Columns & Editorials

Existing-home sales continued to climb in August, marking three consecutive months of positive sales gains, according to the National Association of Realtors . Each of the four major regions experienced both month-overmonth and year-over-year growth, with the Northeast seeing the greatest improvement from the prior month. Total existing-home sales, completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, rose 2.4% from July to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.00 million in August. Sales as a whole rose year-over-year, up 10.5% from a year ago (5.43 million in August 2019).

In every election, lines and wait times seem to be longer, particularly in Forney. If everything goes right, this election will be better. Kaufman County Commissioner’s Court has added two new voting locations at the FISD Administration Building, and at the Trinity Church in Talty. Officials in the Forney Sub- Courthouse have worked with Election officials to create more space for Early Voting and on Election Day. So hopefully lines will move quickly with more locations to vote early.

Students at Trinity Valley Community College have new options available to them. The clothes closet and food pantry, part of the new on-campus Advocacy Resource Center, opened its doors to students last week.

Sergeant Alan Ruehs of Forney served in the United States Army from 1996 to 2014. After having grown up on his family’s farm in Michigan, he lacked a clear direction for his life when the farm went out of business. Eventually Ruehs found himself talking with an Army recruiter and ultimately enlisting in the Army for what he describes as a great career. The many benefits of the Army – college payment, medical insurance, etc. – were a few of the reasons Ruehs stuck with the military. But none were as impactful as the relationships he built with fellow servicemen and women.

Like many mature (aka OLD) hunters of my generation, I am sometimes a bit slow on incorporating new ideas into the way I hunt. After all, hunting methods that have worked during the past half century need no improvement; or do they? There is always something new to be learned about any topic and especially so when we consider reclusive wild critters such as whitetail deer or wild hogs. This brings us to the topic of this week’s column: The use of scents to help us bag that buck of our dreams or put fresh wild pork in the freezer.

(Article One) Shortly after the War Between the States had taken its heavy toll on so many, including a family in Brooksville, Mississippi, the story began. Two fine, young sons of Madison Macajah and Nancy Brooks were killed in the war—Samuel at age 23 and Benjamin at age 21.

Dwight Powell has always been one of my favorite Dallas Mavericks players, both on and off the court, and has shown steady progress; however, on January 21 of this past season, he “went down” with a serious ruptured Achilles tendon as he was patrolling under the basket.

Many school districts across the state and the nation have adopted “No Zero” grading policies. According to an article on Edutopia.com, the rationale for the decision to disallow zeros on assignments is to make it more difficult for students to fail because they will have more opportunities to make up work, complete assignments and retake tests. Not surprisingly, the No Zero policy is controversial among educators.

Dear Forney Messenger,

In conjunction with Energy Efficiency Day on Wednesday, October 7, 2020, the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) announced it has signed an agreement with Direct Energy to purchase power pro- duced at a new solar energy plant being built in the Laredo area. Power produced at the solar farm, scheduled to go online in July 2021, will become part of the Texas energy grid (ERCOT), and the agreement with Direct Energy will give NTMWD access to a portion of that available power.

Crosstown rivals are the norm in most towns and Forney is no exception to the natural pride that students and alumni feel about their schools. But instead of the annual football game between Forney and North Forney being touted as a rivalry, it has been the Unity Bowl since the first time the two schools met on the gridiron. The highlight of the halftime is the combined performance of both school’s drill teams to the delight of the crowd.

“The Lord has protected me by using my dog,” says Alan, age 10. “Once a dog almost bit me, but my boxer chased him away. God helps me hide from things, and he helps me by letting my dad be a cop.”

GOD has not given us the spiritual power to go and fight the devil and his demons. Instead He has given us His own armor to defend ourselves against the war going on between GOD and Satan. We must remember that the battle belongs to GOD and not to us. GOD has not asked us to be like Paul or the Apostles, He has asked us to be Christians and serve Him where we are at. We are to live our lives where we are at and serve GOD by serving people. Each and every Christian has their ministry. If our ministry is small or large it makes no different to GOD. Some Christians may be given the highest ministry and others given the lowest ministry. We should delight in any ministry we are given because that is where our joy will be when we do it with all our heart. I heard a story that if GOD should send two angels to earth, one to be president and the other to sweep the streets neither angel would resent the other and each would do their job with all their might.