Today is
Thursday June 04, 2026
ANDERSON COUNTY — A $16 billion natural gas project is headed to East Texas following a Thursday meeting between President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, marking one of the region’s largest energy investments in recent years. East Texas Rep. Cody Harris, whose district includes Anderson County—the planned site of the new natural gas generation hub—said the project would create roughly 3,000 long term, high paying jobs and give local taxing entities room to lower property taxes.
According to our news partner KETK, the jobs will be high paying positions and since the project is entirely within their school tax district, it will generate a significant boost for their education funding.
The $16 billion Anderson County natural gas project is a part of a larger $550 billion that the United States and Japan negotiated in 2025. As part of the deal, Japan will invest $550 billion into projects across the United States in exchange for a reduced 15% tariff on all U.S. imports of Japanese products, rather than the 25% tariff that President Trump proposed in July 2025. Read the rest of this entry »
RUSK COUNTY — The man accused in the killing of a Rusk County woman has waived extradition in Arkansas and is expected to be returned to Texas soon to face charges, according to the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities confirmed that the case is rooted in domestic violence, with family members confirming several instances of violence. While investigators are not releasing specific details about what led up to the murder, According to our news partner KETK, a concerned family member contacted law enforcement after becoming worried about the victim’s safety.
Deputies were dispatched to conduct a welfare check at a home off County Road 3122 on Wednesday afternoon. When deputies arrived, they knocked repeatedly but received no answer. They then forced entry into the home and discovered the victim, identified as Amanda Thompson, deceased inside.
Investigators quickly identified a suspect who had left the residence shortly before deputies arrived. Surveillance footage helped authorities determine the vehicle he was driving, and they were able to obtain his phone number. Tracking data indicated he was traveling toward Arkansas. Read the rest of this entry »
WASHINGTON (AP) — The dangerous heat wave shattering March records all over the U.S. Southwest is more than just another extreme weather blip. It’s the latest next-level weather wildness that is occurring ever more frequently as Earth’s warming builds.
Experts said unprecedented and deadly weather extremes that sometimes strike at abnormal times and in unusual places are putting more people in danger. For example, the Southwest is used to coping with deadly heat, but not months ahead of schedule, including a 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44.4 degrees Celsius) reading in two Arizona communities on Friday that smashed the highest March temperature recorded in the U.S. Two places in Southern California also hit that same temperature. All four spots are clustered within about 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) of each other.
“This is what climate change looks like in real time: extremes pushing beyond the bounds we once thought possible,” said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver. “What used to be unprecedented events are now recurring features of a warming world.”
March’s heat would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, according to a report Friday by World Weather Attribution, an international group of scientists who study the causes of extreme weather events.
More than a dozen scientists, meteorologists and disaster experts queried by The Associated Press put the March heat wave in a kind of ultra-extreme classification with such events as the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave, the 2022 Pakistan floods and killer hurricanes Helene, Harvey and Sandy.
The area of the U.S. being hit by extreme weather in the past five years has doubled from 20 years ago, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Extremes Index, which includes various types of wild weather, such as heat and cold waves, downpours and drought.
The United States is breaking 77% more hot weather records now than in the 1970s and 19% more than the 2010s, according to an AP analysis of NOAA records. In the United States, the number and average cost of inflation-adjusted billion-dollar weather disasters in the last couple years is twice as high as just 10 years ago and nearly four times higher than 30 years ago, according to records kept by NOAA and Climate Central, a nonprofit group of scientists and communicators who research and report on climate change.
Trying to keep up with extremes and failing
“It’s really hard to even keep up with how extreme our extremes are becoming,” said Climate Central Chief Meteorologist Bernadette Woods Placky. “It’s changing our risk, it’s change our relationship with weather, it’s putting more people in risky situations and at times we’re not used to. So yes, we are pushing extremes to new levels across all different types of weather.”
For government officials who have to deal with disaster it’s been a huge problem.
