House, Senate produce disparate versions of tax relief

Legislation approved by the House and Senate last week reveal widely dif fering views on how to bring about tax relief to Texans in fiscal years 2016 and 2017. Speaker Joe Straus lauded the preliminary ap - proval of House Bill 31, legislation to reduce the state sales tax from 6.25 percent to 5.

Paper or pixels?

When Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press in the mid 1400s, many scribes throughout Europe probably freaked out about their jobs. Until Gutenberg came up with the idea of movable type and printing pages, everything was handwritten by scribes who wrote on vellum, aka animal skin.

Death as a Taxable Event

By Rich Lowry   Prepare for the rise of the landed nobility. Democracy as we’ve known it was nice while it lasted, but House Republicans have signaled the beginning of its end with a vote to repeal the estate tax.

Clucked

By Renae Brumbaugh   Hospitality is the right and responsibility of every true southern woman. From birth, we are groomed to be pleasant, to smile, to offer warm words and cool lemonade to anyone who graces our property.

‘Thunder shirts,’ ear plugs and blinders for two

Thunder and lightning make Sawyer, our Tibetan Terrier, extremely nervous. So, we bought a doggie thunder shirt to put on him at such times. It helps. He manages to not be as panicky and to survive thunder and lightning a little better.

Boozin’ it up?

In case you didn’t know, there’s a petition drive in the community about selling liquor in Copperas Cove. Well, that’s not quite the whole deal. If you sign that petition, it doesn’t mean—poof!—Copperas Cove can sell liquor.

From cheerleader to king of prime-time tv

Aaron Spelling, the biggest big-shot in the history of television, was born in Dallas to poor immigrant parents on Apr. 22, 1923. An Ellis Island clerk changed his father’s name from Spurling to Spelling the day the Polish Jew entered the country.

Double trouble

I stay in trouble. Honestly. Even when I try to be good. Even when I’m perfectly innocent, I find myself in trouble. Like the time I was driving my dad to his doctor’s appointment when his blood sugar dropped. I was being very careful to drive within the speed limit, while still trying to hurry.

Senate passes version of 2016-2017 state budget

The Texas Senate on April 14 passed its version of the 2016-2017 state budget. Because the Houseand Senate-approved budgets are $1.6 billion apart, five Senate members and five House members will be appointed to a conference committee to resolve differences.

The Sand Trap

I should have known by the name of the golf course what I was in for—The Sand Trap. “It’ll be fun,” my friends said. “It’s not like miniature golf,” they said. So we pulled into the parking lot of the nine-hole golf course.