Today is
Sunday November 24, 2024
TYLER — A major accident on Troup Hwy Friday night left a 24-year-old woman dead and three injured. It happened just after 5:00 in front of Green Acres Baptist Church on Troup Hwy and Sterling Dr. Police say a Ford Mustang was travelling northbound on Troup Hwy when a Mercury Mystique, traveling south, made a left turn toward Sterling Dr. into the path of the Ford and was struck in the passenger side of the vehicle. The Mercury then spun into a light pole at intersection.
The driver and infant passenger in the Mercury were transported to Mother Francis Hospital as well as the driver of the Ford. A 24 year old Black Female occupant of the Mercury was transported and pronounced deceased at ETMC Hospital. The three persons transported to Mother Francis Hospital were treated and released. The accident is still under investigation. No names are being released pending proper notification of next of kin.
TYLER– Smith County and Tyler Junior College both recently proposed taxes increases. This means Tyler property owners could be facing more than $100 extra each year. Friday, Grassroots members met to discuss the taxes. Tyler property owner, Jann Allison, says, “I don’t think they should raise taxes. There has to be other ways to do it.” She and other taxpayers gain insight at the Grassroots meeting today.
According to KETK, Smith County Commissioner Jeff Warr updated the crowd on the Smith County budget. Warr says,”We want to cut everything we can possibly cut out of the budget before we ask for a tax increase.” However, taxes are not settling well with many citizens, especially when they are hit twice. Tyler Junior College Board of Trustees wants a 33% increase in property taxes. Former TJC Board Member Anna Snyder encourages the crowd to represent Grassroots at the next public hearing. She says, “Come and sit behind me in an $8 million building and just stare at them.”
Several stood up in their commitment to attend the public hearing held at Tyler Junior College on Thursday. There will be public hearing for the Smith County budget this coming Tuesday.
I share your disappointment that Charley Jones is no longer on the air at KTBB. We like the show and I like Charley. I have known him for over 35 years.
The reason we stopped carrying the show is not because of the show itself. It is because of the Texas State Network. TSN is the network that syndicates Texas Overnight and the network, due to severe cuts in personnel, has devolved into a sloppy, inattentive mess.
When the Texas State Network has technical difficulties in the middle of the night, there is no engineer on hand to clear the problem. What this has meant for us in practical terms is that when the network feed goes down, as it does with distressing frequency, there is literally NO ONE AT THE NETWORK that we can call. We are then left to scramble to get something on the air.
Texas State Network no longer takes live technical trouble calls from affiliates. If an affiliate has a technical problem (or more accurately if the network has a technical problem that results in cessation of delivery of
programming to affiliates), affiliates are supposed to email the trouble report to TSN. Our experience with TSN on this is that the emails are either never acknowledged or are acknowledged hours or in some cases days after the fact.
When TSN goes down in the middle of the night, it causes serious disruptions to our operation. The frequency of TSN’s difficulties, coupled with their indifferent response, has thus led us stop taking their syndicated programming. Replaying Rush’s broadcast from the previous afternoon is something over which we have total control. We have zero control when it comes to fixing problems at TSN and apparently very little influence over them. Our oft expressed concerns regarding their frequent problems fell on deaf ears. That’s why we made the decision that we made.
I appreciate the fact that you miss Charley Jones. As I say, I have known Charley for over three and a half decades and respect him a lot. But his network is letting him down and we simply cannot allow their sloppy
operation to negatively affect us any longer.
Paul L. Gleiser
Tyler ISD…….Mary Roguette, Owens Elementary
Winona ISD…..Patrice Coulter, Winona High School
Chapel Hill ISD..Shanti Lugge, Kissam Intermediate School
Troup ISD…….Amy Neel, Troup High School
Tyler ISD….Jose Graciano, Peete Elementary School
Winona ISD….Clarice Bledsoe, Winona Middle School
Lindale ISD….Jennifer Davis, Early Education Center
Troup ISD….Amy Neel, Troup High School
Chapel Hill ISD….Denise Schmidt, Chapel Hill Middle School
Arp ISD…..Brian Keith, Arp High School
LaShunda Wright, Tyler’s Ramey Elementary
Daniel Veisscher, Lindale High School
Jennifer Taylor, Winona Elementary
Cathy DeCloux, Troup Middle School
Karen Kizer, Arp Junior High
Tyler ISD…..Jamie Womack, Rice Elementary School
Winona ISD…..David Brown, Winona High School
Chapel Hill ISD….Mary Williams, STEPS Alternative School
Troup ISD….Mary New, Troup Elementary School
Arp ISD….Debbie Taliaferro, Arp Elementary School
Troup ISD…..Bobby Dyess, Troup High School
Chapel Hill ISD…Kacy Walsh, Wise Elementary School
Winona ISD….Jerome Ptak, Winona Middle School
Lindale ISD….Sandy Devisscher, E.J. Moss Intermediate
Arp ISD…..Jennifer Anderson, Arp High School
Tyler ISD…..Karen Brashear, Bonner Elementary School
WHITE OAK — A marine from White Oak is injured in an explosion in Afghanistan. Lance Corporal Eric Richardson and several marines were injured after a roadside bomb exploded Saturday. Richardson’s recovering from a leg injury at a hospital in Maryland. According to KETK, he’s undergone three surgeries and will undergo another one soon. He will be awarded a purple heart.
