You may have noticed that in the photo that’s accompanied my column for the past seven or eight years, I am wearing an Astros hat. This is no accident.

C APITAL Highlights Texas public schools would have to install panic buttons in classrooms and ensure all doors and windows are locked and monitored under new proposed safety standards released last week by the Texas Education Agency. The proposal is the latest effort to strengthen school safety after 19 children and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary in Uvalde last May in the state’s deadliest school shooting.

T EXAS History Sympathetic Georgians rallied at Macon on Nov. 12, 1835 to show their support for the struggle for Texas independence.

In 1958, my cousin Frances Kana and I were decorating the gym for our Junior-Senior Prom at La Grange High School. This was one of the very few times I was allowed to take the car, or should I say pick-up, to school. It happened to be a 1954 Chevy truck, which had seen some rough days on our farm, and it showed! But, it was all I had and I was glad to be able to take it to town.

To The Editor: We read and hear the following: 1. Donald Trump is a Russian spy.

To The Editor: Why doesn’t Elon Musk build a lake on the river property for his waste water instead of sending it downstream to La Grange and beyond (as detailed in a story in Oct. 21 edition). He would then have a vacation spot for his family and top employees with the “safe” treated waster water.

I recently read a quote from a woman well into her 90s stating “Now, when I talk, I believe what I say.” Isn’t that a refreshing statement? And must I wait another 10 years before I can honestly say “I believe what I say?” I had never thought much about authenticity in my actions, my speech, or my writings. In fact, I have secretly prided myself in being honest about self- expression.

To The Editor: Many thanks to Sandra Borne, president of the Chamber of Commerce in Fayetteville, for booking the outstanding and entertaining band, Two Tons of Steel, for the Lickskillet venue. The band alone made this one of the best Lickskillets in many years.

Last week the Record’s Jeff Wick and Andy Behlen made their second stop on the Fayette County Breakfast Taco Trail – Taqueria Rio Verde in La Grange, also known as the “Taco Shack” to many locals.

T EXAS History Did a swashbuckling swindler slip a certain Texas senator a big wad of cash on Nov. 6, 1960? Four years later, that was the $50,000 question that threatened to sink Ralph Yarborough’s reelection campaign.