Christmas tree recycling now through Jan. 15

TYLER – Christmas tree recycling now through Jan. 15Recycle your real, unflocked and undecorated Christmas tree with Keep Tyler Beautiful and Tyler Solid Waste from Thursday, Dec. 26 through Wednesday, Jan. 15. Natural Christmas trees can be dropped off in designated areas at Golden Road Park, 2300 McDonald Rd, and Fun Forest Park, 2000 N. Forest Ave. There will be “Christmas Tree Recycling” signs at each location.

This eco-friendly initiative provides an opportunity to recycle live trees and support local wildlife. Local fishermen are encouraged to repurpose the trees and use them to create new fish habitats in nearby lakes and ponds, contributing to the preservation of local aquatic life. Keep Tyler Beautiful is also collecting unwanted or broken string lights regardless of the condition. The copper wire will be recycled, and the proceeds will go toward the conservation organization Lion Guardians. The collected lights can be dropped off at the Christmas Tree Recycling locations or the upper parking lot at Caldwell Zoo, 2203 Martin Luther King Blvd.

For more information, visit KeepTylerBeautiful.com or contact Casey Williams, Keep Tyler Beautiful Coordinator, at (903) 531-1335 or KTYB@TylerTexas.com.

Van Zandt home burned in Christmas morning fire

Van Zandt home burned in Christmas morning fireVAN ZANDT COUNTY – According to our news partner KETK, a home on Van Zandt County Road 1203 near Wentworth was burned in a Christmas morning fire, according to officials. Grand Saline Fire Department public information officer Caden Mosher said that several 911 calls came into the South Van Zandt Volunteer Fire Department at around 9:15 a.m. on Wednesday.

Mosher said that Canton Fire Department was automatically sent out to the scene and that Grand Saline Fire Department was called in at around 9:20 a.m. for mutual aid.

According to Mosher, no one was at home or injured during the fire. Mosher added that the Van Zandt County Fire Marshall’s Office is investigating the fire’s cause.

East Texas non-profit raises $75K for Cooper Reid of Troup

East Texas non-profit raises K for Cooper Reid of TroupTROUP – The East Texas Agriculture Foundation presented Cooper Reid of Troup a check for $75,000 this week to assist in his recovery from a head injury. According to our news partner KETK, the foundation raised the money through their “Birdies for Coop” golfing event in November.

Cooper suffered his head injury while playing in the Troup homecoming football game in 2022. The nonprofit raised the money through their “Birdies for Coop” golf outing in November. This event was to support Cooper who experienced a life-altering injury while playing in the Troup homecoming football game in 2022.

“Throughout the last few weeks it has been extremely hard to come up with the words to express our sincere thoughts to any and everyone that had a hand in this. This event was a heartfelt gathering that showcased the power of community and generosity,” The East Texas Agriculture Foundation said.

“Birdies for Coop”, featured live music, auctions, food trucks, a cornhole tournament and a 4-man golf scramble.

Longview ISD awards teachers $3.5 million in bonuses

Longview ISD awards teachers .5 million in bonusesLONGVIEW – Just in time for the Christmas break, Longview ISD had a very special gift for their teachers. Cash! According to our news partner KETK, LISD Superintendent Dr. Marla Sheppard handed out $3.5 million in LISD incentive bonuses for Teachers (LIFT) to all 13 campuses. The district said in press a release, the bonuses are based on several performance criteria by the Texas Education Agency’s accountability standard and campus-specific performance distinctions.

“The eligible campuses received bonuses on the number of distinctions in various academic areas, with additional recognition for campuses contributing to the district’s overall postsecondary readiness rating, awarded by TEA,” Longview ISD said.

Richard Perry, record producer behind ‘You’re So Vain’ and other hits, dies at 82

Richard Perry, record producer behind ‘You’re So Vain’ and other hits, dies at 82LOS ANGELES (AP) — Richard Perry, a hitmaking record producer with a flair for both standards and contemporary sounds whose many successes included Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” Rod Stewart’s “The Great American Songbook” series and a Ringo Starr album featuring all four Beatles, died Tuesday. He was 82.

