Today is
Thursday June 04, 2026
MARSHALL — The Marshall Police Department announces the arrests stemming from a large-scale disturbance that occurred on March 29, on Sanford Street. The incident involved about 300 individuals during a large party and prompted an extensive criminal investigation by Marshall Police.
Responding patrol officers made initial contact with the disturbance and arrested four individuals for offenses directly related to the incident. Officers also recovered three firearms at the scene. Following the initial response, Marshall Police Detectives initiated a comprehensive investigation of evidence collected during the incident.
Through this investigation, Detectives identified 14 individuals who actively participated in a riot as defined under the Texas Penal Code.
Read the rest of this entry »
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 17 million people along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at the highest risk of being affected by flooding, with New York and New Orleans standing out, according to one of the most comprehensive studies ever of flood risk.
Researchers at the University of Alabama used 16 different factors including the geographic hazards, the population and infrastructure exposed and the vulnerability of people living there. They then brought in past damages from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s database and applied three different artificial intelligence tools to figure out flood risks from Texas to Maine, calculating that 17.5 million people were at “very high” risk and an additional 17 million were at “high” risk, the next level.
The authors looked at all sizes of flooding and examined separately what FEMA considers the most extreme, which are the top 1% of events. The study found 4.3 million people along the coasts to be at the highest level of risk of extreme flooding, but 20.5 million to be at high risk, the second highest level.
They found a lot of vulnerability, highlighting eight different cities from Houston, which flooded in 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, to New York, which was inundated in 2012’s Superstorm Sandy.
Wednesday’s study in the journal Science Advances found that New York City has 4.75 million people at the two highest risk levels for all flooding, with more than 200,000 buildings likely to be damaged.
And while the number of people at risk in New Orleans is far lower, about 380,000, it involves 99% of the city’s population. That doesn’t mean 99% of the people will be affected in the next hurricane or nontropical flood, but that they might be depending on the storm’s individual path and rain pattern, said study co-author Wanyun Shao, a climate scientist at the University of Alabama.
“Just look at the magnitude,” Shao said. “Those numbers are shocking, are alarming.”
The elderly and poor are most at risk
“When the next big storm hits New York City, when the next Hurricane Katrina -like hurricane makes landfall in New Orleans, people will get hurt, especially those socially vulnerable populations,” Shao said referring to the poor, the elderly, children and the uneducated.
Shao and outside experts said the numbers stunned them even though they were familiar with the worsening effects of climate change.
“New York is known to be susceptible to floods and it has the largest population. But the fact that New York has nearly an order of magnitude more flood-exposed population than any other city is surprising,” said Alex de Sherbinin, a geographer who directs Columbia University’s Center for Integrated Earth System Information. He wasn’t part of the study.
Flood problems are becoming more frequent in New York and New Orleans because of human-caused climate change, the study said.
Other cities are also threatened
Jacksonville has 679,000 people at high or very high risk of flooding, while Houston is just behind at just under 600,000. Other cities highlighted include Miami, Norfolk, Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina, Mobile, Alabama.
Shao and outside experts said what separates her study from others is the sheer comprehensiveness of all the factors it considers, including sinking land and pavement that doesn’t allow water to seep into the ground, as well as incorporating human social vulnerability such as poverty and age.
“This could be applied to other places in the world, such as Manila,” said University of Virginia engineering professor Venkataraman Lakshmi, who heads the hydrology section of the American Geophysical Union, referring to the capital of the Philippines. He wasn’t part of the study, but said the flooding problems it highlights will get more frequent and intense due to human-caused climate change.
Columbia University’s Marco Tedesco, who wasn’t part of the study, said “it reinforces the crucial concept that future flood disasters are not just about water—they are about where people live, how cities are built, and who is least protected.”
Actions can lessen the risk
De Sherbinin said, “the analysis of the flood risk factors is important for local planners, emergency managers, and even highway crews and utility providers. We all know that low lying areas are more flood prone, but the data they have assembled provide more insights into flood risk, particularly for flash floods.”
Study lead author Hemal Dey, a geospatial scientist, said he hopes local officials look at not just building more dams and levees, but more natural infrastructure such as wetlands, grasslands, rain gardens and estuaries.
