EL CAMPO –  U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Corpus Christi) has named former publisher and longtime El Campo resident Chris Barbee as his district field representative for the southern end of the 27th Congressional District. 
Barbee will handle Wharton, Matagorda, Jackson and Calhoun counties. 

PARIS – Interim publisher and longtime business manager Relan Walker has assumed the role of publisher of The Paris News, Dolph Tillotson, president of Southern  Newspapers Inc., announced.

Zahira Torres has been named editor/news director of the El Paso Times.
Torres, 36, returned to El Paso from the Los Angeles Times last year to lead the newspaper’s investigations under former editor Robert Moore. She has deep roots in El Paso and at the El Paso Times. 

Brian Brisendine, 38, has succeeded his late father as as editor and publisher of the Brownfield News.
Lynn Brisendine, publisher since April 1977, died Oct. 14. 
The younger Brisendine is a Brownfield native, reared in the community. He graduated from Brownfield High School in 1997.

Newspapers and other businesses built on advertising are nervously watching Congress as tax reform takes center stage. At stake: the deduction for advertising as an ordinary business expense, which has been the law of the land for 100 years.

Analysis by Donnis Baggett

For 24 days every autumn, throngs of visitors stream into the State Fair of Texas in Dallas for shows, music, exhibits, livestock judging, carnival rides and gastronomic delights such as corny dogs and fried butter. Millions worldwide know it as the home of Big Tex, the fair’s 55-foot animatronic cowboy.