I chose this article because it discusses 3 topics that are going on in our government right now. The first topic that is discussed is how there are some American Indian tribes here in Texas, that are trying to get casino gambling passed in legislation. On Tuesday this week, Rep. Roma Chavez filed a bill that would allow a tribe in El Paso and a tribe in Livingston, to re-open. Both of these casinos were closed in 2002 and they have said that they have suffered economically from the closing down of these casinos.
The second topic this article talks about is the bill that is in the process of getting passed about HIV testing during normal routine visits. Two represenatives filed legislation that made it a requirement to instead offer HIV screen tests during a routine check up. Everyone between the ages of 13-64 would have to face this option. Patients would in fact have a choice if they would want to or not, and interestingly enough insurance or medicaid would have to take care of the cost of the test.
The third topic sounds pretty funny to me, but it is on a note-passing ban in the Senate. When I first read this, I thought of middle school where everyone passes notes during study hall, but in this case about 2 years ago 2 lobbyists were passing notes into the chamber to get a senator off the floor. Because of that they put a ban on passing any kind of notes into the chamber at all. On Tuesday Sen. Tony Williams claimed that there will not be any kind of note passing in the senate under his watch. Prior to this message he sent across, there were few people who tried to do away with this ban. As of now he lobbyists can stay in the lobby, they can pass (love) notes still in the state house, and if they have a cell phone, text messages can be sent. I think this ruling goies back to the kind of ruling they have in high schools and such, but in this case, they have some flexibility?
I thought these were pretty interesting and they are the kind of the thing that we should know about. In one way or another, all of the topics mentioned in this article affect us all somehow.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/legislature/stories/DN-dome_18tex.ART.State.Edition1.4c12e14.html