Tyler man charged with murder in fentanyl overdose

SMITH COUNTY— A Tyler man has been arrested for murder after a body was discovered that was later ruled as fentanyl overdose. According to our news partner KETK, Smith County Sheriff’s Office was called to a residence on CR 490, between Swan and Lindale. On their arrival, deputies were told the body of Michael Crone was found by a roommate lying on the floor of their residence.

The sheriff’s office said, “During the investigation, deputies observed a small piece of tin foil just inside the sink in the bathroom which contained what appeared to be a partially burned substance. Also located within the same area was a paper rolled which appeared to be utilized as a straw.”

Detectives determined that Crone’s phone was missing and alongside the narcotics found at the residence, led them to believe the phone contained “information regarding his death.” Investigators also felt that the phone was destroyed to hinder the death investigation.
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David Rancken’s App of the Day 11/21/24 – Coursera!

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SpaceX launch aborts attempt to catch booster with mechanical arms

BROWNSVILLE (AP) — SpaceX on Tuesday launched another Starship rocket, but passed up catching the booster with giant mechanical arms.

Unlike last month’s success, the booster was directed to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The catch was called off just four minutes into the test flight from Texas for safety reasons, and the booster hit the water three minutes later.

SpaceX’s Elon Musk said Wednesday via X that the booster catch was aborted due to lost communication with a launch tower computer.

At the same time, the empty spacecraft launched from Texas atop Starship soared across the Gulf of Mexico on a near loop around the world similar to October’s test flight. Skimming space, the shiny retro-looking craft descended into the Indian Ocean for a controlled but destructive end to the hourlong demo.

It was the sixth test for the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket that SpaceX and NASA hope to use to get astronauts back on the moon and eventually Mars.

SpaceX kept the same flight path as last time, but changed some steps along the way as well as the time of day. Starship blasted off in late afternoon instead of early morning to ensure daylight to see the spacecraft’s descent.

Among the new objectives that were achieved: igniting one of the spacecraft’s engines in space, which would be necessary when returning from orbit. There were also thermal protection experiments aboard the spacecraft, with some areas stripped of heat tiles to see whether catch mechanisms might work there on future flights. And the spacecraft descended nose-first during the last part of entry, before flipping and splashing down upright into the Indian Ocean. Even more upgrades are planned for the next test flight.

Donald Trump flew in for the launch in the latest sign of a deepening bond between the president-elect and Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO.

SpaceX wants to eventually return and reuse the entire 400-foot (121-meter) Starship. Full-scale recycling would drive down the cost of hauling cargo and people to the moon and Mars, while speeding things up. The recycling of SpaceX’s Falcon rockets flying out of Florida and California has already saved the company time and money.

NASA is paying SpaceX more than $4 billion to land astronauts on the moon via Starship on back-to-back missions later this decade. Musk envisions launching a fleet of Starships to build a city one day on Mars.

This was the sixth launch of a fully assembled Starship since 2023. The first three ended up exploding.

Texas offers Trump land on US-Mexico border for potential mass deportations

McALLEN (AP) — Texas is offering a parcel of rural ranchland along the U.S.-Mexico border to use as a staging area for potential mass deportations under President-elect Donald Trump.

The property, which Texas originally purchased last month, is located in rural Starr County in the Rio Grande Valley. Republican Dawn Buckingham, the Texas Land Commissioner, sent a letter on Thursday to Trump extending the offer.

The land offer is the latest illustration of a sharp divide between states and local governments on whether to support or resist Trump’s plans for mass deportations of migrants living in the U.S. illegally. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to become a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities to carry out deportations.

Texas leaders have long backed aggressive measures on the border to curb crossings, including installing razor-wire barriers and passing a law last year that would allow law enforcement to arrest migrants who cross the border illegally.

