Opinion News
OPINION: The GUARD Act - A Bureaucratic overreach that hurts America’s veterans
America’s strength has always been forged by those willing to step up and serve.
By Brian Taef | Feb 18, 2025
OPINION: Texas must lead in the new era of government accountability and transparency
The popular-vote victory of Donald Trump to a second term made clear that the American people want to see major changes in how their government operates.
Latest News
OPINION: New Energy Infrastructure Permit is a Win for East Texas
By Jason Isaac | Feb 4, 2025
The Texas Railroad Commission's recent approval of a new oil and gas disposal facility in Shelby County marks a significant milestone for East Texas.
OPINION: Texas Should Say "I Don't" to Flawed Proposal to Overhaul Credit Card System
By Rex Solomon | Feb 3, 2025
As the president of Houston Jewelry, a fifth-generation family business that has served Texans since the 1850s, I've seen plenty of proposals that were ill-fated from the start.
OPINION: A Warning for Texas: The Cooper Health Scandal and Its Implications
By Taylor McCray | Jan 29, 2025
In Texas, we take pride in doing things our way—fiercely independent, accountable, and committed to putting people before politics.
OPINION: The Texas Model for Higher Education Reforms
By Brandon Creighton | Jan 22, 2025
‘As goes Texas, so goes the nation’—this is not just a quote, it is a reality that reflects Texas's influence in shaping the political, economic, and cultural trajectory of the United States.
OPINION: A COMPASSIONATE AND SENSIBLE CANNABIS POLICY FOR TEXAS
By Sid Miller | Jan 7, 2025
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.
OPINION: Immigration continues to drive U.S. population growth
By Lone Star Standard | Dec 23, 2024
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.
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.
