Austin’s Yogurt Shop Murders

A class mate of mine wrote a depressing blog post about Austin’s yogurt shop murders on her blog HOWDY. Nahely provided facts and details to provide information for her article. She provided a new hope for finding the horrible person(s) behind this crime and a new insight with recent events. Great article. I enjoyed reading this article, it refreshed my memory of a historic Austin event. I had forgotten this tragic event. I remember when I was younger (this event happened before I was born) and I first heard about this. I was watching a TV show with my dad, probably Dateline or something similar. Since my dad was around when this happened, he provided more insight into what happened. As we watched the show my dad told me more about the event, since I was little when I watched this I don't think I understood fully. It is nice to be reminded of what happened with information regarding the event. Even though I had forgotten, it should remain in the back of our heads. The case is old which makes it harder to provide new information and evidence even with new technology. Even though the case is cold, the families deserve closure.

Legalization of Marijuana

Around the nation people are voting to legalize marijuana both for medical and recreational use. Texas should legalize marijuana for both uses or start with medical use. There have results showing that many health benefits of marijuana with medical use. Medical use of marijuana doesn't have major side effects that make the patient feel worse then they are trying to get better. In Colorado the legalization of marijuana has created thousands of new jobs. They have regulations for buying, selling, and possession. They have tax on both recreational and medical use, with a 10 percent additional special state tax on recreational use. This gave them a 135 million tax and fee revenue last year to put into other funds, such as education.

Although there are some kinks to still be worked out in Colorado, such as driving while high regulations. Legalization is still in its early stages with lots of work to still be put into making it fit focus but there are already plans out there to start with. Texas can model their regulations around Colorado and other states that have legalized marijuana. We can learn from each other and provide our own regulations based on other systems around the nation to make our in work putting the bill together easier. Other countries, such as our neighbors, Canada and Mexico, are looking into legalization as well. With all sorts of different methods of being put into place and being tired out, Texas should be able to find out what will work for us. 

Students and Police Stops

A class mate of mine wrote an interesting blog post about teaching student drivers what to do at police stops on her blog HOWDY. Nahely provided a nice insight into the topic as well her opinion. I agree with her about a few of the points she made. I agree that we should teach both students and officers what to do doing stops. I think people think it's common knowledge but without experience, you may not know how to act. I agree that as people change there needs to be updates in methods to understand the people of today.

Plastic Bag Ban

The plastic bag ban was started on March 1st 2013. The ordinance is likely to save 197 million single-use bags per year. The ordinance did not banning all single-use plastic bags. You can still get one at restaurants for example. Austin has shown a huge decrease in plastic bag use since this was ban was activated. Plastic bags can take over 400 years to break down, keeping the environment cleaner in the long run with out them. Only 5 percent of plastic bags are recycled. A study showed that in Austin single-use plastic bags only make up 6 percent of plastic bags used, while in the sounding central Texas area its 85 percent. In the same study, it showed that reusable bags make up 94 percent of all plastic bags in Austin, while in the rest of central Texas its 15 percent. Some people think by stoping the use of plastic bags would increase the use of paper ones instead. While in some cases you would get paper bags, in my experience, I would bring cloth bags around with me. While it may take a few weeks to remember to take your bags with you or to put them back in your car after use, it will become part of your routine. Whenever I go to Round Rock or other sounding cities, I forget that they give you bags in store. Whenever I get plastic bags, I don't usually remember to recycle them. This makes the impact of these bags bigger. Banning bags makes day to day life a little harder by remembering to bring bags but helps the environment not have a  piece of plastic sticking around for at least 400 years. Making the ban a small inconvenience on us, a bigger help to the earth. The plastic bag ban has made an impact already and should move on throughout other places as well.

HISD Board Candidates

I read an article on the blog Burnt Orange Report titled “HISD Board: Experience & Leadership or A Parent with an Ax to Grind?” This blog is biased to being more liberal. This article was written by Andrea Greer, which there is no information provided from the website about her when you click on her name. With a little more research on the website, I found on the about page a link to meet the authors. There was not too much about her in general. She is an activist and feminist was a law degree. 

 Her intended audience would be people who live in the Houston area and those with kids in the public school system. The article is about the people on the ballot for HISD Board and whom she thinks the people of Houston should vote for. She starts with the four people running (Anne Sung, John Luman, Victoria Bryantand, and Danielle Paulus) and immediately dismisses two of the candidates (Victoria Bryantand and Danielle Paulus). She dismissed them for not going to very many many board meetings, if any at all, and for not speaking with people who are currently on the board. She states that Danielle Paulus didn't even show up for the interview. From the start of the article she states the person she backs up, Anne Sung. She states that Anne Sung has spoken with all the members of the board where as John Luman has only meet with half. She provides a few questions they were asked and their responses. On each question it seems to make out Anne Sung as the best fit. 

 The article seems like an endorsement for Anne Sung as a whole. The article seemed to me to prove her point. After I was finished reading it I thought she was the best candidate. The article was a little hard to keep up with since she switched back and fourth between talking about the two candidates. She provided a little background of the candidates and what they had done so far to get ready for their position if they were to win. Although she provided a few of the questions and answers, she did not always ways post both candidates replies. Her article provided a strong argument that she convinced me of, so I believe that this article would be effective.

Mental Health of Travis County

I read this article by Josephine MacLean called “Texas policy alienates mentally ill” on the Daily Texan. The author MacLean doesn't have very much information about her on the website. She is an advertisement student. I don't think that makes her too much of a credible source to receive information from. The audience for this article is travis county citizens and perhaps UT students.

The article suggests that we fix the mental health availability of the county. The jail system is currently the main provider for mental health aide. The article did not really provide any sort of way of suggesting to change the system. They were mostly compelling about something we should fix but not caring enough to put more insight into the topic. MacLean thinks we should start with adding more funds and hospital beds for state hospitals. They did not suggest where the money for the changes should come from. Her arguments are not very strong. She makes good points that a lot of tax payers are paying for mental health aid for prisoners and getting help sooner would help the public. She didn't follow threw with her plan.

Universities Mental Health Help is Slacking

The article I found here provided a much needed input on mental health help available at Texas universities. With the amount of access that students need to get help for mental health slacking, students could feel discouraged about getting the help they need. This article is well worth the read since this a growing issue that we need to be more aware about. The founding for counselors needs to be increased to help the students that need it. Needing more founding means paying more money for tuition, which already makes students stressed out about money. The recommended amount of counselors to students is one to 1,000-1,000. Most of the Texas universities didn't come close to meeting this standard. The closest was UT at  one to 1,810. Texas needs to put view this issue at a higher level then they are now.

Howdy!

It's nice to meet y'all. :)