Opinion News
OPINION: A COMPASSIONATE AND SENSIBLE CANNABIS POLICY FOR TEXAS
Just down the street from the Austin headquarters of the Texas Department of Agriculture is a trailer selling consumable cannabis products; the sole purpose of these products is to inebriate.
By Sid Miller | Jan 7, 2025
OPINION: Immigration continues to drive U.S. population growth
The U.S. Census Bureau just released its population estimates for 2024. It estimated that the nation’s population grew by nearly 1%, adding about 3.3 million people.
Latest News
OPINION: It is Time to Make Texans Healthy Again
By Travis McCormick | Dec 17, 2024
When you hear the word “crisis,” your mind probably goes to national security concerns. But there’s a quieter, insidious crisis looming—and it’s threatening the future of Texas: the health of our people.
OPINION: Raw Milk: Worth the risk? We should get to decide
By Sid Miller | Nov 20, 2024
Living in Stephenville—the dairy capital of Texas—I’ve got a front-row seat to the heartbeat of our state’s dairy industry. Here in Erath County, we take pride in our dairy heritage.
OPINION: OUR HEALTH, OUR RESPONSIBILITY: MAKING AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN
By Sid Miller | Nov 14, 2024
As the Agriculture Commissioner of one of the country's largest farming and ranching states, I am excited that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has joined President Trump, lending his powerful voice to the MAGA movement.
OPINION: Social Security Must Be Protected and Election Season is the Perfect Time to Commit To It
By Harvey Hilderbran | Oct 31, 2024
During an election year – especially a presidential one – people here in Texas and across the nation are paying closer attention to politics than usual.
OPINION: Texas Supreme Court Opinion Signals Likely Change in State Gun Laws
By Michael Cargill | Oct 11, 2024
It’s high time the Texas Legislature “re-open the hood” and get to work fixing state statutes governing the carrying of handguns. And recent news suggests they will do just that.
OPINION: US public school enrollment has peaked
By Bill King | Aug 30, 2024
In the second half of the twentieth century, enrollment in U.S. public schools nearly doubled. There was some slowdown during desegregation, as enrollment in private schools surged. However, growth resumed by the early 1980s at a little less than 2% each year. But by the late 1990s, the growth rate began to noticeably slow, eventually falling to under .5% annually. Public school enrollment peaked in 2019 at 50.8 million.
OPINION: WATER FOR TEXANS, BY TEXANS: THE PATH TO SELF-RELIANCE
By Sid Miller | Aug 26, 2024
Water is the lifeblood of Texas agriculture, and nowhere is that more critical than in the Rio Grande Valley. For too long, we’ve been at the mercy of Mexico, waiting on them to deliver on empty promises stemming back to a water treaty negotiated in 1944 — eighty years ago! Mexico has now fallen behind, once again, in providing more than 900,000 acre-feet, or about 1.1 billion cubic meters of water they owe to Texas and the U.S., and again, they’ve shown they can’t be trusted as reliable partners. It’s time to stop whining about it and act. Texans need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, take charge, and secure our water supply.
OPINION: Slowdown and examination needed in process to expand Muleshoe Refuge
By Lone Star Standard | Aug 5, 2024
A pending proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expand the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge from 6,440 acres tops much as 7 million acres has ignited a firestorm across Texas and New Mexico. While land conservation always sounds good, the rapid expansion and lack of scrutiny in the federal process warrants a slowdown and thorough examination.
OPINION: FIGHTING FOR TEXAS FARMLAND: THE BATTLE AT MULESHOE
By Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller | Aug 2, 2024
Our nation’s agriculture industry is under siege, and the alarm bells are ringing loud and clear in the Texas Panhandle. The federal government is at it again, pushing for another major land grab at the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge.
OPINION: Government-imposed electricity costs totaled $20 billion last year
By Bill Peacock | Jul 24, 2024
Only a decade ago, Texas had the most competitive electricity market in the world, a market that produced reliable, affordable electricity. Today, the Texas electric grid has been taken over by Texas government. This has produced predictable results: reliability has plummeted while costs have skyrocketed.
OPINION: Congressman Veasey supports printing medication information, and so should you
By Andrew Vale | Jul 1, 2024
You may not know it, but the printing industry constitutes a large portion of the US economy, especially the economy of Texas. Yes, printing.
OPINION: Texas’s Cold War: A Call for “Ceasefire”
By Brian Thornton | May 1, 2024
In Texas, the legal and political tension between state lawmakers and its populous, “blue” urban cities and counties is nothing new, but the intensity of this ongoing power struggle has, by any measure, increased in recent history. Undoubtedly this “Cold War” between state and local governments reached a crescendo during the 88th Regular Session with HB 2127 by State Representative Dustin Burrows. Popularly known as the “Death Star” bill, the legislation was intentionally broad in enshrining explicit language in state law limiting local governments’ historically broad statutory authority to impose regulation within their jurisdictions.
OPINION: Do Not Mail Checks in Window Envelopes!
By Bill King | Apr 17, 2024
A couple of months ago, I wrote a check for about $200 to my pool company for the monthly maintenance. It was a computer-generated check that I mailed in a window envelope, which made it apparent that a check was enclosed. After about ten days, the check had still not cleared. I called the company and they said they had not received it. A couple of days later, the check cleared my bank twice, except the payee and the amount had been altered. Instead of being payable to my pool company for $200, the check was shown to be payable to a company and a person I had never heard of and were for a total of over $14,000.
OPINION: Austin rail project rewriting Texas norms, state leaders should weigh in before it goes too far
By Lone Star Standard Editorial Board | Feb 16, 2024
During the 88th regular session, a legislative fight about how the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) is financing a $7 billion + light rail project in Austin concluded with a sustained point-of-order brought by Representative John Bucy in the final days of the session.
OPINION: The Texas Grid Held . . . Barely
By Bill King | Feb 5, 2024
During the recent winter storm Heather (January 13-16), the Texas grid was able to produce enough energy to meet the demand, but just barely.
OPINION: Texas Supreme Court to Determine Legality of $26 Billion Energy Tax
By Bill Peacock | Jan 26, 2024
Next week, the Texas Supreme Court will hear oral arguments to determine the legality of a 2021 Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) rule that arbitrarily raised the price of electricity to $9,000 per megawatt hour during Winter Storm Uri—about four times the market price at the time.
OPINION: The Real Costs for Texas Southern Border Counties
By Thomas McGregor | Jan 22, 2024
Beyond immigration concerns, Texas is grappling with a significant and heartbreaking challenge.
OPINION: Reliability, Affordability, and Accountability of the Texas Grid Up in the Air
By Bill Peacock | Dec 11, 2023
Concerns over the future reliability and affordability of Texas’ electric grid were brought to the forefront with the recent resignation of the person hired by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) to monitor the performance of the Texas electricity market.
