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Monday, January 31 is the last day to register to vote in the March primary elections. To register, simply complete an voter registration application available online through the Secretary of State’s website, fill it out with the necessary information, and return it to your county election office. The website to view this information is www.VoteTexas.gov. Remember, the voter registration application must be completed and returned at least 30 days before the upcoming election date. 

Here are five things happening around your state:

New laws now in
effect as of January 1 

As of the beginning of this year, 23 new state laws went into effect, most of which deal with certain tax requirements or tax-exemptions. A few new laws of note include: 

• House Bill 531 - requires landlords to provide notice to renters if the dwelling they are leasing lies within a 100-year floodplain or has flooded in the preceding 5 years before or at the execution of the lease; 

• House Bill 2730 - makes improvements to the Landowner’s Bill of Rights and the eminent domain process; 

• House Bill 3961 - requires long-term care facilities to post information about the office of the state long-term care ombudsman on their websites. The ombudsman advocates for resident rights and helps protect quality of life and quality of care for residents; 

• Senate Bill 794 - This law exempts homestead taxes for veterans who are 100 percent disabled;

• Senate Bill 911 - allows food service establishments that also hold mixed beverage permits to be classified as restaurants if alcohol sales are 60 percent or less of sales. 

To see a full list of the new laws in effect as of January 1, please visit https://capitol.texas.gov/Reports/Report.aspx?LegSess=87R&ID=effectivejan1. 

Texas Workforce Commission awards Jobs and Education
for Texans grants to 5 East
Texas ISDs, Lamar State
College Orange     

Last month, the Texas Workforce Commission announced $10.3 million in Jobs and Education for Texans grants that went to Community, Technical, and State Colleges and Independent School Districts across the state. Of that, $1.45 million was awarded to East Texas institutions. Five ISDs, including Burkeville ISD, Center ISD, Coldspring-Oakhurst ISD, Elkhart ISD, and West Sabine ISD, received between $189,000 and $328,000 grants to help purchase and install equipment to provide training in the occupations of welder, cutter, solder, and brazer. Lamar State College Orange was also a recipient of an award totaling over $208,000 for the purchase and installment of equipment for training healthcare practitioners and technical occupations. These grants will enable area education entities to provide targeted training for our communities that will lead to employment opportunities in high-demand industries. 

Texas State Hospitals and SSLC offering hiring bonuses 

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is offering up to $5,000 in bonuses for certain health care positions at state supported living centers (SSLCs) and state hospitals across the state. Positions that are eligible for a hiring bonus included registered nurses (RN), licensed vocational nurses (LVN), psychiatric nursing assistants (PNA), and direct support professionals (DSP). New RNs can qualify for $5,000 bonuses, eligible LVN hires could receive $3,500, and DSPs and PNAs may qualify for a $2,500 hiring bonus. State supported living centers provide residential services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, while state hospitals provide inpatient psychiatric care for adults, children, and adolescents. State hospitals and state supported living centers serve some of our most vulnerable Texans and the people who work there deserve the utmost praise. 

Texas reaches new
employment high,
unemployment drops

Texas reached a new record employment high last month, breaking pre-pandemic records for employment. Texas now has over 13 million jobs. The state passed pre-pandemic record employment levels in November and that number continued to grow in December. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 5 percent. These numbers are signs of a strong economy that continues to grow despite the ongoing pandemic. Texas business owners and employees are resilient and focused on moving forward. 

 OSHA withdraws COVID-19
vaccine mandate for
large employers  

The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) withdrew the vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard for businesses with 100 or more employees this week. The standard was supposed to go into effect earlier this month and required business with 100 employees or more to ensure their employees were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or were regularly tested for COVID-19 and wearing masks. The withdrawal comes after the US Supreme Court blocked the implementation of the standard in a ruling earlier this month. 

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Monday, January 31 is the last day to register to vote in the March primary elections. To register, simply complete an voter registration application available online through the Secretary of State’s website, fill it out with the necessary information, and return it to your county election office. The website to view this information is www.VoteTexas.gov. Remember, the voter registration application must be completed and returned at least 30 days before the upcoming election date. 

