local news, political news, State news

Abortion to ‘challenge’ Texas Legislature?

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The headline atop the front page of the Dallas Morning News screamed out that the new Texas Legislature faces many “challenges” as it prepares to get to work on our behalf for the next five months.

One of them surely is going to be abortion and whether legislators are intent on banning all abortive procedures, all of ’em, making women, spouses and docs criminals.

Newly sworn in Rep. Brent Money, R-Greenville, says categorically that Texas must ban all abortion, citing what he said is “God’s creation” being sacred to merit legislation by mere mortal human beings. He appeared this morning on WFAA-TV’s “Inside Politics” program.

I will disagree with the gentleman. He doesn’t seem to take into account what happens to a child who is born with debilitating deformities. Who cannot care for herself or himself. Whose birth puts Mama’s health — and life — in jeopardy.

I offer those caveats as a pro-life Texas resident myself. I consider myself pro-life, however, I do not believe in legislating from afar whether a woman can take command of her own body or whether she must surrender her reproductive rights because some lawmaker in Austin forces her to do so.

Rep. Money is taking the seat once held by another right-wing extremist, Bryan Slaton, who was drummed out of the House because he got a female legislative staffer drunk as a skunk before having sex with her.

I am going out on a limb here, but I do not believe most Texans adhere to Money’s view that we need to ban all abortion, period.

There in could lie Texas lawmakers’ huge “challenge” as they prepare to convene their next session this week.

May the force of common sense and compassion be with all of them.

local news, media news

Remembering final big move

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Thirty years ago this week, I piled most of my worldly possessions into a 1987 Honda Civic and set out for what would be the final stop on my fun-filled career in print journalism.

I had spent nearly 11 years pursuing my craft in Beaumont, Texas, but then an opportunity presented itself in a community far from the Gulf Coast … but still part of this vast state of ours.

I moved to Amarillo. People have asked me over the years when I moved to the Panhandle, and I have been able to tell them the precise date. I reported for work at the Amarillo Globe-News on Jan. 9, 1995. I departed Beaumont on Jan. 6; it took a while to drive from the swamp to the High Plains.

I made one overnight stop in Fort Worth to see some dear friends before trudging northwest along U.S. 287.

But I got to Amarillo. I would learn later of a quip I adopted and have used many times: It is so flat in the Panhandle that if you stand on your tiptoes, you can see the back of your own head. 

It helps, too, that the region is so barren that there’s little tall timber to block that view.

The point of this brief blog? It’s to highlight the flexibility and adaptability I didn’t realize I possessed when I decided to move from my native Oregon to Texas in 1984.

They used to run a tourism ad that called Texas a “whole other country.” How true it is. Beaumont not only is a lengthy mileage distance from the Panhandle, the Gulf Coast possesses a whole other culture. Whereas the Panhandle prides itself on its cowboy tradition, the Golden Triangle takes pride in its Cajun southern culture. Both places appeal to me greatly.

Life took another huge turn in March 2013 when my granddaughter came into this world. My bride and I set about preparing to move from the Panhandle to the Metroplex. It took a while, but we got here.

I guess I want simply to salute the journey my career enabled me to take. Kathy Anne and I saw much of this country and a good part of world on that trek. Texas gave us the opportunity to live a wonderful life.

We have been blessed beyond all measure. My journey continues.

crime news

He stands as a convicted felon!

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Donald J. Trump’s list of “firsts” to be included in his obituary already comprises an unbelievable litany of disgraceful episodes in this man’s truly bizarre life.

First president to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives.

First president to boast about his martial unfaithfulness.

First president to be accused of seeking to overthrow the government.

And now this: First president to enter his second non-consecutive term in office as a convicted felon.

New York District Judge Juan Merchan today issued a sentence that finalizes Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of paying a porn actress $130,000 to keep quiet about a tryst the two of them had … but that Trump denies ever occurring. Merchan could have sent Trump to prison. He didn’t. He chose instead to issue what they call “unconditional discharge,” meaning that Donald Trump is free to take the oath of office in 10 days.

