KTBB News, Weather, Talk

JASPER COUNTY – No investi-gator needed for this capture. In Jasper County, a 9-and-a-half-foot alligator was captured after stalling traffic on 1013 West Wednesday. According to our news partner KETK, Jasper County Sheriff’s Office deputies can add “alligator catchers” to their list of accolades after successfully removing the alligator from the road. After being captured by deputies, the alligator was handed over to Texas Game Wardens and was safely relocated.

LUFKIN, Texas (KETK)– Lufkin residents gathered at City Hall today to protest a proposed $1 billion data center.

The facility planned by Denver-based developer Amp Z at the former Southland Paper Mill site, faces opposition over concerns about water usage, local infrastructure impact and potential noise. The proposed facility is located outside city limits and the Lufkin City Council did not address the matter during its meeting.

The Amp Z project is a one billion dollar data center intended for a 1,000-acre site. While the land purchase for the development is complete, the project remains in negotiation and planning phases. City officials have stated the facility would use approximately 500 gallons of water daily, utilizing a closed-loop system for water reuse.

Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, people stood outside city hall, marching, chanting and holding signs to express their opposition to the data center. Residents also raised concerns regarding the potential strain on local infrastructure and the noise levels once the vast 1,000-acre facility becomes operational. Christina Perez, a community organizer, voiced the broader implications of such development.

“This isn’t the only data set; this is just one of many that will probably come to Lufkin and the East Texas area,” Perez said. “For a lot of people, this is just home. It’s something that is replaceable and once we take all these things away, it’s going to be hard to get them back.”

The group of residents plans to present their concerns about the data center project to the Angelina County Commissioners Court. The project is still in the negotiation and planning phases.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Stonewall National Monument, the President’s House Site and the Women’s Rights National Historic Park are among 11 sites on this year’s annual list of the most endangered historic places in the United States compiled by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The 2026 list, announced Wednesday, marks America’s 250th anniversary with the foundational principle that everyone is created equal as the theme, said Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the nonprofit organization. The 11 sites offer examples of how, over time, Americans have fought against injustice and for equality, she said.

“We wanted to think about those ideas, especially this notion that all human beings are created equal and find places, sometimes unsung places … that not all Americans routinely think about,” Quillen told The Associated Press.

The sites are spread across the United States — from New York and California on the East and West Coasts, to Alabama and Texas in the South, to Michigan in the Midwest and the Four Corners of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah in the Rocky Mountain West.

At least three of the sites — Stonewall, the El Corazon church in Texas and President’s House in Philadelphia — have been endangered by Trump administration actions.

“We want to save these places,” Quillen said, “not just because the bricks and mortar is important but because the stories these places hold are important.”

For the first time since the list debuted in 1988, each site on the 2026 list will receive a one-time $25,000 grant to help highlight their connections to the principle that all people are created equal and address the threats they face.

The 11 sites are:

Montgomery, Alabama: Ben Moore Hotel

The hotel was a refuge for Black people living under laws that enforced racial separation in the South. Prolonged vacancy has caused structural deterioration and the historic Centennial Hill neighborhood surrounding it faces pressure from development. The hotel housed key players from the Civil Rights Movement, including the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy. The Conservation Fund announced in November that it would help preserve the hotel.

Modoc County, California: Tule Lake Segregation Center

Initially known as the Tule Lake War Relocation Center, it was set up as a camp but later became a segregation center where Japanese Americans who were thought to be disloyal to the United States were imprisoned. The site is now a national monument managed by the National Park Service. Only 37 acres of the 1,100-acre site is protected. Most of it is at risk of permanent alteration from a proposed nearby construction project.

California: Angel Island Immigration Station

It was the largest immigration port on the West Coast between 1910 and 1940, particularly for immigrants from Asia and the Pacific. Hundreds of thousands were processed, detained and/or interrogated there because of their race. The station currently is threatened by physical, environmental, political and economic factors. Additional funding is needed for structural repairs and programming to increase awareness.

Somerset, Massachusetts: Swansea Friends Meeting House

Recognized as the oldest surviving Quaker meeting house in the state, it was built in 1701 to serve as a refuge by a congregation fleeing religious persecution and looking for a safe place to worship. The building has been closed for years and needs significant rehabilitation.

