A list of what some of you want to be when you grow up . . .

Which require certification and licensing? Why? 

Lots of other questions to ask.

- sports business management
- electrical engineering
- graphic designer
- travel nurse
- pediatrician
- art teacher
- financial advisor
- operate my own construction company
- Mechanical Engineer
- lawyer
- Physicians Assistant
- pediatric cardiovascular ultrasound technician
- Divisional Project manager for a construction company
- start a business selling curriculum to high school Agricultural education teachers
- registered nurse
- cardiothoracic surgeon
- construction management
- dental hygenists
- own my own couture brand
- own an LLC
- pharmacist
- Coach baseball
- radiologist technician
- Aerospace Engineer at NASA
- child life specialist
- elementary school PE teacher
- environmental scientist
- Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist
- commercial pilot

Regarding Sales and Marketing in Texas

- What Texas laws are related to sales and marketing? Provide references and additional readings.

- What politcal conflicts exist over Texas laws that are related to sales and marketing? Which groups are most involved? Provide references and additional readings.

Regarding Influencers

An increasing influence on campaigns in the US.

- Pentagon secretly installs military influencers in civilian roles.

- Influencers Have a Lot to Say About Politics. Many Are Quietly Paid for It.

- Political Influencers and Content Creators: What Campaigns, PACs and Advocacy Groups Need To Know.

- Congress pushes to require social media influencers to disclose some payments.

- - Congress.gov:  H.R.5956 - Defending Against Foreign Propaganda Act.

- - The bill would specifically amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 to include social media influencers under the definition of "publicity agent." The century-old law requires people who lobby or collaborate with foreign governments to register with the federal government to identify outside influence.

The term influencer would be defined as anyone with a monetized account on a social media platform.

- - ChatGPT: Outline the rise of social media influencers on American politics. Provide references and additional readings.

The Texas Food Handler Certification

Many of you have jobs in the restaurant indistry have to have oe of these. Why?

Some sources: 

ChatGPT: When did restaurant workers in Texas begin to have to have food handlers permits in order to work? What was the process? What political forces favored and opposed it? Provide references and additional readings.

For specifics: 

- Texas Restaurant Association: Texas Food Handler Mandate.

- Texas Health and Human Services: Licensing of Food Handler Training Programs.

- Houston Health Department: Food Manager and Food Handler Certification.

Introducing: The Legislative Reference Library of Texas

A great source of info. 

- Click here for it. 

I'll pull artciles from Today's Clips often this semester. 

From the Washington Post: More states pilot 3-year college degrees, seeking to address rising tuition

When we cover public policy, we'll mention how policies evolve. 

Here's one that seem to be evolving as we speak. 

- Click here for the article. 

A growing number of colleges are offering three-year bachelor’s degree programs, providing students a faster and less expensive path toward graduation, but worrying critics who say the trend could devalue college education.

Instead of the typical 120 credits earned in four years, some programs now require students to complete around 90 credits. Proponents say that helps students get into — or back into — the workforce more quickly and with less debt. But some question whether the shortened degrees will be fully accepted by graduate schools, employers and accreditors.

At least 70 U.S. schools are either already offering three-year degrees or are actively considering them, according to a report this year by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, and multiple states have required or encouraged public universities to add them.

On Wednesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) took steps to join that group, directing the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to create a statewide framework for three-year-degree pathways.

“Every semester adds tuition, fees, housing, food, transportation, and other living expenses and delays students’ ability to begin their careers,” Abbott said in a news release. “Texas students deserve the option to receive a degree in a high-demand, high-wage field in less time.”

The trend is spreading in both red and blue states, as well as across many types of institutions, public and private, large and small. This summer, the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education approved applications from two schools to pilot three-year-degree programs.

What can a President Name? What can a President not Name? Why and why not? How?

Questions based on the following article from the Washington Post:  

- Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, escalating Canada feud.

Key detail: 


In the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump signed an order requiring that the U.S. Interior Department update geographic information systems to change the name of the lake, located between New York and Canada. Canadian government officials playing hardball on trade, he said, are “nasty people.”

