For too many Texans renewing, replacing or getting their first driver’s license, the process is a bureaucratic nightmare. Average booking times range from 40 to 180 days, without counting the time you spend at the driver’s license office.

This is why we welcome a novel idea from the Department of Public Safety that will allow virtual appointments. This will not only help customers get their documents faster, but it will also help the agency get around staffing shortages, which are worse in metropolitan areas like Dallas, our colleague Amber Gaudet reported.

How will virtual appointments work? A customer would book the online appointment and then upload the required documents ahead of time. During the virtual meeting, a DPS employee, who could be anywhere in Texas, will review the documentation and take the driver’s photo if needed.

Many Texans are already using telehealth services to meet their physicians in a virtual setting, and many of us have office meetings in online conference rooms. Renewing a driver’s license remotely makes sense.

But DPS’ pitch goes even further. Noncommercial drivers could take their road test virtually. This will require road and driver-facing cameras and the help of a passenger to act as a proctor. We are more skeptical about this. But as technology continues to evolve, assessing driving skills without being in the car might be feasible in the near future.

DPS has been struggling for years with wait times for driver’s license processing.

In 2018, The News reported that people waited up to eight hours, sometimes outdoors and in extreme weather. Back then, the online system was not as efficient, but now the problem is waiting for an appointment. Good luck if you are in Plano, where a renewal or replacement appointment can take up to 64 days.

With tens of thousands moving to Texas each month, DPS has had difficulty keeping up with the demand.

DPS is asking the Legislature to invest $22 million over the next five years in the system. About 40% of Texans have to be in person to get their updated license. This includes first-timers and noncitizens, but also those who have renewed online previously.

This is a sensible investment, but lawmakers should also consider security enhancements to avoid cybersecurity threats like the 2023 breach in which criminals illegally obtained thousands of licenses.

It is commendable that DPS is looking for practical solutions to a problem that has frustrated Texans for too long. Legislature, take the wheel.

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com

With Election Day approaching, candidates up and down the ballot are making their final push to reach voters. CBS News Texas has been following the polls and covering political events all year long in a quest to find the Texas State of Mind.

But ultimately, it’s the people who matter and who will decide what happens. In an effort to get a better understanding of what voters across the Lone Star State will be thinking about as they cast their ballots, reporter Jason Allen and a CBS News Texas crew are spending the weeks leading up to the election traveling across the state, speaking to people from the Chihuahuan Desert to the Pineywoods.

Jason’s final stop on this road trip: Houston.

HOUSTON – For our final stop on our road trip, we decided to hit up the biggest city and second-largest metropolitan region in the state. 

Jason and the crew visited two different events in sprawling Houston: a farmers market and the annual Korean Festival Houston. We found out pretty fast that no matter where Houstonians are originally from, they love that they’re here. 

“We have the best diversity, we have some of the best southern hospitality here and we have some of the best food from around the world,” said one woman at the farmers market. 

Another man at the farmers market, a business owner selling Bundt cakes, touted the city’s reputation as a melting pot.   

“There’s so many different people,” he said. “That’s what I like about Houston.”

We heard similar responses from nearly everyone we spoke with during our 24 hours in the city. In fact, most of the people we spoke with struggled to name things they don’t like about Houston.

“I think Houstonians are enormously proud of being Houstonians,” said Bernice Kearney, a former television news director. “Houston people love being from Houston. They brag about it.”

Kearney, who has worked in both Houston and San Antonio, said there’s a resilience to all Texans that seems heightened in Houstonians.

“I think they’re battle-weary here. They’ve gone through so many storms, so many natural disaster-type things,” she said. “I’ve heard this a number of times, ‘Well we’re used to it. Well you just go and fix it up again and you just go and get back on that horse.’” 

Even those who said life is pretty good for them had some issues on their mind ahead of the election.

“I would say, woman’s rights,” said one man at the Korean Festival. “Government doesn’t have the right to interfere with a woman’s choice or a doctor’s choice to get an abortion.”

“Parents want the best for their kids,” said another man at the farmers market. “And we invest more in new schools outside of the city proper. I’d love to see more investment in the center of cities in general for that level of education.”

Another woman said she’d like to see Houston become a more walkable city. 

