Unfunded mandates: ‘Fighting to keep our cake’

JUDGE’S COMMENTS For years our Texas Legislature has required counties to provide certain services for the citizens of the county such as indigent health care and indigent counsel. However, the legislature does not provide funding for its mandates.

Looking back...

10-20-40-100 YEARS AGO 100 YEARS AGO.... It was a big day for Rock-dale. Milam County commissioners okayed sale of $143,499 in road repair bonds, approved in a 1917 election, all to use on roads in the Rockdale area. “Good Roads Will Be Finished In Time for Fall Trade,” was a Reporter headline deck.

REPORTER NEWS DEADLINES

Your news article will receive ample attention if submitted according to deadline: • Letters to the editor—10 a.m. Monday. • General news, Lifestyle, Sports, Business and Farm/Ranch—Monday noon. (Thursday and Friday copy encouraged.) • Rural community correspondence—Monday noon.

Old friends give good advice

He told me to tell you that Iwas reading the other day (I’m a pastor and that’s what we do) about old people and how they don’t like change and really struggle with it.

Meter matters

EDITORIAL Worried about the new water rates in Rockdale? You’re not alone. The first of several hikes will show up partially in the March bill, then full force in April.

50 years later, we talk about our glasses

EDITOR’S CORNER You never know what turns and twists the conversation will take when you get together with people from your old high school class. Six of us from The Great Sixty-Eight (Class of 1968) of Rockdale High School met a couple of weeks ago at a local restaurant.

Economic development: Bitmain and more

JUDGE’S COMMENTS Economic development is critical to all of Milam County. More business equals more jobs and more tax revenues. This week we had some very positive developments regarding economic development.

Looking back...

10-20-40-100 YEARS AGO 100 YEARS AGO.... Rockdale merchant Ben Loewenstein Jr. took out a full-page ad “Ben Loewenstein Jr. vs. Sears & Roebuck” in which he compared prices in his store to those of the mail order catalog.

REPORTER NEWS DEADLINES

Your news article will receive ample attention if submitted according to deadline: • Letters to the editor—10 a.m. Monday. • General news, Lifestyle, Sports, Business and Farm/Ranch—Monday noon. (Thursday and Friday copy encouraged.) • Rural community correspondence—Monday noon.

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” —Samuel Johnson