Dallas took a giant step in going green by expanding recycling programs to have a zero-waste landfill by 2040 (target goal-84% of the city’s garbage recycled). The transition will not be easy for the second city in Texas to undertake such a program (Austin—first in 2008 established target goals of 90% recycled). The first roadblock? There are disagreements among city leaders, businesses, interest groups, and citizens about the timeline and costs for achieving goals. The original plan requires apartments and businesses implement recycling programs forcing increased costs on property owners. This is arguably an unfunded mandate—requirement or regulation set down by an agency that does not provide funding to carry out the requirement. Until more consultations, the timelines for compliance have been trashed.
And speaking of trashed, a north Austin homeowner, Bud Johnson, trashed his symbolic speech display this week after receiving much public attention. Symbolic speech is any nonverbal communication, typically political in nature including marching, wearing armbands, and mutilating the U.S. flag. Here, Johnson’s display of a rope around an empty chair hanging from a tree had neighbors and civil rights activists seeing red. Since Clint Eastwood used an empty chair at the Republican National Convention to both symbolize and criticize the Obama administration, empty chairs are being used all over the country by Republicans to highlight why the country needs to go red in November. The lawn display attracted much attention from both the media and the public because the concern is that this is hate speech (any communication which disparages a person or a group based on some characteristic like race, gender, or sexual orientation). The head of the Austin chapter of the NAACP noted that the image reminded people about lynching. Hate speech is protected under both federal and state law. The owner, Bud Johnson, finally removed the chair saying only “[i]t has nothing to do with racism. Nothing.”
And speaking of being removed, State District Judge Tim Sulak issued a temporary injunction (a restraining order which prohibits further action from being taken) to prevent Texas from purging voters off registration lists. The injunction only causes a slow down for Secretary of State, Hope Andrade, who is enforcing a 2011 Texas law to remove voters who are deceased. The Secretary of State—who is responsible for overseeing elections in Texas—sent 80,000 letters to persons from Social Security lists of recently deceased telling them they had 30 days to respond, or else lose their status as a registered voter. That prompted voting rights watch dog groups (organizations that protect and act as guardians against illegal practices) to cry foul. When laws are enacted, the implementing agency has rulemaking authority-the ability to set rules to carry out the law. Here, Andrade established a rule for determining whether a match was “strong” or “weak” and sent letters to both types. A match is “strong” if the name, birth date and Social Security numbers match; and a “weak” match means that one of the three did not match. All of the complaints about purging have come from persons identified as “weak” matches who want the Secretary to know they are alive and well, and that they intend to vote.
Lone Star News Review 