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HOUSTON COUNTY – After heavy rains swept through the area overnight on Saturday, several roads near Crockett and across Houston County have been left flooded or damaged.

The Crockett Fire Department issued a public safety alert on Saturday morning after heavy rainfall caused flooding on several roadways throughout the area, making many roads completely impassable.

The Texas Department of Transportation shared that they’ve closed FM 228 in Houston County after it was damaged and partly washed out by heavy rainfall on Saturday. They said repairs are underway and are expected to be finished on Saturday night.

The Crockett Fire Department gave the following safety tips for anyone on the road during flooding and heavy rains:

Stay home unless travel is absolutely necessary.
Do not drive through flooded roadways.
Turn around, don’t drown.
Use extreme caution if you must be on the roads.
Monitor local weather and emergency updates.

HOUSTON COUNTY (KETK) – The body of a teenage driver from near Houston was recovered from a creek near Crockett on Saturday after his car left the roadway.
Flooding leaves Houston County roads damaged, blocked

The Houston County Sheriff’s Office said they got a call at around 11 a.m. on Saturday about a young teen who was overdue at his home near Houston after he left Houston County Lake.

Deputies started searching along FM 229 in the areas that usually flood during times of heavy rain like the storms that moved through Houston County on Saturday morning. At around 1:45 p.m., the Houston County Emergency Management Coordinator was travelling on FM 229 when they noticed a damaged guardrail.

That damaged guardrail runs along FM 229 and over a creek which is just off of Loop 304, to the northwest of Crockett. The coordinator and a deputy went around 70 yards down the creek and found a front bumper of a car that had the missing teen’s license plate on it and then they found the roof of a car submerged about 30 yards further down the creek.

A Texas Parks and Wildlife Search and Rescue team that was in the area to help with flooding and the Houston County Search and Rescue team both responded to the scene and they were able to remove the young man’s body from the submerged car.

“This is a tragic event that will affect many of this young man’s family and friends,” Houston County Sheriff Zak Benge said on Saturday.

The cause of the crash is currently under investigation by the Crockett Police Department.

KAUFMAN COUNTY – Nine people were sent to local hospitals on Saturday after a 13-vehicle crash happened near FM 2965 on Interstate 20 westbound in Kaufman County.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), a multi-vehicle crash happened in the westbound lanes of Interstate 20 leaving several people injured.

The nearby Elmo Fire Department reported that multiple crashes happened on I-20 westbound near mile marker 511 at around 10:55 a.m. on Saturday. They also reported several other minor crashes on the eastbound side of I-20 from mile marker 509 to mile marker 511.
Video courtesy of Bonnie Rose.

In total, the Elmo Fire Department said 24 people were assessed for injuries at the scene and nine of those people had to be transported to local hospitals to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries. They said the crashes at the scene involved a total of 13 vehicles and four 18-wheelers.

The Elmo Fire Department added that mass casualty incident triage had to be established to help treat those injured at the scene. DPS said the roadway was reopened to traffic at around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.

FRISCO (AP) — Newly released video from an officer’s body camera and a surveillance camera at a Texas running track captures the moments after a teenage athlete fatally stabbed another teen from a rival team in the stadium bleachers during a high school meet last year.

Karmelo Anthony, 19, was convicted of murder on June 10 in the death of Austin Metcalf, 17, and sentenced to 35 years in prison. A jury rejected Anthony’s claims of self-defense. The videos were included in a batch of evidence released by the Collin County court following the conclusion of the trial.

The surveillance video shows the track and bleachers on a rainy day. Suddenly a figure wearing a gray sweatshirt is seen popping up from behind a yellow tent and then running down the steps. The video has no sound.

He got to the bottom of the bleachers, tripped and fell on the ground, and then kept running along the edge of the fencing that separates the bleachers from the running track. He stopped briefly, turned to look at what appeared to be someone chasing him, and then kept running.

After making his way part way around the track, he was joined by an unidentified person. They stopped to talk and then hugged. They started walking again and were joined by another person. After talking more, Anthony walked toward the fence where he appeared to meet up with a police officer.

The officer put him in handcuffs and walked him toward the police cruiser. Anthony obeyed the officer’s commands and then started crying.

“He put his hands on me,” Anthony said in a broken voice. “I told him not to. He put his hands on me.”

The officers escorted him to the police cruiser and placed him inside.

HOUSTON COUNTY (KETK) – After heavy rains swept through the area overnight on Saturday, several roads near Crockett and across Houston County have been left flooded or damaged.

