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Week in Review, October 29th

Oct 29

posted by TexasLRL in Week in review

  • Explore how student achievement varies across states. (Urban Institute, October 26, 2015)
  • Examine testing in urban school districts. (Council of the Great City Schools, October 2015)
  • Consider new policy recommendations related to tobacco and e-cigarettes. (American Academy of Pediatrics, October 26, 2015)
  • Assess the vulnerability of automated license plate recognition camera systems. (Electronic Frontier Foundation, October 28, 2015)
 

This entry was posted on October 29, 2015 at 3:15 PM and has received 516 views. Print this entry.

Week in Review, October 22nd

Oct 22

posted by TexasLRL in Week in review

In this weekly post, we feature online articles and policy reports published recently, and other helpful research tools.
 
 

This entry was posted on October 22, 2015 at 3:15 PM and has received 564 views. Print this entry.

2014 Drug Guidelines Amendment

Oct 22

posted by TexasLRL in Criminal Justice

November 1, 2015, is the first day that federal drug trafficking offenders who requested and were granted reduced sentences under the 2014 drug guidelines amendment may be released. The following resources are provided to help you learn more about this topic.
 
 
  • Amendment language
  • What did this amendment do?
  • FAQs and training materials
  • Materials from public meetings and hearings
  • Public comment
  • Federal Register notices, court-related materials, speeches, remarks, and press releases.
From the website: "In April 2014, the United States Sentencing Commission voted unanimously to reduce sentencing guidelines for most federal drug trafficking offenders. In July 2014, the Commission voted, again unanimously, to make this sentencing reduction retroactive (effective on November 1, 2014). Courts can consider motions for retroactive sentence reductions beginning on November 1, 2014, but no prisoners may be released based on this reduction prior to November 1, 2015."
 
Newspaper articles:
 
 
 

This entry was posted on October 22, 2015 at 11:55 AM and has received 1436 views. Print this entry.

Week in Review, October 15th

Oct 15

posted by TexasLRL in Week in review

In this weekly post, we feature online articles and policy reports published recently, and other helpful research tools.
  • Read about the retroactive sentence reductions under the 2014 Drug Guidelines Amendment. (United States Sentencing Commission, accessed October 14, 2015)
  • Track multi-state arrests of prisoners released in 2005. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, September 2015)
  • Explore the consequences of frequent text messaging by adolescents. (Psychology of Popular Media Culture, October 5, 2015)
  • Learn about the 158 families contributing millions to Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. (New York Times, October 10, 2015)
 
 

This entry was posted on October 15, 2015 at 3:15 PM and has received 680 views. Print this entry.

Texas Water!

Oct 13

posted by TexasLRL in Water planning

The Legislative Research Librarians Staff Section of the National Conference of State Legislatures recently welcomed Dr. Robert Mace of the Texas Water Development Board for a presentation at a professional development seminar in Austin. Dr. Mace told a fascinating and timely story of Texas water, including data, planning, and financing, to ensure water supplies for the future. He also explored the incredible diversity of climates, precipitation levels, major and minor aquifers, and river basins in Texas.
 
James Michener said that “Water, not oil, is the lifeblood of Texas.” Dr. Mace illustrated this by building a Texas "water budget" piece by piece, from the atmosphere to surface water to groundwater.
 
Interesting facts about Texas water:
  • 86 percent of all rainfall in Texas is evaporated or evapotranspirated ("plant sweat") back into the atmosphere.
  • Only 1.3 percent of all the rainfall and surface water runoff actually make it down into the aquifer system.
  • 40 percent of all water used in Texas, whether surface water or groundwater, comes from the Ogallala Aquifer in the Panhandle.
 
Texas water law is a combination of our Spanish, Mexican, and Texan legal history. Legal doctrines of overland flow as private property, prior appropriation, and the rule of capture govern water ownership and supplies in the state.
 
