Madison County Commissioners voted to keep the proposed tax rate at 55 cents per $100 of property valuation, the same number as the prior year. The vote was simply to define the proposed tax rate and does not officially define an actual rate for the new fiscal year.

My wife and I have always liked the outdoors and had friends who invited us to go fishing and camping on their ranch on the Rio Grande River. It was a very remote area and you very seldom saw anyone else. One evening we were at our camp and starting the fire for supper when we heard a voice but it was on the other side of the river. We could not understand what the person was saying. Then we heard a different noise like a bunch of small rocks sliding. We were trying to see what was making all that noise and then we saw it, it was a herd of goats and there must have been several hundred. The goat herder was bringing them down from the high bluffs to drink water from the river. The goat herder watched carefully and after they all got a drink he spoke to them and the goats started back up the steep trail. Several goats tried to stay behind but he said something gruffly to them and they joined the rest of the herd. That event reminded me of something important in the Bible and about Christianity. If we truly know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we will obey Him. He will personally know our name and call to us, (John 10:10). We will know His voice and will, (obey) follow Him, (John 10:3&4).

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Inspection Service and the New Mexico Animal Health Authorities recently issued an alert to horse owners along the Mexican border, including Texas, that there have been active cases of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis in Mexico.