“The research is solid confirmation of what emergency managers have been saying for years. Realtors will hate it,’’ said Craig Fugate, a former FEMA director who wasn’t part of the study. “The harder question is what we’re actually going to do about it.”
LONGVIEW — The City of Longview is urging pet owners to take preventative measures to protect their animals due to a potential uptick in wildlife carrying diseases, including distemper.
According to the Longview Animal Care and Adoption Center (LACAC), animal control officers have responded to 26 calls involving raccoons so far this year. Although the LACAC does not frequently test animals for distemper, they stated that local raccoons are showing symptoms similar to the disease.
Distemper is a viral disease that can pose a serious risk to unvaccinated dogs as it attacks their respiratory, gastrointestinal and nervous systems. Dogs at high risk of being impacted include puppies younger than four months and dogs that have not received their vaccinations.
Read the rest of this entry »
TEXARKANA, Texas (KETK) — Following a drunken physical argument with her boyfriend, a Texarkana woman was arrested for driving while intoxicated and endangering her 3-month-old baby in a crash on Sunday morning.
According to the Texarkana Police Department, officers received a disturbance call at 3:30 a.m. from a man reporting that he and his 33-year-old girlfriend, Cheyenne Foster, had gotten into a physical argument after a night of “heavy drinking.”
By the time officers arrived at the home on Breckenridge Street, Foster had already left the house with their 3-month-old child and was reportedly heading toward a relative’s home in Ashdown. The police department immediately began looking for Foster, as her level of intoxication was concerning for her and the child’s safety.
The police department said Foster eventually answered her phone and told officers that she had been involved in a crash with the child in the car but refused to provide a location out of fear of being arrested.
Officers were able to locate her via phone ping after more than an hour of searching, which led them to Hush Puppy Road just south of the Red River.
The vehicle was found in a ditch, with Foster passed out in the driver’s seat and the child lying in the front passenger seat.
“The child was not in a baby carrier,” the police department said. “At the time, the temperature was about 48 degrees, the windows were down, and the baby was wearing only a diaper.”
Foster was not reported to have sustained any injuries. Still, following a check with EMS, the child was transported to a hospital by ambulance for a minor chest injury that is believed to have occurred during the crash.
Foster was arrested for driving while intoxicated with a minor passenger and child endangerment, with the additional charge of assault family violence of bodily injury, which was related to the initial incident at her home. She was booked into the Bi-State Jail with a $180,000 bond and was released on Monday.
“Please never drive impaired – and certainly not with your kids in the vehicle,” the police department said.
TYLER – For the 17th consecutive year, the Arbor Day Foundation has named the City of Tyler a 2025 Tree City USA, honoring its continued commitment to effective urban forest management.
Tyler earned this national recognition by meeting the program’s four core requirements: maintaining a tree board or department, having a tree care ordinance, allocating at least $2 per capita toward community forestry and holding an official Arbor Day observance and proclamation.
For the tenth year, the city also received the Tree City USA Growth Award. This award recognizes environmental improvement and a higher standard of tree care. Tyler is one of only half of the current Texas Tree Cities to receive this honor.
Read the rest of this entry »
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for a veteran wounded by a suicide bomb in Afghanistan to sue the government contractor for whom the attacker was working when he built the explosive.
The court ruled 6-3 in favor of former Army Spc. Winston Hencely, who was wounded when he stopped a man on his way to detonate an explosive vest at a Veterans Day weekend 5K race at Bagram Airfield in 2016.
Ahmad Nayeb instead blew himself up when he was confronted, killing five people and wounding more than a dozen, according to court documents.
The projectiles fractured Hencely’s skull and tore through his brain, leaving him without the full use of much of the left side of his body. He also has abnormal brainwaves, seizures and traumatic brain injury, his lawyers wrote.
Hencely acted to sue the company, Fluor Corporation, under state law after an Army investigation faulted the company’s failure to supervise Nayeb, an Afghan employee who built the vest on the job site inside the base, court documents say.
The Irving, Texas-based engineering construction company argued that it could not be sued because it was working during wartime for the government, which is generally immune to lawsuits.
The high court disagreed. The majority said companies are protected when they are fulfilling government contracts, but that Fluor allegedly failed to carry out its duties in supervising Nayeb.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Justices Samuel Alito, John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh dissented. Alito wrote that Hencely’s lawsuit may intrude on the government’s wartime powers and decisions, including a policy requiring contractors to maximize employment of Afghans.
