Polio survivor starred in big-screen musicals

By Bartee Hailie During a tour of Europe with a ballet company, 17 year old Tula Ellice Finklea of Amarillo married her instructor Nico Charisse, 32, in Paris on Aug. 12, 1939.

Killing Cecil

By Rich Lowry “Until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”  -- African proverb On the ledger of global  outrages, the killing of Cecil the lion outside  of a Zimbabwe  national park shouldbarely register.

Fifth Circuit delivers opinion concerning voter ID law

Even if the Texas Legislature did not intentionally pass a voter identification law that illegally discriminates against voters who are black, Hispanic or poor, the practical  effect of the law is discriminatory and in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Pardon me, but our undervotes are showing

By Lynette Sowell One of the biggest privileges and  rights we have in our country is the right to vote, no  matter our gender or race. It’s a right that  people have fought, bled and died for.

Rainmakers wind up shooting blanks

By Bartee Hailie The strangers that arrived at a West Texas ranch on Aug. 5, 1891 came with enough firepower to start a war, but instead of soldiers in some foreign army they were scientists on a mission to make it rain.

Funny anything-but-Coffee Girl

By Chraris Brumbaugh Note to readers: My daughter recently asked if she could write one of my articles  for me. I told her sure! She could have a go at it. I thought  she was kidding. Less than an hour  later, she handed me the following article.

Dogs are often part of the family

As I havewritten  before, I grew up always having dogs around. Both my parents had been raised with the dogs as an integral part of the household, so it was natural to follow that pattern.

A box of new crayons

Temperatures tell us it’s still summer, but for weeks now the stores have reminded us that school days are returning.

Record number die in Highway 81 horror

Two Greyhound buses collided on a Central Texas hilltop before dawn on Aug. 4, 1952 killing bothdrivers on impact and burning an estimated 26 passengers to death. The horrendous head-on crash happened on U.S. Highway 81 seven miles south of Waco.

Obama kneecaps Congress (again)

If only President Barack Obama were as hard-nosed and clever in undermining our adversaries as he is in kneecapping the U.S. Congress, the country’s strategic position might be transformed.