Today is
Wednesday March 12, 2025
CASS COUNTY — Our news partner KETK is reporting that an Arkansas man has been sentenced to 40 years after touching an East Texas child while he and his fiancé visited her family’s home.
The Cass County Criminal District Attorney said that Dillon Austin Venson, 24 of Pocahontas, AR., was found guilty of two counts of indecency with a child by contact and not guilty on an aggravated charge. Venson was sentenced to a total of 40 years in prison and will not be eligible for parole until he has served half the time, along with a $10,000 fine on each charge. According to the DA’s office, during the spring and summer of 2023, Venson and his fiancé visited the victim and her family at their home in Queen City.
During the first occasion, the victim younger than 14, woke up to Venson touching her leg and moving his hand to her private area the document stated, the DA’s office said. He then proceeded to touch her private area over her underwear. Read the rest of this entry »
HENDERSON, Texas (KETK) — Henderson ISD board of trustees named Brian Bowman as the new superintendent, expected to begin in February. Bowman will bring over 20 years of educational leadership experience to HISD, much of it being in East Texas according to our news partner KETK.
Bowman currently serves as superintendent of Diboll ISD where he “managed a $20 million budget, secured major grants to enhance infrastructure and programming and implemented initiatives that improved student outcomes.” He has also spent time in the classroom as an administrator in a number of school districts including Gilmer High School where he served as principal. While he was principal, he lead the campus to achieve many academic distinctions and strengthen ties with the community.
Earlier in his career, Bowman was Director of Community and Media Relations at Longview ISD. While in this position, he managed public relations during a $267 million district bond project and expanded parent engagement initiatives. Read the rest of this entry »
HAWKINS — According to our news partner the Hawkins City Council held a special council meeting on Tuesday, where members voted 4-1 to retain the police department, despite the recent resignation of their police chief on Jan. 14. During the meeting, a public forum was held to allow residents to express their opinions on the decision. Emotions ran high as community members voiced their concerns. One resident stated, “Let’s get rid of them and start fresh,” while another added, “I just want security. I want to know my business is secure.” A third expressed fear, saying, “I’m scared to have these officers around if they’re not protecting us — the ones we have aren’t doing their job.”
Mayor Debbie Rushing explained that, under the current leadership, she could no longer guarantee the safety of the community, citing concerns that officers were not following the law.
The room was divided, with some advocating for the disbandment, while others voiced concerns about what the city would look like without a local police force and called for improvements within the department rather than its dissolution. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER – Family and friends of Harley Morris were in downtown Tyler on Saturday to hand out new missing flyers ahead of Wednesday which marks one year since his disappearance. According to our news partner KETK, Morris was last seen in north Tyler at 3 a.m. on Jan. 21, 2024. He was heading north after leaving the 50 Grand Club in the 2100 block of North Grand Avenue. Morris was wearing a black jacket with grey sleeves, black pants and a black Prime 102 baseball style hat when he was last seen.
Taylor Attaway, Harley’s brother, spoke with KETK on Saturday about their family’s hope that someone will come forward to claim the $10,000 reward for info on his brother’s disappearance. Read the rest of this entry »
Winter weather closings and delays – As more winter weather hits East Texas, several local school districts have announced that they will be closing on Tuesday. Our news partner KETK has the complete up to date list here.
EAST TEXAS – As more winter weather hits East Texas, several local school districts have announced that they will be closing on Tuesday. Our news partner KETK has the complete up to date list here.
TYLER – As East Texas prepares for more cold weather, several East Texas locations are opening their doors as warming centers and shelters. Our news partner KETK has compiled a list of locations opening to the public. This list will be updated whenever any additional warming centers open. You can view the list here.
To let us know about any other warming centers and shelters, please email Newsroom@KETK.com.
LONGVIEW – According to our news partner KETK, the Longview Mall was recently listed for sale on a real estate website for an unlisted price. The massive 586,450 square foot shopping mall is located at 3500 McCann Rd in Longview and according to the website, it brings in around $5.74 million in net operating income.