“We filed all the necessary papers, documents, everything else,” Trump said. “We notified all the various people that we have to notify. So we’ve done everything that you have to do. And this is official, effective immediately.”

But there are limits: 

"While Trump can change the lake’s name for U.S. government purposes, states and private companies — including those responsible for consumer maps — can decide whether to follow suit."

Some companies are going along with the renaming. Some are not.

"Soon after Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico name change, Google Maps announced that users in the United States would see the body of water’s name rendered as the Gulf of America while users in Mexico would still see it rendered the Gulf of Mexico. In the rest of the world, people see both: “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).”

That name change also set off a legal fight between the White House and the Associated Press, which announced it would continue to use the term Gulf of Mexico in coverage. The White House then banned the wire service’s reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One, prompting the AP to file suit.
Part of the inherent powers of the chief executive - the head of the executive department - is the power to determing how executive agencies refer to things like lakes and gulfs."
  

Terms contained in the article include: 

- U.S. Interior Department
- geographic information systems
- tariffs

The Right to an Attorney

The last part of the 6th Amendment relates to the right to have a lawyer. 

Here's a related story related to how that is implemented: 

- Some Harris County court-appointed lawyers handle hundreds of felony cases while earning millions.

 

The Extradition Clause - Article 4, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution

This is the constitutional clause at the root of the dispute in the conflict in the story below: 

- ICE agent at center of extradition fight released from Texas jail.

For more: 

- From the Constitution Annotated.

- Dear ChatGPT: What is the extradition clause? 

Title 19 of the Texas Administrative Code

Where you can find the rules related to public education in Texas including a list of what you were to know about government beginning in kindergarden. 

- Try to find it, start here.   

From the Washington Post: Are public schools unconstitutional? A Nebraska court will decide.

An opinion piece written by a person affiliated with the Heritage Foundation. 

- Click here for it.  

In 2021, Columbia University law professor Philip Hamburger argued that the U.S. public school system violates the First Amendment. “Education,” he wrote, “consists mostly in speech, and parents have a right under the First Amendment to exercise authority over what their children hear.” Forcing families to accept government messaging — or pay a steep price to escape it — amounts to unconstitutional pressure.

A lawsuit filed in Nebraska on Aug. 13 brings that argument into court — and could open a path toward universal school choice.

Justin Jacobsen and Timothy and Joanna Menter, parents in the Lincoln Public Schools district, are suing state and local officials in Lancaster County District Court. Represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, they are challenging Nebraska’s combination of compulsory education and public-school-only funding.

. . . Nebraska law requires parents to enroll children in a “public, private, denominational or parochial school” or to home-school them. Noncompliance is a Class 3 misdemeanor punishable by up to three months in jail and a $500 fine.

. . . Both families withdrew most of their children because remaining in public schools meant adopting educational speech they reject. The Menters’ elementary school displayed a classroom door sticker promoting alternative sexuality and transgender ideologies and pressed climate-change views the parents found fear-based. The Jacobsens’ school taught transgender ideology; the children were also exposed to divisive narratives suggesting certain races were victims and others were oppressors because of their skin color.

The parents’ complaint rests on three theories. First, the combination of a criminal education mandate and funding limited to government viewpoints directly abridges parents’ free-speech rights under the First Amendment. Education is inherently speech, and parents hold the primary right to speak or to choose who speaks on their behalf. Second, the same facts violate the Nebraska Constitution’s free speech clause, which state courts treat as mirroring the federal guarantee. Third, the arrangement creates an unconstitutional condition: that is, the state may not condition a valuable public benefit on the surrender of a constitutional right.

Regarding the Core Curriculum

- Texas Core Curriculum.

- UH removes over 45% of courses from its ‘core’ curriculum to comply with SB 37.

- University of Houston slashes 40% of courses from its core curriculum.

- University of Houston regents approve removal of 133 courses from its core curriculum.

- University of Houston cuts 40% of core curriculum, including climate change and LGBT studies courses.