Today is
Sunday June 07, 2026
TRINIDAD — 
Our news partners at KETK report a Southeast Texas man was sentenced on Thursday to federal prison after stealing funds from Trinidad ISD to purchase trips to Walt Disney World. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Texas, Brandon Delane Looney, 39, of Orange, pleaded guilty to theft from a program receiving federal funds and was sentenced to 24 months in prison. Officials said Looney stole almost $340,000 from Trinidad ISD between 2017 and 2023 while serving as Trinidad ISD’s business manager. Read the rest of this entry »
Tyler, TX – 
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has officially released the 2022-2023 accountability ratings, marking the end of a prolonged freeze on public reporting of school district performance data. This long-awaited announcement confirms what Tyler ISD had already projected using publicly reported data from the last two school years. “Every few years, we see the same recalibration pattern,” Superintendent Dr. Marty Crawford said. “As the agency in Austin has repeatedly inferred, “the C is the new B,” these ratings inferences have baked-in decreases aligned with a more rigorous assessment in the name of continuous improvement. The reality is that Tyler ISD has been and will continue to be competitive, regardless of how the system is adjusted. We’ve thrived through these cycles before, and we’ll continue to do so, advocating for our students and communities while maintaining the high standards East Texans expect from their schools.” While the district rating dropped 10 points from the 2021-2022 school year to the 2022-2023 school year, a trend seen statewide due to changes in the accountability system, Tyler ISD outperformed our comparison schools, garnering 64 distinctions, the highest the district has ever received. That’s a 31 percent increase from the distinctions received during the 2021-2022 school year. Read the rest of this entry »
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TYLER – The Houston Chronicle reports that Edward Estrada’s client already had admitted to skimming — installing devices inside gas pumps to steal customers’ credit card information. But the Tyler lawyer wanted to make sure jurors understood that it didn’t rank with more serious financial crimes. As he prepared for the 2019 sentencing hearing, Estrada settled on a comparison. His client wasn’t nearly as bad as Enron, the giant Houston energy company whose executives misled investors for years, he stressed. While his client’s crimes cost victims collectively more than $150,000 — much of it reimbursed by banks — Enron lost billions. The Smith County jury apparently took the differences into account, but not in the way Estrada hoped. Enron executives faced sentences of 45 and 24 years. For his skimming, the jury sentenced Felipe Manuel Nieves-Perez to life in prison — “striking and alarming,” Estrada said. Read the rest of this entry »
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KILGORE – 
Our news partners at KETK report officials responded to a Kilgore Walmart after receiving a call on Saturday of a man allegedly firing a flare gun inside, the Kilgore Police Department said. The police department was advised that “the gun had gone off inside the store and the man was walking towards the exit.” Officers arrived at the scene and quickly arrested the man. Upon further investigation, police said that the man “accidentally” set the flare gun off inside, before abandoning it on a shelf and walking away. Read the rest of this entry »
LUFKIN –
Our news partners at KETK report that the Lufkin Police Department said a motorcyclist has been flown to a hospital in Tyler after a crash on West Frank Street on Saturday. According to Lufkin PD, the crash happened in the 1600 block of West Frank Street at around 12:45 p.m. when a gray 2015 Honda Pilot and a motorcycle collided. The Honda was heading east and started to turn left from the middle lane but stopped when officials said the driver saw the motorcycle heading east in the inside lane. The motorcyclist tried to swerve to avoid the stopped Honda but crashed into the back passenger side of the car. The motorcyclist sustained life-threating injuries in the crash and had to be stabilized before they could be flown to a hospital in Tyler.
JACKSONVILLE – A man was taken into custody on Sunday after eight to ten gunshots were fired inside the Super Gallo grocery store in Jacksonville, according to our news partner KETK.