He will, though, be indelibly stained by the felony conviction on his record. Not that it matters a bit to this narcissistic sociopath who doesn’t exhibit a scintilla of contrition for the verdict delivered by a jury of his peers.

He plans to appeal the conviction.

I am going to accept the judge’s decision to take the action he took. I won’t do so gleefully. I am saddened by the reality that Trump was elected this past November after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden. Voters “fired” Trump from his first job as president, only to send him back … even after he promised to pardon many of the Jan. 6 mobsters who stormed the Capitol that day to stop the certification of the election that Trump lost.

We have just witnessed a dark day in our nation’s rich and varied history.

crime news

We’re going to get a felon as POTUS

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Thanks to a narrow ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, it now is a cinch that on Jan. 20, a convicted felon is going to take the office as the next president of the United States of America.

Donald John Trump won’t do any time in prison, but his conviction on 34 felony counts will stand. The judge in the case involving the hush money that Trump paid to an adult film actress is going to sentence Trump on Friday morning. He won’t send Trump to the slammer. At this point, though, Trump’s incarceration is a side issue.

He will take office as a convicted felon.

Trump had sought to delay the sentencing. SCOTUS voted 5-4 to reject Trump’s appeal. Conservatives John Roberts and Any Coney Barrett joined the court liberals in telling Trump: It’s time to suck it up, big fella.

As they say, it only takes one vote.

And so …. Donald Trump will avoid slammer time, but he’ll still carry the label of felon.

environmental news

Heroes emerge to battle fire

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Where does someone far from the action weigh in on a catastrophe unfolding in one of our 50 states?

Fires have consumed tens of thousands of acres of land in southern California. At least six people have died in the inferno. The federal government has declared the area to be a major disaster requiring the government’s full effort.

And yet we hear rumblings that the new presidential administration might be getting set to scale back dramatically the work of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, which was established in the Carter administration to facilitate federal response to disaster.

This cannot happen. And yet the new administration is being led by an individual who believes climate change is a “hoax,” that doesn’t really exist. He is tragically wrong.

I want to concentrate this brief blog post on the heroes who have rushed to the aid of California’s beleaguered firefighters. They have descended on California from throughout the western United States; some have traveled even farther to lend their aid.

The wind has raged across the mountainous region, sending embers many miles to ignite more fire. Entire communities are destroyed, reminding many observers of what occurred in 2024 in Maui. Indeed, I once lived in a region — the Texas Panhandle — that in recent years suffered through the largest wildfire in Texas history, killing thousands of livestock and at least a couple of residents of the region.

The California fires are hard to watch even from some distance.

Is climate change a factor? I believe it is. Thus, we must double-down on our efforts to arrest the conditions that continue to contribute to the changing climate.

Meanwhile, I am going to do what a pastor friend of mine described as “the most we can do” … which is to pray for the well-being of those affected by the unfolding tragedy.,

national news

Carter gets loving sendoff

As far as presidential state funerals go, today’s event honoring the life and legacy of the late President Jimmy Carter was one for the ages.

I don’t generally choose to sit through a televised funeral from start to finish. Today, I did precisely that.

I was struck by several images. One was of Donald J. Trump chatting amicably with Barack H. Obama. Another was the sight of all the living former vice presidents and their wives in the row behind the two presidents. Still another was of the huge Carter family sitting across the aisle, with Amy Carter wiping tears from her eyes.

Steve Ford, son of the late Gerald Ford, and Ted Mondale, son of the late Walter Mondale, read their fathers’ eulogies to Carter, thinking they would outlive the former president who died at age 100.

One family, though, was notably absent from the proceeding today. Nor was there any mention of the patriarch’s name. Former President Ronald Reagan didn’t get a mention that I heard. I saw no evidence of any of Reagan’s three surviving children at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Ronald Reagan, of course, defeated Carter’s re-election bid in a near-historic landslide in 1980.

That there would be nothing stated about Carter’s immediate successor, though, seemed odd and a bit bizarre.

All told, President Carter received a well-earned tribute to his humility, his Christian faith, and the great work he did in the four decades of a full life he lived since the presidency.

national news

How will next POTUS respond?

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I harbor some reluctance to bring this up, but I am going to do so anyway and risk some blowback from MAGA cultists who read this blog.