“By offering this newly-acquired 1400-acre property to the incoming Trump Administration for the construction of a facility for the processing, detention, and coordination of what will be the largest deportation of violent criminals in our nation’s history, I stand united with President Donald Trump to ensure American families are protected,” Buckingham said in a statement.

Trump has said he plans to begin his deportation efforts on the first day of his presidency. He frequently attacked illegal immigration during his campaign, linking a record spike in unauthorized border crossings to issues ranging from drug trafficking to high housing prices.

There are an estimated 11 million people in the country illegally. Questions remain about how people would be identified and where they would be detained.

The president-elect’s transition team did not say whether they would accept Texas’ offer but sent a statement.

“On day one, President Trump will marshal every lever of power to secure the border, protect their communities, and launch the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrant criminals in history,” Karoline Leavitt, the transition spokeswoman for Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance, said Wednesday.

The Texas General Land Office did not respond to a request for comment on the amount paid for the land, but the commissioner stated the previous owner resisted the creation of a border wall.

A 1.5-mile (2.4 kilometer) stretch of border wall was built under Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021 on that land. Buckingham said with the recent purchase, the state has created another easement for more border wall construction.

Dallas doctor gets 190 years for tampering with IV bags used in surgeries

DALLAS (AP) — A Dallas anesthesiologist was sentenced Wednesday to 190 years in prison for injecting a nerve-blocking agent and other drugs into bags of intravenous fluid at a surgical center where he worked, leading to the death of a coworker and causing cardiac emergencies for several patients.

The emergencies began two days after Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. was notified of a disciplinary inquiry into an incident during which he allegedly “deviated from the standard of care” during an anesthesia procedure when a patient experienced a medical emergency.

Ortiz, who had a history of disciplinary actions against him, complained to other physicians that the center was trying to “crucify” him.

Court documents show that Ortiz, who was arrested in September 2022 and convicted in April, waived his appearance at sentencing in federal court.

An attorney listed in court documents for Ortiz did not immediately return a phone call for comment.

Prosecutors said numerous patients at Surgicare North Dallas suffered cardiac emergencies during routine medical procedures performed by various doctors from May through August in 2022. Another anesthesiologist who had worked there died while treating herself for dehydration using an IV bag from the facility, prosecutors said.

The surgical center staff concluded that these cases suggested a pattern of intentional adulteration of IV bags used at the center.

They identified 10 additional unexpected cardiac emergencies that occurred during otherwise unremarkable surgeries in the months before his arrest, which was an exceptionally high rate of complications over such a short period, according to the complaint.

His medical license was suspended following his arrest by the Texas Medical Board.

David Rancken’s App of the Day 11/20/24 – Boxed!

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Glass Rec Center closed for maintenance starting Nov. 24

TYLER – The Glass Recreation Center will be closed from Sunday, Nov. 24, through Sunday, Dec.1, for annual maintenance. This includes resurfacing gym courts and repainting interior walls. Classes and programs will resume normal schedules when the center reopens on Monday, Dec. 2, at 7 a.m. For more information, contact the Glass Recreation Center at (903) 595-7271 or at their website.

Gov. Abbott issues executive order targeting Chinese agents in Texas

AUSTIN (AP) — Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order on Monday, directing the Texas Department of Public Safety to target and arrest people trying to execute influence operations on behalf of the Chinese government to return dissidents to China.

Abbott’s action is in response to “Operation Fox Hunt,” a Chinese government initiative that is intended to root out corruption in that country but in practice has also been used to intimidate Chinese citizens living abroad, harass Chinese pro-democracy activists and even forcibly repatriate dissidents and government officials in some cases. The U.S. justice department has successfully prosecuted individuals in connection to the Chinese initiative.

“The Chinese Communist Party has engaged in a worldwide harassment campaign against Chinese dissidents in attempts to forcibly return them to China,” Abbott said in a news release. “Texas will not tolerate the harassment or coercion of the more than 250,000 individuals of Chinese descent who legally call Texas home by the Chinese Communist Party or its heinous proxies.”

Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Conor Hagan, a spokesperson for the FBI office in Houston, said the agency has pushed a public campaign since January to stop the harassment, intimidation and assault of people in the United States by foreign governments. The FBI is looking for potential victims in the Houston area who have been harassed by agents of the Chinese government.

Hagan said the Chinese government has targeted its own citizens living within the United States as well as naturalized and U.S.-born citizens who have family overseas.

“Their actions violate U.S. law and our treasured American individual rights and freedoms,” Hagan wrote in an email.

The FBI office in Houston has set up a hotline for people who believe they are victims of these types of actions by the Chinese Communist Party: (713) 693-5000..

State Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, who was born in China and immigrated to the United States applauded Abbott’s move Tuesday.

“The ability to speak your mind and live freely are the core promises of the American Dream; and any who seek to take that away stand against Texas values,” Wu said.

Last year, Wu criticized Texas Republicans for pushing legislation that would ban citizens and foreign entities from countries including China from buying land in Texas. He urged Abbott to also support Chinese immigrants by opposing such legislation.

The Chinese government has set up “police service stations” across the world, according to Abbott’s executive order, and one such station was rumored to be in Houston.

“We will continue to do everything we can to protect Texans from the unlawful and repressive actions of the Chinese Communist Party,” Abbott said.

Abbott charged DPS with identifying and charging people suspected of crimes related to Operation Fox Hunt; work with local and federal authorities to assess incidents where foreign governments are harassing Texans; provide policy recommendations on how to counter these threats and set up a hotline to reported suspected acts of coercion related to “Operation Fox Hunt.”

On Thursday, Abbott issued a second executive order aimed at hardening the systems of state agencies and public higher education institutions from being accessed by hostile foreign nations.

UNT faculty slam university for removing references to race and equity in course names

DENTON (AP) — Katherine Mansfield found out that the title of her spring semester course at the University of North Texas had been changed via email.

The graduate level class that she taught to seasoned teachers who were trying to earn a master’s in educational leadership used to be called “Race, Class and Gender Issues in education.” Now, it would be called “Critical Inquiry in Education.”

The course description was also tweaked. Before the course said students would learn how to be “culturally responsive” to their own students and how to “debunk stereotypes and negative views” about students going to school in places where “race, class and gender inequalities exist.”

Now, the course says students will “critically examine current topics related to providing leadership for various student groups.”

The course change was one of at least 78 edits that UNT, the Denton campus with 47,000 students, made to course titles and descriptions in the College of Education’s graduate program. The university also made around 130 edits to undergraduate courses in the same college.

In an email obtained by the Tribune and first reported by the student newspaper, NT Daily, the changes were made after administrators learned of a directive that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick gave to state lawmakers ahead of the upcoming legislative session to examine programs and certificates at public higher education institutions that maintain diversity, equity and inclusion policies and “expose how these programs and their curriculum are damaging and not aligned with state workforce demands.”

The directive builds on Senate Bill 17, a state law that eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion offices on university campuses and prohibited state universities from using funding to support DEI efforts. The law, which went into effect in January, did not apply to course instruction and research.

According to the email from professor Lok-Sze Wong to other faculty in the UNT College of Education, administrators decided this was the best way to protect faculty from being further targeted because course titles and descriptions are “public facing.” Faculty have until fall 2025 to adjust their courses to comply with the new course descriptions, the email said.

The course edits are just one example of how faculty at UNT feel university administrators are overreacting to SB 17, according to interviews with faculty and emails obtained by the Tribune. Faculty say that by reviewing syllabi and courses, the university is overcomplying with a law that doesn’t require such a step.

A university spokesperson denied the changes were related to SB 17 and said the changes to course names, content and readings was part of an effort to ensure the curriculum is in line with state teaching education standards.