Craig Fugate, who directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency until 2017, said he saw extremes increasing.
“We were operating outside the historical playbook more and more. Flood maps, surge models, heat records — events kept showing up outside the envelope we built systems around. That’s just what we saw,” Fugate said via email.
He added: “We built communities on about 100 years of past weather and assumed that was a good guide going forward. That assumption is starting to break. And the clearest signal isn’t the science debate. It’s insurers walking away.”
‘Virtually impossible’ without climate change
Climate scientists at World Weather Attribution did a flash analysis — which is not peer-reviewed yet — of whether climate change was a factor in this Southwest heat wave. They compared this week’s expected temperatures to what’s been observed in the area in March since 1900 and computer models of a world with climate change. They found that “events as warm as in March 2026 would have been virtually impossible without human-induced climate change.”
That warming, from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, added between 4.7 degrees to 7.2 degrees F (2.6 to 4 degrees C) to the temperatures being felt, the report found.
“What we can very confidently say is that human-caused warming has increased the temperatures that we’re seeing as a result of this heat dome, and it’s going to be pushing those temperatures from what would have been very uncomfortable into potentially dangerous,” said report co-author Clair Barnes, an Imperial College of London attribution scientist.
Examples abound of high heat and extreme weather
The Southwest heat wave is solidly in the category of “giant events,” with temperatures up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (16.7 degrees Celsius) above normal, said Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field.
He listed five others in the last six years: a 2020 Siberia heat wave, the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave that had British Columbia warmer than Death Valley, the summer of 2022 in North America, China and Europe, a 2023 western Mediterranean heat wave and a 2023 South Asian heat wave with high humidity.
And that doesn’t include the East Antarctica heat wave of 2022 when temperatures were 81 degrees (45 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal. That’s the biggest anomaly recorded, said weather historian Chris Burt, author of the book “Extreme Weather.”
Worsening wild weather influenced by climate change isn’t just superhot days, but includes deadly hurricanes, droughts and downpours, scientists told AP.
Devastating floods hit West Africa in 2022 and again in 2024. Iran is in the midst of a six-year drought. And the deadly Typhoon Haiyan hitting the Philippines in 2013 shocked the world.
Superstorm Sandy, which in 2012 flooded New York City and neighbors, had tropical storm-force winds that covered an area nearly one-fifth the area of the contiguous United States. It spawned 12-foot seas over 1.4 million square miles, about half the size of the U.S., with energy equivalent to five Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs, said Yale Climate Connections meteorologist Jeff Masters.
And don’t forget wildfires that are worsened by heat and drought, so recent extremes should include 2025’s Palisades and Eaton wildfires, which were the costliest weather disaster in the United States last year, said Climate Central meteorologist and economist Adam Smith.
“This is due to climate change, that we see more extreme events, and more intense ones and have so many records being broken,” said Friederike Otto, an Imperial College of London climate scientist who coordinates World Weather Attribution.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden contributed from Seattle.
Jessica Jackson was supposed to be released from Dallas County jail in time for the holidays last year. She was arrested in early December for misdemeanor drug possession and violating parole, but was credited time for two years she’d already served on a previous aggravated robbery sentence.
With the credits, Jackson was eligible for release on Dec. 19, when a judge ruled she had no time left to serve. But, Christmas passed, then New Year’s, and despite daily calls to jail staff from her public defender, family and a friend trying to help her, she could not understand why she was still in jail.
By the time the county released Jackson 49 days later on Feb. 6, she had missed a job interview that she scheduled and lost her state-provided housing after missing a filing deadline, all without knowing why she was held so long, she said.
“I lost everything,” Jackson said. “I was expecting to go home that day, and I’d been gone for two months, so that position was already filled, where I was going to work at. So, it was really frustrating.”
