Today is
Sunday June 07, 2026
ARP – An off duty Smith County fireman was injured in a Monday fire. Airlifted to a Shreveport hospital with burns over 50% of his body was Chris Vannoy, 24. He saw smoke coming from a building behind a neighbor’s house. He called it in and then went to check on it. When he opened a door, the flames flashed around him. How the fire started remains under investigation. It was reported shortly before 2:45 Monday afternoon on Longview Street in Arp.
JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville fire officials are still trying to determine the cause of a fire that destroyed a large portion of the Western Pulp Products-Central Division facilities. The fire on North Bolton Street was reported around 10:00 Friday night. Five area fire department, some from Smith County, helped Jacksonville firemen put out the fire. The fire was hard to extinguish because of cardboard packing materials that was highly compacted in the eastern portion of the building. No injuries were reported.
NACOGDOCHES – An East Texas legislator has announced he will be running for Speaker of the Texas House. The announcement was made Monday by Republican State Representative Travis Clardy of Nacogdoches. Clardy was first elected in 2012 to represent House District 11, which includes Cherokee, Nacogdoches and Rusk counties. A lawyer in Nacogdoches, Clardy currently serves as vice chair of the House Committee on Local and Consent Calendars, and a member of the House Higher Education and Energy Resources committees.
TYLER – Monday marks the start of a new school year in the Tyler school district. Motorists need to be alert for the students. Police officers will be back in school zones watching for violators for speeding and for cell phone usage in a school zone. Motorists need to slow down and watch for students and crossing guards. And remember, in school zones, keep those cell phones in your pocket. And for students walking to school, obey traffic signals and crossing guards. And, if there are no sidewalks, walk facing traffic. Read the rest of this entry »
LAKE PALESTINE – There was a near drowning Friday on Lake Palestine. It happened around 10:00am near Eagle’s Bluff. Our news partner, KETK, reports a man fell from a ladder while he worked on a boat house. He was injured as he fell into water that was around five feet deep. A friend pulled him from the water and started CPR. The man was flown to the hospital where he is said to be in critical condition. His name has not been released.
LONGVIEW – A Gregg County Jail inmate showed no signs or problems before he was found hanging in his jail cell. Tony Waters, 55, of Kilgore was found hanging in his cell last month. He had used his clothes to fashion a makeshift rope and was found hanging in his cell shower. He died in a Longview hospital several days later. He had been arrested in connection with a Tyler shooting that left two persons dead and one injured. The Longview News Journal says Waters showed no signs of mental or psychological problems before hanging himself. That information in contained in a report that has been sent to the state attorney general’s office.
EAST TEXAS – Unemployment in Tyler and Longview continues to drop. The Texas Workforce Commission reports the state’s unemployment rate stood at 4% for the second straight month. That’s just below the national jobless figure of 4.1%. Tyler has both of them beat. Tyler’s July unemployment rate fell from 3.9% in June to 3.7% last month. A year ago it was 4.1%. Longview’s unemployment fell from 4.4% in June to 4.3% last month. It was 5.2% a year ago. Texas added about 23,500 seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs in July, marking 25 consecutive months of employment growth in the state.
TYLER – There was a pretrial hearing in Tyler Thursday for capital murder suspect Gustavo Zavala-Garcia. He is charged with the November 2016 death of 10 year old Kayla Gomez Orozco. She was killed after being abducted from a Bullard church. During the latest hearing, Judge Jack Skeen heard from a DPS forensic expert. She said the first two dozen DNA samples submitted for trace analysis have been completed. The results should be ready in 60 days. The next pretrial hearing is September 13th. At a scheduled hearing on October 18th, it will be decided if more DNA tests are needed. The trial is now set to be held next March.
FRANKSTON – One person has been killed and one injured in a two vehicle accident in Anderson County. Killed was 76 year old Glenda Jo Bain of Frankston. Treated and released from a Tyler hospital was 72 year old James William Moore of Frankston. The Departmnet of Public Safety says Bain was traveling on Farm Road 318. As she crossed State Highway 155, her car was hit by Moore’s pickup. Bain was flown to UT Health-Tyler, where she later died. The accident happened shortly after 8:45 Thursday morning, just over 3 miles south of Frankston. The accident remains under investigation.
LONGVIEW – A Longview burglary suspect is free on bond. Lorenzo Ta’rell Lloyd-Wallace, 17, of Arp was arrested, along with two juveniles, earlier this week. A Jordan Valley Road resident came home to find four persons in her home. They ran from the house, but police say they were able to find three of them. The 4th was later identified. Besides burglary of a habitation, Lloyd-Wallace was also charged with evading arrest. He is currently free on bonds totaling $22,000.
AUSTIN – The Texas Education Agency has released the new A through F grading system for the state’s school districts. The Tyler school system received a “C” while Longview received a “B.” The Lindale School Districts got an “A.” The district ratings are calculated using three areas: student achievement, school progress and closing the gaps. The achievement and progress scores account for 70% of the rating, while the closing the gaps score is worth 30% Some educator groups are criticizing the ratings, saying that it’s an unfair and incomplete assessment of student success. You can go to https://txschools.org to view the 2018 state accountability ratings for districts and campus grades.
HENDERSON COUNTY – Overnight drug raids in Henderson County resulted in the arrests of 5 persons. Four persons were arrested at a residence on County Road 1405 just west of Athens. One of the arrests was on a warrant for theft. Then, on Red Robin in the Woodwilks Subdivision of Gun Barrel City, one person was arrested for drugs and flushing some of the drugs down the toilet.
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TYLER – The new Chair of the Department of Health Policy, Economics, and Management at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, School of Community and Rural Health, is Dr. Michael H. Kennedy. He has served as interim chair since last October, and prior to that as associate professor. Prior to joining UT Health Science Center at Tyler in January of last year, Dr. Kennedy was an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Services and Information Management at East Carolina University.
TYLER – A Chapel Hill teacher, arrested on Tuesday, has been fire by the school district. The firing of 38 year old Charles David Applegate was announced Thursday by the school district. They said the district will make all required reports to state educational authorities. Applegate was found passed out in his car, which was in the high school parking lot near the band hall. He was conscious but had vomited on himself. Applegate was said to be intoxicated and was in possession of a used aerosol can. It is believed that he was huffing the fumes from the aerosol can. He was charged with public intoxication and possession of inhalants and is currently free on a $760 bond.
TYLER – Tyler Junior College students Griselle Esparza and Kristin Marling are two of 207 Phi Theta Kappa members named 2018 Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholars. Each will receive a $1,000 scholarship. The two, both biology majors, are officers in TJC’s Alpha Omicron Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. Esparza, from Tyler, plans to pursue her education in pre-med while Marling, from Longview, plans to continue her studies in physical therapy. Notable TJC alumni who have been members of TJC’s Alpha Omicron Chapter include Christian recording artist Chris Tomlin and former National Security Agency Director Admiral Bobby Inman.