Michigan: Detroit Association of Women’s Clubs

Founded in 1921, the association was one of the first Black organizations in Detroit to own their headquarters building, which was purchased in 1941. But the building has been closed since 2024, when water pipes burst and damaged the interior. Money is needed to help the association reopen the building.

New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah: Greater Chaco Cultural Landscape

The landscape is an ancestral homeland sustained for over a millennium by the Pueblo and Hopi people, but is threatened by changes to federal land policy that could open up significant portions to oil and gas development. Permanent protections and tribal consultation are needed to protect its cultural integrity.

Seneca Falls, New York: Women’s Rights National Historical Park

The park tells the story of the first Women’s Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls, in July 1848. It faces a deferred maintenance backlog of over $10 million. Additional funding and support are needed to help preserve the park as a place to teach visitors about the history of women’s rights.

New York: Stonewall National Monument

The first and only U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ history was the subject of administration actions that saw the rainbow Pride flag removed from its flagpole earlier this year before it was restored. The National Park Service had removed the flag in February, citing federal guidance that limited the agency to displaying only the American, Interior Department and POW/MIA flags. But the administration reversed course in April as it agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by advocacy and historic preservation groups that sought to block the flag’s removal at the Manhattan site.

After Trump returned to office, he ended diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and many references to transgender people were excised from the Stonewall monument’s website and materials. The Republican administration similarly has put national parks, museums and landmarks under a messaging microscope, aiming to remove or alter materials that it says are “divisive or partisan” or “inappropriately disparage Americans.”

Philadelphia: The President’s House Site

The administration abruptly removed exhibits on the lives of nine people enslaved at the site in the 1790s under George Washington, the first U.S. president, who lived there when Philadelphia served as the nation’s capital. The exhibits were taken down as part of a broad effort by the administration to remove from federal properties information it deems “disparaging” to Americans. The issue is currently the subject of litigation between the city and federal government.

Heath Springs, South Carolina: Hanging Rock Revolutionary War Battlefield

The Battle of Hanging Rock was a key battle in the Southern Campaigns of the Revolutionary War and is considered a Patriot victory that helped boost morale and ultimately weaken British control in South Carolina. Only portions of the core battlefield are protected and open to the public, with the area anticipating population growth and increasing development pressures.

Ruidosa, Texas: El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus

The more than century-old adobe church served as a refuge and place of worship for Mexican and Mexican American farming communities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border along the Rio Grande River. Vacant since the 1950s, the structure has benefited from continued restoration provided by the nonprofit Friends of the Ruidosa Church but remains threatened by proposed construction of a U.S. border wall that could come within a few hundred yards of the property.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Single Gen Z women are outpacing their male counterparts when it comes to buying a home.

They accounted for 35% of all homebuyers in their generation, while single Gen Z men represented 18%, according to survey data from the National Association of Realtors.

NAR surveyed people who bought a home between July 2024 and June 2025. The survey included homebuyers from several generations, from Gen Z, ages 18-26, to the Silent Generation, ages 80 to 100. No other generation had a bigger share of single women homebuyers than Gen Z.

The survey data are the latest sign that single women overall are becoming homeowners at greater rates than single men. Single women across the generations made up a quarter of all homebuyers in the July 2024-June 2025 period, according to NAR. Single men, meanwhile, accounted for 11% of all home purchases.

This has been a longstanding trend going back at least to 1981. In 2006, at the height of the mid-2000s housing boom, the share of homes bought by single women peaked at 22%, according to NAR. For single men, their share of homeownership peaked at 12% in 2010.

Experts say there is no one-size-fits-all answer to why across the generations single women outnumber single men as homeowners.

Women now are outpacing men in college attendance, which can lead to higher incomes, said Jessica Lautz, NAR’s deputy chief economist.

They tend to have a strong desire for homeownership as a way to secure their independence, something they historically could not easily do alone.

“It wasn’t until the 1970s where women were legally protected to have a mortgage on their own,” Lautz said. “And they have embraced this and been very strongly embracing this.”

Overall Gen Zers, which the survey defines as those born between 1999 and 2011, still only made up 4% of all homebuyers during the survey period. And at the time of the survey, the share of U.S. homes bought by first-time buyers of all ages sank to the lowest level on record going back to 1981.

