One of the most important decisions that a parent makes is who will be given the charge of caring for her children while she is at work. What is the teacher to student ratio? How long has the facility been in operation? Do the workers know emergency first aid and child CPR? Are the caretakers, certified, licensed and bonded? Everyone wants to know that their children are safe and loved every moment of the time....
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Texas Governor Rick Perry recently declared that he would not be accepting $555 million of the funds that the U.S. federal government offered through its stimulus package. Specifically, Gov. Perry joins several other state executives in fighting the changes that would need to be made to state unemployment laws if the stimulus money was accepted. So, the Texas state legislature is now looking for some other ways to improve the status of the coffers in...
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No one can deny that President Barack Obama has been dealing with a long list of high-priority issues since he entered the Oval Office just over a month ago. Of course, the faltering economy is understandably the top concern in most people's minds, and the stimulus package that passed recently has received most of the media's attention. The president announced the withdrawal of all combat troops from Iraq by August 2010, and has the pundits...
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The legislators in Texas are tackling a wide variety of issues during this current legislative session, dealing with topics ranging from education to immigration to the current economic crisis. Like every other year, some of the bills that are being considered garner a lot of attention and controversy. One example is the bill that was passed by the Texas Senate yesterday that would allow for sobriety checkpoints in our state for the first time in...
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There is no shortage of laws surrounding the specifics of marriage and divorce in our country - who can get married, who can perform a marriage, child custody and financial settlements in a divorce, etc. are all determined by government. Some argue that the government must be involved in such matters for reasons of economics and a basic social order. Others believe that the government has a deeper role to play in the establishment and...
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I imagine that most of us have been pulled over by a police officer at some point while behind the wheel of our car. Maybe that speed limit suddenly changed after you crossed into the limits of a small town in which traffic tickets pay for the mayor's salary. Or, you could have been driving with a broken tail light and not even been aware that you were not signaling when making a turn. But,...
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In better economic times, the latest business news was usually relegated to the tenth page of the third section in your local newspaper. Today, the unfortunate news related to businesses across our country is making front page headlines on a daily basis. As I have reported on this blog before, Texas (in particular Austin, Houston and San Antonio) has been faring well economically in comparison with most other states in the nation. But, make no...
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On the occasion that you catch yourself in a compromising situation, I don't know if the first thought to enter your mind is, "What would my elected officials do?" However, in the case of deciding whether or not to take a breathalyzer test when pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving, otherwise known as DWI or DUI, we know now the answer. More than a dozen elected officials in Texas have been stopped in recent...
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There are several ways that you can enjoy the income that is earned by a successful attorney. First, there is the obvious route of completing law school and passing the bar exam. Or, you could follow your mother's advice and "marry a doctor or a lawyer." Unfortunately, there is a third method that is increasingly becoming the attempted avenue for those who want to share in the profit of a law firm ... embezzlement. While...
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Families with a large number of children have received a great deal of media attention recently. Two of the most popular shows on The Learning Channel are Jon and Kate Plus 8 and 17 Kids and Counting , both of which (as is obvious from the titles) deal with a dinner table that is crowded with offspring. Television viewers are fascinated by parents who choose to have a house overflowing with kids. However, one mother...
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