Opinion

The Fire Whistle

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The Fire Whistle went off a couple of weeks ago. Again. That’s really no surprise, given that now we seem to have red flag/high-wind warnings on a daily basis. I was at a meeting, and a gentleman standing near me observed that, “They really should do away with that thing. Everybody has cellphones, so this is a totally unnecessary disruption of the public peace. It serves no purpose anymore.”

Blessed with a fire

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THE SIRENS WAILED, and we all reached for our scanners. Where’s it at?! Which way is the wind blowing?! Then an eerie call came over the radio. “Everyone come to Mendota road; this may be our only chance to make a stand.” Mendota road?! We thought. That’s right by our place!!
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Seeking prayers

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THIS WEEK, my father, Raymond Broadbent, will be traveling to Ukraine to volunteer in the Emergency Field Hospital operated by Samaritan’s Purse. My father is a Nurse Anesthetist and is passionate about serving others in some of the neediest places on earth.

Why should the public care about public notice? Glad you asked...

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EDITORIAL CARTOONIST BEN SARGENT once penned a masterful sketch of a newspaperman—a skinny, bug-eyed fellow in a baggy suit with a press card in the band of his porkpie hat. The unnamed journalist was depicted in the simple act of entering a dark room at city hall and switching on a light.
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Field Notes

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SOMETIMES THE IMAGES of war are just numbing. The brutality and horror of victims fleeing the ruins of a bombedout school in Zhytomyr or Stanytsia Luhanska, the splintered wreckage of what was once a quiet residential street in Mykolaiv, the flames of an apartment building in Mariupol—it all becomes almost incomprehensible. Scenes of bodies being buried in mass graves and families fleeing their homes carrying the meager remains of their lives in once-cheerful pink backpacks or dreary plastic trash bags are so heartbreaking we are unable to even find sorrow’s edges.

Thoughts on Saturday’s Beto campaign stop

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PART 1: Like you, dear Ms. Editor Person, I spent a big chunk of last Saturday at the River Valley Pioneer Museum. Joining us were 60 or so of our friends and neighbors. We gathered to hear Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke discuss his election platform. (In passing, I must mention that Ms. O’Rourke and several members of the event advance team took brief tours of the museum and were very impressed with what they saw. “This isn’t your typical small-town museum,” was the comment most often heard, followed by, “I need to come back when I have more time.”)

When 1 in 8 Texas mail ballots gets trashed, that’s vote suppression

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IF YOU SAY—or write—that it’s harder to vote in Texas today than it was a year ago, or four years ago, someone will tell you how easy it is and how full of beans you are. But what are we supposed to make of the thousands of rejected mail-in ballots during the Republican and Democratic primaries this month? The Texas Tribune’s Alexa Ura and Mandi Cai reported that 18,742 ballots were tossed in 16 of the 20 Texas counties with the most voters.