Grand Saline police officers and FBI investigators are searching for a man who held up a bank in Grand Saline this morning.

Grand Saline Chief of Police Larry Compton said the man walked in to Mineola Community Bank around 10:45 this morning, showed the teller a semi-automatic hand gun and asked for cash.

Compton said the man took the money and left the bank on foot. Bank employees reported seeing the man go through the trees near the bank. Officers used dogs to rack the suspect, but lost the scent near Houston Street. Compton said that leads them to believe the man may have gotten into a car and left the area.

Fall is upon us.  It is November and the vegetation is greener than it usually is, due to the October Rains.  A lot of the “summer” vegetation has started dying off and the winter grasses are starting to thrive. 

As the tree leaves die off and fall, the accumulation of leaves on the ground, provides shelter for insects and other “critters”.  Now that the weather is pleasant, it is a good time to clean out tall grasses and other growth near our homes to discourage our “creepy crawly” neighbors from taking up residence in or near our homes.  It is not too early to start “winterizing” outdoor faucets, flower beds, gardens and pet facilities. 

Van Zandt County authorities say what they thought was a car accident, turned out to be a murder.

The Sheriff's Department said they were called to the scene of an accident on County Road 4907 around 12:30 a.m. on Sunday. A witness at the scene told deputies one of the victims of the crash had possibly been stabbed. Deputies found Jonathan Shipman lying on the ground suffering from multiple stab wounds. A woman, Shelly Rackow, had also been injured in the accident.

Fundraising efforts for Mineola's Caring and Sharing are in full swing.  "Over 400 applications have been mailed to eligible families in Mineola," said Ann Alotto, representative of Mineola's Caring and Sharing.

One of the fundraisers for Mineola's Caring and Sharing has always been the speghetti meal sponsored by the American Legion.  This year, the American Legion will not be able to sponsor their regular fundraiser.

To help fill this financial void, the local civic groups in Mineola, Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions and Pilots have all joined forces to sponsor a chicken speghetti lunch on Thursday, November 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church Ministries Center in Mineola. 

Tickets are $5 and are available at the KMOO studios or by calling Ann Alotto at 903-780-4962.

Other fundraisers include the blanket drive through the area churches, a canned food drive through the Mineola Indepedent School District, the Radio Auction set for Saturday, November 21, a toy drive scheduled for the Saturday after Thanksgiving at Wal-Mart in Mineola, several angel trees throughout the area and many other opportunities to help this cause.

"There are over 1400 individuals that will benefit from Mineola's Caring and Sharing program," stated Glenda Clements, Mineola Caring and Sharing.  Any financial help will be appreciated and they are always looking for volunteers.

For more information on how you can be a part of the Mineola Caring and Sharing program contact Ann Alotto at 903-780-4962.

Thursday, members of the Trinity Mother Frances Heart Institute and invited cardiac patients celebrated three years of the Code STEMI program at Mother Frances Hospital. 

Mother Frances was the first heart program in Tyler to implement Code STEMI (ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction), which is designed to minimize the time between emergency transport of an acute heart attack patient and a life-saving heart catheterization with balloon angioplasty.  STEMI refers to the method for using an EKG device to diagnose an acute heart attack.

To best utilize the vital minutes during transport, Code STEMI was implemented at Mother Frances in February of 2006.  Since that time, heart attack patients transported to Mother Frances Hospital have benefited from significant reductions in time between the onset of the cardiac event and the administration of lifesaving balloon angioplasty therapy.

The Mineola City Council awarded a project to build a new water tower for the city to a company from    McGuire Iron submitted the lowest bid of $1.14 million.

The engineer overseeing the project said McGuire Iron, "might not be the easiest to work with," but admitted it was not worth the $140,000 of additional money to use the second lowest bidder. He said his firm was familiar with McGuire Iron since it had built a similar tank in Crandall which the engineering firm had designed.

The city also discussed the current status of the city's street projects. Councilman John Storace asked about the quality of the current work in the light of some much recent rain,

The city's public works director, Johnny McCoy said the contractor on the job was qualified to lay asphahlt and would put it down if it was too cold or the conditions were not proper. McCoy noted, however, that the city would probably not be able to finish the project until Spring.

Seattle Mariner's catcher and Mineola Native Adam Moore received the keys to the city Monday during the Mineola City Council meeting.

More than 80 friends, family and former classmates were on hand for the presentation. Mayor Bo Whitus called Moore a, "sterling example of an All American youth," and honored him for his hard work and dedication.

Moore played football, basketball and baseball while in Mineola and just recently was called up by the Mariners to play catcher in the major leagues.

The council hosted a reception for Moore following the presentation.

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Rains County began today the process of applying for an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant. Commissioner Jim Painter said the county could receive $50,000, divided up among the cities in the county.

County Judge Joe Dougherty noted the program is not a matching grant, "We'll always welcome free money." The program allows a variety of activities to qualify for the money including updating current air conditioning systems.