EAST Texas – Due to continued dry weather conditions and a lack of rain, several counties have issued burn bans across East Texas. These counties include: Van Zandt County, Hopkins County and Trinity County. Consult the Forest Service website for more information.
East Line Street to partly close
TYLER – Smith County shared that part of East Line Street in Downtown Tyler was closed starting on Thursday. According to Smith County, East Line Street from the railroad tracks to Center Avenue will be closed for around two weeks while the City of Tyler does roadwork in that area.
Smith County advised Adult Probation employees and customers to drive to their parking lot from Spring Avenue in order to avoid the road closure.
Pedestrian in crash identified
UPDATE: The woman who died on Wednesday has been identified as 44-year-old Lindsey Null. The Tyler Police Department said she was not crossing at a designated crosswalk when she was struck. The driver is not expected to face charges at this time.
TYLER – A crash involving a vehicle and a pedestrian has shut down all northbound and southbound lanes in the 1400 block of East Gentry Parkway. According to Tyler Police Department Public Information Officer Andy Erbaugh, officers responded to the scene at approximately 3:34 p.m. As of 3:55 p.m., all lanes remain closed as police and emergency crews work in the roadway. Drivers are urged to avoid the area and seek alternate routes.
Business owner guilty in tax fraud case
UPSHUR COUNTY — A woman pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a tax fraud scheme tied to her two Longview businesses, resulting in a tax loss of nearly $250,000. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Texas and our news partner KETK, Marneitha Reese Scott, 57, of Gilmer, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to aid, assist, counsel or advise in tax fraud. Evidence showed that Scott operated two tax return preparer businesses in Longview under the name F.A.S.T. Financial Firm.
“Scott and others recruited tax preparers to work at the businesses to prepare and file income tax returns for clients,” the U.S. attorney’s office said. “With others, Scott created a scheme to defraud the United States by instructing the tax preparers to create fraudulent entries on client tax returns, including, for example, claims for business losses when the client had no business.”
The tax returns were reportedly filed by Scott or her employees working at her direction, resulting in a tax loss for tax years 2019-2022 of $243,899.
Scott could face up to five years in federal prison, a potential fine and restitution at sentencing.
The further demise of journalism.
The Washington Post office following a mass layoff, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
You might have missed the story last week in which we learned that The Washington Post laid off somewhere between a third and half of its employees. It’s perhaps the biggest one-day journalism bloodbath on record.
Gone is the sports section. Gone are features like book reviews. Gone is the local photography staff. Gone are bureaus in Europe and Asia. It’s the same old story. A newspaper’s readership declines. Business suffers. The newspaper lays off staff. The quality and quantity of content suffers. Readership further declines.
Such has been the story at iconic newspapers in big markets across the United States.
Jeff Bezos, you might recall, bought the Post in 2013. He has yet to make a dime on the purchase. According to reports, the paper lost $100 million in 2025. Even billionaires notice a financial leak of $100 million.
Media reporting places the blame on “the changing landscape in journalism” and the “secular challenges facing the newspaper industry.”
Certainly, those things are factors. Newspapers were particularly vulnerable to the disruption brought about by the advent of the internet. A news website can update itself on the fly in real time and push that update to your phone. A traditional newspaper must ink up a press and then load the printed product on trucks to be delivered to the four corners of the paper’s service area.
Websites like eBay and Indeed.com killed the once immensely profitable classified advertising section.
Those things are real, and they assuredly impacted The Post.
But what the media doesn’t report is that The Washington Post – like most of the “legacy” media industry – long ago devolved into a house organ for the Democratic Party. The paper – either intentionally or by accident – largely quit pretending to be balanced in its reporting.
When Bezos tried to move the paper back to the center, he faced a revolt in his newsroom while many of The Post’s leftist subscribers abandoned the paper in a huff. That’s a bad combination when potential subscribers on the right have long ago written you off.
But unlike most daily papers, The Post’s troubles weren’t inevitable. The Post has the distinction of being in the news junkie capital of the world. Two things are true about Washington, D.C. One, it’s a two-party town. And two, news is consumed there at a voracious rate.
Put out a product that both sides are willing to trust, and you have a business. Write off half of your potential universe, and you have a problem.
This is what happens to businesses that become so arrogant as to believe that they can safely ignore the sensibilities and sincerely held beliefs of half the people in the marketplace (see Gillette and Bud Light).
Even with acknowledged industry challenges, The Post is a unique institution that, by virtue of where it is located and the profile of those who consume it, had the potential to remain financially viable. Instead, it suffered for the fact that though leftists are almost always wrong, they’re never uncertain.
Guilty plea in tax fraud scheme
TYLER – A Longview tax preparer has pleaded guilty to a federal violation in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs. 57-year-old Marneitha Reese Scott, of Gilmer, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to aid, assist, counsel, or advise in tax fraud before U.S. Magistrate Judge K. Nicole Mitchell on February 18, 2026.
According to information presented in court, Scott owned a tax return preparer business operated under the name of F.A.S.T. Financial Firm (“FAST”), with two locations in Longview. Scott and others recruited tax preparers to work at the businesses to prepare and file income tax returns for clients.