What happened to Jackson is not unique to Dallas County, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment on her case. It’s unknown exactly how many Texans in county jails are kept well past the time they’re supposed to be released. That’s because no state agency tracks the number of so-called post-conviction over-detentions, and no state law prevents or punishes it. State agencies, including the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, also do not formally track the number of over-detention cases.
Multiple attorneys told The Texas Tribune that delays in “pen packets” are often the reason why people are overstaying their sentences, including in about a dozen cases in the last five years that the Tribune reviewed. These packets are a collection of documents about an inmate’s impending release that counties must send to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to be processed before release.
Unbeknownst to Jackson, Dallas County had not sent her pen packet to TDCJ by email until Jan. 29, and did not mark it for expediting until Feb. 2, more than a month after her sentencing, emails between the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office and TDCJ show.
State law outlines deadlines for TDCJ to process pen packets, but does not require counties to send the documents to TDCJ on time. Counties have attributed delays to a variety of reasons including difficulties with technology or calculating an inmate’s sentence, but all result in late releases.
After the Tribune asked about the lack of regulations or monitoring of over-detention, TDCJ said it plans on asking counties to indicate whether an inmate is “time-served” — a judge has ruled they are eligible for immediate release. It will act as “another layer of reminder” to get people stuck in Jackson’s position out of jail quicker, according to TDCJ.
This change, however, does not solve the problem of counties’ delaying sending their pen packets to TDCJ.
Without state oversight, over-detention victims have resorted to private lawsuits to get compensation, which can be a time-consuming way of getting reparations and expensive for counties. In February, 102 inmates settled a $1.5 million lawsuit against Smith County for pen packet delays that kept them confined beyond the end of their sentence, the largest settlement in Texas for victims of over-detention.
The settlement payouts lead to taxpayers having to “foot the bill twice” in many cases, said Nick Hudson, a policy and advocacy strategist with ACLU Texas: paying for the resources to house people for additional days in jail, then again for any resulting lawsuits.
Jails already face a plethora of issues that strain resources, including overcrowding and reduced staffing. Keeping inmates longer than necessary draws out those expenses.
“Coming up with a better way to ensure people are getting out when they are entitled to release, it would be good for the people who are jailed,” Hudson said. “It would be good for taxpayers. And ultimately, it’s good for the criminal legal system because we need a system that is operating based on the law and not one based on the whims of a jailer.”
At the same time, Krish Gundu, executive director of the Texas Jail Project which first identified the overdetention problem at Smith County jail, said settlements have not resulted in admissions of wrongdoing.
“Accountability is impossible to get when there is no admission of wrongdoing and unless there is admission of wrongdoing, you can’t begin to have the conversation about how to repair,” she said.
In the past two years, Dallas County commissioners have approved settlements in three lawsuits from inmates who accused the county of not releasing them from jail on time, two for $60,000 and one for $100,000.
Jackson’s public defender put her in touch with Jim Spangler, a private attorney involved in two of the previous settlements who said he was looking at 20 more cases.
Pen packet problems
Rebecca Yung, a defense attorney serving Central and West Texas, said at least three counties haven’t released her clients on time because counties have delayed in sending in pen packets to the state.
One of Yung’s clients in Tom Green County was held 17 days past his release date last May and was released only after Yung filed a request to a district judge to release him and asked to subpoena three county employees.
“Each time it comes up, it’s almost as if it’s the first time,” Yung said. “Not only do I say, ‘Hey, this person should be released,’ I always say, ‘Why did this happen? And what can I do so this doesn’t happen again?’ And I never really get much meaningful information.”
Tom Green County Sheriff Nick Hanna said in a statement that the sheriff’s office was in touch with TDCJ “to ensure inmates are not detained beyond their sentencing requirements,” but declined to answer specific questions about Yung’s client.
County officials’ delays in sending packets can dramatically affect how much additional time an inmate will have to spend incarcerated. But there are no state laws or guidelines requiring when a county should send a pen packet to TDCJ or counties to flag if a pen packet is for someone who has overstayed their sentence.