First-time buyers often don’t have equity from a previous home to put toward a down payment. That was the situation for Bri LaFluer. After years of socking away half her pay, working two jobs and aided by a slowing housing market, she bought her own home in 2023 at the age of 24.

“I’ve always been a really independent person and I just wanted my own place to have peace and quiet by myself,” said LaFluer, now 27.

Her home search began in 2021, but historically low mortgage rates made the market ultra competitive, which turbocharged prices. Two years later she finally landed a house in Baldwinsville, N.Y., about 15 miles from Syracuse, that was built in 1900 and has three bedrooms and 1.5-baths and a big yard. She got it for $175,000.

“I feel like it was meant to be and this just ended up being the perfect house for me and my dogs,” she said.

A content creator for a video game company, LaFluer lived with her mom and paid a modest rent, which helped her save up faster for the $20,000 down payment.

Aspiring Gen Z homeowners face a number of challenges to affording a home: They’re typically just getting started in their careers, with their best income-earning years ahead. They are unlikely to be married and may have student loans to pay off.

Their median annual income of $76,000, as of 2024, also was the lowest compared to homebuyers from all other generations, according to NAR.

Years of soaring home prices have further stretched the limits of affordability. While home price growth has slowed and prices have fallen in many metro areas, prices are mostly still rising. The median U.S. home sales price stood at $417,700 last month, up 0.9% from a year earlier, according to NAR.

Still, Gen Z homebuyers are also more likely to receive financial help from family, and many are savvy about looking into community grants or other payment assistance programs for first-time homebuyers. And 1 in 10 tapped their 401(k) retirement savings plan to put toward their down payment, according to NAR.

Other home shoppers have no recourse but to save up on their own.

 

DALLAS (AP) — As Dallas pulls out the stops for the World Cup this summer, one makeover is causing an uproar: the sudden disappearance of a beloved, giant mural downtown of swimming whales.

“I see that mural almost every day on my way to school and then one day they were painting it over,” Katy Rose Cusick said. “And it was just so incredibly shocking to me that that could happen so quickly.”

Work has been underway this month to paint over the mural that’s graced two entire walls of a parking garage for nearly 30 years to make way for art related to the upcoming World Cup matches. Wyland, the artist who created the mural, said in a statement that its destruction has left him “deeply disheartened.”

“When a piece that has carried meaning for generations can be erased without dialogue, it raises serious questions about how we value public art, artists, and the communities these works were created to serve,” Wyland said.

Cusick and Joshua Hurston, seniors at a local performing and visual arts high school, started a Change.org petition hoping to raise awareness to protect history and art. The petition has gotten hundreds of signatures so far, including from those with fond memories of spotting the mural as children.

“If we couldn’t save necessarily the mural, making sure that something like this doesn’t happen again,” he said.

A spokesperson for the area’s World Cup organizing committee said in a statement they were looking forward to “unveiling a new piece that captures this current historical moment and reflects the energy, unity, and global spirit surrounding the World Cup 2026,” adding that a “portion” of Wyland’s mural will be preserved “as a tribute to its lasting impact on the city.”

Dallas is hosting more World Cup matches than any of the other sites in the event co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with nine matches set to be played at AT&T Stadium in suburban Arlington, home of the Dallas Cowboys. The retractable roof venue will be called Dallas Stadium for the World Cup.

Downtown Dallas Inc. said in a statement that it was part of the early discussions about the mural and confirmed it wasn’t part of the city’s public art collection before introducing the World Cup organizing committee to the building’s owners. A spokesperson for the building’s owners, Slate Asset Management, said they were approached by Downtown Dallas Inc. and the organizing committee earlier this year about donating the wall for a new public art installation by a local artist.

The mural, titled “Whaling Wall 82,” was dedicated in 1999. Wyland has painted over 100 similar murals known as Whaling Walls around the world as part his mission for the conservation of ocean life.

“This was more than paint on a wall — it was part of my work, alongside the Wyland Foundation, to bring people together to protect our oceans and clean water,” he said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The NAACP and Congressional Black Caucus are calling on Black athletes and fans to boycott the athletic programs of public universities in states that are taking steps that the nation’s oldest civil rights group says are restricting Black voting rights.

