The growth of industrial-scale users of power could strain the Texas power grid, ERCOT’s chief announced last week. The Dallas Morning News reported Pablo Vegas, the agency’s CEO, said bitcoin miners and artificial intelligence data centers going in across the state, as well as industrial growth in the Permian Basin, could create the need for a massive buildup of power transmission lines in the future.

Greg Brooks of Big Spring says he got interested in throwing Frisbees when he was in college. “We would just go out and try to impress the girls.

Firefighters, police officers, military personnel, and various emergency response teams around the world use variations of what is commonly referred to as the “Incident Command System.” Embedded within the framework is a self-auditing tool called the “After Action Review”, where the team reviews outcomes by answering four questions 1. What was planned; 2. What actually happened; 3. Why did it happen; 4. What could be done differently.

Wow! what a rain, hail, kept me up all night nearly sure did mess up my sleep and I know all of you were the same. We got one and half inch here at the house, but when we went to church Sunday some of our friends east of us got four inches. That hail is what bothers me, sure can mess things up. Joe's garden and tomatoes took another beating, and the poor peaches that were left on the trees, I don't know. I had him to pull off all of them that were damaged the first time and told him those that were not hurt would get larger, the leaves protected some of them and some of them were close to the trunk of the tree and protected, well this time it got more of them, I told him yesterday when we were looking at them , maybe he would have 3 to eat!!!!!

Dear Editor, I believe the county judge wants to close the jail because of the cost. The jail currently is about four million dollars in debt due to outstanding bonds. The county spends four hundred thousand dollars a year on these bonds. The county currently has about 9.6 million in surplus funds. The county can now pay off the jail debt at any time and still have a large surplus. The judge might argue we need to keep that surplus and pay off the jail from the budget. The county collects $275,000 a year for at least the next five years from the abatement on the wind farms. The county is about to receive another abatement from an energy project but it is not clear if that is an annual abatement or a one time deal. So what is the true cost of running the jail? As per the Jail Commission requirements, it is $159 for an inmate. Most of that is pay for employees. So after the first inmate, it costs an additional $40 per day for each inmate as there is no additional employee cost. The jail can hold up to 22 inmates. The average daily number of inmates is about 7. Also, the way our county jail operates, the employee cost is on the high side because the second person at the jail is dispatch. Removing the cost of dispatch lowers the daily cost of inmates. Needless to say, taking in out-of-county inmates would help with the cost of the jail. The judge wants to save these costs. I believe the closing of the jail should be up to the citizens. I would ask the commissioners to approve the SB22 grant this year and next to allow the jail to get employees. I would then ask the commissioners court if they want to close the jail to put it to a vote. Don't close the jail by using the budget, not approving the SB22, thus having a lack of personnel. Randy Ford Rotan, TX 79546

It is never easy to say goodbye to our loved one. Our hearts are riddled with grief.

Spring has brought the blessings of rain and the trauma of storms (twisters) in the past two weeks. Nature has her way of soothing us and scaring us.

Living within seasons is not as simple as merely announcing our desire to do so. Last week, I observed that adjusting life to a seasonal-based approach would require adjustments over time. I gave an example of matching our diet to fit with the seasonal availability of certain fruits and vegetables.

Early voting began Monday, April 22 for municipal, school board and various bond elections. It ends on April 30 with Saturday, May 4 being election day. What is on the ballot depends on where you live.

While regular readers of this editorial column might find it difficult to believe that from time to time, I am occasionally struck with moments where I have nothing to say, as often my metaphorical soapbox has a catwalk. When it comes to my opinions about public education, rarely do I have silence to share.