Recent water innovations in Texas include:
  • Direct potable reuse: In a first for the United States (and only the second place in the world), Texas has started directly reusing treated wastewater for drinking water. The Colorado River Municipal Water District in Big Spring and the city of Wichita Falls are early adopters.
  • Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR): This process injects water back into an aquifer for later use. ASR avoids the ravages of evaporation, and has been utilized in San Antonio with transfers from the Edwards Aquifer to the Carrizo Aquifer.
  • Desalination: Texas already has over 200 groundwater or surface water desalination plants inland, the largest being in El Paso.  The 2012 State Water Plan includes proposals for five seawater coastal desalination plants.
  • Water conservation: The average person uses 100 gallons of water per person per day, but conservation can dramatically reduce this amount. Dr. Mace suggested that by carefully studying our own water budgets, we can help save water for future Texans.
Dr. Mace's full Powerpoint presentation is available here. Photos and Powerpoint courtesy of Dr. Robert Mace, Texas Water Development Board.

Cover image from Pixabay user ronymichaud
 

This entry was posted on October 13, 2015 at 4:18 PM and has received 2794 views. Print this entry.

Week in Review, October 8th

Oct 8

posted by TexasLRL in Week in review

In this weekly post, we feature online articles and policy reports published recently, and other helpful research tools.
  • Review the draft damage assessment and restoration plan and the draft environmental impact statement about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, October 2015)
  • Consider the circumstances of youths aged 16 to 24 who are not working or in school. (Congressional Research Service, October 1, 2015)
  • Explore how the health of pets and people is intertwined. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, October 6, 2015)
  • Examine statistics related to victims of identity theft. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, September 2015)
  • Read about the top ten most dangerous cities in America. (24/7 Wall St., September 30, 2015)
  • Take a look at Texas-themed Instagram accounts. (Wide Open Country, October 7, 2015)
 
 

This entry was posted on October 8, 2015 at 3:15 PM and has received 549 views. Print this entry.

5 Things You Can Find in a Legislative Journal

Oct 6

posted by TexasLRL in Legislative process

Texas Constitution art. III § 12 directs each chamber of the legislature to keep a journal of its proceedings for each legislative day during session. Daily journals are compiled and indexed following a session, and these bound volumes become what we know as the House and Senate Journals. 
 
House and Senate journals can be a valuable source of information for research. Though they usually do not contain a transcript of debate, they do have other information that's helpful. Here are five examples:
 
1. Reason for vote or statement of legislative intent: On some occasions, a reason for vote or a statement of legislative intent will be recorded in the journal. A reason for vote is usually listed in the index as "Vote, reason for, by" or "Reasons for Vote, By." A statement of legislative intent can usually be found as "Legislative intent, statement of." Here's an example of a reason for vote from the Senate Journal for the 31st Legislature (see pg. 7 of the pdf). To see what a statement of legislative intent looks like, see pg. 14 of this pdf.
 
2. Record votes - If you want to see how a legislator voted on a particular bill at a particular stage in the legislative process, check the bill history to see if a record vote was taken. A record vote is a list of each member's vote on a particular motion or measure.  
 
3. Speeches - Sometimes the text of speeches will be included in the journals.  As an example, see pg. 11 of this pdf for the text of a speech by Ross Perot when he visited the Legislature in 1971. To find speeches, look in the index for "Address by, text of" or a variation of that.
 
4. Bill authors and bill histories: The standard appendices in most journals will include a list of bills by author as well as the history of bills and resolutions in the House and Senate. The history contains a list of actions on a bill and is helpful if you want to see if a record vote was ever taken.
 
5. Messages from the Governor - Governors submit a variety of messages to the legislature during the course of a session. You can usually find these listed in the index under "Governor, Messages From."
 
The Library has a large collection of House and Senate journals on its website, as well as a comprehensive collection of the hardbound volumes. We've also made all of the journals of the Republic of Texas available online. For help finding information in a journal, please contact the library at (512) 463-1252.
 

This entry was posted on October 6, 2015 at 3:24 PM and has received 1091 views. Print this entry.

Week in Review, October 1st

Oct 1

posted by TexasLRL in Week in review

In this weekly post, we feature online articles and policy reports published recently, and other helpful research tools.
  • Read about new design standards for federal government websites. (Huffington Post, September 28, 2015)
  • Review maps, charts, and data related to the foreign-born population in the U.S. (Pew Research Center, September 28, 2015)
  • Track job creation from startups. (U.S. Census Bureau, September 28, 2015)
  • Examine the present and future of urban mobility. (McKinsey Insights, September 2015)
 

This entry was posted on October 1, 2015 at 3:15 PM and has received 584 views. Print this entry.