Today is
Sunday November 24, 2024
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TYLER – Tyler Animal Control and Shelter is offering no-cost adoptions for dogs and cats throughout August with a donation of six white towels or six fleece blankets. The towels and blankets will be used for animals at the Shelter. Blankets that are 50″ x 60″ are preferred to fit a pet’s kennel.Â
The basic dog adoption fee is $120 and $80 for cats. All animals adopted from Tyler Animal Services are spayed/neutered, microchipped and vaccinated. If you would like to adopt, see all pets available for adoption, or submit an application, visit the Tyler Animal Services webpage.Â
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The Tyler Animal Shelter is located at 4218 Chandler Highway, across from EQ Autoworks. For more information, call (903) 535-0045.
HOUSTON (AP) — Actor Akili McDowell, who starred in the television series “David Makes Man†and had roles in “Billions†and “The Astronaut Wives Club,†has been charged with fatally shooting a man in the parking lot of a Houston apartment complex, authorities said.
McDowell, 21, was charged last week with murder in the July 20 shooting death of Cesar Peralta, 20, the Harris County sheriff’s office said. McDowell remained in jail Monday on $400,000 bond on the murder charge. The attorney listed for him in court records did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
“This is an unfortunate situation and I am in prayer for Akili and those impacted by this tragedy,†said his manager, Jonell Whitt, adding that she had no further comment.
The sheriff’s office said deputies found an unresponsive man with gunshot wounds after responding to a call about a shooting at an apartment complex on July 20. The sheriff’s office said several witnesses told deputies the man had been in a physical altercation with another man, who fled on foot after the shooting.
“David Makes Man,” which aired on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN, followed a teen named David, played by McDowell, who tried to juggle relationships between his magnet school friends and drug dealers in his impoverished South Florida neighborhood.
According to the entertainment database IMDb, McDowell appeared in some episodes of “Billions†and “The Astronaut Wives Club,” and has a role in the recently released movie “The Waterboyz.â€
CANTON – The City of Canton Fire Department confirmed that several power poles near Highways 243 and 198 are down after being hit by a 18-wheeler on Monday. According to our news partner KETK, the crash happened around noon with no injuries reporting. Oncor reports 847 customers are currently without power. They expect to be fully restored by 8 p.m. on Monday night.
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PALESTINE – Palestine Economic Development has announced that crews started the second phase of the Downtown Revitalization project recently. According to our news partner KETK, many of the utilities in the city, like water pipes were originally installed in the early 1900s. They have never been replaced, only repaired over time.
Mary Ann Admire, City of Palestine Main Street coordinator said, “We are incredibly excited to be progressing on the Downtown Revitalization Project, which will replace utilities, sidewalks, and streets in the Central Business District. We are so grateful to the City leadership for their vision and determination to make downtown safe and accessible.â€
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TYLER – Governor Greg Abbott selected Dr. Jenifer Chilton, The University of Texas at Tyler School of Nursing associate dean for academic affairs, as an inaugural member of the advisory panel for the Healthcare Workforce Task Force. The role of the task force is to address the healthcare workforce shortages in Texas.
“We are incredibly proud of Dr. Chilton’s appointment to the advisory panel,†said Dr. Julie V. Philley, UT Tyler president. “Her expertise and dedication to nursing education and healthcare excellence will be invaluable in shaping the future of our healthcare workforce.â€
The task force and advisory panel will meet monthly to discuss healthcare information gained from state agency experts and stakeholders. Chilton will serve as co-chair of a workgroup that will identify barriers and opportunities to increasing the faculty pipeline and other health professions. The task force and advisory panel will issue a final report on Oct. 1.
MARSHALL – Two adults and two teenagers were arrested as a result of a drive-by shooting in Marshall Thursday morning. According to our news partner KETK, arrested were 49-year-old Gerrold Maze, 26-year-old Kisha Carlisle, 19-year-old Rmund Hall and 17-year-old Darrieon Russaw all of Marshall.
This was in regards to two shots fired incidents that occurred around 3:00 a.m. Thursday morning. According to Marshall Police, the first was near Lions Park. The other near a home on Calloway Street. Officers reported no injuries at either location. However, this led them to a home on Twyman Street. At this location, all four persons arrested gave up voluntarily to officers.
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TROUP – Smith County road crews were out on Wednesday improving several City of Troup roads, which also falls in Cherokee County, as part of a interlocal agreement. According to our news partner KETK, the road improvements are being funded by the Troup Community Development Corporation, using a half-cent sales tax. The Troup City Council and county commissioners approved the funding.
Smith County Road and Bridge crews worked on paving North Georgia Street from East Duval to East McKay streets and North Carolina Street from East Duval to East Bryant streets. They will work on roads that are used a lot by business and school traffic.
