Sobriety Checkpoints

My colleague Lauren Klein discusses an article from Austin YNN about passing two pieces of legislation that could possibly save lives. Mother's Against Drunk Driving (MADD) have asked the legislature to pass laws allowing police officers to enforce sobriety checkpoints so they can check for drunk drivers. It is said that these checkpoints could save 200 lives here in Texas each year. I personally think this is a good idea. People can easily get into their car after a night of drinking, cause a car accident, and kill themselves and others. I don't think enough is being done to prevent this issue and any possible prevention should be attempted. How will we know if this works if it is never tried? There should also be more punishment for those convicted of drunk driving. It is easy for someone to continue to get DUI's. How many is too many? ONE! But there are cases where some individuals have 8+. I think drunk driving is a big enough issue that any means of prevention is necessary. Put these checkpoints in place and let's see if we can save lives.

More Capital Punishment

            I'm back with more on the death penalty. Yippee! My colleague Robert, whom is also unsure where he stands on the issue, brought up some very important situations in his comment on my last post of the death penalty, which is great! I never even thought about the situations that he brought to my attention. He brought up the point of what if the person is found innocent after being executed? How can the individual be repaid for the time spent in jail and the loss of their life? They really can't. You can’t give someone his or her life back after it’s gone. Even if a person is acquitted before being executed, the money they are granted for the time served can never make up for the time lost and the damage done by the years spent in solitary confinement.

            As Robert pointed out, there is a famous case of Cameron Todd Willingham who was executed for burning down his house resulting in the death of his three children. Willingham was executed in 2004; however, new arson investigation techniques prove Willingham did not start the fire that killed his children. The evidence could have acquitted Willingham, but acquitting him now doesn't repair the damage.            

            Robert also shows an example of why we use the death penalty. He explains another famous case of Kenneth Allen McDuff who was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death. He had committed other murders that he was not convicted of. Before he was executed, the death penalty was repealed in Texas and he was given life without parole. Somehow McDuff was paroled and committed several more murders. After being caught, he was executed with a total murder count of fourteen.

            I’m glad to have these situations presented to me, but I am not any closer to deciding where I stand on the death penalty. What is the right use of punishment for murder? If an individual is put to death for a crime they didn't commit or if an individual is released and continues to kill, either way it's a lose-lose situation.

Extremely High Water Bills

In her post on November 5, 2012, my colleague, Daily Casallo, discusses an article from KXAN News about high water bills and how they are being refunded. Citizens have noticed their water bill amount increasing and that they have not been paying attention to their bills. Daily states that some people are paying over $3,000 for their water bill. For those who believe their bill is abnormally high, they can call 3-1-1 and someone will come out and check and see if there are any leaks or anything else out of the ordinary. 

Just like Daily, I too started wondering if our water bill was what they consider "normal" or higher than usual. I do not pay the bill so I never know what the total bill is. I looked at our bill and from 9/20 to 10/22 for our Water Service we (total of 3 people) used 4,600 gallons for a total of $21.85 and for our Wastewater Service we paid $38.62. A $3,000 water bill is RIDICULOUS!!!!! After looking at our water bill, if ours was $3,000 we would be extremely confused as we don't possibly use that much water and would want a refund.

My only suggestion would have been to note that Austin Water Utility's billing is now being handled by Austin Energy and it is suggested that a new system that has been used since October 2011 may have had some hiccups resulting in the bill increases, according to the article. I think this is very important in explaining to the readers/customers the reason for why they are being billed outrageously. Everyone does have the right to be treated and billed fairly and also to question the price of the bill if they believe there is an error. It may be a common trend that people do not question the utility company and have been and continue to be billed in error and their money is going down the drain, just like their water...

Texas Death Penalty

         I found a story on My Fox Austin from Nov 3^rd about protestors marching to abolish the death penalty, which prompted me to do some research and see the numbers for myself. The Death Penalty Information Center states that in the United States since 1976, there have been a total of 1,312 executions and Texas is the leader with 489 executions. Not a big surprise to me. Texas loves capital punishment. Texas was the first state to use lethal injection in 1982, but of Texas’s 254 counties, 136 of them have never sent an inmate to death row (1976-present). A map of death sentences by county from Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty can be found (there is also a newer map from 2007-2010) which I found very interesting. It is crazy to see the exact numbers and how it varies in bigger cities compared to smaller ones. For example Harris County, the Houston area, has 200+ death sentences, which doesn’t surprise me because they have a high crime rate compare to smaller cities. Harris County is also the only county with 200+ death sentences. All of this data lead me to find the costs, which I have always been curious about and was amazed at the cost of a death penalty case which averages $2.3 million vs $750,000 for life in prison. Every Texas resident is contributing to the costs of death penalty appeals.

