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Thursday June 04, 2026
PALESTINE – On Tuesday, Anderson County residents heard from Next Era Energy Resources for the first time, the company in charge of building the 1,700-acre natural gas-fired power plant project, which came out of a U.S.-Japan trade deal to help support rising electricity demand. According to our news partner KETK, the company plans to provide 5.2 gigawatts to ERCOT’s statewide power grid and would be NextEra’s largest gas plant in the country if completed.
“It’s three miles away from me, I can see it from my front yard, drinking coffee on my porch where they’re going to build this place, so I’m not happy,” Tennesse Colony Volunteer Fire Chief Eddie Crockett said. “We’ve been a quiet county for a long time and this will ruin it.”
During Tuesday’s presentation, several residents expressed concern about preserving Anderson County’s water supply. Next Era Energy says the plant will operate on an air-cooling system and they are in contact with Trinity River Water Authority.
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GREGG COUNTY — A White Oak man accused of killing his mother is expected to begin trial next month. According to our news partner KETK, Zachary Keys was initially named a suspect in the death of his mother, Penny Renee Keys, after she was found outside her residence with multiple stab wounds on Dec. 31, 2026. Penny was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Keys was later accused of murder following further investigation and was located in Panola County. He was taken into custody and booked into the Gregg County Jail for murder after a warrant was issued for his arrest. In March, Keys was indicted for murder and is expected to begin trial on May 1 in the 124th District Court in Gregg County.
PITTSBURG – A Pittsburg man was arrested on Tuesday after police received tips from parents about their children being depicted in sexually explicit edited images shared on social media.
According to our news partner KETK, 61-year-old Gregory Bunt, was taken into custody by the Pittsburg Police Department following a search warrant at his residence at Broach and Quitman Streets on Tuesday for unlawful disclosure of intimate visual material and unlawful production or distribution of certain sexually explicit media.
Pittsburg Police Chief Matthew Lemarr said, the police department began receiving several complaints from parents and teachers on Sunday about a Facebook account posting images of children from the community in a sexually explicit manner. After talking to several parents on Monday morning, Lemarr said the police department was able to obtain a search warrant and sent anything that could store images to forensic examination.
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OVERTON – The discovery of a main water line leak in Overton on Wednesday morning will leave some residents without water throughout the day, the city said. According to our news partner KETK, residents who live east of Linda Lane on FM 850 East will experience water outages today, including the Willow Creek Apartments, Joe Lee Road and Jesse Thompson Road. The city hopes to have water restored sometime today.
City officials attributed the prevention of a citywide outage to the newly installed valves. For the past week, the city has been replacing and installing the valves to improve and repair the water system. A boil-water notice was issued due to the repairs and remains in effect while water samples are tested
DALLAS (AP) – Southwest Airlines is raising checked baggage fees by $10, less than a year after ending its “bags fly free” perk that long set it apart, as jet fuel costs have jumped since the start of the Iran war.
Customers checking one bag will pay $45 starting on Thursday, while a second will now cost $55, according to Southwest. Some travelers will still receive a free first checked bag, including certain loyalty-tier members, eligible co-branded credit card holders and active-duty military members.
The move was made “as part of an ongoing analysis of the business and against the evolving global backdrop,” the Texas-based carrier said in a statement.
Southwest ended its generous, decades-old policy of allowing passengers to check two bags for free in May 2025, a move that marked a major shift for the carrier after years of marketing the perk as a key differentiator.
The airline now joins a growing list of U.S. carriers that have increased fees since the war in the Middle East began Feb. 28, sending oil prices swinging as fighting near the Strait of Hormuz disrupted global supplies. Threats to the narrow waterway where roughly a fifth of the world’s oil typically passes have pushed up jet fuel prices, which are refined from crude.
Delta Air Lines’ higher baggage fees took effect Wednesday. JetBlue and United Airlines also raised their bag fees last week.
Oil prices on Wednesday were plunging toward $95 per barrel after President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran just before a deadline he had set for Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf. But prices remain well above pre-war levels amid ongoing risks that the conflict could continue.
