Bonds Again?!?! (groans)

We as members of the communities in Texas have heard this all before. Our lawmakers our asking us once again to take on billions of dollars in debt to refurbish many Texas projects such as highways, school loans and others. While most of the programs do seem worthy, including a large chunk to be spent on cancer research, others sound less that vaguely familiar. Once again the ballot on November 6^th will hold the highest amount reserved for highways throughout Texas, five BILLION to be exact. While many supporters of proposals say that with this money we will rely less on toll roads, a very hot button issue here in Texas it brings to mind one of the most highly contested topics in the 2007 session of Texas legislation. When the toll road was originally given as an idea in a proposition bill it was to be paid for then, years later to find it would become a toll road and that the many taxpayers that had already paid for its construction would find they would pay a small fee even to use it. If this promise was made about highways a number of years ago what is to be said that this would happen again? We are now paying debts that were not even our decision to make, so must we thrust that economic burden upon our children. The research done is up to each taxpayer when they go to the polls on November 6^th but pick and choose carefully the spending that is important to you because more than likely it is your children that will end up paying for it.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5212081.html

Meningitis Outbreak in Llano County

A meningitis outbreak was announced by the Texas Health Department in Llano County, where five or possibly six students are suspected of having it. Although the infected children have viral meningitis, the less serious case while its counterpart bacterial meningitis kills about 15 percent of everyone it infects, many are still worried. This particular issue requires constant monitoring not only for the students infected but body of children around them. So far the disease has infected three different students at three different public schools. This in turn could have potentially infected three different student bodies, resulting in a school-wide epidemic. What else is alarming was the response of the Llano County superintendant Dennis Hill. He was only aware of five cases whereas the Health Department reported six cases. Doesn’t the responsibility of recording and researching said infections fall on the man that oversees operations of all three schools? Furthermore the conflicting information from both parties results in the conclusion that maybe they should be working together so that all responsible parties have the statistics to better serve the families of the students infected but also those that have children attending with them to contain and control the disease. One more point that should come to light is the Health Department’s failure to realize the current location and condition of each student and the lack of knowledge as to whether these students are hospitalized or quarantined, or the possibility of them potentially having come in contact with other members of Llano County. Could they have passed the disease on to others with compromised immune systems unwittingly? Only time will tell.