Providing much needed health care for hundreds of thousands of Texans would be a game changer at a time when many policy proposals are measured by the dozens or hundreds of Texans who would benefit. It’s time for state leaders to make real progress on mental health by developing a plan to reduce our state’s high uninsured rate.
The rhetoric of fear threatens to reverse the long-standing, successful economic relationship between Texas and Mexico. With intertwined economies skyrocketing since the 1994 enactment of NAFTA, a strong border relationship between Texas and Mexico has resulted in five million American jobs and a Texas surplus in trade for goods and services with Mexico.
It is quite possible that the fate of U.S. Supreme Court Justice pick Brett Kavanaugh could hinge on a decision by a judge in Wichita Falls. That decision could be announced any day now.
A victory in the Texas Supreme Court for Patricia Mosley would reaffirm the basic notion that the government cannot lie to people who are trying to assert their constitutional rights.
On a recent fact-finding mission to the U.S.-Mexico border, I was heartbroken that the stories of new immigrants are often much worse than we’ve heard. Along with a group of fellow veterans, I travelled to El Paso and Juarez to see the situation firsthand and meet the families that are being ripped apart on our border.
Discriminatory laws governing who can and cannot sell spirits represent government regulation at its worst, picking winners and losers in private industry and depriving Texas consumers of the choice they deserve.
State leaders, assisted living facility operators and the public should learn the lessons of Hurricane Harvey to avoid making the same mistakes.
The mission of the Grannies was to travel to McAllen to shed light on the immigrant atrocities our current administration has created at the border. When children are caged in detention facilities that resemble concentration camps, when children are neglected and abused in these facilities, when their desperate parents are treated as criminals, in my book these are atrocities.
Property tax reform has been the topic of much debate and proposed legislation. We believe the answer is not as simple as a one-size-fits-all cap on tax rate increases or revenue, mandatory rollback elections, or a sole focus on homeowner property tax to exclusion of all other tax policy.
If we want to avoid the high energy prices seen in places like California and New York while enjoying supplies of reliable energy, subsidies won’t work. If we want our neighbors to live healthy lives, if we believe in an open, democratic political process, and if we believe in the prosperity provided by the free market, our current path of subsidizing renewable energy is the wrong one.
Although the Legislature failed to pass school finance reform during the last legislative session, state lawmakers established the Texas Commission on Public School Finance to study the state’s school finance system and offer recommendations for reform. The commission’s recommendations will be stronger if it draws some lessons from recent court decisions in nearby states and bases its recommendations on sound educational research.
Texas, we’ve got a problem — a serious problem. A large part of our election technology across Texas is past its recommended useful life of 10 years. On top of that, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Russia tried to hack our state's election infrastructure.
The State Office of Administrative Hearings no longer exists for its only purpose: to hold fair hearings. Morale could not be lower. The judges feel they should start a hearing with a presumption the agency is right. Texans’ right to a fair hearing is gone.
Even if you don’t personally visit the library and participate in these programs and services, public libraries are using your tax dollars in ways that benefit you. Texas public libraries generated $967 million in economic activity in 2015. I hope that you will take advantage of all public libraries have to offer, but even if you don’t, your community is a better place with a library in it.
Our politicians are content to blame gun violence on problems that they claim don’t have solutions. They say it’s a matter of bad people doing bad things. If that’s true, red flag laws would help. They say it’s a mental health issue. If that’s true, red flag laws would help. It appears that our lawmakers would rather protect guns than the lives of their constituents.
There is federal funding through the FAST Act and other programs that can be leveraged for passenger rail if Texas can step up and match it. Other conservative states, like Oklahoma and Utah, dedicate funding for passenger rail and transit and are seeing the benefits of transportation choices for their citizens. Texas has been shut out.
The gains that Beto O’Rourke has made are particularly significant in light of the fact that he’s competing against an incumbent, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who has played the underdog game to great success in the recent past.
The 2018 midterms are right around the corner. It’s time for every elected lawmaker in Texas to choose a side: Will they stand with women and families or will they stand with in the way of our health and freedom? It’s an easy decision really. Choose families. Choose life.
No one trained me for what I am doing as an immigration attorney in the family separation crisis: talking about horrific crimes against humanity in Central America and then learning the details of my own government’s purposeful actions to traumatize asylum-seekers.
As an immigrant free from fear, I cannot stand idly as others are threatened and assailed. Immigrants, regardless of classification and throughout history, craft the American story. The greatest privilege I live with has been the ability to play one small part in it. I dream that many others may join this story too, free from fear and ferried by hope.
