Today is
Thursday June 04, 2026
LIVINGSTON (KETK) — A member of the Livingston Police Department was fired and arrested on Monday after being accused of having an improper relationship with a student.
According to the department, they were notified by Livingston ISD on May 1 regarding allegations of Ryan Boyd, a 45-year-old police officer, having an inappropriate relationship with a student.
Boyd was subsequently removed from the school campus and was placed on administrative leave while the department opened an investigation.
Boyd was terminated on Monday and was taken into custody by the Texas Rangers. He was later booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with having an improper relationship between educator and student.
“LPD understands incidents like this can damage public trust,” the department said. “We want our community to know that these allegations were taken seriously from the beginning. We remain committed to transparency, accountability and protecting our community.”
The investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Polk County District Attorney’s Office at 936-327-6868.
KILGORE – Injuries have been confirmed following a multi-vehicle crash on State Highway 31 on Monday afternoon. According to our news partner KETK, the Kilgore Fire Department, is currently on the scene of the crash on Highway 31 near FM 3053. Road closures and delays are expected over the next few hours, the department added.
DESOTO PARISH, La. – A Tyler man is dead after a single-vehicle crash happened in DeSoto Parish, La. on Sunday. According to our news partner KETK, the incident happened on Sunday, May 10, at approximately 6:00 a.m. on Louisiana Highway 175, near Louisiana Highway 5. According to the Louisiana State Police, the victim was traveling south on Louisiana Highway 175 when, for reasons currently under investigation, his vehicle went off the road and overturned.
The victim was identified as 35-year-old Delon Perkins, of Tyler. Investigators said he was properly restrained during the crash and was pronounced deceased at the scene. Impairment was not suspected, but toxicology samples were collected and submitted for analysis. The investigation into this crash is ongoing.
LONGVIEW — A wanted fugitive and known Latin Kings gang member was arrested in East Texas on May 7 for his alleged involvement of a 2024 murder in New Jersey. According to our news partner KETK, the FBI said , Ricky Vargas was wanted for allegedly stabbing a man to death outside of a bar in Garfield, New Jersey on Feb. 4, 2024.
A state warrant was issued for his arrest the next day, charging him with first degree murder, causing serious bodily injury, leaving the scene of a crime and two possession of a weapon charges.
On Feb. 7, 2024, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Vargas in the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, Newark and New Jersey after additionally being charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
While searching for Vargas, the FBI was offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information leading up to his arrest. On May 7, Vargas was apprehended by FBI Dallas and FBI Newark in Longview.
JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville College honored one of its students with a posthumous degree this weekend after he was killed in a club shooting on March 22. Students, parents and educators gathered at Central Baptist Church in Jacksonville on Saturday for Jacksonville College’s graduation ceremony. One graduate who couldn’t walk the stage was Jacksonville native Keion Dewayne Redd.
Redd had earned the credits to complete his associate’s degree but was tragically killed as an innocent bystander in a March 22 club shooting in Smith County. Jacksonville College honored Redd on Saturday by presenting his associate’s degree to his mother, who walked in his place.
“This moment is about celebrating Keion’s accomplishments, the life he lived, and the future he was working toward,” Jacksonville College said. “His family wants him to be remembered for who he was, the people who loved him, and the milestone he earned.”
TYLER – Starting Monday, May 11, Consent Decree capacity improvements are moving to South Bonner Avenue between West Front Street and West Woldert Street. Work is expected to take approximately one week, weather permitting.
For Caldwell Elementary School dismissal, parents should enter for pickup on South Bois D’Arc Avenue, south of the intersection at West Elm Street. The Caldwell Middle School students, parents should enter the dismissal line at South Bois D’Arc Avenue and West Front Street.
David Rancken’s App of the Day lets you invest, but slowly and safely. It’s called Parrot Finance. You can find Parrot Finance in the Apple Store.
MARSHALL – A Marshall man was arrested on Tuesday evening after being charged with continuous sexual assault of a child under 14.
According to our news partner KETK and the Marshall Police Department, Craig Shady was arrested at his home on Baffo Road and Karnack Highway, after an arrest warrant was obtained in connection to their ongoing investigation.
The department said that, due to the sensitive nature of the case, no information about the victim will be released. Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the department at 903-935-4575 or the Harrison County Crime Stoppers tip line at 903-935-9969.
“The Marshall Police Department remains committed to protecting victims, preserving their privacy, and thoroughly investigating crimes against children,” the department said.
SMITH COUNTY – Smith County Animal Control and Shelter held its first rescue coordination meeting with local animal rescue groups on Thursday. This initial gathering follows updated policies adopted by Smith County last week, aimed at improving communication and coordination with rescue organizations.
