Categories
Politics and Governance

Fusion Centers: Effective Tool in Fighting Terrorism or Big Brother on Steroids?

  There is something watching you. It can access your bank records, your credit records, who you texted on your cell phone, whether or not you are vaccinated … all without your knowledge. It isn’t an identity thief searching through your garbage, it is a highly sophisticated federally funded data center called a Fusion Center. […]

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Health & Social Policy

City Council Is Prescribing Medicine? Austin Experts Testify to the Dangers of the Forced Medication of Artificial Water Fluoridation

  Fluoride History: Sixty years ago the U.S. Center for Disease Control proposed that fluoride be added to drinking water to prevent cavities. In December 2009, the Austin Environmental Board recommended that city council evaluate the costs and benefits of water fluoridation. In July 2010, Austin Health and Human Services warned mothers not to give […]

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Education Policy

Keeping Schools Out of the OR

  As Texas legislators and education officials are scrambling to find ways to reduce school spending, a few of the politically savvy ones are spinning the budget crisis as a means to “reinvent public education in Texas.” However, the cost-saving measures they are proposing are simply more strongly-worded versions of the same complaints we’ve heard […]

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Energy & Environmental Policy

Air Pollution: Texas’ Major Export?

The severe air pollution in Beijing became a sensationalized international concern when the dangers of air pollution put the 2008 Olympic Games at risk. The air pollution within China’s capital was so dense that it affected visibility. Athletes worried how the Beijing air pollution would affect their health as well as their performance. The Chinese […]

Categories
Health & Social Policy

The Hidden Costs of Water Fluoridation

The Centers for Disease Control and the American Dental Association call water fluoridation one of the top 10 health advancements of the 20th century. Cavity rates have declined in the United States since fluoridation began in the 1940s, but is fluoridation the reason dental health has improved in this over the last 60 years? When […]

Categories
Energy & Environmental Policy

Thirsty Texas

Mark Twain allegedly once said, “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.” While Mark Twain was a Missourian, his words also ring true for Texans. And boy, do we fight over water. Water makes frequent appearances in Texas Supreme Court trials about rights to pump groundwater and flooding due to construction and the […]