The Crockett Fire Department issued a public safety alert on Saturday morning after heavy rainfall caused flooding on several roadways throughout the area, making many roads completely impassable.

The Texas Department of Transportation shared that they’ve closed FM 228 in Houston County after it was damaged and partly washed out by heavy rainfall on Saturday. They said repairs are underway and are expected to be finished on Saturday night.

The Crockett Fire Department gave the following safety tips for anyone on the road during flooding and heavy rains:
Stay home unless travel is absolutely necessary.
Do not drive through flooded roadways.
Turn around, don’t drown.
Use extreme caution if you must be on the roads.
Monitor local weather and emergency updates.

KAUFMAN COUNTY (KETK) – Nine people were sent to local hospitals on Saturday after a 13-vehicle crash happened near FM 2965 on Interstate 20 westbound in Kaufman County.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), a multi-vehicle crash happened in the westbound lanes of Interstate 20 leaving several people injured.

The nearby Elmo Fire Department reported that multiple crashes happened on I-20 westbound near mile marker 511 at around 10:55 a.m. on Saturday. They also reported several other minor crashes on the eastbound side of I-20 from mile marker 509 to mile marker 511.

In total, the Elmo Fire Department said 24 people were assessed for injuries at the scene and nine of those people had to be transported to local hospitals to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries. They said the crashes at the scene involved a total of 13 vehicles and four 18-wheelers.

The Elmo Fire Department added that mass casualty incident triage had to be established to help treat those injured at the scene. DPS said the roadway was reopened to traffic at around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.

PANOLA COUNTY – One man was shot and a woman injured after she reportedly jumped from a vehicle that was involved in a pursuit near the Texas-Louisiana border in Panola County on Friday, according to a news release and our news partner, KETK.

Panola County Sheriff Cutter Clinton said dispatchers received a 911 call at around 10:30 p.m. on Friday. In the background, they could hear a man and a woman arguing. The woman on the call then reportedly told dispatchers that she had jumped from the moving vehicle and was injured.

Sheriff’s office deputies, a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper, the Flatwoods Volunteer Fire Department and UT Health EMS were all sent to where the woman’s phone was pinged on FM 2517 near County Road 4702 and the state border with Louisiana.

A deputy and sergeant with Panola County Sheriff’s office stopped the vehicle on FM 2517 near County Road 470. The driver was identified as the woman caller’s brother, Napolean Cordell “Polie” Lockett of Beckville.

The sheriff’s office said Lockett then fled in his vehicle by turning onto FM 3359 and heading towards Louisiana before he reportedly turned onto County Road 455 where his vehicle crashed and rolled over.

Deputies helped remove Lockett from the crashed vehicle and discovered that he had been shot in the abdomen. The deputies arrested him for evading arrest with a vehicle, violation of conditional bond in a family violence incident and an unrelated grand jury indictment for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Lockett was taken to a hospital in Shreveport to be treated for his non-life-threatening gunshot wound and was booked into the Panola County Detention Center after he was discharged from the hospital on Saturday morning.

The woman caller was transported to a hospital in Longview to be treated for her injuries from jumping out of the vehicle. The case is currently under investigation by the Panola County Sheriff’s Office, which has contacted the De Soto Parish Sheriff’s Office since part of the case took place in Louisiana.

The Texas Highway Patrol is investigating the crash and the sheriff’s office said more charges will be filed in this case.

AUSTIN – A jury in Bexar County sentenced a child predator to life in prison, after he was found guilty of abusing children, according to a news release from Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office. Joe Suarez Jr., 71, was found guilty of continuous sexual abuse of a child and indecency with a child, after the jury listened to four days of testimony. It took only four hours to reach a verdict. The court ordered a sentence of life without parole and two consecutive 20-year sentences, the maximum punishment allowed by law.

“My office worked tirelessly to put this child predator behind bars for life and secure justice for the victims of these heinous crimes,” said Attorney General Paxton. “We are committed to standing up for victims of sexual assault and will use every tool available to us to ensure that child predators are prosecuted to the fullest extent that the law allows.”

In March 2016, an 8-year-old child made an outcry of sexual abuse to a teacher at her school. Following her outcry, two additional victims came forward to report that they had also been subjected to chronic abuse by the same offender, Joe Suarez Jr. Their reports of abuse were referred to the San Antonio Police Department (“SAPD”) by the Department of Family and Protective Services (“DFPS”). SAPD conducted an investigation and referred the case to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, where it remained for several years awaiting grand jury presentation. After District Attorney Joe Gonzalez was elected and recused his office from the prosecution, the case was referred to another district attorney’s office in Texas before being transferred to the Office of the Attorney General in late 2023.

