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Investing in Our Future: The Case for Broadband

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RodriquezColumnistBy A.J. Rodriguez
Guest columnist

Texas boasts a thriving economy, now ranking as the ninth largest in the world. However, to ensure that all Texans benefit from this growth, we must provide modern-day infrastructure in the form of broadband internet, much like the farm-to-market roads of the past.

Nearly three million Texas households lack broadband access, and five million more face unreliable connections. This problem affects Texans across the state, as shown on the state’s new broadband access map.

With broadband internet increasingly a basic requirement to participate fully in the 21st century economy, those numbers are simply unacceptable.

To remedy this situation, the Texas Legislature has been working on a bold bipartisan broadband infrastructure bill, allowing Texas voters to approve using the state’s historic revenue balance to bridge the digital divide through a constitutional amendment this fall.

That’s why the Texas Legislature is considering House Bill 9 and House Joint Resolution 125 to establish the Texas Broadband Infrastructure Fund. This would leverage a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tap tens of billions of dollars in surplus revenue to spend on priorities such as property tax relief and transformational infrastructure investments like this one.

The five co-authors, state Reps. Trent Ashby, Todd Hunter, Ana Hernandez, Greg Bonnen and Oscar Longoria, have been joined by 112 co-authors in the House, making it a shining example of Texas legislators working together to shape our future.

The State Comptroller’s office would use those state funds to leverage new federal dollars to maximize support for the Texas Broadband Development Office’s efforts to expand internet availability throughout the state.

Providing this essential resource is crucial to the state’s future success. That’s why Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar has stressed the need to invest in broadband connectivity, emphasizing its importance in advancing education, training, employment opportunities and delivering essential services.

We cannot miss out on this once-in-a-generation opportunity to bridge the digital divide and ensure that every Texan has access to the tools they need to succeed in the 21st century economy.

Thanks to the bipartisan leadership happening now, Texas is about to take the critical next step in ensuring that this essential resource is brought to Texans living in every corner of our state.

A.J. Rodriguez is the executive vice president of Texas 2036, a nonpartisan and nonprofit public policy organization.

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Protecting the country through policy

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FromEditorsDesk Tony CroppedBy Tony Farkas
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I remember hearing different things for the branches of the nation’s armed forces, slogans chosen to inspire and recruit.

The Army: Choice, Not Chance. We Want You. Army Strong. Be All That You Can Be.

Or the Marines, who always were First to fight, Always Faithful (Semper Fidelis), or even The Few, the Proud.

The Navy: It’s Not Just a Job, It’s an Adventure. Forged by the Sea.

The Air Force: One Team, One Mission. A Great Way of Life. Integrity First. Service Before Self.

While I never enlisted, I did grow up in a military family — my father was a 20-year veteran of the Air Force, and later, my brother did a few hitches in the Army. My uncle even spent time in Vietnam in the Navy, as well as my father-in-law.

My family was proud to serve because it at the time was an honorable profession. They were protecting the country.

However, the military of that era is seemingly gone, along with the honor of serving, the accomplishments, the camaraderie, even the perception of the U.S. being a superpower has waned.

The military of this day and age has embrace, for lack of a better term, a woke agenda, and instead of focusing on a mission — Constitutionally mandated, mind you — of protecting our borders, the focus has shifted to protecting things like the climate and diversity.

Even military equipment hasn’t escaped the ridiculous, as Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has put forth an agenda of making the military 100 percent electric by 2030.

This goes hand-in-hand with a policy that is proposed by President Biden, who commissioned an Environmental Justice Score survey of all federal agencies.

I don’t think I can adequately describe my horror at the thought of lethal RC tanks and troop carriers racing toward the enemy, or the mirth instilled in our enemies that are watching electric aircraft carriers launching electric RC jets for bombing runs.

All of that is beside the point, which is this type of thinking is antithetical to the mission of the military, as electric vehicle technology hasn’t progressed far enough to make private cars and trucks reliable, and the power demands of the military would outpace that enormously.

Further, concerns about diversity and acceptance have created a military that is unprepared, and possibly unwilling, to do its sworn duty. This isn’t new, by the way, since military policy has slowly become less about training a fighting force and more about making sure feelings don’t get hurt.

My brother tells stories about how boot camps, designed to not only train soldiers in combat but also to train soldiers in dealing with the stress of battle, have stopped using tried and true methods and instead became less strident.

All of this is costing our country not just its sovereign safety, but billions of dollars.

In essence, embracing the green agenda has become the hill that the government wants to die on, and it has chosen to do it with an unprepared military.

Tony Farkas is editor of the Trinity County News-Standard and the San Jacinto News-Times. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Let’s take better care of our natural resources

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From The Editors Desk Emily WootenWhat a good time we had last weekend at Tempe Creek Vineyard and Farms participating in the Earth Day fundraiser to benefit Polk County Recycling & Beautification (PCRB). It was a perfectly beautiful day spent visiting with friends old and new and enjoying live music, wine and charcuterie. Over 100 people attended and $11,000 was raised.

