ARP – The Arp Police Department has released body camera footage from an officer who shot a resident’s dog on Friday while he was responding to a fire. According to our news partner KETK, and Arp PD, the officer was getting off of another service call at around 7:40 p.m. on Friday when he saw black smoke rising from a property a few streets away. When he got to the scene, he saw a 20-foot tall fire emerging from behind a residence and so headed towards the fire to see if the residence was in danger.
Arp Police Chief Joe Keegan said in a statement on Saturday that the officer was walking towards the property’s fence when two dogs approached from the other side of the fence and crawled under it. The officer feared for his safety as the dogs reportedly attempted to attack him so he fired two shots from his department issued pistol, hitting one of the two dogs. Continue reading Officer kills a resident’s dog
LONGVIEW — On Thursday, the Longview City Council approved the construction of a new entrance to Teague Park, which residents say has been declining over the years. According to our news partner KETK, Teague Park has been a part of the Longview community for decades and is seeing a decline that cannot be ignored.
“Kind of been known as a nightly activity type of place,” Longview resident John Dove said.
To combat the issue, the city council has approved the next big step toward the park’s revitalization with the ‘Bring Back Teague Park’ project. The city is partnering with the Longview Economic Development Corporation, which is committing a million dollars to the project, including the addition of a new entrance.
“Well, it means quite a bit. Teague Park is one of those assets that needs to be brought to life.” Longview Economic Development Corporation President & CEO Wayne Mansfield said.
The goal is to once again put a spotlight on a public space where everyone can come together.
“The entrance into Teague Park would bring a lot more visibility to the park and make it more utilized by the community,” Mansfield said.
TYLER – A new lithium mining project planned in Northeast Texas has received the green light from the Trump Administration.
“What’s exciting about East Texas in particular is the lithium grade there,” CEO of Standard Lithium, Jesse Edmondson, said.
According to our news partner KETK, parts of the East Texas region will be home to Standard Lithium’s second commercial project to extract the precious mineral from saltwater thousands of feet underground.
” We see most of the growth of our company over the next decade will be in East Texas,” Edmondson said.
The Canada-based company went through a federal permitting review process in the U.S., which determined a very minimal environmental impact to our water, air, and landscape.
“You’re talking about on the order of a dozen to two dozen well pads, each one of which can have multiple wells drilled off of them. Then the surface disturbance is really limited to those well pads themselves and then the central processing facility,” Edmondson said.
The company’s flagship projects in the U.S. are located in what’s called the ” Smackover Formation.” It focuses on the areas in Franklin County and parts of Hopkins and Titus counties.
The average grade for our Franklin project is just over 600 milligrams per liter, but we’ve actually drilled a hole in that project area that was as high as is 800 milligrams per liter, so these are truly globally significant world class numbers and it’s really exciting for the company, we think for East Texas and for our country that we’re currently reliant on China for lithium and for lithium chemicals, so which are critical for modern battery technology,” Edmondson said.
Edmondson said the project is different from Lithium-ion battery storage facilities and focuses on extraction.
Most recently, a storage project was halted by a district judge in Van Zandt County.
“We don’t have the capacity to fight those kinds of fires, so if they don’t comply with the fire code, they should be redesigned,” Van Zandt Co. Precinct 2 Commissioner Cliff Williams said.
Williams hopes the new mining project will comply with state and national codes and not kick people out of their homes.
“That [mining project] is done in such a way that it respects the property ownership of those owners that live out there next door to where these operations are going to be taking place,” Williams said.
The extraction project is still in the early stages, and construction wouldn’t begin until at least 2030. Standard Lithium said this massive project will bring hundreds of jobs to the area.
AUSTIN (AP) — The small plane that crashed while carrying four pickleball players to a tournament near Austin last month had problems with freezing instruments before it broke apart midair, according to a preliminary federal investigation report released Friday.
The Cessna 421C took off from Amarillo on April 30 at 9:10 p.m. and crashed at about 11 p.m. in Wimberley, a city about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Austin. Pilot Justin Appling and passengers Hayden Dillard, Brooke Skypala, Stacy Hedrick and Seren Wilson died.
The National Transportation Safety Board report said that during the flight, the pilot reported problems with the plane’s anti-icing system that protects onboard instruments.
He later reported an instrument that measures airspeed had “iced up” and that he was using backup gauges. He was cleared to descend to 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) and told air controllers he wanted to get to a lower altitude to try to “warm back up.”
