Should schools require students to take personal-finance classes?

Commerce Mayor Dr. John Ballotti discusses new sidewalk projects in the city, one conducted by the state Department of Transportation on Culver Street, and the other in downtown Commerce from Caddo Street to Bonham Street, funded by the city.  The mayor also discusses the opening of the new Laredo's Tex-Mex restaurant in downtown Commerce, and plans for an amphitheater north of the Farmer's Market location on Bonham Alley.

Commerce Chamber of Commerce manager Paul Voss discusses a new industry that will locate in Commerce, Polara Engineering of California.  Voss says Polara has been interviewing prospective employees.  He expects the company with employ 20-30 people in the first year of operation.  The company is an electronics manufacturing company that builds traffic control systems, among other products.  And Paul says the new LED message boards that will inform Commerce citizens about events in the community will be

Texas A&M University-Commerce associate professor of counseling Dr. LaVelle Hendricks has organized a program called "Trust, Understand, Respect" for 12 noon-2 p.m. Saturday (May 30) at Commerce City Park.  The program is designed to promote good relations between the police of Commerce and Northeast Texas and the minority population of the area.

Commerce ISD superintendent Blake Cooper says a promising school finance reform bill failed to win support in the State Senate and has been withdrawn, so the issue will likely be left up to the state Supreme Court when it hears the lawsuit against the state's school-finance system this fall, and then to a special session of the state legislature next summer.  Blake says it also appears the Commerce ISD and other districts will be receiving less of an increase in state funding than they expected a few weeks ago.

The average age of cars on U.S. highways is now 11 years, with 200,000 miles of travel increasingly common, according to Wyman Williams, long time general manager of Williams Motors in Commerce, and now director of development for the Texas A&M University-Commerce College of Business.