Today is
Thursday June 04, 2026
PERRYVILLE – Perryville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Daniel Charles Alexander has been ordered to pay more than $49,000 in restitution for failing to work on a private construction project. According to our news partner KETK, Alexander allegedly signed a contract on March 19, 2025, to construct a 40×40-foot shop building for an unnamed victim in exchange for $38,796, but the building was recorded as 30 feet by 40 feet instead of the desired 40 by 40 feet.
Officials said the victim contacted Alexander and he reportedly responded by verbally proposing that he add the extra ten feet for $10,443. They verbally agreed on the added price, and Alexander was paid upfront with two checks, one for $38,796 and a second for $10,443, totaling $49,239.
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DALLAS (AP) – United Airlines’ CEO confirmed Monday that he approached rival American Airlines about a potential merger — his first public acknowledgment of his proposal — saying it would benefit travelers despite American’s refusal to engage in talks.
“I was confident that this combination, which would have been about adding and not subtracting, creating a truly great airline that customers love, could get regulatory approval,” Scott Kirby wrote in a statement released Monday. “I was hoping to pitch that story to American, but they declined to engage and instead responded by publicly closing the door.”
Kirby’s confirmation comes after weeks of public speculation about a potential merger between two of the biggest U.S. airlines, amid rising jet fuel prices tied to the Iran war and reports that he had approached the White House about the idea. Kirby said Monday that he had approached American directly about a tie-up, but it’s unclear whether that was before or after his White House meeting.
American publicly shot down the idea of a merger, saying in an April 17 statement that it “is not engaged with or interested in any discussions regarding a merger with United Airlines.” Additionally, a combination of the two carriers “would be negative for competition and for consumers” and possibly raise antitrust concerns, the company said.
Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines is itself the product of a 2013 merger with US Airways Group.
President Donald Trump also said last week that he was against a merger of the airlines.
In his statement Monday, Kirby, who previously served as president of American Airlines, argued that merging the carriers would expand service, create a more globally competitive airline and boost the U.S. economy by creating jobs and strengthening the aircraft manufacturing sector.
The rivalry between United and American has played out for years in pricing battles and disputes over gate access at major hubs like Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, where both airlines have fought to expand their footprint.
Amid that competition, the Federal Aviation Administration this month ordered about 300 daily flights cut from peak summer schedules at O’Hare, saying planned increases by both carriers risked overwhelming an airport already plagued by severe delays.
The order will take effect June 2, later than initially planned, after the FAA said last week it wanted to give airlines additional time to adjust their schedules.
Shares of Chicago-based United fell 1.2% on Monday, to $91.90. They are down about 18% this year amid the Iran war, which began in late February and has driven fuel prices sharply higher. American shares were down about 3.5% on Monday, to $11.68. American is down nearly 24% for the year.
Jet fuel is typically one of the largest expenses for airlines, leaving them especially vulnerable to price spikes and supply shocks.
In some markets, the price of jet fuel has more than doubled as fighting near the Strait of Hormuz squeezes global supplies, raising operating costs for airlines. In response, carriers around the world have raised fares and fees, with both United and American among the major U.S. airlines that have raised checked baggage fees.
SMITH COUNTY – Three men have recently been indicted by a grand jury for murder following a Smith County shooting in 2017, which eventually led to the victim’s death. According to our news partner KETK, Joel Camacho, Carlos Ochoa, and Tarrance Reggie were recently charged with murder in connection with the 2017 shooting after the victim, Michael Ross II, died in February 2024.
The shooting occurred on Sept. 17, 2017, and Ross was shot in the side of his head after he was set up and robbed by the three men, according the Smith County Sheriff’s Office said.
Following an investigation in 2017, Camacho, Ochoa and Reggie were arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon
All three men pleaded guilty to their aggravated assault charges in 2018 and were sentenced to 20 years in state prison. If convicted of the murder charge, they could face up to a life sentence.
GLADEWATER – A Gladewater man was arrested last month after Gladewater PD discovered he was in possession of over 300 photos depicting children engaging in sexual conduct.