Over the last 15 minutes before the crash, the plane flew at altitudes where temperatures hovered just below freezing, according to the report.
The pilot’s last radio transmission with air controllers was made at 10:59 p.m. The plane then made a series of descending left and right turns before crashing to the ground.
Investigators found pieces of the plane over a 1.25-mile (2-kilometer) debris field, distribution consistent with an “inflight breakup,” the report said.
It was mostly cloudy in the area shortly before the crash, and there was a thunderstorm two hours later, the National Weather Service said.
A second plane traveling with the group landed safely in New Braunfels.
CHEROKEE COUNTY — Two people are dead following a two-vehicle crash on Highway 110 in Cherokee County on Friday afternoon. According to our news partner KETK, the cause of the crash and the identity of the victim have not been released. The accident is still under investigations.
Medical staff direct some of the last passengers to be evacuated from the MV Hondius on May 11, 2026, in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands, Spain. (Chris Mcgrath/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) -- Health experts tell ABC News that the current science behind the hantavirus that circulated throughout the MV Hondius does not show the same levels of transmission as with COVID-19, while acknowledging that the scenario may seem similar to the beginning of the 2020 pandemic.
"Our current understanding is that person-to-person transmission of Andes virus is relatively rare and generally associated with prolonged close contact," the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention public health assessment said. "There is also no documented evidence of presymptomatic transmission."
Officials around the globe have taken major steps to prevent the spread of the hantavirus, and an American doctor who was onboard noted how conditions on the cruise ship may have helped the virus propagate.
In the U.S., the boat's 18 American passengers have been put in quarantine in Nebraska, while more than 40 people with exposure to the sick are being monitored to see if they develop the illness.
"In the vast majority of cases it happens when people breathe in mouse secretions," Dr. Emily Abdoler, a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, who specializes in infectious diseases, told ABC News.
"The Andes strain found in Chile and Argentina has the possibility of human-to-human transmission, but that's really more really close contact. It's not sharing the same household," she added. "It's more like sharing the same bed."
Dr. Stephen Kornfeld, an American oncologist who became the ship's de facto doctor after the Hondius' physician contracted the virus, initially received inconclusive results with samples taken from the ship but later tested negative.
Speaking to ABC News from his quarantine on Thursday, Kornfeld noted that conditions on the ship -- including ventilation and the size of rooms -- could have created a "complicated" situation for transmission while observing some social casual contact.
"If you do have casual contact, you're doing it repetitively," he said. "There were three rooms that we would gather in many times a day, often for an hour or an hour and a half, for lectures and discussions and meals. And I can just envision lots of frequent casual contacts, and perhaps over time that adds up to something more than just a single casual contact."
Abdoler, who helped diagnose a case of hantavirus in Michigan in 2021 -- the type we have in the U.S. that does not spread between people --said the benefit that medical professionals and agencies, such as the World Health Organization, have now is that the hantavirus has been researched for over 30 years. It is not a new virus.
While the data around the Andes strain believed to have been on the boat is still limited given the rare number of cases outside of South America, Abdoler said there does not appear to be any indication that the transmission methods have changed for the Andes strain.
ABC News medical contributor and epidemiologist Dr. John Brownstein concurred, saying that previous research suggests the hantavirus is a respiratory illness. That means germs can be coughed up, he noted, but it is not an aerosol-based virus.
"It's not like COVID or measles where it could linger in the air for some time," he said.
Brownstein added that the incubation period for the virus is long, and despite the lower risk for person-to-person transmission, it is critical that health officials stick to their policies to isolate and monitor anyone connected to the Hondius. Isolation can then be initiated if they become a positive case.
"Incubation can be anywhere from one to eight weeks," he noted.
During a news briefing Friday, WHO officials stressed that said there is no evidence so far that the virus has changed to become more transmissible or more severe.
Officials said transmission is believed to be based on several factors, including how infectious the patient is, the environment and whether protection and PPE was used.
On Friday, acting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Jay Bhattacharya told reporters no cases of hantavirus have been reported in the U.S.
There are now at least 10 cases that have been linked to the ship's outbreak. Two passengers died from the virus and a third death has been deemed probable by WHO.
