Q: Recently our governor and attorney general seem to be pushing to re-open life as it was before the coronavirus pandemic. I have a city council meeting on “Zoom” tonight, which isn’t a problem, except that the agenda is too danged long! Have we gotten any guidance on how the governor’s more recent COVID-19 related executive orders affect open meetings?

Storm preparations begin while state continues to battle COVID-19
AUSTIN — As Tropical Storm Cristobal moved north in the Gulf of Mexico from the Yucatan Peninsula toward Louisiana, the weather system’s potential impact on East Texas grew and Gov. Greg Abbott on June 5 addressed the situation in a news conference.

Proclamation allows more services, activities to resume
AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott on May 26 issued a proclamation giving the green light to more services and activities in a second phase of the state's plan to reopen from mandatory pandemic closures. 

State of Texas enters second phase of reopening plan

AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott on May 18 allowed restaurants to increase occupancy to 50% and relaxed his earlier executive orders that limited certain other public activities over the last two months to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Reopenings, Abbott said, must adhere to restricted occupancy levels and minimum standard health protocols laid out by the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Texas bolsters efforts to reduce spread of COVID-19

AUSTIN — Testing, sanitizing and emergency food benefits increased as Texas entered its third month of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are recapping recent questions to the NNA postal hotline shared for the benefit of others without identifying the newspaper( s) involved. 

Politicians have long liked to say this or that is “the challenge of our time.” It’s an over-used phrase, but for those of us born after World War II, the coronavirus pandemic is surely that. And it is especially a challenge for community newspapers because it comes on top of another unprecedented challenge they already faced. How will they respond?

Governor, president spotlight actions in pandemic, economic downturn

AUSTIN — Texas, along with the rest of the nation and the world, continued to battle the COVID-19 pandemic last week as cases and deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus increased.

Gov. Greg Abbott on May 7 met with President Trump in the White House. The president praised Abbott's leadership in handling the months-long medical emergency and in managing the resulting slowdown of the economy in the Lone Star State.

Q: Since we don’t have a county health department, I am getting my statistics from the county health authority and its information comes from the Texas Department of State Health services, but the official I get the information from is a bit unclear on exactly what can be released. Can you point me where to find exactly what can be released?

For years, naysayers have said local and community newspapers are dying. They cite falling ad revenue, aging readership, lower subscriber rates and meager online revenue as Google and Facebook take the lion’s share.
COVID-19 has proved we are more relevant than ever, however. As tough a time as this is for our communities, our state and our nation, this is also a time for newspapers’  renaissance. It is a great opportunity to show our communities that no one covers them — and cares for them — like their local newspaper.