According to our news partner KETK, Gladewater Police Department (GPD), officials received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in December regarding explicit material involving child sexual abuse being uploaded to Google Photos.
Authorities learned that 24 images had been stored in Google Drive and identified the account owner as David Blalock.
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WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration’s historic move to reclassify state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug was cheered by some advocates but for others, it fell far short for the thousands still incarcerated on federal cannabis-related convictions.
The executive order, which acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed Thursday, does not address current penalties for possessing and selling marijuana or those jailed with yearslong sentences.
“While this is a victory, the fight is far from over,” said Jason Ortiz, director of strategic initiatives for the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit focused on cannabis criminal justice reform.
Proponents of legalizing marijuana as well as overhauling prison sentencing say this order, which does not completely decriminalize the drug, benefits only cannabis researchers, growers and others in Big Weed. Meanwhile, thousands — many of whom are people of color — are stuck serving harsh sentences for marijuana-related offenses. Or they have served their time but having a conviction on their record has made life difficult.
Now, advocates are calling on Congress and state lawmakers to take concrete steps to ensure those with marijuana-related convictions receive fair treatment or be forgiven altogether.
Prisoners and their families look for hope
Blanche’s order reclassifies state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug. The major policy shift, which both Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden had considered, means cannabis won’t be grouped with drugs like heroin.
But it does not legalize marijuana for medical or recreational use. It shifts licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I — reserved for drugs without medical use and with high potential for abuse — to the less strictly regulated Schedule III. This will likely give licensed medical marijuana operators and cannabis researchers a major tax break and less stringent barriers to doing normal business.
Virtually no one imprisoned at the federal level is there solely for marijuana possession. But many are there for large-scale possession, trafficking offenses or both.
Hector Ruben McGurk, 66, has been serving life without the possibility of parole since 2007 for transporting thousands of pounds of marijuana and money laundering. He is currently imprisoned in Beaumont, Texas, over 800 miles (1,290 kilometers) from his son’s El Paso home. His incarceration has been hard on his son, said McGurk’s daughter-in-law, Ferna Anguiano. And the distance makes visits logistically difficult.
So it’s tempting to see this order as a glimmer of hope, given that the family believes McGurk’s punishment far outweighs his crimes. But Anguiano has no idea how to navigate lobbying for his release.
“His release date is death,” Anguiano said. “I mean, we see all this stuff on the news — bigger cases, fatal cases — and people are going in and out of prison and coming out to their families.”
They try to keep in touch through phone calls and a prison texting service. They’re concerned about McGurk’s health and his diabetes management. It would be a dream come true for him to come home.
“He deserves a second chance,” Anguiano said. “Yes, it was a poor decision he did in his lifetime. He was younger. But he is not a bad person. I think it’s fair to say he has served enough time for it.”
It’s not clear whether punishments would be different had marijuana always been scheduled differently, drug policy experts say.
“In addition to schedule-specific penalties, there are marijuana-specific penalties that have nothing to do with the schedule,” said Cat Packer, director of drug markets and legal regulation at the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance. “Even if marijuana were to be moved to Schedule V, those criminal penalties would still exist and there are mandatory minimums for simple possession.”
Racial disparities exist in convictions and Big Weed
Destigmatizing marijuana has long been an issue for both political parties. Obama commuted the sentences of about 1,900 federal prisoners, almost all of whom were incarcerated for nonviolent drug crimes. Biden pardoned 6,500 people convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia. President Donald Trump’s administration has taken far fewer drug clemency actions and does not have an overarching policy directing such actions.
“What many people on the right and the left would like is to move marijuana from this ‘just as bad as heroin’ category and to just sort of de-schedule it entirely,” said Marta Nelson, director of sentencing reform at the Vera Institute of Justice. “Regulate it like you do alcohol or tobacco.”
