An arctic blast swept across much of the U.S. over the holiday weekend, with Northeast Texas experiencing a single digit lows Friday morning and wind chill factors below zero degrees. A little snow fell on Thursday but there was no accumulation.

The FBI, in partnership with Homeland Security Investigations and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, is issuing a national public safety alert regarding an explosion in incidents of children and teens being coerced into sending explicit images online and extorted for money—a crime known as financial sextortion. Over the past year, law enforcement has received over 7,000 reports related to the online financial sextortion of minors, resulting in at least 3,000 victims, primarily boys, and more than a dozen suicides.

With another round of fall hunting seasons rolling to a close soon, Kara Starr and the rest of the folks at the Texas Wildlife Association in New Braunfels are sounding the bell to Texas big game hunters in hopes of drumming up a solid list of entries for the 2022-23 version of the Texas Big Game Awards Program. Starr is the coordinator for TBGA, a non-profit program run jointly by the TWA and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Ready or not, the statewide general seasons for white-tailed deer and fall Rio Grande turkey are slowly winding down. The North Zone seasons that include most of Texas roll to close on New Year’s Day.

The Mount Pleasant Rotary Club hosted their “Winter Nights & Magical Lights” parade earlier this month to the delight of all. Listed are the winners in various categories from this year’s parade.

The Community Events Calendar is published as space permits. Events will also be published on our website.

Oklahoma State University State Extension Beef Cattle Nutrition Specialist Temperatures have been pretty nice for this time of year; however, we are predicted to get some extreme cold next week for Christmas. Cows tend to lose their acclimation to cold weather when we have a series of nice thermoneutral days.

There are 133 inmates in jail with 114 males and 19 females. Since 12/20/2022 the following have been booked into the jail: • TylerM.Hightower,37 of Mt.