Opinion

“Hear that lonesome whippoorwill/ He sounds too blue to fly/ The midnight train is whining low…” – Hank Williams Among the books I mean to get around to reading is Neil Ansell’s “The Edge of Silence: In Search of the Disappearing Sounds of Nature.” Although Ansell’s book focuses on his gradual hearing loss and his globetrotting quest to experience endangered species in the wild, I suspect we can find applications closer to home. Just as sprawling city lights have rendered most of us incapable of doing the sort of stargazing our ancestors took for granted (“I think I see part of Orion’s Belt… it’s getting closer…wait, did the Greeks have any myths about Orion delivering packages for Amazon?”), an unrelenting barrage of ambulance sirens, beeping car horns, diesel engines and jackhammers separates us from the once-familiar sounds of nature.

CAPITAL HIGHLIGHTS Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked the Texas Supreme Court to remove 13 of the more than 50 House Democrats who fled the state to break quorum and effectively halt the special session to prevent a mid-decade redistricting plan, the Austin American-Statesman reported. “These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process and violated the oath they swore to uphold,” Paxton said in a statement.

Pay no attention to the seemingly frozen clock in sixth-period trigonometry class. Time is moving way too swiftly.

CAPITAL HIGHLIGHTS Texas Democrats left the state Sunday in hopes of derailing a mid-decade redistricting plan, The Dallas Morning News reported. State Rep.

“For whenever two or more of you are gathered in His name/ There is booze, there is booze…” – apologies to Paul Stookey According to the Wall Street Journal, six percent of couples polled by wedding-planning website Zola will host a completely alcohol-free wedding in 2025. (Coincidentally, six percent of America’s potential guests find themselves telling each other, “Dear, I’d love to attend your sister’s wedding in November, but I think that’s the weekend I’m having an emergency elective root canal, darn it.”) Yes, whether it’s because of health-consciousness, religious values or guilt about unleashing inebriated guests on the highway, more couples are embracing the “dry” weddings trend.

Dear Editor, Nearly a year after Fort Stockton’s historic downtown district was thrust into a oneway traffic experiment, the City Council is now confronting a growing wave of public discontent, with residents and business owners demanding clarity, accountability, and change. On October 1, 2024, Ordinance No.

CAPITAL HIGHLIGHTS The number of people still missing in the July 4 Kerr County flood dropped to two after another body was recovered last week, the Austin American-Statesman reported. The two still missing are a child and an adult who were at Camp Mystic, where at least 27 campers and counselors died.

“And we was too broke to even pay heed/But that’s how it is when you’re po’ folks.” – Bill Anderson. I was intrigued by a recent USA Today article about “poorpeople” habits (i.e.

Gov. Greg Abbott said late last week that the statewide death toll from the catastrophic flooding in the Hill Country stands at 135, and the number of persons missing has dropped to three.

Is work-life balance dead, and will you even find time to attend the funeral? During different phases of my five-decade working career, I have worked all three shifts, toiled every holiday, struggled with doubled production quotas, accepted 48 hours as a standard work week and missed countless family events. Still, today’s job applicants are facing unprecedented obstacles to squeezing in a little “me” time.