KTBB News, Weather, Talk

TYLER — Former President George W. Bush is tonight’s Distinguished Lecturer at U.T. Tyler — and the event is now sold out. The Joseph Z. and Louise H. Ornelas Lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. KTBB is among the media sponsors and will be on hand for the speech. The evening will also include a dinner to aid the university’s scholarship program.

TYLER — The next hearing is about two months away in the custody fight over Jaden McLean. According to KETK, two-year-old Jaden is recovering from a near-fatal head wound suffered when he found a loaded gun in the sports bar owned by his grandparents. Now, his divorced parents are fighting for custody, and proceedings continued Friday. Among other things, Accusations of drug use and excessive drinking flew back and forth as family members watched. Judge Carole Clark ruled Jaden will remain in foster care while both parents are drug tested and treated for anger management and co-dependency.

LONGVIEW — A 22-year-old Gilmer woman dies in a Longview accident. Monday morning just before 12:40, Longview Officers responded to a one-vehicle crash that occurred in the 1200 Block of West Marshall Avenue.

Officers found that Destiny Boyle had been westbound on West Marshall Avenue when her vehicle left the roadway in a curve and struck a utility pole. There were no other occupants in Boyle’s vehicle and no other vehicles were involved. Boyle was pronounced dead at the scene, and it was determined that she was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.

TYLER — Tyler Rescue Ministries has a couple of fundraising events scheduled in its continuing effort to help the area’s homeless. Founder/CEO Maurice Barnes invites everyone to a concert Thursday featuring Casey Rivers and Beyond the Ashes. It’s set for 7:00pm at First United Methodist Church of Lindale. Saturday, it’s the ministry’s 13th Anniversary Banquet, featuring Congressman Louie Gohmert. That event will take place at 6 p.m. at Tyler’s Southside Baptist Church. Barnes says you must make a reservation for the banquet; to do that, you can e-mail maurice@tylerrescueministries.org or call 903-877-9252. Both events are free, but love offerings will be taken.

Tyler Rescue Ministries currently consists of Kathryn’s House, a facility for single women and women with small children. But the organization’s “Catch the Vision – Save a Family” capital campaign, which includes the two upcoming events, seeks to raise funds for expansion of the ministry’s work. That involves purchasing an additional 40 acres to provide care for eight intact families at one time. Barnes says once the campaign’s work is done, “We will be the only Christian ministry shelter in nine counties that will allow the entire family to learn, to grow, and to serve together as a family.” You can go to http://www.tylerrescueministries.org for more information.

TYLER — The Tyler District Office of the Texas parole division is seeking volunteers. The office’s chaplain and volunteer coordinator, Jesse McLendon, said on KTBB “Staff Meeting” that parolees have various needs. Current parole programs address such issues as literacy, life skills, parenting, and substance abuse. McLendon says it’s all with an eye on keeping former prisoners from returning to prison. If you’d like to help, you can email McLendon at jesse.mclendon@tdcj.state.tx.us or call him at 903-581-8311 or 903-312-7780. McLendon also discussed other aspects of the parole division’s work. You can go to http://www.ktbb.com/audio to hear the “Staff Meeting” show online beginning early Monday.

TYLER — Here’s a quick look at events and work planned in the Tyler District of the Texas Department of Transportation.

SMITH COUNTY — Texas Department of Transportation maintenance crews this week are scheduled to perform edge repairs on Farm Road 346 between U.S. Highway 69 in Flint and State Highway 110 in Whitehouse. Daytime lane closures will be in effect while the work is in progress, and flaggers will control traffic.

LONGVIEW — Texas Department of Transportation maintenance crews this week are scheduled to perform pavement repairs in various locations on Spur 63 in Longview. Daytime lane closures will be in effect while the work is in progress, and flaggers will control traffic in two-lane areas.

QUITMAN — Texas Department of Transportation maintenance crews this week are scheduled to continue approximately two weeks of resurfacing operations on State Highway 154 east of State Highway 37 near Quitman High School, and begin base-repair operations on Farm Road 2966 north of Quitman. Daytime lane closures will be in effect in each location while the work is in progress, and flaggers will control traffic in two-lane areas.

HENDERSON COUNTY — Texas Department of Transportation maintenance crews this week are scheduled to perform edge and pavement repairs on Farm Road 3062 between Malakoff and Star Harbor, and on Ranch Road 2588 between LaRue and the end of state maintenance. Daytime lane closures will be in effect in each location while the work is in progress, and flaggers will control traffic.

RUSK COUNTY — Texas Department of Transportation maintenance crews this week are scheduled to conclude several days of resurfacing operations in various locations on U.S, Highway 84 east of U.S. Highway 259 in Mount Enterprise, followed upon completion by the same work on Farm Road 13 between State Highway 42 and Loop 571. Daytime lane closures will be in effect in each location while the work is in progress, and flaggers will control traffic.

ANDERSON COUNTY — Texas Department of Transportation maintenance crews this week are scheduled to perform resurfacing operations in various locations on Farm Road 315 between U.S. Highway 175 in Poynor and Farm Road 837 in Brushy Creek, and on Farm Road 837 between State Highway 19 and U.S. Highway 175.

A second crew is scheduled to make pavement repairs on U.S. Highway 287 between the Trinity River Bridge and Cayuga, and on Farm Road 2054 between Farm Road 321 and the Coffield Prison Unit. Daytime lane closures will be in effect in each location while the work is in progress, and flaggers will control traffic.

