Sanders suspends presidential campaign, how Texas law enforcement uses hypnosis to investigate crimes: Your Wednesday evening roundup

Plus, how an ex-Dallas Cowboys cheerleader repurposed her business to help the front lines  [Evening roundup] [NEWS]( | [BUSINESS]( | [SPORTS]( | [HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS]( | [ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT]( | [FOOD]( | [THINGS TO DO]( | [OPINION]( 04/08/2020 By Demetrio Teniente Good Evening! Here is a look at the top headlines of the day. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [here.]( Helen Barbre lived in this apartment complex, located in Dallas at the corner of Skillman Street and Lovers Lane. She was attacked in her residence on the morning of July 23, 1988. (Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photographer) INVESTIGATION [The Memory Room: Texas law enforcement uses hypnosis to investigate crimes. Does it uncover the truth?]( Part one of The Memory Room, a two-part investigative series: Sometime before dawn, Helen Barbre awoke to a strange man in her Dallas bedroom. He bludgeoned her with what she guessed was a flashlight before she fought him off. She provided scant details about her attacker’s physical appearance to police: he was a black man with a similar build to a security guard who had visited her Dallas apartment earlier that morning. It was nearly 5 a.m. on July 23, 1988 when the police arrived. They sent Barbre to the hospital but were swamped with other calls. They never asked crime scene techs to examine the apartment, a mistake that eventually left them with no physical evidence and no answers for the victim. More than 1,000 pages of police and legal records obtained by The Dallas Morning News detail how police missteps in Barbre’s case led to a stalled investigation and, ultimately, to a last-ditch effort to find the truth by using hypnosis. A News analysis of previously unreleased records shows that Barbre’s case was not unusual in Texas. Since 1980, law enforcement officers have closed cases using information given by witnesses or victims during hundreds of hypnosis sessions. No one oversees or regulates the practice, deemed potentially dangerous by many in the scientific community. [But advocates, including the Texas Rangers, defend the method, ignoring scientific experts and arguing they need every tool to catch criminals](.  The second and final installment of The Memory Room will be available tomorrow. ADVERTISEMENT  POLITICS [Bernie Sanders drops bid for White House, paving way for Joe Biden to win Democratic nomination]( WASHINGTON — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday ended his White House bid, all but ensuring that former Vice President Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee to take on President Donald Trump in the November election. [Sanders, a progressive warrior, saw his campaign fizzle out in early March after surging to front-runner status]( with strong performances in early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire. The self-described democratic socialist’s exit marks the second time in the last two presidential cycles that he’s ended up as the runner-up in the Democratic White House race. Back in 2016, he was defeated by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  Jeffers: Bernie Sanders has a tough task of leading a revolution and [convincing supporters to embrace Joe Biden](.   Also: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals says [Texas can enforce its ban on elective abortions during the coronavirus pandemic](.  CORONAVIRUS [Into the mask game: Ex-Dallas Cowboys cheerleader repurposes her business to help the front lines]( "We were getting stuff ready for the NBA playoffs, and it went boom! Gone," Saunders says. "I thought we’d be fine because the other half of our company does restaurants, and then the restaurants closed." The night she laid off her staff, Saunders watched the news and saw reports of nurses and doctors making face masks and gowns out of whatever materials they had on hand. She immediately saw the opportunity to help her community during the crisis and put her employees back to work. After spending a single day redesigning her website, waitressville.com, and developing a temporary business plan, [Saunders was able to bring back the majority of her 20 employees on March 25.](  Also: A D-FW company [will make 2 million masks a week for Texas]( Gov. Abbott says.   And: [Dallas County reported 63 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday]( marking a decline in a recent trend for days that featured full COVID-19 testing.  ADVERTISEMENT (Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer) PHOTO OF THE DAY At least a dozen General Electric Co. workers in Dallas joined colleagues across the country Wednesday in asking their employer to increase workplace safety and tap their skills to build life-saving ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic. Employees of the GE Power Portfolio facility near Love Field Airport picketed outside during their lunch break while standing six feet apart, holding signs that read: ["Hey, GE we can make ventilators."]( Across the country, GE workers in Lynn, Mass., Salem, Va. and Schenectady, N.Y., held similar protests. EDITORS' PICKS - Good works: A program that has been helping people get groceries during the COVID-19 pandemic [is expanding to include all Plano residents](. - Helping hands: [Three]( programs]( support both medical workers and local restaurants. - Pop culture: John Krasinski from ‘The Office’ [gives an East Dallas kitchen a shout-out](. ADVERTISEMENT FINALLY... [Personalized letters help Mesquite teacher maintain connection with kindergarten students]( Sitting at home because of shelter-in-place orders, Hailey Jackson decided to write to friends she missed seeing every day. It’s a normal instinct during quarantine. It’s just that Jackson’s friends are kindergartners. Jackson, a kindergarten teacher at Mesquite’s Seabourn Elementary School, is teaching via distance learning but decided [to write letters with personalized envelopes to get students excited and engaged with learning during a difficult time](. 👋 That's all for this afternoon! For up-to-the-minute news and analysis, check out [DallasNews.com](. Share the love! If you like this newsletter, please forward this email to a friend and [check out our other newsletters here](. Do you have feedback? Send your thoughts, questions, praise and corrections to [newsletter-feedback@dallasnews.com](mailto:newsletter-feedback@dallasnews.com?subject=). STAY CONNECTED WITH US [Unsubscribe]( | [Free newsletters]( | [Dallasnews.com]( | [Subscriber login]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact us]( Copyright 2020 - [The Dallas Morning News, 1954 Commerce Street, Dallas, TX 75201, United States](