Today is
Sunday April 20, 2025
ANGELINA COUNTY — 
According to reports from our news partner, KETK, an East Texas teacher was arrested on Saturday after being accused of bestiality and possession with intent to promote child pornography.
According to Wells ISD Superintendent Friday Wright, Hillary Danielle Williams, 33 of Lufkin is currently employed as a junior high and high school math teacher and has been since the beginning of 2024. Williams is currently being held in the Angelina County Jail for charges of bestiality and possession with intent to promote child pornography with bonds totaling $350,000. Wright said they were made aware of the arrest on Saturday and are currently working with attorneys and police to address the matter. “The safety and security of our students at Wells ISD is our top priority,” Wright said.
According to the district, a retired math teacher will be coming in this week to help teach the students.
The West Texas city of Abilene is better known for country music and rodeos than advanced nuclear physics. But that’s where scientists are entering the final stretch of a race to boot up the next generation of American atomic energy.
Amid a flurry of nuclear startups around the country, Abilene-based Natura Resources is one of just two companies with permits from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct a so-called “advanced” reactor. It will build its small, one megawatt molten salt reactor beneath a newly-completed laboratory at Abilene Christian University, in an underground trench 25 feet deep and 80 feet long, covered by a concrete lid and serviced by a 40-ton construction crane.
The other company, California-based Kairos Power, is building its 35 megawatt test reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the 80-year capital of American nuclear power science. Both target completion in 2027 and hope to usher in a new chapter of the energy age.
“A company and school no one has heard of has gotten to the forefront of advanced nuclear,” said Rusty Towell, a nuclear physicist at Abilene Christian University and lead developer of Natura’s reactor. “This is going to bless the world.”
The U.S. Department of Energy has been working for years to resuscitate the American nuclear sector, advancing the development of new reactors to meet the enormous incoming electrical demands of big new industrial facilities, from data centers and Bitcoin mines to chemical plants and desalination facilities.
Leaders in Texas, the nation’s largest energy producer and consumer, have declared intentions to court the growing nuclear sector and settle it in state. The project at Abilene Christian University is just one of several early advanced reactor deployments already planned here.
Dow Chemical plans to place small reactors made by X-energy at its Seadrift complex on the Gulf Coast. Last month, Natura announced plans to power oilfield infrastructure in the Permian Basin. And in February, Texas A&M University announced that four companies, including Natura and Kairos, would build small, 250 megawatt commercial-scale reactors at a massive new “proving grounds” near its campus in College Station.
“We need energy in Texas, we need a lot of it and we need it fast,” said state Sen. Charles Perry, chair of the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs. “The companies that are coming here are going to need a different type of energy long term.”
During this year’s biennial legislative session, state lawmakers are hoping to make billions of dollars of public financing available for new nuclear projects, and to pass other bills in support of the sector.
“If we do what we’re asked to do from industry groups out here, if we do what we think we should do and we know we should do, we could actually put a stake in the ground that Texas is the proving ground for these energies,” Perry said, speaking this month in the state Capitol at a nuclear power forum hosted by PowerHouse Texas, a nonprofit that promotes energy innovation.
But, he added, “Texas is going to have to decide: At what level of risk is it prudent for taxpayer dollars to be risked?”
The first new reactors might be commercially ready within five years, he said; most are 10 to 20 years away.
Dozens of proposed new reactor designs promise improved efficiency and safety over traditional models with less hazardous waste. While existing nuclear reactors use cooling systems filled with water, so-called “advanced” reactor designs use alternatives like molten salt or metal. It enables them, in theory, to operate at a higher temperature and lower pressure, increasing the energy output while decreasing the risks of leaks or explosions.
Before it can be built, each design is extensively reviewed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a yearslong process to ensure they meet safety requirements.
“We understand how much work we’re facing and getting that done means finding every appropriate efficiency in our reviews,” said Scott Burnell, public affairs officer for the NRC.
The commission is also reviewing a permit application by Washington-based TerraPower, founded by Bill Gates in 2006, to build a full commercial nuclear power plant in Wyoming. It expects to receive a construction permit application for the X-energy reactor at Dow in Texas this year, Burnell said.
