The Texas unemployment rate currently sits at 47 percent for the month of March, and is expected to rise further during the month of April. Since March 21, 32 people have filed for unemployment in Hemphill County, up 59 percent from 2019.

It was a tumultous evening Tuesday for many Hemphill County residents, who got the first whiff of the storms the National Weather Service had been promising just before 6 pm when the storm clouds began to appear and a light rain started to fall. Booming thunder drove the point home, though, as heavy rain mixed with hail pelted the area off and on during the evening and in the early morning hours.

AUSTIN—The Texas Department of Public Safety is seeking information and asking for the public’s help in solving the 1985 cold case homicide of Dorothy Estep. An increased reward of up to $6,000 is being offered for information that leads to the arrest of those responsible for her death if the tip is received before the next featured Texas Rangers cold case is announced. A $3,000 reward for information leading to an arrest is routinely offered on all cases on the Texas Rangers Unsolved Homicides website.

OUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL board of directors, in a renewed and restructured partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, has taken bold and decisive steps to recommit its energy and resources to community development. It is the job that organization was long ago tasked with, and for some time, seemed to have forgotten.