Growing Semantics

Texas is home to a variety of people who have different racial background and culture, which makes for a very diverse range of languages all around the state. The number of languages spoken in Texas at home has been increasing over the past decade and it only seems to grow as the years go by. 

Out of the 24 million residents who live in Texas, 65% of that population are only-English speakers at home. The rest of the percentage speak more than 160 languages combined. According to an article posted on The Texas Tribune website, Spanish is the most spoken, non-English language in the state of Texas followed by Vietnamese placing in second and Chinese in third, which includes Mandarin, Cantonese and other Chinese languages. From this information one can assume that the majority of the people who don't speak English at home are of Hispanic and Asian demographics.

The largest group of immigrants in Texas come from people born in Latin America, which explains the 6 million people who are primarily Spanish speakers at home. According to a detailed study done by the United States Census Bureau, Bexar County, Texas, has the largest amount of residents who speak Spanish at home while Harris and Dallas County tie for second and Tarrant County has the smaller percentage out of the whole. 

Considering the language barrier, Texas education does a good job at offering ESL (English as a Second Language) classes at the majority of campuses, but an increase in budget in the education department could provide the needed amount of faculty, a variety of faculty that each specialize in a language, to create a more engaging environment not only for the Spanish speaking population, but also for the entire population who's primary language isn't English.

Commentary: Convenient Accuracy

The solution offered by the author of this post combined with Heather K. Gerken's idea of a "one-stop shop" for voter registration is one of the more ideal and straightforward answers towards the registration issue, which of course is just an opinion, but also a decision based around the reasoning behind the many solutions offered. This seems to be the solution, among others, that offers a simple but clever way to implement voter registration into other forms of registration for the state of Texas.

Emission Revision

Texas is now one of many states that have increased in carbon emission amounts in the country. According to Climate Central, Texas, California and Pennsylvania are at the top of the charts with Texas in the lead. Everything is bigger in Texas and unfortunately, so is the pollution.

Almost double of California's carbon emission count, about 653 million metric tons, Texas comes back with an estimate of 641 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and a spike of 4.5 percent of carbon emissions from 2012 to 2013. The source of all this? Burning energy. Mainly coal, petroleum and natural gas are the one's affecting major climate changes.

The Obama administration has recently presented some new climate policies such as the Clean Power Plan. The Clean Power Plan will regulate greenhouse gas emissions from currently running power plants that burn fossil fuels. Many states are declaring the policy unconstitutional and are filing lawsuits. In my perspective, Texas really needs some sort of emission regulation because the numbers are astonishingly high.

The plan works in a simple way; The Clean Power Plan gives each state a goal of greatly reduced carbon emission numbers based on what they already produce and both the residents' use of electricity and the power plants' efficiency. The plan will leave it up to each state to figure out how to regulate carbon emissions and they are to submit their plans to EPA no later than 2018.

At least Texas is taking an interest in really regulating and caring about emissions in the state. On Thursday, October 8, Texas filed a lawsuit against Volkswagen and Audi vehicle manufacturers for violating consumer protection laws and the Clean Air Act of 1970 by inserting devices into their diesel cars that enabled them to "cheat" any emission tests. Texans purchased around 32,000 of their diesel models since they were first introduced to the market and Texas code for violation each day the car is used rests between $50 and $25,000 in penalties per violation. The attorneys persist on using the "maximum power of the law to penalize [the car companies]." Hopefully the state of Texas continues to regulate these emissions for the people's sake and the states "health" in terms of pollution.

Critique: Texas Homeowners and Proposition 1

Sam Craft writes in his new editorial "why Texas homeowners looking to save money should vote yes on proposition 1". Proposition 1, should it be passed, states that it will increase the homestead exemption for school district property taxes from $15,000 to $25,000 for most homeowners in Texas.

