Man bites officer, takes weapon during traffic stop

Man bites officer, takes weapon during traffic stopTYLER — A Tyler man was arrested on Wednesday after reportedly assaulting and taking a weapon from an officer. According to our news partner KETK, a detective with the Tyler Police Department clocked a vehicle traveling 60 mph in a 40 mph zone in the 300 E Southeast Loop 323 area. The detective pulled over the driver, 20-year-old Cordrell Smith Radway, where he reportedly ran from the officer “while still being detained and not free to leave.”

After a short chase, the detective caught up to Radway and “ended up on the ground” where Radway reportedly actively resisted arrest and repeatedly tried to stand up. The affidavit said the detective then used his pepper spray. During the altercation, Radway reportedly grabbed the detective’s hand while pepper spraying him, took the can away and bit the detective’s left forearm, leaving a visible bite mark. Continue reading Man bites officer, takes weapon during traffic stop

Part of Rose Rudman Trail to close for construction Monday

Part of Rose Rudman Trail to close  for constructionTYLER – City of Tyler officials say a part of Rose Rudman Trail will be closed from Monday, June 24, through Wednesday, June 26. That portion is behind 5604 South Donnybrook Avenue, which is in back of Sleep Inn and Suites Tyler South. According to a release from the city, the closure is because of a sanitary sewer line replacement. Until repairs are completed, officials advise this portion of the trail should be avoided.

FEMA Smith County Disaster Recovery Center is open

FEMA to open Smith County Disaster Recover Center SaturdayTYLER – FEMA has opened a Disaster Recovery Center at The Hub, located at 304 E. Ferguson St. in downtown Tyler. Smith County is supplying the facility while FEMA personnel will staff the DRC from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week through July 29. Smith County citizens who need help recovering from the severe storms, tornadoes, flooding and straight-line winds, from April 26 through June 5, can go to the Hub for in-person assistance.

Smith County Emergency Management Coordinator Brandon Moore said residents visiting the DRC will also be able to talk to people from the Small Business Administration, Lone Star Legal and the local nonprofit organization, Crisis Response Ministries. Moore added, “Recovery will take some time due to personnel constraints and the amount of debris accumulated. Citizens with damaged homes are encouraged to participate with FEMA personnel to apply for potential assistance.”

You can also apply for assistance by visiting http://www.disasterassistance.gov or calling FEMA’s helpline: 800-621-3362.

Palestine PD find over 170 grams of ecstasy during traffic stop

Palestine PD find over 170 grams of ecstasy during traffic stopPALESTINE – A routine traffic stop in Palestine put a local man in jail. According to our news partner KETK, 34-year-old Charles Edward Hawkins of Palestine, was stopped by a PPD officer Tuesday morning on North Queen Street for a traffic violation.

The officer reportedly detected “a strong odor of marijuana” coming from the vehicle when they made contact with the driver, Charles Hawkins. After an examination, the officer said in their report finding 3.51 grams of suspected cocaine, 172.96 grams of ecstasy, and a small amount of marijuana.

Hawkins was charged with possession of marijuana and two counts of manufacture or deliver of a controlled substance. He was booked at the Anderson County Jail with a bond totaling $42,500.

Marshall approves Airport Park improvements

MARSHALL – Marshall approves Airport Park improvementsThe Marshall City Council approved $2.68 million towards phase one of capital improvements to Airport Park. According to a release, the park will receive upgrades to all 11 of its baseball and softball fields, as well as sitework, subgrade, concrete, drainage systems, athletic equipment and synthetic turf upgrades, according to our colleagues at KETK. The City of Marshall said that the park will be closed when construction begins on Monday. Continue reading Marshall approves Airport Park improvements

Kilgore College names health science education center

KILGORE – Kilgore College names health science education centerOur news partners at KETK report Kilgore College has named its new science building the Torrence Health Science Education Center thanks to a substantial donation from the Torrence family. It is located at 1610 S. Henderson Blvd. in Kilgore, next to the CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Health Center. The college held an unveiling ceremony Tuesday for the naming reveal, attended by community leaders and students alike. Continue reading Kilgore College names health science education center

37 street sections to close in Tyler starting Monday

37 street sections to close in Tyler starting next weekTYLER – According to our news partner KETK, 37 sections of road throughout Tyler will be closed either partially or fully for the 2024 ONYX road resealing project starting on Monday, June 24. The road sections affected will start to be resealed beginning on June 24 till July 12 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. if the weather permits it.

The closures come after a $362,975.35 contract with Innovative Roadway Solutions, LLC. was approved by the city of Tyler through the general fund to reseal city streets that have lost asphalt on their surface because of years of wear and tear. The ONYX surface treatment has reportedly been used by TxDOT to treat road shoulders for years. The Onyx Mastic Seal treatment consists of an “asphalt emulsion, catalysts, polymers and fine aggregates.” Continue reading 37 street sections to close in Tyler starting Monday

Rep. Moran calls Biden immigration policy a distraction

Rep. Moran calls Biden immigration policy a distractionTYLER — President Joe Biden issued new protections for undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens on Tuesday that protects them from deportation. The new policy would be eligible for people who have been in the country for at least 10 years. Biden’s policy would allow nearly 500,000 spouses to stay in the country allowing non-citizens to stay in the U.S. while filing for permanent residency instead of returning to their home country.

