Columns/Opinions

By ED STERLING

AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on July 2 notified 11 Texas cities that their ordinances against plastic shopping bags had been knocked down by the Texas Supreme Court.

Paxton said he issued letters to the cities of Austin, Sunset Valley, Port Aransas, Laguna Vista, Fort Stockton, Eagle Pass, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Kermit, Freer and South Padre Island “to ensure awareness of  he recent ruling and waste management responsibilities Texas law places on municipalities.”

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By TONI WALKER

I have recently spent a couple of weeks out of the office. I wish I could say that I went on some exotic cruise or some high-octane adventure, but honestly, I have simply been recovering from shoulder surgery. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t just been sitting at the house, catching cabin fever and feeling sorry for myself. I spent some time in Arkansas with family, so I guess you could say I did do a little bit of traveling.

Through the downtime I have had, I have been thinking about the paper. I have written before how many people believe community news is dead or dying. I still do not believe this to be true. I believe that as long as  here are communities where things are happening and people who do their best to inform the community of what goes on, there will always be newspaper. When people ask me why the paper is not like it used to be, I begin to get a little frustrated.

By JIM SNYDER

It saddens my heart every time I see and abandoned dog on the highway or someone’s Facebook post showing a lost doggie. Another alarming trend in recent years is the number of owners who simply surrender their dogs and cats to shelters simply because they don’t want them anymore. This breaks my heart to see so many dogs without loving homes. Why has so much of our society become so cold hearted?

Dogs are loving animals whose sole purpose in life is to bring joy to humans like us. Anyone who has experienced the love of a good dog will tell you there is no better feeling in the world. These creatures can do amazing things like lower our blood pressure and brighten our day when the whole world seems to be coming down around us.

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By ED STERLING

AUSTIN — The United States Supreme Court voted 5-4 on June 25 to approve 10 of 11 disputed Texas House and congressional redistricting maps used in the state’s 2014 and 2016 elections.

The court ruled that only Texas House District 90 in Fort Worth was gerrymandered along racial lines and therefore must be redrawn.

Except for the case of HD-90, the high court reversed findings issued by a three-judge panel of a San Antonio U.S. District Court in two cases known as Abbott v. Perez. Plaintiffs argued that Texas legislators intentionally gerrymandered certain districts to dilute the voting power of Hispanics and blacks, and in doing so violated the federal Voting Rights Act.

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By TONI WALKER

“I’ve got plenty of time.” “I will be back next week.” “I can’t wait until…” “I will do that after I …” We all have told ourselves at least one of these phrases in our lifetimes. It seems innocent enough to believe that we will always have enough time, or to look forward to a time in the future, such as graduation, weddings, and more. Many times, we come to learn those phrases are nothing but lies, and usually, we learn this the hard way.

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By ED STERLING

AUSTIN — Although border-crossing issues are largely federal matters, the Lone Star State has been a center of news reports about authorities separating children from their parents at detention centers along the Rio Grande.

President Trump on June 20 ordered a cease in the forced separation of family members who are in detention, but the fate of more than 2,000 minors who were taken away from their parents remained unresolved.

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