KTBB News, Weather, Talk

KILGORE — A restaurant in Kilgore reopens after strong winds tore off its roof early this month. According to our news partner KETK, Brigitta’s Hungarian Restaurant returned to its normal hours Friday. Helping hands from a local roofing company are credited with the quick return to business.

TYLER – Habitat for Humanity of Smith County’s Board of Directors has approved Mary Alice Guidry as the affiliate’s new chief executive officer. Mrs. Guidry’s role with HFHSC will officially commence in early July. According to a news release, Guidry joins the Habitat team after serving six years on its Board of Directors, serving terms as secretary as well as president. She is a licensed architect with nine years of experience as a senior project manager with Fitzpatrick Architects, Inc., of Tyler. Current Smith County Habitat CEO Jack Wilson will be retiring at the end of June and returning with wife Patricia to Sarasota, Florida, where they lived before coming to Tyler in 2008.

IRVING (KRLD) – A Texas-based company that owns local TV stations across the country is being sued by DIRECTV. The lawsuit accuses Irving-based Nexstar Broadcasting and two other companies of improperly working together to set prices that local TV stations charge satellite companies to carry those stations. DIRECTV’s lawsuit claims that has led to some of those stations being blocked from their service — including stations in Amarillo, Tyler, Lubbock, Abilene, Midland-Odessa, and Wichita Falls. The Tyler station is our news partner KETK. A statement from Nexstar says the lawsuit is “without merit.”

KILGORE (KRLD) – Taxpayers in East Texas win a settlement in a lawsuit against their school district. 13 plaintiffs in the Kilgore ISD filed the class-action lawsuit against the district in 2016. They alleged that the school district wrongly removed a homestead exemption in 2015 and illegally assessed and collected taxes as a result. The dispute had to do with changes in state law regarding homestead exemptions around that time. The case ultimately went to the state Supreme Court, but the Kilgore ISD decided to settle. A Gregg County Court-at-Law judge approved the agreed upon settlement of more than $2.9 million to the district’s taxpayers, who have until May 1 to apply to receive a payment from the settlement.

COFFEE CITY — The Coffee City Police Department is warning people about a man who is allegedly impersonating an officer. Authorities said he is a white man between 25 and 35-years-old, and he is driving a black Tahoe with red and blue lights. The man is around 5’6” and between 165-190 lbs. The man reportedly pulled people over in Tyler and Coffee City, and he was wearing a tan or brown uniform, officials said. Coffee City officers typically wear dark blue or black uniforms, and they have their badge and name tag. Police vehicles also have “police” written on the side and Texas license plates that say exempt. Law enforcement said they have also received two reports that another man in a black Charger has pulled people over. Continue reading Coffee City police looking for man impersonating officer

AUSTIN — The Texas Senate Tuesday voted 19-12 to send Senate Bill 2 to the House of Representatives. The measure would make illegal voting a felony. According to our news partner KETK, Senator Bryan Hughes of East Texas authored the bill after an amendment in 2021’s Senate Bill 1 lowered the felony to a Class A misdemeanor. “This type of voter fraud this bill is targeting is exceedingly rare. It hardly ever happens,” said Katie Owens with voter services for The League of Women Voters of Tyler/Smith County. Hughes said in the last session the bill wasn’t debated, was overlooked, and needed attention. “To lower the penalty of an offense sends the message that this offense is less serious and we do not want to send that message,” said Hughes. Continue reading Hughes’s illegal voting bill advances but draws local opposition

TYLER — The City of Tyler Fire Department and Emergency Management officials are monitoring the weather conditions in the Tyler area for the severe thunderstorms predicted for the evening of Thursday, March 16 and Friday, March 17. According to the National Weather Service in Shreveport, large hail, damaging wind gusts, and isolated tornadoes are possible in Tyler. Officials say emergency service capabilities are at full strength. Fire, Police, Streets, Water/Sewer, Traffic and Information Technology departments will place personnel on standby if needed and respond as appropriate, according to a news release. Continue reading City of Tyler officials monitoring severe weather predicted for Thursday and Friday

LONGVIEW — Longview residents looking for information on the city’s finances have a new tool – the city’s Open Finance Portal. The interactive website provides citizens and stakeholders access to current municipal government financial information. The platform pulls financial data directly from the city’s financial system and is refreshed daily, according to a news release. Officials say the portal provides users the opportunity to view, filter, and analyze revenue, operating budget, actual spending, and vendor data. Click here to learn more.