Local animal groups previously raised concerns about communication and coordination, particularly when the shelter operates at or near capacity. Part of the meeting’s conversation centered on the county’s two-tier system for animals.
This system categorizes animals into a “highly adoptable” tier and a “rescue and reclaim” tier. The “rescue and reclaim” tier includes animals designated for euthanasia. Rescue groups believe the “rescue and reclaim” list should be made public so they can identify which animals require immediate assistance.
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LIVINGSTON (KETK)– After being sentenced to death earlier this week, the man responsible for the murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand has been transported to a correctional facility in Livingston.
Former FedEx driver Tanner Horner received the death sentence on Tuesday after pleading guilty earlier this year to murdering Strand in 2022. Horner was given the sentence by a jury in a Fort Worth courtroom that heard nearly a month of testimony and evidence, including audio from Strand’s final moments before her death.
Horner was arrested in December 2022 and charged with capital murder after Strand’s body was found in Wise County. It was later revealed that Horner had kidnapped Strand from her home while he was delivering a package and subsequently strangled her to death nearly an hour afterward.
Horner will now remain at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston for the foreseeable future until a date is scheduled for his execution.
Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. David Rancken’s App of the Day, has the same title as yesterday. It’s called Bond. Today it has to do with personal security. You can find Bond in the Apple Store and Google Play below.
LANEVILLE – Laneville ISD certified its election results Thursday night, even as residents questioned the integrity of a bond measure that passed by just 16 votes and urged the board to delay the decision. On Saturday, May 2, Laneville ISD’s $8.5 million bond that aims to improve facilities, safety, and infrastructure while also supporting the district’s educational environment passed with 53% of the vote.
Laneville ISD Bond Vote
149/52.84% voted FOR the bond measure, while 133/47.16% voted AGAINST it.
Voters argue the election lacked basic ballot security, saying the makeshift box failed to meet Texas Election Code standards and left ballots easily accessible — a flaw they believe undermines the integrity of the entire election.
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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, delivering another major setback to the party in a nationwide battle against Republicans for an edge in this year’s midterm elections.
The court ruled 4-3 that the state’s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize the mid-decade redistricting. Voters narrowly approved the amendment April 21, but the court’s ruling renders the results of that vote meaningless.
Writing for the majority, Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote that the legislature submitted the proposed constitutional amendment to voters “in an unprecedented manner.”
“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” he wrote.
Democrats had hoped to win as many as four additional U.S. House seats under Virginia’s redrawn U.S. House map as part of an attempt to offset Republican redistricting done elsewhere at the urging of President Donald Trump. That ruling, combined with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision severely weakening the Voting Rights Act, has supercharged the Republicans’ congressional gerrymandering advantage heading into this year’s midterm elections.
Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee said the ruling was another sign of GOP momentum heading into the midterms.
“We’re on offense, and we’re going to win,” he said in a statement.
Don Scott, the Democratic speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, said Democrats respect the court’s opinion but lamented that it overturned the will of the voters: “They voted YES because they wanted to fight back against the Trump power grab.”
Suzan DelBene, chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, criticized the court majority for what she said was a decision that “cast aside the will of the voters,” but she said the people will have the final say.
“In November, they will, and they’ll power Democrats to the House majority,” she said in a statement.
A flurry of mid-decade redistricting
Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade after each census to account for population changes. But Trump started an unusual flurry of mid-decade redistricting last year when he encouraged Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts in a bid to win several additional U.S. House seats and hold on to their party’s narrow majority in the midterm elections.
California responded with new voter-approved districts drawn to Democrats’ advantage, and Utah’s top court imposed a new congressional map that also helps Democrats. Meanwhile, Republicans stand to gain from new House districts passed in Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee. They could add even more after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Voting Rights Act case, which has prompted some other Republican states to consider redrawing their maps in time for this year’s elections.
Virginia currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans who were elected from districts imposed by a court after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census. The new districts could have given Democrats an improved chance to win all but one of the state’s 11 congressional seats.
The Supreme Court’s majority was critical of the state’s redrawing of the congressional maps to benefit one political party. Those justices noted that 47% of the state’s voters supported GOP congressional candidates in 2024 but the new map could result in Democrats making up 91% of the state’s House delegation.
What was in Democrats’ map
Under the Democratic-drawn map, five districts would have been anchored in the Democratic stronghold of northern Virginia, including one stretching out like a lobster to consume Republican-leaning rural areas. Revisions to four other districts across Richmond, southern Virginia and Hampton Roads would have diluted the voting power of conservative blocs in those areas. And a reshaped district in parts of western Virginia would have lumped together three Democratic-leaning college towns to offset other Republican voters.
