Local Interest

Update: A call to the City of Commerce confirmed that one person was injured as a result of today's shooting in Commerce. Other information, including the condition of the victim, was not shared. A separate social media post by Texas A&M University-Commerce appears to indicate that the victim is not a member of the university community.

Texas A&M University-Commerce will soon be making a high-profile expansion into North Dallas, John Sharp, Chancellor of The Texas A&M University System announced today. The university will be taking over the top two floors of 8750 North Central Expressway, where it will set up headquarters for its education and business colleges.

Texas A&M University-Commerce and Dallas College are set to co-host the 2021 MALES Summit: Men at Work, which will take place in a virtual format on April 9 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The summit for current and prospective students is designed to provide mentoring and support for minority males while developing them personally and professionally as future college graduates. The summit will help students discover pathways to success in school, their careers and life.

A U.S. Navy Nurse’s knowledge, initiative and commitment to medical care recently placed her at the forefront of patient safety in Navy Medicine.

Cultural competency among students, faculty and staff is a top priority for University President Mark Rudin.

This spring, A&M-Commerce launched its first offering of a new cultural competency course, which garnered a lot of interest from students and university employees.

KETR says goodbye to 2020 with only one regret -- we won't have the services of Zachary Adams, who produced a history series for the station as part of his graduate program at Texas A&M University-Commerce. Listeners heard the "Backroads of Northeast Texas" series occasionally during Weekend Edition Saturday and All Things Considered throughout the Fall 2020 semester.

Some communities around Northeast Texas have canceled their annual Christmas parades due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, others will hold annual parades, with most of those scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 5.

Folks whose pantries could use a helping hand during the holiday season will be able to pick up food in Greenville at an event hosted by the Lone Oak-based organization Community Seeds.

Neylandville isn’t the most renowned of Northeast Texas communities, but its legacy to the region is bigger than its small population might suggest. The region’s university recently named its library after a Neylandville local.

Today, Thursday, Septemeber 17, 2020, is North Texas Giving Day, and 88.9 KETR needs your support! We invite you to join the generosity movement and help us reach our goal of $6,500. 

As one of the projects in the New Deal during the Great Depression in the United States, the Public Works of Art Project, begun in 1933, was developed to bring artist workers back into the job market and assure the American public that better financial times were on the way. Among the most high-profile works were United States Post Office murals produced between 1934 and 1943. 

The Commerce Tigers football broadcast began its 46th season the air at 88.9 KETR on Friday, August 28th, and an early-schedule Tigers win marked the occasion. Commerce defeated the Edgewood Bulldogs by a score of 42 to 12.

Following the football game broadcast, The Big Friday Night Scoreboard Program returned to the air to round up final scores for games in the region.

Hospitals across north, central and east Texas are in daily contact with Carter BloodCare to verify that there is enough blood to perform all the surgeries and medical procedures on their schedules. Hospital patients are in jeopardy of not receiving the blood transfusions they need. 

Students, faculty and staff at all 11 Texas A&M System universities across the state will soon have quick and easy access to free testing for COVID-19.

“Ensuring the health and safety of our students is our top priority,” said John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M University System. “Facilitating increased accessibility and availability of COVID-19 testing will help us mitigate the spread and help to protect each other by taking preventative and proactive measures.”

There was a time, not too very long ago, when outsiders were allowed to visit the 88.9 KETR studio complex. And since February of 2013, one of the first faces those visitors would see was that of administrative assistant Cristy Boucher, who retired on May 29, 2020.

Cristy came to 88.9 KETR after a well-established career in support of higher education. A proud Aggie originally from the town of College Station, TX, Cristy had accumlated professional stops at Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, and most recently, Plymouth State University.

From the official website for Hunt County:

From: Hunt County Judge

Date:3/27/2020

Re: Second COVID-19 Positive Result in Hunt County

Each year, radio and television stations across the state of Texas submit their very best work for consideration by the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters. Generally in April, an awards ceremony is held in Austin and journalists, videographers, producers, and anchors flock to 6th Street to learn who's work topped each category. This year, concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic led to the cancellation of the ceremony planned for April 4. As a result, the winners have been announced in a release - and 88.9 KETR is among the top-awarded stations in its division.

The Hunt County Commisioner's Court has issued a disaster declaration for the county that details a shelter-in-place, or "stay at home" order. The order goes into effect Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. and directs all non-essential employees and businesses to cease activity or stay at home except for essential activities and business.