Longview optometrist charged with online solicitation of minor

LONGVIEW – Longview optometrist charged with online solicitation of minorOur news partners at KETK report an optometrist’s arrest documents reveal he sent inappropriate photos to a minor living across the country and was taken into custody while at his Longview office. 51-year-old August Michael Wallace, a licensed Longview optometrist per the Texas Optometry Board, was charged with online solicitation of a minor and is currently behind bars at the Gregg County Jail. According to Wallace’s arrest documents, Homeland Security spoke to the Longview Police Department on Sept. 30 and handed over evidence pertaining to a Texas man who sent a 16-year-old photos of his genitalia and description of sexual acts he wanted to do to the minor. Continue reading Longview optometrist charged with online solicitation of minor

Kellogg’s faces protests over food dyes in popular breakfast cereals

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

(BATTLE CREEK, Mich.) Hundreds of people gathered outside the WK Kellogg headquarters in Michigan on Tuesday calling for the company to hold up its promise to remove artificial dyes from its breakfast cereals sold in the U.S.

Nearly 10 years ago, Kellogg's, the maker of Froot Loops and Apple Jacks, committed to removing such additives from its products by 2018.

While Kellogg's has done so in other countries including Canada, which now makes Froot Loops with natural fruit juice concentrates, the cereals sold in the U.S. still contain both food dyes and a chemical preservative.

In the U.S., Froot Loops ingredients include Red Dye No. 40, Yellow Dye No. 5, Yellow Dye No. 6 and Blue Dye No. 1.

Food activist Vani Hari, also known as the Food Babe on social media, spoke to the crowd of demonstrators at the cereal giant's offices in Battle Creek on Tuesday.

"I'm here for the moms, all the moms, who struggle to feed their children healthy food without added chemicals," she said.

In response to the protests, Kellogg's insisted its products are safe for consumption, saying its ingredients meet the federal standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The agency has said that most children experience no adverse effects from color additives, but critics argue the FDA standards were developed without any assessment for possible neurological effects.

The protests come in the wake of a new California law known as the California School Food Safety Act that bans six potentially harmful dyes in foods served in California public schools. The ban includes all of the dyes in Froot Loops, plus Blue Dye No. 2 and Green Dye No. 3.

The bill was passed by state legislators in August and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September.

Studies suggest that consumption of said dyes and colorants banned under the new California School Food Safety Act may be linked to hyperactivity and other neurobehavioral problems in some children, as the California Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment outlined in a 2021 report.

While there are still thousands of chemicals allowed for use in our country's commercial food system, many of those that have been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration have not been reevaluated for decades. Red 40, for example, was last evaluated for health risks in 1971.

Reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics align with this push to reassess the safety of artificial food coloring.

California previously made history in October 2023, when Newsom signed AB 418 into law, a first-of-its-kind bill that bans four harmful chemicals from candy, cereals, salad dressings and other processed foods in the state starting in 2027.

That law will end the use of brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben and Red Dye No. 3 in food products sold throughout the state.

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Cruz and Allred meet in the only debate in the Texas Senate race

DALLAS (AP) — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Rep. Colin Allred met for their only debate Tuesday night, trading attacks over abortion and immigration in a closely watched race that could help determine which party wins control of the U.S. Senate.

Nationally, Democrats view Texas as one of their few potential pickup chances in the Senate this year, while Cruz has urged Republicans to take Texas seriously amid signs that the former 2016 presidential contender is in another competitive race to keep his seat.

From start to finish in the hourlong debate, Cruz sought to link Allred to Vice President Kamala Harris at nearly every opportunity and painted the three-term Dallas congressman as out of step in a state where voters have not elected a Democrat to a statewide office in 30 years.

Allred, who would become Texas’ first Black senator if elected, hammered Cruz over the state’s abortion ban that is one of the most restrictive in the nation and does not allow exceptions in cases of rape or incest. The issue is central to Allred’s underdog campaign and his supporters include Texas women who had serious pregnancy complications after the state’s ban took effect.

Pressed on whether he supports Texas’ law, Cruz said the specifics of abortion law have been and should be decided by the Texas Legislature.

“I don’t serve in the state Legislature. I’m not the governor,” he said.

Cruz later blasted Allred over his support of transgender rights and immigration polices of President Joe Biden and Harris, accusing him of shifting his views on border security from the positions he took when he was first elected to Congress in 2018.

“What I always said is that we have to make sure that as we’re talking about border security, that we don’t fall into demonizing,” Allred said.

Allred accused the two-term U.S. senator of mischaracterizing his record and repeatedly jabbed Cruz for his family vacation to Mexico during a deadly winter storm in 2021 that crippled the state’s power grid.

