Strange Facts Last week we noted that Carrie Isaac is trying to win back her husband’s seat from Erin Zwiener in what we called a rematch-ish of the last state rep race. Really bad choice of words. Isaac, a Republican proud to be part of the conservative right, is indeed trying to win back her husba...

Editorial: From the Hays Free Press Owners The Hays Consolidated Independent School district is young, just over 50 years old. It brought together diverse communities that could not afford to survive on their own to create a better consolidated school district for them all, working together. The que...

This appeal is not one taken lightly, and we certainly never thought the, Hays Free Press , News-Dispatch and Barton Publications would be calling on our readers and supporters, but ... We need your help. Like so many businesses, we have been hit terribly by the coronavirus crisis. Local businesses ...

To mask or not to mask. That is the question – here, and at a lot of protests in state capitols across the country. It’s easy to demonize or ridicule the other side of the mask – those that wear, or those that don’t. But surely, there is common ground. Or, at least, a bit of common understanding to ...

There are certainly times when the stress of the COVID-19 quarantine and confinement brings out the worst in people. But at other times, it seems people are bending over backwards to be nice, to help each other out, to pass it forward. That was brought front and center to the Barton Publications sta...

In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to ...

We don’t mean to be prigs But George Washington wore wigs. And sported silk stockings, they say. So you have to wonder, well – wowser! – Why didn’t someone look into his trousers, Back in the Founding Father’s day? It’s hard to imagine how we beat the British With “patriots” so brazenly, shockingly ...

H ere’s to the workers out there. The laborers. The ones who work through the night when the storms hit. Those who raise the flags early in the morning. The workers who take out the trash, sweep the floors, or labor outside in the sweltering heat. Here’s to Labor Day, and the reasons behind it. Whil...

T he number of times people say to us, “The simple truth is ...” Whoa. Not so fast. It seems that truth is not so simple anymore, despite the fact that so many people, so many voters wish it were so. A recent Non Sequitur cartoon in the Austin American-Statesman shows a long line of people going to ...