Today is
Wednesday June 03, 2026
KENTUCKY – Paragon Advertising and Communications announced via a press release that on Saturday, May 9th, at the age of 91, Elder Lasserre Bradley, Jr., a cherished shepherd, longtime radio founder and host of the Baptist Bible Hour, and lifelong devoted servant of God, has died. Elder Bradley devoted his life to ministry for 73 years, sharing the gospel with grace, compassion, and conviction. He impacted many lives via the pulpit, radio, counseling, and personal ministry, and he established himself as a reliable voice for church families and listeners across the country the release said. For this Sunday, Brother Bradley’s family and ministry team are putting together a special program. Trevor, the son of Brother Bradley, will make a special announcement to let his listeners know that his father has passed away. The Baptist Bible Hour is heard Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on KTBB.
ANGELINA COUNTY – Scammers are calling residents and threatening to put them in jail if they do not pay thousands of dollars in cash right away for missing jury duty. In a released from the county obtained Monday, Sheriff Tom Selman and Lufkin Police Chief Travis Brazil stated that neither the Lufkin Police Department nor the Angelina County Sheriff’s Office will call and demand payment or threaten jail time for missing jury duty.
Calls that appear to be from the Angelina County Sheriff’s Office are the subject of the current scam. The con artist is threatening locals into putting thousands of dollars in cash into a bit coin machine at a nearby convenience store by using a deputy’s name.
After locals called the Sheriff’s office to report making the payment, Lufkin Police detectives were able to retrieve over $10,000 from a bit coin machine last week.
HARLETON – Ryan Nichols, who was pardoned by President Donald Trump for his actions during the Jan. 6 riot, was arrested Sunday, after authorities said he displayed a firearm in a threatening manner during a dispute outside a church in Harleton
According to the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to 225 Heskell Oney Road in reference to a person reaching for a firearm during a dispute outside the church. Our news partner KETK reports during the investigation deputies learned Nichols had confronted another person in the church parking lot. Authorities said that when the victim attempted to leave and de-escalate the situation, Nichols allegedly continued confronting him.
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WOOD COUNTY – A Wood County jury found a Quitman man guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the beating of a woman in 2023; he started his 65-year sentence on Wednesday. Bryan Ransom, 56, and three other people drove to a woman’s home on April 6, 2023, carrying a knife, machete, pepper spray, and a pole with a sprocket attached. According to the Wood County Criminal District Attorney’s Office and our news partner KETK, they severely injured the woman by beating her. Ransom stepped on the victim’s left arm to prevent her from defending herself while she was on the ground. The victim’s forehead needed to be stitched and stapled as a result. The jury reached its decision on Wednesday after less than an hour of deliberation, according to the county.
WHITEHOUSE – Track coach Blake Crutsinger was struck by a shot put in a “freak accident” at an East Texas regional track meet on Saturday, and Ponder ISD is asking its community to keep him in their thoughts and prayers.
Our news partners at KETK report that after suffering a fractured skull during the regional track meet at Whitehouse High School, Crutsinger had surgery on Monday in Tyler to treat brain swelling, according to his wife Leslie. According to Leslie, Crutsinger is currently in a Tyler intensive care unit and will probably return to Dallas for inpatient treatment in two to four weeks.
FORT WORTH – A Tarrant County jury sentenced Tanner Horner, who confessed to killing 7-year-old Athena Strand in November 2023, to death on Tuesday. Before Horner’s capital murder trial began almost a month ago, he entered a guilty plea and acknowledged that he had abducted and killed Strand, moving the case forward to the sentencing stage.
A terrifying audio recording of Strand’s kidnapping and murder, taken from inside Horner’s delivery van, was played for the jury during the trial. The microphone captured everything that transpired inside the van even though Horner covered it before assaulting the girl. The investigators who spoke with Horner in the days following the girl’s disappearance, as well as the search and recovery of her body, provided the jury with graphic testimony.
Horner’s defense team discussed the defendant’s upbringing with the jury, emphasizing his own abuse and mental health issues. Both sides rested their cases on Monday and made closing arguments on Tuesday morning following 19 days of testimony. The jury started deliberating just after 11 a.m. and took roughly three hours to reach its verdict. Horner was sentenced to either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty after entering a guilty plea to capital murder.
CARROLLTON – A suspect has been arrested after gunfire was reported at the Ktowne Plaza located on the intersection of State Highway 121 and West Hebron Parkway in Carrollton. Police evacuated nearby businesses and urged the public to avoid the area as officers searched for a suspect who remained at large. The Carrollton Police Department announced that two people were killed, and three others were injured during the shooting. The suspect, who was identified as 69-year-old Sung Ho Han, was later arrested after a short foot chase.
NACOGDOCHES – This week, an East Texas teen was caught and arrested in Mexico on suspicion of a triple homicide that took place in in Nacogdoches on October in 2025. Jared Garcia, 18, of Nacogdoches, was detained on a murder indictment for the October 24th murder that left multiple teens dead.
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DALLAS – According to a statement issued on Friday, Dallas police detained a 25-year-old woman at Dallas Love Field after discovering three suitcases containing 75 pounds of marijuana.
An airline partner informed the police that a suitcase on a flight from Las Vegas to Love Field had split open, revealing a significant quantity of marijuana within.
According to the statement and the Dallas Morning News, when narcotics detectives arrived, they discovered two more suitcases containing marijuana in vacuum-sealed pouches. The drug weighed 75 pounds in total across the three suitcases.
The woman who owned the suitcases was identified by the police and taken into custody prior to her departure from the airport. According to the statement, the woman is accused of possessing 50 to 2,000 pounds of marijuana, which is a second-degree felony. The 25-year-old was not listed in the Dallas County jail records as of Saturday morning.
TRAVIS COUNTY (TEXAS TRIBUNE) – For the time being, a Travis County district judge has permitted the sale of naturally smokeable hemp products like rolled joints and flower buds.
The ban that was granted earlier this month is still on hold as a result of Judge Daniella DeSeta Lyttle’s Friday decision. The Texas Hemp Business Council, Hemp Industry & Farmers of America, and a number of dispensaries and manufacturers in Texas were granted a temporary injunction by Lyttle against new testing regulations that establish a 0.3% total THC threshold, thereby prohibiting the sale of natural smokeable hemp products. Additionally, a 3,000% increase in hemp retailers’ licensing fees is temporarily halted by the ruling.
The ban will be temporarily suspended until the next hearing, which is currently set for July 27. However, if the state appeals the most recent decision and the court consents to hear the appeal, the suspension may end sooner. The state’s regulations will resume once the court grants the appeal, necessitating the removal of smokeable hemp from store shelves.
Attorneys representing the hemp industry contended during a three-day hearing this week that the Texas Department of State Health Services had overreached its constitutional authority by amending the statutory definitions of hemp that were created by legislators in 2019.
State attorneys contended in court that Texas law permits the health agency to enact new hemp regulations by requiring them to give Texans’ welfare top priority when making rules. The judge disagreed, claiming that the regulations were causing the industry irreversible harm.
LONGVIEW – In the 2019 deaths of a mother and daughter, a Longview man entered a guilty plea to capital murder. As his trial was about to start Tuesday morning, Troy James Rider, Jr. entered a guilty plea. He was subsequently given one of two possible sentences for capital murder: a life sentence without the possibility of parole. On February 19, 2019, Rider murdered Longview residents Lori Susan Perez, 58, and Kristy Nicole Perez, 38, who was his ex-girlfriend. That same day, at around 12:30 a.m., the bodies of the women were discovered inside a house in the 1700 block of Loring Lane. Rider was determined to be the main suspect. Police believed that domestic abuse might have played a role in the murders.
WASHINGTON – An El Paso-based federal judicial panel’s November 2025 decision, which claimed Texas lawmakers unlawfully took racial considerations into account when redrawing the congressional map last year in order for Republicans to gain five additional seats in the 2026 election, was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. In November, Justice Samuel Alito first temporarily stayed the decision while the entire court gave it more thought. In December, Justices Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch wrote a concurring opinion to make the temporary stay permanent.
In reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Texas House Democratic Caucus issued a statement. The court “protected Greg Abbott’s racist map and gave Donald Trump exactly what he demanded from Texas Republicans: stolen seats, weaker Black and Latino voting power, and a rigged path to keep control of Congress,” according to Chair Gene Wu (D-Houston), rather than upholding the Constitution. The newly created map was able to stay in place because consideration of the redistricted map was postponed until after the 2026 primaries.
TYLER – Dezavion Williams, 20, of Henderson has been offered a plea deal after being accused of firing shots among a large crowd near the Lake Tyler Marina last year. Henderson is charged with aggravated assault (mass shooting) in connection with a May 18, 2025, shooting during a large gathering with hundreds of people. He was offered eight years of prison time with his next per-trial hearing scheduled for May 7, and trail scheduled for May 17. Arrest document stated each round fired into the crowd of hundreds was an “attempt to cause serious bodily injury or death to individuals within the hundreds of people present.”
SMITH COUNTY – County ESD 2 officials responded to a chicken truck rolled over near Winona Monday that reportedly occurred around 11:20 a.m. Dozens of chickens escaped, and crews are currently working to round them up. Authorities, as well as our news partner KETK, report that the driver was not injured, and no other vehicles were involved.
UPSHUR COUNTY – A student at the Union Hill ISD has been arrested after officials report the student made threatening remarks on campus. The Upshur County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday that due to the severity of the threats made, officials arrived on campus to make the arrest without incident. Our news partners at KETK report that The student has been charged with making a terroristic threat and is currently in the Upshur County Jail awaiting arraignment. No further information on the arrest was provided.