Launched on Tuesday, the NAACP’s “Out of Bounds” campaign urges current and prospective Black athletes, their families, alumni and fans to “withhold athletic and financial support” from major public universities in states that “have moved to limit, weaken or erase Black voting representation.”

If Black athletes participate in the boycott, it could deplete rosters for powerhouse football and basketball programs across the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference.

The NAACP’s campaign calls out Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and South Carolina as states to boycott, arguing that the athletic programs of those states’ major universities are especially reliant on Black athletic talent and should protect Black political interests.

NAACP President Derrick Johnson, during a news conference in front of the U.S. Capitol, accused Republican-led Southern states of “seeking to reinstitute a sharecropping reality” by recruiting Black athletic talent to play for flagship universities while limiting, in his view, “our ability to elect candidates of our choice.”

The ACC, SEC, Florida State University, the University of Alabama, four Historically Black College and University conferences — the SWAC, MEAC, SIAC and CIAA — and chapter members of the National African American Athlete Alliance in both Texas and Florida did not return The Associated Press’ request for comment.

The NAACP is among groups responding to a wave of gerrymandering in the aftermath of a U.S.Supreme Court ruling that winnowed a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Johnson repeatedly noted that Black athletes have been a core engine of the college sports business, which drives billions in TV deals, revenue and reputational prestige.

“Black athletes should not be asked to generate wealth, prestige, and power for state institutions while those same states strip political power from Black communities,” Johnson said.

“We will fight with all we have in solidarity with the Congressional Black Caucus to ensure that we have representation, or if we don’t, we will withhold the talent that plays on the football field or on the basketball court, be they male or female,” Johnson told reporters.

The boycott is part of a coordinated effort by Black political leaders and civil rights activists to dissuade Republican-led states from redistricting longtime majority-Black congressional districts. Civil rights activists have mobilized across the South to protest moves by state legislatures to change their maps, while voting rights groups and Democratic lawmakers have filed lawsuits seeking to block potential changes to the districts.

Black lawmakers oppose SCORE Act

And on Monday, the CBC said that it would unanimously oppose the SCORE Act, a bill backed by major athletic conferences that would set new rules for the payment of college athletes, unless the sports leagues oppose the redistricting efforts of GOP-led states.

“The Congressional Black Caucus cannot support legislation benefiting major athletic institutions that continue to remain silent while black voting rights and black political power are being systematically dismantled across the South,” Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, told reporters.

“The Congressional Black Caucus believes institutions that profit from Black talent and Black communities have a responsibility to stand with those communities when their fundamental rights are under attack,” the CBC said in a Monday letter to the commissioners of the SEC and ACC athletic conferences, as well as NCAA President Charlie Baker. “Silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality — it is complicity.”

After the caucus’ announcement, the SCORE Act was pulled from the schedule of the House committee overseeing the bill. Clarke said the decision showed that “silence from our institutions in moments of injustice carries consequences.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that the boycott was meant to oppose “a dramatic return to racially oppressive Jim Crow-like tactics.” He added that while athletes ultimately had to make individual choices, they would be supported by lawmakers and civil rights leaders in their decision-making process.

“We’re going to support them, and we know they have options,” Jeffries said.

Initiative’s timing is difficult

The timing of the initiative comes at a moment in the college athletic calendar that might make it difficult for it to have any immediate impact. The transfer portals for the high-profile Division I sports of football and basketball are all closed until 2027.

There may be an opportunity to influence prominent high school recruits who are still weighing their college prospects for the fall of 2027 and beyond. While many schools have received nonbinding verbal agreements from football and basketball players, those agreements won’t become official until late fall at the earliest.

The signing window for basketball opens in mid-November — about a week after the midterm elections — and the 72-hour early signing period for football arrives in the first week of December.

There is a chance that recruits could attempt to put pressure on flagship institutions in the targeted states by threatening to sign somewhere else. The reality, however, is that the pockets of those schools run deep, and asking a teenager to factor politics into a decision that could produce a life-altering financial windfall before they are even old enough to vote could prove tenuous.

Brandon Copeland, CEO of Athletes.org, the emerging college players association that aims to represent student athletes, told reporters that opposition to the SCORE Act and redistricting efforts are linked.