Adding to the uncertainty, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again Wednesday in response to Israeli attacks on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, casting doubt on whether the fragile ceasefire will hold.
The average price for a gallon of jet fuel in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and New York was $4.81 on Tuesday, up from $2.50 the day before the war started, according to Argus Media. The energy market intelligence company’s U.S. Jet Fuel Index tracks average prices across those major hubs.
Outside of the U.S., a number of carriers are responding by adding or increasing fuel surcharges, a tool that U.S. airlines don’t typically rely on.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — There are faster ways to get from Chicago to Los Angeles, but none have the allure or cultural cachet of Route 66.
To John Steinbeck, it was the Mother Road that led poor farmers from Dust Bowl desperation to sunny California. To Native Americans along the route, it was an economic boon that also left scars. To Black travelers, it offered sanctuary during segregation. And to music fans, it was the place to get their kicks.
Route 66 marks its 100th anniversary this year. Despite losing its status decades ago as one of the nation’s main arteries, people from around the world still flock to it to take perhaps the quintessential American road trip and soak in its neon lights, kitschy motels and attractions, and culinary offerings.
Each town has its own history and magic, said Sebastiaan de Boorder, a Dutch entrepreneur who, with his wife, breathed new life into The Aztec Motel in Seligman, Arizona.
“It’s an essential part of American culture and history,” he said of the highway. “The historical aspect is just a very big important part of American culture, with its influence and its character.”
The dream
Route 66, which runs for roughly 2,400 miles (3,860 kilometers) from Chicago through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona before ending in Santa Monica, California, was stitched together a century ago from a collection of Native American trading routes and old dirt roads with the goal of linking the industrial Midwest to the Pacific coast.
Oklahoma businessman Cyrus Avery, known as the Father of Route 66, saw it as more than just a way to cross the country efficiently. It was a chance to connect rural America and create new pockets of commerce.
Avery knew the number 66 would be ripe for marketing and could be seared into drivers’ minds, and he was right: Route 66 has been immortalized in movies, books, including Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” and Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” and songs such as Bobby Troup’s “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66,” which served as an anthem for post-World War II optimism and mobility.
Waves of migration
Since its November 1926 designation as one of the nation’s original numbered highways, the onetime Main Street of America has embodied the promise of prosperity.
It became a literal path of hope for migrants escaping drought-ravaged farms and poverty during the 1930s Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. And during World War II, it was used to move troops, equipment and workers out West.
The postwar boom of the 1940s and 1950s were Route 66’s heyday, as it became a popular vacation route. Cars became more affordable, disposable income increased, and people began chasing freedom on the open road.
“People generally have a sense of adventure, a sense curiosity. And you can find that on Route 66. This is the road of dreams,” author and historian Jim Hinckley said.
Going mainstream
Roadside diners and motels thrived, as crafty entrepreneurs dreamed up ways to part motorists from their money. There were rattlesnake pits, totem poles, trading posts, caverns where Old West outlaws purportedly hung out, and modern engineering marvels like St. Louis’ gleaming steel arch.
Barns were painted with larger-than-life ads, billboards teased local attractions, and neon was everywhere.
The cherry on top? The food.
There were places to grab and go, but also to sit down and relish a slice of home. The Cozy Dog Drive In — famous for its breaded hot dogs on a stick — has fit both bills since 1949. Inside the dining room in Springfield, Illinois, travelers tell tales of life on the highway.
“The road wouldn’t be alive without the stories of all the places along it that kept it going from town to town,” third-generation owner Josh Waldmire said. “We just survive off each other. The road feeds us, and as long as we put our feelings and love back into the road, it will reverberate with the travelers and the stories of the people.”
A divided highway
Route 66 was an economic boon to the Native American tribes along the way. But although it brought tourists, it also left scars of eminent domain across tribal land and perpetuated stereotypes.
More than half of the highway crossed through Indian Country, and vendor signs often made casual references to tipis and feathered headdresses — symbols easily appropriated for marketing but not always representative of the distinct cultures found along the route.
