Biking In Downtown Austin Be Aware !!

    This blog written by David Love really surprised me. It talks about how riding a bike in downtown on the sidewalk can lead you to a ticket or even worse to an arrest. I myself used by bike not too long ago in downtown with friends on the sidewalk at some point and had no issue. Furthermore at some point I was about to ask an officer on that question but didn’t. I am surprised to learn from my classmate blog that this is happening. Austin, city of biking in downtown area and known parks, actually is making it more dangerous for bike riders. I am sure that the person who wrote that law never biked in downtown otherwise he or her would never even propose such law that puts them at high risk. I will thing twice, but I d like to see some biker groups driving in the road in the middle of the lanes like motorcycle witch is legal to protest such stupid law.

Texas Budget Shortfall

Anybody who follows just a little of the news media in Texas has probably heard that there is a big budget shortfall.
The best predictions are showing about 28 billion and this may be much higher as we approach the legislative session in January. Texas have to cut spending in some fashion, so what to do? Some options are there but will we agree on them, here is the question. Most people on survey want cut spending, those who says that don’t really realize that it will probably touch education, or even scarier Medicaid. If those have to happen they will bring a whole set of other problems in the future that will require a lots of effort to fix. Unfortunately, those two options are where the state of Texas spends the most. Since most of other diverse taxes like increasing fees, allowing gambling, and other form of revenue will have minimal impact on the budget shortfall. Touching on education is just going to be a bad idea especially for Texas that cannot already be proud of its education system since it’s one of the last one ranked statewide. Medicaid is just like putting innocent people to death, sometimes unplanned things can happen to anybody’s life, and a little help on health is all I would ask for because this is the dead last most important thing after all.   Texas got this shortfall because of previous mistakes, but don’t make the same mistakes again especially knowing this will make the next budget even shorter than ever. I hope that Texas will manage this situation wisely.

Red-Light Camera

This post about red-light cameras in Houston Texas is written by Jhoana.
The post shows that some citizens are protesting installation of red-light cameras saying that it violates their right to privacy.
I agree with Jhoana's point on how dangerous driving in Houston is. Austin is technically not too far from Houston, but what a difference on the way people drive. Houston is one of the most dangerous cities in United States, and Austin one of the safest. Jhoana made a good point being in favor on keeping those red-light cameras, you have to follow the rules anyway, so a red-light camera shouldn’t be a problem. I would feel safer on the road if they were installed because the problem is not you driving but others and especially those who run red lights. Furthermore, those cameras can help some cases where there is a hit and run case. I also support this program and don’t see anything wrong on having those camera.

""Bring Books Not Guns""

    In the past month there was an upraise debate on whether or not students can carry a handgun on college or university campus due to the recent gunman shooting at the University of Texas.
Just after the shooting, public debate started on talking on the issue and government official in favor of having guns in campus used the event to promote the idea.
I remember watching republican senator Dan Patrick on local television saying that we are putting students, professor and staff at risk by not allowing them to carry a concealed gun. This senator even tried to pass a bill to remove the current ban.
This is just one example, but many are using event such as this one to try to pass bill that would in my opinion rather make the problem even worse. I personally would not feel safer if guns were allowed in campus, that is not were they belonging. Campus police officers are well trained to do their job on those circumstances. Police officers respond quickly enough to take care of the problem in a professional fashion. If guns were allowed, and if something happen then in some cases would not be able to identify who is the gunman since other student may have taken their guns out and may injure somebody. Also sometimes, a person has some strong emotion for many reasons and may want to use a gun, but if the gun is in the backpack, there is more chance to use it. Instead of allowing guns, I would rather concentrate on providing diverse help to keep stress down for the one who needs, providing some kind of hotline to take calls for the one who want to talk about personal issues. Emergency system such as mass texting and shelter preparedness are better solutions. No guns in campus is the way it is suppose to be, but in Texas it is not surprising that such debate will rise since owning guns seems to be deeply installed in the Texan tradition.    

Texting In open meetings.

    This Texas blog is by the journalist and editor Vince Leibowitz who talks about the issue of texting and tweeting during Texas open meetings. This blog was published at the Capitol Annex. This may seem an unimportant topic but it actually affect and rases lots of issues. The author first states a source which is the Huston Chronicle raises the fact many people of the Texas legislature are using private devices when in public hearing event. Vince then uses example from an article on the mysanantonio.com website who talks about the issue on monitoring texts and tweets and the author thinks that doing so would be bad and that is would be a mess. At first I did not completely agree because I think they need to be issued a Texas issued device to work only with knowing that the messages will be monitored by the public later and another personal device for family related events. The author then gives more examples about how other cities such as in Arlington are giving full access to any email sent by a government official whether the account was personal or not. The email part seems to be fine but what about texting and tweeting then ?
Vince brings good examples about what issues are on monitoring texts on different devices that can either retain for years or the one that cannot do so. The author brings more examples saying that it would be hard to do so. I personally think the author did a too big focus on getting the messages off the phone itself when  the best easy and accurate way is to get it off the network and that way even if deleted off the phone it would still be recorded. Another comment is shown, it talks about working reporters had no idea whether the messages sent were business related or not. Once again the author brings example who can excuse them to do so, but the author saying that there are restrictions in current technology is false. It is actually easy to store from the network all the messages probably better then if they would be unorganized random piece of paper. The author brings an argument from a city council to confirm his statement that the “SMS” are not stored. In my opinions this is either an excuse or they want to make the public think that it is a valid reason. I wonder then how on some murdering cases they are able to trace where was the phone what and when was the last call and all the messaging that goes with it. On finding solutions to that I do agree on the opinion of banning such activity especially at the open meeting itself at least. The old fashioned paper way would be more appropriate. The author closing is quite interesting by stating that nor of these will likely to pass, I do understand that this is a new issue since cell phone is not the way people use to do business not too long ago, so do we have to accept this new device or ban it  ? Here is the question.

Guns on campus

    This Texas editorial on the Star-Telegram newspaper opinion sections brings back a very sensitive subject. This article talks about the debate on weather or not allowing concealed handguns at colleges and university campuses. Upcoming elections are in November 2nd and some Texas politicians do not hesitate to use the UT-Austin tragedy to bring back this controversial argument. The author first gives an outline of the UT-Austin shooting that lead the suicide of a UT student this event also caused the campus to be on lock-down for several hours. The author brings then a great relation between this event and the raise of this debate. Next, the author explains that this is not a new issue and that a bill almost made it through but failed to pass at the House. The author then shows an argument of the opposite side by a Tarrant County Republican Chairwoman named Stephanie Klick who said “Too bad for UT students that Conceal Carry on Campus did not pass during the last legislative session”. The narrator makes another good point saying that this may likely reinforce a very negative image of Texas to many potential faculty, students, parents, and international students from around the world. The author simply close the article by a direct but clear statement by saying that its much better to improve the education itself rather than loose time with unnecessary laws. I think that the author of this article made it clear that there is no reason such law would pass because it not going to solve suicide or gunman problem in campuses.

Texas short on money.

This article published in the American Statesman is written by Kate Alexander. It predict for Texas a tremendous amount of money needed to close the gaping budget holes for the 2012 2013 years. This specific article predicts a $21 billion shortfall but in reality, it may be much more than that. Actual state leaders have already told all the different agencies to cut their current budget by 5% and already plan to add another 10% to the next budget. The article suggests eliminating less essential programs rather than trimming everything. The author also explains that not doing anything now can make things even worse for all the next generation to deal with. Texas imperatively need to act on this issue and plan ahead otherwise it may lead to a big mess.