Texas can give permits in whooping crane watershed

HOUSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Texas is not directly responsible for the deaths of nearly two dozen endangered whooping cranes from 2008 through 2009 because it could not have known its water management practices would kill the birds.

The ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned a March 2013 decision by U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack. The lawsuit had been filed in 2010 by the Aransas Project, an environmental group.