After construction, the companies will require a separate permit to operate their projects. None have sought an operating license for an advanced nuclear reactor, but Natura plans to file its application this year.
For Towell, an Abilene native and the son of two ACU faculty members, this moment was a decade in the making. In 2015 he founded the NEXT Lab at ACU for advanced nuclear testing, got a $3 million donation from a wealthy West Texas oilman in 2017, entered into partnership with the Energy Department in 2019 and formed the company Natura in 2020. Construction finished in 2023 on NEXT’s shimmering new facility. And in 2024, the NRC issued a permit to build the first advanced reactor at an American university.
Towell, a former instructor at the U.S. Naval Nuclear Power School, said these new projects represent the first major advancement in American nuclear power technology in 70 years. While layers and layers of safety systems have been added, the basic reactor design has remained unchanged.
It uses a cooling system of circulating water to avoid overheating, melting down and releasing its radioactive contents into the atmosphere. The system operates at extremely high pressure to keep the water in liquid state far above its boiling point. If circulation stops due to power loss or malfunction, a buildup of pressure can cause an explosion, as it did at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan in 2011.
In contrast, new “advanced” reactor designs use alternatives to water for cooling, like liquid metal or special gases.
Natura’s design, like many others, uses molten salt. It’s not table salt but fluoride salt, a corrosive, crystalline substance that melts around 750 degrees Fahrenheit and remains liquid until 2,600 degrees under regular pressure.
As a result, the reactor can operate at extremely high temperatures without high pressure. If the system ruptures, it won’t jettison a plume of steam, but instead leak a molten sludge that hardens in place.
“It doesn’t poof into the air and drift around the world,” Towell said. “It drips down to a catch pan and freezes to a solid.”
Rather than solid fuel rods, Natura’s design also uses a liquid uranium fuel that is dissolved into the molten coolant. According to Towell, a former research fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, that decreases the amount of radioactive waste produced by the reactor and makes it easier to recycle.
The Kairos reactor design uses molten salt coolant with hundreds of thousands of uranium fuel “pebbles,” while the X-energy design uses fuel pebbles with a gas coolant.
Critically, many new reactor designs are also small and modular. Instead of massive, custom construction projects, they are meant to be built in factories with assembly line efficiency and then shipped out on truck trailers and installed on site. That will allow large industrial facilities or data centers to operate their own power sources independent from public electrical grids.
Natura president Doug Robison, a retired oil company executive who worked 13 years as an ExxonMobil landman, said small reactors could run oilfield infrastructure in the Permian Basin, from pumpjacks to compressor stations.
“By powering the oil and gas industry, which uses a tremendous amount of power for their operations, we’re helping alleviate the grid pressure,” he said.
He also wants to power new treatment plants for the enormous quantities of wastewater produced each day in the Permian Basin. In January, Natura announced a partnership with the state-funded Texas Produced Water Consortium at Texas Tech University aimed at using small reactors to purify oilfield wastewater, most of which is currently pumped underground for disposal.
The new reactor projects fit into plans by state leaders to establish Texas as a global leader of advanced nuclear reactor technology. In 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott directed the state’s Public Utility Commission to study the question and produce a report.
“Texas is well-positioned to lead the country in the development of ANRs,” said the 78-page report, issued late last year. “Texas can lead by cutting red tape and establishing incentives to accelerate advanced nuclear deployment, overcome regulator hurdles and attract investment.”
The report made several recommendations, and state lawmakers this year have already filed bills to enact several of them, including the creation of a Texas Advanced Nuclear Authority and a nuclear permitting officer. Most significantly, the report also recommended two new public funds to support nuclear energy deployment, including one modeled after the Texas Energy Fund, which was created in 2023 and made $5 billion in financing available for new gas power plants.
“When I talk to folks, it always gets back to the funding,” said Thomas Gleeson, chair of the Public Utility Commission, during the PowerHouse forum. “All of those issues are somewhat ancillary to: How are we going to fund this?”
Gleeson said developers will expect the state to put up at least $100 million per project through public-private partnerships in order to help reduce financial risk.
“Given the load growth in this state that we’re projecting, if you want clean air and you want a reliable grid, you have to be in favor of nuclear,” he said.
