U.S.At least 97 airports across the U.S. have lost all airline service since 2007 or will by the end of this year, says the Air Transport Association, a trade association for the airline industry.

WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- A federal judge has ruled that a Texas heritage society was a Scrooge when it denied a girl in a wheelchair access to a historic house to see Santa Claus in 2004.