LINDALE — The Lindale Fire Department responded to a crash of an 18-wheeler on Thursday after the tanker rolled over and spilled about 5,000 gallons of hot asphalt. According to our news partner KETK, the tanker rolled over and crashed at I-20 and mile marker 548, westbound near Lindale. The driver of the 18-wheeler was taken to a hospital, their condition is unknown.
Initially, Smith County ESD2 used their plow to help contain the spill. As of 5:30 p.m. Thursday, a hazmat crew was at the scene working to clean up the spill.
The Lindale Fire Department said on their Facebook page the cause of the accident is still under investigation.
HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that since moving to The Woodlands about two years ago, former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger — one of the most vocal GOP critics of Donald Trump — says he’s met several Texas Republicans who are just as uncomfortable with the direction of his party as him. Now Kinzinger is trying to convince them to do the unthinkable and vote for a Democrat. Kinzinger is leading a group of Republicans supporting U.S. Rep. Colin Allred’s bid against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in one of the most hotly contested Senate races in the nation. It is the latest effort by Kinzinger, who served on the House committee that investigated Jan. 6, to target Republicans involved in the effort to delay the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory. Cruz was a key figure in the effort, objecting to Arizona’s electoral votes just before the mob breached the Capitol that day.
“When I talk to Republicans, I say, ‘Do you like where the GOP is now?’” Kinzinger said in an interview with Hearst Newspapers. “There are some that do, and they’re going to vote for Ted Cruz,” he said. “But there are a lot that are embarrassed about where the Republican Party is that are holding onto this hope that, ‘Just after November, we’re going to wake up and come back to what we were.’ Well guess what, we’re not going to do that — particularly if Ted Cruz wins again, because he’s part of the reason we’re exactly in this position.” Kinzinger, who withdrew from his reelection campaign in Illinois after his district was redrawn to pit him against a Trump-aligned Republican congressman, slammed Cruz for going from Trump’s “nemesis” in the 2016 GOP primary to his “chief supporter.” He argued Allred has no similar allegiance to his party or anyone in it. “If the Democratic Party decided some day to go off the rails, similar to what the GOP did, I guarantee you, he would be like Adam Kinzinger or Liz Cheney, saying this can’t happen,” he said. Cheney, a Republican who also served on the Jan. 6 committee and is a vocal critic of Trump and Cruz, has also endorsed Allred in the race.
FORT WORTH – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the Fort Worth Independent School District will pay more than $500,000 in salary, benefits and retirement funds to buy out the contract of outgoing Superintendent Angélica Ramsey, whose resignation as leader of the district was effective as of Tuesday this week. The resignation agreement was released to the Star-Telegram by the district on Wednesday in response to an open records request. It shows that Ramsey will receive two installments of about $247,962 — with the first to be paid this week and the second within the first two weeks of 2025 — as a severance payment. The total of the severance payment is equivalent to one year of salary and benefits. Ramsey also is receiving about $48,540 in unused vacation, sick and personal time.
In addition to the severance, Ramsey began serving as the district’s “ambassador for public relations” as of Tuesday and “shall be placed on school related leave with pay and benefits” during this period, which will continue through Aug. 30, according to the agreement. The agreement states she will continue to receive her full pay and benefits in accordance with the terms outlined in her contract during this employment. Her salary in the contract is $335,000 per year. Ramsey will be allowed to work outside the district during this time span. If Ramsey decided to resign her employment before Aug. 30, the board would accept her early resignation without penalty and future salary payments would stop but she would not lose the severance payments, the agreement states. The previous Fort Worth ISD superintendent, Kent Scribner, received a similar buyout when he stepped down in 2022, with payments of more than $500,000 and the same ceremonial title of ambassador for public relations, according to the Star-Telegram’s archives.
TYLER – Even with it being October, hot and dry weather is persisting. This can create a fire hazard. Some counties in East Texas have issued burn bans. You can see the list provided from our news partner KETK with this link.
Moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan listen as Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks during a vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News, with Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Tuesday’s VP debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz offered further compelling evidence – as if further evidence is needed – that debate sponsor CBS, in keeping with the rest of the legacy news organizations, has abandoned even the pretense of journalistic objectivity.
