Budget Cuts Affecting the Future?

Elvira Reyes, author of The Blue Bonnet Opinion expresses her concern for the future students in the public schools in Texas. With all the cutbacks on education, there is a chance for classes to become overcrowded, which will lead to students getting overlooked and not receiving the best education possible. Reyes delivers a powerful and well put together argument towards tax cuts affecting Texas schools. She comments on how "they should want the best possible education for their students, and they should seek out ways to move forward and become innovators of education, to make an effort to pull us out of our place of 43^rd out of the 50 state in high school graduation states. We as a state have the 2^nd highest public school enrollment in the Nation." I agree that education should come first, those in school now are our future, so we should strive to make their up bringing as efficient as possible. To view the argument yourself, read "If WD-40 or Duct Tape can't fix it, it's broken" and decide for yourself if the budget cut should involve education.

Perry's Pursuit to Cure Cancer

                 Gov. Rick Perry announced the creation of the Institute for Applied Cancer Science at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, which will help scientific discoveries become viable therapies. He believes that the Institute will give us a better understanding of cancer, and bring together top researchers and scientists with expertise in clinical trials, cancer genomics, cancer biology and cancer drug discovery and pharmacology.

                Starting in 2007, Perry led an initiative to help make Texas home for cancer treatment. This led to the creation of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). Between the state and CPRIT, $800 million has been raised for cancer research. Voters approved bonds to fund the institute for more than 10 years, enabling the state to finance research grant awards and attract top researchers. CPRIT has funded 350 awards for cancer research, commercialization and prevention since 2010, totaling more than $570 million.

                Ronald Depinho, MD Anderson states "The Institute for Applied Cancer Science will exploit the enormous opportunities provided by recent truly transformative scientific and technological advances to improve the appallingly low rate of success in the nation's current cancer drug development system.” Scientists will concentrate on research, drug discovery and translational medicine, incorporating academic and pharmaceutical science to develop innovative medicines.

                Gov. Perry created the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF), to attract world-class researchers through CPRIT and TETF. The state has invested nearly $178 million in grant-matching and research superiority funds to Texas universities.  This has helped attract some of the top researchers in their respective fields. Texas has gotten the attention of many of the best scientists from around the world through CPRIT and TETF. These scientists have been assigned to work on projects that will cure diseases, resulting in lives saved.

                 

Longhorns Cheating Our City?

The author of the blog Everything’s Bigger... and Better in Texas??? expresses his frustration in “Funding the Enemy”, about how the University of Texas signed a contract last year with VF Corporation, giving them exclusive rights for selling adult t-shirts. This caused many small companies in Austin to go out of business, which led to families in Austin suffering. VF brings their product from out of the country, so by giving a large corporation exclusive rights, UTA put many local citizens out of work, while giving more business to those that don’t even work within the United States. This author offers a concise and informatory argument that shows the dark side of business done by the longhorns. Even though it is only one side to the story, it is the right point of view so that the reader can get a better grasp of how serious the situation was. To read for yourself and come up with your own opinion, go to Everything's Bigger...and Better in Texas???

Environmental Groups Take Actions Against Luminant

Energy Futures Holding Corp. and its subordinate, Liminant Generation Company, and LLC have made 38,000 violations of the Clean Air Act. On behalf of the Sierra Club, Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project are threatening to sue. They are targeting the Big Brown power plant located in Freestone County and the Monticello power plant located in Titus County. According to company data, the Big Brown power plant violated its opacity limits over 20,000 times in the past five years and its particulate matter limits 370 times in the past three and a half years.  Three of Luminant's coal plants:  Big Brown, Monticello, and Martin Lake, are the top three industrial polluters in Texas among nearly 2,000 industrial plants. According to data Luminant filed in 2009 with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, these three power plants make up more than 25 percent of the state's industrial air pollution and more than 46 percent of the state's coal plant pollution.

