Today is
Wednesday March 12, 2025
HOUSTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers announced Tuesday they had issued a new subpoena that would require the state’s prison system to allow death row inmate Robert Roberson to testify in person this week about the state’s junk science law. An earlier subpoena ended up delaying Roberson’s Oct. 17 execution, which had been set to be the first in the U.S. tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.
The House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence announced it had issued last week and served on Monday a subpoena compelling Roberson to appear before it at a meeting in Austin on Friday. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER — According to our news partner KETK, the Texas House will vote on a speaker in less than a month when the 2025 legislative session is set to begin, however Republicans are split on who to support in the race. Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock. and Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield, are running for House Speaker after Dade Phelan removed himself from contention. Since then, Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, said he received threatening messages Sunday night from the Chairman of the Texas Republican Party, Abraham George.
Harris said the message was clear, to unite behind the caucus and rules established by the party. If Harris does not comply, the chairman threatened Harris with a campaign mailer to his district encompassing all of Anderson, Cherokee, and Navarro Counties, and the majority of Henderson County. However, Cook and Burrows declared that they have enough votes needed to win the race in January. Read the rest of this entry »
SMITH COUNTY — A Tyler physician pled guilty on Monday in connection to his role in a $5.5 million over-the-counter COVID-19 test fraud scheme according to our news partner KETK.
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Mark Mazzare, 57 of Tyler, purchased Medicare beneficiary identifiers (BINs) used to bill Medicare millions of dollars for test kits that had not been requested by the beneficiaries. Texas Medical Board’s records indicate that Mazzare is an internal medicine/pediatric specialist and worked at a clinic on Old Bullard Road in Tyler.
“Mazzare entered into a sham agreement with a purported marketer to conceal the purchase of BINs as ‘lead packages,’ which in reality consisted of BINs and fraudulently generated audio recordings purporting to be the voices of the beneficiaries requesting the OTC COVID-19 tests,” DOJ said. “Mazzare caused OTC COVID-19 tests to be shipped to Medicare beneficiaries whose BINs had been purchased, regardless of whether the Medicare beneficiaries had requested or needed the tests.” Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER – President Joe Biden has commuted the 9-year federal prison sentence of a former Deep East Texas Council of Governments executive director after he was found guilty of wire fraud back in 2017.
According to our news partner KETK, the White House released on Thursday, Walter Diggles, 72 of Jasper, was one of nearly 1500 people who were put on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those 1499 people are already back home with their families but the Biden administration has decided to commute their sentences meaning they’ll officially be out of custody much sooner. Diggles was convicted of 11 counts of wire fraud, three counts of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds and three counts of money laundering on Aug. 3 of 2017, according to a 2018 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas.
Information presented in court reportedly showed that Diggles, along with his wife and daughter, conspired to personally use money from federal block grants that Congress appropriated to help Texas recover from Hurricanes Rita, Katrina, Ike and Dolly, the press release said. Read the rest of this entry »
NACOGDOCHES – According to our news partner KETK, a professional angler and fishing YouTuber was arrested in Nacogdoches on Thursday for fraud in a freshwater fishing tournament.
Benjamin Milliken, 35 of New Caney, turned himself in to Nacogdoches County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday for the charge of fraud at freshwater fishing tournament, according to a statement from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department(TPWD). TPWD said that Milliken turned in a Legacy Class ShareLunker bass caught at Lake Naconiche in February as an entry into the Toyota ShareLunker Program. The program rewards prizes over $10,000.
According to TPWD, their due diligence process discovered that Milliken allegedly didn’t have a valid fishing license when he caught the fish and filled out the program’s contest/tournament entry form. Read the rest of this entry »
CHICAGO (AP) — Ismael El-Amin was driving his daughter to school when a chance encounter gave him an idea for a new way to carpool.
On the way across Chicago, El-Amin’s daughter spotted a classmate riding with her own dad as they drove to their selective public school on the city’s North Side. For 40 minutes, they rode along the same congested highway.
“They’re waving to each other in the back. I’m looking at the dad. The dad’s looking at me. And I was like, parents can definitely be a resource to parents,” said El-Amin, who went on to found Piggyback Network, a service parents can use to book rides for their children.
Reliance on school buses has been waning for years as districts struggle to find drivers and more students attend schools far outside their neighborhoods. As responsibility for transportation shifts to families, the question of how to replace the traditional yellow bus has become an urgent problem for some, and a spark for innovation.
