Bail reform done the right way — basing pretrial release decisions on risk rather than money — will ultimately lead to fewer crimes and safer communities. That’s why the Legislature should pass bail reform legislation next session to improve pretrial justice in Texas.
Smart justice reforms make our communities safer. For this reason, calling bail reform a “slap in the face to victims and survivors” could not be further from the truth. Texans deserve a system of pretrial justice that is not based on whether a defendant can afford to pay bail.
We can’t prevent major weather and climate disasters. But by investing resources into effective planning and engineering, we can make our systems more resilient, minimize losses of service and restore transportation service more quickly and completely.
Texans who are dispirited by recent immigration policy changes can be heartened by the moral courage of the abolitionists who came before them, resisting and even disobeying inhumane laws. They recognized the inequalities and injustices of their country, spoke out on behalf of the vulnerable and mobilized change — even if that change was still a long time coming.
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If the administration’s goal is to punish migrants and steam roll them out of the United States, Port Isabel is an ideal prison to effectuate the president’s vision. But if this country wants to retain some semblance of respect for the people who have dared to seek a better life here, then turning to Port Isabel is ludicrous.
Young people are the most largest, most diverse and progressive voting bloc in Texas. Together, we have the power to decide who we are as a state and to change Texas. We have the power to win for our community and for all people of color the dignity and respect that we deserve by electing leaders who share our values. We will change Texas, and we will do it by voting for Valdez.
As conservatives, we know the best way to solve climate change is to do so through a free market. And the only way to have a free market is to tax carbon.
It is time to listen to science, economics, history and the majority of American citizens. We should recognize the tragedy that is climate change, acknowledge that market forces cannot and will not solve it, and implement a carbon tax.
As a result of Trump’s executive order, women fleeing domestic violence will be incarcerated as they undergo interviews, file appeals, and attempt to make their case to immigration judges. And they now have a significantly lower likelihood of success, especially because most will proceed without legal representation.
My hope for the Texas medical cannabis program is that the state is able to collect data around how patients and their physicians are utilizing this program. Objective evidence will show that having this treatment option benefits qualifying patients and strengthens the relationship between patients and physicians, and that the regulated program is a worthy endeavor.
Addressing out-of-network ER care issues in Texas requires a collective effort on the part of payers, providers and patients. Whispering in the shadows about one of healthcare’s open secrets – out-of-network emergency care – won’t solve the issue.
Family unity is enshrined in international law, and the United States has protected this fundamental human right for decades. But we seem to have gone astray as the Trump administration separates immigrant children from their parents — a tactic employed to deter asylum seekers while at the same time creating leverage to fund a border wall in Congress.
So long as we still have our civil rights, we bear the patriotic responsibility to act and defy these gross human rights violations. Join a local protest and demand the immediate reunification of detained immigrant families and the end of family separations.
It seems clear that the Trump administration was caught thoroughly unprepared to implement its own “zero tolerance” policy. In the ensuing scramble to house children ranging in age from infants to adolescents, the administration has relied on hastily built tent cities, retrofitted WalMart stores and, most revealingly, existing facilities typically used to house juvenile offenders.
Some "experts" will say that investing in all these congressional districts in Texas is a waste of resources, but these are the same people who did not think Doug Jones could win a Senate seat in Alabama, and did not see Democrats almost winning back the Virginia House of Delegates last year.
Results from the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll illuminate how public attitudes provide the context for the political and policy responses of Texas’ elected leaders to President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy on immigration on the U.S.—Mexico border.
Crypto-mining, the process by which a global network of computers verify Bitcoin transactions, could allow for more renewable energy sources like wind and solar to be integrated into our electricity systems. By running off electricity that would otherwise be curtailed because of low demand, crypto-mining could allow more clean energy to be profitably built on the grid.
As I left the governor's roundtables on school safety and guns, I found myself questioning the narrative that permeates the nation right now, the idea that we are more polarized than ever. Maybe we are, but maybe when we get in a room together and focus on what we want instead of what we fear, we have a lot more in common than we think.
Tragically, the long-standing processes and programs that serve all of these vulnerable groups of refugees have come under attack over the past 18 months. And ironically, most of these programs were developed to help make the U.S. immigration process more orderly and manageable.