Under state law, TDCJ has 45 business days after packets are received to process them so that the agency can notify the county to release inmates, but the department aims to have expedited packets back to counties in 10 business days, TDCJ Classification and Records Director Timothy Fitzpatrick said. TDCJ encourages, but does not require counties to mark the pen packets of those who have overstayed their sentences as expedited.
TDCJ receives roughly 1,250 pen packets weekly from counties by email, mail and in some cases hand-delivery, Fitzpatrick said. It’s not clear how many of them are for those who have overstayed their sentences.
Counties have previously indicated that technical issues like incompatible jail and court software can cause delays in gathering all of the documents necessary for pen packets before sending them to TDCJ. Reports from the Dallas Morning News indicate Dallas County has pointed to jail systems causing delays as early as 2005.
But Dami Animashaun, an attorney who represented plaintiffs in the Smith County settlement, said counties show a “deliberate indifference” in ensuring timely release by pushing the blame to technological gaps. He wants state officials to implement a law or standard that tells counties to stop delaying releases.
Animashaun said without state guardrails, victims can go completely unnoticed if they don’t have an advocate on the outside like a private lawyer or a robust public defender office.
“These people have lives, and when they’re not released on time, it significantly affects their lives,” Animashaun said. “People lose jobs, people lose custody of their children.”
Jackson asked her public defender for help, had her family and lawyer speak with Dallas’ TDCJ liaison and begged officers to check her sentence, but nothing she said or did while she remained over-detained in jail seemed to quicken the process, she said.
Jail officials “kept on saying, ‘you’re going to get out, you going to get out (in) 10 days, five days,’ and it just kept on, more and more days,” Jackson said.
A state standard
To prevent over-detention and other issues caused by paperwork delays, TDCJ is launching a pilot program for a pen packet portal that would formalize the process and allow for instant document transfers between counties and the state. Dallas County will serve as the first testing ground, and Fitzpatrick said the agency hopes to begin utilizing the new program by the end of March.
Michele Deitch, a leading criminal justice expert who directs the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, said the state could do more to address the issue: have the Texas Commission on Jail Standards implement a requirement that jails release inmates when they’ve completed their sentence.
The Fourteenth Amendment bans the government from taking away a person’s freedom unfairly and arbitrarily. Having a standard would spell out what this constitutional right means to jails and what steps they need to take to avoid overdetention, instead of facing lawsuits after the harm has happened, according to Deitch.
“It’s more preventative,” she said.
When asked by the Tribune if his agency would implement a requirement for jails to stop over-detention, TCJS interim executive director Ricky Armstrong said the agency would do so if the Legislature passed a law or a member of the public proposed the change.
Armstrong said it wouldn’t be too much work for TCJS to remedy the problem, but described over-detention as a “fairly new hot topic” in the wake of the Smith County settlement.
“We definitely would be able to take it on as a responsibility, that would not be an issue (to) add to our inspections process, just another step, something else to look at,” Armstrong said. “We already look at releases, it wouldn’t take that much longer to look into some release dates.”
Republican state Sen. Pete Flores, chair of the Senate’s Criminal Justice Committee, said in a brief statement that over-detention in county jails is being “looked into and addressed,” but didn’t provide details on who was looking or what was being done.
State Rep. Sam Harless, chair of the House Corrections committee and who is not seeking reelection, was unavailable to comment.
Gundu, with the Texas Jail project, is however skeptical that adding just one requirement would fix the problem. The state needs to focus on incarcerating fewer people, she said.
“We have to start reckoning with this monster that we have created, this machinery that we have created, which routinely steals people’s lives because that’s what it did,” Gundu said. “That’s what over-detention does: you’re just basically stealing time from their life.”
Since leaving Dallas County Jail, Jackson has found a job and is staying with friends until she finds permanent housing. With no other recourse, Jackson is working with her attorney to file a lawsuit asking the county to compensate her for the mental anguish she endured during those 49 extra days she spent in jail.