Critics of the plan oppose the use of public money on private projects and worry about safety.
“We don’t use tax dollars to fund a bunch of experimental and pie-in-the-sky designs that should be the responsibility of private industry,” said John Umphress, a retired Austin Energy program specialist who is evaluating the nuclear efforts on contract for the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. “Nobody has really penciled out the cost because there’s still a lot of proof of concept that’s going to have to be pursued before these things get built.”
Umphress raised concerns over materials in development to withstand the astronomical temperatures and extremely corrosive qualities of molten salt coolants.
He also noted that the U.S. still lacks a permanent repository for nuclear waste following decades of unsuccessful efforts. Most waste today is stored on site in specialized interim facilities at nuclear power plants, which wouldn’t be possible if small reactors were deployed to individual industrial projects.
“That’s the big issue that we still haven’t solved, but it’s not stopping some of these developers from pushing forward with their designs,” he said. “They’re hoping the federal government will take ownership of the waste and be responsible for its storage and disposal.”
During the PowerHouse forum, officials expressed hope that the private sector would develop a solution after new reactor projects create demand for waste disposal.
Those reactor projects are still many years away. So far, the NRC has only authorized advanced reactor construction for university research. Next it will issue permits for larger commercial reactors before they can be deployed.
Perhaps the largest early deployment of commercial advanced reactors is set to take place at Texas A&M University. In February, the school announced that four companies had committed to install their commercial reactor designs at a new 2,400-acre “Energy Proving Ground” near its College Station campus.
The site is an old Army air base, currently home to vehicle crash test facilities and an advanced warfare development complex.
The university will build infrastructure there and help streamline permitting for the reactor projects, said Joe Elabd, vice chancellor for research at the Texas A&M System. The university is requesting $200 million in state appropriations to help develop the site, he said.
“We’re providing a little bit more of a plug-and-play site for these companies, as opposed to them going to a true greenfield and having to do everything for themselves,” he said.
Reactors on the site will be connected to Texas’ electrical girdle, Elabd said.
A&M began seeking proposals from companies to build at the site last August, and a panel of university experts selected the four finalists, which include Natura and Kairos.
A Kairos spokesperson, Christopher Ortiz, said the company is building a manufacturing facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which will produce the reactors deployed to Texas A&M. He said the company is currently working to identify sites for future commercial reactors, evaluating factors like workforce availability, existing infrastructure and community support.
“The Texas A&M site presents a unique opportunity to site multiple commercial power plants in one location, which makes it particularly attractive,” he said.
The site will also include Terrestrial Energy, a Canadian company. And it will include Aalo Atomics, a 2-year-old investor-funded startup that is currently building a 40,000-square-foot reactor factory in Austin, which it plans to unveil in April.
More than modular reactors, Aalo plans to produce entire modular power plants, called Aalo Pods, including several reactors, a turbine and a generator, which are designed to be installed at data centers.
“It’s made in the factory, shipped to the site and assembled like LEGOs,” said Aalo CEO Matt Loszak.
He estimated five to 10 years for deployment at the A&M site but said that depended on continued financial support from investors. Aalo is developing its reactor design at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, a 70-year-old national nuclear research center.
But Loszak, a former software engineer from Canada, decided to locate his factory in Texas, he said, to be close to massive incoming energy demands and to take advantage of the state’s business-friendly approach to regulation.
“Politicians here are really pro-nuclear, they want to see nuclear get built, and that’s not the case in other places across the country,” he said. “From a regulatory and permitting perspective, it’s a great place to build stuff.”
Original article published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
VAN ZANDT COUNTY — According to our news partner, KETK, a Montgomery man is behind bars following a Friday morning pursuit that ended on I-20 in Van Zandt County where authorities recovered suspected meth and hydrocodone.
The Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to a call on Friday to a suspicious vehicle along VZCR 2142. Upon arrival, deputies found a man asleep in the driver’s seat of a running car. Despite repeatedly identifying themselves and attempting to communicate with the driver, the man reportedly fled the scene. Deputies pursued the vehicle and were assisted by DPS troopers, the Canton and Van Police Departments that helped bring the pursuit to a close.
