(Ben Sargent)

To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section. Find Observer political reporting here.

The post Loon Star State: That Dog Hunts appeared first on The Texas Observer.

By Linda Gassenheimer, Tribune News Service

I was looking for a quick and comforting meal for this busy time of year, and creamy mac and cheese with store-bought cooked chicken was the perfect answer. Once the elbow macaroni is boiled, the rest of the ingredients come together in minutes.

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This dinner can be ready in just 10 minutes. For a festive touch, I added fresh tomato pieces to a bag of washed, ready-to-eat greens for a simple red-and-green side salad.

HELPFUL HINTS:

Any onion can be used in place of red onion.

Any short cut pasta can be used

Look for cooked or rotisserie chicken breast in the meat department.

COUNTDOWN:

Place water for macaroni on to boil.

Assemble ingredients.

Boil macaroni.

Make cheese sauce.

Add macaroni to sauce.

SHOPPING LIST:

To buy: 1 container elbow macaroni, 1 container no-salt-added chicken broth, 1 bag shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, 1 carton nonfat ricotta cheese, 1 small piece Parmesan cheese, 8 ounces cooked chicken breast, 1 bottle smoked paprika, 1 red onion, 1 bag washed, ready-to-eat Romain lettuce. 1 bottle reduced fat salad dressing.

Staples: salt and black peppercorns.

Chicken Mac and Cheese

Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer

1 cup elbow macaroni
1 cup no-salt-add chicken broth
1/2 cup diced red onion
3/4 cup shredded reduced fat sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup nonfat ricotta cheese
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
8 ounces cooked chicken breast cut into small cubes, (about 1 1/2-cups)
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place a pot containing 3 to 4 quarts of water on to boil for pasta. Add macaroni and boil 8 minutes. Meanwhile, Add chicken broth to a saucepan and place over medium high heat to bring it to a simmer. Add onion and simmer 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in Cheddar cheese and ricotta cheese. Mix well. Add smoked paprika, chicken and Parmesan cheese. When ready, drain the macaroni and add to cheese sauce. Toss well and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately on two dinner plates.

Yield 2 servings.

Per serving: 614 calories (22 percent from fat), 15.3 g fat (6.3 g saturated, 3.0 g monounsaturated), 139 mg cholesterol, 57.9 g protein, 54.7 g carbohydrates, 3.0 g fiber, 498 mg sodium.

Lettuce and Tomato Salad

Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer

2 cups washed, ready-to-eat Romaine lettuce cut into bite-size pieces
1 ripe medium tomato, washed and cut into eighths
2 tablespoons reduced fat salad dressing
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Add lettuce and tomato to bowl and toss with dressing. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Serve with Chicken Mac and Cheese.

Yield 2 servings

Per serving: 35 calories (32 percent from fat), 1.3 g fat (0.1 g saturated, 0.4 g monounsaturated), 1 mg cholesterol, 1.4 g protein, 5.7 g carbohydrates, 2.1 g fiber, 13 mg sodium.

©2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Like many cannabis smokers, Jared Panks used marijuana as medicine. As a paramedic, he’d seen the disastrous effects of other drugs and alcohol so, after years of fighting fires for the U.S Forest Service, he began to smoke marijuana to dull the pain from scoliosis and his torn-up knees.

He became more interested in the plant’s potential benefits after seeing family members suffer from cancer and opioid abuse. Panks and his wife founded HomeGrown ORegonicX, a small medical cannabis farm that serves the deaf community in Oregon, and started smoking pot frequently every day to test different strains.

He was shocked in 2013 when he was struck by vicious bouts of vomiting. He would start vomiting in the morning and continue the rest of the day non-stop, sometimes for days at a time. He couldn’t eat or keep down fluids. Only a hot shower would offer some relief. The condition would fade, then reemerge after two or three months, often at times of stress..

Panks lost 50 pounds as his body seemed to be trying to purge something. His abdomen and back ached from constant dry heaves. His throat was burned by the stomach acids, and a dentist told him his teeth were ruined.

When a doctor gave him his diagnosis, he initially refused to believe it: cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, or CHS. While Panks doesn’t scream from it, other people affected sometimes cry out in pain, leading to its other name: scromiting, for the combination of screaming and vomiting.

“Sometimes it goes 14 days, where my whole body starts to seize up,” Panks said. “I have to go to the ER and get fluids. It can be very, very brutal. You’re sliding down the stairs because you don’t have the strength to stand up.”

The condition is rare and the mechanism of its cause unexplained, prompting some cannabis advocates to refuse to believe it. But Panks is far from alone. A new study of hospital emergency departments nationwide by the University of Illinois Chicago found the number of diagnosed cases of CHS jumped sevenfold from 2016 to 2022.

The increase came at the same time as increased cannabis legalization and potency, and peaked at 33 cases per 100,000 ER visits during the COVID pandemic, when substance abuse increased sharply. The increase came primarily among young adults, 18 to 35, most of them men.

Most people with CHS are long-term users who smoke every day, often high potency weed or concentrates, research shows. Seventy-five percent of people diagnosed with CHS consumed cannabis every day, a systematic review found.

Normally, cannabis is well-known for its ability improve appetite. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved synthetic THC for the treatment of nausea from conditions such as chemotherapy, though many patients prefer flowers from the plant itself.

But like any drug, what can have mild effects in moderation may have toxic effects from over-consumption. It is known that cannabis acts on the endo-cannabinoid system, which helps regulate the digestive system.

