La Grange City Council took another step to curb the stray dog menace. Plans were initiated for mandatory licensing and vaccination of all canines, penned or leashed, to prevent them from running at large, and for disposal of animals still astray after the program was operating. The action was taken after a petition bearing 523 names was presented to council, in which signers asked for relief from the threat of roaming dogs. Licensing of all dogs in the city would be required. The council also proposed that the city’s animal ordinance be amended to increase the annual fee from $1 to $5, the same amount that most cities of comparable size charged. Imprinted metal license tags would be issued to be affixed to dog collars along with anti-rabies vaccination tags.

Everyone needs to grow almond verbena. The plant grows into a large shrub or a small tree covered with spikes of fragrant white flowers throughout the summer.

C APITAL Highlights Rural counties trying to slow or even block data center construction are finding they have limited legal authority, the Texas Standard reported. Hill County, for example, rescinded a one-year moratorium on data center construction after being sued for $100 million by a company planning a large-scale data center project near Hillsboro.

Have you ever tried to break a habit? Many try and fail. It’s difficult. If we try to break a habit by sheer willpower, it is nearly impossible. Quitting cold turkey often doesn’t work. We try really hard and give it our best effort, but the habit we want to get rid of keeps coming back. We cannot shake it. We grow frustrated and give up.

Clay Allison, the two-gun time bomb who called himself a “shootist,” died on Jun. 30, 1887 not from a bullet but under the wheels of his own wagon.

Last week, I reminded readers about Winter Storm Uri in 2021, when Texans faced frozen pipes, rolling blackouts, and days without reliable power. If demand can strain the grid during extreme weather, what happens as Texas adds more residents, businesses, manufacturing, and data centers?

It’s a blow when reality kicks dirt in my face and insists I examine beliefs I’ve carefully stored in a box labeled Things That Will Never Happen to Me. The dust started swirling the day I realized I needed a jacket when it was 99 degrees outside and 75 degrees inside.

I’m so tired of rain… Did you find yourself suppressing that thought last week? Biting your tongue, really, because remember last year, or last fall? Remember how it seemed we’d never see rain again to fill the mud holes we call stock tanks?

To the editor: A writer responding to my recent letter agreed with my argument that America’s founding was fundamentally secular. The writer then correctly pointed out that most of the men who signed the Constitution identified as Christians.

Dr. Bill Nolan, who hailed from Tulsa, Okla., was expected to arrive in La Grange at the end of June to set up residency in the former remodeled Dr. J.C. Guenther Clinic building and start practicing medicine around mid-July. This news was reported by Lloyd Kolbe, the chair of the La Grange Chamber of Commerce doctors’ committee. Dr. Nolan graduated at the top of his class at Rush University Medical College.