“I’m trying to survive until then, I hope,” she said.
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Disclosure: ACLU Texas and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
TYLER – The Tyler Police Department is searching for a suspect who shot at a man on Thursday afternoon. According to Tyler PD Public Information Officer Andy Erbaugh and our news partner KETK, the shooting occurred at the intersection of North Border Avenue and Morris Street at around 4:20 p.m. The suspect, who reportedly knew the victim, shot at him and the victim’s vehicle from with in a nearby residence.
The victim sustained minor injuries from the shooting and was transported to a local hospital for treatment by EMS. Erbaugh said the department is following leads and the case is still under investigation.
LONGVIEW – A Longview man has been given 10 years in prison for violating his parole from a 2021 dog attack case after he was found guilty of a 2024 dog attack case in February. Martin Gilbert Rodriguez was found guilty of a 2024 fatal dog attack on Feb. 11 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. When 46-year-old Kenneth Pierson was killed in the 2024 dog attack, Rodriguez was on probation from a non-fatal dog attack that happened in 2021.
According to our news partner KETK, Rodriguez’s probation for his 2021 attack by dog causing serious injury case was revoked in light of his Feb. 11 sentence. Rodriguez was then given an amended 10-year prison sentence for that 2021 case.
His 10-year sentence will be served after the completion of his 15-year sentence which started on Feb. 22.
LUFKIN — An AI-technology company based out of Nevada entered a purchase and sale agreement with Jefferson Enterprise Energy, LLC for a 132-acre property in Lufkin, according to a filing from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The purchase of the property cost the AI-company, 1606 Corp., a total of $11,168,864, consisting of $7 million in cash that must be paid at closing on April 15. Included in the purchase are associated development rights, improvements and equipment.
A press release filed with the SEC said the property has a 50,000-square-foot warehouse, which is capable of supporting large-scale data center infrastructure.
1606 Corp. believes the purchase of the site is “attractive” for potential partnerships with data center operators looking to develop new data centers in the area.
MARSHALL – The City of Marshall remains in a full-scale water emergency as crews continue struggling to repair a major break in one of the city’s largest water transmission lines.
Efforts to fully restore water service across the city are progressing more slowly than expected. Current water demand continues to exceed production capacity.
Water production resumed at 11:45 p.m.,Thursday, March 19. However, the system-wide loss during the shutdown has changed the timeline for full restoration. As of this morning, water service is expected to return to normal operational levels by approximately 6 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, March 21.
Most residents should now have access to water for essential needs, including hygiene, toilet flushing, hand-washing, and food preparation with boiled water.
Residents are strongly urged to conserve water to allow the system to recover and return to normal operational levels. The Stage 4 Emergency Status, Outdoor Burn ban, and Boil Water Notice all remain in e
HENDERSON COUNTY – A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board has been released, providing more details on what may have caused the plane crash in Henderson County earlier this year that killed two people. According to our news partner KETK, two holes were found in the engine crankcase after examining the plane following the crash. Additionally, oil was found above the windscreen on the fuselage. The plane was later transported to a secure location for further examination.
The crash occurred on Feb. 11 after the plane was traveling from Orlando, Florida, to Dallas and was piloted by Ron Timmermans, who was accompanied by his wife, Barbara, and their dog. During the flight, Ron contacted traffic control after crossing Lake Palestine, declaring an emergency, stating that there was oil on the airplane’s windscreen. Ron later informed traffic control that he was planning to land at Echo Lake Airport in Murchison, the report said. During the landing at around 5:15 p.m., the plane struck a power line pole and nosedived on the eastern side of the airport on the front lawn of a private residence, killing Ron and Barbara.
Timmermans’ family said that prior to the flight, Ron held an airline transport certificate and a flight instructor certificate. Ron was also an active flight instructor in Florida and Texas.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — An Arkansas law requiring that the Ten Commandments be prominently displayed in public school classrooms was struck down by a federal judge Monday.
