Ask anybody — from the president of the United States to your high school guidance counselor — and you’ll probably hear the same, seemingly obvious thing: Higher education is the key to financial advancement. But is everybody going to college a realistic goal? And would the world really be better if we achieved it? Mose Buchele of KUT News reports.
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They came by the tens of thousands, forced from homes by a wall of water and rescued from the horrors of mass shelters only after days of suffering. Bus after bus deposited throngs of the poorest people from one of America’s poorest cities into Houston — perhaps the only nearby metropolis with the wherewithal to handle the influx. Others from Louisiana, those with more means, had fled to Texas even before the storm hit land.
The uneasy arrangement was a shotgun marriage from the beginning: Many New Orleanians had no choice in whether or where they went, and Houstonians had no choice, for humanity’s sake, but to take them in.
by Ben Philpott, The Texas Tribune August 18, 2010
Last week, Republicans loudly complained about a just-approved bill that would send $830 million in federal education funds to Texas with strings attached. But as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, Democrats have their own reason to balk.
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Mexico’s drug cartel war has killed more than 28,000 people in four years, but some of the collateral damage has not been as noticeable. A trio of famous, Prohibition-era cantinas in Mexican border cities, having survived more than 80 turbulent years, are in deep trouble.
On a recent weekday, a headline in Mexico’s El Diario newspaper screams: “Juarez is the Center of the Country’s Narco-War.” That can’t be good for business at the Kentucky Club, a venerable saloon that’s been here since 1920, three blocks from the international bridge that connects Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas.
“Actually, in these times, the wave of violence here in Juarez is tremendous,” says Raul Martinez, who has been the doorman at the Kentucky Club for 25 years. “Before, we had to turn people away, we were so full — $10 or $20 wouldn’t get you in. Now, I wish we had customers” (NPR).
In the July tracking conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner for Citizen Opinion, as many voters said the economy was getting worse, as improving. Some of the key findings include:
Over a third, 35 percent, say the economy will get worse and another 25 percent say it is at the bottom but has not gotten any better. That leaves just 35 percent who say it is improving, down 10 points since April.
Only 16 percent give a warm rating to the economy, the lowest level since March. It had been hovering at 20 percent or better since then.
Just over three-in-ten give a cool rating to their personal finances, the worst such rating in this tracking since early 2009.
Real economic indicators on job loss, wage cuts and problems with home payments have all worsened.
NPR: A bill to restore unemployment benefits to millions who have been out of work for more than six months has cleared a Senate hurdle.
The 60-40 vote came moments after Carte Goodwin, a successor to West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd, was sworn in. Goodwin was the crucial 60th senator to defeat a Republican filibuster that has led to a lapse in benefits for 2.5 million people.
“Mr. President, why won’t you agree to pay for unemployment benefits extension with unused stimulus funds?” — @JohnCornyn
A battle has raged for months over whether jobless benefits should be financed with additional federal debt as Democrats want or through cuts to other government programs as most Republicans insist.
After a final Senate vote, the House will take up the bill Wednesday. President Barack Obama is likely to sign it into law by week’s end.
Two years after the start of the housing crisis and economic downturn the U.S. Congress has passed The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 to President Barack Obama’s desk. The final step came Thursday afternoon when the U.S. Senate voted 60-39 to pass the legislation that is Obama’s second major legislative victory.
Texas Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) and John Cornyn (R) both voted against the bill. [more]
Public Media Texas is based in Austin. We embrace our local presence in Austin with our hyper-local East Austin site 78702.org. We contribute to the discussion of the environment in the Southwest and the state of politics in Texas. We also seek to understand the dynamic between the U.S. and Mexico along our shared border. Along the way we search for artistic expressions that reflect and provide more perspective on the Lone Star state.