“Regardless of their intent, the UNT administration conducted a campaign of censorship of content in more than 200 courses,” said Brian Evans, president of the Texas conference of the American Association of University Professors. “It’s censoring what topics students can discuss and think critically about. In order for students to have the freedom to learn, faculty need to have the freedom to teach.”

Other faculty, including Mansfield, feel the edited course titles and descriptions are administrators’ way of preparing for what’s to come in January when lawmakers come back to Austin.

Last week, at a Texas Senate Higher Education Subcommittee meeting, state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, said that while DEI-related curriculum does not violate the law, it “contradicts its spirit.”

“The curriculum does not reflect the expectations of Texas taxpayers and students who fund our public universities,” he said. “It also falls short of equipping graduates with practical knowledge and skills that employers seek.”

Since January, UNT administrators and their counterparts at universities across the state have closed DEI offices and reassigned staff to new roles.

Three faculty senate subcommittees at UNT focused on faculty of color, LGBTQ faculty and women were shuttered as well as the Multicultural Center, which housed multiple student services. Library staff were told they couldn’t host events for Pride Week.

While students protested the changes, faculty said they were especially taken aback during a faculty senate meeting last month when Chief Compliance Officer Clay Simmons said the university was interpreting the law to include “exceptions” to the carveout for teaching and research.

“So if you’re doing research on homelessness, you have to be very careful if you’re going to focus on a certain identity within homelessness,” Simmons told faculty. “So if you’re looking at LGBTQ homeless individuals, then you’ll have to make sure that that is narrowly tailored within the scope of work.”

He also showed a presentation slide that said “classroom lessons on DEI topics must be limited to elements of the course.” For example, “a class on mathematics may not include an activity on SB 17-prohibited topics, whether graded or not.”

Simmons told faculty that research would not be exempt unless it contributes to “generalizable knowledge,” a federal definition that applies to research findings that can be applied to a larger population than those studied in the particular research.

Last week, PEN America, a New York-based free speech organization, slammed Simmons for these comments, calling it “the most extreme case of overcompliance with a censorship law we have ever seen.”

“Making up provisions in SB 17 that do not exist is the hallmark of a higher education system that has gone totally rogue,” said Jeremy Young, PEN America’s Freedom to Learn program director, in a press release. “SB 17 already restricts diversity initiatives and programming on campus, which is bad enough. But by extending the reach of this law into areas explicitly protected by the legislation itself, UNT is not only misinterpreting the law but also putting faculty members’ academic freedom in severe jeopardy.”

A few weeks after the faculty senate meeting, Simmons sent an email out to the faculty senate clarifying that research is exempt from SB 17.

“Faculty members are entitled to full academic freedom in research and in the dissemination of the results,” Simmons wrote.

Adam Briggle, a professor and director of graduate studies of philosophy at UNT, said the university’s willingness to preemptively self-censor when the law doesn’t require it is troubling.

“I’m losing faith a little bit that UNT would ever stop this slide,” he said. “When do we actually push back? Where’s the line here? Because you can see how little by little, this could just become a total violation of academic freedoms.”

David Rancken’s App of the Day 11/19/24 – Playsee!

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DPS report of fatal crash that killed students

HOUSTON COUNTY – Law enforcement’s preliminary report of a Saturday afternoon accident that led to the death of two East Texas students provides more details. According to our news partner KETK, the Texas Department of Public Safety, a preliminary investigation found that around 3:40 p.m. on Saturday, a Ford Fusion was traveling north on Highway 19 and a GMC Terrain was southbound.

“It is reported that the driver of the Ford traveled off the road to the right and overcorrected the maneuver back to the left, which caused the Ford to travel into a side skid into the southbound lane where it was struck by the GMC.” DPS said.

The driver of the Ford was identified at 17-year-old Carter Snider of Hawkins. Carter was taken to a hospital where he later died. A 16-year-old boy was pronounced dead at the accident site. Another passenger in that vehicle is hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. The driver and passenger of the GMC, both 60-years-old were also hospitalized, the DPS report said.

