THE LUFKIN DAILY NEWS Sunday, december 13, 2020 5C LUFKINDAILYNEWS.COM

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501 Lufkin Ave. 634-2146 • 634-5323

Tues.–Fri. 9 am–5 pm • Sat. 9 am–2 pm

Quality, comfort, and convenience at every level

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Grace Qnique 21 PRO Longarm

Quilting Machine

Optional lighting system!

Nacogdoches62/40

Lufkin64/42

Longview59/37

Henderson60/42

Tyler60/42

Jacksonville60/43

Crockett61/44

Trinity65/49

Woodville66/48

Kountze71/50Cleveland

69/48

Gilmer57/38

Livingston67/47

Midland

San Antonio

Brownsville

Houston

Dallas

Wichita Falls

Austin

Amarillo

El Paso

UV INDEX TODAY

The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index™ number, the greater the need for eye and skin protection. 0-2 Low; 3-5 Moderate; 6-7 High; 8-10 Very High; 11+ Extreme.

8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m.

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

LUFKIN 3-DAY FORECAST

NATIONAL FORECAST TODAY

Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

LAKE LEVELS

Location Normal CurrentSam Rayburn Res. 164.5 159.95B.A. Steinhagen 85 82.78Lake Nacogdoches 279 276.08Toledo Bend Res. 172 168.13Lake Palestine 345 344.80Lake Livingston 131 130.92

As of 7 a.m. FridayLOCAL ALMANAC

POLLEN COUNT SUN AND MOON

TEMPERATURE High Low

PRECIPITATION (inches)

Source: NAB

24 hrs ending 7 p.m.Friday 1.40Month to date 2.57Normal month to date 1.67Year to date 40.19Normal year to date 46.31

Friday 71° 54°Normals 62° 40°Records 81° 19°

As of 7 p.m. Friday

Today Sun.

Sunrise 7:08 a 7:09 aSunset 5:17 p 5:18 pMoonrise 4:45 a 5:56 aMoonset 3:46 p 4:34 p

SOLUNAR TABLES Minor Major

The solunar period schedule allows planning days so you will be fishing in good territory or hunting in good cover during those times. Major periods begin at the times shown and last for 1.5 to 2 hours. The minor periods are shorter.

Sat. 2:41 a 8:55 a 3:09 p 9:23 pSun. 3:33 a 9:48 a 4:03 p 10:18 pMon. 4:31 a 10:46 a 5:02 p 11:17 pTue. 5:33 a 11:14 a 6:04 p ----Wed. 6:38 a 12:23 a 7:08 p 12:53 p

Partly sunny. Winds north at 4-8 mph.

RealFeel: 67° / 42°

Morning rain; mostly cloudy. Winds east at

6-12 mph.

RealFeel: 58° / 31°

Some clouds, then sunshine. Winds north at

4-8 mph.

RealFeel: 53° / 39°

MONDAYSUNDAYTODAY

50° 37°36°61°

The patented AccuWeather.com RealFeel Temperature® is an exclusive index of effective temperature based on eight weather factors.

63/42

73/49

82/70

71/51

57/40

53/36

70/47

48/27

64/40

1 2 3 2 1

Forecasts and graphics provided by

AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020

64° 42°

Grass LowTrees AbsentWeeds LowMold Low

SOcIaL SecurITy

HudSOn ScHOOL neWS

HudSOn ScHOOL neWS

By SHUNDRA WILLIAMSFor The Lufkin Daily News

If you receive a benefit verifica-tion letter, sometimes called a “budget letter,” a “benefits

letter,” a “proof of income letter,” or a “proof of award letter,” we have good news for you. A new standard-

ized benefit verification letter is now available when you need proof of Social Security benefits, Supplemen-tal Security Income or Medicare.

In addition to name, date of birth and the benefits received, the new benefit verification letter includes other identifiers to prevent misuse and fraud. This is an added benefit

to you as proof of income for loans, housing assistance, mortgage and other verification purposes.

The same standardized letter is also available if you need proof that you do not receive benefits or proof that benefits are pending. If you are an individual representative payee, you can use the my Social Security

Representative Payee portal to ac-cess the same standardized benefit verification letter online for your beneficiaries. This new standardized benefit verification letter is another example of our commitment to improve our service to you.

No matter how you request your letter, whether calling our national

800 number, your local office, the In-teractive Voice Response system, or online with your personal my Social Security account at ssa.gov/myac-count, the benefit verification letter now contains a seamless look.

Shundra Williams is the assistant district manager for the Social Security

Administration’s Lufkin office.

Get your new standardized benefit verification letter online

POLITIcS

GRACE JUAREZ/The Lufkin Daily News

United Way division chairs meet for a celebration luncheon Friday at Ralph & Kacoo’s to recognize meeting and exceeding their 2020 fundraising goal. The campaign raised $328,000, finishing at 113% over goal.

