KTBB News, Weather, Talk

TYLER — East Texas Giving Day is in full swing. The drive has already topped this year’s goal and there is still time for you to donate. This year’s event features 158 registered nonprofits from across East Texas. East Texas Giving Day, powered by East Texas Communities Foundation, is an 18-hour, online giving event that kicked off at 6:00 a.m. and ends at midnight. Donors can participate in the event by going online to http://www.EastTexasGivingDay.org to make their donation. You can also go to https://www.easttexasgivingday.org/leaderboards to check the progress of different agencies.

GREGG COUNTY – A news conference that had been scheduled Wednesday afternoon in the case of a missing pregnant woman from Kilgore, has been cancelled. There is no word on why the news conference on Sheryia Grant was cancelled. Grant, 20, who disappeared in August, 2016. Last May, three persons were arrested in the woman’s disappearance. Charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence (human corpse) was Laneshia Lashae Young, 22, and Allen Lamont Sutton, 28, both of Overton. An unnamed juvenile from Arp has also been arrested in the case.

TYLER – Tyler fireman begin their annual Fill the Boot fundraising campaign on Tuesday. More than 160 Tyler firemen will fan out across the city with boots in hand. The money they raise goes to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The funds will be used to find urgently needed treatments and cures for Muscular Dystrophy, ALS and related diseases that severely limit strength and mobility. Through Sunday, you will find the firemen at a dozen locations around the area. Continue reading It Is Time Again to Fill the Boots

TYLER – Three Tyler Junior College professors were surprised in their classrooms Monday. They have been named with endowed teaching chairs for 2018. The program enables professors to nominate and reward their peers who demonstrate excellence as educators. This year’s recipients are:
• Ashleigh Lewis, learning framework professor, The Dorothy Fay & Jack White Endowed Chair for Teaching Excellence
• C. Jeanie Oxler, voice professor and music department chair, The Watson W. Wise Foundation Endowed Chair for Teaching Excellence
• Sherry Seaton, surgical technology professor and department chair, The Dorothy Fay & Jack White Endowed Chair for Teaching Excellence

TYLER – Smith County Treasurer Kelli White was named as a finalist for the County Treasurers Association’s Outstanding County Treasurer Award. She is one of 12 county treasurers from around the state nominated for the honor. The winner will be chosen by ballots cast by all the members of the County Treasurers Association of Texas, and announced at its September conference in Odessa.

HENDERSON – The reward in a Rusk County cold case has been doubled. The reward for help in finding Jimmy Tidwell Jr., 58, of Mount Enterprise, has increased to $3,000. His family announced the increase at a Monday morning news conference. Tidwell was last seen on February 15th, 2012. He left his job, saying he would be back in the afternoon. He never returned. His truck, with his glasses, was later found parked along side of the road about five miles from his house. There was no signs of foul play. Tips can be called in to 903-655-TIPS(8477).

LONGVIEW — Longview ranks 7th in the state on a new danger list. According to our news partner KETK, the city is marked as a place where you’re most likely to be killed by a drunk driver. That’s according to a study launched by a Houston law firm. Longview is home to 96 drunk driving crashes, four deaths, and nine severe injuries on average per year.

HENDERSON COUNTY — Officials are investigating a Sunday night residential fire in Henderson County. According to our news partner KETK, just after 9:00, Payne Springs Fire Rescue responded to a mobile home fire on Hickory Street. While en route, first responders were informed the mobile home was fully engulfed and an occupant was possibly still inside. A body was eventually located. The victim’s identity and the cause of the fire have not been released. The investigation is on going and is being led by the Henderson County Fire Marshal’s Office.

TYLER – Early voting in the city and school elections in Smith County starts today. It will run through May 1st with Saturday, May 5th is the election day. There are two contested races in Tyler. Mayor Martin Heines is being challenged by Joel Rando. The open District 2 city council seat is being sought by Beverly Beavers-Brooks and Broderick McGee. Council Districts 4 and 6 also are up for election, but the races are uncontested. There are also elections for the city of Winona and East Texas Municipal Utility District and school district elections in Bullard and Troup. Continue reading Early Voting Begins Today

TYLER – Here’s a look at work planned in the district during the week of April 23rd. .Schedules are subject to change due to weather conditions, equipment failure or other unforeseen issues. Slow down and pay attention when traveling through work zones.