Tuesday’s debate rules specified that the moderators would not fact check the candidates and would instead allow the candidates to fact check each other. As my mother often said, “that didn’t last ‘til the water got hot.”
In the portion of the debate devoted to immigration (a subject upon which much less time was spent than on climate change and January 6), JD Vance was making a point about the approximately ten thousand Haitian migrants that the Biden administration has air-dropped into Springfield, Ohio, a community of only 58,000.
CBS News debate moderator Margaret Brennan – in direct contravention of the rules – dove in to “correct” Senator Vance on his assertion that the Haitian migrants are here illegally. As it happens, JD Vance’s premise was right and Margaret Brennan’s “correction” of him was wrong.
To Vance’s credit, he didn’t let Brennan get away with it, despite her sputtering about having “so much to get to,” (such as climate change and January 6).
Vance said,
The rules that you were not going to fact-check, and since you’re fact-checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on.”
(That’s how it’s done, Mitt Romney. Just sayin’.)
But the particulars of the Haitian migrant situation in Springfield, Ohio stand beside the point.
The point is that the legacy media – as now embodied by elitist, condescending partisan hacks like Margaret Brennan – are deeply in the tank for the Democratic Party and anyone who is opposed to Donald Trump. I was privy to the emails that CBS News Radio was sending to their affiliates Tuesday night. Though both candidates misstated some facts, CBS News emailed their radio affiliates numerous fact-checks against JD Vance while not offering even a single fact-check against Tim Walz.
Am I surprised by that? Of course not. Am I appalled by it? Absolutely.
Though CBS, ABC, NBC, TheWashington Post and TheNew York Times no longer command the audience shares they once did, they are still huge. Despite years of squandering their inheritance from the days when 92 percent of the country trusted Walter Cronkite, these legacy organizations are still the primary sources of news for millions of Americans. They continue to enjoy their status as practitioners in the one field of professional endeavor to be given specific protection in the U.S. Constitution. They continue to be at the front of the line when it comes to the necessarily limited access by news media to the top leaders and top levels of the U.S. government. (That’s a way of saying that a reporter from CBS will get a seat in the White House briefing room long before Paul Gleiser from KTBB gets one.)
Put simply, the legacy media organizations are still at the top of the food chain in American media. They are the privileged ones. They get the best seats at the political conventions and the first access to disaster sites like those we’re currently seeing in western North Carolina. They’re still the big dogs. (They also get reservations at the best restaurants when those same restaurants are telling the likes of you and me that they’re fully booked for the night.)
For all these reasons, the Margaret Brennans of the world bear a special responsibility.
In America, a properly informed electorate can be counted on to get it right at the ballot box more often than not. A commitment to fairness and objectivity toward the goal of creating that informed electorate is a small price to pay for the privilege and standing that the legacy media continue to enjoy.
That they have long ago abandoned that commitment does much to explain why we in America are at each other’s throats.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A TikTok personality known as Mr. Prada is charged in the bludgeoning death of a Louisiana therapist whose body was discovered over the weekend in a rolled up tarp near a state highway, authorities said Thursday.
The body of Nicholas Abraham, 69, of Baton Rouge, was found Sunday in rural Tangipahoa Parish, which is east of Baton Rouge and north of New Orleans. On Tuesday, police in Dallas County, Texas, arrested 20-year-old Terryon Thomas, who is known on social media as Mr. Prada, after Baton Rouge police said he fled from them in Abraham’s car.
Thomas’ relationship to the victim and a motive for the killing were unclear as of Thursday morning, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Thomas is charged with second-degree murder and was awaiting extradition From Texas to Louisiana, the news release said.
“At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that Thomas was a client of Abraham,” the release said.
Online booking records in Dallas County did not list an attorney could be contacted for comment on Thomas’ behalf.
Abraham was seen on surveillance video entering Thomas’ apartment Saturday night, according to an arrest warrant from the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office. He was wearing the same clothing he had on when his body was discovered, the warrant says.
