I was a little disturbed reading DuPont Says Plant Leaked 23,000 Pounds of Toxic Gas in the Texas Tribune. Reading this article made me more concerned for my health from what is let in the air. About a month ago The DuPont chemical plant located in La Porte about 30 miles outside of Houston, TX leaked around 23,000 pounds of flammable toxic gas "About 23,000 pounds of a flammable, foul-smelling toxic gas leaked from the DuPont chemical plant". Some of the harmful gas leaked is known as methyl mercaptan it can cause reactions such as nausea, vomiting and fluid buildup in the lungs.
    About 100 pounds of methyl mercaptan was leaked killing four workers on the plant and hospitalizing another. The gross smell that it gives off over took La Porte for about 24 hours after the accident. The company stated that "The release occurred inside a process building at the site’s Crop Protection unit and dissipated from openings in that structure over time". The U.S chemical safety and hazard investigation board is still investigating the incident. The county health officials didn't seem very concerned saying that "the leak posed little risk to the community because the gas rapidly degrades once released into the air". The Texas Tribune has reported that these unauthorized leaks of toxic chemicals are common in Texas "Thousands — and even millions — of pounds of toxic chemicals beyond what permits allow have spewed from the state's facilities". There has been 19 other recordings of leaked methyl mercaptan in Texas since 2009 according to state data, but none of them harming anybody "DuPont’s was the only methyl mercaptan release that killed or injured workers during that period".  

I read my colleagues blog "Dram shop act" I found this piece to have a very interesting topic in which i was not informed. The bartender being blamed for someone having too many drinks is ridiculous in my opinion. I agree with my colleague, how is the bartender supposed to know how many drinks one person has had in a club full of different faces? Everyone is responsible for themselves drinking and then getting behind the wheel is a huge risk. The person that night on Halloween knew that drinking and driving was against the law and knew the risk he was taking or maybe not because he chose to drink until he was hammered. If you know you are going out to have fun, party and drink you should have either a designated driver or call a cap. Someone knows when he or she is not in full focus to get behind the wheel of a vehicle no one is forcing you to drive your self-home after a long night of partying. For the person to try and file charges against the bartender after getting in to a car wreck is simply irresponsible and not take responsibility for your own actions. I do not think the bartender should have lost his certification or received fines, I think it is entirely on the drunk person behind the wheel and that they should have served some jail time for making the irresponsible decision.

I think Texas should pass water conservation measures since it will not be hard for us to run out of fresh water. With the water conservation plans it helps with the waste of water such as when people leave the sink running while brushing your teeth, or just standing underneath the hot water after your done showering. We need some water restrictions so years down the road we do not run out of fresh water. There are 19 cities in the state of Texas right now that have water conservation programs to save on the use of water Austin being one of them. I think more cities should get involved with the conservation of water. Water is one of the most important things on earth and something humans cannot live without. With these cities participating more than 30 percent of Texas is considered out of a drought. The conservative water programs across the state are helping us overcome the 48 percent of Texas that is in either a small or severe drought. We cannot let this resource that we so desperately need become scarce to the population. In 1996 EAA v. Day happened when a rancher asked to pump more water for his farm then the EAA would allow. Which made the question come in to play. Do the land owners own the water they live on top of? Personally I don't think anyone should be able to own an underground water aquifer with there being so much fresh water in it the state should regulate it usage. So in all I do think Texas should enforce water conservation rules across the state to simply keep us out of a drought.

The panic has now started in United States of the Ebola virus, since the first Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas, Texas on September 19th. Reading this article "Real Ebola crisis's in Africa, not in United States" in The Daily Texan. I learned that the virus has first been found in central Africa back in the 1970s transmitted from a wild animal to a human. The author makes the argument that the U.S generally ignores the problems across sea that we cannot see our self "For all the talk about globalization, most Americans still think in very local ways". Our government doing little in response to Ebola because it has always been such a rare virus. In 2014 with the spread of the virus in West Africa becoming worse and the deadly virus now effecting the states we have begun to take action. U.S. customs officials has now started to check West African visitors for an evidence of the Ebola virus. The author believes that we should not ignore the crisis in West Africa that we should stop the spared there first where it came from but we cannot do it by our self "We cannot afford to ignore the Ebola crisis in West Africa, but we cannot solve the problem alone. The time has come for us to step forward and lead a large multinational effort to bring needed health assistance to the region". I defiantly agree with this statement to stop the spread of it we have to fully get rid of the virus where it first started and has the most Ebola suffers. Maybe if we did not ignore the fatal virus in the first place and gave a better helping hand we would not be experiencing cases in the U.S.

This topic I thought was interesting for a student, and easy to have an opinion on. I chose this commentary article because it was something I could relate to. I read this in The Daily Texan "Computers, technology should stay outside of classroom". The author attends the University of Texas, in this article he expresses how he does not believe any technology should be allowed in the classroom and reasoning supporting his point of view.

In many cases laptops are the most convenient way to take notes in class. Not many people like to take notes by hand in college now a days. The author is making the argument that you learn better without any electronics in the class room. Expecting to see everyone with a laptop on their desks he finds out the opposite saying "What I did not assume was that many professors at the University of Texas prohibit electronics of any kind in the classroom". Believing that this is the best setting for a class room. He makes a good point saying that people distract their selves with the laptop along with others, backing up his statement with information from a study done back in 2010 "a study conducted in 2010, researchers determined that students using laptops were on “distracting” screens (including email, games, and general web surfing) for at least 42 percent of the lecture". Which I do agree with thinking about it I was in the same situation just last week with a girl sitting in front of me playing a game on her laptop distracted me from the professor presentation. This is not a good way to retain the information needed for the class. He also makes a good statement backing up his argument saying that studies show a person typing all their notes does not retain the information as good as a person hand writing them. "Researchers have concluded that students who take notes on laptops simply don’t process the information like students who take notes by hand". With all these great examples and studies supporting his theory he won me over, and I have to agree with his argument, but I do believe students should have the choice as long as there on track with the lecture. Different people have different ways of learning and taking in information, so I say let the student decide.

I chose to read an article in the Texas Tribune "Van de Putte Calls For Higher Minimum Wage". This article being mainly about approaching ways to make the economy better caught my attention. Van de Putte running for Lieutenant Governor says “We know that people who live off of minimum wage live a poverty-ridden life." This is true for some people that do work for minimum wage I believe it is very hard to afford expenses in Texas, and most hardly getting by. With Texas being so populated it makes it harder to find jobs and forces people to settle for minimum wage or slightly more. Being that the minimum wage is so low at $7.25 per hour it does hurt portions of the economy. Van de Putte states that if there is a raise in minimum wage the economy will be of higher quality “Raising the minimum wage is good for the economy.” I would suggest this reading to people because it offers good information on what is going on today in the economy, and who is running to make the changes needed in Texas.