Visitors from across Texas laced up their shoes and packed on plenty of layers to usher in 2021 with a First Day Hike at a Texas State Park. In total, 2,668 people hiked and biked a total of 8,173 miles statewide.

The Vidor Lady Pirate basketball teams played the LCM Lady Bears Tuesday with both sub-varsity teams taking a win over their cross-county rivals. The Freshman won 34 - 26, with Natasha Kelly leading the scoring with 10 points, Natalie Domec added 8 points as did Carlie Abbott with 8 points and 6 rebounds.

Fowl Play A Knox County game warden received a call about someone hunting without landowner consent, so they partnered with a Haskell County game warden and responded. After a quick investigation, the landowner requested that the deer hunter remove his belongings and leave the property.

The LCM cheerleaders competed at the UIL State Spirit Competition in Fort Worth on Friday, January 15th. The squad competed in the preliminary round and advanced to the top 20 state finalist and competed in the final round Friday afternoon. The LCM cheerleaders placed 8th in the state in the 4-A Division out of 61 4-A teams from across Texas. They placed 4th in the final round in the Crowd Leading Cheer Division.

There was action aplenty Thursday as the Vidor Junior High Lady Pirates basketball teams hosted the Orangefield Lady Bobcats at the VHS Pirate Gym. Action got underway with the 7th grade B team falling to the visitors 17-2 with Lady Pirate Madison McAbee tallying two points.

The Lady Pirate varsity basketball team got off to a slow start in the new year, dropping their last two district games. On January 6, they lost to WOS 56 - 30. Top scores for Vidor were Ava Lightfoot with 9 points and 5 rebounds and Reagan Stephenson with 5 points and 7 rebounds. With the loss, the Lady Pirates are 0 - 5 in district, while WOS notched their first district win and are 1 - 3. No freshman or JV games were played.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is closing TX-1, TX-5, TX-6, TX-7 in Galveston Bay to commercial and recreational oyster harvest beginning at 12:01 a.m. Jan.

Penny Pinching A Shelby County game warden followed up on an ongoing investigation of a local individual who had hunted without a valid hunting license when he shot a buck in 2019. The subject confessed to not buying the license to save money for college.

The varsity Pirate and Lady Pirate basketball teams got off to an inauspicious start in the new year with twin losses. The Lady Pirates hosted the Buna Lady Cougars Saturday in a nondistrict match and fell to the visitors by a 54-17 margin.

The turning of the calendar to January signals the beginning of the 35th season of the Toyota Sharelunker program. The year-round Toyota Sharelunker program offers four levels of participation for catching bass over 8 pounds or 24 inches in Texas.