Jacksonville Police Department Chief of Police Steven Markasky said the four hour long standoff started after a man walked into Super Gallo and entered the business office where he fired several gunshots at the ceiling. The business was then evacuated, according to a Jacksonville PD press release. Cherokee County Sheriff Brent Dickson confirmed the man was barricaded inside the office and was occasionally firing rounds into the ceiling. According to Dickson, the local SWAT team arrived at the scene and waited for the Texas Department of Public Safety’s SWAT team to arrive so they could help end the standoff. The Texas Department of Public Safety SRT and Crisis Negotiation Response Team arrived at the store and after four hours of calling out to him, the man was taken into custody without incident, officials said. A press release identified the man taken into custody as Amado Urquiza, 38 of Jacksonville.
Markasky said there were no injuries reported from the shots fired. He added that they’re currently processing the scene for evidence and that there’s no threat to the public as of Sunday afternoon.
Tyler – 
The Empowerment North Tyler Rails to Trails Exploratory Committee invites the community to an informative meeting regarding the inactive rail corridor that runs through the heart of North Tyler. This meeting is open to the public and will take place on Monday, April 21, at 6:00 PM at the Empowerment CDC Complex, located at 309 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Tyler, TX 75702. Read the rest of this entry »
NACOGDOCHES –
Two Nacogdoches residents were arrested for possession of cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana and firearms by the Nacogdoches County Sheriff’s Office early Thursday morning. According to the sheriff’s office, deputies pulled over Luther Levann Jackson, 38, around 11 a.m. for a traffic violation. They discovered an active warrant for his arrest and took Jackson into custody. Later they also obtained a search warrant for Jackson’s residence in the 1700 block of Castleberry Street after an ongoing investigation revealed narcotics were present in the home, the sheriff’s office said. Read the rest of this entry »
DALLAS – KERA reports that North Texas transportation leaders want to restructure transit in the region to solve a dispute with some cities dissatisfied with the system. The Regional Transportation Council voted last week to push for legislation that would see the organization spending the next two years working on a “new transit vision,” said transit director Michael Morris. “I think we need a whole different transportation authority way to deliver transit in the region,” he said. “I think the DART cities are paying more than their fair share for transit. I think there’s lots of communities that aren’t paying any share to transit.”
This comes as a handful of member cities are pushing for state legislation that would cut funding for Dallas Area Rapid Transit by 25%. Two bills would direct a portion of tax contributions to the agency into a general mobility program cities could use for other transit projects. “I think there needs to be legislative change,” Morris said. “I happen to think it’s not the legislation that was introduced.” He suggested gathering the three regional transportation authorities – DART, Trinity Metro and Denton County Transportation Authority – as well as cities, the RTC and the state to file legislation directing the RTC to come up with a new approach to regional transportation ahead of the next legislative session. “The legislature would be instructing the Regional Transportation Council to pull together over the next two years a new vision to deliver transit,” he said. The council also voted to continue mediation between DART and some of its member cities, despite some leaders saying the talks had reached an impasse.
NACOGDOCHES –
A Nacogdoches man was arrested on Tuesday after three different types of illegal narcotics were discovered inside of his vehicle and home. According to the Nacogdoches County Sheriff’s Office, and our news partners at KETK, around 2 p.m. deputies conducted a traffic stop on the 600 block of W Main Street where they asked Michael Anthony Green, 56, of Nacogdoches, if they could search his vehicle and they were denied. Deputies then requested a K9 unit and the dog alerted to the presence of drugs, and a search was conducted. Officials said deputies found a large amount of cash and three different types of of illegal narcotics inside Green’s vehicle including: Read the rest of this entry »
CARTHAGE –
Our news partners at KETK report that a juvenile has been arrested after allegedly making a threat to a local Carthage daycare. The FBI contacted the Carthage police department after a threat was made on social media “showing daycare with alarming text overlay”. An immediate investigation began where officials learned that the suspect was a juvenile and has since been taken into custody. The case will be referred to District Attorney and Juvenile Probation for prosecution, the Carthage police department said.