Columns & Opinions

Rienzi Johnston was the powerful editor of The Houston Post, one of the state’s most influential newspapers. Though mostly forgotten today, he was at one time one of the most widely read men in the state, and his words could make or break political careers. He led a life that brought him from a modest background in Georgia who ran away as a child to fight in the Civil War to becoming editor of one of the most influential newspapers in Texas. Along the way, he also embarked on one of the most unusual careers in the United States Senate.

Gov. Greg Abbott has directed the Texas Education Agency to ensure school facilities are made safer in the wake of the killing of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. In a letter to TEA Com missioner Mike Morath, the governor requested the agency:

I’ve had people ask me why I‘m so opposed to the Marvin Nichols Reservoir. I’ll try to explain it as best as I can. In the early 1900’s my great grandfather bought a farm about two miles as the crow flies from Old Hagansport. On this farm he raised corn, cotton, and kids. Six in all. By all accounts he was a good neighbor and generally well thought of. My grandfather was the oldest of his sons, and one spring day they were clearing stumps with dynamite in order to increase the plowable acres. My great grandfather lit a dry fuse and it raced to the dynamite faster than he could race away from it.