The following response is in regards to a fellow colleagues blog on the issue of health care. Blog my be viewed at http://coriani3.blogspot.com/

While I was searching through different blogs, one post from a fellow classmate page named cara oriani stuck out because I also believe health care is probably the one most important issue in society. There are currently thirty percent of Texans between the ages of nineteen and sixty-four without insurance. In this day and age it is very hard as well as expensive to insure family members do to extremely high insurance rates. According to Corrie MacLaggan “Texans aren't alone in worrying about health care: It's one of Americans' top concern, polls indicate. Nationwide, 47 million people.” The American public should be more focused on how to create a healthy, competitive marketplace for health care. According to Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured “Several states are working to extend health care coverage to more people. Three states — Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont — have enacted universal coverage plans and 12 others — including California — are considering.” I believe that every citizen of the United States should be covered by insurance.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/01/20/0120healthinsurance.html

Making A Difference On The Border

In the last legislative session, Gov. Rick Perry had voted that $110 million dollar’s be set forth to improve border security. There are many skeptics that believe anyone who wants to come over to the U.S will do so, no matter how big of a wall you put in front of them. A majority of the money is not going to supplies or to the man power it would take to build a fence, but to those who patrol the borders. The money set forth is being used to increase the man power it takes to watch over such a large range of rugged terrain that includes dense vegetation and water ways. As a result from the increase in protection there has been a huge drop in serious crimes by about 65%. The concept of the wall and the security is not to keep citizens from other countries from entering, but to allow guest workers that come over legally and increase commerce and help the economy by paying taxes on wages earned as well as welcome visitors to enjoy are great nation.

http://texasweekly.com/node/2840

Capital Punishment

The following response is in regards to a fellow colleagues blog on the issue of capital punishment. Blog my be viewed at http://acitizensthoughts.blogspot.com/

Capital Punishment is and always will be a very controversial subject with the American public. There are many people that disagree with the use of capital punishment due to moral, religious, and the emotional effects. There are currently 34 states including Texas that allow executions. This form of punishment is used to penalize those who have committed horrifying crimes. I believe that this is a much-needed form of punishment that will make people think about there decisions. Along with bobby I believe John McAdams makes a bold and clear opinion that many can agree with when he said,” If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call." With that said I hope that this form of punishment stays in effect for along time.

Understaffed Prisons

The State of Texas has approved a much needed pay raise, as well as signing bonus for prison guards that work in severely understaffed prisons through out the state. There will be a ten percent raise to each correctional officer’s salary. Guards who are hired at the most understaffed prisons will receive a one thousand five hundred dollar signing bonus upon employment. Even with these much needed incentives, there is still a huge issue with getting people interested in employment with the states prisons. There are many problems that can occur with a shortage of prisons guards, one is the safety of the guards as well as the inmates. According to Mike Ward, “Thursday's move came after months of concern that the continuing staff shortages posed an increasing safety issue in Texas prisons, the nation's second-largest state system. Officials closed one wing of a Dalhart lockup in October because too few guards were available to safely supervise it. It was the first time in recent history such a closure had been ordered.” The question to ask ourselves is, “With the steady rise of the prison population and the decrease of prison employees being short more than 3,500 guards, out of about 26,000 total positions, what can we do to address this problem?”

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/03/28/0328prisons.html

Bacteria linked to dog waste.

The City of Austin has uncovered the reason behind the illnesses of children whom had recently swum in Bull Creek Park in South Austin. After an investigation on Bull Creek the water had very high levels of bacteria. According to officials the reason for the large spike in bacteria in the water was do to dog feces. City employee Mateo Scoggins said, "It's a real water-quality problem”. The reason dog feces has such a huge effect on the environment according to Keep Streams Clean—Scoop the Poop!,” Pet waste can contaminate our rivers, lakes and streams. It contains harmful bacteria such as E. Coli and fecal coliform. Waters that contain a high amount of these bacteria are unfit for human contact. A single gram of pet waste contains an average of 23 million fecal coliform bacteria, some of which can cause disease in humans.” There are many people in the city of Austin that are loving pet owners including me, but I would hate to see any thing happen to other individuals do to me not knowing how harmful dog waste is on the environment. For those who would like to become more educated on this problem you can visit http://pets.simplycatsy.info/2007/12/scoop-that-poop.html for more information on how you can make the environment cleaner. Remember everyone can make a difference, so next time your out with your dog take a scoop and a bag and do your role in keeping Texas beautiful.








http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/03/08/0308bullcreek.html

Election Stratigies

In the last ten primary elections Sen. Hillary Clinton has been on the losing end. Many argue that the reason she is not doing so hot may have something to do with her campaign techniques. For those who have yet do read or listen to how Sen. Clinton trying to win a percentage of her votes, is by trying to make the other guy look bad. “Barack Obama is inexperienced and all talk, no action, while Clinton is ready now to become commander-in-chief, manage a shaky economy and win in November.” (Chuck Lindell). One would imagine that if something does not work the first few times, you may be better off trying a new technique. There are a few people that seem to believe that such as Barack Obama national campaign manager David Plouffe saying "So far, when they've taken this negative turn, voters have rejected it," Plouffe said. "This is what we expect, though. She gave a very negative speech (Wednesday) in New York. I don't think it will be very long before we see very negative (campaigning) in Texas." I would hope that Sen. Clinton would try a new strategy, maybe even take a few hints from Obama book and focus on the issues and figure out ways to fix them.

New state plan pushes preventive care for uninsured

By this fall the state plans to put introduce a new health care program that would help low-income Texas residents receive insurance at a reasonable premium. This program would target the 2.1 million low-income adults, before assisting 5.7 million Texans who are currently uninsured. The program has a few skeptics all ready such as Dr. John Holcomb of San Antonio, chairman of a Texas Medical Association committee on Medicaid and the uninsured. "I laud the effort — it's just that I'm skeptical this is going to be the wave of the future." There are a few issues with the program one being the lack of doctor visits allowed each year or the number of prescriptions one can receive. I believe this is a great short-term fix for individuals who are uninsured and relatively healthy.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/02/09/0209health.html