State and local governments decide how widely to offer school bus service. Lately, more have been cutting back. Only about 28% of U.S. students take a school bus, according to a Federal Highway Administration survey concluded early last year. That’s down from about 36% in 2017.
Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s fourth-largest district, has significantly curbed bus service in recent years. It still offers rides for disabled and homeless students, in line with a federal mandate, but most families are on their own. Only 17,000 of the district’s 325,000 students are eligible for school bus rides.
Last week, the school system launched a pilot program allowing some students who attend out-of-neighborhood magnet or selective-enrollment schools to catch a bus at a nearby school’s “hub stop.” It aims to start with rides for about 1,000 students by the end of the school year.
It’s not enough to make up for the lost service, said Erin Rose Schubert, a volunteer for the CPS Parents for Buses advocacy group.
“The people who had the money and the privilege were able to figure out other situations like rearranging their work schedules or public transportation,” she said. “People who didn’t, some had to pull their kids out of school.”
On Piggyback Network, parents can book a ride for their student online with another parent traveling the same direction. Rides cost roughly 80 cents per mile and the drivers are compensated with credits to use for their own kids’ rides.
“It’s an opportunity for kids to not be late to school,” 15-year-old Takia Phillips said on a recent PiggyBack ride with El-Amin as the driver.
The company has arranged a few hundred rides in its first year operating in Chicago, and El-Amin has been contacting drivers for possible expansion to Virginia, North Carolina and Texas. It is one of several startups that have been filling the void.
Unlike Piggyback Network, which connects parents, HopSkipDrive contracts directly with school districts to assist students without reliable transportation. The company launched a decade ago in Los Angeles with three mothers trying to coordinate school carpools and now supports some 600 school districts in 13 states.
Regulations keep it from operating in some states, including Kentucky, where a group of Louisville students has been lobbying on its behalf to change that.
After the district halted bus service to most traditional and magnet schools, the student group known as The Real Young Prodigys wrote a hip-hop song titled “Where My Bus At?” The song’s music video went viral on YouTube with lyrics such as, “I’m a good kid. I stay in class, too. Teachers want me to succeed, but I can’t get to school.”
“Those bus driver shortages are not really going away,” HopSkipDrive CEO Joanna McFarland said. “This is a structural change in the industry we need to get serious about addressing.”
HopSkipDrive has been a welcome option for Reinya Gibson’s son, Jerren Samuel, who attends a small high school in Oakland, California. She said the school takes care to accommodate his needs as a student with autism, but the district lined up the transportation because there is no bus from their home in San Leandro.
“Growing up, people used to talk about kids in the short yellow buses. They were associated with a physical disability, and they were teased or made fun of,” Gibson said. “Nobody knows this is support for Jerren because he can’t take public transportation.”
Encouragement from his mother helped Jerren overcame his fear about riding with a stranger to school.
“I felt really independent getting in that car,” he said.
Companies catering to kids claim to screen drivers more extensively, checking their fingerprints and requiring them to have childcare or parenting experience. Drivers and children are often given passwords that must match, and parents can track a child’s whereabouts in real time through the apps.
Kango, a competitor to HopSkipDrive in California and Arizona, started as a free carpooling app similar to the PiggyBack Network and now contracts with school districts. Drivers are paid more than they would typically get for Uber or Lyft, but there are often more requirements such as walking some students with disabilities into school, Kango CEO Sara Schaer said.
“This is not just a curbside-to-curbside, three-minute situation,” Schaer said. “You are responsible for getting that kid to and from school. That’s not the same as transporting an adult or DoorDashing somebody’s lunch or dinner.”
In Chicago, some families that have used Piggyback said they have seen few alternatives.
Concerned about the city’s rising crime rate, retired police officer Sabrina Beck never considered letting her son take the subway to Whitney Young High School. Since she was driving him anyway, she volunteered through PiggyBack also to drive a freshman who had qualified for the selective magnet school but had no way to get there.
“To have the opportunity to go and then to miss it because you don’t have the transportation, that is so detrimental,” Beck said. “Options like this are extremely important.”
After the bus route that took her two kids to elementary school was canceled, Jazmine Dillard and other Chicago parents thought they had convinced the school to move up the opening bell from 8:45 a.m. to 8:15 a.m., a more manageable time for her schedule. After that plan was scrapped because the buses were needed elsewhere at that time, Dillard turned to PiggyBack Network.