It is to wonder how the POTUS-elect is going to respond verbally to the tragedy that is unfolding in Los Angeles County, Calif. The worst wildfires reportedly in southern California history are ravaging entire cities, forcing the evacuations of hundreds of thousands of people.

We have heard how Donald Trump has responded before to disasters affecting communities that did not support him politically. He scolds their leadership for alleged incompetence. He does so instead of offering the government’s full support.

California suffered serious damage during Trump’s first term in office. He responded by lecturing leaders on how to keep the brush clear. Why did he do that? Because California is a “blue” state where most voters cast their ballots for Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024.

I am one American patriot who wants to hear whether the president-elect can exhibit some semblance of compassion and grace. I fear he won’t … and that he will make me angry all over again.

legal news

Finally … a jury summons!

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Nearly six years into my Collin County, Texas, residency and I finally — finally! I am telling you — received a jury summons.

Call me a glutton for punishment, but I want to be selected to serve on a trial jury.

I came close once to getting selected for a trial jury. It occurred in Amarillo back in the late 1990s. I got the summons, reported for duty, then got herded into a jury pool waiting room where we cooled our jets for most of the day.

Then the judge who managed the jury selection, 47th District Judge David Gleason, excused us. I must have been the only juror wannabe who expressed disappointment at that moment.

You see, I long have been fascinated by the criminal justice system. I have wanted to serve on a jury since the time I first became eligible, which I guess was when I turned 21 years of age.

I never received a jury summons when I lived in Oregon. I have received several of them since moving to Texas in the spring of 1984. Except for the near-selection in Randall County, my other summonses ended with a “don’t report” order, meaning the court system didn’t need me that day.

I suppose I could seek an exemption based on my age; I am 75 years old now and I do not have to report. I won’t do that. I want to serve on a jury.

My reporting time is about a month away. I am going to hope for the best and hope they need me to do my duty as a citizen. Hey, it’s the least I can do.

national news

‘L’ word doesn’t exist

Donald Trump wallowed today in the “L” word to describe the 2024 presidential election.

In Trump’s universe, the “L” word is shorthand for “landslide.” He kept saying during a rambling, nonsensical presser with reporters in Mar-a-Lago, Fla., that he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in a “landslide.”

Let me be crystal clear — again! No, he did not ride a landslide of votes to victory in 2024!

He made some remark about winning the popular vote by “millions of votes.” Let’s see, he pulled in fewer than 2.3 million more votes than Harris. Let’s also note that more than 155 million ballots were cast. Now, when you say “millions of votes” separated them, my own perspective tells me it’s more than what Trump rolled up against the VP. Yes, he won more votes than any Republican presidential candidate in history, so I’ll give him that.

But the landslide he said he scored does not exist.

I just want to be clear on that point.

I won’t go into the rest of the idiocy that flowed from this fellow’s mouth. Doing so would mean I would miss something critical.

Landslide? It did not occur in 2024.

national news

Electoral certification? Nothing to it … this time!

Just as some of us had predicted, Jan. 6 came and went today without a hitch. Congress met to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election and the vice president … who came out on the losing end of it, declared it official.

The deal was done, just as the U.S. Constitution prescribes it.

A point of context is in order, of course. Four years, another Congress and another vice president gathered in the Capitol to do that very thing. The nimrod who lost the election, Donald Trump, had other ideas. He said the result was rigged. He sent the mob to the Capitol to stop the process.

The attack on our government has relegated Jan. 6, 2021, to a list of infamous dates: Dec. 7, 1941, and Sept. 11, 2001, come immediately to mind. We now just refer to the latter date as “9/11” and we know what it means.

When you say “Jan. 6” these days, we know what you mean there as well.

It’s not supposed to be remembered in that fashion. It’s a routine event, conducted peacefully, orderly and in keeping with what the founders envisioned. It is the hallmark of our democratic republic.

Vice President Kamala Harris made me proud today when she declared that Donald Trump had been duly elected president. Not that Trump had won by defeating Harris, but that she did her constitutional duty without fear of an uprising.

It is how our government is supposed to work.

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