The section of Interstate Highway between Winnie and Beaumont has been reopened to traffic.

The Texas Department of Highways reopened I-10 at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday morning after the area was declared safe to passersby, reported Department of Public Safety Trooper Sgt. Dana Cauthern.

That section of the highway had been closed since early Sunday when a tanker truck transporting about 8,500 gallons of highly-toxic isobutane overturned and ruptured.

East Chambers runningback Glenn Roberts scampered 54 yards for one touchdown and 14 yards for a second TD while quarterback Hank Jones connected with receiver Austen Gilfillian for another score on Friday.

But the Orangefield offense scored three TD’s of its own and the Bobcats defense blocked a Bucs’ game-tying point after attempt in the third quarter to win the first game of the season 21-20.Jones left the game early in the second quarter with an injured ankle.

Ali Way recorded seven kills and Abbey Johnson and Jasmine Carrington were each credited with six kills to help the Lady Bucs triumph over Colmesneil last Friday.

East Chambers turned around and fell to Lumberton on Tuesday after five games. 

A Crosby man and his girlfriend were bitten by shark two miles west of Rollover Pass on Friday.

The couple were taken to the Winnie Community Hospital and treated for injuries to their hands, feet and buttocks. 

A Winnie man accused of having sticky fingers faces up to two years in jail if he’s convicted of stealing 10 beehives and a trailer.

Donald Earl Reeves of Winnie was indicted last week on a charge of theft of property valued at $1,500 but not more than $20,000.

He is accused of being in possession of 10 beehives and one Cowboy trailer on April 2, 2010, without the owner’s consent.

Bond was set at $5,000.

Chambers County grand jurors also returned indictments against 14 other individuals last week. 

Applications for all Gatorfest pageants will be available at the Anahuac Chamber of Commerce office, 603 Miller Street.

The almost daily rain showers and thunderstorms passing through Chambers County for the last month and a half will help hay fields and pastures immensely, but if the wet stuff doesn't stop falling soon it could hurt the upcoming rice harvest, farmers say.

Tommy Wilcox recalls a time when as a boy he and Kenneth Lee worked as flaggers in the rice fields, signaling to crop dusters that they were on their mark.

If they kids were lucky, they could catch a ride back to the airfield in the hopper of one of the crop dusters, Wilcox remembers.

Kenneth later became a crop duster himself, and spent much of his adult life flying across the rice fields in Chambers County.

Last week, five years after Kenneth succumbed to cancer, he flew over the rice fields he loved so much for one last time.

His ashes were loaded into the hopper of a crop duster and scattered over pasture land that once grew rice at the request of his family.

Chambers County commissioners voted Tuesday to offer tax breaks to three firms whose facilities will employ hundreds of construction workers and at least 173 permanent jobs.

Commissioners agreed to create a reinvestment zone along the portion of Cedar Bayou in Chambers County — called Cedar Bayou Crossing — in order to provide the tax abatements to the three companies: Century Terminals LLC, an d Tapco Enpro International.  and Cedar Bayou Fractionators.

A 21-year-old Winnie man who pleaded guilty last month to shooting an acquaintance in May 2009 will find out next Thursday how many years he has to serve in prison for the murder.

Christopher Chapa is scheduled to appear before District Court Judge Carroll Wilborn Jr. on Thursday, Aug. 6, for the sentencing portion of his murder trial.

Shane Detwiler had been a Chambers County sheriff’s deputy for only two months when he was shot and killed last July while responding to a call of shots fired at utility workers.

On Tuesday — one year to the date of Shane’s death — friends, family and coworkers planted an oak tree on the grounds of the Chambers County Courthouse in memory of the slain officer.