The law is among those pushed by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, to incorporate religion in public schools. Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas all have enacted similar laws requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms. And as such, each mandate has faced legal challenges that many expect to eventually be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Here is a closer look at the status of the mandates, which have stirred the long-running debate over the role of religion in government institutions.
Federal court ruling blocks mandate in Arkansas, Republicans vow to appeal
Last year, seven Arkansas families of various religious and nonreligious backgrounds filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s new law requiring all public elementary and secondary schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom and library. The lawsuit named six school districts in Arkansas as defendants.
While it is unclear how many school districts or publicly-funded universities have hung up posters, local media outlets have cited multiple examples over the past five months. That includes the Ten Commandments being posted at the University of Arkansas on the Fayetteville campus, the Arkansas Advocate reported in October.
Critics argue that the mandate is unconstitutional and violates separation of church and state. Proponents of the legislation say the Ten Commandments have historical significance and are part of the foundation of U.S.
On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy L. Brooks said in his written judgment that “nothing could possibly justify hanging the Ten Commandments—with or without historical context — in a calculus, chemistry, French, or woodworking class, to name a few.”
Brooks, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, went on to write that there is “no need to strain our minds to imagine a constitutional display mandated” by the 2025 law; “One doesn’t exist,” he wrote.
While Brooks’ judgment blocks the requirement, it’s unclear how broadly his decision can be applied — if it is limited to the specific school districts named in the lawsuit or if it applies to the entire state. Megan Bailey a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, one of the groups representing the parents challenging the law, said the ruling “makes clear the law is unconstitutional.”
“Given that, it would be unwise for any school district in Arkansas to move forward with posting the Ten Commandments,” Bailey told The Associated Press.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that she plans to appeal the ruling and “defend our state’s values.”
Louisiana schools encouraged to hang up posters after most recent ruling
In 2024, Louisiana became the first state to mandate poster-sized displays of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, from kindergarten through college.
While the challenge has wound its way through federal courts for nearly two years, a ruling last month vacated an earlier court order that had prevented the law from taking effect — clearing the way for displays to be installed in classrooms.
Immediately following the Feb. 20 ruling from the full 5th U.S. Circuit of Appeals, Gov. Jeff Landry instructed schools to follow the law and post the Ten Commandments. In a letter to educators, Landry wrote that the court’s decision “removes any obstacles to the implementation of Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law” and that schools “should now proceed with placing the posters in classrooms.”
The law requires schools to accept donated Ten Commandments posters, which must have “large, easily readable font.” Earlier this year, a conservative advocacy group, Louisiana Family Forum, sent posters to most of the state’s parish school systems, The New Orleans Advocate/The Times-Picayune reported.
There have not yet been widespread reports of schools hanging up the posters, with some school officials expressing worries about potential litigation. However, others say it is imminent. Among them is Louisiana State University President Wade Rousse, who said the university intends to comply with the law but, as of last week, has not received donated posters.
Posters go up in Texas classrooms
Last year, a similar mandate in Texas took effect — marking the widest-reaching attempt in the nation to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools.
With no shortage of strong opinions among teachers, parents, and students, the posters began going up in classrooms as school districts accepted donations or paid to have them printed. About two dozen of the state’s roughly 1,200 school districts were barred from hanging the posters after federal judges issued injunctions in cases against the law.
In January, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments over the Texas law and litigation is pending.
HOUSTON COUNTY, Texas (KETK) — A man who was driving while using hallucinogenic drugs was arrested in Houston County earlier this week after holding someone in his car against their will.
According to the Houston County Sheriff’s Office, deputies received a call on Sunday evening stating that a man later identified as Christopher Russell Cross was holding a man in a vehicle against his will. It was later revealed that Cross had consumed mushrooms and PCP while driving with the victim.
The victim later stated that Cross told him that if he exited the vehicle, he would “send him to Jesus” and ordered him to urinate inside the vehicle, officials said.