With others, Scott created a scheme to defraud the United States by instructing the tax preparers to create fraudulent entries on client tax returns, including, for example, claims for business losses when the client had no business. Continue reading Guilty plea in tax fraud scheme
Not guilty by insanity
TYLER – Robert Harrison Johnson IV has been found not guilty by reason of insanity after a house fire in 2022 killed his half-brother with special needs. Johnson had been in a state hospital, and a report from January stated that he was insane at the time of the offense.
On May 18, 2022, Johnson’s half-brother Jack McKenzie Ross, 35, died in the house fire in the 11300 block of County Road 1113. He was arrested by police in DeSoto weeks later.
Records revealed that Johnson was smoking a cigarette in his room when embers landed on a nearby towel. Johnson, in a conversation with investigators, claimed that a “ghost” stopped him from leaving the house. He was also asked why he didn’t help Ross who was in the next room. His response was a claim that spirits forced him out. Continue reading Not guilty by insanity
David Rancken’s App of the Day 02/19/26 – KaiWise!
Do you want to know the true ingredients in the soup can in your shopping cart? Then get David Rancken’s App Of The Day. It’s called KaiWise. You can download KaiWise in the Apple Store and Google Play below.
Scoreboard roundup — 2/18/26
(NEW YORK) -- Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
Men's College Basketball
BYU 68, Arizona 75
Creighton 91, UConn 84
Kansas 81, Oklahoma State 69
Illinois 101, USC 65
Gonzaga 80, San Francisco 59
Virginia 94, Georgia Tech 68
St. John's 76, Marquette 70
Vanderbilt 80, Missouri 81
Arkansas 115, Alabama 117
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
No self-defense in road rage shooting
TYLER — New details have been released in the fatal road rage shooting that killed a 29-year-old Whitehouse Marine veteran in Tyler on Friday evening, where a preliminary investigation revealed there was no need for self-defense.
The Tyler Police Department received multiple 911 calls around 5:06 p.m. on Feb. 13 reporting that a man had been shot multiple times.
According to an arrest affidavit from Smith County, officers were dispatched to the intersection of E. Grande Boulevard and Paluxy Drive in Tyler, where they found a man lying unresponsive on the roadway while another man performed CPR.
According to our news partner KETK, the affidavit states that Dayton Alexander Morgan, 23, was driving a white 2008 Dodge Ram pickup eastbound with a front-seat passenger. A white Tesla was also traveling eastbound in front of Morgan’s vehicle. The Tesla was driven by a woman with Trevor Julian in the passenger seat and three children in the back. Continue reading No self-defense in road rage shooting
Counties report early voting numbers
TYLER — Early voting began Tuesday, several counties have already reported their first-day totals. Our news partner KETK has compiled early voting turnout numbers for East Texas counties following the first day of voting. You can view that list here.
Detainee death due to health
HARRISON COUNTY – An inmate at the Harrison County Jail died on Wednesday morning following a medical emergency, that according to our news partner KETK and the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office. Officials said that around 1 a.m., staff members at the jail became aware that 63-year-old inmate Lawrence Siford was having a medical emergency. Prior to the emergency, Siford had suffered from chronic medical conditions and was under a medical watch according to the sheriff’s office. Siford was taken to a local hospital following the medical episode and was pronounced dead at around 4 a.m. The Texas Rangers are currently investigating Siford’s death and at this time, no foul play is suspected.
Nothing suspicious in prison death
GREGG COUNTY — No foul play is suspected after an inmate died on Tuesday following a medical emergency at the Gregg County jail. According to our news partner KETK, the Gregg County Sheriff’s Office said that staff were notified of an inmate having a medical emergency at a dorm in the county’s north jail facility at around 2:25 p.m. When detention officers and medical staff arrived, they found a 68-year-old inmate having a severe medical episode.
Longview Fire and EMS were called to the scene, who then transported the inmate to a local hospital, where he later died. The Texas Rangers were notified and will investigate in accordance with the sheriff’s office policy and Texas Commission on Jail Standards. More information is expected to be released.
David Rancken’s App of the Day 02/18/26 – Just Delete Me!
David Rancken’s App of the Day is a specialized deletion app. It’s called Just Delete Me. You can get Just Delete Me in the Apple Store and Google Play below.
Traffic congestion continues to drop
TYLER — Broadway Avenue has long been known as one of the most congested roads in Tyler. Five years ago, it ranked among the 50 most congested roads in the state, according to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). By 2023, its ranking improved significantly, dropping 40 spots to 87th place. In 2024, Broadway Avenue exited the top 100, landing in 102nd place. The following year, in 2025, it dropped another 18 spots to 120th place.
According to a City of Tyler news release, the continued drop is the result of multiple years of planning and annual traffic signal re-timing, initiated in 2019 as part of the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Master Plan Study. This study set out a 10-year signal re-timing effort to reduce congestion and improve safety each year. Continue reading Traffic congestion continues to drop