John Kanelis

Jose De La Torre would be about 75 years of age today. I don’t know how he would have lived his life. I don’t know about his family history or what he aspired to do after he took off his Army uniform.

Farmersville Police Chief Michael Sullivan has been protecting and serving the public for 34 years while working for various police agencies throughout North Texas.

John Ratcliffe is likely to be confirmed as the nation’s next director of national intelligence.

By John Kanelis

Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, was a brilliant thinker to be sure. He also was dead wrong as he sought to forecast the future of civilization.

The quote you see attached to this blog is attributed to Socrates, who took his own life more than 300 years before Jesus Christ’s birth. He lamented the disrespect shown by young people. If we were to take what the great man said to the bank, we would indeed be in a world of hurt.

By John Kanelis

Do you want to take a hike? Or ride a bike? How about taking your horse on a ride? Maybe even jog a bit to get your heart started?

Some folks along a 130-mile trail that runs from Farmersville to New Boston have just the place for you to do all of these activities. At least they intend to make it even more suitable for such activity, but it’s going to take some time, some effort and more than just a little bit of money.

By John Kanelis

Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp has put out the word: School will open this fall at all 11 system campuses with in-person classroom study and, get ready for it, there will be football.

Are you ready? For some football? 

Let's not jump the gun just yet.

By John Kanelis

I am full of contradictory emotions at this moment in light of the COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic.

Although I miss doing many of things I cannot do at the moment, I am in no rush to return to doing them. I fear contamination. I don't want to get sick. Nor do I want my family members and others I love to become sickened by the virus.

By John Kanelis

This blog post might not be of general interest, but those of you who have moved to your "forever home" might appreciate that I am smiling a bit while I write this brief message.

We moved to Princeton, Texas, a little more than a year ago. We settled into a new home in a subdivision that is still under construction. Just a bit south of us -- about a block or so away -- is a large tract of land that eventually is going to become a park.

By JOHN KANELIS

You know it and I know it, too. When police officers and firefighters suit up for duty, when they honor their oath to “protect and serve” the public, they are performing hazardous duty.

By John Kanelis

Greg Abbott wants to go slow if he is going to re-open Texas business. The Texas governor plans to let us know what he wants to do later this week, but he has given us a preview of what might be coming up.

By JOHN KANELIS

A company known for plenty of high-tech advances wants to build a concrete plant near Farmersville and a key Texas government agency has decided to grant the company a permit to do so.

By John Kanelis

I suppose you could accuse Texas Gov. Greg Abbott of being a bit slow on the uptake in his statewide response to the coronavirus pandemic.

I will not join that chorus. 

Gov. Abbott today issued a stay-at-home order for Texans. Don't leave the house except to purchase essential items, such as food, fuel and assorted necessary household items. We can venture outside, walk around the neighborhood but we just need to keep our distance from our neighbors. The order lasts at least until the end of April. 

By John Kanelis

If I were sitting in Collin County Judge Chris Hill's chair at this moment I might be inclined to tell Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins to mind his own bee's wax.

Then again, were I occupying Jenkins' chair, I might respond with, "Hey, Chris, we're all in this together. I'm looking out for everyone in the region. That includes the residents of Collin County."

By John Kanelis

Hunt County commissioners have joined a growing list of counties that have done what needs to be done: mandating "shelter in place" for residents.

They are reacting as they should in response to the coronavirus pandemic that has circled the globe. 

Hunt County won't be the final county. You can take that to the bank.

Shelter in place isn't anything approaching house arrest. It means we can still venture out, run essential errands, such as going to grocery store for food and other necessary goods. 

By John Kanelis

It’s fair to wonder about the upcoming runoff election for a Northeast Texas legislative district seat: How does someone as conservative as state Rep. Dan Flynn face a primary challenge from the right?

Flynn, a Van Republican, is running against Bryan Slaton, a businessman from Royse City. The two are running for the House District 2 seat that Flynn has occupied since 2003.

By John Kanelis

So, just how serious should we take the current outbreak of a dangerous infectious disease, the coronavirus that is sweeping across Planet Earth?