The two candidates closed the debate by attacking each other, with Cruz painting an Allred victory as a threat to Republicans’ grip on Texas.

“Congressman Allred and Kamala Harris are both running on the same radical agenda,” Cruz said.

Allred, meanwhile, cast himself as a moderate and accused Cruz of engaging in what he described as “anger-tainment, where you just leave people upset and you podcast about it and you write a book about it and you make some money on it, but you’re not actually there when people need you.”

The last time Cruz was on the ballot in 2018, he only narrowly won reelection over challenger Beto O’Rourke.

The debate offered Allred, a former NFL linebacker, a chance to boost his name identification to a broad Texas audience. Allred has made protecting abortion rights a centerpiece of his campaign and has been sharply critical of the state’s abortion ban. The issue has been a winning one for Democrats, even in red states like Kentucky and Kansas, ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to strip away constitutional protections for abortion.

Cruz, who fast made a name for himself in the Senate as an uncompromising conservative, has refashioned his campaign to focus on his legislative record.

Allred has meanwhile sought to flash moderate credentials and has the endorsement of former Republican U.S. Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.

The two candidates alone have raised close to $100 million, according to the most recent reports from the Federal Election Commission. Tens of millions more dollars have been spent by outside groups, making it one of the most expensive races in the country.

Despite Texas’ reputation as a deep-red state and the Democrats’ 30-year statewide drought, the party has grown increasingly optimistic in recent years that they can win here.

Since former President Barack Obama lost Texas by more than 15 percentage points in 2012, the margins have steadily declined. Former President Donald Trump won by 9 percentage points in 2016, and four years later, won by less than 6. That was the narrowest victory for a Republican presidential candidate in Texas since 1996.

“Texas is a red state,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston. “But it’s not a ruby-red state.”

Diary entry leads to arrest for sexual assault

Diary entry leads to arrest for sexual assaultTRINITY COUNTY — According to our news partner KETK, a minor’s diary entry has been submitted as evidence following an investigation into an East Texas man accused of sexually assaulting her. On Oct. 6 investigators were made aware of a potential child sexual assault case. The department said the case involved a 15-year-old who had possibly been sexually assaulted about four or five years ago.

Deputies spoke to the mother of the child who alleged the assault occurred over the course of a few years. The victim reportedly “made an outcry to her mother after referencing a dream [she] had previously had.” Deputies were also told that multiple sexual assault accusations had been made against Justin Brandon Herring in the past, the sheriff’s office said. Warrants were obtained for Herring who was arrested on Thursday and booked on two counts of continuous sex abuse of child under the age of 14 and two counts of indecency with a child sexual contact. He is being held at the Trinity County Jail on a $600,000 bond. Continue reading Diary entry leads to arrest for sexual assault

Execution warrant upheld for East Texas man

Execution warrant upheld for East Texas man PALESTINE – A district court will not throw out the execution warrant for Robert Roberson III, an East Texas man on death row accused of killing his daughter. According to our news partner KETK, Roberson, a Palestine native, was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki in 2002 and sentenced to death. He has maintained his innocence while on death row for the past 20 years, with an execution date scheduled for Oct. 17.

The defense’s motion to vacate Roberson’s execution warrant was denied by Judge Alfonso Charles, who is the Presiding Judge of the Tenth Administrative Judicial Region, on Tuesday. Charles was also asked to decide whether to remove the previous now-retired judge, Deborah Oakes Evans, from the case. He denied both the motion to recuse the execution warrant and the motion to vacate Judge Evans from the case.

Roberson attended court remotely via Zoom from the Polunsky Unit in Livingston where death row inmates are housed. Arguments were heard in front of a full courtroom of reporters of spectators.
Continue reading Execution warrant upheld for East Texas man

Diary entry leads to East Texas man’s arrest for sexual assault of minor

TRINITY COUNTY — A minor’s diary entry has been submitted as evidence following an investigation into an East Texas man accused of sexually assaulting her. According to the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office, on Oct. 6 investigators were made aware of a potential child sexual assault case.

The department said the case involved a 15-year-old who had possibly been sexually assaulted about four or five years ago.

Deputies spoke to the mother of the child who alleged the assault occurred over the course of a few years.

The victim reportedly “made an outcry to her mother after referencing a dream [she] had previously had.” Deputies were also told that multiple sexual assault accusations had been made against Herring in the past, the sheriff’s office said.

The victim had previously written in her journal:

“I have something to confess that I can’t tell anyone, and I was scared what mommy would do….so…every time I think about it my stomach turns, and I get really hot, and scared, and I even start breathing really hard but…those things that [Herring] did to [redacted], he did to me,” the victim wrote.
19-year-old suspect of burglaries across Marshall behind bars

It was noted that Herring and the victim currently do not have direct contact and live at separate residences. During a forensic interview, the victim recounted multiple instances where Herring got the victim alone beginning two months after she turned 10-years-old.