Here are five things happening around your state:

New laws now in
effect as of January 1 

As of the beginning of this year, 23 new state laws went into effect, most of which deal with certain tax requirements or tax-exemptions. A few new laws of note include: 

• House Bill 531 - requires landlords to provide notice to renters if the dwelling they are leasing lies within a 100-year floodplain or has flooded in the preceding 5 years before or at the execution of the lease; 

• House Bill 2730 - makes improvements to the Landowner’s Bill of Rights and the eminent domain process; 

• House Bill 3961 - requires long-term care facilities to post information about the office of the state long-term care ombudsman on their websites. The ombudsman advocates for resident rights and helps protect quality of life and quality of care for residents; 

• Senate Bill 794 - This law exempts homestead taxes for veterans who are 100 percent disabled;

• Senate Bill 911 - allows food service establishments that also hold mixed beverage permits to be classified as restaurants if alcohol sales are 60 percent or less of sales. 

To see a full list of the new laws in effect as of January 1, please visit https://capitol.texas.gov/Reports/Report.aspx?LegSess=87R&ID=effectivejan1. 

Texas Workforce Commission awards Jobs and Education
for Texans grants to 5 East
Texas ISDs, Lamar State
College Orange     

Last month, the Texas Workforce Commission announced $10.3 million in Jobs and Education for Texans grants that went to Community, Technical, and State Colleges and Independent School Districts across the state. Of that, $1.45 million was awarded to East Texas institutions. Five ISDs, including Burkeville ISD, Center ISD, Coldspring-Oakhurst ISD, Elkhart ISD, and West Sabine ISD, received between $189,000 and $328,000 grants to help purchase and install equipment to provide training in the occupations of welder, cutter, solder, and brazer. Lamar State College Orange was also a recipient of an award totaling over $208,000 for the purchase and installment of equipment for training healthcare practitioners and technical occupations. These grants will enable area education entities to provide targeted training for our communities that will lead to employment opportunities in high-demand industries. 

Texas State Hospitals and SSLC offering hiring bonuses 

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is offering up to $5,000 in bonuses for certain health care positions at state supported living centers (SSLCs) and state hospitals across the state. Positions that are eligible for a hiring bonus included registered nurses (RN), licensed vocational nurses (LVN), psychiatric nursing assistants (PNA), and direct support professionals (DSP). New RNs can qualify for $5,000 bonuses, eligible LVN hires could receive $3,500, and DSPs and PNAs may qualify for a $2,500 hiring bonus. State supported living centers provide residential services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, while state hospitals provide inpatient psychiatric care for adults, children, and adolescents. State hospitals and state supported living centers serve some of our most vulnerable Texans and the people who work there deserve the utmost praise. 

Texas reaches new
employment high,
unemployment drops

Texas reached a new record employment high last month, breaking pre-pandemic records for employment. Texas now has over 13 million jobs. The state passed pre-pandemic record employment levels in November and that number continued to grow in December. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 5 percent. These numbers are signs of a strong economy that continues to grow despite the ongoing pandemic. Texas business owners and employees are resilient and focused on moving forward. 

OSHA withdraws COVID-19
vaccine mandate for
large employers  

The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) withdrew the vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard for businesses with 100 or more employees this week. The standard was supposed to go into effect earlier this month and required business with 100 employees or more to ensure their employees were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or were regularly tested for COVID-19 and wearing masks. The withdrawal comes after the US Supreme Court blocked the implementation of the standard in a ruling earlier this month. 

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Just as an experiment, I toiled around social media to gauge the silliness of the current pandemic reactions.

Yes, it was torture, but yes, it is just as hysterical as it always has been, and here we are, two years into this, and this is how people still treat this virus.

Let’s be clear here: I’m not downplaying the seriousness of COVID. I am, however, puzzled at the polarizing and ridiculous reactions to this outbreak.

Here are some of the most head-scratching.

• A family looking to have a pet groomed was informed by a potential groomer that only pets from vaccinated households would be accepted.

• Reported by a news outlet, a man on a transplant list for 5 years was told he could not be active on the list anymore because he is unvaccinated.