Given the years that had passed since the initial investigation, Sgt. Andres Alaniz investigated the case again. In 2025, at the conclusion of the OAG’s investigation and in conjunction with SAPD’s prior work, the defendant’s charges were presented to a Bexar County grand jury. Suarez was subsequently indicted for continuous sexual abuse of young children, and aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child.

The evidence showed that the defendant, who played in a local mariachi group, would offer mariachi lessons to children in the community to gain their trust, according to the attorney general. The defendant took advantage of the trust his family and community placed in him, and sexually abused multiple children in his home. He also worked as a truck driver and would sexually abuse children in the cab of his 18-wheeler.

LEGGETT (KETK) – The Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Texas and the Naskila Casino in Leggett are celebrating their growth with an eye toward expansion in Deep East Texas.

The vision is coming to life in Polk County as they made the first official step towards the future on Thursday with leaders of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas breaking ground on the future casino resort set to open in late 2028.

The future property will span across 95 acres of tribal land here in Legget, Texas, featuring an expansive gaming floor, more than 350 hotel rooms, a resort-style pool, and an event and conference space.

“It’s a long time coming really, it’s something that’s needed,” Alabama Coushatta Tribe of Texas Chairman Ricky Sylestine said. “We started out from nothing, now to where we are today, just because of the gaming aspect of it, we’ve really been blessed at this point.”

Thursday’s groundbreaking happened as the existing Naskila casino celebrates its 10th anniversary. Casino officials said the Naskila Casino generates an annual economic impact of $251 million dollars each year and has created over a thousand local permanent jobs. They added that this new casino resort will only expand that impact in East Texas.

To learn more about the tribe, their history and their enterprises, visit the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas online.

DALLAS (AP) — As people gather across the U.S. to celebrate Juneteenth, former President Barack Obama’s presidential center opened its doors Friday to the general public for the first time.

Located on a sprawling campus on Chicago’s South Side, the center honoring the nation’s first Black president has been designed to inspire people to make the change they want to see in their own communities. It’s the kind of contemplation that also comes as Americans gather for Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S.

The holiday marks June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas at the end of the Civil War with an order declaring the state’s enslaved people to be free with “absolute equality.” By then, 2 1/2 years had passed since the Emancipation Proclamation declared the freedom of enslaved people in the South.

“Juneteenth represents not just a commemoration of the end of slavery but it’s also part of the ongoing struggle for absolute equality and that ideal in American life,” said W. Caleb McDaniel, a Rice University professor and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Sweet Taste of Liberty.”
Obama’s presidential center in Chicago

The grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center includes days of events following Thursday’s star-studded dedication ceremony.

The center’s public opening arrives as a symbolic convergence of legacy and liberation. The nation is deeply divided politically and grappling with renewed questions about the arc of racial progress as the Supreme Court hollowed out the Voting Rights Act, endangering Black political representation in Congress.

The nearly 20-acre (8-hectare) campus includes a museum featuring a life-sized replica of the Oval Office, a garden designed by former first lady Michelle Obama complete with lettuce and strawberry plants, a professional-grade basketball court, a picnic area with grills and a new branch of the Chicago Public Library. Visitors can experience high-tech and hands-on exhibits spanning the campaigns, key moments of Obama’s presidency and life at the White House.

The spaces are designed to bring people together on a campus expected to draw as many as 1 million visitors annually, but the center also aims to encourage personal reflection. Louise Bernard, the museum’s director, has said they’re “inviting people to bring change home, however change may be defined, both small or large.”
The history of Juneteenth

This is the fifth year since Juneteenth was designated as a federal holiday by former President Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president. But the celebrations, which began in Texas and then spread across the country, have a rich and long history in Black America, with the day often spent gathering for picnics and cookouts.

The holiday — a combination of “June” and “nineteenth” — marks the day when U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in the Texas port city with the declaration of freedom in General Order No. 3.

As the third year of the Civil War neared, President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring the freedom of “all persons held as slaves” in the still rebellious states of the Confederacy. Though, for many, it did not mean immediate freedom but a promise of liberation, to be secured with a Union victory.

“It really required the force of arms and the success of U.S. armies to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation,” McDaniel said.

About six months after Granger’s arrival in Galveston, the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery nationwide was ratified.
Celebrations across the nation this year

Juneteenth’s birthplace is celebrating with a daylong gathering at a Galveston park with music and fireworks, a parade and a worship service in a historic Black church. Nearby Houston lined up of musical artists and a domino tournament at Emancipation Park, established in 1872 by a group of formerly enslaved men.

