Opinion

Texas is one of 15 states across the country that have declined to accept federal funding that could have helped replace the meals children lose during summer vacation.

Sexual predators are using a new tool to exploit children — AI image generators. Users on a dark-web forum shared 3,000 AI-generated images of child sexual abuse in one month, according to the Internet Watch Foundation.

Contributors this week continued to offer varied thoughts on our political parties and officials. In addition, animal shelters and pet care continued to draw attention as well as immigration, border security and other topics.

This is in response to Imelda Coronado’s eloquent letter on Jan. 17. Imelda’s allegations about the current administration in America include communism, socialism and leftist anarchy while at the same time she supports Republicans who are dismissing the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection as a peaceful protest.

Last Sunday's announcement that Senate negotiators had reached a deal that would free up foreign aid to the embattled states of Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan might have raised the hopes of some people. Soon after Congress members arrived at the Capitol on Monday, however, it was clear that those hopes would be futile.

Sometimes a person needs a dose of truth. If you gamble for fun, you know the odds are against you. But if gambling is an addiction, you can hear the truth, know it is the truth and still ignore those facts. Addictions are about physiological responses, not intellectual exegesis.

The impeachment process should be a serious affair. Our nation’s founders codified it into the Constitution as a tool to remove officeholders if they have commit “Treason, Bribery or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.” That is why for the first two centuries of our nation’s existence, it was used only once against a sitting president, and in rare occasions against judges and other officials.

Colleges and universities have a variety of missions in society, but one of them is not capitulating to politicians’ whims, as the University of Texas at Austin recently did by abolishing its scholarship support program for undocumented students.

In one of his latest campaign ads, Donald Trump claims a messianic mission, that he has been sent by God Himself to be America’s “caretaker.” The largely white, right evangelical wing of the Republican Party in Iowa (undoubtedly other places) seems mesmerized by this latest incarnation of the Donald. But where is the evidence, the comparison between this man and the Man from the New Testament?

Millions of Americans have seen a loved one diagnosed with cancer or been diagnosed with the disease themselves. While important gains have been made in the war on cancer thanks to screening improvements and healthier lifestyles, the numbers are still staggering.