Editorials

During the recent gubernatorial primaries, incumbent Rick Perry enjoyed pointing out the robust economic health of Texas compared to many other states. He also tied Senator Hutchison to the federal bailout programs and our growing debt to distinguish himself from political "insiders." Of course, he might have failed to mention that the only way that the state budget had not yet cratered was because of infusions of federal money.

There have been many times that, as I'm enjoying time with friends or family, someone has looked my direction, raised a warning finger toward me, and said, "I don't want to see this in your column." Well then! There is a problem with that. Columnists, all of us, write about life from our perspective.

The 2010 Census is a count of everyone living in the United States and is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. Every 10 years, our Constitution requires the federal government to conduct a census. This helps determine your representation in Congress, as well as how federal funds are spent on things like schools and roads, and where businesses decide to put new stores and factories, to determine locations for retail stores, schools, hospitals, new housing developments and other community facili ...

The annual Mason County Chamber of Commerce Banquet is this Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. at the Mason I.S.D. cafeteria. This year, in keeping with it being a census year, the theme is, "Mason County - Where Everyone Counts." I've always been a supporter of the Chamber, and try to help them out with their many projects and events throughout the year.

Editor, I, Connie Herrera, just want everyone to be aware of an act of kindness that does not occur everyday. I made a mistake of leaving my purse in the shopping basket at the Super S parking lot. It had all my money and personal belongings in it. An employee at Super S, Gerardo Perez, was kind enough to return my purse with everything in it.

Last Saturday, my friend Tom came up from Austin for a brief visit. It's amazing how much you take for granted until you look at it through fresh eyes, and that was the opportunity I had while playing "tour guide" to Tom. He arrived just as I was preparing to put out funeral notices, so he joined me in walking about the square.

In the old days, railroad agents had the responsibility of buying up land from the Native Americans for rights-of-way upon which they could build their tracks. One story tells of a rather shrewd chief who understood the situation well. This chief was approached by a railroad agent who offered to buy a particularly poor stretch of land. "Buy my land?

Monday was a hectic day. The Commissioners' Court had a three hour meeting in the morning, and the City of Mason had a 1.75 hour meeting that evening. In between, we were working on getting all the stories typeset, getting the pictures ready, and figuring out what all would be in this week's paper. During the early afternoon, I had a surprise visitor drop by, and I must say it was a very pleasant surprise.

Dear Editor, Many of your readers may be unaware that a hard cap on all Medicare beneficiary’s Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy care went into effect on January 1, 2010. I am referring to the financial limit on the amount of therapy care that Medicare will cover in a calendar year, often referred to as the "Medicare Therapy Cap".

In order to be better prepared for the upcoming public open houses, the following information was sent to me from a party involved in a CREZ line issue with ONCOR, and said, if it might help, I could share some of their perspective. Shared perspective below: ONCOR used all the comments at the open houses to their advantage and tried to spin them and cherry pick what they wanted to present in testimony about COMMUNITY VALUES. Community values are one of the factors use ...