By BARBARA GREEN
[email protected]
Casey Hall, 97th District Attorney, may learn Friday if she will be temporarily suspended from her position, pending a removal jury trial.
The removal petition process got underway Monday with its first hearing, as the judge adjourned after a little more than one hour and set the case to resume at 10 a.m on Aug. 9.
While the hearing may have been brief, it covered a couple of major topics including a defense motion to dismiss and an argument the state should have some representation at this hearing.

The removal petition was filed July 17 by local attorney Tim Cole, who also is a former longtime district attorney for the 97th Judicial District. It seeks to remove District Attorney Casey Hall for incompetency or official misconduct in the performance of her duties as DA. The petitioner also requests Hall be temporarily suspended pending a final decision in the case.
Judge Bruce McFarling presided after he was assigned to the case by Judge David L. Evans, presiding judge of the eighth administrative region of Texas. Cole represented himself as the petitioner and Hall was represented by Robert Wagstaff, an Abilene attorney.

Read the full story in the mid-week Bowie News.

Public health officials urge Texans to be vigilant in protecting against mosquito bites after confirming the first Texas case of West Nile virus and 10 travel-associated Dengue cases for 2024. Precautions should be taken in Texas and while traveling internationally to countries where dengue is endemic.
The first case of West Nile in 2024 was reported in a Montgomery County resident who has been diagnosed with West Nile fever. As of today, the Texas Department of State Health Services has identified nearly 800 mosquito samples infected with West Nile virus in 24 counties.

One human case was reported in Montague County in 2024, but a specific time was not posted on the DSHS website.

Read the full story in the mid-week Bowie News.

By BARBARA GREEN
[email protected]
Members of the Bowie City Council learned just like their own household budgets, the city’s 2024-25 operational budget is facing the higher costs across the board.
Councilors met for a budget workshop on Monday night and threw their questions about the draft proposal that was presented on July 8.
City Manager Bert Cunningham previously said he has slashed more than $300,000 from the departmental budget requests in order to get a balanced budget. However, a large unknown hovers over the finances as the staff waits on engineering estimates to add a pump at the raw water pump station, a directive from the state regulatory agency.
The city budget is broken out into two funds, utility and general. The utility fund, which includes water, sewer and electric, has projected expenses of $12,595,995 with revenues forecast at $12,601,000.
The remaining city departments are in the general fund where expenses are $10,700,890 with revenue projected at $10,705,568. Overall budget operations are expensed at $23,296,885 and revenue projected at $23,306,568. Cunningham said it leaves a small margin of $9,683 maintaining that balanced budget.

Read the full story in the weekend Bowie News.