            I have never known where I stood on the issue of capital punishment. I could go back and forth all day. If someone murdered a person I loved deeply, I don’t know if I would want that person to be put to death and leave this Earth like my loved one did or if I would want them to be confined everyday with no possible chance of ever living their life the way they want. Will they really think about what they did? Will they be remorseful? Will prison change them or not? What I do know is the death penalty costs a whole lot more than life in prison and I don’t know that $2.3 million is worth it. I need to do some more research and hear what other people have to say about the issue. I don’t think I will ever fully know where I stand until I am put in this situation, but I hope I am lucky to never be in this type of situation.

Texas counties want control over juvenile system

        I found a post from Grits For Breakfast titled Counties pushing for more control over juvenile system from Thursday October 18th, 2012 discussing an article from the Austin American Statesman (Counties push to bypass state youth lockups by Mike Ward). The article in the Statesman is about Texas counties potentially being allowed to incarcerate their teenage lawbreakers locally instead of sending them to state-run lockups. Travis County is one of the many counties pushing for the change. If adopted, the plan would follow California's lead in downsizing state-run programs in favor of community-based programs. This change has been shown to reduce repeat offending of criminals. Officials are considering a changed in state law to allow the 16 largest counties in Texas, including Travis and Williamson, to handle all corrections for their youth offenders. State-run lockups cost just over $400 a day, while the cost in counties is about $118 a day (Travis county).

      Some questions I have regarding this issue is who pays for the day-to-day costs and what sort of rehabilitating programs will be in the facility to prevent youth from becoming repeat offenders? A decrease in cost always sounds like a good thing, but will county control be beneficial? I was curious to see someone’s view on this issue and see if they had the same questions and could help answer them, but Grits for Breakfast does not seem to have a stance on this issue. They just explain what the article says as I have done. If I wanted to read the Statesman article word for word, I would just read the Statesman, as I did. The only thing Grits says in their own words is “It sounds like a lot of the key opinion leaders are generally, on board, though that’s a long way from passing a functional reform bill.” From just this statement I do not know if Grits is for or against the change of the state law. I heard that Grits for Breakfast was a good Texas blog. I was disappointed and I was hoping it contained more opinion than just regurgitating the Statesman. 

How lectures prevent students from learning

            On October 4, 2012, Amil Malik argued that lecturing makes learning difficult for students in his article how lectures prevent you from learning from The Daily Texan. Malik does a great job of relating to his audience of fellow college students. He is credible to write on this issue because like many of us, he sits through lectures everyday. He states that not all students learn using the same learning styles and that “variety is the key to understanding.” I agree with this idea and believe, as Malik does, that professors should alter the way they teach so that all learning styles are covered to benefit all students.
            Malik uses a recent study from the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology to support his idea. The study showed that by using different forms of learning, the students studied scored 37 percent better than their counterparts. Malik also receives alternate teaching styles from University of Texas English professor Elizabeth Richmond-Garza who uses multiple media outlets to enhance her students’ understanding (a class of up to 400), as well as Special Education Adjunct Professor James Patton who offers three different test methods and video summaries of the day’s main points (a class of about 100).

            Malik does well in providing a defense from Patton to those that do not support the alternative methods used over conventional lecturing. Those who oppose feel professors who use such methods are setting the students up for failure, but Patton disagrees and says he is helping the students master the material with their intended individual learning styles.

New Texas district map to be used for 2012 elections

I was reading The Daily Texan and found this article about a new Texas district map that will be used for the upcoming election in November. On Wednesday the nineteenth, the United States Supreme Court approved a temporary district map after ruling the original map unfairly grouped minority populations to minimize their influence. This map will only be used for the 2012 elections. State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio said "the federal court's interim map is not perfect, but the time before the November 6th election does not allow for another redrawing." Hopefully, this map will work until another one can be drawn up. I thought this article was a great follow-up to the article that was discussed in class for one of the class presentations.