Warrants were obtained for Herring who was arrested on Thursday and booked on two counts of continuous sex abuse of child under the age of 14 and two counts of indecency with a child sexual contact. He is being held at the Trinity County Jail on a $600,000 bond.

Smith County donates surplus to Mustard Seed Ministries

Smith County donates surplus to Mustard Seed MinistriesSMITH COUNTY – Smith County donated surplus computer equipment to Mustard Seed Ministries that will be refurbished and given to local school children. Dr. Karen Jones, founder and president of Mustard Seed Ministries, received the donation from the Smith County Information Technology Department on Monday, October 14. Items included 178 desktops, 110 laptops, 70 monitors, 12 printers, five servers, seven scanners, and three switches. The donation was approved earlier in Commissioners Court.

For years, Smith County has donated outdated and broken computer equipment to Mustard Seed Ministries. The nonprofit organization dismantles and reassembles the equipment and donates them to school children who do not have computers. Mustard Seed supplies schools in Tyler, Whitehouse and Mineola.

Mustard Seed Ministries, is a nonprofit organization of the United Methodist Church. For more information, visit http://www.mustardseedcomputers.com.
 

19-year-old suspected of burglaries across Marshall

MARSHALL – 19-year-old suspected of burglaries across MarshallOur news partners at KETK report that a 19-year-old accused of committing burglaries across the City of Marshall is now behind bars. According to the Marshall Police Department, Stanislav Nathan Mironyuk, 19 of Marshall, was arrested Friday morning after officers responded to a building on E. Burleson Street for an alarm call. When police arrived to the building at around 4:40 a.m., they reportedly found a man in a mask, identified as Mironyuk. Police also found items linking Mironyuk to a burglary, a bag of tools commonly used in burglaries and mail from different addresses, the police department said. Continue reading 19-year-old suspected of burglaries across Marshall

Department of Insurance rejects proposed windstorm insurance rate hike

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that the Texas Department of Insurance has rejected a rate increase proposed by the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association that would have raised premiums on about a quarter-million residential and commercial properties along the coast. The proposed 10% rate hike would have been “unjust and unfair,” wrote TDI Commissioner Cassie Brown in her order rejecting the filing, which was posted to TDI’s website Monday. TWIA confirmed the news but did not immediately make a statement. The not-for-profit insurance association, an insurer of last resort, provides residential and commercial policies covering wind and hail damage to home and business owners in Texas’ 14 coastal counties, as well as the portion of Harris County east of Texas 146. As of March, there were about 250,000 TWIA policies in force in coastal Texas, a 37% increase from 2020.

TWIA’s board voted to seek the rate increase in August, after the association’s 2024 Rate Adequacy Analysis found that current rates fell significantly short of being able to cover expenses and losses. That analysis was released July 1, a week before Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Matagorda County, causing extensive damage in Texas and further complicating TWIA’s finances. As of last week, TDI’s order notes, TWIA had received 31,163 claims arising from Hurricane Beryl and paid more than $250 million to settle them. Ultimately, Beryl claims could wipe out TWIA’s Catastrophe Reserve Trust Fund, which had a balance of $451.4 million at the end of June. Proponents of the rate increase had argued that such a move was necessary given the association’s financial picture and the prospect of further extreme weather events, which have led many insurers to raise rates — or even pull back — in coastal Texas.

Ted Cruz says he’s getting no help from national Republicans

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that as polls show his race tightening, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is lashing out at national Republicans for not doing more to help him in his battle against Democrat Colin Allred. Cruz told Fox News he’s being massively outspent by Allred on the airwaves and couldn’t even afford to get his own ads on TV until three weeks ago. And he complained U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell hasn’t spent a penny on the race even though his PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, is sitting on millions of dollars meant to fight for a GOP majority. “Mitch McConnell runs the largest Republican super PAC in the country and has $400 million. But that super PAC is used to reward the Republican senators who obey him and to punish those who dare to stand up him,” Cruz said during an interview on Life, Liberty & Levin on FOX News on Friday.

