Opinion

With school back in full swing, I’d like to say a few words about teachers, without whom none of us would know what in the heck to do with the word “whom.” I come from a long-ish line of teachers myself. My mother taught elementary and middle school for over thirty years, and my grandmother also had a brief stint practicing the pedagogical arts.I guess you could say teaching is in my blood – like a serious infection.

A federal investigation into five state facilities concluded children in custody face excessive force, sexual abuse and a lack of vital services, The Dallas Morning News reported. At a news conference last week, Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said children held in those facilities are not receiving the treatment and rehabilitation they are supposed to get.

I’ve heard it said that things happen in threes, especially tragedies, deaths and doses of Pepto Bismol after a big Tex-Mex dinner. My own three defining experiences over the past few weeks can’t be described as tragedies, per se, so I’ll refer to them as catastrophes, instead.

“The trouble with our praying is, we just do it as a means of last resort.” — Will Rogers (1879 — 1935) American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. “More old coffee drinkers solving the world’s problems, and more prayer.

A huge pot of federal rail funding and chronic highway congestion are prompting some Texas officials to again consider expanding passenger rail in Texas, according to The Texas Standard. Congress set aside $66 billion three years ago in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for rail projects across the country, sparking some interest in increasing passenger rail service between the state’s major cities.

This summer, my wife and I took a vacation with our three semi-grown daughters to one of the most expensive places in America. No, we didn’t visit our local insurance office.

Now that two of my daughters are away at college and the one still at home basically views me as an ATM in an unfashionable neighborhood, I’ve tried to find myself a hobby. Since I’m not interested in activities that involve getting out of bed before noon on a Saturday, that pretty much rules out most manlytype- outdoorsy stuff that would require me to sweat profusely in a tent, clean an animal carcass or have one of my friends pluck a tick from a region of my anatomy that I can’t reach.

Dear great citizens of Fort Stockton, A few weeks ago, my daughter and son-in-law, Ray and Wendy Bennett and the employees of Beall’s arranged a fundraiser for me. I have kidney cancer and I’m receiving immunotherapy and Chemotherapy in Dallas.

As the dog days of August approach and electric bills soar, the Public Utility Commission is reminding consumers of rules in place to protect them from having their power disconnected due to financial difficulties, especially during extreme heat.

CAPITAL HIGHLIGHTS More than 2 million Texans lost power when Hurricane Beryl hit the Texas coast, and Gov. Greg Abbott wants to know why.