It’s a Crosswalk
What to know: Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered Austin (and other cities) to remove the rainbow crosswalk at Fourth and Congress avenues.
The TPPF take: It’s not a political billboard, it’s a crosswalk.
“The city of Austin authorized these ‘decorative street markings’ over the past several years,” says TPPF’s Sherry Sylvester. “But, as Abbott rightly points out, taxpayers don’t want their money being used for propaganda that they are forced to stare at while they are waiting in traffic—which they almost always are.”
For more on the political crosswalks, click here.
Drug Boats
What to know: President Donald Trump ordered the destruction of another cartel drug boat in the waters off Venezuela.
The TPPF take: It’s time to treat drug cartels as the terrorist organizations they are.
“For decades, Washington approached cartels as criminal enterprises,” says TPPF’s Ammon Blair. “That framework was too slow and too narrow. Cartels are no longer just criminal networks. They are hybrid threats: they control territory, coerce populations, corrupt institutions, and wage psychological warfare.”
For more on the cartels, click here.
At the Bar
What to know: The Texas Supreme Court could soon end the American Bar Association’s monopoly on accrediting law schools.
The TPPF take: The highly politicized ABA has long held a stranglehold on accrediting U.S. law schools.
“Even in Texas, the ABA gets to decide which schools’ students can take the bar exam, a prerequisite to practicing law,” says TPPF law clerk Noah Pederson. “Entrusting a private, out-of-state organization with control over Texas legal education is problematic for three reasons: the ABA pushes politically biased standards, and it’s an unconstitutional delegation of power, and it imposes burdensome requirements.”
For more on the ABA, click here.