Studies show Black Americans are roughly 3.7 to 4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white Americans, despite usage rates being roughly the same across racial groups. Federal-level marijuana cases are pretty small today, but those serving sentences for federal drug offenses are overwhelmingly Hispanic and Black, according to Justice Department and Bureau of Justice Statistics data.
The racial disparity with drug convictions is reminiscent of 2010 legislation Obama signed reducing the gap between mandatory sentences for crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. In 2018, Trump made it apply retroactively.
Because business owners with state medical marijuana licenses are predominantly white, the tax relief created by the rescheduling will also likely give a leg-up to mostly white businesses, Packer said. A lot of equity programs won’t apply.
“This is going to, in my mind, widen the gap, the financial disparities, the business disparities that currently exist between Black and brown, Latino and white owners in the cannabis industry because licenses were not distributed equitably,” Packer said.
Possible next steps for marijuana convictions
In theory, Trump could issue a blanket pardon like he did for Jan. 6 rioters. But Nelson thinks that is highly doubtful.
“Having marijuana convictions on the record for things like mass immigration enforcement is helpful to the administration,” Nelson said.
An impactful next step would be for Congress to outline very comprehensive legislation addressing existing marijuana-related convictions, expungements and industry regulations, she added.
The Last Prisoner Project and other organizations are planning to renew a dialogue with federal lawmakers, including the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, which includes Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar and Republican Rep. David Joyce. They will also continue to lobby for Trump to conduct a large-scale act of commutation and clemency.
Advocates are also hoping Trump’s order will prompt every state to rethink their marijuana classification and penalties.
“It is imperative that every state review their situation, as a lot of their controlled substances at the state level are tied to the federal government,” Ortiz said. “We’re gonna see other states that are going to need a little help from the public to remind them what the right thing to do is.”
AUSTIN (AP) — Texas state regulators found nearly two dozen deficiencies in the emergency operations plan submitted in Camp Mystic’s bid to reopen less than a year after 27 children and counselors were killed in a devastating flood.
Camp Mystic’s owners have applied for a license to reopen the all-girls Christian camp in late May in part of the campus that did not flood. That has angered families of the girls killed, some of whom have filed lawsuits against the camp, and prompted several prominent state officials to call for the license to be denied or delayed pending the outcome of ongoing investigations.
The 11-page letter from the Department of State Health Services notes deficiencies that include problems with flood warning evacuation plans, use of an emergency warning and public address system, monitoring safety alerts and training campers on safety.
It was sent to the camp about a week after a three-day court hearing in the family lawsuits when several camp operators and staff acknowledged they missed official flood warnings, lacked a detailed evacuation plan and waited too long to try to get the children out. One of the camp’s owners, Richard Eastland, also died.
The letter notes that Camp Mystic is allowed to revise the emergency plan. Camp Mystic officials said they would work with the agency to address the problems cited.
“Our priority remains the safety and well-being of our campers, and we hope to continue the nearly century-long mission and ministry of Camp Mystic to provide a Christian camping experience for girls that allows them to grow physically, mentally and spiritually,” the camp said.
The camp’s emergency plan was submitted as part of strict new guidelines imposed by state lawmakers after the deadly flood.
DSHS spokesperson Lara Anton said many camps have received deficiency notices ahead of summer opening.
“This is part of the licensing application review process, and most youth camps have received a notice of deficiency letter for their emergency plan due to the statutory changes and increased emergency plan requirements,” Anton said.
Texas lawmakers have scheduled two days of hearings next week on what happened during the flood that ripped through the Guadalupe River and killed more than 130 people in all. Several lawmakers and the Texas Rangers, the state police elite investigations unit, visited the camp site this week.
NACOGDOCHES – Nacogdoches County Sheriff Jason Bridges provided an update on Thursday regarding the explosion at the Etoile natural gas well earlier this week. The explosion occurred around 11:20 p.m. on Monday evening. Our news partner KETK said Bridges confirmed that no injuries have been reported, as all workers had evacuated the scene before the blast.
Bridges expressed his gratitude to the local volunteer fire departments who arrived on the scene Monday evening and helped control the fire.
