Texas A&M Forest Service Awards $15.7 Million in Grants to Volunteer Fire Departments
October 31, 2023 – COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M Forest Service awarded 260 rural volunteer fire departments with more than $15.7 million in assistance grants last week through the Rural Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Grant Program. “Our agency is very thankful to state leadership for allowing us the opportunity to assist volunteer fire departments in Texas,” said Jason Keiningham, Texas A&M Forest Service...
Student Loan Payments Set to Resume
September 8, 2023 – A three-year pause on student loan payments and interest accrual initiated at the start of the pandemic is coming to an end Oct. 1, leaving nearly 4 million Texans scrambling to figure out how to factor the debt payments back into their budgets. Former president Donald Trump first suspended payments in March 2020 to provide pandemic relief through the CARES Act, and that suspension was then extended through...
Sulphur Springs Emergency Sirens Will Be Tested August 31
August 31, 2023 – Emergency sirens will be tested in Sulphur Springs at noon today by the Sulphur Springs Emergency Management Office. The test is to gauge the reliability of the emergency warning system and is conducted to find any potential flaws in the system so they can be corrected prior to a real emergency situation. The sirens could be sounded not only for weather warnings such as tornadoes, which are the most common in the...
FBI Seeks Victims in Investor or Other Financial Scams
August 11, 2023 – With the recent indictment of a local resident for what the Federal Bureau of Investigations is calling an investment scam, the Dallas FBI office is still looking for victims of this or any other scam from local residents. George Lewis Parsons, Jr. was indicted on July 12, 2023 on six counts of wire fraud totaling $3 million. Parsons and his attorney are set to respond to the federal court on August 14, 2023...
2023 Back-To-School Sales Tax Holiday This Weekend Aug 11-13
Sales Tax Waived On Qualifying School Supplies, Clothes, Shoes and Student Backpacks Priced Under $100 This Weekend in Texas If you’re planning to buy school clothes or supplies, waiting until this weekend to do so could prove monetarily advantageous as this weekend is the annual sales tax holiday in Texas. State law exempts sales tax on qualified items — such as clothing, footwear, school supplies and backpacks — priced below...
Hopkins County Resident Indicted on Six Counts of Wire Fraud
Lewis Parsons is a self-described visionary and technological guru. Since descending on Hopkins County from Rockwall a couple of years ago, he has attempted to immerse himself into the fabric of all things Sulphur Springs and Hopkins County. From living in a loft apartment on Main street, to occupying the “Lowry Mansion” on I-30 in Saltillo. His list of business ventures and connections go on and on, but those connections...
Texas House And Senate Reach A Deal On How To Cut Property Taxes
After a long standoff among Texas’ top Republicans, state GOP lawmakers struck a deal on how to cut Texans’ property taxes. The $18 billion compromise between the Texas House and Senate — which includes more than $5 billion approved for property tax relief in 2019 — would lower taxes for the state’s 5.7 million homeowners and add a temporary cap on appraisal increases for some non-homesteaded properties. It would also cut franchise...
Utility Financial Assistance Available For Hopkins County Residents
As temperatures rise so do our utility bills. Most customers in Hopkins County either have electric service with Farmers Electric Cooperative or with a Retail Electric Provider (REP) through Oncor. Financial Assistance is available from several outlets regardless of your provider. Farmers Electric Cooperatvie Customers For those who use Farmers Electric Cooperative, the company has stated on their website “At Farmers Electric...
UPS Strike To Disrupt Supply Chain
As talks between UPS and the union that represents more than 300,000 delivery drivers break down, a strike this summer is looking more likely. That could impact 25 to 30 percent of parcels and packages shipped in the U.S. The Teamsters represent 340,000 UPS workers. Should a strike happen, it would be the first since a 15-day walkout by 185,000 workers crippled the company a quarter century ago. UPS has become a large part of the...
Almost 64,000 Texas Borrowers Will Have Their Federal Loans Forgiven
Almost 64,000 Texas borrowers will have their federal student loans forgiven after a U.S. Department of Education review concluded they qualified for the benefit. The total amount to be forgiven will be just roughly $3.1 billion, average of $48,500 per borrower. The move is unrelated to President Joe Biden’s now-defunct student debt forgiveness plan, which was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court last month. This forgiveness...
