North Texan files House bill to abolish the Texas Education Agency ... and more news

A North Texas Republican wants to abolish the state agency that oversees primary and secondary public education. Freshman state Rep. Andy Hopper, R-Decatur, filed House Bill 2657, a proposal to transfer the powers and duties of the Texas Education Agency and the education commissioner to the State Board of Education, TEA’s policy-making body. In other news, the Texas Senate gave unanimous approval Thursday to proposals to cut property taxes by raising the Texas homestead exemption to $140,000, sending the measures to the House; a Texas judge on Thursday ordered a New York doctor to pay more than $100,000 in penalties for prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas, a ruling that could test “shield laws” in Democratic-controlled states where abortion is legal; and how did a North Texas bookstore get so popular, so quickly? Dallas-Fort Worth’s newest romance bookstore, The Plot Twist, is off to a steamy start. And just in time for Valentine’s Day. When the Denton shop opened in January, nearly 800 romance readers huddled in the chilly Texas weather on grand opening weekend, waiting to meet a few of their favorite authors. The Plot Twist owners, the mother-daughter duo Dawn Conner and Darci Middleton, opened The Plot Twist because they shared a love for romance novels and was created for those who read new romance novels, from contemporary to fantasy to young adult to dark and salacious. It’s a big time for “romantasy” and BookTok. Fiction and nonfiction saw a slight decline in sales between 2023 and 2024, but science fiction and fantasy were up. They took a leap of faith to open up their shop and it seems to be working: Books are flying off the shelves so fast, the mother-daughter duo is restocking shelves during business hours to keep up. If you’d like to check them out, The Plot Twist Romance Bookstore & Bar is at 227 W. Oak St., in Denton.

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