What’s the first thing you fell in love with? It probably wasn’t a person . . . Small children fall in love with a doll or favorite toy, a cuddle blanket, an imagined friend who can’t ever be left behind, a certain pair of sneakers, or even with Goldfish crackers. Sometimes it’s a healthier food such as blueberries or green beans, but those would be harder to take along to church on Sunday mornings, right? So bring on the Goldfish cravings . . .

Early voting in the March 3 primary begins Monday, Feb. 17 and concludes on Friday, Feb. 27. A full slate of contested races will be on the ballots in both Republican and Democratic primaries. The deadline to request a mail ballot is Feb. 20, according to votetexas.gov.

“Hey, hey you, did you know that you have some dirt on your forehead?” Next week, more than any other day of the year, many Christians around the world will be outwardly marked for Christ with ashes, not dirt or Valentine’s chocolate, upon their forehead. But where does this devotion of Ash Wednesday come from? Throughout the Old Testament, particularly with Jonah, Job, and Daniel, and then into Christianity with Jesus Himself, ashes have long been a sign of penance and mortality; the sobering truth that you are going to die, that I am going to die... Happy Valentine’s Day. But what may seem like something morbid, is actually a gift, a gift to remind us of this inevitable reality, that yes, this world is passing and that “we are dust, and to dust we shall return.”

A masked mob dragged five suspected cattle thieves kicking and screaming from the Mason County jail on Feb. 18, 1875, lynched three of the terrified outlaws and touched off a nasty feud known as the Hoodoo War.

To the Editor: A thirteen-column-inch pile of steaming bullfertilizer – that’s Annette Citzler’s “ICE and Memories From Liberia” in the 1/30 Record. This is what passes for editorial excellence at the FCR? Y’all should be ashamed of yourselves.

To the Editor: After turning my stomach when reading that ICE agents are as bad as rogue Liberian military, it showed how two people raised in La Grange can have very different outcomes. I will only speak of myself.

To the Editor: A recent writer (Different Set of Circumstances) argued that my 1/16/2026 letter “reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of both history and the rule of law.” My purpose, given this 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, is to interpret that celebration through today’s lens. Efforts will be made to sanitize and glorify our history.

To the Editor: In light of the TCEQ’s decision to decline public hearings regarding permit changes for the Fayette Power Project (FPP), I propose that the TCEQ or the FPP fund a comprehensive environmental monitoring program. This initiative should be administered by Texas A&M University and the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD), utilizing TPWD’s expertise in monitoring toxins in wildlife and waterways.

To the Editor: “There are literally millions of aliens within the jurisdiction of the United States. The Fifth Amendment, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment, protects every one of these persons from deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” – Justice John Paul Stevens (writing for the Supreme Court in Mathews v.

We are stepping into the season of love . . . or at least Hallmark tells us so. My wife is pretty convinced that they are right, too. So, I surrendered to this commercial holiday for my own good. (Insert big, cheesy grin here).