Cruz’s comments come just days after Allred’s campaign announced it had raised $30.3 million since July — about $9 million more than Cruz raised during the same period. But Cruz said Allred is getting help from national Democrats. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee last month announced it is preparing to spend millions to support Allred as they see his chances improving to oust Cruz. The committee didn’t spell out exactly how much it would spend. But Cruz told Fox that the combination of national money and Allred’s fundraising haul has his back against the wall going into the final three weeks of his bid to hold onto his seat in the U.S. Senate. “We are in the middle of a full-on battle,” Cruz said. “We are being massively outspent.” There is a heightened tension in part because in-person early voting in Texas starts next week and public polls have shown Cruz and Allred in a tight battle. On Sunday, Politico reported on an internal polling memo by the Senate Leadership Fund that highlighted the trouble Cruz is in. The fund’s internal polling, done by the Tarrance Group in Virginia, showed Cruz leading Allred by 3 percentage points in September. But as of Oct. 8 that was down to just 1 point. In the memo, the group pointed out Cruz has much higher unfavorable ratings among voters than Allred. While 48% of respondents said they had an unfavorable view of Cruz, Allred’s unfavorables were at 36%.

Supreme Court opens door to Texas online journalist’s lawsuit

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a federal appeals court to take a new look at the lawsuit filed by a Texas-based online citizen journalist who said she was wrongly arrested in a case that drew attention from national media organizations and free speech advocates.

The justices tossed out the ruling of a divided federal appeals court that found journalist Priscilla Villarreal, known online as La Gordiloca, could not sue police officers and other officials over her arrest for seeking and obtaining nonpublic information from police.

The high court directed the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Villareal’s case in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in June in another case from Texas. In June, the justices gave a former local elected official another chance to pursue her lawsuit claiming she too was wrongly arrested.

In that case, Sylvia Gonzalez, a former city council member in the San Antonio suburb of Castle Hills, said she was arrested in retaliation as part of a dispute with a political rival.

A state judge had previously dismissed the criminal case against Villareal, saying the law used to arrest her in 2017 was unconstitutional. She then sought to sue the officials for damages. The full 5th Circuit ruled 9-7 that officials Villarreal sued in Laredo and Webb County were entitled to legal immunity.

Villarreal had sought — and obtained from a police officer — the identities of a person who killed himself and a family involved in a car accident and published the information on Facebook. The arrest affidavit said she sought the information to gain Facebook followers.

Officials push for East Texas state veterans cemetery

LONGVIEW – Officials push for East Texas state veterans cemetery Our news partners at KETK report that a public meeting was held in Longview on Monday to help bring a much-wanted State Veterans Cemetery to East Texas. The state cemetery board and a local family met in Longview on Monday to generate local support for how they want to honor these heroes in East Texas. Debra Christian of Gregg County has always wanted to honor her father, who fought to protect his country. “Being a military family, the military brat, that’s just all my dad would have wanted,” said Christian. When her father passed away, Christian wanted to honor his service by having him buried at a state veteran’s cemetery, but that meant he would have to be laid to rest far from home. “I started realizing a need because my father was a combat solider and when he came home there was an issue with being buried at a state cemetery because of distance,” said Christian. Continue reading Officials push for East Texas state veterans cemetery

East Texas man facing execution Thursday

East Texas man facing execution ThursdayHOUSTON (AP) — A Palestine man this week could become the first person executed in the U.S. for a murder conviction tied to the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

Robert Roberson, 57, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday for the 2002 killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence. His lawyers as well as a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, medical experts and others don’t deny that head and other injuries from child abuse are real. But they argue his conviction was based on faulty and now outdated scientific evidence and say new evidence has shown Curtis died from complications related to severe pneumonia.

But prosecutors maintain Roberson’s new evidence does not disprove their case that Curtis died from injuries inflicted by her father. Continue reading East Texas man facing execution Thursday

Supreme Court opens door to Texas online journalist’s lawsuit over her 2017 arrest

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a federal appeals court to take a new look at the lawsuit filed by a Texas-based online citizen journalist who said she was wrongly arrested in a case that drew attention from national media organizations and free speech advocates.

The justices tossed out the ruling of a divided federal appeals court that found journalist Priscilla Villarreal, known online as La Gordiloca, could not sue police officers and other officials over her arrest for seeking and obtaining nonpublic information from police.

The high court directed the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Villareal’s case in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in June in another case from Texas. In June, the justices gave a former local elected official another chance to pursue her lawsuit claiming she too was wrongly arrested.

In that case, Sylvia Gonzalez, a former city council member in the San Antonio suburb of Castle Hills, said she was arrested in retaliation as part of a dispute with a political rival.

A state judge had previously dismissed the criminal case against Villareal, saying the law used to arrest her in 2017 was unconstitutional. She then sought to sue the officials for damages. The full 5th Circuit ruled 9-7 that officials Villarreal sued in Laredo and Webb County were entitled to legal immunity.

Villarreal had sought — and obtained from a police officer — the identities of a person who killed himself and a family involved in a car accident and published the information on Facebook. The arrest affidavit said she sought the information to gain Facebook followers.