Authorities stopped the driver, later identified as Steven M. Templeton, on the south service road of I-20 near the 533-mile marker exit. Officials reportedly found suspected meth and hydrocodone. Templeton has since been charged with aggravated assault against a public servant, evading arrest or detention with a vehicle, a previous warrant and two counts of manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance.
He is being held at the Van Zandt County Jail on a $125,000 bond.
DE BERRY – After nearly 80 years without any payments, an East Texas church is finally receiving compensation for minerals being extracted from their land.
“Man, that was a long journey. That was a real long journey,” Deacon at Zion Hill Holiness Church of God, Anthony Price Sr. said.
Church historian and relative, Johnathan Matthews, said for 78 years, an unknown amount of money in mineral royalties have not been paid to Zion Hill Holiness Church of God. He said the money could have helped the church and family for generations. Read the rest of this entry »
LONGVIEW — People of all ages got the opportunity to meet the people behind the industries that power East Texas on Saturday in Longview, according to our news partner KETK.
As part of Career and Technical Education Month, businesses like HOLT CAT opened their doors to East Texans, giving children and adults the chance to see what they do everyday. This was a part of the Big Techs East Texas Industry Tours and Job Fair. Guests got a close up look at cutting edge local manufactures creating things like fighter jets to the world’s largest front-end loader. Though HOLT CAT service manager said there is always one thing that brings the crowds.
“The tractors is definitely the biggest highlight, the kids love them,” Jake Giebel, service manager, said. “It’s the kids allow us to kind of reengage with our childhood because they’re so excited to see us, so excited to see the tractors and get in play, and that just kind of reinvigorates what we do day in and day out.”
Other groups in attendance included East Texas Regional Airport, Genpak, INVISTA, Kilgore College Manufacturing and Industrial Technology and LeTourneau University Engineering.
LONGVIEW – A 19-year-old man was arrested in Longview on Thursday evening after he allegedly shot two people during a domestic disturbance.
Longview police officers were dispatched at approximately 10:50 p.m. after receiving calls regarding a shooting relating to a domestic disturbance in the 3000 block of Bernice Drive.
Both victims of the shooting were taken to a local hospital to tend to their wounds. The Longview Police Department identified the suspect as 19-year-old Demetrius Walter of Marshall.
Walter has since been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and is being held in the Gregg County Jail on a $250,000 bond.
PALESTINE — Our news partner, KETK, reports that an East Texas couple has been arrested for child negligence after police found decaying food, piles of trash and cockroaches crawling throughout their home.
The Palestine Police Department said officers responded to a welfare check request in the 3000 block of N. Jackson at around 2:11 p.m. on Thursday. Before they arrived to the location, officers were advised that Code Enforcement had spoken with individuals at the residence concerning code violations.
During this visit, code enforcement observed child neglect and reported that the home emitted a foul odor and the home appeared to be in disarray. Once officers arrived, they spoke with Gina Jeter, 37, and her fiancé, Benjamin Quintanilla, 35. Both reportedly gave officers consent to enter the house. Read the rest of this entry »
HARRISON COUNTY – Our news partner, KETK, reports that two Harrison County residents were arrested on Thursday after guns and narcotics were found inside their home.
The Harrison County Sheriff’s Office said a search warrant was conducted at a home on 8841 U.S. Highway 80 in Scottsville. Once officers entered the home, they recovered 51 grams of methamphetamine and 19 grams of Psilocybin, commonly known as shrooms. Seven firearms were also found inside the home, including a stolen Rugger Mini-14 gun along with an illegal Short Barrel Rifle.
Owners of the house, 49-year-old Joe Cisco, Jr. and 41-year-old Brittany Dyer, were arrested and booked into the Harrison County Jail. Cisco was arrested on three of charges of manufacturing a controlled substance and possession of prohibited weapon. Dyer was also arrested on three of charges of manufacturing a controlled substance. Read the rest of this entry »
CHANDLER — An elderly Florida couple appears to have been dropped off at an East Texas hotel after family members decided they “could not stay with them.”
The Chandler Police Department said they received a call of an elderly couple who seemed to be lost wandering around a hotel. According to our news partner,KETK, following an investigation, authorities learned that the couple had arrived the previous day and had a room at the hotel.
