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TYLER — CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler held a memorial service on Thursday to honor four medics that lost their lives in the line of duty in 1988 and 1989. According to our news partner KETK, the National EMS Memorial Service (NEMSMS) travels across the U.S. every year to honor emergency medical services personnel that died while in the line of duty. This year, NEMSMS planned to make a total of 29 stops in 19 states and one of those stops was at CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler.

A ‘Tree of Life’ memorial was held to honor three CHRSITUS ‘Flight for Life’ crew members who died in an air medical accident on Feb. 13, 1989 and another medic who died in 1988. The ‘Tree of Life’ is a memorial board that displays an image of an oak tree with the names, agencies and dates of loss of every honoree engraved on the leaves. Continue reading Four medics memorialized at Tyler hospital

UPDATE: According to our news partner KETK and the Lufkin Police Department, the juvenile who was shot Tuesday evening in Lufkin died early Thursday morning at a Houston hospital.

26-year-old Julious Griffin was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on Tuesday evening, and murder charges are now pending.

LUFKIN – A Lufkin man is behind bars after a shooting on Tuesday night on Percy Simond Street left one person injured. According to the police department, around 7 p.m. officers responded to a residence in the 100 block of Percy Simond Street. When they arrived, 26-year-old Julious Griffin admitted to the officers that he shot the juvenile in the leg, but claimed self-defense.

Griffin has been booked in to the Angelina County Jail on the following charges: Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, Unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and Deadly conduct.

The person that was injured was taken to a local hospital, but then later flown to an out-of-town facility. Their condition and identity have not been released as of this writing.

CHANDLER — City of Chandler Police Chief Kalon Rollins was appointed as the interim city administrator on Wednesday night by the city council according to our news partner KETK.

Rollins will continue his role as chief of police while serving as the interim city administrator, and he said this new responsibility will not affect police services. Rollins’ main goal during his time as administrator is to move the city forward with the help of the mayor and city council.

“I have a great staff who already handles the daily operation of the police department and who completely support my acceptance of this new position; therefore, this change will not have any effect on police services,” Rollins said. “I have graciously accepted this position for one main purpose: to move the city forward.”

According to Rollins, city leaders will work to create the necessary changes and move in a positive direction while being honest with Chandler residents.

JACKSONVILLE– Hundreds of people across East Texas packed into Jacksonville’s City Hall for the groundwater board’s public hearing on the 21 high capacity well drilling permit.

According to our news partner KETK, the Neches and Trinity County’s Groundwater Conservation District voted unanimously to send the contested hearing to an independent state agency for mediation.
People who spoke at the meeting were resident, mayors, county commissioners, county judges, water companies and state representatives.

“All of rural East Texas, all of our rural East Texas counties, will be affected. Our cities will not be able to have businesses. Everyone’s going to have to move away,” New Summerfield resident, Jennifer Murphy-Vick said.

Other community members spoke out about how this issue may be the size of a drop of water now, but could turn into an ocean of problems if nothing is done. Continue reading Hundreds gather in opposition to well permits in Jacksonville

LONGVIEW — According to our news partner KETK, Melissa Beckett announced on Thursday that she will enter the republican primary race to represent Texas House District 7 which oversees Gregg, Harrison and Marion counties. Beckett is a current Gregg County resident with a background in commodity trading and data analysis giving her some experience in recognizing patterns. She is also the founder of Texas Education 911 which advocates for parents whose children have been harmed in tax payer schools and help the families reach justice, according to texased911,com.

“I’m an everyday Texan, not a politician, but I feel compelled to run because we the
families of East Texas, have been forgotten,” Beckett said. “We deserve to have a representative in Austin that puts us first. That’s why I’m running.”

TYLER – The Tyler Police Department is investigating the death of a 35-year-old man who was found unresponsive in a pool on Thursday morning, according to a report from our news partner KETK.

The man, who has not been identified, was found at around 3:45 a.m. in a pool in the 4000 block of Stonegate Blvd. He was then taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:45 a.m.

When asked if foul play was suspected, Public Information Officer Andy Erbaugh said the case remains under investigation.

TYLER – Gov. Abbott signed Senate Bill 7 and Joint House Resolution 7, what he calls is the largest generational investment in the states’ water infrastructure.