Sixteen Hondius passengers, including Kornfeld, initially were flown to the quarantine center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and had not shown any symptoms as of early Friday. Kornfeld had been placed in a biocontainment unit at the facility.
Two other American passengers were flown to Atlanta for "assessment and care," according to officials. They were later transferred to the quarantine unit in Nebraska on Friday.
The remainder of the passengers are in quarantine at home and are being monitored.
WHO warned more positive cases could still appear during quarantine because the virus' incubation period is long, but said that would not necessarily mean the outbreak is growing.
Abdoler noted that the fact that there have not been as many positive cases from the ship and their contacts shows that the data about the Andes transmission is holding up and there are no signs that the virus can spread as easily as other pathogens.
She noted that he is glad that the risk is being taken seriously and that those that have been exposed are being monitored.
"My sense is that there is no really need to panic, but [WHO] is taking a very conservative approach to the outbreak and asking everyone to isolate during the intubation period," she said.
"I think it is good they are taking a conservative approach because there are unknowns, but I am not personally altering my personal practices of travel or how I go out," she added.
- ABC News' Dragana Jovanovic contributed to this report.
NUEVO PROGRESO, MEXICO – The U.S. Marshals captured one of the top 10 most wanted Texas sex offenders in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. According to our news partner KETK, Kit Edward Lulow, 42, was convicted of rape, sexual abuse and sodomy of a 13-year-old girl in Oregon in 2008. Lulow was sentenced to 75 months in prison for those charges but was arrested multiple times between 2014 and 2019 for violating his parole.
In February, he was arrested in Marion County, Texas, for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of child pornography. He later bonded out of Marion County Jail and fled to Mexico, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS)
Lulow was also wanted in Cass County since February for failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements. Then in April, the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Texas issued two warrants for Lulow’s arrest on a charge of possession of child pornography. Continue reading Most wanted sex offender caught
ANDERSON COUNTY – The infamous black bear that has been making its way across East Texas for the past several months was spotted in Anderson County earlier this week.
The bear was spotted on Thursday evening on private property near Highway 294 and the Neches River. It was reported back in April that the bear had spent the winter in the Anderson County area and is believed to be the first documented black bear to do so in East Texas in over 50 years.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) has stated that the bear is a young male growing rapidly and could be fully mature by the middle of this summer. The department thinks he may be heading into bear country in Louisiana, Arkansas, or Oklahoma based on his travels through East Texas. Continue reading Infamous black bear returns
John Travolta accepts his honorary Palme d’or during the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival at Plage Macé on May 15, 2026, in Cannes, France. (Aurore Marechal/Getty Images)
John Travolta has been awarded a surprise honorary Palme d'or.
The honor was given to Travolta before the world premiere of his directorial debut film, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, at the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival.
According to Deadline, Travolta received a standing ovation and called the Palme d'or "an honor beyond the Oscars.”
A sizzle reel showing moments from Travolta's film career was also shown. After watching the clips, the outlet reports Travolta said, "You see your whole life before you like I did in this. I feel a mixture of things, every image has memory and it’s very emotional. And the soundtrack that goes with all those memories. I’ve been doing film most of my life. Eighty-five percent of my life, so it was really nice to see that.”
Propeller One-Way Night Coach is an adaptation of the 1997 book that Travolta also wrote. An official description of the film from the Cannes Film Festival describes it as being inspired by Travolta's childhood memories, "from his first airplane flight to the unforgettable people and stories he has collected over the years."
It follows a young airplane enthusiast named Jeff (Clark Shotwell) and his mother (Kelly Eviston-Quinnett), who set off on a one-way cross-country trip to Hollywood.
Propeller One-Way Night Coach will debut to Apple TV on May 29.
EAST TEXAS (KETK) — Attorney General Ken Paxton has notified more than 130 Texas cities on Thursday that they are barred from raising property taxes above the no?new?revenue rate after his office determined they failed to meet state audit and transparency requirements under a new law.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, more than 1,000 Texas municipalities were asked to provide documents showing whether they complied with SB 1851, which requires every city to complete annual financial audits and meet state transparency standards. After reviewing those submissions, investigators identified more than 130 cities that allegedly failed to meet the required benchmarks for the upcoming fiscal year.
Thirteen East Texas cities appear on the AG’s list:
Letters sent by the state warn those municipalities that they may face enforcement actions and penalties under SB 1851 and cannot legally approve property tax increases beyond the no-new-revenue rate until compliance issues are resolved.