How would you like to have the ultimate guide to attractions in United States? Go get David Rancken’s App Of The Day. It’s called RoadsideAmerica. You can download RoadsideAmerica in the Apple Store and Google Play below.
This is for thoseof you can’t get enough television! Check out David Rancken’s App Of The Day. It’s called Binge. You can find Binge in the Apple Store.
SMITH COUNTY – The Alzheimer’s Alliance of Smith County is partnering with local law enforcement to encourage families to consider Project Lifesaver devices as summer approaches. The program provides radio-frequency tracking bracelets to individuals with dementia who are at risk of wandering.
The initiative involves the Tyler Police Department, the Lindale Police Department and the Smith County Sheriff’s Office, who aim to quickly locate loved ones in minutes rather than hours or days.
The device emits a radio frequency signal, enabling quick location tracking if a person goes missing.The program is available to anyone who might need it, providing a crucial resource for families. Alzheimer’s CEO Bonnie Varner’s Alliance of Smith County emphasized the prevalence of Alzheimer’s and dementia in the area and the program’s potential impact.
“We estimate there’s about 4,500 people in Smith County that have Alzheimer’s or dementia,” Varner said. “This is a very underutilized resource that we would love for more people to participate in. Most people with Alzheimer’s or dementia are known to wander at some point or another, just to know that they have this and they can be found easily is such a peace of mind.”
KILGORE – Following the months-long nationwide search, Dr. Staci Martin was named as the lone finalist for President of Kilgore College on Monday. The search for the college’s next leader began in 2025, after former Kilgore College President Brenda Kays announced her retirement. Martin, who was the college’s interim president, and Tracee Watts, from Brazosport College, were chosen as the two lone finalists in March.
On Monday night at a board of trustees meeting, Martin was named as the lone finalist.
“As this process has continued, we realize that Dr. Martin was the right choice and we’re all thrilled to have her,” Kilgore College Board of Trustees President Josh Edmonson said. “[…] Dr. Martin has done a phenomenal job in the last six months as interim president. So we have no doubt that she will do a fantastic job leading the college.”
Read the rest of this entry »
AUSTIN – A jackpot-winning ticket worth an estimated annuitized $41 million for the Lotto Texas drawing held on April 20 was purchased at 7-Eleven Convenience Store, located at 3700 Interstate Highway 30, in Mesquite. The winning Quick Pick ticket matched all six of the numbers drawn (21-28-33-34-43-44). The cash value option was selected at the time of purchase and the claimant will receive an estimated $22.5 million before taxes. The prize has not yet been claimed. The winner has 180 days from the draw date to claim the prize. The retailer that sold the jackpot-winning ticket may be eligible for a $25,000 bonus under the Texas Lottery’s Retailer Bonus Program.
.
NACOGDOCHES (AP) — An explosion at a Texas natural gas or oil well site set off a large fire that was seen for miles and led to some evacuations, but caused no injuries, authorities said Tuesday.
The Nacogdoches County Sheriff’s Office received numerous calls late Monday of a loud explosion in Etoile in eastern Texas, a small, rural community about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northeast of Houston.
The sheriff’s office said the explosion happened at an oil well site. The city of Nacogdoches, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) away, described it as a natural gas well, based on information it received from the Texas Department of Public Safety, city spokesperson Kevin Meyer said Tuesday.
Several residents evacuated as a precaution and others were asked to shelter in place.
The fire was still burning early Tuesday, but it was not spreading and was being monitored, Meyer said.
“There is currently no danger to local residents from the fire, and air quality in the area is being monitored as well,” Meyer said in a news release.
A well control emergency response company was working to suppress the fire, Meyer said.
Drilling company H&P said the cause of the well blowout is not yet known.
“At this time there is no indication of an immediate broader risk, and monitoring is ongoing,” spokesperson Stephanie Higgins said in a statement.
She said the company is cooperating with investigators.
NEW YORK (AP) — Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell are fueling the University of Texas at Austin’s medical research ambitions with a $750 million gift that promises to improve patient care through artificial intelligence and increase health care options for the booming state capital.
The UT Dell Medical Center, announced Tuesday, is projected to open in 2030 as the crown jewel of a new 300-plus-acre advanced research campus. The university expects to break ground this fall on what school leaders are calling the country’s first “AI-native” hospital.
