By Megan Wehring DRIPPING SPRINGS — Changing personnel, short review time caused Dripping Spring ISD’s board of trustees to disapprove an audit report. After receiving the final draft less than an hour before the Nov. 23 discussion, the DSISD trustees voted to disapprove the annual financial audit r...

By Sahar Chmais The Dripping Springs ISD meeting got heated when a man took off his shirt and pants to prove a point about masks. James Akers anecdotally said he ran traffic lights, which almost killed somebody, then parked in a handicapped spot because all the other spots were full just to get to t...

By Sahar Chmais Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine is the first to receive FDA approval for individuals ages 16 and older, according to the FDA. Pfizer’s vaccine will be marketed under the name Comirnaty. The FDA gave its approval only to Comirnaty for certain age groups, but the vaccine will still ...

By Sahar Chmais As of Aug. 2, 14 Intensive Care Unit beds remain available in the Trauma Service Area (TSA) O, which serves Hays County, Travis County and other counties. The number of available ICU beds reached seven availabilities on July 31 and has gone up to 14 available beds –but the number of ...

By Sahar Chmais Hays County is seeing an uptick in active COVID-19 cases and an increase in hospitalization due to the virus. Since June 14, active infection rates in Hays County have varied between 120 to 199 active cases, recorded every two days. After the July 10 weekend, that number spiked to 27...

By Sahar Chmais After Pfizer’s COVID-19  vaccine passed  for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for children ages 12 and older, the responsibility fell into parents’ laps. Parents were able to make the personal decision for their bodies, and now, they can make the decision for their kids. Vaccine hes...

By Sahar Chmais Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an Executive Order Tuesday, May 18 that prohibits governmental entities in Texas from requiring or mandating mask wearing. The rule is effective immediately. Governmental entities include counties, cities, school districts, public health authorities ...

by Sahar Chmais The number of students failing at least one course in Hays CISD and Dripping Springs ISD doubled between the fall 2019 semester and the fall 2020 semester   – the biggest culprit has been COVID-19. Comparing the Fall 2019 and 2020 semesters, HCISD went from an 11.3% failing rate to 2...

HAYS COUNTY – Lines in the era of COVID-19 have become a less than scarce sighting; but this week Hays County witnessed a spike in their vaccine line up. The vaccine crowd driving into the Hays Performing Arts Center stretches over one-mile and only crowing one road lane. Typically, the Hays County ...

By Sahar Chmais  Since Governor Greg Abbott announced that he will remove the mask mandate, many parents were left worried about how it would affect schools. After one day of the announcement, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) came up with a solution – masks will remain mandatory.  Nothing in the TEA...