The Attorney General’s Office said the list of cities currently identified as non-compliant is preliminary and that additional municipalities could face similar restrictions as the investigation continues.
Paxton said the effort is intended to protect Texas taxpayers from unlawful tax increases and ensure local governments follow state law. State officials indicated that further enforcement actions may follow if additional cities are found to be out of compliance with the financial reporting requirements outlined in SB 1851.
“Cities cannot ignore state audit and transparency requirements without consequences,” Paxton said in a statement. “My office will continue enforcing the law to protect taxpayers across Texas.”
Statements from East Texas cities:
City of Tool
“We respect and understand the Attorney General’s determination regarding the City of Tool’s current audit status. To date, the City of Tool is completing its 2024 audit and have already corresponded with our third-party auditors in regards to our 2025 fiscal year audit, expected to be completed by the end of this fiscal year. We are committed to being fiscally responsible and strive to not only be in compliance with state law, but to continue to provide a level of transparency and commitment with taxpayers’ money.”
City of Huntington
We were notified by the Attorney General’s office yesterday afternoon that we were in violation of the provisions of SB 1851, which will effectively prevent the city from adopting a tax rate that exceeds the no-new-revenue rate for 2026.
As you are surely aware, the effective date on those provisions was September 1, 2025. The City’s 2026 fiscal year budget and 2025 tax rate had already been adopted by ordinance before that effective date, so the provisions did not apply for the setting of the 2025 tax rate.
Public hearings were published and held in accordance with the Public Meetings Act prior to those ordinances being adopted.
Our financial records have been in the hands of Mr. David Godwin and his capable staff since February 2026, but the audit was not completed by the required deadline of March 30, 2026. We are still awaiting the completed audit and expect that to be submitted for Council review in the near future. City officials are absolutely aware of the provisions that will restrict this year’s tax rate and plan to abide by the letter of the law.
As far as transparency is concerned, the City’s 2026 fiscal year budget and the audit for fiscal year 2024 are on the City’s website – http://www.cityofhuntington.org – under the Finance Department tab. As soon as the audit is completed and received by our office, it will be posted on the website posthaste.
City of Rusk
The City of Rusk has received notice from the Texas Office of the Attorney General regarding the City’s compliance with Local Government Code Chapter 103 and related requirements f fiscal year 2025.
The City understands that, based on the Office of the Attorney General’s determination, the City has been found not to have complied with the audit and financial statement requirements applicable under state law and is therefore subject to the enforcement provisions set out in Local Government Code 103.055(c).
The City has been diligently working to resolve the issue and recently completed its 2024 audit.
The City remains committed to transparency, fiscal responsibility and full compliance with Texas law.
Under the applicable statute, the City may not adopt an ad valorem tax rate that exceeds its no-new-revenue tax rate until compliance is achieved. The City intends to be in compliance as soon as possible.
The City will continue working diligently to address this matter.
KETK News has contacted additional East Texas cities for comment and is awaiting their responses.
The cast of 'Boys of Tommen.' (Christian Tierney/Prime Video)
The main cast for the Boys of Tommen TV series adaptation has been revealed.
Prime Video has cast Nancy Surridge, Conor Sánchez, James O’Donoghue and Sophie McGibbon as the main cast in this adaptation of Irish author Chloe Walsh's bestselling romance book series. They will play the characters Shannon Lynch, Johnny Kavanagh, Joey Lynch and Aoife Molloy, respectively.
Boys of Tommen follows a forbidden love story between star rugby player Johnny and the shy new girl, Shannon, at the prestigious private school of Tommen College.
"Both teenagers are hiding secrets; Johnny, a potentially career-ending injury, and Shannon, a troubled and violent homelife. Through their secret and highly charged connection, the two teens from opposite worlds battle against the odds and find a way to save each other," according to an official description from Prime Video.
The show will be directed by Brendan Canty and was adapted by Poppy Cogan. It's based on the first two books in Walsh's series.
“As someone who grew up in Cork, where these stories are set, this project feels incredibly personal to me. Poppy has done an amazing job adapting Chloe’s beloved books, and the way both writers capture young people’s lives with such empathy, tenderness and honesty feels truly extraordinary to me," Canty said in a press release. "To do justice to the world they’ve created, we knew that finding the right cast was going to be everything. We searched far and wide, receiving over 3,000 casting suggestions from across the UK and Ireland, but from the moment Nancy, Conor, James and Sophie walked into the room, it was clear we’d found something beyond special. Each of them brings the spirit and emotional depth this story demands, and I couldn’t be more excited to bring Chloe’s world to the screen with this extraordinary young cast."