The mall was built in 1978 and received $12.5 million in capital investments from 2019 to 2023. More than 70 retail, dining and entertainment businesses currently occupy 98% of the mall’s space, according to the mall’s online listing. In February, 2024, the National Weather Service declared the Longview Mall as “StormReady,” meaning it’s a safe place to go during severe whether events.
To learn more, visit the Longview Mall’s listing on Crexi or contact Edge Capital Markets.
MARSHALL — An East Texas woman has been arrested after threatening a coworker with a gun on Friday, according to our news partner KETK. Officers were dispatched to a business in the 5900 block of E. End Boulevard South at around 11 a.m. after receiving a report of a person armed with a weapon. When officers arrived, they learned that a bystander was able to disarm the woman, identified as 34-year-old Krystle Johnson. However, Johnson was able to retrieve the firearm and pointed it at bystanders. She allegedly attempted to flee the area but was apprehended by MPD officers. The police department said no one was injured during the incident and officers ensured the safety of all employees and customers at the scene.
She was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawfully carrying a weapon and deadly conduct. Johnson is now being held at the Harrison County Jail on a $54,000 bond.
“MPD commends the quick response of our officers and the courageous actions of the bystander, which contributed to the safe resolution of this dangerous situation,” a spokesperson for the Marshall Police Department said. “We remind the public to report any suspicious or dangerous activity to law enforcement immediately.”
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against an Obama-era policy to shield immigrants who came to the country illegally as young children, only three days before Donald Trump takes office with pledges of mass deportations.
The unanimous decision by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans — two judges appointed by Republican presidents, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and one by Democrat Barack Obama — is the latest blow for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, whose beneficiaries have lived in legal limbo for more than a decade.
It signals no immediate change for its more than 500,000 beneficiaries, who can renew temporary permits to live and work in the United States. But the federal government cannot take new applications, leaving an aging and thinning pool of recipients.
The decision may tee up the policy for a third visit to the Supreme Court. Trump sought to end DACA during his first term, but he also occasionally expressed wishes that beneficiaries be allowed to stay.
Obama introduced DACA in 2012, citing inaction by Congress on legislation aimed at giving those brought to the U.S. as children a path to legal status. Legal battles followed, including two trips to the Supreme Court.
This latest case involves a new version of the rule issued by President Joe Biden in 2022. It represented little substantive change from the 2012 memo that created DACA, but it was subject to public comment as part of a formal rule-making process intended to improve its chances of surviving legal muster.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Houston said the executive branch had overstepped its authority and barred he government from approving new applications. He left it intact for current beneficiaries while appeals played out in court.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who led the challenge on behalf of Republican-led states, called Friday’s ruling “a major victory.”
“I look forward to working with President-elect Donald Trump to ensure that the rule of law is restored, and the illegal immigration crisis is finally stopped,” Paxton said.
The U.S. Homeland Security Department didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment late Friday.
In 2016, with one vacancy on the Supreme Court, the justices deadlocked 4-4 over an expanded DACA and a version of the program for parents of DACA recipients, keeping in place a lower court decision for the benefits to be blocked. In 2020, the high court ruled 5-4 that the Trump administration improperly ended DACA by failing to follow federal procedures, allowing it to stay in place.
POLK COUNTY – The Polk County District Attorney’s Office said that Don Steven McDougal has pleaded guilty to the Feb. 2024 kidnapping and murder of 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham. According to our news partner KETK, McDougal’s plea agreement means he will spend the rest of his life in prison and will never be eligible for parole. The district attorney’s office had originally asked for the death penalty back in August but they explained that McDougal has a documented history of intellectual and developmental disabilities that legally limit him from being executed.
“After intense and diligent review of the law and medical records, the determination was made that Don Steven McDougal was not eligible for a death penalty sentence under the existing law. This resolution ensures that Don Steven McDougal is being punished to the fullest extent available under the existing law and spares the family the emotional toll of a prolonged trial and appeal process.”
