After accounting for seasonal factors, existing homes sold through Texas Multiple Listing Services fell to their lowest level since 2012 amid public health precautions and social distancing measures. “The month of May marked the housing market’s deepest decline thus far during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. James Gaines, chief economist for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. … Find the rest of this story in the Friday, June 26, 2020 issue of The Highlander. To offer a comment or news tip, email editor@highlandernews.com. For more information, call our office at 830-693-4367.

Congressman Roger Williams (R-TX-25) led a bipartisan letter with Congressman Jason Crow (D-CO-6) and 136 of their colleagues to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal and Ranking Member Kevin Brady urging a vote on H.R. 1175, the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act. “TX-25 is home to dozens of craft beverage producers and distilleries that serve as staples in our communities. Having already felt the devastating effects of COVID-19, a 400% tax increase on their growing industry next year would be catastrophic – not only to them, but to businesses who rely on them for support. I’m proud to work alongside these entrepreneurs to roll back regulations and burdensome taxes that put economic growth and Texas jobs at risk,” said Congressman Williams. …

Gov. Greg Abbott pledged to institute police reforms when he met with the Houston family of George Floyd, who was handcuffed and killed by police in front of a Minneapolis convenience store on May 25.

Texans have been witnessing things that would have been unthinkable until now: Surge teams, testing of nursing homes for COVID-19 and the National Guard helping to disinfect nursing home facilities around the state.

Drip and soak

Editor’s note: Chief Rocky Wardlow wrote this op-ed on June 2. Since then, Derek Chauvin’s charges have been upgraded to second degree murder and manslaughter and the other three officers involved have been arrested and charged with aiding and abetting second degree murder and aiding and abetting manslaughter.

Editor’s Note: This op-ed from Congressman Roger William originally appeared in the June 10, 2020 issue of The Washington Examiner.

Myrtle Heimann Dittmar, Estella Hohenberger Immel and Annie Kott Pressler pose for a photo in the spring of 1935. The old cotton mill can be seen in the background of the photo. Contributed/A Pictorial History of Marble Falls

Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that he joined six other attorneys general in a federal lawsuit against John C. Spiller, II and Jakob Mears, along with their Texas-based companies Rising Eagle Capital Group LLC and JSquared Telecom LLC.

As Tropical Storm Cristobal moved north in the Gulf of Mexico from the Yucatan Peninsula toward Louisiana, the weather system’s potential impact on East Texas grew and Gov. Greg Abbott on June 5 addressed the situation in a news conference.