Today is
Friday June 05, 2026
HALLSVILLE – The pilot involved in a fatal Harrison County crash on March 9th, was not certified to fly the plane. According to FAA records, William Robert Kendrick, of Huffman, was certified to fly a single-engine aircraft. The plane that crashed was a twin engine craft. The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report also said that Kendrick’s pilot log shows he had not flown in nearly 14 years. His plane, which was on its way to New Orleans, crashed 10 miles from the East Texas Regional Airport. Also killed in the crash was the pilot’s wife and daughter and her boyfriend.
SMITH COUNTY – Wednesday is Texas Tobacco-Free Kids Day. There will be at least 70 students and faculty at each of 5 Smith County high schools wearing the Texas Tobacco-Free Kids Day shirts. The number 70 represents the number of people that die every day in Texas from tobacco related cuases. At each participating school there will be an announcement about what’s in a cigarette, such things as rat poison, ammonia and nail polish remover. They will remind the students that they have the power to be tobacco free. The Campus Crimestopper student board members came up with this plan after attending a Texas Tobacco-Free Teen Leadership Conference. The participating schools are: John Tyler High School, Robert E. Lee High School, Early College High School (Tyler ISD), Chapel Hill High School and Whitehouse High School.
MARSHALL – An East Texas man has died in a Tyler hospital from a Harrison County accident. Killed was Tristen Alexander Jackson, 20, of Humble. The Department of Public Safety report says his car went off the roadway to the right and the driver over corrected to the left and went off the road. The car hit a culvert and became airborne, hitting a tree. He was not wearing a seat belt. The accident happened around 1:30 Saturday morning on U.S. Highway 59, Nearly 5 miles north of Marshall.
MARSHALL – One person has been arrested in a Marshall murder. The shooting was reported shortly after 11:30 Monday night on Elsie Street. Rushed to a Marshall hospital, where he later died, was Tyshun Darty, 22, of Marshall. The shooter was identified as Nathan “Nate†Irving,(pictured) 20 of Marshall. He was found, and arrested without incident, Tuesday morning. Irving has been booked into the Harrison County Jail on a murder charge
PALESTINE – Two nursing students at the University of Texas at Tyler-Palestine campus, have been elected to leadership roles in the Texas Student Nursing Association. Elected president was Rachel Barbey of Palestine and elected vice president was Allison Sheridan of Elkhart. The two students, who hold the top positions of the board of directors, will serve for a one-year period and attend board meetings throughout the year. The Texas Nursing Students Association is an organization dedicated to promoting professionalism and leadership for today’s nursing students. There are more than 3,000 members representing over 100 nursing schools in Texas.
AUSTIN – Tyler is one of six pilot sites in the state selected to take part in an initiative to increase access to clinical mental health treatment for military service members. The Andrews Center in Tyler, along with the Burk Center in Nacogdoches, were selected to take part in the program. The six centers provide services to veterans across 39 Texas counties. Veteran counselors were recently hired at the pilot sites using existing program funding. Training for the new counselors was completed a couple of months ago. They are able to provide acute mental health services to military service members, veterans and their families. Among the areas they are skilled in are suicide prevention and intervention. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER – Several units of a senior living community have been damaged by fire. The two alarm fire occurred around 8:15 Sunday evening at the William Booth Garden Apartments. The independent living and assisted living apartments are located on Golden Road at the Old Henderson Highway. No injuries were reported, but fire marshal Paul Findley said three apartment units suffered flame damage, while three units suffered smoke and water damage. The fire started on a porch area of one of the apartments. The exact cause of the fire remains under investigation.
TYLER – One person has been killed in a Tyler industrial accident. Killed in the weekend accident was Kaspar Holland, 22, of Tyler. The accident occurred at the Brookshire Grocery Company warehouse. Details of what happened have not been released. The company said in a news release they have operated warehouse facilities in Tyler for nearly 70 years. This is the first on-the-job injury of this severity at one of their warehouses. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation into the accident.
TYLER – TxDOT is planning to conduct the following construction and maintenance work throughout the district during the week of March 18. Schedules are subject to change due to weather conditions, equipment failure or other unforeseen issues.
In Smith County, the Farm Road 2493/Old Jacksonville Highway widening project from Gresham to Flint, gets underway with right-of-way clearing operations. Motorists will notice a new construction speed limit of 45 mph in place throughout the work zone. Daily lane closures could also be at play as needed. Motorist should expect a change in their daily commutes. Read the rest of this entry »
SMITH COUNTY – The east bound lanes of Interstate Highway 20 in Western Smith County are now open. According to a tweet from the Tyler TxDot Office, “The repairs are complete and all travel lanes of I-20 at Caney Creek are open and normal traffic flow resumed.” Monday evening, after a sinkhole developed at the bridge abutment at the creek, traffic had to be rerouted around the area. Crews opened the outside eastbound lane on Wednesday. The other lane was opened on Thursday.
AUSTIN – Texas game wardens have completed a two day operation to find businesses who were trying to circumvent laws regulating commercial seafood operations. More than 50 facilities, including seafood restaurants, fish markets, and wholesale commercial fish dealers, were targeted in the operation. More than 60 warnings and citations were issued for a range of commercial seafood health and safety related violations. At a Wood County business, game wardens seized around $1,600 worth of oysters packaged in 37 undocumented one gallon plastic storage bags. Investigators also took possession of undocumented oysters in Gregg, Nacogdoches and Angelina counties. They promise they will be conducting more frequent inspections in the future with warnings replaced with citations and arrest warrants.
EAST TEXAS – A line of severe thunderstorm caused heavy damage around East Texas Thursday morning. The storms brought severe lightning and straight-line winds which included winds up to 50 and 60 miles an hour. One hard-hit area was Kilgore, where thousands of homes were damaged and power knocked out. The damage calls to the city started coming in around 3:15 Thursday morning. City crews and emergency responders spent Thursday working to clear trees from streets. Officials said The Kilgore College Parks Fitness Center, on Laird Street west of Broadway Boulevard, is open to the public. Anyone in need will be able to shower and charge their electronic devices.
TYLER – According to new data from Terminix, 7 Texas cities are on the company’s list of the Top 50 most termite-infested cities in the United States. Number 7 on the list is Tyler-Longview. According to the company’s web site, as temperatures increase, so does termite activity. They say the average cost associated with treating and repairing damage from an infestation is over $8,000. Termites cause around $5 billion in damage in the U.S. every year. Read the rest of this entry »
PALESTINE – A man accused of robbing a Palestine gas station last month, and setting a customer on fire, has been indicted by the Anderson County grand jury. Robert Lawrence Thompson, 40, is charged with two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of arson. He is said to have bound the employee and a customer with duct tape. He then doused both women with lighter fluid and set the customer on fire. She was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas for treatment. Thompson was later arrested at another Palestine gas station. He remains in the Anderson County Jail under bonds totaling $4,000,000.
TYLER – The Smith County Fire Marshall’s office has not been able to find the cause of a that killed a mother and her daughter last month. Killed were Alejandra Mayorga Chavez, 66, and Herlinda Beltran, 35. The February 12th fire was reported shortly after 5:15 that morning in their mobile home in Chapel Hill. Assistant Fire Marshall Chad Hogue said his office and the ATF, have completed their investigation into the fire. He said, while the cause of the fire is undetermined, foul play is not suspected.