W hen I began teaching at Hays High School in 2008, the Confederate flag had just recently been removed from the school. It would not be officially banned from the school until 2012, and the fight song would not be changed until 2016. Of the flag, the song, and the mascot, only the mascot remains, a...

M aybe I should have said something every time I saw the stars and bars flapping behind the two-ton pickup trucks my friends drove during my time at Hays High. Perhaps that might have been the right time to speak up and express my concern with an image whose history was interwoven by hate, malice an...

A Hays County program to provide economic relief to small businesses whose futures are in jeopardy due to the coronavirus pandemic is not yet up and running. Because the commissioners court does not meet on June 16, it’s unlikely to be much closer by the end of this month. The structure of the Econo...

Sometimes it’s good to be the last on the list, but Texas seems to be determined to move up when it comes to coronavirus cases. And Hays County is helping to add to the figures, as its number of cases of COVID-19 continue to increase. In Hays County, the first coronavirus case was reported March 13....

Last week, the city of Kyle was experiencing the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Hays County, making up almost half of the county’s coronavirus illnesses. Mayor Travis Mitchell wants answers from the county as to why his city is being hit by this wave. “There are simple levels of analyses that c...

Securing additional ballots ahead of an expected surge in mail-in voting for the July 14 primary runoff elections, as well as sanitizing supplies for in-person voting, were among anticipated uses of a federal CARES grant discussed by the commissioners court on June 10. Elections Administrator Jennif...

Amid the recent reopening of various offices and courts, Hays County leaders say two offices and lobbies need to temporarily close again. “Hays County has a few employees who recently came into contact with individuals who tested positive for COVID-19,” Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra said. “Out of ...

An open conversation between local law enforcement and the community will be the focus of a “Dialogue for Peace and Progress” summit at 7 p.m. Friday at Kyle City Hall. City Council member Dex Ellison will moderate the event, said to be the first such discussion. “This as a springboard to education ...

The slow disassociation of the Hays CISD from the Confederacy has gone on for almost two decades, with the last major step taken in 2015 when “Dixie” was dropped as a fight song. In the wake of the murder of Houston native George Floyd beneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, there have bee...

The man accused of fatally shooting two Caldwell County teenagers June 9 later told his brothers he believed they were “aliens” disguised as firefighters that he had to kill. Investigators found more than 50 9-millimeter shell casings near the bodies of 18-year-old Klayton Manning and his 16-year-ol...