United Way celebration

By KATHY MAHRFor The Lufkin Daily News

District news: Hudson schools will have an early release at 1 p.m. Friday. Our schools will be closed

Dec. 21-Jan. 1, 2021, for the Christmas holidays and New Year’s Day. Staff will return to work on Jan. 4 and students will return to school on Jan 5.

The Hudson ISD Board of Trustees will have a regular meeting at 6 p.m.

Thursday in the board room at the back of the administration building. The meeting is open to the public.

The next school board election is May 1, 2021. That may seem like a long time away, however, the candidate filing pe-riod to file an application for a place on the ballot is Jan. 13, 2021, to Feb. 12, 2021.

Just a reminder that some of the middle school and high school basketball games are being canceled or resched-uled on short notice. This could be due

to our team or the opposing team being exposed to someone with COVID-19 and the teams being required to quarantine. Hudson ISD does require that anyone age 10 and up wear a mask when attend-ing events on our campuses.

Peavy Primary news: The last day to bring gifts for the Angel Tree at Peavy is Tuesday. Gifts should be sent un-wrapped.

Peavy students will have Elf and Pajama Day on Thursday.

Hudson schools gearing up for break

TYLER — East Texas Youth Orchestra, Inc. is proud to an-nounce two new ensembles: the return of the Preparatory Orchestra and the addition of Junior Jazz to our Jazz Acad-emy for Spring 2021.

After years of its absence, East Texas Youth Orchestra is excited and eager to offer open enrollment for Spring 2021 for the once prominent Preparato-ry Orchestra. The Preparato-ry Orchestra is a strings-only program suited for musicians who have at least one full year of experience with bowing techniques and reading music. They will continue to develop their technique and ensemble skills through rehearsals and performances in preparation for advancement up to our Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras.

“We are excited to expand

our offerings in our commu-nity,” said Felix Torres, artis-tic & executive director and conductor of the Symphony and Preparatory Orchestras. “From the moment I arrived at ETYO, I have felt strongly about bringing back the Pre-paratory Orchestra. Engaging musicians at such a young age is essential to the longevity of the arts across our industry. In addition to the Prepara-tory Orchestra, it’s exciting that we’re also bringing jazz to younger musicians through our Junior Jazz ensemble. Providing life-changing expe-riences through music is at the core of what we do, and we look forward to providing that for more young musicians.”

Additionally, ETYO is also introducing a new Jazz Acade-my program. The Junior Jazz will also feature musicians

who have at least one full year of playing experience on their instrument and can read mu-sic. The program is designed to encourage young musicians with jazz aspirations and in-terest to learn about the fun-damentals of improvisation. Junior jazz welcomes any in-strument type.

“I am so excited to start Ju-nior Jazz to help young musi-cians of any instrument learn the roots of jazz,” said Dr. Sarah Roberts, director of op-erations at Jazz Academy and conductor of the Jazz Academy Lab Band and Junior Jazz. “Af-ter a fantastic response during the last 3.5 years with the ETYO Jazz Academy Lab Band, the Junior Jazz will help provide a training ground for musicians. Additionally, it is an opportu-nity, unlike any other!”

Since the beginning, the

mission of East Texas Youth Orchestra, Inc. has been to provide exceptional musical experiences in arts education through a diverse set of pro-grams providing performanc-es that enrich its members and the community. With the addi-tion of these new programs, despite a year of uncertainty in the arts community, ETYO is ready to stand behind its mission and musicians for de-cades to come.

The Preparatory Orches-tra and Junior Jazz join our Symphony Orchestra, Phil-harmonic Orchestra, and Jazz Academy Lab Band. Auditions for all ETYO ensembles are currently open for qualifying students ready to join these programs for Spring 2021.

Learn more about auditions and requirements by visiting etyo.org/auditions.

Youth orchestra announces new ensembles

arOund THe naTIOn

From wire reports

Supreme Court rejects attack on Biden victory

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit backed by President Donald Trump to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory, ending a desperate attempt to get legal issues rejected by state and federal judges before the nation’s highest court and subvert the will of voters.The high court’s order was a stark repudiation of a legal claim that was widely regarded as dubious, yet embraced by the president, 19

Republican state attorneys general and 126 House Republicans.

US allows emergency COVID-19 vaccine in bid to end pandemic

WASHINGTON — The U.S. gave the final go-ahead Friday to the nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine, marking what could be the beginning of the end of an outbreak that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans.

Shots for health workers and nursing home residents are expected to begin in the coming days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized an emer-gency rollout of what promises to be a strongly protective vaccine from Pfizer

Inc. and its German partner BioNTech. Initial doses are scarce and rationed as

the U.S. joins Britain and several other countries in scrambling to vaccinate as many people as possible ahead of a long, grim winter. It will take months of work to tamp down the coronavirus that has surged to catastrophic levels in recent weeks and already claimed 1.5 million lives globally.

While the FDA decision came only after public review of data from a huge ongoing study, it has also been dogged by intense political pressure from the Trump administration, which has ac-cused the agency of being too slow and even threatened to remove FDA chief Stephen Hahn if a ruling did not come Friday.