In late 1863 as the Civil War raged on it was not a foregone conclusion that the Union would be saved. The armies of the Union followed costly victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg with devastating losses at Chickamauga and a long siege at Chattanooga. Against this backdrop of loss, suffering, and uncertainty, President Lincoln still found reasons for gratefulness and joy which led him to issue the following Thanksgiving proclamation.

Fifty years ago today President John F. Kennedy fell to an assassin's bullet in Dallas, Texas. His violent and untimely death wounded the heart of the nation, shocked the world, and still haunts us to this day. In the search for words to honor and remember, most focus on Kennedy's policies but fail to capture the man. It is somewhat ironic then that perhaps the best speech memorializing President Kennedy was delivered by one of his successors of the opposite party. Here is President Reagan's June 24, 1985 tribute to President Kennedy.

It always seemed to me that he was a man

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In a recent Rose Garden press conference designed to mitigate crumbling public confidence in Obamacare, President Obama hailed the story of Jessica Sanford of Washington State as a great success. Ms. Sanford, a fifteen year uninsured single mom sent the president an emotional email informing him that through Obamacare she finally signed up for affordable health insurance - it's the perfect story to illustrate that the law works and that the uninsured are getting coverage. Unfortunately for the president, the story wasn’t finished and Ms. Sanford still can’t afford insurance.

As the Weekly Standard confirms, it turns out the president...

Among the many things that make our nation unique is the fact that we make a point of routinely saluting our veterans. This is a tradition in which we are proud to participate. We do so at sporting events, religious services, political rallies, at Boy Scout meetings and 4H clubs, even in neighborhood pubs. (I'm looking at you, Pat Troy's Ireland's Own.) Most importantly, we set aside a special day each year in their honor. This is that day.

Honoring veterans means something slightly different to each of us, I suspect. Our reflections can be intensely personal if we are particularly...

The Texas Tribune reports today that even if voters approve Proposition 6 to raid the Rainy Day Fund to the tune of $2 Billion, the state's water problems will continue to persist. The Tribune explains:

“It could help with future droughts, but it’s unlikely to help with the current drought,” Jeremy Brown, an environmental law researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, said of Proposition 6.

“By the time projects are identified, bonds are issued, and projects are actually initiated and then come online, that’s some ways down the road,” Brown said, “even for the most shovel-ready of projects.”

Then there are

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On November 5, voters across Texas will go to the polls to cast ballots for a variety of local elections and statewide ballot propositions. Looming largest on the ballot will be Proposition 6 which would raid the state's Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF), also known as the Rainy Day Fund, to pay for the newly created State Water Infrastructure Fund for Texas (SWIFT). In a guest column for Texas Weekly, Debra Medina explains why it's a bad idea that voters should reject. Arlene Wohlgemuth details alternative options for legislative consideration.

Medina argues:

Prop 6 does create a new water infrastructure

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