Victim identified in fatal house fire

Update: Authorities said a convicted murderer who was charged on Monday in connection to a fatal house fire, allege that he threw gasoline on his girlfriend the day he was supposed to be evicted. Tuesday, officials identified the victim as Marilyn Mceachin.

TYLER — Tyler Police have made an arrest in connection to a Monday morning house fire in which a woman was found dead. According to our news partner KETK, 67-year-old Gregory Bargaineer allegedly walked into the Smith County Jail lobby and “made statements about an incident with a female at their residence on Shady Trail.”

Investigators report that fire crews were sent to a house fire at 3300 Shady Trail and Bradshaw Drive around 4:00 a.m. Crew members found a woman’s body in back of the house. Her body has been sent for autopsy with identity release pending that report. Evidence gathered by Tyler PD during interviews led to Bargaineer’s arrest. He is has been charged with murder and held on a $750,000 bond.

Kerry Max Cook is suing Tyler and Smith County

TYLER – Kerry Max Cook was found innocent of the 1977 murder of Linda Jo Edwards back in June and now he’s suing Smith County and the City of Tyler. According to our news partner KETK, the allegations of his lawsuit are listed in a complaint filed by Cook’s lawyers Nov. 14. The complaint alleges that the City of Tyler, Smith County and several named officials violated his civil rights by engaging in a “homosexual witch-hunt” which led to him spending 20 years on death row for a crime he’s been found innocent of by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Cook stated in the release, “For over 20 years I fought for my life from a death row cell,” Cook said in a press release. “After being kicked out the back door of Smith County’s legal system in 1999, I fought for another 25 years to clear me and my family’s name. This year, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals finally declared me ‘actually innocent,’ but my struggle does not end there. Today, I am pressing forward with a civil suit against the officers who framed me and against the broken Tyler and Smith County police agencies that let it happen.”
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Beyoncé will perform at halftime of Ravens-Texans Christmas Day game on Netflix

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Beyoncé is coming to your home on Christmas — provided you have Netflix and are tuning in to the Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans game.

Netflix announced late Sunday that the megastar would perform during halftime of a Christmas Day matchup in her hometown of Houston.

The streaming service didn’t reveal details about the performance but teased that it would likely feature guest appearances from her “Cowboy Carter” album, which delivered her a leading 11 Grammy nominations earlier this month.

Netflix is streaming two NFL games this Christmas. Its first game will be between the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers — setting up the possibility that two of the world’s biggest superstars will be part of the events. Taylor Swift, who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, has attended several of his games so far this year, and will be done with her Eras tour by Christmas.

The NFL games are the streaming giant’s latest foray into sports and live programming. The announcement comes two days after Netflix streamed an evening of boxing that included a bout between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul that resulted with the YouTube influencer winning the fight.

That stream was marred by streaming and buffering problems for many users, with at least 85,000 viewers logging problems with the website Down Detector.

Beyoncé has performed at two Super Bowls, in 2013 and 2016.

Astros ballpark to be renamed Daikin Park on Jan. 1

HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Astros’ home will get a new name on Jan. 1, becoming Daikin Park under an agreement through the 2039 season the team announced Monday.

The stadium opened as Enron Field in 2000 as part of a 30-year, $100 million agreement but the name was removed in March 2002 following Enron Corp.’s bankruptcy filing and the ballpark briefly became Astros Field.

It was renamed Minute Maid Park in June 2002 as part of a deal with The Minute Maid Co., a Houston-based subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Co. Then-Astros owner Drayton McLane said at the time the agreement was for 28 years and for more than $100 million.

The new deal is with Daikin Comfort Technologies North America Inc., a subsidiary of Daikin Industries Ltd., which is based in Japan and is a leading air conditioning company.

Minute Maid will remain an Astros partner through 2029, the team said.

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