Area 512

On May 3, 2019, my classmate Estevan Hernandez posted an editorial on the legalization of marijuana in the state of Texas . Estevan did a great job outlining the benefits of decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana by proposing that a move to a civil over criminal penalty would cut out all unnecessary arrests by the police department. Additionally, he discussed the benefits in other states such as Colorado who have decriminalized and legalized marijuana, making “over $266 million dollars”. These facts allow the reader to understand the benefits of legalization of marijuana rather than just for recreational use.   I agree with Estevan that Texas should not be in a rush to approach legalization. Instead, take small steps so conservative Texans could get use to the idea of marijuana before legalizing.   Small steps such as decriminalizing the punishable crime by converting the criminal penalty to a civil penalty are a great solution as a start. Even though Texas is

President Trump’s decision to expand the borders of the wall between the United States and Mexico have not only affected immigrants, some residents of the state of Texas are experiencing federal government abusing their power of eminent domain.   Eminent domain refers to the power of a state or the federal government to take private property for public use while requiring "just" compensation to be given to the original owner. It is unfortunate but the Texas local government has no jurisdiction in regards to eminent domain since federal government holds jurisdiction over each state in the United States. It is evident that President Trump is fixated on creating the borders of the wall. However, the media rarely publishes or covers details of the seizing of private citizens’ properties or instances where the government low-balls the citizens for their property. Currently, the federal government is filing more than 350 eminent domain lawsu