Texas will execute its first death row prisoner in five months today as a five-month pause amid coronavirus ends. Billy Joe Wardlow, 45, is scheduled to die by lethal injection as the nation's busiest death penalty state prepared to resume executions. Wardlow was 18 when he killed Carl Cole, 82, during a June 1993 robbery at his home in Cason, about 130 miles east of Dallas in the East Texas piney woods, near the Louisiana and Arkansas borders. In his written confession, Wardlow said Cole 'was shot like an executioner would have done it', according to prosecutors. Wardlow's attorney's have argued against jurors' decision to impose the death penalty based on the idea he posed a future danger. They said scientific research has shown 18-year-olds' brains are not fully developed and asked the US Supreme Court to stop the execution. 'The science really supports precluding the death penalty for anyone under 21 because brain development is still happening,' said Richard Burr, one of Wardlow´s attorneys.

A heat wave that's gripped the Midwest for days and will only grow more intense by next week is taking its toll on roads across the region, creating hazards for motorists. The combination of prolonged intense heat and humidity has added stress on highways and local roads across the region. The Illinois Department of Transportation warned motorists to watch for damaged roadways that may buckle during this intense stretch of heat. The land of Lincoln is broiling with temperatures in the 90s, from Chicago to Cairo, and a forecast heat index approaching 100 degrees across much of the state. Several roads in the Peoria area buckled. Transportation officials said that pavement failures, or blowouts, occur when prolonged high temperatures cause the road to expand and buckle up or blow out, resulting in uneven driving surfaces.

Several children and a dog were thrown to safety from multiple apartment units during a fire in Arizona that damaged eight homes and left one woman dead in a dramatic scene caught on camera. The fire broke out on the third floor of the building on July 3, and a 30-year-old mother of two threw her 3-year-old son off the balcony in a last-ditch attempt to save his life. The child was caught in the nick of time by a former marine and wide receiver, Phillip Blanks, 28, who scooped the toddler up and rushed him to safety. The woman's 8-year-old daughter was also rescued as she dropped from the apartment's balcony. The mother, however, perished in the blaze. Both children suffered from critical burns but are expected to survive, according to the Phoenix Police Department. Below, in a separate apartment unit also affected by the fire in the same building, neighbors used a bed sheet to catch another child and their dog as they dropped from a balcony.