The lead author of the UIC study, professor James Swartz, said he believes the increase in state legalization and higher potency were the main factors at work behind the increase. He hopes the study will encourage clinicians to consider CHS when treating patients.

“There is still some skepticism,” Swartz said. “Proponents of cannabis say this is being alarmist, it hardly occurs. No, this is real, and it’s common enough that it’s of concern.”

People should consider the condition when considering how much to use and what’s safe, and take “a long hard look” at very high potency products, he said.

Swartz has some unlikely allies in the cannabis world.

Tim Blake, founder of The Emerald Cup, the Oscars of the cannabis world, said he ran into a wall with hyperemesis years ago and had to cut way back on his consumption.

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Blake is 68 and has been smoking since he was 14, with a few periods of abstinence. He has grown cannabis and used it to deal with three rounds of metastatic cancer, so he is an enthusiastic advocate.

But a little more than 10 years ago, he got very sick with cyclic vomiting. It only went away after he quit smoking for several months to eliminate the buildup of THC, the main component of pot that gets users high, and which accumulates in the body’s fatty tissues.

Now, like drinkers who abstain from alcohol for “Dry January,” he starts every year by abstaining from cannabis for a month or two to clean out his system. When he stopped smoking, he would sweat profusely for five days to clean out his system. He stopped using concentrates, but still vapes once a day or so, and meditates daily.

He decries the high THC dabs and concentrates that have transformed the use of marijuana for some, and advocates a more moderate approach to consumption, comparing weed to alcohol.

“We shouldn’t be drinking 151 rum shots every day,” he said. “We should do more beer and wine. It is a real issue we want to address so people can safely and effectively use cannabis.”

Panks, who with his wife started Deafining Cannabis to develop sign language related to the plant, said that instead of focusing on high THC, users should look more into the effects of cannabis terpenes, the compounds that help give cannabis and other plants their distinctive effects.

“We need to stop looking at THC percentages and more at the terpenes, so you can understand how your body reacts,” he said. “I hope to be part of a study that can further define the mechanism of CHS and a documentary on the process so that we all can have a better understanding of the science behind it.”

CHS research remains in its infancy, but may be enhanced by recent federal efforts to reclassify cannabis as a less dangerous drug. The World Health Organization only recently recognized CHS as a medical condition. Everyone affected by CHS wants more research to explain its causes, cures, the potential roles of neem oil and other pesticides, and why it affects some people and not others.

For now, abstinence remains the only known cure for CHS.

Prominent cannabis advocate Alice Moon said she wants more research so maybe she can use cannabis again someday.

“I promote a substance I cannot consume,” she said. “I’m adamant about spreading awareness, because I don’t want anybody to be as sick as I was.”

By GRANT PECK, Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — The United States, which played a major role in ending border clashes last year between Thailand and Cambodia, will be providing $45 million in aid packages to the two Southeast Asian countries to help ensure regional stability and prosperity, a senior U.S. State Department official said Friday.

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U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Michael DeSombre made the announcement in an online media briefing in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, where he was meeting with senior Thai officials to discuss the implementation of last October’s ceasefire, also known as the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accord.

Longstanding competing claims to territory along the Thai-Cambodian border was the root cause of the fighting.

“The restoration of peace at the Thai-Cambodian border opens new opportunities for the United States to deepen our work with both countries to promote regional stability and advance our interests in a safer, stronger and more prosperous Indo-Pacific,” DeSombre said.

On Saturday, he’s scheduled to hold discussions with top officials from Cambodia in the country’s capital, Phnom Penh.

The United States “will be providing $15 million for border stabilization to help communities recover and to support displaced persons; $10 million in demining and unexploded ordinance clearance operations; and $20 million for initiatives that will help both countries combat scam operations and drug trafficking, among many other programs,” DeSombre said.

Details of the aid packages were still under discussion, he said.

China said it has provided about $2.8 million in emergency humanitarian aid to help Cambodians displaced by the fighting. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Beijing made the same offer of assistance to Thailand, and that it was under consideration by his government.

The United States and China have competed for influence in Southeast Asia for at least a decade. Cambodia is a close ally of Beijing, and while Thailand has long and close ties with Washington, they are widely seen as loosening in recent years.

The fighting in July and December displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Thailand and Cambodia and killed about 100 soldiers and civilians. Land mines left over from decades of civil war in Cambodia are a continuing problem, while Thailand claims newly laid mines in frontier areas were responsible for wounding its patrolling soldiers in about a dozen incidents last year.

Online scams originating in Southeast Asia, especially from Cambodia and Myanmar, are major transnational crime problems that have swindled billions of dollars from victims around the would.

U.S. assistance to the countries of Southeast Asia and other parts of the world for humanitarian and development programs was severely cut last year when the Trump administration shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.

Cambodia and Thailand initially clashed for five days in late July before agreeing on a preliminary ceasefire. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at the time pressed for an unconditional ceasefire, but there was little headway until U.S. President Donald Trump intervened. Trump said that he warned the Thai and Cambodian leaders that Washington wouldn’t move forward with trade agreements if hostilities continued.

The ceasefire was formalized in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia that Trump attended.

New fighting broke out early last month, but the Thai and Cambodian defense ministers signed a new pact on Dec. 27, vowing to implement the October agreement.

“We are very focused on pursuing peace in and around the world,” DeSombre told journalists. “President Trump is a president of peace, and really believes that peace is critical to economic growth and prosperity.”