At Laguna Pueblo west of Albuquerque, restaurants and service stations sprang up, some operated by military veterans from the pueblo who were masters at fixing everything from flat tires to busted radiators.
Pueblo women adapted too, turning utilitarian pottery vessels into works of art coveted by tourists. Homemade bread and pies sealed the deal.
Laguna leaders have long considered the road — or he-ya-nhee’ in the tribe’s language of Keres — as “the corridor of commerce,” said businessman and tribal member Ron Solimon. Capitalizing on that potential, the tribe has built a multimillion-dollar empire of casinos, burger stands and other businesses.
There were also dangers along the route, particularly during the Jim Crow era, when Black travelers had to rely on guides like the Green Book to find safe lodging and services.
“Especially for long-distance travel, segregation was a fact of life,” said Matthew Pearce, state historian for the Oklahoma Historical Society. “And so Black motorists needed to know a safe place to go.”
The Threatt Filling Station near the central Oklahoma community of Luther wasn’t listed in the Green Book, but it did serve as a safe haven between two sundown towns, where people who weren’t white needed to leave by sunset. The station offered barbecue and even baseball.
Edward Threatt, whose grandparents opened the station around 1933, recalled a TV program about travelers getting their kicks on 66. “By and large, the Black traveler didn’t get a lot of kicks on Route 66,” he said. “And if they got some kicks, it wasn’t the kind you would think of.”
A new direction
President Dwight Eisenhower’s vision for a modern interstate highway system eventually led to Route 66 being decommissioned as a federal highway in 1985. Some towns along the route died, and it fell to local governments, state historical societies, and private businesses to preserve their sections of the famed road.
A driving force was Angel Delgadillo, a barber who lobbied the Arizona Legislature to designate the road as a historic highway. He saved Seligman from turning into a ghost town and set the bar for preservation elsewhere.
In New Mexico, original sketches for neon signs have been preserved, Route 66-themed murals abound and developers in Albuquerque have restored motor lodges along the longest urban stretch of the road still intact.
A visitor poses for photos with the “End of the Trail” Route 66 sign on the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A visitor poses for photos with the “End of the Trail” Route 66 sign on the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
More than 90% of the road is still drivable in California. Cadillac Ranch in the Texas Panhandle offers the chance to spray-paint half-buried cars. And at the Mississippi River, travelers can walk or bike across the old Chain of Rocks Bridge.
More than 250 of the route’s buildings, districts and road segments are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. But it’s more than bricks and asphalt that fuel the fascination.
“Some of the most interesting and fun things that happen to people when they travel the route is running into somebody they know or some happenstance thing that comes totally unexpected,” said author and historian Jim Ross. “And that’s a great part of the Route 66 experience.”
SMITH COUNTY – Smith County Judge Neal Franklin gave the State of the County address to more than 540 people at its annual Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon. The annual luncheon is held in April during National County Government Month. The theme was “Pressing Forward.”
Judge Franklin talked about important projects going on in Smith County, including the new courthouse construction project, continuing road projects, the completion of the new Facility Services Department property and plans for the renovation of the Smith County Animal Shelter, adjoining green space and Animal Control Offices.
The judge also talked about plans to bring more county departments from the Cotton Belt to relocate to the east side of downtown Tyler.
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TYLER – East Texas Rep. Nathaniel Moran is backing U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the upcoming Republican primary runoff, calling the race a defining moment for conservatives. According to our news partner KETK, Moran said the contest between Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton comes down to what values Republican voters want to uphold. “It’s really a race between character and corruption,” Moran said.
The congressman pointed to past criticism of Paxton, including remarks from former East Texas congressman Louie Gohmert, who has accused Paxton of misconduct. Moran said he agrees with those concerns, arguing that Paxton’s record should disqualify him from serving in the U.S. Senate.
In the March 2022 Texas Republican primary for Attorney General, incumbent Paxton defeated Gohment, who finished last with 17% of the vote. “Ken Paxton really has a consistent activity of corruption, both breaching the trust of the public and breaching the trust of his personal relationships,” Moran said. “That should disqualify him.” Read the rest of this entry »
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A U.S. Army staff sergeant is trying to halt his wife’s deportation after she was detained inside a Louisiana military base where the couple was planning to live together just days after their wedding.
