U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, entered the U.S. Senate race on the final day to file, pitting her against state Rep. James Talarico, D-Round Rock. The Austin American-Statesman reported the difference between the two is more of style than substance, with both raising the issues of income inequality, rising prices, corruption and polarization.

When people talk about what makes a school great, they often mention academics, technology, and extracurricular opportunities. But the real foundation of a thriving school is much simpler: the people who show up every day for our students. That's why Human Resources-our systems for hiring, supporting, and keeping excellent staff-is such an important part of our overall Systems Plan. A strong Human Resources program helps us cultivate an environment where staff feel welcomed, valued, and empowered to do their best work. When our people thrive, our students thrive.

Since mid-September, my Musings have focused on local military matters. I realized that for the most part I neglected the North Zulch area so I’m trying to make up for it here.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision to reverse a lower court’s ruling and uphold the mid-decade redrawn congressional map for Texas sent candidates scrambling to file or opt to retire with the filing deadline Dec. 8.

F“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” Mark Twain As those of you that read my essays are all too aware, I am that anomaly among the Scot/Irish in that rather than being concise I tend to be wordy, even to the extreme of verbosity at times. This being the case, I often generate what I would consider good ideas, or a written stream (in some cases a steaming pile) of thought that I have great difficulty parting with. Editing, revisions, rewrites all require an author to extract, delete, and sometimes even violently remove the resistant pieces of otherwise good composition. Renowned writer Stephen King referred to it as, “killing one’s darlings.” I say all this to confess that I keep many of these; some, well, are just too good to throw away, and I certainly don’t think I need to “kill” them.

About 1 million Texans over the age of 45 who receive health insurance coverage through the federal Affordable Care Act likely will face monthly premiums of more than $1,000, the Austin American- Statesman reported. That accounts for one-fourth of the state’s 4 million ACA enrollees.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday blocked a lower court ruling that threw out the state’s new congressional map, allowing the new districts to stay in place, at least for now.

For a few more days, Madison County Museum is displaying a photo titled “Inductees for World War I (September 19, 1917)”. It includes 49 men of which 15 are named, standing in front of a door to our previous courthouse. They are lined up in 5 rows, but the rows aren’t distinct. If you know more about any of them, please leave a message on the Museum phone (936.348.5230). (Below I don’t keep saying “World War I.)

“The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man, and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.” Warren Bennis Artificial intelligence, AI, we seem to hear the term or its abbreviation on a daily basis. AI can be simply defined as a construct of machines which are programmed with the not so simple attributes of reasoning, learning, communication, decision making, and the ability to take action. In short, AI is designed to simulate human intelligence. All of these abilities require the capacity for abstract thought, and both abstract and concrete thought are critical to cognition. To explain, something which is concrete can be detected with the five senses——it occupies space and exists in time. The simplest way to understand what abstract thought is, is to imagine yourself thinking; when you do so you are thinking abstractly. An example of both, abstract and concrete thinking can be found in the game of golf——the game of golf is an abstract whereas the golf ball used in the game is concrete. You can see and touch the golf ball, but the game of golf is not tangible or detectable with the senses, the game is an abstract, it occurs in the mind.

More than four-fifths of Texas public schools received an “A” rating for their financial practices, according to the Texas Education Agency, which released the final financial accountability ratings for the latest school year last week.