For the Texas House and Senate, there is not much daylight between each chamber’s priorities in this year’s legislative session. Leaders say the focus will be on property tax relief, border security and employee raises.

In 1831 while Texas was still under Mexican control, Texas was organized into three departments, called Bexar, Brazos, and Nacogdoches. The northern portion of what was Moses Austin’s colony and along the Brazos and Colorado Rivers was located in the Brazos department. A petition was submitted to organize it into a municipality at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

I’ve always felt bad for folks with birthdays at New Year’s, because often they don’t get their due celebration. Other major life events are probably somewhat neglected then too. Therefore today’s Musings focuses on folks for which December 31 or January 1 had lots of impact. Facts were drawn from “A History of Madison County, Texas”, the first edition.

An arctic storm that swept through the state bringing low temperatures and high winds also affected roughly two-thirds of the country’s population, according to the National Weather Service, bringing the coldest Christmas in decades to parts of the country.