The donation makes the couple the first University of Texas donors to give more than $1 billion, according to system officials, building on two decades of support for computer science education, the medical school and scholarships for students with the most significant financial need.
For Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at about $170 billion, the next step was to further expand his and his wife’s investments in Central Texas. The computer magnate founded the company in 1984 as a UT-Austin pre-med student selling customized supercomputers from his freshman dorm room. Health infrastructure needs became clear, he said, as the area’s population about doubled in size.
“I was born in Texas. My wife was born in Texas. This is our home,” Dell told the Associated Press, adding that “building a stronger health system here, more innovation and helping to support the growth and stability of the region” is important.
The donation is among the largest ever in higher education philanthropy, following recent contributions such as Phil Knight’s $2 billion pledge to Oregon Health & Science University’s cancer center and Michael Bloomberg’s $1.8 billion gift to cover Johns Hopkins University medical students’ tuition.
A ‘rare’ opportunity to integrate technology into a new medical center
From monitoring vital signs to triggering step-by-step care plans, AI is making inroads into health care at hundreds of hospitals.
With the launch of UT Dell Medical Center, however, Dr. Claudia Lucchinetti sees a rare opportunity: instead of retroactively applying new technologies to old hospital infrastructure, she said they can integrate them from the start. They will also collaborate with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to offer top specialists for those with complex conditions.
Lucchinetti, the dean of Dell Medical School and senior vice president for medical affairs, said their model will use technology to support the patient-doctor relationship and make care “feel simpler and more human.” “Ambient” AI will make the hospital itself an “intelligent member of the care team,” she said, taking notes so that clinicians can treat patients more directly. She touted AI’s ability to identify biometric patterns and early signs of cancer before they’re obvious to the naked eye.
The goal, she said, is to move from a reactive and fragmented health system to one that is predictive and more seamless.
“We have the technology, the science and the understanding to do better. And what we’ve been missing is the ability to design a system around those capabilities from the start,” she said. “That’s the opportunity that Susan and Michael Dell have catalyzed.”
The gift will also support undergraduate scholarships, student housing and UT’s Texas Advanced Computing Center, where officials are building the nation’s largest academic supercomputer with Dell’s AI infrastructure.
In a convocation address two years ago, Michael Dell encouraged medical school graduates to ensure AI models understand human ethics and make health care more equitable. He believes the technology will augment caregiving, create more precise treatments, accelerate scientific discoveries and apply those findings to real-world practices sooner.
“We have to figure out how to do this in a way that is responsible, reflects our values and beliefs, and ultimately enables humans to reach their full potential,” he told AP. “That’s what we’re all working on.”
Landscape for higher education giving
The major contribution comes at a time when private support for higher education is falling to a dwindling pool of supporters.
Colleges raised a record $78 billion last year, according to the 2025 Voluntary Support of Education, but nearly 90% of that money came from just 2% of donors.
Rutgers University Associate Dean for Research Marybeth Gasman said she’s excited to see such strong support for a public institution at a time when public funding is declining amid politicized attacks on higher education. She hopes the megagift inspires other donations, as she said decades-long patterns suggest that more giving occurs after high-profile individual contributions.
“Higher education, quite frankly, could really use it right now,” she said.
UT-Austin officials are certainly hoping so. The Dells’ gift kicks off a broader 10-year campaign to raise $10 billion for the university.
The donation comes on the heels of the Dells’ $6.25 billion pledge to provide an incentive to claim new investment accounts under President Donald Trump’s tax law for 25 million American children ages 10 and under. The “Trump Accounts” give $1,000 to every newborn, so long as their parents open one, and invests those funds in the stock market. The couple believes it is the largest single private commitment made to U.S. children.
Michael Dell said even a small sum makes a child more likely to enter college — “perhaps at the University of Texas or some other great school” — and eventually start a family or business. He welcomed the creativity he’s seeing from other “Trump Accounts” funders. He’s seen cities offer additional investments for community service and good grades. He noted that hedge fund managers Brad Gerstner and Ray Dalio have seeded accounts in Indiana and Connecticut, respectively.
“I think you’ll see many more gifts at the local community level and some other big ones at the national level,” he said.