“We had to kind of pivot and find a way to make it to work on time as well as get them to school on time,” she said.
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — A judge in Las Vegas sentenced a Texas man to 100 years in prison for his role in a two-state shooting rampage on Thanksgiving 2020 that included the killing of a man in Nevada and a shootout with authorities in Arizona. Christopher McDonnell, 32, pleaded guilty in October to more than 20 felonies including murder, attempted murder, murder conspiracy, weapon charges and being a felon illegally in possession of a firearm.
Clark County District Judge Tierra Jones sentenced him on Friday to a minimum of 100 years in prison, KLAS-TV reported. If he’s still alive, he would be eligible for parole in 2120 with credit for time served. McDonnell of Tyler, his brother Shawn McDonnell, 34, and Shawn McDonnell’s then-wife, Kayleigh Lewis, 29, originally faced dozens of charges. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER – According to our news partner KETK, Pets Fur People has announced that their executive director Gayle Helms has retired from the Tyler animal sanctuary after serving as their leader for 26 years. Under Helms’ leadership, Pets Fur People successfully transitioned from being a kill shelter to East Texas’ only selective admission no-kill animal sanctuary, according to a Pets Fur People press release.
“We are deeply grateful to have worked alongside such a talented and dedicated woman,” said Angie Bullington, president of the board of Pets Fur People. “Gayle’s heart is truly with the animals. She has been a tremendous asset to Pets Fur People, and we are incredibly grateful for her leadership. We are confident that her legacy will continue to inspire and shape the future of the Pets Fur People for years to come. On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, I would like to express our heartfelt appreciation for her dedication and service.” Read the rest of this entry »
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Dallas man who tried to fly overseas to join the Russian military and fight against Ukraine was sentenced on Friday to six months in prison for violating the terms of his probation for storming the U.S. Capitol four years ago.
Kevin Loftus, a 56-year-old veteran of the U.S. Army, was stopped from boarding an Oct. 28 flight from Dallas to Tbilisi, Georgia, by way of Istanbul, Turkey, when Turkish Airlines identified a “security flag” associated with him, according to federal prosecutors.
Loftus didn’t have the court’s permission to travel internationally or to drive from Texas to Iowa, where the FBI arrested him three days after his flight plans fell apart, prosecutors said.
Loftus told the FBI that he had hoped to secure a 90-day visa to travel to Russia, where he intended to apply for temporary residency. Loftus said he had used the Telegram messaging platform to communicate with a man who would connect him with the Russian Territorial Defense Unit, a volunteer military corps.
“Loftus said he had already sent the man approximately $1200 to purchase equipment for Russian soldiers,” prosecutors wrote. “Loftus said his intent was to fight for Russia and against Ukraine.”
Loftus declined to address the court before U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich sentenced him for the probation violation. The judge said Loftus has repeatedly violated court orders.
“He doesn’t think these rules should apply to him,” Friedrich said. “He wants to be above the law.”
Defense attorney Benjamin Schiffelbein said Loftus wanted to enlist in the Russian military because he “felt bad” for Russian soldiers and wanted to help them.
“He had no idea whether they could make use of him,” the lawyer said.
Loftus, a six-year Army veteran, intended to permanently relocate to another country, according to prosecutors.
“And his planned travel was for the express purpose of joining a foreign army to take up arms against one of this country’s allies and in opposition to this country’s foreign policy,” they wrote.
In January 2021, Loftus traveled from Wisconsin to Washington, D.C., to attend then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House. After joining the mob of Trump supporters at the Capitol, he entered the building and took photographs. He spent approximately five minutes inside the Capitol.
Loftus was arrested at his Wisconsin home several days after the riot. He pleaded guilty in October 2021 to a misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
After his arrest, Loftus posted comments about his case on social media, referring to himself as “famous” and a “hero” for taking part in the Jan. 6 attack.
“Loftus also stated that he gained that fame by ‘standing up for all Americans’ because he ‘broke the law,’ and he would file lawsuits against unidentified persons after the criminal case was over,” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors recommended 30 days of imprisonment for Loftus, but Friedrich initially sentenced him to three years of probation.
For his probation violation, prosecutors requested a six-month prison sentence. They noted that Loftus, while on probation, also was arrested in December 2023 and charged with driving while intoxicated in Richardson, Texas. Loftus was required to attend a substance abuse program, but he avoided jail time for that violation.