Perry, a recipient of a Grammys Trustee Award in 2015, died at a Los Angeles hospital after suffering cardiac arrest, friend Daphna Kastner said.

“He maximized his time here,” said Kastner, who called him a “father friend” and said he was godfather to her son. “He was generous, fun, sweet and made the world a better place. The world is a little less sweeter without him here. But it’s a little bit sweeter in heaven.”

Perry was a onetime drummer, oboist and doo-wop singer who proved at home with a wide variety of musical styles, the rare producer to have No. 1 hits on the pop, R&B, dance and country charts. He was on hand for Harry Nilsson’s “Without You” and The Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited,” Tiny Tim’s novelty smash “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” and the Willie Nelson-Julio Iglesias lounge standard “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before.” Perry was widely known as a “musician’s producer,” treating artists like peers rather than vehicles for his own tastes. Singers turned to him whether trying to update their sound (Barbra Streisand), set back the clock (Stewart), revive their career (Fats Domino) or fulfill early promise (Leo Sayer).

“Richard had a knack for matching the right song to the right artist,” Streisand wrote in her 2023 memoir, “My Name is Barbra.”

Perry’s life was a story, in part, of famous friends and the right places. He was backstage for 1950s performances by Little Richard and Chuck Berry, sat in the third row at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival during Otis Redding’s memorable set and attended a recording session for the Rolling Stones’ classic “Let It Bleed” album. A given week might find him dining one night with Paul and Linda McCartney, and Mick and Bianca Jagger the next. He dated Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Fonda among others and was briefly married to the actor Rebecca Broussard.

In Stewart’s autobiography, “Rod,” he would remember Perry’s home in West Hollywood as “the scene of much late-night skulduggery through the 1970s and beyond, and a place you knew you could always fall into at the end of an evening for a full-blown knees-up with drink and music and dancing.”

In the ‘70s, Perry helped facilitate a near-Beatles reunion.

He had produced a track on Starr’s first solo album, “Sentimental Journey,” and grown closer to him through Nilsson and other mutual friends. “Ringo,” released in 1973, would prove the drummer was a commercial force in his own right — with some well-placed names stopping by. The album, featuring contributions from Nilsson, Billy Preston, Steve Cropper, Martha Reeves and all five members of The Band, reached No. 2 on Billboard and sold more than 1 million copies. Hit singles included the chart toppers “Photograph,” co-written by Starr and George Harrison, and a remake of the 1950s favorite “You’re Sixteen.”

But for Perry and others, the most memorable track was a non-hit, custom made. John Lennon’s “I’m the Greatest” was a mock-anthem for the self-effacing drummer that brought three Beatles into the studio just three years after the band’s breakup. Starr was on drums and sang lead, Lennon was on keyboards and backing vocals and longtime Beatles friend Klaus Voormann played bass. They were still working on the song when Harrison’s assistant phoned, asking if the guitarist could join them. Harrison arrived soon after.

“As I looked around the room, I realized that I was at the very epicenter of the spiritual and musical quest I had dreamed of for so many years,” Perry wrote in his 2021 memoir, “Cloud Nine.” “By the end of each session, a small group of friends had gathered, standing silently along the back wall, just thrilled to be there.”

McCartney was not in town for “I’m the Greatest,” but he did help write and arrange the ballad “Six O’Clock,” featuring the ex-Beatle and Linda McCartney on backing vocals.

Perry had helped make pop history the year before as producer of “You’re So Vain,” which he would call the nearest he came to a perfect record. Simon’s scathing ballad about an unnamed lover, with Voormann’s bass runs kicking off the song and Jagger joining on the chorus, hit No. 1 in 1972 and began a long-term debate over Simon’s intended target. Perry’s answer would echo Simon’s own belated response.

