While sharing a tasty meal at a local eatery with my friend, we reviewed the recent past. He currently lives in a nursing home and is benefiting from skill and care of qualified caregivers. He is flourishing but such was not always the case.

Between the Gulf of Tonkin incident that was more or less the start of the war in Vietnam and 1976 or approximately 11 years the US lost about 58,000 troops in Vietnam. The combat total was a little over 47,000.

Austin – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issued the following statement upon announcing his Texas Senate committee appointments for the 88th Legislative Session: “As the Texas Senate begins its work this session, the committee assignments I made today will ensure we succeed in addressing the priorities of the people of Texas.

I had the great privilege of working for Danny Reneau at The Silsbee Bee when I was in college, which was right after he purchased it from the Read family. He took a chance on me, and I am forever in his debt for doing so.

For the Texas House and Senate, there is not much daylight between each chamber’s priorities in this year’s legislative session. Leaders say the focus will be on property tax relief, border security and employee raises. Preliminary budgets from both chambers were released last week, the Austin American- Statesman reported, with a record $288.7 billion budget for the next two years. The money in the budget is made up of $93.7 billion in federal funds, $130.1 billion in state general revenue funds, and $64.9 billion in other funds.

I am going to work until Feb. 6th at The Bee.

House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, told The Dallas Morning News and other media outlets that he is open to bringing resort-style casinos to Texas. But don’t expect to find slot machines in 7-Eleven stores if casino gambling is legalized.

Silsbee ISD has a problem. There are 16 posted openings for vacant positions at this district spread across 3 campuses and the Admin Office. One of the biggest reasons for this staff shortage is directly related to the behavior and discipline issues in our schools. There is no confidence in administrators to handle these distractions, nor in the Superintendent’s office to drive any meaningful change. Morale across the district is low and teachers and paras do not feel like their voices and concerns are being heard, nor do they feel appreciated for their efforts in the face of the ongoing chaos. There are retired teachers and qualified personnel in this town that will no longer substitute at SISD because of the chaos. This is especiallyevidentattheElementaryschool.Whatishappening on that campus is not only chaotic, but downright negligent in the administration’s treatment of the student body, and the abdication of their responsibility to provide a safe, orderly, and inclusive learning environment for all. The stated goal of this board in its adopted policy manual Section AE, Objective 8: School campuses will maintain a safe and disciplined environment conducive to student learning. THIS IS NOT HAPPENING. The assault incident on December 13 at the SES campus is the culmination of events directly attributable to the absolute dereliction of duty by the administration and its abject failure to maintain operational control of that campus and abide by this board’s objectives. There is no consistent behavior policy, no discipline program, and no published corrective action plan on that campus even after this recent event. Immediate change is needed.

The Republicans finally elected a Speaker of the House on Friday night or I guess Saturday morning. Oddly enough, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was elected with two fewer votes than Kevin McCarthy was.

The 2023 Texas legislative session opened Jan. 10, with property taxes, gun control and the power grid expected to be among the top issues on the agenda.