“It’s really a control mechanism,” Copeland said of the SCORE Act’s proposed changes. “That same tool is being used to suppress our voices, suppress our votes,” he said. Copeland, a former professional football player, said his organization will “stand tall alongside our athletes, but also alongside our mothers, our uncles, our aunts, our cousins, and everyone in this nation who deserves a voice.”

Activists seek pressure points

Activists have sought pressure points to dissuade GOP-led states from redistricting maps, including calls for mass protests and economic boycotts, though Johnson and the Black Caucus members did not endorse further measures, like calling for major Southern companies to relocate or for Black voters to leave states that take up redistricting plans.

Johnson cited the 2015 decision by the University of Mississippi to remove the Confederate flag from its campus, and Mississippi’s later decision to change its flag entirely, as successful demonstrations by Black student athletes, who in both cases expressed opposition to the flag’s presence on campus.

In 2024, the NAACP urged student-athletes to reconsider attending Florida universities due to the state’s bans on diversity, equity and inclusion policies and policies on the teaching of history in schools.

Lawmakers and activists have made such calls in the past, like when in 2021 Black lawmakers, activists and clergy called for a boycott of Georgia companies over the Republican state legislature’s implementation of a sweeping law that Democrats accused of enacting “Jim Crow 2.0.”

Major League Baseball decided to move its All-Star Game from the state that year over the protests, a move that enraged Republican lawmakers, who saw the effort as misguided. The All-Star Game returned to the Atlanta area in 2025.

___

Associated Press sports writer Will Graves in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, contributed.

NACOGDOCHES COUNTY, Texas (KETK) — Several investigations have been launched by the Nacogdoches County Sheriff’s Office due to multiple car burglaries that have taken place over the past week.

According to the sheriff’s office, four car burglaries have been reported across the county since May 14, which have led to several guns being stolen along with other valuables. The most recent incident occurred on Tuesday on Country Road 826 when three cars were burglarized, and one pistol magazine was stolen.

The sheriff’s office said that three juveniles were identified as suspects in an earlier incident, but authorities do not believe the suspects were involved in other burglaries across the county. Although several arrests have been made in relation to the burglaries, the sheriff’s office said they are looking to identify suspects who may live in a different county.

“We are asking the public to remain vigilant during the summer months,” the sheriff’s office said. “Please always lock your vehicle and remove any weapons from it. These thieves are mainly looking for two things: cash and weapons. I have several investigators working on these cases, and the Sheriff’s Office will remain proactive in seeking to bring these criminals to justice.”

Anyone with information about the burglaries is asked to contact the sheriff’s office at 936-560-7777 or Crime Stoppers at 936-560-INFO.

TRINITY COUNTY, Texas (KETK) — A man wanted out of Tennessee with several felony warrants, including counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, was arrested in Trinity County on Monday.

According to the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office, they assisted the United States Marshals Service in executing a high-risk felony warrant for 42-year-old Norman Haun.

Haun had several charges and felony warrants out of Greene County, Tennessee, including the following:

Sixteen counts of sexual exploitation of a minor
Felony warrants alleging violation of sex offender registry requirements
Violations of community supervision for life

Haun was taken into custody without incident.

“Due to the serious nature of the allegations and the high risk classification of the warrant, additional precautions were taken by law enforcement personnel to ensure the safety of the public, officers, and all involved during the operation,” the sheriff’s office said.

Haun was taken to the Trinity County Jail, where he is being held with a $200,000 bond for failure to comply with sex offender registration and online solicitation of a minor sexual conduct. The sheriff’s office said Haun is pending extradition back to Tennessee.

“Crimes involving children are taken seriously, and law enforcement agencies across this country continue to work together to locate and apprehend those wanted for serious offenses,” the sheriff’s office said.

ZAVALLA – An Angelina County home was left with substantial damage after a fire broke out for unknown reasons on Monday morning, officials say. According to the Huntington Volunteer Fire Department, several VFDs were dispatched to assist Zavalla VFD at a structure fire on Kitchen Cemetery Road. The majority of the fire was contained to the attic space, but the home sustained major damage.

The cause of the fire is unknown to fire officials at this time, Huntington VFD said. No injuries were reported and several valuable items were saved.