Drought conditions ease slightly while heat dome returns
Drought conditions across the state dropped a percentage point in May compared to the previous month, with 26% of the state in some stage of drought, primarily in West and South Texas and parts of the Panhandle.
35 Texas counties eligible for individual disaster aid
Residents in a total of 35 Texas counties now qualify for individual disaster assistance following a series of severe storms and flooding that began in late April, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Phelan wins re-election bid, seeks speaker post again
House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, narrowly won re-election in a hotly contested runoff race and has vowed to seek his third term as speaker, drawing threats from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to oppose any of his supporters in the 2024 primary.
By Ken Esten Cooke, TPA President 2023-2024
“Why would you want to sit still in a world that’s forever moving?”
— Philosopher Luc Jogart
And just like that, my year as Texas Press Association president comes to an end. I have been so proud to serve great people, both TPA members and staff, some of whom I’ve known and looked up to since I was a child.
By JIM PUMARLO, Consultant
Hardly a year passes without legal requirements for public notices coming under assault. It’s happening this year in the Minnesota Legislature, where the Minnesota School Boards Association is seeking authority for school districts to remove public notices from newspapers.
The initiative comes on the heels of Alden Global Capital shutting down eight community newspapers. The proposal not only attacks the essence of open government, it also significantly decreases citizen access to vital information.
By Austin Lewter, director Texas Center for Community Journalism
Are you a news ambassador?
If you are running a community newspaper, you sure are. And that means you have a role with a new initiative we are rolling out at the TCCJ.
We look to build a Texas cohort collaboration of News Ambassadors, a collaborative journalism project under the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
This is an early bulldog edition of Capital Highlights for the week of May 27. It will be updated on Sunday if events dictate.
Additional disaster assistance approved
House Democrats call for education special session
Attention newsrooms: It’s time to get serious about 2024 elections coverage. I hear the collective groan. The reaction is likely shaded by the strident national contests and their seemingly never-ending campaign cycles.
By JIM PUMARLO, Consultant
By Austin Lewter, director, Texas Cener for Community Journalism
William Faulkner has often been cited as one of the greatest American novelists of the 20th century.
He was born Sept. 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi.
His publishing career began in 1919 but he was most prolific in the 1920s and 1930s.
Faulkner was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature for “his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel.”