Cocaine probably isn’t what you would think of as a unifying policy topic but, in 2021, it’s bringing both sides of the aisle together at the federal level. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are faced with a decision to either support fair sentencing in federal crack and powder cocaine convictions, or continue to support an antiquated...
I don’t know the story behind the clean two-story home on Goldfinch Lane in Montgomery County. But I know enough. Soon, attorneys will sell the property on the fourth floor of the Commissioners Court Building in Conroe. In this white-hot real estate market, it will likely to go investors. What it means is that at...
Odd things are happening in the People’s Republic of China (PRC): electricity shortages due to lack of coal; factories shutting down; cities going dark with no warning, blacking-out traffic lights, stalling people in elevators, and killing patients in hospitals. The entire power grid is said to be near-collapse. Why? Are these electrical shortages due to the weaknesses of...
Vox wasn’t supposed to say this part out loud. But in a 2020 piece celebrating Britain’s National Health Service, Vox co-founder Ezra Klein explained that the NHS is forced to ration care. “It has embraced the idea we fear most: rationing,” he wrote. “There is, in the UK, a government agency that decides which treatments...
Even before he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Georgia, Rev. Raphael Warnock’s brand was speaking “uncomfortable truths.” When preachers tell the truth, he once told a reporter, “very often it makes people uncomfortable.” Now that Sen. Warnock is in the Senate and pushing a massive Medicaid expansion in the reconciliation bill, here’s an...
On Monday, Dripping Springs ISD, a small school district just west of Austin, formally adopted its tax rate and set in motion a major tax increase. On a vote of 6-1, the DSISD board approved a total tax rate of $1.3103 per $100 of assessed value (M&O rate: $0.9603 per $100 of value/I&S rate: $0.35...
When many on the left talk about “systemic racism,” they often cite redlining—the practice of segregating neighborhoods through mortgage restrictions and other tools—as one of most effective measures for keeping the races separate. Redlining, they contend, has resulted in worse economic and physical health for Black communities. But the left is fully on board with...
When the Census 2020 numbers were finally released late last month, Texas Democrats jubilantly joined the national press in celebrating that the number of white people in the U.S. had declined over the last decade — 8.6% nationally and 5.3% in Texas. Predicting the data would make a huge impact on the redistricting in Texas,...
In a little over one week, the small town of Del Rio, Texas saw more than 15,000 migrants surge their border. Thanks to the quick response from Texas, the migrant-made encampment has been cleared, but that does not mean the crisis is averted. Border Patrol sectors across Texas continue to apprehend and rescue migrants attempting...
Marriage is already tough enough; fewer and fewer Americans are even attempting it, and while divorce rates are down slightly, that may only be a temporary side effect of the pandemic. Yet the evidence is clear—marriage is the not-so-secret ingredient for success in life, for men, women and especially for children. But marriage is about...
The Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), a publicly-funded pro education establishment group, made an unusual change to its mission statement that raises an interesting question. Over the weekend, TASB added a new charge to its statement of beliefs, according to Austin ISD trustee Lynn Boswell, that targets the latest cause de jour: systemic racism....
Back in March 2010, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said out loud what most Democrats would only say in their own heads. In referencing a massive takeover of America’s health care system, also known as Obamacare, Speaker Pelosi suggested the House pass the bill so we could all find out what was in it. History certainly...