East Texas Woman Dies in Easter Sunday RV Fire

A fire inside a recreational vehicle has claimed the life of a Quitman woman a day before her 48th birthday.

Smith County authorities say Jody Jennings was unable to escape the burning RV when it caught fire Easter Sunday. Firefighters located her body in a back bedroom.

Smith County Assistant Fire Marshal Oren Hale says it appears the blaze was caused by a mechanical failure in the electrical system that switches the motor home to battery power.

The fire broke out shortly after 3 pm at the Westberry Landing and RV Park in Noonday.

Hale said Jennings had lived in the park for about 10 days.

DNA Testing for Man Convicted of Rape, Murder

A man convicted twice of the 1977 rape and murder of a Tyler woman is heading back to court asking for new DNA testing that he says could prove his innocence.

Kerry Max Cook’s death sentences were overturned twice for the slaying of Linda Jo Edwards. In 1999, Cook agreed to plead no contest to murder in exchange for a sentence of time served.

Millions of Texas Children Without Health Insurance

AUSTIN — More than a million Texas children remain without health insurance, and those kids are not getting the care they need.

The startling condition of the state’s children came into vivid focus last week with the release of the annual Kids Count survey. The analysis of official state and federal data by the non-partisan Center for Public Policy Priorities found that 1.2 million Texas children have neither private nor public health insurance.

Statistics show almost 40 percent of Texas mothers received little or no prenatal care and one in seven babies were born premature. The health differences between being insured and uninsured is stark: 90 percent of insured kids are healthy, while only 58 percent of kids without insurance are considered healthy.

The authors hope the study will inform future state policy.