The effort to remove the soldier’s wife, who was born in Honduras and remained in a federal immigration detention center Monday, has drawn backlash from military family advocates who called the detention demoralizing in a time of war and warned that deporting spouses could undermine recruitment.
Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank said he brought his wife, Annie Ramos, 22, to his base in Fort Polk, Louisiana, last Thursday so that she could begin the process to receive military benefits and take steps toward a green card. The couple married in March.
Federal immigration agents detained Ramos as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, which legal experts say has dispensed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s practice of leniency toward families of military members.
“I never imagined that trying to do the right thing would lead to her being taken away from me,” said Blank, 23, in a statement to The Associated Press. “What was supposed to be the happiest week of our lives has turned into one of the hardest.”
Ramos’ detention was first reported by The New York Times.
Ramos entered the U.S. in 2005, when she was younger than 2 years old. That same year, her family failed to appear for an immigration hearing, leading a judge to issue a final order of removal, according to DHS.
“She has no legal status to be in this country,” DHS said in an emailed statement. “This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”
In 2020, Ramos applied to receive Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, but her husband says her application has remained “in limbo” amid legal fights to end the Obama-era program.
Last April, DHS eliminated a 2022 policy that considered military service of an immediate family member to be a “significant mitigating factor” in deciding whether or not to pursue immigration enforcement. The administration’s new policy states that “military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”
Prior to the Trump administration’s mass deportation push, DHS generally allowed the spouses of active-duty military members to gain legal status through policies like parole in place and deferred action that military recruiters promote, according to Margaret Stock, a military immigration law expert.
Ramos’ case would have been easy to resolve in the past, Stock said, but instead DHS now appears to be focusing on detaining members of military families whenever the opportunity arises — including when, like Ramos, they are attempting to apply for legal status.
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“It doesn’t make any sense — they’re going to get arrested for following the law? That’s stupid,” Stock said. “It’s bad for morale, it disrupts the soldiers’ readiness.”
In September, more than 60 members of Congress wrote to DHS and the U.S. Department of Defense warning that arrests of military personnel and veteran’s family members was “betraying its promises to service members who play a key role in protecting U.S. national security.”
The Pentagon declined to comment.
Lydiah Owiti-Otienoh, who runs an advocacy group called the Foreign-Born Military Spouse Network, said she’s anecdotally seen an increase in cases where the lives of military families have been upended by tightening immigration restrictions. She believes the federal government is undermining its own interests by attempting to deport military spouses.
“It just sends a really bad message — we don’t care about you, about your spouses, anything you are doing,” Owiti-Otienoh said. “If military families are not stable, national security is not stable.”
Blank’s mother, Jen Rickling, told the AP in a statement that her daughter-in-law, a Sunday school teacher and biochemistry major, had been everything she hoped for — someone who “loves my son with her whole heart.”
“We absolutely adore her,” Rickling said. “I believe in this country. And I believe we can do better than this — for Annie, for other military families, and for the values we hold dear.”
Blank says he had been eager to start building a life and with Ramos on the base while he served his country.
“I want my wife home,” Blank said. “And I will not stop fighting until she is back where she belongs, by my side.”
SMITH COUNTY – The Smith County Sheriff’s Office has been receiving numerous inquiries from citizens who have been potential victims of a jury duty/court scam. These involve someone calling and identifying themselves as a law enforcement official or, specifically, someone employed by the Smith County Sheriff’s Office. In the most recent scams, they’ve identified themselves as Justin Bell.
Scammers can easily access law enforcement officials’ names and phone numbers from the internet or agency website. They will then request money from the potential victim for the purpose of taking care of a warrant related to them allegedly missing jury duty or court. Read the rest of this entry »
CHEROKEE COUNTY – One person was arrested following a vehicle pursuit through Cherokee County on Monday evening. According to our news partner KETK and the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, during the pursuit, which began in Wells, the driver reached speeds of over 125 miles per hour and struck two patrol vehicles; however, no officials were injured.
