Today is
Sunday June 07, 2026
LONGVIEW – If you have been summoned for jury duty in Gregg County on Monday, you do not have to report. According to the county’s web site, jury duty for Monday, July 23rd, has been cancelled.
MARSHALL – Law enforcement officers in Harrison county have completed a check of registers sex offenders in the county. The check of the 175 register sex offenders was to make sure all were in compliance with state regulations. The three phase operation, called “Operation Safe Summer,” was conducted over several weeks. Three persons were arrested and booked into the Harrison County Jail. Arrest warrants have also been issued for two additional offenders. Arrested were Kendall Bernard Gatson, 37, Robert Louis Price Jr., 47 and David Wayne Knighten, 19
HENDERSON – Rusk County is back under a burn ban. The ban, signed by the county judge and Rusk County Commissioners Thursday morning, is an unconditional burn ban that is in effect for a period not to exceed 90 days. Rusk County had earlier been under a burn ban, but it was lifted on July 9th. Other area counties currently under a burn ban are Henderson, Harrison and Franklin.
HENDERSON – A second person has been named in a Henderson robbery that occurred earlier this year. A warrant has been issued for Michael Danyl Hopkins, 30, of Dallas. He is being accused of taking part in the robbery of East Texas Professional Credit Union in Henderson on January 13th. Arrested late last week was Ashley Alexderia Page, 32, of Nacogdoches. She is said to have collected the money while Hopkins held everyone at gunpoint. Page was identified by her fingerprints on the bank’s counter. She was arrested earlier this month following a traffic stop in Dallas County. Hopkins is in jail in West Virginia on unrelated charges.
TYLER – A southeast Texas man is accused of using his cell phone to record women in a Smith County restroom. Carlos Garcia, 45, of Stafford, is said to have hid in an adjoining stall and tried to photograph women after they entered the restroom. Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Darrell Coslin said the incident happened at a store on Highway 271. A woman noticed what he was doing and confronted him. As he tried to leave the store, several male customers detained him until sheriff’s deputies arrived. He was booked into the Smith County Jail on a charge of invasive visual recording.
RUSK – A Cherokee County jury has found a Jacksonville man guilty of murder. Terry Woods was convicted Wednesday of the October, 2015 shooting death of 44 year old Michael Hatton of Frankston. The shooting followed an argument between the two men. The shooting occurred just after sunset on October 8th on Bethune Street. Woods was arrested the following morning when he voluntary surrendered at the Jacksonville Police Department. The punishment phase of the trial is scheduled to begin July 30th.
CHANDLER – A Smith County man has died in a two vehicle accident in Henderson County. Dead at the scene was Kerry Wayland Hicks, 51, of Lindale. The Department of Public Safety reports Hick’s motorcycle failed to negotiate a curve and hit a pickup driver by KC Scott Allen, 30, of Itasca. Hicks, who was not wearing a helmet, was thrown from the motorcycle. The accident happened shortly before 8:45 Wednesday morning on Farm Road 317, 5 miles northeast of Chandler.
FLINT – A man has been injured in a tank explosion in Smith County. It happened just before 11:00 Wednesday morning on County Road 133, just north west of Flint. He was working on the well, which was on his property, when the explosion occurred. He was taken to a Tyler hospital for treatment. No word on his condition and his name has not been released. The Smith County Fire Marshal’s office is attempting to learn what caused the explosion.
GRESHAM – A toddler has been found walking in a Smith County road. Motorists found the youngster walking on the Old Jacksonville Highway shortly before 9:45 Wednesday morning. It turned out the youngster had walked away from the Gresham Learning Academy. The children had just been brought inside from recess when the youngster left the building through an unlocked door. The child’s parents were notified and Child Protective Services is investigating the incident.
TYLER – Smith County will be getting a new county extension agent. The Smith County Commissioners Court has named Claudann Jones to fill the position of Smith County Extension Agent for Family and Community Health. The position became vacant when longtime agent Patrice Dunigan retired. Jones has held the same position in Nacogdoches County since 2013. Prior to coming to Nacogdoches, she held the same position in Shelby County for nine years. She will assume her new duties in Smith County the first of next month.
KILGORE – A Kilgore business has been burglarized and numerous guns were taken. It happened around 4:15 Wednesday morning at Smitty’s Guns and Ammo on South Henderson Boulevard. The suspects used a stolen pickup to pull the front door off the business. The truck was found on Peterson Road in Rusk County. The store owner told our news partner KETK that 25 AR and AK firearms and four pistols were stolen. They are valued at $30,000. The investigation is continuing.
TYLER – A teenage runaway has been arrested on robbery and theft charges. It all began shortly after 5:00 Wednesday morning when police say the 14 year old boy stole a B-B gun at Wal-Mart on Highway 31. Around 6:30 he is said to have used the gun to rob the Donut Palace on East 5th Street. He is then said to have tried to rob a man in a nearby parking lot. He was found after police got a call from a resident who saw a juvenile jump over her fence at her residence in the area of the robbery. Investigators found the money taken in the robbery and the gun that he had discarded. The teen, who had run away from the Willow Bend Center on Highway 31 East, was booked into the Smith County Juvenile Attention Center.
TYLER – The Smith County Commissioners Court has approved the Smith County Multi-Jurisdiction Hazard Mitigation Plan. The plan, which was approved at Tuesday’s meeting, has been worked on for over a year. The 393-page document has been approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, pending adoption by the Commissioners Court. The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 requires proactive, pre-disaster planning as a prerequisite for some funding, and encourages state and local authorities to work together on pre-disaster planning. Hazard mitigation is the use of long- and short-term strategies to reduce or alleviate the loss of life, personal injury and property damage that can result from a disaster. It involves strategies such as planning, policy changes, programs, projects and other activities that can lessen the impacts of hazards. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER – The Department of Education is investigating The University of Texas at Tyler for alleged Title IX violations. The department’s website says two cases were opened June 6th. One case is said to be denial of benefits and the other, retaliation, but details were not released. Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance. According to a statement from the school, “Our policy is that we do not comment on ongoing investigations, but our belief is that UT Tyler has not violated Title IX.â€
TYLER – The School of Nursing & Health Sciences at Tyler Junior College has a new dean. He is Dr. Cliff Boucher, who is serving as Dean of TJC North. He assumes the additional duties on July 18. Dr. Boucher follows Paul Monagan, who will retire in August after serving TJC as dean for the School of Nursing & Health Sciences since July 2006. At TJC, Dr. Boucher also served as Chair and Professor for the Department of Life Sciences and President of the Faculty Senate. In addition to his work at TJC, he has taught at UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the University of Michigan, Harvard University Medical School and UT Tyler. A TJC alumnus, Dr. Boucher received his bachelor’s degree from Austin College in Sherman, his doctorate from the University of Michigan, and completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at Harvard Medical School.