BOSTON (AP) — Native East Texan Mildred Jefferson, the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School and a nationally recognized leader of the anti-abortion movement, has died at age 84. Anne Fox, the president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, says Jefferson died Friday in Cambridge. She says Jefferson recently became ill.

Jefferson helped establish the National Right to Life Committee. Communications director Derrick Jones says she was its at-large director when she died. Jefferson was born in Pittsburg, Texas, in 1926, the daughter of a schoolteacher and a minister. She grew up in Carthage and graduated from Texas College in Tyler and earned a master’s degree from Tufts University in Medford, Mass.

Jefferson had also taught as an assistant clinical professor of surgery at Boston University Medical School. She was given honorary degrees by 28 schools.

JACKSONVILLE — An accident at the Mud Creek off-road park in Jacksonville has killed a Tyler man. Michael Chad Gray, 26, had become separated from his group. He was found around 12:15 Saturday morning with a severe head injury. Attempts to resuscitate him failed. His body was sent to Tyler for autopsy.

TYLER — A Tyler man is hospitalized after firefighters rescued him from his burning home. The man was found in the bedroom of his duplex at 3907 McDonald Road around 4:30 Saturday morning. Firemen reported smoke and fire billowing from the home when they arrived. The cause of the fire, which is believed to have started in the living room, remains under investigation.

TYLER — Ideal weather brought out thousands who lined the streets for the Texas Rose Festival Parade. The parade, which helps end the annual rose festival, starts at Glenwood and West Front and then proceeds into Trinity Mother Francis Rose Stadium. Capping off Saturday’s parade was the Queen’s Float with Rose Queen Mary-Lawson Bracken Walden. This year’s festival theme is “A Tapestry of Blessings.”

In other activities, the Ladies’ Brunch featured New York Times best-selling author Sandra Brown. Legendary financier T. Boone Pickens keynoted the Men’s Luncheon. Both of those events were held Friday. Also on Friday were the Queen’s Coronations.

TYLER — A former Tyler seminary student has received five years probation and will be deported to Columbia. State District Court Judge Kerry Russell says Jorge Sanchez, 31, will remain in the Smith County Jail until he is deported. He will not be able to return to the country without permission from the U.S. Attorney General. Sanchez, a native of Columbia, was a student at Tyler’s Cathedral of Immaculate Conception after previous studies in Houston at the University of St. Thomas seminary. Sanchez was arrested in April on charges that he engaged in sexual contact with a teenage girl who was in a church youth group. Last month, he pleaded guilty to indecency with a child.

HALLSVILLE — A one vehicle accident on Interstate Highway 20, near the 610 Mile marker, has killed a Florida driver. The accident occurred around 12:45 Friday afternoon. Dead at the scene was Harold Spicer, 54.

The Department of Public Safety reports Spicer was west bound when his car started veering off the road. It hit a concrete culvert and traveled another 300 feet before stopping upside-down in a creek. Investigators feel Spicer may have had a medical problem or may have fallen asleep at the wheel. An autopsy has been ordered.

BEAUMONT – A 59-year-old Lufkin man has been sentenced to federal prison for child pornography violations. Philip Charles Taylor pleaded guilty on May 21, 2010, to possession of child pornography and was sentenced to 102 months Friday in Beaumont by U.S. District Judge Marcia Crone.

According to information presented in court, on Jan. 26, 2010, law enforcement officers made contact with Taylor after receiving information that Taylor was viewing child pornography in a Lufkin motel room with at least one child present. According to authorities, officers received consent to search Taylor’s computer and several DVDs found in the room, and discovered nine videos of minors involved in sexually explicit conduct. Prosecutors say some of the videos depicted children less than 12 years of age engaged in sadistic or masochistic conduct. Taylor was indicted by a federal grand jury on Mar. 17, 2010. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.

TYLER — Police say they now have all three suspects in custody in this week’s robbery at a Tyler dollar store. On Friday, Tyler Police Investigators received a Crime Stoppers tip on the location of 36-year-old Michael Wayne West. Police went to Town Village South apartments at 200 Muller Garden and found West in his mother’s apartment. Police say West was taken into custody without force and transported to Smith County Jail.

The other suspects were apprehended soon after the robbery, which happened shortly after noon Wednesday at the Family Dollar store located at 530 S.S.E. Loop 323. Officers were advised that a man entered the business and demanded money from the clerk. He did not display a weapon. The clerk gave him an undetermined amount of money. The man ran out of the store and got into a black SUV. The SUV was occupied by two women. A Smith County deputy constable followed the SUV and saw the man and one woman get out of the SUV at the Super 1 Foods located at 1105 East Gentry. The SUV then drove to the Family Dollar store located at 1401 E. Gentry.

Officers contacted the remaining woman in the SUV and arrested her for the robbery. Officers were advised that the two other suspects were seen leaving the Super 1 Foods. Officers were able to locate the second female suspect in the area of E. Line and Anderson Street in Tyler and arrested her for the robbery. The two females arrested have been identified as Lara Michelle Trumble, 37, of Tyler, and Amber Cordell Martin, 33, of Jacksonville. The women have also been transported to the Smith County Jail.

LUFKIN — A Lufkin man accepts a lesser charge earlier this week for attacking a deputy during the 4th of July weekend. According to KETK, 25-year-old Norman Thacker was on drugs when he ran from and kicked a deputy. Having already served 101 days in jail, Thacker will finish out his six-month sentence.