• A teacher in the North Penn (Pennsylvania) School District is taping masks to children’s faces.

• A man has won a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records for putting on 10 facemasks in the fastest time.

• A life insurance company in France is denying a claim because the covered person died after taking the virus shot, which the company deems experimental.

• The CDC has admitted that cloth masks are ineffective, and Rand Paul wants an apology.

• Clothing manufacturer Carhartt is accused of requiring vaccinations for all U.S. employees while using unvaccinated slave labor in India to create their clothes.

• The state of New Mexico is taking measures to ensure that no one who is unvaccinated can be admitted to the Merry Roundhouse (the Capitol Building), as well as providing booster shots.

In the past two months, I’ve lost people very close to me to the ravages of this disease, and I do not take it lightly at all. However, history has shown for millennia that hysterical reactions to problems simply cause more problems.

So what’s the uptake here? you might be asking. It’s pretty much the same thing. Stop demanding compliance for ineffective measures, stop forcing people to behave in a manner they are not comfortable with, and start treating people with kindness, compassion, and especially in an adult manner.

Stop listening to people who react with histrionics and insults, and start listening to the better angels of your nature. Just as Jesus went among the lepers, reach out your hands and give comfort, because as everyone knows, kindness is strong medicine.

Also, please stop letting people make your decisions for you, particularly and especially the government — federal, state or other.

It’s not as if you need to start an insurrection, regardless of how denial is portrayed. Just remember that it’s your choice how to proceed with your life, not the government’s. It’s not up to anyone other than you to determine what’s best for you and your family.

As much as I love dogs, the eight cats at my house groom themselves, if you know what I’m saying.

Tony Farkas is editor of the San Jacinto News-Times. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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-twenty one was, in a sense, like a baby doll without a face.

To give that statement some context, I read somewhere a philosopher’s postulation that the scariest type of baby doll was one sans face; the reason being, that all manner of fears could be projected upon it in that form. 

With the seemingly endless series of disasters on the worldwide level that the preceding year was, 2021 was, by and large, a ball of unknowing, going into it. As humans, as we are wont to do, we projected our fears upon a fresh year; wondering what manner of disastrous outcome awaited.

Twenty-twenty two will be better. It just will be. It has to be. 

If you’re reading this, you survived another year; we survived. Going into this fresh batch of 365 calendar squares (or rectangles, depending on the layout) there is, as defined by said date-measuring device, that many opportunities to do one’s best. Well, as of this writing, make that 355 opportunities.

I view time as something existing outside the confines of calendars or gauged by timepieces, but for this scrawling’s sake, I’ll use the calendar model. 

There will be history made this year, that goes without saying, but whether our species encounters huge, defining incidents, or mere footnotes in the annals to come, will have to be seen.

This is a big year as far as politics go, with mid-term elections and whatnot. I don’t know what the future holds for our great state and country insofar as legislation goes and who will be writing said legislation. In my opinion, it does not belong to those who truck in silly distractions like critical race theory, though. 

I cannot tell you which street gang, er, I mean major political party, will reign supreme in the chambers of Congress in D.C., and at this point I’ve divorced a lot of my interest in such. Oh sure, we’ll still cover politics and elections in these pages, but as for me, personally, I’m endeavoring to not letting such topics dominate my day-to-day.

The future belongs to us all, but there is hope seen in the youth of the area. If you need any positive affirmation, look at all of the great things that many of them are doing. 

Folks like my buddy Andrew Harmon, as well as Woodville High School’s dynamic duo of Kesean and Kevon Paire, signal that our future is in good hands. I’m proud of them, as well as all the other great young people who have excelled in all manner of endeavors and continue to make Tyler County proud. 

Do something good, or try to, each day, and not just for yourselves (though you deserve it) but for others. Kind words and acts of service allow one to, as Bing Crosby sang, “accentuate the positive” with greater ease.

Every year is like a faceless baby doll when it boils down to it, but instead of fears, let’s all work to project goals and enlightenment onto the empty calendar spaces. 

Let’s all do our best in 2022, and in the words of the late, great Warren Zevon, enjoy every sandwich.