Ella Rubin is headed to the woods with Maya Hawke and Kerry Condon.
Netflix has announced that Rubin has joined the cast of the upcoming series The God of the Woods. It will be a series adaptation of the bestselling novel by Liz Moore.
The God of the Woods is a multigenerational drama series that's set in the Adirondacks. It explores the Van Laar family’s dark secrets, as well as the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar from her family’s summer camp and an earlier family tragedy.
"As the past and present collide, the Van Laars’ wealth and influence unravel, revealing the damaging consequences of privilege and the abuse of power," according to an official description from Netflix.
Rubin is set to play the series regular role of Louise Donnadieu, a working-class counselor at Camp Emerson. Her life is upended when one of her young campers goes missing. She joins Hawke and Condon, who will play Judy Luptack and Alice Van Laar, respectively.
Liz Hannah and Liz Moore serve as co-showrunners, writers and executive producers on this upcoming series.
TYLER – The Street and Stormwater Department is preparing to begin improvements on Old Bascom Road. The road will be closed Friday, May 22, and is anticipated to reopen Thursday, June 25.
Message boards will be placed at the intersections of Old Omen Road and Old Bascom Road, as well as Kent Drive and Old Bascom Road, to alert drivers to the upcoming closure.
The project includes replacing two collapsing tin culverts under the road with new prefabricated concrete box culverts. Crews will also make road repairs in the area. The entire road will be closed during construction. Continue reading Road improvements planned soon
DALLAS (KETK) – The 2026 NFL season is almost here but the Silver Star Nation doesn’t have to wait any longer to learn who the Dallas Cowboys will be facing on the field this year.
Here’s the 2026 Houston Texans regular season schedule
The NFL released team schedules on Thursday and KETK News has put Dallas’ regular season games together in the list below:
WEEK 1 · Sun 09/13 · 7:20 PM CDT at New York Giants
WEEK 2 · Sun 09/20 · 3:25 PM CDT vs Washington Commanders
WEEK 3 · Sun 09/27 · 3:25 PM CDT vs Baltimore Ravens in Brazil
WEEK 4 · Sun 10/04 · 12:00 PM CDT at Houston Texans
WEEK 5 · Thu 10/08 · 7:15 PM CDT vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers
WEEK 6 · Sun 10/18 · 7:20 PM CDT at Green Bay Packers
WEEK 7 · Mon 10/26 · 7:15 PM CDT at Philadelphia Eagles
WEEK 8 · Sun 11/01 · 12:00 PM CST vs Arizona Cardinals
WEEK 9 · Sun 11/08 · 12:00 PM CST at Indianapolis Colts
WEEK 10 · Sun 11/15 · 3:25 PM CST vs San Francisco 49ers
WEEK 11 · Sun 11/22 · 12:00 PM CST vs Tennessee Titans
WEEK 12 · Thu 11/26 · 3:30 PM CST vs Philadelphia Eagles
WEEK 13 · Mon 12/07 · 7:15 PM CST at Seattle Seahawks
WEEK 15 · Sun 12/20 · 3:25 PM CST at Los Angeles Rams
WEEK 16 · Sun 12/27 · 7:20 PM CST vs Jacksonville Jaguars
WEEK 17 · Sun 01/03 · 12:00 PM CST vs New York Giants
WEEK 18 · TBD at Washington Commanders
To learn more about the Cowboys’ preseason games or to buy tickets, visit the Dallas Cowboys online.
Do you ever wonder if you talk in your sleep? Get David Rancken’s App Of The Day. It’s called Sleep Talk Recorder. You can download Sleep Talk Recorder in the Apple Store and Google Play below.
ARP – The Arp Police Department has released body camera footage from an officer who shot a resident’s dog on Friday while he was responding to a fire. According to our news partner KETK, and Arp PD, the officer was getting off of another service call at around 7:40 p.m. on Friday when he saw black smoke rising from a property a few streets away. When he got to the scene, he saw a 20-foot tall fire emerging from behind a residence and so headed towards the fire to see if the residence was in danger.