PCRB is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization formed by community members for the benefit of the community. It has partnered with Polk County to provide a reliable recycling service for the residents of East Texas, sustained by grants, donations and the sale of recyclable materials. Its goal is to clean up and beautify Polk County through recycling, education and community engagement in litter clean-up activities.

The recycling center can accept #1-#7 plastics, flattened corrugated cardboard, aluminum cans and tin cans. Materials should be relatively clean which will make them more valuable to buyers, helping PCRB to support the program for years to come. Materials should also be presorted as much as possible. To learn more about PCRB and the recycling center, or to become a volunteer or make a donation, visit the website at pcrbtexas.org.

In the 18 months that the recycling center has been open, over 140,000 pounds of materials have been diverted from the Polk County Landfill. That blows my mind. I find it amazing. A few people CAN make a difference. But that’s just it. Only a very small percentage of local residents use the recycling center. Think about it. Imagine just how much more stuff could be diverted from the landfill if more people took advantage of the recycling center.

We only have one Earth, with limited resources. The more we consume and the more trash that we create that ends up in landfills, the closer we are to running out of resources, negatively impacting people all over the globe. In this country, the average person produces roughly 2,000 pounds of trash per year. Trash that ends up in our landfills creates pollution in our air and water supply. Trash that is thrown on the side of the road eventually breaks down and finds its way into our water supply. There is a finite amount of land and water on this Earth and I feel strongly that we owe it to future generations to step up and take better care of our resources.

I think about Choates Creek that runs right through downtown Livingston and the many stories I’ve heard about it over the years. It is named for Moses L. Choate, Livingston’s founder. A native of Livingston, Tenn., Choate started a settlement called Springfield on his land grant in 1835 and wanted it to be the county seat when Polk County was organized out of Liberty County in 1846. He offered to give the new county one hundred acres of land if Springfield was selected as the county seat and the name of the town be changed to Livingston, for his former home in Tennessee. This was a very generous offer made by Choate, but the legislature required that an election be held to determine the location of the county seat for the newly organized Polk County. Following an election in June 1846, Springfield was decided upon and the name was changed to Livingston.

In her book “The History of Polk County,” Emma R. Haynes wrote, “By 1845 a number of people had bought land from Choate and settled on the creek and named the creek Choates Creek. When Sam Smith built his home on the bank of Coates Creek in the town of Livingston, he had to clear away the switch cane to build his house.”

Elsewhere in the book, Haynes lovingly wrote, “Choates, the last creek from Livingston is a pretty one. Wild azaleas and yellow jessamines bloom in the spring, and white violets bloom several times during the spring and summer. The clear cool spring water and pleasant shade trees invite one to come and spread a picnic lunch.”

What a beautiful image that is.

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Don’t mess with Texas’ anti-SLAPP law

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SLAAPSuit STOCK

By Will Creeley
Guest columnist

When it comes to criticizing the powerful or politically connected, the First Amendment protects the little guy. No matter who you are or how much money you have in the bank, you have the right to speak your mind. Because the Founders knew all too well the danger of granting the government the power to decide who can and cannot speak, the First Amendment was designed to shield speakers from government retribution.

But these days, the government isn’t the only Goliath, and direct censorship isn’t the only way to silence dissent. Over time, the rich and powerful learned a new way to shut up their detractors: forcing them to fight off flimsy lawsuits. By burying critics in a blizzard of costly litigation, would-be censors were able to increase the financial stakes of speaking out — even when the claims filed weren’t worth the paper they were printed on.

These strategic lawsuits against public participation — SLAPPs, for short — threaten our national commitment to freedom of expression and an informed citizenry. What good are First Amendment rights if exercising them means having to shell out for a lawyer to defend against a meritless lawsuit?

So in 2011, former Governor Rick Perry signed “anti-SLAPP” legislation, the Texas Citizen Participation Act, into law. It allows Texans named in lawsuits to secure quick dismissals from state courts if the claim against them is based on their exercise of First Amendment rights, while still allowing plaintiffs who can demonstrate they have meritorious claims to proceed.

Put simply, the TCPA allows a speaker threatened by a bogus suit to ask the court for a quick reality check: Are the claims against me legitimate, or is the plaintiff just trying to shut me up? If it’s the latter, the court can save defendants a lot of time and money with a speedy dismissal, preserving their ability to speak their minds without fear of going broke.

Texas should be proud to be a national leader in protecting the rights of its residents to stand up and speak out. Other states nationwide have looked to the TCPA in passing their own anti-SLAPP laws. But a proposed amendment to the TCPA now making its way through the state legislature, SB 896, would seriously undermine the law’s vital protections.