But he dismissed the suggestion that, between the “Trump Accounts” and this University of Texas gift, there’s been a shift in his and his wife’s philanthropy toward more selective, bigger bets.
“Certainly, we’ve been very blessed and we have a lot of resources,” he said. “So, we’re looking for things that have significant impact.”
TATUM — Six people have been hospitalized following an electrical explosion at a power plant in Tatum on Monday afternoon. According to our news partner KETK, the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office said, the explosion identified as an arc flash, occurred around 2:30 p.m. at the Martin Lake Power Plant. An arc flash is an electrical explosion caused when electricity jumps through the air, releasing extreme heat and pressure.
Following the incident, two people were airlifted to the hospital for severe injuries, while another four people were taken by vehicle to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
The plant has returned to normal operations and the cause of the explosion is expected to be investigated by OSHA
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A stunned Louisiana city struggled to come to grips Monday with the massacre of eight children carried out by a father who was separating from his wife and used an assault-style weapon despite a 2019 felony firearms conviction.
The violence reverberated across Shreveport a day after one of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings in recent years. Schools brought in counselors for the victims’ young classmates and neighbors grieved at a growing memorial. Community leaders called for a city-wide reckoning about how to stop domestic violence.
“We can not afford to wait until the next crisis,” said Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn. “This is the responsibility of all of us. We owe it to the eight children who were lost.”
The shooter, identified as Shamar Elkins, killed seven of his children and another child, police said. His wife also was shot and wounded.
His wife’s sister, who called police minutes after the shooting started, escaped with a child by jumping from the roof, police and family members said Monday.
“She said she was running for her life,” said Lionel Pugh, an uncle of the two women shot. “The only ones he didn’t kill was the ones who got away.”
Elkins died after fleeing and a police pursuit that ended with officers firing on him. It was not clear whether he was killed by officers or from a self-inflicted gunshot, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said.
Officials said the children who died — three boys and five girls — ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old.
Elkins and his wife, identified by family members as Shaneiqua Elkins, were separating and had been due in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, a cousin of a woman shot in the attack. She said the couple had been arguing about the separation before the shooting.
Family members described Shaneiqua Elkins as a doting mother, who celebrated her children’s success in school and carefully dressed them before family events.
“She raised those kids right,” Pugh said. “They were the center of her universe.”
Gunman had no recent arrests for domestic violence, police say
While the shooter did not appear to have an extensive criminal history, court records showed Elkins was placed on probation in 2019 after pleading guilty to illegal use of weapons. In that case, Elkins fired five rounds at a vehicle and told police that someone inside it had pulled a gun on him, according to a police report.
Based on Louisiana law, a person convicted of certain violent felonies — including illegal use of weapons — are banned from having a gun for at least 10 years after completing their sentence and probation.
Investigators were not aware of other domestic violence issues involving Elkins, said police spokesperson Chris Bordelon.
Elkins had served in the Louisiana National Guard from 2013 to 2020 as a signal support system specialist and a fire support specialist, said guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins. Elkins held the rank of private and had no deployments, Collins said.
The violence started before sunrise Sunday
Authorities said the shooting erupted before dawn at two homes.
Elkins shot a woman in a neighborhood south of downtown and a few blocks away at a home where the children were found, police said. Elkins’ nephew was among the slain children, according to the Caddo Parish coroner’s office.
Mourners lit candles for the victims Sunday night in a nearby parking lot.
“It just makes you take your children and hug them and hold them and tell them how much you love them because you just don’t know,” said Kimberlin Jackson, who attended the vigil and is an advocate at the Head Start program where one of the victims was a student. She said the last time she saw him was Friday.
A relative says they were a joyful family
Francine Monro Brown, a cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she would often see the children playing in the yard on Sunday mornings when she drove past the house on her way to church.
“Happy children, joyful children. Shaneiqua is a great mother, She provided a great home for the kids,” Brown said as she stood near a growing memorial of stuffed teddy bears, flowers and pink and blue balloons.
Betty Pugh, another cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she was always with her children. “That was the way we were taught: to love our kids, to take care of our kids. And that’s what she did,” Pugh said.
The mayor of Shreveport, a city of about 180,000 residents in northwestern Louisiana, called it one of the city’s worst days.
The shooting was the deadliest in the U.S. since January 2024, when eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.