For instance, the cost of housing prisoners in New York City last year was much bigger – a whopping $167,000 per inmate. The good folks in New York might want to think about the Texas model of prison reform for some ideas on how to cut costs.
Five Dallas police officers have been fired and one arrested following an investigation of their involvement in the death of a bicyclist. While this is tragic all the way through, it is good to see that the city of Dallas recognizes that law enforcement officials must be held to the same standards as everyone else and that they are not paper over the involvement of a few of their own. A government that is limited in scope treats all citizens, regardless of their position, equally under the law and demands equal responsibility for those who break the law regardless of their position. Good for the city of Dallas. Now we hope the officers will be given the full benefit of due process of law and be considered innocent until proven guilty.
Abraham Lincoln, nearly mythic figure that he is, has many cities, streets, schools, buildings, and other various and sundry things and places named in his honor. But it was on this day in 1853, more than seven years before he would be elected president, that Lincoln’s first municipal namesake was born; City of Lincoln, Illinois located some 30 miles northeast of Springfield. It turns out that as the city was being planned, one of the city founders turned to his old lawyer friend, Abraham Lincoln for legal advice on matters related to forming the city. When it came time to pick a name, the founders chose Lincoln as the city’s namesake.
You can read more about City of Lincoln, IL at the city’s website here.
It turns out the Mayor of Seattle is encouraging businesses to place “gun free zone” signs on their windows and doors. A large contingent of vocal politicians are fiercely anti civil rights when it comes to Second Amendment issues. So much so that their reflexive ideological bias against our Second Amendment civil rights leads them to do foolish things like this. Any business that posts the gun free zone sign might as well also print in bright red block letters “Rob me, I’m unarmed and can’t defend myself.” It defies basic grade school level logic that a person would do such a thing.
Exit question: Should insurance companies be required to pay out if a business gets robbed after posting one of these signs?
NASA has introduced its latest crop of young and promising astronauts. Interested parties wonder when NASA will introduce a means of getting them to space that does not involve hitching a ride with the Russians.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sibelius was in Texas recently campaigning for educating us about the virtues of Obamacare. The pretext for the Obamacare sales pitch is that the health care system in America is fatally flawed and that people will only receive quality affordable health care after Obamacare is fully implemented. The reason for campaigning speaking in Texas is, of course, to rally the unwilling Lone Star State to support the Affordable Care Act. The subtext of the administration’s Texas campaign outreach is that health care in Texas is particularly bad and thus Texans stand to gain the most from the federal health care reform.
On the other hand, this week Vice President Biden and his son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, are in Houston so the younger Biden can….get medical tests.
The administration may badmouth Texas health care, but they sure don’t mind coming to Texas for their own medical needs. Actions speak louder than words, indeed. Welcome to Texas and get well, Mr. Biden!
The eleven maritime ports in Texas already account for some 1.44 million direct, indirect, and induced jobs in Texas and in 2011 generated $277.6 billion of economic activity in the state. Those numbers will likely go up in the years ahead as The Port of Brownsville builds a new $26 million cargo dock that will be in service by 2015. The economic outlook in Texas continues to improve while much of the nation falters.
Photo Credit: http://www.portofbrownsville.com/
In a blow to the 4th Amendment, the Obama administration wants the Supreme Court to allow warrantless searches of cell phones. Someone should remind the president, who should already know because he taught constitutional law, that the Constitution protects citizens against unreasonable search and seizure. The relevant text, in full:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
It’s getting harder these days to believe that the administration either understands or respects the Constitution. All the more reason for Congress and the states to promote renewed emphasis on the 10th Amendment.
