I recently attended the 90th birthday party for a remarkable man, Joseph Samuels.

Many of you know Joe, if you’ve ever been to a Texas Press Association convention. He and his wife Jeanne have been attending the semiannual meetings consistently for many, many years.

The Samuels own and operate the Jewish Herald Voice in Houston, which they’ve published for 32 years. The newspaper, like so many other weeklies, is a family operation with their daughter Vicki Samuels also on staff.

Joe (whose birth date was Dec. 10) has tremendous wit and a great sense of humor and he always has a story to tell. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him over the years.

Joe still goes to the newspaper every day. His beautiful wife Jeanne is right by his side.

The birthday party was held in Houston and there were more than 200 people in attendance — the Samuels’ children and grandchildren and other family members — along with all their friends. Buddy and I were extremely honored to be included in this momentous occasion.

If you count success by the friends and family you make during life, then at 90 Joe is a millionaire.

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Back at TPA we launched a new member service last month that hopefully you read about in the December Bulletin.

It’s called VoteTracker.com and I think it will be a very useful tool for newspapers to keep tabs on the Congress.

Our congressman who represents The Hometown Press is Ron Paul, whose district stretches from Victoria all the way here to Chambers County.

We receive lots correspondence from his office, but a small weekly like us can’t keep track of everything Paul does in Washington, D.C. There simply are not enough manhours in the week.

But now we can at least track how he votes on key legislation without having to make several phone calls to his national and regional offices.

VoteTracker.com lists voting records for all members of Congress as well as other tidbits about their public service — missed votes, spending habits, congressional staffer salaries and more.

The service should help weeklies save time and learn more about what our elected officials are doing up there in the nation’s Capitol.

To take advantage of this free TPA service just contact Mike Hodges to get signed up.

It’s well worth a visit to www.votetracker.com.

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And finally I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!