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Wichita Falls police banned a woman from Walmart after she reportedly ate half of a cake and refused to pay for the other half... This is not the first time a Wichita Falls Walmart banned a customer from its stores. In January 2019, Wichita Falls police received a call involving a woman drinking wine in a Walmart parking lot. Employees requested officers to ban a woman from another Wichita Falls Walmart store after she reportedly had been drinking wine from a Pringle's can for several hours while riding on an electric cart.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice initially said 45 prisoners in administrative segregation had begun a hunger strike but TDCJ spokesman Robert Hurst said Tuesday the number stood at 37... The inmates participating in the hunger strike are housed at the Allred Unit in Iowa Park, outside Wichita Falls. Hurst says they began refusing meals on Christmas, but that some have food items in their cells that they purchased from the commissary. He says the inmates have complained about recreational time, food portions and the temperature.

Wichita Falls has exceeded 100-degree highs 39 of the past 40 days. There was a string of 100-plus degree days before that. By this date in a normal year, Wichita Falls would have received about 16 inches of rain. This year it has been just over 3 inches. Forecasters are not optimistic about substantial rain between now and September. Wichita County Extension agent Fred Hall said he has talked to old-timers who remember the severe droughts of 1956 and 1980. They recall those droughts started later in the year and there was residual moisture in the ground to help forage....

An evening home invader was fatally shot in self defense. Police say that at about 7:30 PM, a man broke in to a home on the 1300 block of Austin in Wichita Falls, TX. The resident of the home reportedly heard the sound of breaking glass, grabbed his gun, and shot the intruder in self defense. A neighbor is said to have seen the intruder breaking in an called police, who arrived to find a deceased intruder and an unharmed resident. The deceased intruder, whose name has not yet been released, is said to be a 30 year old male...

History tends to repeat itself in more ways than one. Wichita Falls historian and author Steve Goen has again been asked to give a presentation at George Bush Presidential Library and Museum at the Texas A&M campus at College Station Nov. 22. This will be his second appearance at the library. Goen’s presentation, “The Katy Railroad — Our State’s Original Trans-Texas Corridor,” will showcase the evolution of transportation along the Blackland Prairie in Central Texas. “Gov. Rick Perry and politicians in Austin are pushing for a superhighway with a railroad running through it,” Goen said. “There’s a lot of resistance...

President: Sen. Barack Obama is a fresh face in modern politics, but he may have immerged on the scene a little too soon. His contagious hopefulness no doubt inspired many young voters to enter democracy for the first time. His impact on voter interest is unquestionable. How he might govern leaves most of us still scratching our heads. Obama’s recent announcement that he would “spread the wealth” sent chills down the spine of those who champion a capitalistic society, not a socialistic one. On the flipside, Sen. John McCain is a known commodity, a lawmaker with decades of admirable public...

“Regardless of losing funding, TxDOT is moving ahead,” said Larry Tegtmeyer, district engineer for the Wichita Falls District of the Texas Department of Transportation during his report Thursday morning to the Texas Transportation Commission. The Texas Transportation Commission is a five-member board appointed by the governor to oversee TxDOT. The commission met Thursday in the J.S. Bridwell Auditorium at Midwestern State University. It was the first time in 12 years that the commission had met in Wichita Falls. Tegtmeyer was enthusiastic about reporting the district’s accomplishments under a tight budget. In November, the Texas Department of Transportation announced budget cuts...

A small plane carrying seven people crashed on Monday in rugged southeastern Kentucky, about 100 miles from Sunday's airliner crash in Lexington, aviation authorities said. It was unclear if there were any survivors from the crash of the twin-engine Cessna 401, which took off from Kickapoo Airport in Wichita Falls, Texas, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said. The spokesman did not know the plane's destination because the pilot did not file a flight plan. Witnesses near Jackson, Kentucky, told authorities they had heard a plane and then heard and felt an explosion, said Buddy Rogers of the state emergency management...

Wichita Falls,TX(7News) A Wichita Falls convenience store owner is going to prison for life for selling ingredients to make meth. The bust happened at the Krystal Mart store in April of 2004. The drug task force says owner Reza Vafaiyan was selling more than 80,000 tablets of pseudoephedrine, which prosecutors say could have produced more than $4 million worth of meth. A Wichita County jury sentenced Vafaiyan to life in prison for the crime.

The Santa Rosa Palomino Club doesn't plan to change anything because of two Vernon students' objections to the Confederate flags the riding club carries, a club official said. "That's the first real complaint that's been voiced to us," Gene Tyra, drill captain, said.A brother and sister, Jeremy Todd, 15, and Shelby Todd, 13, will sit out the parade for the Santa Rosa Roundup at 3 p.m. today in Vernon, according to the Vernon Daily Record. The teens view the flags as symbolic of racism.They asked to be excused from performing with the Vernon High School and Vernon Middle School bands,...

Wichita Falls tornado taught hard lessons that help save lives WICHITA FALLS (AP) — Walking through tornado-ravaged neighborhoods after a deadly storm 25 years ago, architect Charles F. Harper saw something strange: small closets or bathrooms that seemed to be rising from piles of debris. In many cases, the center room of a house or business — even a bank vault — was the only thing standing after a tornado up to a mile-and-a-half wide churned through town, hitting 5,000 houses and several apartments. Some 20,000 people — nearly one-fourth of the city's population — were homeless, while 42 were...