A release also said crews will also work on East McKay Street to the Union Pacific Railroad crossing and Pascal Street from Front to Alabama streets at a later date
HENDERSON COUNTY – Authorities report a man drowned Tuesday night on Lake Palestine. According to our news partner KETK, Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse said they were called around 8 p.m. to assist Game Wardens on a report of a missing person in the Coffee City area. The man’s body was later recovered and he was identified as Harley Crouch.
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FORT WORTH(AP) — A Texas woman who prosecutors said helped a radio show host bilk elderly listeners out of millions of dollars was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison.
Debra Mae Carter, 65, received the sentence for her July 8 money laundering conviction, according to a statement by Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells.
Carter, who represented herself and pleaded innocent, was jailed in Tarrant County, according to jail records.
Sorrells said Carter was former Texas radio host William “Doc†Gallagher’s lover. Gallagher is serving three life terms for operating what the prosecutor called a Ponzi scheme.
“Gallagher’s main role in the scheme was to bring in money, Carter’s role was to make sure it was not recovered by the victims,†Sorrells said.
Gallagher, 83, and his Gallagher Financial Group advertised on Christian radio with the tagline, “See you in church on Sunday.†He promoted his investment business in books and on Christian radio broadcasts.
Gallagher was convicted in Tarrant County in 2021 after being convicted in 2019 in Dallas County on similar charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The scheme cost more than 170 investors, most of whom were retired, more than $31 million, Sorrells said.
AUSTIN (AP) — Describing Texas prisons as so hot that inmates cool off by splashing themselves with toilet water or faking suicide attempts to get moved to cooler medical areas, advocates on Tuesday asked a federal judge to declare the state prison system’s lack of air conditioning as unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.
Tuesday began a multi-day hearing in a lawsuit that seeks to force Texas to fully air condition a prison system that houses more than 130,000 inmates, but has full AC in only about a third of its 100 prison units. The rest have partial or no air-conditioning.
Inmate advocacy groups allege that temperatures inside can push above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 Celsius), and that the extreme heat has led to hundreds of inmate deaths in recent years. They want U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman to require Texas to maintain temperatures in prison housing and occupied areas between 65 and 85 degrees F (18 and 29 degrees Celsius), the same temperature range required by law in county jails.
Texas is not alone in facing lawsuits over dangerously hot prisons. Cases also have been filed in Louisiana and New Mexico. One filed last week in Georgia alleged an inmate died in July 2023 after he was left in an outdoor cell for hours without water, shade or ice.
The Texas lawsuit was initially filed in 2023 by Bernie Tiede, the former mortician whose murder case inspired the movie “Bernie.†Tiede, who is serving a life sentence for killing Marjorie Nugent, a wealthy widow in 1996, has diabetes and hypertension and alleged his life was in danger because he was being housed in a stifling prison cell without air conditioning.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Marci Marie Simmons, who moved between three Texas prisons while serving 10 years for felony theft, described “oppressive, suffocating†conditions as temperatures rose from spring through summer. She was released in 2021.
“In summer, I was in complete survival mode. I felt like a caged animal,†said Simmons, who is now the community outreach coordinator for Lioness: Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. She said the organization represents about 700 current and former inmates.
Simmons testified she once watched a kitchen worker bring an egg back to her cell and cook it on the concrete floor. In 2020, a hallway thermometer in one unit reached 136 degrees when Simmons and two other inmates peeled off the tape that was meant to hide the reading, she said.
“I was shocked. It frightened me,†Simmons said.
Assistant State Attorney General Marlayne Ellis said the state would like to provide more air conditioning but is constrained by the Legislature’s budget.
And she insisted conditions in Texas prisons do not meet a standard for being cruel and unusual. The agency defended its alternative protocols for extreme heat, which include providing fans, towels and access to cooler “respite†areas. In 2018, Texas agreed to install air conditioning at a prison for older and medically vulnerable inmates.
But Simmons said access to respite areas was limited to short periods of time, coolers of ice water didn’t hold enough to serve an entire prison dorm, and up to 100 women would wait to use a single shower head that was changed from hot to cold water.
Desperate women would fake suicide attempts, or “commit some harm†to themselves to get placed in a cooler medical unit, Simmons said.
A November 2022 study by researchers at Brown, Boston and Harvard universities found that 13%, or 271, of the deaths in Texas prisons without universal air conditioning between 2001 and 2019 may be attributed to extreme heat. Prisoner advocates say those numbers are only likely to increase as the state faces more extreme weather and heat due to climate change.
According to a report by KUT Radio in Austin, autopsy reports on at least three inmates deaths in 2023 mentioned heat a possible contributing factor. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, however, has said there have been no heat-related deaths in the state’s prisons since 2012.
Since filing his lawsuit, Tiede has been moved to an air conditioned cell. But several prisoners’ rights group asked to join his legal fight and expand it to encompass all Texas prisoners.
Tiede attended Tuesday’s court hearing and was expected to testify.