Shelly Bush Sitton, Polk County District Attorney
Audrii was the subject of a Feb. 15, 2024 Amber Alert after she never showed up to school at Creekside Elementary. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office and the Trinity River Authority then found Audrii’s body in the Trinity River on Feb. 20 near the Polk and San Jacinto county line under State Highway 59 south. Her body was found rope tied to a large rock after the Trinity River Authority lowered the output on the reservoir which lowered the river level, according to Polk County Sheriff Byron Lyons. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER — The Tyler Police Department is investigating a Friday evening shooting that injured a teenager. According to our news partner KETK, officials were dispatched to the 900 block of Blackwell Avenue at around 5:30 p.m. According to Tyler Public Information Officer Andy Erbaugh, the 15-year-old victim was shot in the leg and was treated by EMS.
“It was determined that the suspect is a black male who is reportedly driving a white Kia Sorento with Texas Licenses plate number VNN7221, said Erbaugh.” “He and anyone in that vehicle should be considered armed and dangerous. This is not a random shooting.”
If anyone has any information, contact the Tyler Police Department at 903-531-1000. This case is still under investigation.
TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — A nurse who fled Cuba as part of the Caribbean nation’s largest exodus in more than six decades needed a place to stay in Mexico as she waited to legally enter the U.S. using a government app. A woman who had lived her whole life in the same Tijuana neighborhood was desperate for medical help after a dog attack left her with wounds to her legs.
A mutual acquaintance brought the two women together. Nurse Karla Figueredo stayed with Martha Rosales for three days in October 2023, waiting for a border appointment booked through the CBP One app and treating Rosales’ dog bites. When Figueredo left for the U.S., she got Rosales’ permission to give her name to other migrants.
Word quickly spread and Rosales made her home part of a roster of at least three dozen migrant shelters in her hometown on the U.S.-Mexico border, temporarily housing people who use the CBP One app.
“I told God that if they didn’t amputate my feet, I would help every Cuban,” said Rosales, 45, who was using a wheelchair after being attacked by five dogs until Figueredo helped heal her wounds.
CBP One has brought nearly 1 million people to the U.S. on two-year permits with eligibility to work but could go away once President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Figueredo, 25, now works as a medical assistant in the Houston area and keeps in touch with Rosales, who quit her job as a bank cleaner to focus on her migrant shelter. The people Rosales houses, mostly Cubans, refer to her as “’Tía Martha” (Aunt Martha) as she cooks pancake breakfasts, throws birthday parties and shuttles them to their CBP One appointments.
Supporters say CBP One has helped bring order to the border and reduced illegal crossings. But Trump has said he would end it as part of a broader immigration crackdown. Critics say it prioritizes a lottery system over people who have long lived in the U.S. illegally while paying taxes and people who have waited years for visas.
Dayron Garcia, a doctor in Cuba who heard about Rosales from a nephew, applied with his wife and children and plans to settle with a friend in Houston. He said Rosales’ house “feels like family” and that “CBP One has been a salvation.”
“It’s a guarantee,” Garcia, 40, said. “You enter with papers, with parole.”
CBP One began under Trump and changed under Biden
U.S. Customs and Border Protection debuted CBP One near the end of Trump’s first term as a way for customs brokers to schedule inspections and for visitors with short-term visas to extend stays.
The Biden administration extended its use to migrants to replace an opaque patchwork of exemptions to a pandemic-related asylum ban that was then in place.
CBP One is popular with Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians and Mexicans, likely because advocates in their communities promote it.
Illegal border crossings by Cubans plunged under CBP One from a peak of nearly 35,000 in April 2022 to just 97 in September.
Demand for appointments has far outstripped supply, with an average of about 280,000 people competing for 1,450 daily slots toward the end of last year, according to CBP. Winners must report to a border crossing in three weeks.
A night owl
Migrant shelters along Mexico’s border with the U.S. are now occupied primarily by people seeking the online appointments.
Rosales’ house is in a neighborhood with ramshackle homes where old tires are stacked to stop flash floods. Migrants watch television, play billiards, do chores and look after their children at Rosales’ house or a rental home nearby. Those who don’t yet have appointments work their phones for slots made available daily at eight U.S. border crossings with Mexico, a task likened to trying to buy Taylor Swift concert tickets.
Rosales works throughout the night. A helper drives to the airport in an SUV Rosales bought with retirement pay from her bank job.
