Hill Country News

Visitors to the Grand Central Market are mostly masked on Tuesday, July 27, 2021, in Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Commentary: Personal responsibility matters in fight against COVID. So does good public health info

On Thursday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a new executive order that will make it harder for local officials to require face coverings, including in schools, and forbids … more

Cynthia M. Allen, Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TNS) | 8/2/21

U.S. gymnast Simone Biles reacts after competing on the uneven bars in the women's team qualifying at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on Sunday, July 25, 2021. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Commentary: Simone Biles delivered a mental health message much of the world wasn’t ready to hear

When Simone Biles withdrew from the Olympic women’s gymnastics team final last week because of her mental health, I couldn’t help but think of another Olympian — Canadian sports … more

Jillian Horton, Los Angeles Times (TNS) | 8/2/21

A migrant child waits with his family in McAllen.

Analysis: Groundhog Day in Texas

School starts in August, just as what could have been a return to normal has become the resurrection of the pandemic in the new guise of the delta variant. more

By Ross Ramsey, The Texas Tribune | 8/2/21

A legislator talks on the phone from a desk on the Texas House floor on July 19.

Analysis: Texas government has to put Humpty Dumpty together again

Nobody in state government could count shutting down the Texas Legislature as a political win. Gov. Greg Abbott’s veto of the legislative branch’s budget was successful in getting him … more

By Ross Ramsey, The Texas Tribune | 7/29/21

A small sign at Buford’s bar in downtown Austin directed customers to continue to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines on March 12, the first weekend after Gov. Greg Abbott removed limits on occupancy and lifted restrictions on masks in businesses across Texas.

Analysis: A virus unfettered among the unvaccinated

At this time last year, we were at what was then a peak in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, facing a pandemic that could hit every person in the state. Now, Texas and the U.S. have a … more

By Ross Ramsey, The Texas Tribune | 7/22/21

A section of the border wall along the Rio Grande in South Texas.

Analysis: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott heads for the border

The Texas Legislature has gone home, and Gov. Greg Abbott — who’ll be seeking reelection next year — has returned to the top concern of the state’s Republican voters: … more

By Ross Ramsey, The Texas Tribune | 6/14/21

The year of the pandemic could result in potentially positive changes in the workplace. (Dreamstime/TNS)

How work will change permanently after the pandemic

Last spring, the COVID-19 pandemic caused perhaps the worst job losses since the Great Depression. The decrease in the labor force participation rate — from 63.3% to 61.3% — has been … more

Joel Kotkin, Los Angeles Times (TNS) | 6/14/21

Americans have a profound lack of trust in one another. America Talks aims to change that. (Nate Pesce/The Baltimore Sun/TNS)

Rebuilding trust, one conversation at a time

The ever-growing democracy reform movement is built around the idea that the American democracy is in trouble because the system is broken. Those with money have an outsize influence on politics. … more

David Meyers, The Fulcrum (TNS) | 6/13/21

Allowing poor children to go hungry would cost society more than Biden’s child tax credit expansion

For some, President Joe Biden’s plan to deposit up to $300 per child into the bank accounts of millions of low-income American families each month might seem like another senseless Democratic … more

Dahleen Glanton, Chicago Tribune (TNS) | 6/12/21

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), participates in a discussion on the Right to Bear Arms during the Conservative Political Action Conference held in the Hyatt Regency on February 27, 2021, in Orlando, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images/TNS)

The debate about critical race theory and the trouble with living in denial

I’m a big believer in self-reflection on a personal level, a professional level and a societal level. I firmly believe that if we as individuals and collectively are able to critically think about our failures … more

Charles T. Clark, The San Diego Union-Tribune (TNS) | 6/12/21

Schools have wasted a chance to learn and get better. (Dreamstime/TNS)

Schools let a yearlong crisis go to waste

With less than a month to go before summer holidays, schools in Berlin are about to reopen for normal classroom learning. It’s not much of a relief; I have a sinking feeling that my younger … more

Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg Opinion (TNS) | 6/11/21

The Van Buren v. U.S. case revealed a generational divide among Supreme Court justices. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images/TNS)

Supreme Court’s generational divide seen in computer fraud case

In an important 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court pushed back against prosecutorial overreach in computer-related misconduct. What’s most interesting about the case is the breakdown among the … more

Noah Feldman, Bloomberg Opinion (TNS) | 6/10/21

Teach a man to fish ... or not

You may have heard the proverb, “Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you’ll feed him for a lifetime of crushing debt after he buys the boat, trailer, … more

Jase Graves | 6/9/21

Former Afghan interpreters for the U.S. and NATO forces gather during a demonstration in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan on April 30, 2021, on the eve of the beginning of Washington's formal troop withdrawal — although forces have been drawn down for months. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

US exit from Afghanistan spells doom for translators, unless Biden steps in

The pleas from Afghan interpreters under Taliban death threat because they worked for the U.S. military are growing increasingly desperate — as the last U.S. troops aim to exit before … more

Trudy Rubin, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS) | 6/9/21

George P. Bush gives a eulogy during the funeral for former President George H.W. Bush at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, on Dec. 6, 2018 in Houston, Texas. Bush is running for state attorney general. (David J. Phillip/Pool/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

Embracing Trump, a Bush puts fealty above family in bid for Texas attorney general

George P. Bush, the Texas land commissioner, announced last week his bid for the Republican nomination for state attorney general. "We need an attorney general that's above reproach," Bush said in … more

Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times (TNS) | 6/9/21

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Dec. 22, 2020, in Bethesda, Maryland. (Patrick Semansky/Pool/Getty Images/TNS)

The right’s attack on Fauci shows it has nothing in its policy tank but slogans

All politicians appreciate the power of a symbol, a slogan or a mantra. That must account for the right wing's transformation of the name of Anthony S. Fauci, America's best-known and most … more

Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times (TNS) | 6/8/21

Former Congresswoman Katie Hill poses for a portrait on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Why Katie Hill has to pay legal fees for a newspaper that published nude photos of her

I feel for former U.S. Rep. Katie Hill, I really do. Hill, 33, was a rising Democratic star from a traditionally red California district. Her political career came crashing down in 2019 after she … more

Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times (TNS) | 6/8/21

Analysis: The Texas electric grid and the improvements that didn’t come

After the deadly and expensive electrical outages during a winter freeze in February, Texas lawmakers set out to make such disasters less likely in the future. And as The Texas Tribune’s Erin … more

By Ross Ramsey, The Texas Tribune | 6/7/21

Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr in July 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Pool/ABACA/TNS)

The Justice Department's bad call to shield Barr's secrets

The Biden administration is making a serious mistake in placing the self-interest of the Justice Department ahead of the people’s right to know if former Attorney General William Barr acted to … more

Erwin Chemerinsky, Los Angeles Times (TNS) | 6/6/21

Florida governor Ron DeSantis in Orlando, Fla., Friday, August 7, 2020. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS)

Republicans are passing laws to suppress the truth about slavery's enduring legacy

What is so terrifying to Republicans about the reassessment of American history known as critical race theory? Once an obscure academic theory, it has now taken its place alongside face masks and … more

Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times (TNS) | 6/5/21

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