Over 1,500 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. More than 1,000 of them have been convicted and sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.
Trump has repeatedly vowed to pardon Capitol rioters, but the district court judges in Washington, D.C., typically have refused to postpone sentencings, plea hearings and trials until after the president-elect returns to the White House.
KILGORE — With the holiday season in full swing, the Kilgore Police Department is highlighting an uptick in scams and frauds. The police department is warning residents of frauds and scams that pressure people for some form of payment in exchange for a prize or to resolve some type of problem such as tax issues, computer viruses or arrest warrants.
“Scammers often insist you pay them using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, wiring money through a company like Western Union, using gift cards or shipping a cashier’s check through a parcel company,” Kilgore PD said.
According to our news partner KETK, scammers have tried everything such as sweepstakes scams, warrant scams to ransom scams where they claim to be a government agent informing them they have detected illicit materials on their computer or device or their identity has been stolen. Read the rest of this entry »
HENDERSON COUNTY — According to our news partner KETK, an East Texas man, Daniel Richard Simpson, 38 of Malakoff, has been sentenced to 45 years in prison after admitting to ingesting a “block of meth” during police pursuit and tampering or fabricating with physical evidence.
The Athens Police Department was dispatched to a Walmart Super Center in August 2021 in reference to two men suspected of shoplifting. Authorities approached the individuals, who at the time entered a black car in the parking lot. Simpson, the driver, was issued a criminal trespass warning for Walmart and learned that he had a warrant for his arrest for a parole violation. When Simpson learned of his active warrant, he reportedly fled through city limits of Athens and eventually lost control and slid into a ditch. Simpson reportedly admitted to officials he had ingested a “block of meth” and had traveled around 38 miles with speeds up to 105 mph. Read the rest of this entry »
UPDATE: JACKSONVILLE – The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said that Colton Maldonado has been found safe after he was reported missing on Thursday.
(PREVIOUS STORY) – The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office is searching for a missing man who was last seen on County Road 1401 on Friday at around 9:30 a.m. Colton Maldonado, 30 of Jacksonville, was reportedly last seen in a 2008 Chevy with the Texas license plate: NCR8520. according to our news partner KETK, Maldonado was heading towards Highway 204 on County Road 2401. Anyone with information is asked to call the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office at 903-683-2271.
TYLER – The Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued new guidelines to protect your children from on-campus police officers, after a South Carolina school resource officer admitted to sexually abusing two children according to our news partner KETK.
In recent years, school districts across the nation have added more police presence on their respective campuses to keep the students, faculty and staff safe. In fact, half of East Texas’ school districts have enlisted extra help from officers. However, the DOJ has now issued guidelines to protect your children from those same officers.
With roughly 20,000 police officers stationed at schools across the United States, these cases are becoming more common but remain unknown to most. According to a Washington Post investigation, from 2005 to 2022, 200 officers were charged with crimes surrounding sexual abuse. That’s something Avera believes is shocking and unacceptable.
Read the rest of this entry »
NACOGDOCHES — One person is in custody and another still on the run following a Monday afternoon armed robbery in Nacogdoches according to our news partner KETK.
According to the Nacogdoches Police Department, on Monday at around 2:33 p.m. officials responded to a 911 call from a gas station employee in the 3200 block of North St. The employee said the store was robbed by an armed man who had taken an unknown amount of money and merchandise before leaving the scene. Authorities conducted a search for a second person driving a blue car connected to the robbery. Police later located the car and the occupant, Isaiah Hartsfield, 22 of Nacogdoches, in the 200 block of E. Lakewood St. and developed a probable cause linking them to the crime.
Hartsfield has since been arrested for aggravated robbery and is being held at the Nacogdoches County Jail. Read the rest of this entry »
LONGVIEW – A 35-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman were arrested after authorities found hundreds of pills containing fentanyl on Tuesday in a Longview home. According to our news partner KETK, the Longview Police Department, the Gregg County Organized Drug Enforcement Unit and Longview SWAT conducted a search on a home in the 900 block of Doyle Street.
The police department said around 440 counterfeit Percocet fentanyl pills, two stolen handguns and a rifle were found during the search. Desmond Simmons, 35 of Longview, and Baylin Harris, 20 of Ore City, were arrested and booked into the Gregg County Jail. Read the rest of this entry »