Following the incident, officials found one pound of hallucinogenic mushrooms and 64 grams of PCP inside Cross’s vehicle. Cross was arrested and charged with kidnapping and two counts of possession of a controlled substance.
TYLER — A man accused of firing multiple shots at a vehicle during a dispute in Tyler on Monday told deputies that the confrontation stemmed from an argument over unpaid money for porcelain dolls, according to a Smith County arrest warrant. According to our news partner KETK, deputies responded at about 1:40 p.m. to the 2200 block of Montgomery Gardens Boulevard on a report of deadly conduct. Upon arrival, authorities contacted the suspect, identified as Alex Zavalla, who had already been detained by troopers of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
According to arresting documents, Zavalla told deputies he had taken “porcelain dolls” from a woman’s home because she had not repaid money she owed him. The woman later arrived at Zavalla’s residence with another individual, prompting a confrontation.
Zavalla told deputies he retrieved a black “AK-style pistol” and repeatedly told the pair to leave, but they refused. He also said the male individual threatened to return with others and “shoot up” the home. Read the rest of this entry »
PALESTINE — One person is dead following a Tuesday afternoon crash involving a motorcyclist in Palestine. The Palestine Police Department said that around 3 p.m., police officers were dispatched to Old Elkhart Road near Academy Sports involving an SUV and a motorcycle crash. Once they arrived, they found that the driver of the motorcycle was unresponsive.
According to our news partner KETK, life-saving measures were attempted on the scene, and the 20-year-old motorcyclist was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Based on a preliminary report, the SUV was traveling south on Old Elkhart and attempted to turn into the west entrance of the mall. The motorcyclist was allegedly traveling north on Old Elkhart at a high speed. When the SUV turned, it collided with the motorcyclist, the police department said.
At this time, the police department has not identified the deceased until the next of kin has been notified.
LONE STAR, Texas (KETK) — An investigation by the Texas Railroad Commission found that drilling fluids containing oil from a reserve pit at a Rose City Resources well site on U.S. Steel property leaked into a damaged pipe and flowed into a nearby low?lying area.
From there, the fluids migrated through underlying rock formations and ultimately entered the Ellison Creek Reservoir.
The Railroad Commission concluded that Rose City Resources is responsible for the unpermitted disposal and will be required to handle the cleanup, with the Commission providing oversight.
To date, cleanup efforts have primarily targeted the origin point and the lake’s east side, but Tuesday’s observations emphasize the need for more comprehensive action. Inspection findings indicate that areas on the western shoreline require more attention, aligning with suggestions from local officials.
The public is encouraged to report any additional affected areas to the Morris County Sheriff’s non-emergency number at 903-645-2232.
Residents who notice affected shorelines or have information about the spill are asked to contact the Morris County Sheriff’s Office at 903-645-2232.
TEXAS (KETK) — The window to apply for the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program has been extended to March 31, after a federal court order was issued on Tuesday ahead of the initial deadline.
Parents may submit new applications before the extended deadline and previously submitted applications may be updated.
Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock announced on Tuesday that the school choice initiative surpassed 200,000 applications, with more than 2,200 schools signed up to participate.
“Crossing the 200,000-student mark shows just how strongly Texas families are responding to the opportunity for more educational freedom,” Hancock said.
The TEFA program, established by the Texas Legislature in 2025, allows families to apply for educational funding, such as private school tuition, tutoring, and other educational services.
Applications for the 2026-2027 school year will now close on March 31 at 11:59 p.m. Families accepted into the program will have until July 15 to select a school for their children, as additional schools register on a rolling basis.
“Our team has worked to stand up a program that is transparent, accountable and focused on student success,” Hancock said. “As we head into the final hours before the deadline, I encourage any family still considering TEFA to take a few minutes to complete an application. This program gives parents more tools to support their child’s future, and we want every eligible student to have the chance to benefit.”