Witnesses told investigators that Thomas was seen hours later struggling to drag something wrapped in a blue tarp down the apartment building stairs before placing the tarp in Abraham’s car, according to the affidavit. Investigators later got a search warrant for Thomas’ apartment, where they found signs of a struggle, including blood “throughout the apartment,” and indications that Thomas had tried to clean up before departing, the affidavit said.
“It was a very physical and very violent attack,” Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Gerald Sticker told WAFB. “He was bludgeoned about in the head shoulders and neck.”
Two of Thomas’ multiple TikTok accounts each has more than 4 million followers.
A biography of Abraham on his website says he had 30 years of experience treating substance abuse, depression and anxiety. It also said he spent 11 years as a Roman Catholic priest.
“Dr. Abraham was a very kind, very tender, very gentle man,” said Jarret Ambeau, a Baton Rouge lawyer who has represented Abraham in legal matters and also counted him as a friend. “No one deserves to die this way, but I would have never expected someone of his disposition to have been violently murdered.”
HOUSTON (AP) — The sentencing of a former Houston police officer convicted of murder in the deaths of a couple during a 2019 drug raid was put on hold Thursday after he suffered a medical emergency in the courtroom.
A prosecutor was addressing jurors during closing arguments in the punishment phase of Gerald Goines’ trial when the ex-officer could be heard breathing heavily as he sat at the defense table.
The jury was taken out of the courtroom, and Goines was helped by one of his attorneys and a bailiff as he walked to a holding area outside the courtroom. Goines was later seen on a stretcher that was loaded onto an ambulance parked in front of the courthouse.
His condition was not immediately known. Due to a gag order in the case, neither prosecutors nor Goines’ attorneys would comment on what happened.
One of the other cases tied to Goines is his 2004 drug arrest in Houston of George Floyd, whose 2020 death at the hands of a Minnesota police officer sparked a nationwide reckoning on racism in policing. A Texas board in 2022 declined a request that Floyd be granted a posthumous pardon for his drug conviction stemming from his arrest by Goines.
One of Goines’ attorneys, Nicole DeBorde, had told jurors during closing arguments that the 60-year-old’s “health is destroyed” after being shot in the face during the deadly raid.
State District Judge Veronica Nelson later told jurors closing arguments could resume either Friday or Monday.
Goines is facing up to life in prison after being convicted last week in the January 2019 deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his 58-year-old wife Rhogena Nicholas. The couple, along with their dog, were fatally shot after officers burst into their home using a “no-knock” warrant that didn’t require them to announce themselves before entering.
During the trial, prosecutors presented testimony and evidence they said showed Goines lied to get a search warrant that falsely portrayed the couple as dangerous drug dealers. The raid resulted in a violent confrontation in which the couple was killed and four officers, including Goines, were shot and wounded and a fifth injured.
Goines’ lawyers had acknowledged the ex-officer lied to get the search warrant but minimized the impact of his false statements. His lawyers had portrayed the couple as armed drug users and said they were responsible for their own deaths because they fired at officers.
After the raid, investigators said they only found small amounts of marijuana and cocaine in the house.
An investigation into the raid revealed systemic corruption problems within the police department’s narcotics unit.
A dozen officers tied to the narcotics squad that conducted the raid, including Goines, were later indicted on other charges following a corruption investigation. A judge in June dismissed charges against some of them.
Since the raid, prosecutors have reviewed thousands of cases handled by the narcotics unit.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has overturned at least 22 convictions linked to Goines, who also faces federal charges.
Federal civil rights lawsuits filed by the families of Tuttle and Nicholas against Goines and 12 other officers involved in the raid and the city of Houston are set to be tried in November.
PALESTINE – A Palestine High School student was removed from campus after weapons were found in a vehicle on Thursday morning. According to our news partner KETK, a routine check from a drug dog alerted school officials of a rifle and a “small machete” that were discovered in the vehicle.
Palestine ISD said in a release that, “Parents were notified, and the student removed from the campus pending further investigation.”
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SMITH COUNTY – The Lindale Fire Department reports a traffic wreck involving a rolled over 18-wheeler. The wreck is stalling westbound traffic on I-20, west of Lindale at mile marker 548. The Lindale FD Facebook page said “This is currently a hazmat incident and Lonestar Hazmat is responding.” Officials added that traffic is down to one lane in the crash area and as of 2 p.m. clean-up will take several hours.
