Opinion

The second special session of the Texas Legislature ended last Thursday with a new congressional map, flood relief and safety measures but a stalemate on whether to ban or regulate THC. The Dallas Morning News reported that lawmakers approved most of the legislative priorities Gov. Greg Abbott listed for the special session.

“Here’s a novel idea: read more fiction,” blared the headline of a recent Wall Street Journal article by Gerard Baker. (The less said about that other Journal headline, “Here’s a limerick idea: buy a timeshare in Nantucket,” the better.) Baker gruffly lamented the digital age and society’s abhorrence of reading books in general, but he laid a particularly strong guilt trip on the males who do still read for gravitating toward nonfiction (history, biographies, self-help, The Big Book of Just A Couple of Beers, Officer Explanations, etcetera) instead of novels or short stories.

Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation redrawing Texas’ congressional map on Friday. A lawsuit challenging the redrawn districts as being racially discriminatory was filed even before the bill became law.

I attended a meeting with the Deputy Director of Gobbledygook — and his interpreter — to learn why government rules, regulations and guidance documents are so hard to read and understand. “When President Obama signed the Plain Writing Act of 2010,” I said, “federal agencies were required to use ‘clear government communication that the public can understand and use.’ Why are we still drowning in incomprehensible language?” “Your query presents a multifaceted conundrum,” said the bureaucrat, “that highlights the broader paradox of procedural continuity.” “Huh?” I said to his interpreter.

Dear Editor, I think it is time I extend a huge thank you to Fort Stockton for their amazing support for M2M (marathon 2 marathon) each year for many years. Gabriel Zamora at Fort Stockton ISD has offered two buses driven by James Warnock and Chayo Gonzales to transport our racers to each of the four race starts on Hwy.

Both the Texas House and Senate have passed a middecade redistricting bill that positions the GOP to pick up five additional congressional seats next year. Passage came after House Democrats ended their quorum-breaking walkout while still vowing to pursue legal challenges.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” “Let me check my calendar.” “Meh.” “You mean I still haven’t outlived all those #@%& low-lifes?” As you doubtless know, those are the four main responses when a class reunion invitation arrives. (Close runner-up: “If I remember my eighth-grade civics teacher correctly, this first-class stamp cost almost as much as FDR’s New Deal.”) Me? I had a wonderful time at the recent reunion of the Marshall County High School (Lewisburg, Tennessee) Class of 1978 (our first in 17 years).

Dear Editor, My phone was ringing off the hook Tuesday by people who wanted to attend the regularly scheduled hospital Board meeting. They were being turned away at the door that only hospital employees are allowed.

Dear Editor, My name is Travis Dimler - I live and work on a ranch in the Glass Mountains in northern Brewster County. AEP/CPS is planning to build a 765 KV electrical transmission line (as large as they get in TX) going from San Antonio to the substation where Hovey Road meets IH-10.

With a quorum-breaking number of House Democrats still out of state, House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, gaveled the first special session to an end Friday. Gov. Greg Abbott immediately called a second special session that has already convened.