“They are exactly that, they are volunteers, and time and time again I have said what a great job they do and how much our community relies and depends on them, ” Bridges said. “They do a great job for us each and every day and we rely on them so much for what they do.”
The well is currently under what Bridges believes is a controlled burn, and a company from Houston is on the scene to monitor the burn and implement air-quality control measures, as the site is expected to continue burning over the next few days.
NACOGDOCHES (KETK) — A Nacogdoches County jury has convicted Ronnie Farrell Jernigan Jr. of capital murder in the shooting deaths of his girlfriend and her mother, ending a case that previously resulted in a hung jury.
According to the Nacogdoches County District Attorney’s Office, jurors on April 23, found Jernigan guilty on two counts of capital murder in the deaths of 48-year-old Laquice Sanford and her 73-year-old mother, Laura Jean Sanford. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Police were first called to a home on Stone Street in October 2023 after a neighbor discovered Laura Jean’s body on the front porch. Investigators said she had been shot in the back of the head, with her head resting in the basket of a bicycle parked nearby.
Officers then entered the residence and found Laquice dead inside. Authorities said she had been shot in the face at close range.
Jernigan, identified as Laquice’s boyfriend, was later located at his mother’s home. He initially denied being at the residence or seeing the victims that day, investigators said.
Surveillance footage from nearby businesses showed Jernigan riding the same bicycle found at the scene and wearing a hat later recovered inside the home near Laquice’s body, according to prosecutors.
During questioning, Jernigan told detectives he had previously purchased a firearm but claimed he had returned it. A neighbor later discovered a gun in a vacant yard behind his mother’s house. Ballistics testing confirmed the weapon was used in both killings and matched the firearm previously sold to Jernigan, authorities said.
Investigators also found gunshot residue on Jernigan’s hands and DNA from one of the victims on his clothing. Cellphone data placed him at the home at the time of the shootings, prosecutors said.
The case had previously gone to trial in October 2025 but ended in a hung jury. A retrial concluded this week with a guilty verdict after jurors also heard accusations of Jernigan’s prior abuse of Laquice and a previous partner.
In a statement, the district attorney’s office thanked jurors for their “diligence and careful consideration,” adding that the sentence ensures Jernigan “will never be released from prison and protects the public from further violence.” Prosecutors also said the case underscores the dangers of domestic violence and its potential consequences.
TYLER – In a significant milestone for the region, the University of Texas at Tyler has unveiled its cutting-edge School of Medicine Building on Friday morning.
The five?story facility brings education, clinical care and community services together in one place. The new building will not only serve as an educational hub but also as a crucial clinical resource, offering a wide range of services provided by UT Health East Texas clinicians.
From advanced imaging and women’s health services to specialized pulmonary, orthopedic and sports medicine care, the facility is poised to meet diverse healthcare needs. It also boasts eight fully equipped outpatient surgical suites, enhancing its capability to deliver comprehensive medical care.
UT Tyler President Julie V. Philley addressed the attendees, underscoring the university’s commitment to advancing healthcare education and access in East Texas.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — It was 1972 and Apollo astronauts Harrison “Jack” Schmitt and Eugene Cernan had just stepped onto the moon’s surface to begin collecting rock and soil samples.
The mission would mark the end of an era for the American space program, but Schmitt already was looking to the future. His voice crackling over a high-frequency radio signal that day, he shared his thoughts with Cernan and those listening in at Mission Control.
“Well, I tell you Gene, I think the next generation ought to accept this as a challenge. Let’s see them leave footsteps like these someday,” Schmitt said.
Schmitt, 90, is one of the four Apollo moonwalkers still alive today. A field geologist, he was the first scientist to set foot on the moon and his expertise helped answer questions about the origin of that big rock up there and what it tells us about the solar system.
Schmitt felt the thrill again when the Artemis II crew rocketed into space on a historic lunar flyby. Pure excitement and the potential for so much more. And he’s hopeful as new generations get back to the moon and beyond.