Texas is growing but the water supply is not keeping up, the 89th legislature invested $20 billion to fund water projects. A part of the $20 billion investment is to fix old, decaying and costly infrastructure.

“What we’ve done with this legislation impacts generations of Texas,” State Representative Cody Harris said.

“We lose about 88 billion gallons of water a year because of broken, busted and aged pipes. We have an across-the-board urgency to make sure that we address the water issue. The good news is we had the legislature step up and get that job done with the largest water law in the history of the great state of Texas,” Abbott said. Continue reading State Rep. Harris watches as Texas Governor signs water bill

HENDERSON COUNTY — According to our news partner KETK, more than 10,000 videos of child pornography were allegedly found in a Mabank man’s Snapchat account.

On March 30, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a cyber tip from Snapchat for David Burlin Brewer. The sheriff’s office obtained Brewer’s IP address and Snapchat account, where they found several videos of minors showing their genital area and touching themselves. One of the videos shows a girl, who is believed to be under 10, sexually exposing herself. Officials also found multiple other videos of suspected minors performing sexual acts while naked.

“There are almost 10,000 files to view,” the affidavit said.” A lot of the files are age-difficult, but some of them are obviously children with their genitals exposed.” Continue reading Tip leads to child porn possession arrest in Mabank

TYLER — The Texas Education Agency (TEA) released the spring 2025 STAAR test results for third through eighth graders on Tuesday and, according to our news partner KETK, improvements were seen in multiple categories.

The STAAR test score percentages are separated by three categories which are approaches, meets and masters. The Texas Education Agency said that some grade levels scored higher than students who took the test before the pandemic. Here is how every grade level compared to last year’s test takers based on the meets (standard) category, according to the Texas Education Agency.

Reading Language Arts (RLA)

Increase:
Third grade – 3%
Fourth grade – 3%
Fifth grade – 4%
Eighth grade – 2%
Continue reading STAAR test score data shows growth in younger grades

LINDALE – Our news partner KETK reports that one person was arrested near Lindale after being caught driving a vehicle that had been stolen from Louisiana.

At around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) attempted to stop the stolen vehicle that was traveling on U.S. Highway 69 driving near Lindale.

The driver of the stolen vehicle continued to flee and troopers eventually deployed spike strips which brought the pursuit to an end.

The person was taken into custody following the pursuit and according to officials has been charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle, evading arrest, and outstanding warrants.

According to officials, the case remains under investigation and no further information is available at this time.

TYLER – Desnique Deshawn Herndon, 28, was sentenced to seven life sentences by U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker on Wednesday. In 2023, Herndon was convicted by a jury of six counts of sex trafficking of children and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children following a five-day trial before Judge Barker. Herndon remained in custody between the time of trial and sentencing. Beginning in 2019, Herndon engaged in trafficking multiple teenage girls for commercial sex acts. Herndon recruited the girls by social media, deceived them by promising riches, and placed them in hotels in the Tyler area. Some of Herndon’s victims were as young as 13 years old. Three of Herndon’s co-conspirators previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the offenses.

MARSHALL — Our news partner KETK reports that one person is dead after a pickup truck and a motorcycle crash on Interstate 20 East and U.S. Highway 59 near Marshall on Wednesday around 4:30 a.m.

A preliminary investigation revealed that both vehicles were traveling east when the pickup truck struck the rear of the motorcycle. Officials said the motorcycle’s passenger was pronounced dead at the scene and the driver of the motorcycle was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

At this time, DPS has not released the condition of the pickup driver, and no further details will be released by officials as the crash remains under investigation.

EUSTACE – Our news partner KETK reports that the SPCA of Texas was granted custody of 66 animals on June 11 after they were removed from a Eustace property due to alleged animal cruelty.

According to the non-profit organization, after an incomplete request for appeal at a civil custody hearing on June 11, the judge defaulted to the previous judgement which granted SPCA custody of 10 dogs and 56 cats experiencing animal neglect and cruelty.

These animals were removed from a metal building owned by Yelp for Help Animal Rescue ran by Haley Janelle Hull.

Hull was arrested on May 29 and charged with cruelty to non-livestock animals – neglect. She was booked into the Van Zandt County Detention Center where she was released the following day on a $10,000 bond. Continue reading SPCA of Texas removes 66 animals from a woman’s home