The state Supreme Court’s seven justices are appointed by the state legislature, which has toggled back and forth between Democratic, Republican and split control over recent years. Legal experts say the body doesn’t have a set ideological profile.
The case before the court focused not on the shape of the new districts but rather on the process the General Assembly used to authorize them.
Because the state’s redistricting commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers had to propose an amendment to redraw the districts. That required approval of a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between, to place the amendment on the ballot.
The legislature’s initial approval of the amendment occurred last October — while early voting was underway but before it concluded on the day of the general election. The legislature’s second vote on the amendment occurred after a new legislative session began in January. Lawmakers also approved a separate bill in February laying out the new districts, subject to voter approval of the constitutional amendment.
Arguments over the definition of ‘election’
Judicial arguments focused on whether the legislature’s initial approval of the amendment came too late, because early voting already had begun for the 2025 general election.
Attorney Matthew Seligman, who defended the legislature, argued that the “election” should be defined narrowly to mean the Tuesday of the general election. In that case, the legislature’s first vote on the redistricting amendment occurred before the election and was constitutional, he told judges.
But, the Supreme Court said in its ruling, “this view appears to be wholly unprecedented in Virginia’s history.”
An attorney for the plaintiffs, Thomas McCarthy, argued that an “election” should be interpreted to cover the entire period during which people can cast ballots, which lasts several weeks in Virginia. If that’s the case, he told justices, then the legislature’s initial endorsement of the redistricting amendment came too late to comply with the state constitution.
The Supreme Court agreed with that argument, writing: “The General Assembly passed the proposed constitutional amendment for the first time well after voters had begun casting ballots during the 2025 general election.”
By the time lawmakers initially endorsed the constitutional amendment, statewide voters already had cast more than 1.3 million ballots in the general election, about 40% of the total votes ultimately cast, the court said.
The Supreme Court’s ruling affirms a decision by a judge in rural Tazewell County, in southwestern Virginia. The court had placed a hold on that ruling and allowed the redistricting vote to proceed before hearing arguments on the case.
In the dissent to Friday’s ruling, Chief Justice Cleo Powell said the election for the purpose of considering the amendment does not include the early voting period.
“The majority’s definition creates an infinite voting loop that appears to have no established beginning,” she wrote, “only a definitive end: Election Day.”
DALLAS (AP) – Joni Lamb, who with her late husband founded the Daystar Television Network and guided it to become one of the world’s largest Christian TV networks, died Thursday. She was 65.
Lamb, the network’s president, had been suffering from serious health issues before sustaining a back injury that caused her health to deteriorate, the network said in a statement. A cause of death was not released.
“Joni’s love for the Lord and for the people we serve shaped this ministry from the beginning,” the network’s board of directors said in the statement.
The network said its ministry will continue on and that Lamb made sure a leadership team was in place.
She and her husband, Marcus Lamb, who died in 2021, began broadcasting in the Dallas area with a single station in 1993. Five years later, Joni Lamb began hosting her signature daily women’s show.
Based in Bedford, Texas, the Daystar Television Network grew to broadcast in more than 200 countries and has aired shows from many well-known evangelists, including Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes.
The network said it reaches 2.3 billion homes worldwide.
Its ministry was rooted in Pentecostalism, the Christian tradition known for its spirit-filled worship, and its belief in modern-day miracles and everyday battles with evil influences.
In addition to being the network’s president and working behind the scenes, Joni Lamb could be seen on the air hosting “Joni Table Talk” and discussing daily issues.
She stood beside her late husband in 2010 when he admitted on television to an affair with a woman years before. Marcus Lamb also alleged that three people tried to extort money from him to stay quiet.
Joni Lamb said at the time that when she learned of his infidelity she was devastated and prayed to the Holy Spirit, who told her, “He’s worth fighting for.”
The couple said they had healed their marriage and had hoped to keep the matter private.
“All you can do is tell the truth and take your pain and use it to try to help someone else,” Joni Lamb said.
Following her first husband’s death at age 64, she married Doug Weiss two years later. Together they hosted the show “Ministry Now.”
UPDATE: The Van Police Department told KETK News that the gas leak has been fixed.
VAN — A gas leak near Cherry Lane and Highway 16 prompted a shelter-in-place order Friday morning. Van Police said a main gas line was struck, causing the leak. According to our news partner KETK, emergency crews are on scene monitoring the situation while waiting for CenterPoint Energy to arrive and take over repairs. Residents are urged to avoid the area as crews work to secure the line and restore safety