Columns & Opinions

Compensation to media outlets for content at issue in JCPA bill

Body
play it, bring in listeners and they sell advertising to those listeners. In the days before royalty agreements, those representing the songwriter and performer said that wasn’t fair, so they came up with a way to charge that radio station fees when they played the song that was the creation of someone else.

Religiosity

Body
Comparative Religions J udaism today is characterized by three major branches: Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative. The identity of each branch is basically defined by how strictly it adheres to traditional Jewish doctrine.

Who works for whom

Body
S omething that really annoys me lately: Each year, there are more “opportunities” for responsibility to be pushed off onto the consumer, client, or patient— i.e. me— to do the work of the entity, business, or person the consumer / client / patient is paying for goods or services.

Lawmakers push $15K teacher raises

Body
A group of House Democrats is proposing a $15,000 raise for the state’s teachers and a 25% raise for other state employees by using some of the state’s record budget surplus. State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, announced the bill last week and was joined by Democratic legislators and teachers, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

Religiosity

Body
Their key doctrines include studying the Torah faithfully while sustaining their faith in the coming of Mashiach (The Messiah) who will restore universal Jewish practice; rebuild the temple and restore Jerusalem; and resurrect and gather all faithful Jews to live in a worldly kingdom governed by Jewish law from Israel. Reform Judaism was born in western Europe the early 1800s guided in Germany by Rabbi Abraham Geiger.

Religiosity

Body
T oday’s worldwide Jewish population is about 14.7 million. Almost 47% reside in Israel and another 39% live in the United States and Canada, with most of the remainder in Europe.

Border security, tax relief, raises top list

Body
F or the Texas House and Senate, there is not much daylight between each chamber’s priorities in this year’s legislative session. Leaders say the focus will be on property tax relief, border security and employee raises. Preliminary budgets from both chambers were released last week, the Austin American-Statesman reported, with a record $288.7 billion budget for the next two years. The money in the budget is made up of $93.7 billion in federal funds, $130.1 billion in state general revenue funds, and $64.9 billion in other funds.

What a wild ride

Body
I wrote recently about repairing/ rebuilding a fence on the perimeter of the property. Someone commented that he hoped we had something mechanized for digging holes. Keep in mind that our only ranch hands are those at the end of our arms.