“I’ll take this opportunity to give my insider’s scoop,” he wrote in his memoir. “The person that the song is based on is really a composite of several men that Carly dated in the ’60s and early ’70s, but primarily, it’s about my good friend, Warren Beatty.”

Perry’s post-1970s work included such hit singles as The Pointer Sisters’ “Neutron Dance” and DeBarge’s “Rhythm of the Night,” along with albums by Simon, Ray Charles and Art Garfunkel. He had his greatest success with Stewart’s million-selling “The Great American Songbook” albums, a project made possible by the rock star’s writer’s block and troubled private life. In the early 2000s, Stewart’s marriage to Rachel Hunter had ended and Perry was among those consoling him. With Stewart struggling to come up with original songs, he and Perry agreed that an album of standards might work, including “The Very Thought of You,” “Angel Eyes” and “Where or When.”

“We were at a back table in our favorite restaurant as we exchanged ideas and wrote them down on a napkin,” Perry wrote in his memoir. Stewart softly sang the options. “As I sat there and listened to him sing, it was clear that we both sensed we were on to something,” Perry added.

Perry was a New York City native born into a musical family; his parents, Mark and Sylvia Perry, co-founded Peripole Music, a pioneering manufacturer of instruments for young people. With his family’s help and encouragement, he learned to play drums and oboe and helped form a doo-wop group, the Escorts, that released a handful of singles. A music and theater major at the University of Michigan, he initially dreamed of acting on Broadway. Instead, he made the “life-changing” decision in the mid-1960s to form a production company with a recent acquaintance, Gary Katz, who would go on to work with Steely Dan among others.

By the end of the decade, Perry was an industry star, working on Captain Beefheart’s acclaimed cult album, “Safe As Milk” and the debut recording of Tiny Tim and Ella Fitzgerald’s “Ella,” featuring the jazz great’s interpretations of songs by the Beatles, Smokey Robinson and Randy Newman. In the early 1970s, he would oversee Streisand’s million-selling “Stoney End” album, on which the singer turned from the show tunes that made her famous and covered a range of pop and rock music, from the title track, a Laura Nyro composition, to Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind.”

“I liked Richard from the moment we met. He was tall and lanky, with a mop of dark, curly hair and a big smile, which his big heart,” Streisand wrote in her memoir. “At our first meeting, he arrived laden with songs, and we listened to them together. Whatever hesitation I may have felt about our collaboration soon vanished and I thought, ‘This could be fun, and musically liberating.’”

Palestine police search for suspects in armed robbery

Palestine police search for suspects in armed robberyPALESTINE – The Palestine Police Department is seeking information in a robbery that occurred at a smoke shop last night. According to our news partner KETK, Palestine PD officers responded to an aggravated robbery around 9 p.m. that occurred at the Scorpion Smoke Shop in Palestine. A light complected female suspect allegedly stood watch at the door and then Palestine PD said they sprayed pepper spray or mace into the business as they fled with an undisclosed amount of money. The male who reportedly presented a handgun and demanded the money appeared to have a tattoo on his left wrist, officials said.

The suspects reportedly fled in a maroon Nissan Armanda or Pathfinder, believed to be older than a 2016 model, according to Palestine PD. Continue reading Palestine police search for suspects in armed robbery

Cowboys linebacker DeMarvion Overshown gives back to ET kids

Cowboys linebacker DeMarvion Overshown gives back to ET kidsTYLER – Although his season is over because of a knee injury, Dallas Cowboys linebacker DeMarvion Overshown was back in East Texas doing something special for the holidays. According to our news partner KETK, the Arp ISD graduate, gave out bicycles and accessories to children in need Monday afternoon.

“I want to inspire, whether that’s on or off the field and give back, whether that’s on or off the field and coming home, especially doing it at home, it feels even more and more special,” said Overshown. “Then around this year, just giving back whatever I can to help a family or to make a child smile, that’s what I’m all about.”