Hundreds of other cities across the U.S. announced events over the long weekend, including a parade in Atlanta, a bike ride in Los Angeles and a festival on Martha’s Vineyard.

Several cities across the U.S. will host walks named for Opal Lee, the Texas woman who pushed for years to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Participants will walk 2 1/2 miles to symbolize the 2 1/2 years it took for the Emancipation Proclamation to be enforced in Texas. Lee, known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” turns 100 this year.
Reflecting on a continuing struggle

Black Texans embraced the date of Granger’s arrival as one to celebrate, even as the Ku Klux Klan was established in Texas by 1868. By the 1880s, “it was difficult to find a significant community in Texas where it wasn’t being marked by African Americans,” McDaniel said.

“They made it a community celebration, they made it a celebration of not only freedom but also a demonstration of community empowerment and institution-building,” he added.

Corey D.B. Walker, dean of Wake Forest University’s divinity school, said the holiday offers a way to recognize the nation’s “complex history” and what it means to be a U.S. citizen, especially amid efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to undermine the retelling of Black history.

“I think it really reminds people the importance of understanding a fuller, more robust portrait of our nation’s history and the many contributions of many individuals who have contributed to America’s experiment with democracy,” Walker said.

ATLANTA (AP) — Bina Ramroop broke down in tears when she realized she wasn’t going to get the World Cup tickets she had bought for her grandson’s 13th birthday.

As thousands poured into Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday to see Spain face Cape Verde in what turned out to be a remarkable scoreless draw, Ramroop stood outside, increasingly stressed as she went back and forth for hours between StubHub representatives on the phone and FIFA representatives in the ticket booth. Each blamed the other.

No one could figure out why the tickets Ramroop bought months ago on StubHub for $485 apiece couldn’t be transferred from the original seller to the FIFA ticketing app. StubHub offered her a refund and, as Ramroop heard the crowd roar for the start of the match, she knew she had no choice but to give up and take the offer.

“I didn’t want a refund, I didn’t want my money back,” Ramroop said. “I wanted to go to the game.”

The World Cup has delivered thrills on the pitch, but fans have flooded social media with complaints about tickets that never arrived, orders that were canceled at the last minute and hours they spent trying to sort out problems between FIFA’s ticketing system and outside resale platforms. The vast majority seem to be about industry titan StubHub, but people who bought through competitors such as SeatGeek and Vivid Seats have also reported issues. Interviews with fans and industry experts show that some cases stem from technical glitches in the transfer process, while others could involve sellers who never had tickets to deliver in the first place, though StubHub denies such sales happen on its platform.

A grandmother’s disappointment

FIFA has urged fans to buy resale tickets through its own marketplace, where it slaps a 30% surcharge on every resold ticket — 15% each from the buyer and seller. But many fans bought through other resale sites, either out of habit or because those sites have lower prices or are easier to navigate.

Ramroop didn’t realize she was taking a risk when she bought through StubHub, which she had used in the past without issues.

As she and her grandson Elijah Gomes took the long, lonely train ride back to the Atlanta suburbs, Elijah followed the score on his phone. The match had ended scoreless, and he tried to cheer up his devastated grandmother by telling her they hadn’t missed much after all (Cape Verdeans would beg to differ ).

“He’s telling me, ‘Grandma, it’s OK, Grandma.’ And he’s trying to console me,” Ramroop said the next day.

She was hardly alone. An Associated Press journalist witnessed more than a dozen frustrated fans at the match who said they were stuck in similar situations.

StubHub blamed FIFA for the transfer problems that buyers like Ramroop have experienced. In a statement, it said FIFA has “poor technology infrastructure,” enacted last-minute transfer restrictions and didn’t launch its new ticketing app until a few weeks before the tournament. The company also called out organizers that “take anti-competitive actions” that limit where fans can buy and sell tickets.

Asked about the technical issues, FIFA on Wednesday reiterated that sales through its official site are guaranteed to go through.
An industry’s longstanding problem

Industry observers say the problems appear to stem from more than one cause. For some, it may indeed be technical glitches — an issue that StubHub says is “very, very rare” and one that it is hard at work to solve. For others, they say it’s likely a more longstanding scourge: speculative sellers.

Scott Friedman, an industry veteran and co-founder of a consultancy called the Ticket Talk Network, said some sellers list tickets before they actually have them, betting that prices will fall closer to the event so they can buy the tickets at a better price later. But because World Cup ticket prices have surged since the tournament began, those sellers have been forced to either buy expensive tickets to fulfill their orders or cancel and accept penalties from resale platforms. StubHub’s penalties are typically 200% of the ticket price, Friedman said.

