- Business Group Blasts Religious Freedom Proposals.
Texas' most powerful interest group sides with Democrats against legislative proposals to make it easier for religious liberty claims to be made against state laws. Texas businesses - the large ones anyway - see laws favoring same sex relationship as good for business.
- Don't Fear the Reefer: House Mulls Lower Pot Penalties.
This catches us up with proposals to lower punishments for possession of marijuana. The focus is on the costs associated with prosecution - not whether the use of marijuana is good or bad:
A former Harris County prosecutor, [Gene] Wu said reducing the penalties would relieve the caseload in the state's misdemeanor courts. He said that in Houston's Harris County, about a third of the 1,000 cases that hit misdemeanor courts each day involve marijuana possession.
Wu said prosecutors want to spend their time on assault cases, domestic violence and drunken driving, not small-time drug possession cases.
"Why not send them to JP court to pay a $150 fine and do hours?" he said. "It's about saving police time, giving courts more range, instead of forcing everybody into jail."