TYLER — The Texas Department of Transportation is hosting a virtual public meeting with an in-person option regarding the six-lane widening project on FM 2493, more commonly known as Old Jacksonville Highway. Officials encourage you to participate and share your comments on improving safety and mobility along the highway from Loop 323 to FM 2813. The virtual public meeting is available from 8 a.m. Tuesday, March 21, through Wednesday, April 12. The in-person public meeting will be held in a come-and-go format March 28 from 5-7 p.m. at the Regional Training and Development Complex on the Tyler Junior College West Campus. Click this link for all the details.

OVERTON — Due to loss of water pressure owing to a water leak repair, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has required the City of Overton public water system to notify all customers to boil their water prior to consumption. In lieu of boiling, individuals may purchase bottled water or obtain water from some other suitable source for drinking water or human consumption purposes, according to officials. When it is no longer necessary to boil the water, the public water system officials say they will notify customers that the water is safe for drinking water or human consumption purposes. Click here for further details and updates.

LONGVIEW – A report filed to the Texas Attorney General’s office revealed more details on Sunday’s fatal officer-involved-shooting in Longview. According to our news partner KETK, the report says on March 12 at approximately 3:35 a.m., a White Oak police officer observed a vehicle with a flat front tire traveling west on Highway 80. When the vehicle made a u-turn in the intersection to head east on Highway 80, the officer activated his lights and siren to pull the vehicle over, but the driver reportedly did not stop, according to the report. The driver continued into the city of Longview, stopped at Loop 281 and Highway 31, and ran from the vehicle while allegedly shooting several rounds from a handgun in an unknown direction, according to the report. Continue reading New details on Longview officer-involved shooting

TYLER — The Tyler Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Transportation Policy Committee will hold a regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, March 23 beginning at 10 a.m. at the Tyler Development Center’s Large Conference Room on W. Ferguson St. The committee will receive a presentation on the draft 2024-2025 Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) detailing the MPO’s proposed budget for the next two fiscal years. It will also receive a presentation on statewide and local safety performance in 2021 and consider supporting the 2023 statewide performance targets adopted by the Texas Transportation Commission. Click here for further details.

HARRISON COUNTY – Officials in Harrison County are seeking help finding a missing 24-year-old man. According to our news partner KETK, Jose Roman Teniente is described by the sheriff’s office as 5’8″ and about 280 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Teniente has brown facial hair and was last seen wearing blue jeans, a black shirt, and tan boots. Officials said he has a tattoo of a sun with a face on one of his wrists and was last seen walking in the northwestern part of the county, in the Harleton and Lake Deerwood area. Anyone with information on Teniente’s location is asked to contact Lt. Mack Fuller or Sgt. David Newsom at 903-923-4000.

TYLER – The Transportation Planning and Programming (TPP) Division of TxDOT will be collecting short-term traffic counts at 6,000 locations in the Tyler District until April 6. The effort began this past Monday. These 24-hour traffic counts will be collected by contract personnel for all system roadways, including state highways, city streets and county roads, according to a news release. Officials say on average, TPP collects 80,000 short-term traffic counts throughout the state on an annual basis. Traffic count data are then analyzed and adjusted to create an Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT), one of the many products produced from traffic count data. Continue reading TxDOT to conduct short-term traffic counts till April 6

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A Longview man who is facing over a dozen federal charges in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot filed a motion last week asking the court to keep prosecutors from mentioning “imaginary police deaths that took place on Jan. 6, 2021.” According to our news partner KETK, Ryan Nichols, 32, was arrested on Jan. 18, 2021, by the FBI and has since been indicted on multiple charges including assault, civil disorder, tampering with a witness, and violent entry on Capitol grounds. Nichols was granted release from detention and allowed to return to his Longview home “strictly for the purpose of preparing for trial,” according to court documents. On Feb. 27, Nichols also filed a motion asking the court delay his trial to review 41,000 hours of soon-to-be-public CCTV footage to ensure he and the Court have “accurate facts and context surrounding Jan. 6.”