Interviewed by The Associated Press, the former U.S. senator from New Mexico spoke about everything from the importance of having a lunar base to tapping new energy sources and whether we’re alone in the universe. Dark matter and quantum entanglement also were mentioned, with Schmitt saying many discoveries are yet to come.
“You’ve just got to remember,” he said, “what used to be called supernatural probably should be called unknown physics.”
This interview has been edited for brevity.
Q: What about having a lunar base?
Well, I think a lunar base makes a lot of sense and it always has for a lot of reasons. One is geopolitical. Probably the most important one is a geopolitical presence in deep space — and in preparation for going on to Mars.
The moon has resources that are going to reduce the cost of actually going to Mars and it gains experience. One of the things people keep forgetting about is you’ve gone through several generations and the new generation has to gain experience — psychologically as well as practically about how you work in deep space. And they’re doing that. That was probably the most important part of Artemis II, is it gave the ground people, Mission Control and others, the experience now to really have the risk as real rather than as part of a simulation.
Q: What was your mission during Apollo 17?
I had a lot of understanding of what other crews had learned, what had been learned from some of the early sample analyses and so we were trying to put sort of the frosting on the cake of answering questions in a very complex geologic area called Taurus-Littrow.
Taurus-Littrow actually is deeper than the Grand Canyon and so it has a three-dimensional aspect to it that we hadn’t had on other missions. And plus having a field geologist like myself on board meant that we should be more efficient at gathering samples that had a meaningful aspect to our further understanding of the origin of the moon, its relationship to the Earth and, it turns out, also its relationship to the history of the sun.
Q: So we’re building upon our knowledge of the universe around us?
Well there’s no question that the moon has a history to tell us.
It’s been recording the history of the solar system ever since the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago. That is really what the moon gives us — that library of knowledge, of potential knowledge about how the solar system evolved and then what the sun has been doing in that 4.5 billion years.
In the recent work that I’ve been doing in that layer of debris, the regolith, we find that the sun became even more active than it had been about the same time as we had an explosion of life in the oceans on Earth, and so the oceans may have been and almost certainly were warming to that more active sun and life likes warmth. So it multiplied not only in quantity but in diversity. The mammals started to appear soon after that, life started to move up onto the continents that had formed so things were really starting to move about a half-billion years ago.
Q: Tell us about the moon rocks
This is a sample of a basalt lava and we have a lot of basalt lavas here in New Mexico. This is different in that it is rich in titanium, more rich than most terrestrial basalts. And that titanium turns out to be very important in terms of the resources that are available on the moon. It has a property of concentrating some of those resources, particularly hydrogen and helium.
There’s an isotope called helium-3 and that is going to be, I think, ultimately very, very important in the production of energy. It’s going to be extremely useful in quantum computing, in cancer therapy and other things here on Earth. We just don’t have much on Earth, so the moon is going to be a our reservoir, our source of this very important isotope of helium-3.
Q: How important will this isotope be in the future?
Helium-3 offers a possibility of having nuclear energy without nuclear waste. We’ve known that for decades, and so the moon now offers that opportunity to begin to substitute a nuclear form of energy that doesn’t produce nuclear waste for what we have today.
Q: Is it just as much an energy race as a space race?
There’s no question about it. China is interested in it, we’re interested in it. And that’s probably one of the big technological drivers of this new race to the moon, a new space race, a Cold War that’s on now primarily involving China and I think helium-3 is a big actor in that right now.
Q: What was it like in the Taurus-Littrow Valley?
First of all, we were in a valley deeper than the Grand Canyon. The mountains on either side were as high as the Grand Canyon from the bottom. Secondly, you’re in one-sixth gravity so that means you can walk much more easily than you could here on Earth. Now we were covered by a pressure suit but still walking around was like being a kid again … if you fell you didn’t fall very hard and you certainly didn’t cry about it. But the moon is really a very easy place to work so as long as you have the right equipment surrounding you. You have to have that atmosphere of course to breathe.
Q: Any downsides to working in a weightless environment?