Also on Thursday, Lindale Fire units responded to the scene of a three vehicle accident that happened around 3 p.m. at I-20 and mile marker 552 westbound. In both cases traffic is being diverted. Lindale Fire Department asks drivers to continue to use caution and avoid the accident areas.
VAN ZANDT COUNTY – Our news partners at KETK report that two people died in a crash on Highway 19, roughly one mile south of U.S. 80 last Saturday around 7:54 p.m. A crash report from DPS states 63-year-old Karen Carlisle of Wills Point was driving a 2014 Ford Focus north on Highway 19 while 24-year-old Sara Stoehr of Larue was traveling south in a 2019 Dodge Journey. Both Carlisle and Stoehr died. Three minors in the car with Stoehr were taken to a children’s hospital in Dallas. DPS’s investigation into the crash is ongoing.
AUSTIN (AP) – Tesla is recalling more than 27,000 Cybertrucks because the rearview camera image may not activate immediately after shifting into reverse, the fifth recall for the vehicle since it went on sale late last year.
Tesla has released a free software upgrade to address the issue and owner notification letters are expected to be mailed Nov. 25.
Cybertruck owners have had to deal with a series of recalls since the vehicle went on sale in November. In June, there was a recall to fix problems with trim pieces that can come loose and front windshield wipers that can fail. Two months before that, some Cybertrucks were recalled because the accelerator pedal could stick.
In the most recent recall, the company notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the display screens in effected trucks may remain blank for up to 8 seconds after a driver shifts to reverse. The U.S. requires those screens to activate with a rearview within 2 seconds of shifting into reverse.
Elon Musk’s Tesla delivered the first dozen or so of its futuristic Cybertruck pickups to customers in November, two years behind the original schedule.
Owners may contact Tesla customer service at 1-877-798-3752 or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 or go to http://www.nhtsa.gov.
WINNSBORO — The Winnsboro Police Department announced the passing of one of their own Thursday morning.According to our news partner KETK, the police department said Assistant Chief David Scott Sewell passed away early Thursday and shared that he was a beloved member of the community. Sewell who joined Winnsboro PD in 2016 also served the Northeast Texas region for 39 years.
“Please keep his family, friends and the department in your prayers as we navigate this difficult time,” the police department said.
(NEW YORK) -- In the final weeks of the campaign, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have sought to best each other on the all-important issue of the economy, which many voters rank as their top concern.
Both candidates have made manufacturing a centerpiece of their plans, but their respective approaches feature stark differences.
Harris aims to close corporate tax loopholes and throw government support behind the production of critical goods. By contrast, Trump wants to protect domestic manufacturers with tariffs on foreign products while cutting corporate taxes and easing regulations.
Manufacturing accounts for about 10% of U.S. gross domestic product and an even smaller share of the nation's jobs. But the sector bears outsized importance since the production of essential goods holds national security implications and many manufacturing workers live in key swing states, experts said.
"There's a belief that manufacturing is special," Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who studies trade policy, told ABC News.
Here's what to know about where Harris and Trump stand on manufacturing, and what experts think of their respective plans:
Trump: Tariffs and corporate tax cuts
On the campaign trail, Trump talks about tariffs more than just about any other policy proposal. The tax on imports makes up a key part of his plan for revitalizing manufacturing, alongside a lower tax burden for companies that he says would boost production and hiring.
Trump has promised a sharp escalation of tariffs enacted during his first term. Trump has proposed tariffs of between 60% and 100% on Chinese goods. A set of far-reaching tariffs would also include a tax as high as 20% on all imported products.
In theory, a tax on imports would give domestic producers a leg up in competition with foreign manufacturers, Christopher Conlon, a professor of economics at New York University who studies trade, told ABC News.
"His plan is based on the idea that foreign competitors are pricing their products too low and what we need to do is erect a wall of tariff barriers around the U.S.," Conlon told ABC News.
An escalation of tariffs could expand certain areas of U.S. manufacturing vulnerable to foreign competition, which could result in added jobs at companies protected by the policy, experts said.