According to our news partner KETK, Republican U.S. Rep. Nathaniel Moran said this action taken by Biden is “unfortunate” and that the president is trying to act on border policy five months away from the election. Biden’s executive action is expected to be challenged in court, however if Biden’s policy does go into effect, it would be the most significant action on immigration, since former president Obama’s DACA policy. Continue reading Rep. Moran calls Biden immigration policy a distraction

Animal control officer arrested for animal cruelty

Animal control officer arrested for animal crueltyWILLS POINT – A Wills Point animal control officer was arrested on Thursday after admitting to a Van Zandt County deputy of shooting his own dog, the SPCA of Texas said. According to our news partner KETK, Michael Goggans, with Wills Point Animal Control, was taken into custody and charged with cruelty and torture to a non-livestock animal.

Van Zandt County deputies reportedly told Goggans that he needed to keep his dog confined after separate calls of his dog running at large were reported on June 12 and June 13. A deputy warned Goggans that if the dog was not properly confined, a citation would be issued. “Goggans responded to the deputy’s warning by informing him of his intent to kill the dog. He contacted the deputy again to inform him that he had killed it and that the dog was in the front yard of his residence,” the release said. Continue reading Animal control officer arrested for animal cruelty

Gov. Abbott appoints UT Tyler student to state education board

Gov. Abbott Appoints UT Tyler Student to state education boardTYLER – Texas Governor Greg Abbott has appointed Lucas Schwartz, a student at The University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine, to serve as the student representative on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Schwartz’s one-year term began on June 1. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is a state agency that oversees higher education institutions and policies. The board works to ensure Texas higher education goals are aligned with economic and talent needs.

Dr. Brigham C. Willis, UT Tyler School of Medicine dean said this of Schwartz in a release, “Lucas Schwartz embodies the spirit of leadership and dedication that we strive to cultivate in our students. His commitment to serving both the state and East Texas is commendable. We are confident that he will represent the interests of Texas students with great passion and integrity on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.”

Schwartz graduated with an associate degree in biology from Tyler Junior College before completing his Bachelor of Science in Nutrition at Texas A&M University. He served as a medic in the Air Force and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Medicine from the UT Tyler School of Medicine and an Executive Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Management from UT Tyler.

ETBU merger announced

MARSHALL – ETBU merger announcedEast Texas Baptist University and B. H. Carroll Theological Seminary are pleased to announce their official merger, following approval from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). The SACSCOC Board of Trustees approved ETBU’s Substantive Merger/Level Change prospectus, endorsing the integration of B. H. Carroll Theological Seminary into ETBU. With this approval, ETBU expands its status as a Level VI institution of higher learning with no further reporting required. Continue reading ETBU merger announced

He just keeps getting worse.

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Every time I think to myself that Joe Biden and his administration cannot get worse – that he has hit rock bottom, the very basement of terribleness – he proves me wrong.

Now he wants to grant, via executive order, what amounts to amnesty to more than 500,000 illegal immigrants. The proposition is that an illegal immigrant who has been in the country for 10 years or more and is married to an American citizen will be granted “parole in place” status.

What this means in plain English is that these people who are in the country illegally need not fear deportation. What’s more, they will move ahead in the line for receipt of a green card, which will grant them permanent legal residence in the United States.

Administration rationale for this move is, of course, cloaked in humanitarian language. “We’ll be keeping families together,” they’re saying. “It’s a recognition of the basic humanity of people who have lived and worked in this country,” they tell us.

Don’t be fooled.

And forget for the moment that this move constitutes a material change to U.S. immigration policy and should thus be debated and voted on by our representatives in Congress, rather than being put in place by the stroke of the executive pen. The simple fact is that Biden and his fellow travelers talk a lot about democracy, but they have very limited patience for it. That is particularly true when the democratic process as exercised by We the People doesn’t favor their far-left policies.

Poll after poll tells us that a decisive majority of Americans oppose Biden’s immigration policies. Most Americans are hardworking and clear thinking. They know that the country cannot withstand the social, fiscal and national security impact attendant to millions and millions of poor, social services consuming, largely unskilled, largely uneducated and – to an unknown but inevitable degree – criminally inclined migrants pouring across our wide-open southern border.

I have asked myself many times why, when the polls clearly reveal that Biden’s immigration policy is wildly unpopular, he pursues it anyway.

My tinfoil hat inner voice whispers to me that Joe Biden has been bought and paid for by Chinese leader Xi Jingping and that XI wants to knock the United States off its perch as the big dog on the world stage. One way to do that is to destabilize the U.S. socially and politically by flooding the country will illegal immigrants. In other words, Xi knows what he wants and Biden is doing as he’s told.

But Occam’s razor tells us that the simplest explanation is the most likely explanation, and the simple explanation is this.

This latest immigration policy move is nothing more and nothing less than a vote grab by an increasingly desperate incumbent president and his increasingly far-left political party.

For the Dems, it’s a short putt from “parole in place” to “eligible to vote.”

Half a million new voters. Let that sink in while you remember that the 2020 election was decided by fewer than 40,000 votes.

SFA art professor named Fulbright Scholar

NACOGDOCHES – SFA art professor named Fulbright ScholarOur news partners at KETK report that an associate art professor from the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art has been selected to be a Fulbright Scholar and will be conducting research in France. According to a release, Candace Hicks has been selected for fellowship as a part of the Fulbright program in which “scholars play a critical role in U.S. public diplomacy, establishing long-term relationships between people and nations” by conducting research and engaging the communities of different countries, regions and cultures. Continue reading SFA art professor named Fulbright Scholar