Rogers: Texas GOP is becoming anti-rural

Originally published in the Dallas Morning News on May 24, 2025.Party and its allies oppose small-town Texas’ biggest priorities. Our great state is experiencing an explosive population boom.

2 Cents Worth

Good morning to all my friends who read my column let's visit awhile!!!!!! I took the week off last week from painting, thought Joe was going to have to go stay with his son, Buzz as we call him, but really is Joe holland Jr., but he's doing great from open heart surgery.

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Thank you for your editorial last week on the folly of the Fisher CountyCommissioners Court and the jail.A good number of citizens showed up last year at the budget sessions. Commissioner Evans said he wouldn’t close the jail if he could find the money.

Faces & Places

“We all have thorns in our flesh. All of us. Love is when we stay and help someone pluck out their thorns one-by-one and they do the same for us. Love is also when we pluck the thorns out of our own flesh, one-by-one.

Less than a week remains in legislative session

With the legislative session ending on Monday, June 2, lawmakers are scrambling to pass or kill bills, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Among the bills passed or likely to soon pass:• All handgun licenses issued in other states will be honored in Texas if, as expected, Gov.

2 Cents Worth

Wonderful rain , Joe is happy his garden is under water again, the barrels are full, wishes he had more barrels, and the hail we got yesterday afternoon did not hurt the squash vines or the tomato vines.

Burton’s Famous Cotton Gin

“We’re preserving the stories that happened all over Texas and the world really,” says Stephanie Jarvis of Burton, population 300 near Brenham. She curates the Cotton Gin Gin Museum, one of the small town’s major attractions.

SERVING BUDGETS AND PROTECTING BACKSIDES

The weeks following high school graduation mark a strange season: One part conclusion, one part preparation.

Faces & Places

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored.

Lawmakers agree on $8 billion school funding package

Leaders from the Texas House and Senate have agreed on an $8 billion school funding package, which is being called the largest in state history, The Dallas Morning News reported.The latest version of House Bill 2 was unveiled at a Senate hearing Thursday.