Late Post: IV

In The Texas Tribune, there is an article that is about a proposed bill that entails how interrogations should be recorded. According to the author of this article, the recording would make cases (of lets say capital murder, human trafficking, etc) more concrete, more preserved, and any false confessions would be caught. I feel that Mr. Chammah did a great job composing this article, in the sense that he expressed the pros and cons of SB 87. He also featured commentary from the bill's proposers (ie Sen. Rodney Ellis) and it's nay-sayers (ie Sen Dan Patrick).

I also feel that this bill should pass mainly for the reason that the bigger crimes result in the death penalty, and too often are there people who either make false confessions or put to death and are actually innocent. People like Sen. Dan Patrick will say to just "trust the police", but the police are also human. We expect our judges, lawyers, and law enforcement to be perfect but in reality they are far from perfect like the rest of us. At least the recordings can bring the judges, the enforcers, the lawyers, the jurors, and the victims even more closer to what they want and look for -- the truth. They say that all acts done in the dark will eventually come to light, but in these crimes against society we can't just wait for justice to knock on our doors. Sometimes, we have to pursue justice ourselves, and that's the point of this bill.

Assignment 8

Big Ol'Texas: Toll Lanes. Yay or Nay?: This was an interesting read. I feel that, in time, the toll ways will be worth the investments. The Texas population is growing exponentially
(especially in the cities), and everyone has places to go. Its needless to say that the more roads we build, it will be more space for drivers to take up and get from point A to B wasting the least amount of time and Carbon Dioxide emitted from those drivers as possible.

True, this will cost the State a ton of money, but this is a long term benefit.

7

The Texas Tribune was showcasing an article about how even though Texas is a sea of conservative, Texas Democrats still see an opportunity to pass legislation about healthcare with the help of the Obama administration. Whether how the federal government will help Texas medicaid beneficiaries is unclear, but both Republican and Democratic parties can agree that the Texas care system needs reform. I personally feel that the government should care for those who need the care, but I also understand that a government provided care system will cost money. A lot of money.

According to this article, Republicans also say that expanding the Texas Medicaid before reforming it will cost even more for the Texas government and would mean even more budget cuts (I can't imagine what Texas schooling would be like if the legislature decides to add even more budget cuts). Medicaid, and Medicare are two of the pillars for the Democratic party, because the party is about giving rights to more people. However, the Texas medicaid program needs some more improvement before the legislature goes around spending more money. Texas is already in a horrifying position (top of the bottom, one would say) when it comes to government spending, budget cuts, and especially out government provided care programs.

And according to this article, I feel that the Texas Democratic Party will be more than willing to make some negotiations with the Republican party to meet some sort of understanding.

Stand Alone Star: College "Provider"- have to but HOW?

Stand Alone Star: College "Provider"- have to but HOW?: F unding- such an old topic for most university however, it is still a hot subject for most college students that are attending universiti...

Blog 5

I was on the Texas Tribune's website earlier, and what did I see headlining the home page? Why, another article about how Texas universities don't get enough funding. However, I find this article to be more unique than ones from the past because this article features the Texas constitution's intake on how the state legislature should provide to keep these schools running.

But, there are arguments being made that the constitution didn't specify how to provide, or by how much to provide for our educational institutions.

Anyway, I will have to agree (again) and say that Texas obviously doesn't have collegiate education high in her list of priorities. I find the bit in the article of how tuition rose between 1985 to 2012 to be very astonishing. Verbatim about the rise of tuition in UT-Austin: "Tuition made up five percent of the school's budget in 1984-1985; now it's 25 percent."

1/4th of the school's budget will come from the tuition of it's students, and I'm almost certain that a huge some of that 25 percent will be paid in student loans -- so the institution won't get that money at the drop of a hat.

Or a much more appropriate idiom, at the drop of a dime.

I don't know how to fix the hiking tuition rates, but I do know that Texas legislators need to keep better track of what they spend or invest in. I'll even say that education -- of any level -- needs to be a priority, not an option. It seems that all these politicians claim to support Texas education, well I say put my tax paying money where your mouth is.

Blog III

On the night of the seventh of October, the Dallas Morning News published an editorial about the election for the 162nd civil district judge. The two candidates featured in this article are Mike Lee (R) and Phyllis Brown (D). I'm not going to give the columnists and reporters of the Dallas Morning News any bad credit, but I will say that this editorial could've been executed better. By that I mean that the author could've made this editorial more "in depth" and not just point out that one court judge has more field experience than the other. I'm not even going to pay too much attention to the obvious bias towards the Republican judge (verbatim from the fist sentance of the second paragraph: "This newspaper prefers Republican Mike Lee...to Democrat Phyllis Lister Brown").

It wasn't that the article was too short, for me it was that the article was too dry and didn't have any thickness to it. I'm sure both these judges have a repertoire of cases in their careers, giving the author an opportunity to give a more entailed editorial. However, I'll put my money on the idea that the Dallas Morning News doesn't really put as much value of on experience as they claim. I'll believe that they used that as a cover and a pretty weak attempt to hide their bias.

But, based on what is on the article, I will agree that a more experienced judge is better than one that is not so experienced. However, that is all I can really say is what I "learned" from this article.

In this post I will focus on a story by The Texas Tribune  about lawyer Keith Hampton
(D) and how he pursues to beat Sharon Keller (R) as presiding judge for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. I find this article rather interesting because although The Tribune is a nonpartisan source of news media, the article seems to showcase this Democratic lawyer. What's also interesting is that the article is the way it is because Sharon Keller herself didn't respond with any commentary to defend herself when this story was being constructed. Which makes me think that, if one were to be mainstreamed like Keller was in this story; wouldn't she want to explain her own reasoning and not have other outside mediums defend her when it's her fight?

To conclude, I just feel that whatever controversies this woman was involved with, Keller displays a lack of competance as judge and would like to see how things turn out in the end for our criminal appeals system.