Hill Country News

Times of trouble remind us Texas open government laws are here for everyone

Across the state, Texans are keeping a closer eye on their government. They’re asking questions and demanding information. There’s a renewed awareness of our transparency laws.Times of trouble … more

By Kelley Shannon, Guest Columnist | 9/28/22

Disney's latest remake a window into race in America

Witnessing the faces of little Black girls across the nation light up with glee as they saw previews of actress Halle Bailey from the live action version “The Little Mermaid,” was both … more

By Elwood Watson, Guest Columnist | 9/28/22

A military recruitment center in Times Square in Manhattan on Sept. 4, 2020, in New York City.

Commentary: Recruiting crisis should be a wakeup call for the military and its treatment of women

This year, the U.S. military is behind recruiting goals by 23%, with the Army alone estimating it will miss goals by nearly 40,000 personnel over the next two years. Now, with the Supreme Court’s … more

By Daniel Johnson, Guest Columnist | 9/21/22

US Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office building in Washington, DC on June 9, 2021.

Commentary: A Texas judge just took religious ‘freedom’ too far

The long march of religious liberty exemptions is gaining speed. The people who brought you contraceptive care exemptions and COVID rule and vaccine exemptions have now moved on to insurance for … more

By Noah Feldman, Guest Columnist | 9/21/22

President Joe Biden, flanked by, from left, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), delivers remarks and signs the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 into law in the State Dining Room of the White House on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022, in Washington, D.C.

Commentary: A miss in the Inflation Reduction Act: Better paid leave policies

The Inflation Reduction Act is now law. In the long run, the law is expected to have beneficial effects on deficit reduction as per the Congressional Budget Office. Through extensions of Affordable … more

By Aparna Mathur and Rachel Jacoby, Guest Columnists | 9/16/22

Crisp: It's time to end the practice of spanking children.

Commentary: Isn’t it time we stop hitting our kids?

It’s odd: You’re having dinner with friends in a nice restaurant. One of them reaches for the breadsticks and carelessly elbows his water glass, swamping the tablecloth.Immediately, his concerned … more

By John M. Crisp, Guest Columnist | 9/14/22

Commentary: Health care confusion

I’m confused.I got the flu a few months ago, the worst flu I’d ever had. It wasn’t COVID — I have never tested positive for COVID — but it was a humdinger.For more than a week, I was a lump … more

By Tom Purcell, Guest Columnist | 9/8/22

The U.S. Supreme Court building as seen on Sunday, July 11, 2021, in Washington, D.C.

Commentary: How the scourge of originalism is taking over the Supreme Court

In 1987, the Senate resoundingly rejected the nomination of Judge Robert Bork for the Supreme Court because it found his originalist views unacceptable. As a law professor, Bork argued that the … more

By Erwin Chemerinsky, Guest Columnist | 9/7/22

President Joe Biden deserves credit for choosing relatively moderate forgiveness figures while putting stronger emphasis on loan repayment in his student debt action.

Commentary: Biden’s debt cancellation will help millions, but it won’t end the student loan crisis

In a remarkable move, the Biden administration on Wednesday announced that it would cancel millions of dollars in federal student loans, giving struggling student borrowers some concrete good news. … more

By Jonathan D. Glater and Dalié Jiménez, Guest Columnists | 8/31/22

Texas has a new law requiring all public schools to post "In God We Trust," the national motto.

Commentary: This Texas law is bad for church and state

The Texas legislature passed Senate Bill 797 more than a year ago, but school districts and citizens were preoccupied with the pandemic. No one paid much attention to S.B. 797’s requirement that … more

By John M. Crisp, Guest Columnist | 8/30/22

Commentary: Local journalists tell stories national media won’t

A lot of people think that the pinnacle of journalism is working for a publication with national exposure, like The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal or The Chicago Tribune. These … more

By Christine Flowers, Guest Columnist | 8/24/22

News headlines on the impeachment trial of Donald Trump are displayed outside of the Fox headquarters on Feb. 9, 2021, in New York City.

Commentary: Do we make bad assumptions about the news coverage we see?

Recently I was struck by a conversation I had with a progressive friend. When I noted the significant decrease in extreme world poverty over the past two decades — a remarkable achievement that has … more

By Sandy Goldberg, Guest Columnist | 8/17/22

The internet is how Gen Z becomes informed — and too often misinformed — about the world, the authors write.

Commentary: What happens when TikTok is your main source of news and information

Sam Wineburg is a professor of education at Stanford University and founder of the Stanford History Education Group, where Nadav Ziv is a research associate.

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By Sam Wineburg and Nadav Ziv, Guest Columnists | 8/11/22

Commentary: The keys to living well

Comedian Carl Reiner was good at living well — and he lived well until the age of 98.I recently watched his 2017 HBO documentary, “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast.”It introduces … more

By Tom Purcell, Guest Columnist | 8/10/22

Republican Dan Cox greets his supporters on July 19, 2022, at his gubernatorial primary victory party in Emmitsburg, Maryland. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/TNS)

Commentary: Guess who’s playing voter manipulation games now

Private citizen Joe Biden and the Democratic Party were absolutely right way back when they kept demanding an investigation of what we’d just learned: Russia had interfered big-time in … more

Martin Schram, Tribune News Service (TNS) | 8/6/22

Jon Stewart speaks to the press before a news conference about the Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act on Capitol Hill on Thursday, July 28, 2022, in Washington, D.C.

Commentary: Veterans become political pawns

It was four in the afternoon on March 10, 1991, when the first planned explosion of Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons went off at the U.S. weapons depot in Khamisiyah, Iraq, and the first … more

By Martin Schram, Tribune News Service (TNS) | 8/3/22

COMMENTARY: Big Tech is steamrolling America’s newspapers

Google and Facebook have enormous economic and political power in society — especially over the news industry. Many ask if they have played a role in the misinformation that erodes our free press … more

By Brett Wesner, Guest Columnist | 7/21/22

COMMENTARY: Does your body hate you?

Trust me when I declare that I am not competing for sympathy against folks suffering from cancer, blocked arteries, diabetes or other serious ailments.I do nonetheless think that my body is out to … more

By Danny Tyree, Guest Columnist | 7/21/22

COMMENTARY: Supreme Court likes separation of powers, but not of church and state

The Constitution is famously built on checks and balances, but nowhere does it specifically call for a "separation of powers" or insist on a "separation of church and state."Those two widely … more

By David G. Savage, Guest Columnist | 7/13/22

A person wears an NRA hat in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 21, 2022.

Commentary: The Supreme Court gets an F in history for its rationales in abortion, gun rulings

It happens at least once a semester. My students and I will be discussing a contested political issue – say, affirmative action or capital punishment – and someone will ask, “Professor, … more

By Jonathan Zimmerman, Guest Columnist | 7/7/22

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