For me, it was a very comfortable environment to be in and you get a little bit lazy. For example, if you’re taking notes with a pad of paper and a pen or pencil and somebody says would you take the SCS switch to off, well you just let go and it floats there and you go over to the switch and come back and start to dictate those notes again.
You’ve got to be careful though because you’re brain gets lazy. When I got on the carrier after splashdown, I was taking my first drink of water and I just let go of the cup and of course it broke on the floor. Human beings tend to take advantage of their environment very quickly and the brain does get a little bit lazy like that. It took about three days to get comfortable again back here on Earth.
Q: So we’ll have no problem living on the moon?
No, I think living on the moon is going to be very good. Now long term civilization on the moon, there’s still some major issues. The radiation issue has to be dealt with and we can. There are ways to do that. Going to Mars is another issue and that’s why you’ll almost certainly need fusion rockets to cut that time frame.
Q: We’ve heard a lot lately about UFOs. What are your thoughts on that?
Well there are billions of sunlike stars out there and so you just have to imagine that life may have originated on some other planet, although the conditions for life to originate here on Earth are really unique. Everything sort of fit together and creation for us sort of leads to you thinking of an infinitely intelligent being that made it all happen. But the technical potential statistically is very high that you could have had the similar kind of conditions develop elsewhere in the universe.
Now are they visiting us? My feeling is if they’re really so advanced they could be here, they’d communicate better than they have and so I just don’t know. But it’s plausible. Let’s put it that way. Unlikely maybe, but plausible.
Q: Would you take the opportunity to go back to the moon or to Mars?
Oh surely. Teresa, my wife, would like very much to go with me — that would be one condition. But I think a trip to Mars is going to be fantastic for those people.
So youth is extremely important and the education of those youth particularly in mathematics is extraordinarily important, and NASA now has a younger agency than they had grown to be during the shuttle era.
Look what has happened since Apollo. The commercial sector has developed new technologies, new ways of doing things and NASA is now trying to integrate those into a new approach to deep space exploration.
LUFKINS – The City’s Click2Gov online payment system will be unavailable this weekend due to a scheduled software upgrade by its vendor. The system is expected to be down for most or all of the day Saturday at least. Joshua Gentry, IT digital content manager for the City of Lufkin, stated the city appreciates citizens’ patience while this upgrade is completed.
UPSHUR COUNTY – The Texas Department of Public Safety has released details of a two vehicle accident that killed a Longview nurse practitioner and a Longview ISD teacher last weekend. According to the DPS, the collision occurred early Sunday morning in the Diana area involving Longview ISD teacher Kimberly Law and Hospitality Health ER nurse practitioner Joel Mack.
Law was allegedly driving south on the northbound lane of U.S. 259 when she struck Mack’s vehicle, who was driving north in the same lane an initial investigation revealed. Law was pronounced dead at the scene and Mack was transported to a local hospital for his injuries.
DPS said Mack has since died from his injuries sustained in the accident.
BATON ROUGE, La. (WVLA) – Ten people were injured in a shooting at the Mall of Louisiana on Thursday afternoon, police have confirmed.
The Baton Rouge Police Department said two groups of people had gotten into an argument in the mall’s food court at around 1:25 p.m., around the time the shooting unfolded.
Authorities say there is no known threat to the public at this time, but the incident does not appear to be a random act of violence. Authorities also indicated that the perpetrators had not been apprehended.
Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sid Edwards joined law enforcement at the scene, saying, “To the thugs who did this, we are going to catch you.”
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry had earlier released a statement on the incident, saying he had been made aware of an “active shooter scene” at the Baton Rouge shopping complex.
“I am aware of the active shooter scene at the Mall of Louisiana. I am in coordination with law enforcement and we will update as we know more. Please avoid the area. Sharon and I are praying for those affected and are grateful for a quick response by our law enforcement officials.”
Mall spokesperson Lindsay Kahn also confirmed a shooting at the shopping complex but referred other questions to police.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill further advised the public to avoid the area.
“Multiple law enforcement agencies are responding – please avoid the area. More details will be available soon.”