Shortly after midnight, she shuttles guests from her house to Tijuana’s main border crossing with San Diego for the day’s first appointments at 5 a.m. She chats with them, smiles for photos and hugs people goodbye.
By 3 a.m., she is at a television station for a four-hour shift cleaning the newsroom and fetching coffee for journalists, who give her the latest information on immigration and the city.
She checks her phone for migrants needing shelter who heard about her on social media or from friends and family. Her contact list identifies them by size of party and appointment date: “3 on the 16th,” “6 on the 17th.”
Rosales, one of 13 children, dropped out of school in third grade. Reading the Bible taught her enough to barely understand texts, which she generally responds to with voice messages or calls.
Enrique Lucero was Tijuana’s director of migrant affairs when she came to City Hall for advice. He helped Rosales establish a legal entity to raise money and made himself available for emergencies, such as when a woman missed her CBP One appointment to give birth. Lucero talked to CBP to make sure the woman and her baby got in.
“She worries about them. She cries for them,” Lucero said.
The exodus from Cuba
Border arrests of Cubans increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and after anti-government protests in 2021. Nicaragua had recently eased rules for Cubans to fly from Havana, allowing them to avoid walking through the Darien Gap, a dangerous jungle in Colombia and Panama. By the spring of 2022, Cubans eclipsed all nationalities but Mexicans in illegal crossings.
“CBP One came like a gift from God,” said Yoandis Delgado, who flew to Nicaragua in 2023, paid a smuggler $1,000 to reach southern Mexico and was repeatedly robbed by Mexican authorities while trying to reach the U.S. border. “CBP One gave us a sense of possibility, of hope.”
Delgado, a cook in Cuba, said Rosales’ home and neighborhood don’t stand out for people seeking to prey on migrants, giving a sense of security he wouldn’t get at hotels or other shelters.
“She lives in the same condition that we do, not any better,” Delgado said after a pancake breakfast. “She cries for everything that happens to us, for what we have suffered to get here from Cuba.”
A grim future for CBP One
Biden administration officials portray CBP One as a key success in its strategy to create legal pathways at the border while deterring illegal crossings. They note people in life-threatening circumstances can come to a border crossing without an appointment to plead their case.
Anxiety is spreading among migrants in Mexico who fear Trump will end CBP One. Even those in the U.S. are uneasy because parole expires after two years.
The Trump transition team didn’t respond to a question about CBP One’s future, but his allies say it’s overly generous and encourages immigration. A bill that stalled in the Senate in 2023 would have prohibited using the app to admit migrants.
Figueredo, the nurse who helped Rosales, plans to get a green card under a 1966 law that applies to Cubans. She says she and her partner, a barber, came to “continue to grow professionally and support our future children.”
She writes Rosales often, telling her that her job is “crazy” busy and asking about her health. “I hope you’re very happy,” she wrote.
TYLER – The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will begin applying brine to major State roadways such as Interstate 20, US Highway 271, and State Highway 110 according to our news partner KETK. Although the process should have minimal impact on traffic, drivers should still allow a safe driving distance between their vehicles and convoys distributing the pre-treatment materials. Crews have readied their equipment and materials to treat other roadways as warranted. Coordination efforts have also begun with local municipalities and law enforcement.
Additionally, TxDOT works closely with the National Weather Service to best prepare for a potential winter weather storm.
TxDOT personnel will monitor the forecast and weather conditions, responding as needed to ensure roadways remain open and safe for travel. To get information on statewide conditions, call 800-452-9292 or visit their website. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER — Our news partner KETK reports that Tyler Fire Department responded to a popular barbecue restaurant on Sunday night after it caught on fire. at around 10:30 p.m., Tyler firefighters were dispatched to the scene on 1410 SSW Loop 323 at Rudy’s “Country Store” and Bar-B-Q. When units arrived to the scene, they found the restaurant in flames. The firefighters were on scene for approximately 40 minutes extinguishing the fire, however Tyler officials said no one was injured.
The possible cause of the fire, officials said, was discarded ash and amber from cooking meat had accidently fallen over and caught a wall on fire.
Tyler Fire said that Rudy’s is already working to reopen.