North Texas drivers will pay more to use toll roads beginning in July. The North Texas Tollway Authority will increase rates beginning July 1 by an average of 1 cent per mile for TollTag holders, from 21 to 22 cents. ZipCash customers without toll tags pay double the TollTag rate. In other news, clouds of Saharan dust, originating in North Africa, have made their way across the Atlantic Ocean and are impacting states along the Gulf of Mexico this week, with some of the biggest effects expected in Florida; when Texas students head back to class in the fall, school could feel different. The Legislature approved a bevy of education-focused bills that target everything from cellphones to DEI work. And while several consequential school bills are headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk, many other proposals died in the final days of the session. Most notably, House and Senate members failed to reach an agreement on how to kill the STAAR test; and a McKinney resident won a million dollar Powerball prize during a drawing last month. The winner, who opted to remain anonymous, bought the ticket at a Walmart Supercenter in McKinney.

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