“Officers quickly discovered the couple appeared to be suffering from cognitive deficiencies and clearly seemed lost,” the police department said. “Although the couple had a room reserved for two nights the couple had no luggage, food, money or their needed medication with them.” Officers determined that due to their age, the couple could not care for themselves. Police later identified the man as Pastor William McCann and his wife Mary McCann from Fort Meyers, Florida. Read the rest of this entry »
KILGORE — Our news partner, KETK, reports that a former Kilgore ISD employee was arrested on Wednesday after allegedly having an improper relationship with a student.
According to Kilgore ISD, the district began an investigation in early January of possible educator misconduct for Instructional Aide, Kayla Nicole O’Dell, 34 of Gladewater. O’Dell was an aide from August 2023 until her resignation on Jan. 7.Following her resignation, the results of the investigation were turned over to law enforcement, the district said. O’Dell was arrested for an improper relationship between an educator and student and is being held without bond in the Gregg County Jail.
TYLER – The highly contagious measles virus kills more than 200,000 each year, according to the Mayo Clinic.
UT Tyler Health Science Center Chief of Infectious Disease Dr. Richard Wallace explained what East Texans should know about measles and how to identify the “severe rash disease.”
Measles is a virus that spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes. After a vaccine was introduced in 1963 the virus was considered eliminated in the United States by 2000, but now there has been an uptick in cases mostly affecting babies, children under five and adults older than 20. Wallace said that measles can appear seven to 14 days after contact and an infected person should start feeling better four days after breaking out with the diagnostic rash.
The biggest sign of measles is a rash, but Wallace said people can also experience other symptoms including a runny nose, drainage, sore throat and a cough. For most people, the virus will feel like an intense case of the flu, but it can be especially dangerous for babies and toddlers. “40% of people with measles are hospitalized either for complications of measles or for isolation,” Wallace said. Doctors claim there have been no confirmed cases of measles in East Texas, but health officials are staying alert.
SMITH COUNTY – A man has been sentenced to ten years of probation in connection to a 2022 fatal crash.
Guillermo Zuniga Jr., 25 of Longview, was facing a charge of criminally negligent homicide after he and Carlos Tello Parrà, 33 of Longview, got in a crash on County Road 384 north of Tyler, on Dec. 14, 2022.The 2015 GMC Sierra they were riding in was heading north when the vehicle left the road and hit a tree, authorities told KETK in 2022. Parrà was pronounced dead at the scene.
Zuninga had incapacitating injuries in the crash and had to be treated at a local hospital. He was given deferred adjudication by 241st Judicial District Court Judge Debby Gunter on Thursday meaning he’ll avoid a guilty verdict if he completes ten years of probation.
NACOGDOCHES — With 24 Dairy Queen locations set to close across Texas, people can now purchase a variety of restaurant items and equipment as part of an ongoing auction.
The “complete contents” of various Dairy Queen restaurants will be auctioned on Local Auctions until Thursday afternoon. Buyers will be responsible for disassembling all purchased items.
“Multiple Dairy Queen locations are closing their doors and must liquidate the assets. Bid on a large variety of restaurant assets and related items that need to be removed from the location,” the auction website said.
To see the full list of closing locations posted by our news partner, KETK, click here.
TYLER — Wednesday, some school districts in East Texas closed early due to the cold weather. With hard freeze conditions in play all across the region, some ISD’s may delay their Thursday opening.
Tonight’s forecast is Partly Cloudy, with a low around 17. Wind chill values are low at 6. North wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Our news partner KETK, has an updated list of delays. You can see it here.
Your complete East Texas weather is here.
TYLER – Our news partner, KETK, reports that a good Samaritan assisting with a minor crash was injured after a drunk driver struck them.
According to the Tyler Police Department, two cars were involved in a minor crash near the intersection of Paluxy Drive and East Southeast Loop 323 at around 8:30 p.m. on Sunday. One good Samaritan was near the crash and moved towards the vehicles to help out. That’s when a third vehicle hit the first two vehicles and pushed the bystander away, a Tyler PD official said. The bystander received minor injuries, was treated and has since been released.
The driver of the third vehicle has been arrested and booked into the Smith County Jail for driving while intoxicated. The police department has not released the driver’s identity.