The economy added manufacturing over the first few years of his presidency, though the pandemic wiped out much of those gains.
Experts cautioned about a spike in input costs and consumer prices that could end up hindering many manufacturers and hammering household budgets. Evidence indicates that the Trump tax cut did not provide a significant boost for the economy, they added.
U.S. manufacturers of sophisticated products like automobiles and advanced medical equipment often import raw materials. A tariff would likely raise costs for those companies and risk making them less competitive on the global market, Conlon said. While adding jobs at some manufacturers, the policy could cause layoffs at others.
"Nobody seems to have shared that wisdom with the Trump campaign," Conlon said.
A similar cause and effect applies to prices paid by everyday people for imported goods at the grocery or department store. Broad tariffs on foreign goods would likely force importing companies to raise prices and reignite inflation, experts said.
In a statement to ABC News, the Trump campaign said its manufacturing plan would create jobs and cut taxes.
"President Trump is a businessman who built the greatest economy in American history, and certainly doesn't need economics lessons from a professor who has never created jobs or built anything in his life," Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said.
"President Trump successfully imposed tariffs on China in his first term AND cut taxes for hardworking Americans here at home -- and he will do it again in his second term. President Trump's plan will result in millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars returning home from China to America," the statement added in part.
Harris: Close tax loopholes and provide government support
Harris has proposed a different approach to manufacturing that emphasizes closing tax loopholes for some large corporations and providing government support for high-priority areas within the sector.
The agenda carries over a key part of the strategy undertaken by the Biden administration, which invested billions into manufacturing through a series of measures focused on bolstering key industries.
The Inflation Reduction Act spent hundreds of millions of dollars to boost U.S. production of renewables as the nation pursues ambitious carbon emissions goals and a supply chain less dependent on China. While the CHIPS and Sciences Act infused tens of billions into the production of semiconductors.
"The Biden administration has picked sectors, and in those sectors companies are eligible for assistance," said Lovely.
Last week, Harris put forward a plan calling for $100 billion investment in manufacturing to further bolster the sector. The policy would prioritize "industries of the future," such as carbon-efficient steel production and data centers for artificial intelligence, the campaign said in a statement last week.
The Harris campaign said it aims to pay for the investment with a reform of the international tax code that prevents producers from skirting U.S. taxes in a "race to the bottom."
"The facts are clear: When he was president, Trump lost nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs and created new incentives for companies to ship American jobs to China. Economists warn if Trump takes power again, his policies will crush American manufacturing jobs, send even more jobs to China, and cost middle class families $4,000 a year. This is a fundamental contrast with Vice President Harris, who is leading an American manufacturing boom – creating jobs right here at home and outcompeting China," Harris campaign spokesperson Joseph Costello said in a statement to ABC News.
It remains unclear whether the support for manufacturing provided by the Biden administration has yielded significant gains in output or jobs, experts said.
The measures, however, have elicited a burst of factory construction. Spending on manufacturing-related construction surged from $76.4 billion in January 2021 to $238.2 billion in August 2024, U.S. Census Bureau data showed.
The surge in construction marks a positive signal but the critical test will be whether the plants deliver strong output and well-paying, long-term jobs, said Conlon.
"We haven't had enough time to see if there's a real effect or not," he added. "How many chips are getting built by these plants? We don't know that yet."
ANGELINA COUNTY — A 21-year-old man caught on surveillance camera robbing a convenience store on Wednesday in Angelina County has been arrested. According to Sheriff Tom Selman and our news partner KETK, a convenience store in the Pollok area on U.S. Highway 69 between Lufkin and Wells was robbed at around 9:00 a.m. when a man entered the store and approached the cashier with a handgun. The sheriff’s office said the man took the money and left toward Wells in a green Ford Expedition. The cashier was able to take a picture of the vehicle and partial license plate number which was then shared to local law enforcement.
LINDALE — The Lindale Fire Department responded to a crash of an 18-wheeler on Thursday after the tanker rolled over and spilled about 5,000 gallons of hot asphalt. According to our news partner KETK, the tanker rolled over and crashed at I-20 and mile marker 548, westbound near Lindale. The driver of the 18-wheeler was taken to a hospital, their condition is unknown.