“This is not new at all,” said Friedman, pointing to other high-profile events where frustrated fans were left empty-handed, including Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. “This has been going on, but it’s making global news because it’s the World Cup.”

StubHub says it requires sellers to prove they have tickets before they list them.

But regardless of the reason for the canceled sales, Friedman said “StubHub should fill every single order to make sure fans get in the biggest global sporting event that happens every four years.”

That’s what many fans say they expected when they purchased through StubHub.

StubHub’s FanProtect Guarantee promises replacement tickets or a refund if tickets fail to arrive. But the policy repeatedly says those remedies are provided at StubHub’s “sole discretion,” meaning the company can choose a refund instead of securing replacement seats.

“That is pretty explicit language,” said Michael McCann, a sports law expert at the University of New Hampshire. McCann noted that a buyer could try to challenge the language under state consumer protection laws, but it would be an uphill battle.

A father’s regrets

Pape Ndaw is crestfallen that the high school graduation gift he got for his son — tickets for them to see the Netherlands and Japan near their home city of Dallas — never arrived.

He bought the tickets for about $550 apiece in December. Then, two days before the June 14 match, he received an email from StubHub telling him, “The seller can’t deliver your original tickets.”

Ndaw accepted store credit rather than a refund, thinking he would use the funds to quickly get replacements, only to then realize that the cheapest last-minute tickets were going for more than $1,500 each. Not only were they not going to get to go to the game, but Ndaw said StubHub rejected his belated request for a refund instead of store credit.

Breaking the news to his soccer-obsessed son was brutal, Ndaw said.

“It was a disastrous thing,” he said. “He had told all his friends that he was going to that game. He literally cried. I mean, he is a 17-year-old kid, but he cried.”

A family’s attempt to make the best of it

Others fared somewhat better.

Patrick O’Neil of Pittsboro, North Carolina, traveled to Atlanta with his wife, son and relatives after purchasing five tickets through StubHub for the Spain-Cape Verde match. Two tickets transferred successfully, but three never arrived.

O’Neil’s 15-year-old son and his uncle ended up using the two tickets, while O’Neil, his wife and another relative watched from a nearby bar.

After local media caught wind of their ordeal, O’Neil said StubHub contacted the family and offered tickets to another game. Since the family had already bought tickets to one, though, he and his wife asked the company to instead give the seats to local nonprofit Soccer in the Streets so they could go to people who otherwise might not be able to attend a match.

“StubHub is not evil, but they’re part of the whole system that makes it really hard for just normal kids and people who might want to see a match get to go,” O’Neil said.

On Thursday, a StubHub representative confirmed to the AP that the company would honor the O’Neils’ request and send tickets to the nonprofit.

___

AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators John Cornyn, and Alex Padilla (D-CA) today introduced legislation that would reauthorize Preventing Outages With Enhanced Resilience and Operations Nationwide (POWER ON) Act. The law will help weatherize electric grids across the nation, according to Sen. Cornyn.

“Texas is no stranger to extreme weather events, and it’s imperative that we have the infrastructure capable of withstanding the gamut of everything from freezing cold temperatures to sweltering heat waves, flooding, and devastating wildfires,” said Sen. Cornyn. “This bipartisan legislation would reauthorize the grid resilience program Senator Padilla and I created, which is essential to preventing outages and ensuring Texans can depend on the power they need to weather any storm.”

“As we continue to grapple with threats to the electric grid from extreme weather, investing in projects to improve the flexibility and resiliency of the power system is crucial,” said Sen. Padilla. “The GRIP program is a major success, driving improvements and innovation to make the electric grid more secure and efficient. Our bipartisan effort will continue to help us keep the lights on and keep costs down for future generations.”

Background:

In February 2021, record amounts of snow, ice, and prolonged sub-zero temperatures overwhelmed the Texas power grid and forced the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to shut off electricity for more than four million Texans, leaving them without heat for days on end. More than 200 lives were lost. This disaster laid bare the vulnerabilities of our electric grid infrastructure and the need for electricity providers and suppliers to protect against future extreme weather events. Insufficient grid resiliency increases the likelihood of blackout events, which threaten lives and cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars.

Following Winter Storm Uri, Senator Cornyn introduced the Preventing Outages with Enhanced Resilience and Operations Nationwide (POWER ON) Act, now law, which established the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to provide critical resources to help states weatherize electric grids.

This legislation would reauthorize the grid resilience grant program at the DOE to prevent a lapse in federal funding that is essential to protecting energy facilities and energy infrastructure against future extreme weather events.