One woman who immigrated from the Democratic Republic of Congo said, that despite feeling the pinch of rising prices, overall she feels grateful to be here.

“The way I think about it is there’s many people who don’t have what we have here in Texas,” she said.

This story is one of several CBS News Texas is releasing in the weeks leading up to the election, trying to find the Texas State of Mind. We asked every person we met on the road for their essential road trip song. Below is the playlist we put together of those recommendations.

The Texas heat didn’t phase Waxahachie quarterback Jerry Meyer III, a newcomer to the Lone Star State this year.

“I could come out here in some sweats and a sweatshirt and I’d be fine,” the sophomore said.

Meyer transferred to Waxahachie from Lake Mead Christian Academy in the Las Vegas area, where as a freshman in 2023 he won a 2A state championship and set the Nevada single-season record for touchdowns with 58.

Las Vegas, located in the Mojave Desert, experiences high temperatures rivaling even the most miserable Texas summers.

“It doesn’t compare at all,” Meyer said. “Vegas is hot.”

But Meyer admits Texas has the hotter high school football scene.

To Texans, large stadiums, pageantry and top-tier talent are typical aspects of high school football. But to outsiders, the frenzy is quite unique.

Dallas-Fort Worth grew by more than 152,000 residents, the size of a large suburb, last year. The migration to North Texas has continued, introducing fresh faces to the area’s booming high school sports landscape. Meyer and other out-of-state newcomers are playing their first Texas high school football seasons, and so far, the experience has lived up to the hype.

“It’s been a blessing playing with the top talent in America,” said Meyer, who has passed for 2,092 yards and 15 touchdowns this season and holds 10 college offers, among them Ole Miss, Nebraska and UNLV.

Meyer and Waxahachie compete in District 11-6A, also known as the “District of Doom.” It includes two defending state champions in Duncanville and DeSoto, a storied program in Cedar Hill and an area power in Lancaster, which Waxahachie must beat Friday to clinch 11-6A’s final playoff spot.

Duncanville and DeSoto, in particular, are nationally ranked and brimming with four- and five-star talent. A combined 32 players from Duncanville and DeSoto have made it to the NFL.

“Texas football is the talk across the country. It’s the biggest stage to play on,” Meyer said. “It’s just so highly talked about. They back it up. It’s highly competitive over here in this district and Texas in general.”

Melissa quarterback Noah Schuback, a three-star junior from Alabama, is also getting a taste of competitive Texas high school football in District 4-5AII with Anna, Frisco Emerson, Lovejoy and Prosper Walnut Grove, all teams ranked in The Dallas Morning News’ Dallas-area 5A poll.

Only one team in the district, Lovejoy, has clinched a playoff berth, in part because of the high degree of parity.

“Our district’s really hard and we play a top playoff team each week, so it’s almost like the playoffs in our district, which is really good,” said Schuback, who has passed for 1,788 yards and 23 touchdowns and rushed for 282 yards and five scores this season.

But facing talented football teams isn’t new to Schuback, who played for Hoover High School, which competes in Alabama’s Class 7A.

“It’s very well-known throughout the country,” Schuback said. “The district that we were in was really hard, and we played a top team every week.”

Although Hoover played its games at the 11,000-seat Hoover Met, where the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament is held, Schuback was still impressed with how fans fill Melissa’s $35 million Coach Kenny Deel Stadium, which opened last season and has a capacity of 10,000.

“They say high school football is life here, and now I really see it,” Schuback said. “[The stadium] almost gets packed every game, even if we’re not playing a top opponent.”

In Vegas, Meyer went to a smaller school that didn’t have a band or compete against quite the level of talent he faces now, but “people sleep on Nevada,” he said. “There’s some players down there.”

He echoed Schuback’s sentiment about the impressive Texas crowds.

“There’s so many people that show up to the games and it makes you feel special,” Meyer said.

And the stadiums are sights to behold.

“It feels like you’re in a small college out here,” Meyer said. “It’s completely different.”

Before becoming Waxahachie’s QB1, Meyer had been to Texas previously for football camps and 7 on 7 tournaments.

“It’s huge,” Meyer said of his impressions of Texas in general. “And it’s a football state.”

Find more high school sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

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