Many small and mid-sized cities and counties are right now considering tax rates that, if ultimately adopted, will result in homeowners paying higher taxes. In some cases, those threatened tax hikes are dramatic. To better understand which Texas taxpayers are in the danger zone, I recently surveyed numerous Notices of Public Hearing on Tax Increase,...
When criminal records follow people forever, families struggle, employers lose workers, and communities lose productive citizens. Federal law offers almost no path to redemption, even though second chances strengthen public safety and the economy. Key Points The federal expungement system is effectively nonexistent. Permanent criminal records for non-violent federal offenses undermine work opportunities, family stability,...
September 11, 2001 was not an inexplicable act of violence. The men who carried out the attacks belonged to an ideological tradition that had identified the United States and the broader West as enemies long before commercial airplanes were hijacked that morning. Twenty-five years later, the danger is that Americans remember the horror of 9/11...