Groveton News

GROVETON A two-year-old child reported missing last week in the Lake L Acres subdivision near Trinity was found unharmed.

The first order of business at Monday, October 19, Groveton ISD Board meeting was to hear from High School Journalism advisor Laura Rosser concerning the current annual.

A Lufkin woman surrendered to the Trinity County Sheriff's Office on Monday, Oct.

A man and his mother have been charged with theft of livestock after the owner recognized his stolen cattle at a Texas sale barn.

Gene Wilford Hathorn Jr., 49, spent more than half of his life on death row for the 1984 slaying of his father, Gene Hathorn Sr., 45.

GROVETON Drugs, guns and an active pipe bomb were seized Sept. 14 after Trinity County sheriff's officers raided an Apple Springs residence.

GROVETON Although agreeing to give the county's four elected constables an $800 per year uniform allowance, Trinity County commissioners rejected a request to more than double their pay.

Mail ballots for November election ready GROVETON Applications to receive a ballot by mail for the upcoming Nov.

Lufkin Mayor Jack Gorden urged East Texas county and city officials in a 12-county regional meeting Thursday to join together in an effort to lobby for more control over $208.8 million dispersed in a second round of Hurricane Ike recovery money.

GROVETON A countywide rural ban on all outdoor burning was lifted Monday morning in response to recent rains.

GROVETON In a move designed to give other potential candidates time to plan, Trinity County Judge Mark Evans has formally announced he will not seek a fifth term in next year's primary election.

GROVETON A countywide rural ban on all outdoor burning was lifted Monday, Aug. 31, in response to recent rains.

TRINITY In a move designed to give other potential candidates time to plan, Trinity County Judge Mark Evans has formally announced he will not seek a fifth term in next year's primary election.

Department of Justice Press Release

August 27, 2009

United States Attorney's Office - Southern District of Texas in San Antonio

McALLEN, TX—Reymundo Guerra, 52, of Rio Grande City, Texas, has been sentenced to 64 months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons without parole for using his position as Sheriff of Starr County, Texas, to facilitate a drug trafficking organization’s ability to conduct its illicit business in exchange for cash, United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today.

The former Starr County Sheriff was sentenced this afternoon by United States District Judge Randy Crane. In addition to the prison term, Judge Crane ordered Guerra further serve a four-year-term of supervised release – a form of probation with stringent conditions – after his release from prison. Guerra has been permitted to remain on bond until Sept. 28, 2009, when he must surrender to the United States Marshals Service to begin service of his sentence.

August 26, 2009

By Robert Arnold

A Houston firefighter was one of more than 20 people arrested in a federal investigation into money laundering and drug trafficking, KPRC Local 2 Investigates reported Wednesday.

Houston Fire Department officials said Christopher Fillmore, 39, was arrested Wednesday morning but had no other details.

HFD officials would only say Fillmore had been with the department since June 25, 2002, and worked in the northwest part of the city.

A source familiar with the investigation confirmed to Local 2 that the arrests involve members of a suspected drug trafficking and money laundering organization working with the Zeta cartel in Mexico.

August 21, 2009

KPRC-TV ch2 Houston

A Pasadena police officer died after a shootout with a suspect early this morning, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Pasadena police said Officer Jessie Hamilton responded to a disturbance call at a mobile home park on Joe Street near Bob Street at about 6 a.m.

Detectives said that Hamilton arrived at the scene and began talking to Sergio Robles' mother, who was standing on the front porch of her trailer.

Robles' mother told Hamilton that her son was armed. Investigators said the mother had originally told the dispatcher that no one was armed.

Hamilton went back to his car to call for help, officials said.

Robles, 24, fired shots at Hamilton, police said. Hamilton, 29, was shot in the head. He was taken by helicopter to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where he died.

Friday, August 21, 2009

By Peter Finn - Washington Post Staff Writer

The Justice Department recently questioned military defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay about whether photographs of CIA personnel, including covert officers, were unlawfully provided to detainees charged with organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Investigators are looking into allegations that laws protecting classified information were breached when three lawyers showed their clients the photographs, the sources said. The lawyers were apparently attempting to identify CIA officers and contractors involved in the agency's interrogation of suspected al-Qaeda terrorists in facilities outside the United States, where the agency employed harsh techniques.

If detainees at the U.S. military prison in Cuba are tried, either in federal court or a military commission, defense lawyers are expected to attempt to call CIA personnel to testify.

August 20, 2009

By Jeremy Scahill

In April 2002, the CIA paid Blackwater more than $5 million to deploy a small team of men inside Afghanistan during the early stages of US operations in the country. A month later, Erik Prince, the company's owner and a former Navy SEAL, flew to Afghanistan as part of the original twenty-man Blackwater contingent. Blackwater worked for the CIA at its station in Kabul as well as in Shkin, along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where they operated out of a mud fortress known as the Alamo. It was the beginning of a long relationship between Blackwater, Prince and the CIA.

Now the New York Times is reporting that in 2004 the CIA hired Blackwater "as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda." According to the Times, "it is unclear whether the CIA had planned to use the contractors to capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance."

The Times reports that "the CIA did not have a formal contract with Blackwater for this program but instead had individual agreements with top company officials, including the founder, Erik D. Prince, a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals and the heir to a family fortune." A retired intelligence officer "intimately familiar with the assassination program" told the Washington Post, "Outsourcing gave the agency more protection in case something went wrong." The Post reported that Blackwater "was given operational responsibility for targeting terrorist commanders and was awarded millions of dollars for training and weaponry, but the program was canceled before any missions were conducted."

East Texas teachers had the opportunity to see the latest and greatest classroom technology at Lufkin's 21st Century Technology Fair.

TRINITY While totals are up from the 2000 census, the estimated 2008 populations for both Trinity and Trinity County were almost unchanged from 2007 levels.