Tyler Maintenance plans to finish up overlay operations on Farm Road 1252 east of Farm Road 757 by Tuesday and then move to Farm Road 16 east of the State Highway 155 intersection for one mile. A second crew will be performing ditch maintenance on roadways throughout the county. Expect lane closures with flaggers providing traffic control at all work locations. Continue reading TxDOT Area Roadwork Update

LONGVIEW – A fatal accident in Longview remains under investigation. It happened Shortly before 9:00 Saturday night on West Loop 281. Killed was Wilbert Hawkins 58, of Longview. His vehicle that had become disabled in the inside lane west bound on the loop. Other cars had stopped to avoid hitting his vehicle. A pickup driven by Julio Martinez 38, of Longview, moved into the turning lane to avoid hitting the stopped cars and hit Hawkins. He later died at a Longview hospital.

TYLER – A report of a robbery brought Tyler police to Texas Bank and Trust at South Broadway and Robert E Lee Drive. It was reported around 10:15 Saturday morning. A man entered the bank and handed the teller a note telling her of the robbery. The man got nervous when the clerk started to walk away, he then took the note and ran away without getting any money. He is described as a black male in his late 20’s medium build, wearing a black baseball cap, black shirt and black pants. He got into a gold, early 2000 Chrysler Pacifica, which was parked near, and drove away.

JACKSONVILLE – Two persons have been killed in a two vehicle accident in Cherokee County. The wreck happened just before 4:45 Friday afternoon on Farm Road 177, 7 miles north of Jacksonville. Dead at the scene was Susan Lynnette Baker, 40, of Troup, and a 15 year old girl who was a passenger in her car. The Department of Public Safety says Baker was traveling at an unsafe speed when her car entered a curve and she over corrected. It caused her car skid sideways into the other lane of traffic where it was hit by a pickup. Both vehicles end up in a ditch. The driver of the pickup was not injured. The wreck remains under investigation.

AUSTIN – Texas’s two high courts have appointed 31 members to lead the newly established Judicial Commission on Mental Health. One of them is Hopkins County Judge Robert Newsom of Sulphur Springs. He will serve through August 2020. The commission, the first body jointly created by the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, will examine best practices in the administration of civil and criminal justice for persons with mental illness. The first meeting of the newly-appointed commission is scheduled for Tuesday, May 15 in Austin.

LONGVIEW – Benjamin B. Johnson, 36, of Longview, has been found guilty of two counts of harassment of a public servant. The ruling came Friday in a trial before State District Judge Alfonso Charles. Johnson resisted arrest in October of 2016 when first approached by officers and later at a Longview hospital. He even spit on two officers. A urinalysis showed Johnson to be on PCP, methamphetamine and marijuana. He will be sentenced at a later date.

MARSHALL – Marshall police are looking for two men in a home invasion. It occurred shortly before 9:45 Thursday night on Dean Drive. Two men, one who was armed, forced their way into the home of an elderly woman and demanded firearms. One held her at gunpoint while the other ransacked her house. They stole a crossbow, and then fled on foot. The woman was not injured. They were described as young black males, both with red bandanas over their face. One suspect was said to have been wearing a red hoodie and the other was wearing a dark colored hoodie.

TYLER – A woman wanted for a Dallas County death has been arrested in Tyler. Diem Trinh Nguyen, 29, of Grand Prairie was arrested around 2:30 Thursday morning in a church parking lot on Highway 155. An officer checking on the suspicious vehicle discovered she had been named in a warrant in Dallas County for criminally negligent homicide. She had been wanted in connection with an accident in which she hit and killed a man standing on a sidewalk in April of last year. She is being held in the Smith County jail under a $100,000 bond.

LONGVIEW – Longview Animal Control is reminding residents, be cautious if you find a bat. Bat exposure is a major concern because of the possibility of contracting rabies. So far this year, they have responded to 17 calls about bats. Six were sent in for rabies testing. The other bats had been released by the people who found them. They believe the number of bat exposures may top 17, because others may have released the bats without knowing how harmful the exposure could be. The best advice, if you see a bat, don’t touch it or release it. Instead, call Animal Control or 911. You can go to https://www.longviewtexas.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1404 to get more tips about bats and bat exposure.

WASHINGTON – Tyler congressman Louie Gohmert has been named a recipient of the 2018 Thomas Jefferson Award. The bi-annual award, presented by the International Foodservice Distributors Association, recognizes legislators whose voting record shows strong support of the U.S. foodservice distribution industry. The award was introduced in 1992.