Arp ISD said in the release that Overshown gave away 20 new bikes. Each had a new helmet, tennis shoes and water bottle, for 10 boys and 10 girls in need.
Continue reading Cowboys linebacker DeMarvion Overshown gives back to ET kids

Longview ISD mourns the loss of a high school student

Longview ISD mourns the loss of a high school studentLONGVIEW – Longview ISD is grieving the loss of a student who was a junior at Longview High School. According to our news partner KETK, district official said that 17-year-old, Ulises Coreas died on Sunday following a sudden illness.

“Our hearts are broken for Ulises’s family, friends, and all who knew and loved him,” said Superintendent Dr. Marla Sheppard. “We hold them close in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.”

Longview ISD said that when students and staff return from Christmas break, counseling and support services will be available. The viewing will be on Thursday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Wilson Royalty Funeral Services. The service will be held Friday at 10 a.m. at Rosewood Memorial Park.

Update: Optimum fiber in Troup is restored

Update: Optimum fiber in Troup is restored
UPDATE: The City of Troup said on Tuesday that Optimum restored full internet service to Troup. City officials apologized to any residents who’ve gotten duplicate trash service rescheduling calls that were set out because of the loss in connection. Troup said their trash service will be on Thursday for this week and next week.

TROUP – The City of Troup said many of their residents are currently without VOIP phone service, internet and cellphone service after Optimum’s fiber optic line was cut on Monday. According to our news partner KETK, a third party contractor cut the Optimum fiber optic cable that supplies internet service to the town and two of the major cell phone companies that cover Troup.

Troup city manager Gene Cottle said that Optimum is working to repair the cut cable and to return cell service to the area. City of Troup employee’s are currently monitoring their water tower and the water wells which rely on cellular connections to communicate.

The city was only able to share this information because of a fallback cellular modem that uses three different cell phone service providers.

American Airlines settles with Black men kicked off flight for “body odor”

DALLAS – The Dallas Mornings News reports that American Airlines has settled the lawsuit filed by three Black men who were kicked off a flight in January over a “body odor” allegation, according to the law firms representing the men. Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph and Xavier Veal, all from New York, and five other Black men had boarded a flight from Phoenix to New York City in January, when a white flight attendant complained of someone’s odor, according to the suit. All eight men were then forced to deplane with no reason given. None of the men had known each prior to the incident, nor were they seated together. It was later that they learned of the body odor complaint, which they say they weren’t responsible for.

The plaintiffs alleged racial discrimination in their lawsuit, which was filed in May, and American has since “terminated the employment” of the flight attendants responsible, according to men’s law firms, Outen & Golden LLP and Public Citizen Litigation Group. “We are very pleased that American Airlines took our complaint seriously, and we hope that this never happens to Black passengers or any other people of color again,” the three plaintiffs said in the release Terms of the settlement are confidential. After the incident, American committed to conducting bias and discrimination training for employees and creating an advisory group focused on Black customers in order to prevent future discrimination. A statement from American emphasized its resolve to providing a “welcoming and inclusive” environment for fliers, and described the settlement as “amicable.”

Landfill workers feeling impact of Kilgore fire

Landfill workers feeling impact of Kilgore fireTYLER – In the midst of the usual uptick in recycling and waste during the holidays, their workload is only increasing, because everything’s now going to the landfill together. Every day, dozens of trucks sit in line at the Greenwood Farms Landfill in Tyler waiting to dump their trash. East Texas landfill and sanitation workers are still feeling the impact of a major recycling center catching fire in Kilgore six months ago and halting services for many local cities.

“About 300 trucks come through here every day and unload about a thousand tons per day,” said manager of municipal services at Greenwood Farms Landfill, Gene Keenon. Towards the end of the year, Keenon said that number doubles.

It’s not just the holiday rush they’re facing. Since River’s Recycling Center shut down in Kilgore, recyclables are also coming to the landfill. “It’s about 300 tons a week that we used to be diverting out of the landfill. It’s now coming back into the landfill,” Keenon explained. That’s an extra 300 tons per week his workers have to deal with. Continue reading Landfill workers feeling impact of Kilgore fire