Funny Business
What to know: Barbers Hill ISD finds itself entangled in another controversy involving its handling of taxpayer money. New reports suggest the district is “set to collect three times the market rate for a new building it will lease out to Lee College, all of which will be paid by local taxpayers.”
The TPPF take: There’s a lot of funny business happening in Barbers Hill ISD—and school finance generally.
“Serious concerns exist over BHISD’s handling of taxpayer money, from its exploitation of Chapter 313 agreements to its controversial education foundation arrangement to its latest entanglement with Lee College. This series of events should make us all wonder ‘what’s going on here?’ Further, it should prompt us to look at our own school district’s handling of taxpayer money to verify that everything is above board,” says TPPF’s James Quintero.
For more on local spending, click here.
Protecting Children
What to know: Juries have handed down two important verdicts in recent days, finding social media companies liable for the harm the inflict on children.
The TPPF take: These verdicts could help to reverse a cultural slide that is damaging our children.
“These are like the lawsuits in the 1990s against tobacco companies, which forced them to admit that they knew that tobacco was addictive,” says TPPF’s Sherry Sylvester. “Ultimately, we became a nation of mostly non-smoking people in no-smoking spaces. Meta owns Facebook and Instagram, and the plaintiffs in the court case in New Mexico demonstrated they know the algorithms they use are addictive and especially damaging to children.”
For more on social media, click here.
Machine Gun Blues
What to know: Lower courts are split on the federal machine gun ban, which is contained in the National Firearms Act.
The TPPF take: The machine gun ban rests on a dangerous constitutional theory.
“This case is about more than just machine guns,” says TPPF’s Laura Beth Latimer. “It is about whether the Commerce Clause still has limits. If Congress may ban possession of an item that was never bought, never sold, never exchanged across state lines, and has no substantial effect on interstate commerce, then Congress can regulate virtually every aspect of human life.”
For more on machine gun ban, click here.