In explaining my work, I sometimes say that there are thousands of really good journalists in rural America, but all too often they are the only person in their newsroom that fits that description. They suffer from the isolation of rurality, with fewer opportunities than urbanites to rub shoulders and exchange ideas with their professional peers.

Q: When citizens are gathering petitions to call for a rollback election are there any restrictions on the use of county resources to create materials advocating the county’s position? What about after the rollback election has been called? Can you point me in the right direction for this?

Voters approve 9 of 10 proposed constitutional amendments

AUSTIN — Voters rejected only one of 10 proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution in the statewide election held Nov. 5.

The House and Senate, in the 86th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature that ended in May, approved the propositions for voters to decide. Results are as follows:

Prop. 1, permitting a person to hold more than one office as a municipal judge at a time, failed with 681,139 “yes” votes — or 34.56 percent of votes cast — to 1,970,765 “no” votes or 65.44 percent.

Voters to decide on proposed amendments to state constitution

AUSTIN — The state's 10-day early voting period ran from Oct. 21 to Nov. 1 with Election Day on Nov. 5.

On the ballot are 10 proposed constitutional amendments, special elections and local political subdivision elections, including those for mayor, city council, school board, municipal utility districts and other local entities.

Governor issues disaster declaration for storm-stricken counties

AUSTIN — After severe weather struck north and east Texas on Oct. 20, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration naming a list of counties in that region.  

Among the counties named are: Cass, Collin, Dallas, Ellis, Erath, Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, Panola, Rains, Rockwall, Rusk, Tarrant, Van Zandt and Wood.

Terrorism prevention programs across Texas to receive funding
AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott on Oct. 15 announced $61.2 million in Homeland Security Grant Program funding to support state and local efforts to prevent terrorism and prepare for threats that pose the greatest risk to the security of Texans. 
The awards, released primarily to cities and counties across Texas, include 264 projects under the State Homeland Security Program and 136 projects through the Urban Area Security Initiative.

Kari Lynn Collins’ powerful column in the Iowa Park Leader is not only a beautiful tribute to that publication’s 50th anniversary—it is also a loving tribute to its founder and publisher, and her mother, Dolores Hamilton. 
Kari’s words struck many familiar chords with me this week, as I remembered the September 22 birthday of my mother and co-publisher, Nancy Ezzell, whose quiet wisdom and strength guided The Canadian Record for over six decades until her death in 2013. Truth be told, it still does.

Q: One of the city councils we cover came out of executive session after one hour behind closed doors. A member then made a motion “to discuss what was discussed” in executive session. Another member seconded the motion. The question was put to a vote. It passed unanimously. But curiously, there was no further discussion. 
And to top it off, we asked for documents related to the matter and were told no such documents existed. However, as we eventually found out, the documents we requested did exist but we got them too late to include any details in our story. 

Comptroller releases 2020-2021 estimate of state revenue
AUSTIN — State budget writers likely will have more funds to meet the needs of Texas in the near term, based on information released Oct. 10 by the comptroller’s office.

Abbott puts Bush in charge of disaster mitigation effort
AUSTIN — A plan is afoot for large-scale, regional projects to improve the state’s resilience to hurricanes and other natural disasters, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Oct. 4.
Abbott tapped Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush to lead the federally funded $4 billion-plus "comprehensive mitigation" effort. Funding will come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under a community development block grant.