FORT WORTH (AP) — A passing bicyclist saved a woman and a 7-year-old girl from the Trinity River but was unable to rescue a man, whose body was later recovered from the water. Fort Worth Fire Department spokesman Tim Hardeman says the family apparently had been on a rocky crossing when the girl fell into the water, and the husband and wife tried to save her. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the man who died Monday afternoon as 47-year-old Richard Walker of Winnsboro. Jeff Harrison says he was cycling through Trinity Park when he saw three people in the river and jumped in the water. Harrison says the girl seemed fine, but he had to do CPR to revive the woman. Hardeman says the woman and the girl are expected to recover.
TYLER — A local attorney claims two East Texas courts ignored the law in the case involving teen murder suspect Byron Truvia. Truvia allegedly stabbed teacher Todd Henry (pictured) to death last September at John Tyler High School. Truvia’s defense attorney Jim Huggler filed the brief last week. According to KETK, Huggler says the lower courts ignored a required mental evaluation before trying Truvia as an adult. The brief was filed at the request of the Supreme Court.
TYLER — The Texas Department of Transportation’s Tyler District announced it planned to break ground on one construction project in the month of July, but brought five others to a close in June, bringing the total number of projects under construction in the eight-county district to 26.
TxDOT’s Larry Krantz says TxDOT would be breaking ground in mid-to-late July on a repair-and-resurface project on State Highway 31 between State
Highway 42 and Business U.S. Highway 259 in Kilgore. The $981,000 project
let to contract in May to Knife River Corp., South, of Waco, and is
scheduled to take approximately two months to complete once begun.
With the addition of the State Highway 31 project, Knife River has eight
current Tyler District projects worth more than $82 million, including the Loop 281 project in Longview, the State Highway 155 project between
Frankston and Pert, and the U.S. Highway 69 overpass project at Farm Road
344 in Bullard. Contractor R.K. Hall, of Paris, has seven active projects in the Tyler District, including the night work on U.S. Highway 69 (South Broadway), for a combined $19.4 million, and while Longview Bridge and Road, Ltd. has only three ongoing projects locally, including both Loop 49 projects and the nearly completed US 69 expansion between Lindale and Mineola, those projects are worth a combined $97 million.
Meanwhile, TxDOT contractors also brought five construction projects to a
close in June, including the $737,000 resurfacing project on Farm Road 2493(Old Jacksonville Highway) in Tyler between South Loop 323 and State Highway57/Grande Boulevard. Contractors also finished a $1.5 million resurfacing project on U.S. Highway 69 in Lindale between Interstate Highway 20 and Farm Road 1804, and a $385,000 left-turn lane project on State Highway 110 at Farm Road 344 between Whitehouse and Troup.
TYLER (AP) — A lawyer for a man charged in an alleged east Texas swingers club involving children has dropped a request to move the trial from Tyler. Jury selection is scheduled next week for the aggravated sexual assault trial of 47-year-old Dennis Boyd Pittman. Pittman was arrested in 2007 leaving his apartment in Sevierville, Tenn. Defense attorney Jason Cassel on Thursday withdrew his request for a change of venue. Further details were not released.
Prosecutors allege children as young as 5 were groomed to perform in sex shows in the Mineola area, a town of about 5,100 located 75 miles east of Dallas. The 14th Court of Appeals in Houston this month overturned the convictions of two others tried in the case. New trials were ordered for Patrick “Booger Red” Kelly and Jamie Pittman.
TYLER — Smith County authorities have identified the body of a woman found of County Road 2191 last weekend. She is Cherry Diane Walker of Tyler. Her body, which appeared to have been burned, hand been dumped along the side of the road. Investigators continue to search for clues that could lead them to a motive for the slaying and the woman’s killer.
TYLER — The Smith County Bar Association has been honored by the State Bar of Texas Local Bar Services Committee as the Award of Merit winner for 2009-10. The award was presented to Smith County Bar representatives Kyna Adams and Jim Huggler at the Bar Leaders Recognition Luncheon held at the State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting in Fort Worth. SCBA was presented the Award of Merit for Division II –local or district bar associations with 101 to 500 members. This is an overall award for all programs and events of the association.
The Smith County Bar was also presented a Star of Achievement Awards. Five Star of Achievement awards are given to recognize outstanding projects among bar associations of all sizes. The SCBA was honored for their publication commemorating the 75 year history of the Association. Copies of the book will be distributed to all school and public libraries in Smith County. Printing of the book was made possible by sponsors of the 75th Gala and grants from the Texas Bar Foundation and the Smith County Bar Foundation.