H ouse Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, told The Dallas Morning News and other media outlets that he is open to bringing resort-style casinos to Texas. But don’t expect to find slot machines in 7-Eleven stores if casino gambling is legalized.

A fter being away almost a month, I had catching up to do. It wasn’t just the usual dog hair to vacuum up, groceries to replenish, cooking and laundry to do, my messy desk and that pile of clean clothes on my bedroom chair.

T he 2023 Texas legislative session opened Jan. 10, with property taxes, gun control and the power grid expected to be among the top issues on the agenda.

J udaism is a small, yet complex religion with influence far exceeding what one might expect from one of the world’s tiniest major religions. It is one of Earth’s oldest organized religions and also one of the oldest monotheist religions.

Massive flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines during the Christmas holiday week are prompting the federal government to look into why thousands of travelers were left stranded across the country, along with huge piles of luggage in airports served by the beleaguered airline.

Y ou will read this in 2023. As each year ends, I’m always astonished that this is accomplished so quickly. My father always said that when something’s over, it’s like a dream. Remember the words to the children’s song, “Row, row, row your boat merrily down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily. Life is but a dream”? Countless poets concur. The more “mature” I become, the faster I perceive that the years roll by. A friend compared this perception of the increasing rapidity of years--as we age--to a roll of toilet paper. I wish I could banish that image from my head, but I cannot. So I’ll just pass it along to you. See how I did that? Misery loves company after all.

Mazda) created the universe and the cosmic order that he maintains. It is one of the earliest monotheistic religions that emerged from the polytheistic environments of Greece, Rome, and India.

M any years ago, the holiday season began for us with some moderately bad news followed by good. A Saturday morning check of the property revealed a major fence break. This wasn’t your typical “old, rotten wire” break or “big, heavy, determined cow when the grass is greener on the other side” break. It wasn’t an “our bull and the neighbor’s bull got into it last night” bit of damage. This was a big, long break in perfectly good fence. Bad news.

A n arctic storm that swept through the state bringing low temperatures and high winds also affected roughly two-thirds of the country’s population, according to the National Weather Service, bringing the coldest Christmas in decades to parts of the country.

E Pluribus Unum, the motto on the great seal of the United States means, “From many, one.” One might explain the Abrahamic Religions in just the opposite manner, E Unum Pluribus, or “From one, many.” That is because three of the world’s major religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, all trace their origins to the Biblical Father Abraham. And each claims to be a fulfillment of God’s promise to him.