Chinese in Texas; Stockyards; Texas Lottery

Chinese in Texas

Have you ever noticed that some of the most interesting news stories are not on the front page?

On Monday there was a very small article on Page 12A: “Chinese company to buy oil fields in Texas for $1.3 billion.”

Seems like a Chinese company has received approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to purchase oil fields in Howard and Borden counties.

The price must be a bargain with the price of gasoline down.

Makes you want to invest, encourage and support greener energy initiatives, don’t you think?

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has approved a transaction allowing communist China to “buy” oil fields in Howard and Borden counties in West Texas.

The U.S. is slowly selling off corporations, real estate and land to countries that eagerly seek the destruction of America.

Stockyards

The board and staff of Historic Fort Worth Inc. applaud our mayor and Fort Worth City Council for their leadership in establishing a council-initiated local historic district for Fort Worth’s legendary Stockyards.

There is no better way to protect these epic historic resources from demolition or inappropriate additions than to locally landmark them.

We are equally pleased that the council is moving forward on form-based codes and adding a second preservation planner.

Among other things, form-based codes address the form and mass of buildings in relationship to one another.

Fort Worth’s magnetic Magnolia Avenue benefits from a local historic district, a National Register Historic District (like our Stockyards already has) and form-based codes.

Now, thanks to the leadership of the City Council, the Stockyards will have all three planning tools to reach its highest potential.

Texas Lottery

The Texas Lottery amounts to nothing more than a regressive tax that hits the poor and minorities particularly hard.

Even the Texas Lottery Commission’s own surveys indicate as much.

Its 2005 study revealed that folks with less than a high school education spent a mean of $600 per year on the lottery, but those with a graduate school education spent only $156.

Blacks spent almost $700 per year, whereas whites spent an average of $250.

We would never support a tax that hit such groups so disproportionately, but for some reason the guise of a lottery has meant impunity for inequality.

While it may not be politically convenient for politicians to raise taxes while removing a non-tax form of revenue, freeloading off of the poor and the uneducated is morally unacceptable.

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Chinese in Texas; Stockyards; Texas Lottery."