                So why hasn’t the government taken any action to put this polluting to a stop?  Erin Fonken, the Environmental Integrity Project attorney states that "Breathing excessive levels of harmful air pollution should not be a way of life for the people who live and work near Luminant's plants; Luminant must be held accountable for its thousands of violations and clean up its act." Someone must do something about these violations before the whole world becomes completely polluted. Sierra Club and Earthjustice are taking the iniciative and taking control of the situation. They hope to influence the government to do the same and support their actions to sue the companies. "It's high time for Luminant to act like a good neighbor and stop dumping harmful pollution on its neighbors within the state and outside the state," said Earthjustice attorney Suma Peesapati.

                

Bums Take on New York

                 Ashley Herzog, the author of Feminism vs. Women gives a powerful apposing front against the “occupy wall street” movement. She claims that the lazy unemployed group is demanding that the government hand them money, health care, and education without lifting a finger.  Herzog does not hold back in the slightest regarding the “thousands of ungrateful losers,” and imply that they have Narcissistic Personality Disorders.

                I completely agree with the author, these protesters should stop complaining and start working. There are so many working young adults that are paying their way through school, and yet there are those who expect to receive everything on a silver platter.  It is understandable that sometimes there are just not enough jobs to go around, as Herzog has stated in her blog. However, this group of activists decides to spend their time arguing and complaining that they are being treated unfairly, instead of job hunting.

                The author gets her point across in an obvious and concise way.  She is very convincing and can easily get the reader on her side. I was immediately outraged by the “occupy wall street” movement and also disappointed in my fellow Americans.  It is astonishing to even think of the notion that one can live through life without contributing to their country in some shape or form. All previous generations have been very hard working, so it’s insane to think that such a generation now could exist. Ashley Herzog even questions who raised these people to have such a sense of entitlement. To read her opinion yourself, go to her blog in the Texas Insider.

Government's Effect on Water Conservation

The drought this summer has caused a shortage of water supply. Larry Kolvoord expresses the importance of water conservation in a stern, but hopeful manner. He states that droughts endanger lives, destroys crops and forces ranchers to sell livestock. It also kills lawns and landscaping which harm property values. Kolvoord believes that the fines the city is instating will enforce the water restrictions. This forceful way of getting the attention of the community either turns away readers or will inform and promote conserving water. However, he is directing his argument towards those who need to think about their water usage. He strongly suggests that replacing lawns with St. Augustine grass with more drought-tolerant grass, fewer flushes and shorter showers will significantly lessen the amount of water used. The Austin community has always been concerned about their water usage and Kolvoord argues that just because Austinites aggressively conserve doesn't mean we won't need structure for all other areas in Texas. He also targets the government, by sharing his thoughts of how citizens will be more likely to follow the water restrictions if government has any power in the matter. The fine that the government has created has caused neighbors to report each other when they don’t follow the guidelines. The city received 675 water waste complaints during just the first week alone. According to Kolvoord, sometimes the fear of a fine can reinforce good habits. He hopes that more rain will come to Texas and the drought will soon be over. One can tell that he is very passionate about the waste of water and how it is our responsibility as an individual to make sure we manage our own water usage. His writing techniques might be off-putting to some, but could also get others to start conserving, because “conservation works.”


Water Conservation a habit we must keep

Is Gas Holding Your Money Hostage?

As the years progress, so do the prices of gasoline. They have increasingly gotten more and more costly, which is causing people to stop making certain trips or even wanting to drive their car because they don't want to have to pay so much at the pump. There has even been a national day created to boycot getting gas on a certain day of the year. President Obama told Democratic donors in Los Angeles donors that "my poll numbers go up and down depending on the latest crisis, and right now gas prices are weighing heavily on people." He has ordered his Justice Department to form a task force o look for fraud or manipulation in the oil markets. It will "root out" any abuses, he told a town meeting in Reno, Nev.
I remember when you could fill your tank with fifteen dollars, and now I'm lucky if $25 can fill it all the way. However, gas prices have gone down somewhat, so there seems to be hope for Americans these days with getting around more affordably. If Obama keeps with his mission, I believe that eventually there will be a more efficient way to fuel vehicles, or atleast a cheaper way to get from point A to B.
In an article in American Statesmen, Obama expresses his concerns with the current gas prices.  It shows how important citizens views and worries of the economy are important to him. The following link is to this article, and by reading it you can see his view point and his plans for the future.  
http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/obama-sees-gas-prices-as-election-issue-1428694.html?printArticle=y