As obviously stated in the editorial, Craft targets everyone who owns a home in the state of Texas. This article should appeal to people anyone who is looking to save a few dollars on tax paying and people who live in school district property, but only for people who feel like the current law on the exemption cap on school district property taxes needs to be changed to a higher value.

The author may receive the attention and the acceptance of his authority to make the claims he does because the editorial is written very organized. He provides the reader with information about the voting dates should the viewer choose to vote. Craft also includes statistics and numbers to greater increase his credibility as a provider of information to a large quantity of people and to appeal to the viewers' logical side that the proposition will indeed do what it states.

Finally, the author's claim is simply that homeowners should vote "yes" on Proposition 1 because it will increase the exemption value to a higher number in terms of dollars, thus, more Texas homeowners will be exempt from having to pay taxes for living on school district property. As stated previously, Craft supports his claim by asserting that "changes would save Texas homeowners about $1.2 billion in the first biennium.." He also gives individuals who suspect school budget cuts some piece of mind by saying, "The state will send $1.2 billion to districts to cover the revenue those districts would have given up..."

In conclusion, Sam Craft creates an organized editorial to convince Texas homeowners to vote "yes" on Proposition 1. Personally, I agree with Craft because it is a logical proposition that "frees" many people with low income from having to pay school district property taxes.

Protecting the Protectors

Dan Patrick argues in an article published by Christopher Hooks on The Texas Observer titled, "Dan Patrick: Cops' Lives Matter Most of All", that the lives of the people who serve law enforcement matters most of all, just as the title points out. Patrick mentions in his article about the Shooting of Darren Goforth that occurred in Cypress, Texas in August 28th of this year. He argues that all lives matter to him and that he feels empathy for the cops that have died in shootings but he says, "All lives do matter and particularly law enforcement."

Patrick begins to contradict himself when he says that he cares for everyone's lives but that those who serve in law enforcement, their lives are even more important. I don't agree with Patrick wholeheartedly but I do understand his empathy for the cops' lives. The job of a law enforcer is not an easy one, specially because peoples' lives may sometimes rest in their hands and security completely and this can cause a great deal of pressure and stress. Although this is acknowledged, Patrick should understand that the law enforcers knew what they were signing up for when they chose to be a police officer as a career. This does not mean we should disregard their lives, but we can't treat theirs like the most important because everyone's lives mean something.

The publisher asks the audience in the first sentence of the article, "Who will protect the protectors?" To respond to that, I believe that it is the duty of the law enforcers to protect us and not have them being protected by some other entity, but if they can't protect themselves how will they protect others. Patrick is obviously upset that some people don't "understand that it's the bad guys who are the bad guys, not the good guys", as many people have come to criticize cops but he is making an assumption that a lot of people think this way with generalization, which makes it an invalid argument.

Technological Advances Help Improve Emergency Response

In 2005, when Hurricane Rita hit the coast of Texas, emergency response teams were not prepared enough to act quickly to attend to the issue. Communications were minimal and Texas did not have a centralized system to inform its residents about weather changes around the state. Sophia Bollag & Ally Mutnick write in "Tech Advances Have 'Changed the Way We Will Respond'" that as of 2015, there have been some major advances in technology that allow first responders to help people quickly.
Some tech improvements in the article include improvements in meteorology, mobile satellite units & Wi-Fi hot-spots and smartphones & social media. Weather alerts like the National Weather Service and more precise weather predictions provide a great deal of information and preparedness for weather emergencies. Faster access to the internet around Texas and the entire nation help people track emergencies and helps to avoid them. Smartphones and social media tie into this as well. You can now receive text messages with weather alerts near your area by your phone's GPS and social media helps connect to people in emergencies that may be trapped and are able to connect to the internet to seek help.
In retrospect to 2005, we have more than improved our lives by improving the technology that helps keep us safe from emergencies, especially emergencies regarding natural disasters. We can only keep improving and changing the way we respond, avoid and prepare for dangerous situations in order to stay safe.

Hello!