The pursuit eventually came to an end at around 8 p.m. in Rusk. The driver was evaluated by EMS before being taken into custody and charged with evading arrest by vehicle. The driver has been booked into the Cherokee County Jail and is expected to receive further charges.
TYLER — Even with a halt in the fighting now in place, District 1 Congressman U.S. Nathaneil Moran gave reaction to President Donald Trump’s warning early Tuesday that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Tehran did not meet his Tuesday evening deadline for a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Our news partner KETK spoke with Rep. Moran, who says he does not support rhetoric suggesting the destruction of an entire civilization, as tensions involving Iran continue to escalate.
Moran said while he initially backed efforts tied to U.S. national security, including targeting Iran’s nuclear capabilities, he believes certain language being used goes too far. “Certainly, I do not agree with and do not support the notion of destroying a civilization,” Moran said. “That goes beyond where we need to go as a nation.”
According to our news partner KETK, the East Texas congressman emphasized that any military action taken by the United States must remain rooted in what he described as “moral and just” objectives, focused strictly on national security.
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HENDERSON – Officials at Henderson ISD, have chosen Dr. Nikki Driver as the middle school’s new principal after Superintendent Brian Bowman met with staff in small groups to get their feedback on who should lead the middle school going forward. Staff consistently identified Driver, their current assistant principal, as their top choice to be the new principal of Henderson Middle School, according to our news partner KETK.
“Dr. Driver has demonstrated exceptional leadership, a deep understanding of instruction, and a genuine commitment to our students and staff,” Bowman said. “Her experience, along with her ability to connect with people and lead with purpose, makes her the right choice to lead Henderson Middle School.”
Driver has also worked as an instructional coach at Henderson Middle School and taught for five years at Northside Intermediate. Driver earned her Ph.D. in educational policy from Walden University, her masters of education from Stephen F. Austin State University and holds certificates in Principal as Instructional Leader, Special Education, ESL and Core Subjects.
“I am honored to lead Henderson Middle School and continue working with this exceptional team,” Driver said. “This is a campus full of passionate educators who show up for kids every day, and I am excited to continue moving forward together.
TROY, Ala. (AP) — A series of police pursuits have led to at least eight deaths around the country in less than a week amid ongoing calls from some law enforcement experts to curb risky high speed car chases.
In Texas, a man fleeing from police died Sunday. In Alabama, four people died when a car being pursued by a state trooper went off a road and hit a tree Friday. And in California, three people were killed in vehicle crashes during police pursuits in separate incidents last week.
The deadly incidents are among the hundreds of fatalities that occur during police chases each year.
In 2023, a report from the Police Executive Research Forum, a national think tank on policing standards, called for police to put the brakes on car chases unless a violent crime has been committed and the suspect poses an imminent threat. The report noted a spike in fatalities and an increase in pursuits by some departments, including in Houston and New York City.
In the case in Alabama, a driver was trying to elude the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s highway patrol on a rural road in southeast Alabama’s Pike County when the crash occurred late Friday night, agency spokeswoman Amanda Wasden said in an email Sunday. No other vehicles were involved.
The driver and two passengers, one of them a 17-year-old, were not wearing seat belts and were thrown from the sedan. A third passenger was not ejected, but all four were pronounced dead at the scene.
Wasden said the crash was under investigation, and no additional information was available. Her email did not say what prompted the pursuit.
In Fort Worth, Texas, police had been pursuing a car which had been driving without headlights on Interstate 35 when the car hit multiple other vehicles and eventually crashed, killing the driver, according to the Fort Worth Police Department.
In southern California, the Pomona Police Department said in a statement that its officers were pursuing a fleeing domestic violence suspect Wednesday when his car hit another vehicle, killing the couple inside. The two were days away from the birth of their child, according to KCBS-TV.
In another case, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said that deputies had attempted to stop a stolen U-Haul truck before it slammed into an SUV, killing the SUV’s driver and critically injuring her three passengers.