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TEXAS PRESS ASSOCIATION
The continuing federal shutdown means government food benefits provided to 3.5 million Texans could be cut off in November, The Texas Tribune reported. Of those affected, nearly half are children.
“(The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) has funding available for benefits and operations through the month of October,” according to a letter written by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service to state agencies. “However, if the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the nation.”
More than $614 million is distributed monthly in Texas to recipients.
Currently, other assistance programs such as Medicaid and the Children Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, are not affected by the shutdown, which is in its fourth week.
OIL PRICES AT LOWEST LEVEL SINCE PANDEMIC
Oil prices have dropped to their lowest level since early 2021, the Texas Standard reported. Matt Smith, lead energy analyst at Kpler, said strong supply is driving the drop per barrel to about $57.
Average gasoline prices in Texas stood at $2.79 a gallon in September, down 67 cents from two years ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Smith said U.S. oil production in July, the latest monthly statistic available, was at a record high. He predicted the low oil prices could slow domestic production by next year.
FALL HIGHER-ED ENROLLMENT SETS TEXAS RECORD
More than 1.6 million students enrolled this fall at Texas colleges and universities — an all-time high, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board reported. The preliminary numbers cover all levels of higher education, both public and private, and represent a 4.7% increase from last fall.
“The record enrollment numbers will help the state’s continuing efforts to build a talent- strong Texas and an increasingly educated workforce,” said Commissioner of Higher Education Wynn Rosser.
For the first time since the pandemic, enrollment numbers surpassed pre-pandemic numbers in each sector of higher education.
JUDGE TOSSES TEXAS BOOK-RATING LAW
A Waco federal judge last week threw out a 2023 Texas law requiring booksellers and publishers to rate their books based on sexual content and reference, kut.org reported. The ruling makes permanent a lower court’s temporary injunction that was later upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The firm representing the coalition of bookstores and publishers hailed the ruling as a “major First Amendment victory.”
“The READER Act would have imposed impossible obligations on booksellers and limited access to literature, including classic works, for students across Texas,” attorney Laura Lee Prather said in a statement.
The act is an acronym for Restricting Explicit and Adult Designated Educational Resources.
HB 900 sought to restrict which books are available in school libraries. It also required booksellers to rate their own books. The bill’s author, state Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Friso, posted on X he was “deeply disappointed” by the judge’s decision.
However, he said SB 412 passed in the last legislative session holds school personnel “accountable” for exposing a child to what he termed “harmful materials.”
Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park.