TYLER – A Tyler man is heading to prison for aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault. Last month, a Tyler jury found Freddi Betancourt, 26, guilty. Friday, State District Judge Kerry Russell sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Last June, he met a woman he had a previous relationship with at Noble Young Park. He forced her into his car where he sexually assaulted her before driving off with the victim still in the vehicle. Witnesses helped police find the car on the Frankston Highway, with the woman trying to get out of the vehicle.

TYLER – Tyler police are looking for help in identifying a man involved in a hit an run accident. He was a passenger in the car that caused the crash. It happened on April 13th at West Gentry Parkway and Parkdale. He is said to have got out of the vehicle and pushed to the ground the lady who was driving. He then took her cell phone while she was trying to dial 911. If you can identify him, you are asked to call Tyler police.

TYLER (AP) – The 12th Court of Appeals in Tyler has struck down a law barring intimate photos and videos from previous or current relationships from being shared online without consent. The ruling says the law violates the First Amendment by restricting expression based on the content of photographs and videos shared online. The court also ordered a revenge porn charge to be dropped against Jordan Bartlett Jones. Court records show Jones challenged the law as unconstitutional while awaiting trial for displaying a naked photograph of a woman in a way that revealed her identity. Texas legislators passed the law in 2015. The ruling only blocks the law in Northeast Texas counties under the 12th Court of Appeals.

EAST TEXAS – Tyler’s Unemployment rate has dropped, while there has been a slight uptick in Longview’s jobless numbers. The report from the Texas Workforce Commission show Tyler’s unemployment rate for march was 3.7%. That is down from 4.1% in February and far better that the 4.3% rate in March of last year. Longview’s March unemployment rate was 4.5%, slightly up from 4.4% in February, but vastly improved from the 5.7% figure last March. The state’s unemployment rate last month was 4%, slightly better than the March jobless figure for the U.S.

ANGELINA COUNTY – A suspect wanted in a shooting at a night club near Lufkin has been arrested. It happened last Sunday at Annie Mae’s Night Club and left two people injured. According to the Angelina County Sheriff’s Office, Kevin Edward Jefferson, 45, of Corrigan, was arrested Thursday on three felony warrants. He was booked into jail on two counts of aggravated assault and one count of felon in possession of a firearm. The Texas Department of Public Safety assisted in the investigation.

ELKHART – One person has been killed and 3 injured in a one vehicle accident in Anderson County. It happened around 4:45 Wednesday morning on U.S. Highway 287, six miles south of Elkhart. Dead at the scene was Autumn A’mari Taylor, 2, of Tyler. In critical condition in a Dallas hospital is a three week old. The DPS says both were unbealted. A teenager is in critical condition in a Tyler hospital. The driver, Tiffany Marie Taylor, 36, of Tyler, is in stable condition in a Tyler. It appears she fell asleep at the wheel. She then overcorrected, went across the highway, overturned and hit a house.

TYLER – UT Health East Texas EMS, formerly ETMC EMS, has rolled out its new ambulance design. The ambulance service began in 1968. Besides Tyler and Smith County, coverage also includes Henderson County, Wood County, most of Cherokee County and the city of Henderson. It employs 116 paramedics and 124 emergency medical technicians. Moody Chisholm, president and CEO of UT Health East Texas said at Thursday’s unveiling, “over the next several months, all 50 ambulances and EMS support vehicles will be branded with the new look.” UT Health East Texas Air 1 also is being rebranded. The new helicopter look will be revealed in June.

LONGVIEW – Longview police say it was a Dallas man who was killed in a Wednesday morning accident. He is John Warren Young, 56. The accident occurred on East Marshall Avenue in front of Jennings Scrap & Salvage. Police investigators say Young got out of his 18-wheeler and the truck and trailer started rolling down the hill. Before he could get back into the vehicle, it ran over him.

TYLER – A Mineola man has been arrested for shooting at a Smith County sheriff’s deputy. The incident happened April 8th when a deputy answered a suspicious persons call on County Road 462, in far northwest Smith County. When the deputy sounded his siren, two shots came from a camper trailer. One hit the rear window of the patrol car. When 35 year old Joshua Forrester came out of the trailer, he was taken to a hospital for evaluation. After further investigation, he was charged with aggravated assault against a public servant. He was booked into the Smith County Jail early Thursday morning under a bond of $1 million.