The TCPA arms innocent Texans with the means to fight back by filing an anti-SLAPP motion before spending a fortune on legal fees in pre-trial filings and discovery. Because protecting free speech is so important, if a court rejects a defendant’s anti-SLAPP motion, the TCPA allows for an immediate appeal — and while it’s being heard, the proceedings are stayed. That pause in the action spares defendants from having to fight off a potentially meritless lawsuit in two courts at the same time.

But SB 896 would change that, denying defendants a stay when the court deems their anti-SLAPP motion untimely, frivolous, or subject to an exemption. That tweak might sound reasonable at first blush. But determining whether an anti-SLAPP is untimely, frivolous, or exempt involves tough questions of law — questions that trial courts regularly answer incorrectly.

Deciding whether an anti-SLAPP motion is “frivolous” or exempted by statute is no cakewalk for judges. It involves close questions in an evolving area of the law. And even what one might assume to be the most straightforward grounds for denial — timeliness — has proven tricky. In every Texas Supreme Court ruling on timeliness, the lower court’s determination was reversed.

Add it up, and there’s a real chance a trial court’s anti-SLAPP denial won’t stand up after review.

Requiring a speaker to argue these questions on appeal while simultaneously proceeding with discovery in trial court means they’re wasting time and racking up billable hours on two fronts, fighting what might well prove to be a nonsense lawsuit. Even if the speaker wins on appeal, they’ve still lost time and treasure they shouldn’t have, just for exercising their First Amendment rights. That’s exactly the result the TCPA was meant to prevent.

This isn’t an obscure legal threat. If passed, SB 896’s amendment to the TCPA would have real-world consequences for everyday Texans across the political spectrum who dare to criticize the powerful or wealthy. And no matter what news outlet you rely on, journalists are prime targets for lawsuits filed by powerful interests wishing they’d write about something else. In today’s balkanized political climate, small, independent outfits on the right and the left are particularly vulnerable.

The First Amendment protects everyone’s right to participate in public debates, not just those with money or power. The TCPA bulletproofs the exercise of that right against bad-faith litigation from would-be censors. Because it would gut the TCPA — a powerful protection for all Texans — lawmakers should resoundingly reject SB 896.

Will Creeley is the legal director of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. It’s about SB 896 and the problems it will pose for all Texas citizens if passed. The bill is set for a hearing Wednesday.

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Conversations with the Devil

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Jim Opionin By Jim Powers
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I carry in my pocket a medallion with a skull and the words Memento Mori engraved on it. The words are a Latin phrase that translates to “Remember you must die.” I carry it to remind myself that the reality of being human should determine what I do and say and think. Following that creed isn’t easy for any of us because, in fact, we are only human. After we are dead, nothing survives us except the good or bad we did in the world.

The biggest obstacle to living in a way that will benefit not only ourselves, but other human beings is that we are at crossed purposes in our minds.

The Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud developed a psychoanalytic theory that the human psyche was divided into three parts, the Id (our instincts), the Ego (the part of us that deals with reality) and the Superego (our moral aspirations). You’ve probably seen this illustrated in cartoons as a person with the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, constantly urging the person caught in the middle to do good or bad things.

Most of us by the time we get into early adulthood encounter that voice in our heads that is filled with negativity. Regardless of the good we want to accomplish in our lives, that voice keeps telling us we are not good enough, we will fail, people will laugh at us and call us losers if we try to achieve our goals. That voice will always be there because it is our own. Everyone has it.

Most people, as they get older, and kicked around by life a little, learn to not listen to that voice. It has nothing good to offer. It is filled with negativity, with anger, with envy. Other people, unfortunately, decide to embrace it, to turn over their lives to it, and pay the price in missed opportunities and broken relationships. Far more dangerous for the rest of us are those who try to find validation for their embrace of that voice by projecting it into the world.

Because we can only infer what other people think and believe, it is easy to believe that those who think, believe and act differently than we do are simply obstinately wrong, and it our responsibility to set them straight, even if we must do it by force of will, or law or government. So, we seek out others who have also embraced the darkest side of themselves for validation and feel justified to do whatever is necessary to force our darkness on those not part of our clique.

There exist very smart (and foolish), powerful, influential people who have embraced the darkness that lives in all of us, and they are using their power and influence to draw millions to themselves, and to impose their will on others. And they will have their reward. Their success plays out daily in our politics and in our social institutions.

We are at an inflection point in history. We have a choice. We can embrace our better angels and work toward human progress, or we can yield to those who have decided to bring humanity down to their depravity. We can embrace love for humanity or hate. But love will never arise from hate.

So let's leave it alone, 'cause we can't see eye to eye
There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy
There's only you and me and we just disagree” (Dave Mason)

Jim Powers writes opinion columns. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of this publication.

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