Try this: Texas A&M University-Commerce has just canceled all “face to face” classes on campus, telling students and faculty to go to online coursework only.

That, I submit, is a very good call.

TAMUC isn’t the only university in Texas to make this move. Other campuses in the Texas A&M University System have done so, as has the University of Texas-Austin.

By John Kanelis

I will get straight to the point with this blog post.

South Texas Democrats have rocks in their noggins if they intend to argue that the elimination of straight-ticket, partisan voting is unconstitutional and that it discriminates against minority voters.

By John Kanelis

Someone had to be first so, therefore, Greenville’s public utility system is proud to claim the title as Texas’ first such utility to build its own Internet and cable TV network.

By JOHN KANELIS

Wherever he is, the late, great, legendary U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn is shaking his head.

By JOHN KANELIS

I must admit that I am still angry with the 2019 Texas Legislature, which in itself is no great flash. A lot of Texans are angry with legislators for a lot of reasons.

My main source of anger stems from legislators' decision to pull the plug on red-light cameras that cities have deployed to help police enforce traffic laws. I mean, too many motorists are none too inclined to obey red lights at intersections which are intended to order motorists to stop and not proceed until the light turns green.

By JOHN KANELIS

This is a story I didn’t see coming.

Texas long has been known as a sort of unofficial “capital” of the prison-construction industry. Now the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is closing some of the units, apparently for good.

The reason? A decline in the state prison population and an apparent inability to staff the prison units adequately.

By JOHN KANELIS

I am inclined as a general rule to oppose Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s world view on most matters.

However, on the issue of seeking to remove one state’s non-essential travel ban to Texas because of our state’s strong stand in favor of “religious liberty,” I believe he is onto something.

What constitutes “essential travel”? I suppose one example would be in the event of a natural disaster emergency, in which firefighters or other first responders travel from California to Texas to lend aid.

The Super Tuesday Democratic Party primary presidential race is just a shade less than a month away.

On March 3, Texans will get to vote for who should be the next Democratic nominee for the presidency. The Texas ballot is going to include a name that’s been missing from ballots that will precede this huge political event.

Michael Bloomberg is the man of the hour. Or at least he wants to be the man of the hour – or the man of the primary – at the end of that quite important election.

Local control is best. That’s the mantra of city governments everywhere, regardless of location or the political leanings of its governing body.

So it is, then, that Farmersville – a growing Collin County community – is beginning to wrestle with the best way to achieve complete local control. Its City Council wants to enact a home rule charter, moving the city away from the “general law” rules mandated by Texas statute.

By JOHN KANELIS

A little more than a year ago, my wife and I made one of the key decisions of our married life when we found a house in Princeton, Texas and, with the help of our Realtor daughter-in-law, purchased it.

We knew going into this purchase that we were moving into a community on the move. It is a fast-growing city that over time will cease being an insignificant burg that straddles U.S. Highway 380 in Collin County.

Three Texas communities -- Big Spring, Colorado City and Rusk -- have thumbed their collective noses at a legal activity that I acknowledge fully has its sworn enemies.

You want transparency in local government? You want to see how a certain city in North Texas handles any potential questions about whether its elected governing body is meeting in "secret," or conducting public business "illegally"?

I could have lived an entire lifetime without hearing the words that opened our Sunday morning worship service in church.

Recycling is a way of life in many North Texas communities, although many other communities have yet to get into the game.

Farmersville and Princeton are two Collin County cities that have discovered the benefit of recycling and the environmental awareness that the activity promotes within individual families.

I guess the verdict is in on Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen’s secret meeting with a right-wing activist.

The speaker likely broke a campaign finance law when he met with Empower Texans guru Michael Quinn Sullivan, offered up the names of 10 fellow Republican legislators that Empower Texans could try to defeat in the 2020 election and then offered the right-wing PAC a media pass, giving the PAC immediate access to House members working on the floor of the chamber.

The House General Investigating Committee issued the report, then closed its investigation.