Texas Lawmakers Close Session with Culture Clashes, Tax Cuts, and New Bans

The dust hasn’t quite settled on the 2025 legislative session, but here’s a sampling of bills already sent to Gov. Greg Abbott.• A ban on clubs supporting gay teens in public schools won final legislative passage on Saturday.

A Steam Train in the Piney Woods

Ben Campbell is a Palestine historian. His father and grandfather both worked for the railroad. “We lived fairly close to downtown,” he says. “The railroad came through here and I loved to hear the steam engines coming through.”Apparently those early memories had a big influence on him.

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.

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.

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.