The Texas Senate’s chief budget writer said state agencies and higher education institutions have requested nearly $25 billion in funding as the legislative session gets underway. State Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, told The Dallas Morning News that the requests for...

I’m fairly certain my dreams have a drug dealer. What is it with dreams? Sleep is supposed to be an 8-hour window (mine’s never that long) when we rest, regenerate, and arise feeling as refreshed as the person in the Folger’s commercial who throws back the covers and...

Drivers will no longer be required to get annual safety inspections beginning Jan. 1, the Texas Standard reported. However, drivers in the state’s 17 most populous counties will still be required to get an emissions test in order to register their vehicles. While...

I especially love this time of the year! The Christmas season brings back so many fond memories from my childhood. Growing up in the humble neighborhoods of Brooklyn didn’t allow us to have much other than the music of Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis. I was too young...

Columnist John Moore likes the local hardware stores. And the free calendars. Photo: John Moore When Wal Mart grew, warnings that it would put the mom-and-pop businesses under seemed to come true. Now, online businesses seem to bring the same threat to Wal Mart. But...

Columnist John Moore’s graduating high school class recently gathered for their 44th reunion. Photo Olyvia Howard Bennett In the movie “The Big Chill,” a group of old friends gather for the funeral of one of their own, and it turns into a reunion. Recently, a group of...

Columnist John Moore grew up seeing a special painting on his grandmother’s wall. At least, he thought it was a painting. When I was a child, there was a painting that hung on my grandmother’s kitchen wall. It portrayed a man who was praying over a meal of bread and...

The holidays are more than football (here’s hoping watching the Cowboys is the most painful thing you’ll do this time of year) and food. It can be a season of joy, but for many of us, they can be full of difficult interactions. Whether you’re navigating grief or...

Columnist John Moore believes some things are better left off holiday menus. Photo credit: John Moore “It’s a leftover. What a sad word that is. Leftover. How would you like to be… a leftover? Well, it wouldn’t be bad if they were taking people out to be shot. I might...

Columnist John Moore helped his father assemble a storage building on Thanksgiving Day in 1974. His family no longer lives at the house, but the storage building is still standing. Photo credit: John Moore The Beatles had a song called, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts...