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Wayne Smith (Texas Politician)
Richard Wayne Smith, commonly known as Wayne Smith, (born August 17, 1943) is a former seven-term Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 128. He was first elected in November 2002 and served until January 2017. On May 24, 2016, Smith was unseated by 23 votes in the Republican runoff election by Briscoe Cain, 3,050 (50.2%) to 3,027 (49.8%). Political life Elections In the 2016 Republican Primary, held on March 1, Smith had two challengers—Briscoe Cain and Melody McDaniel. Smith received 43.75% of the vote and Cain received 47.83%, resulting in a runoff. In the runoff election, held on May 24, Smith lost to Briscoe Cain by 23 votes − 3,050 (50.2%) to 3,027 (49.8%). Smith sought a recount. The vote count was unchanged after the recount. House Committee assignments In 2015, Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus appointed Smith as chairman of the House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee. Smith also currently sits as well on the Cult ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Think Tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental organizations, but some are semi-autonomous agencies within government or are associated with particular political parties, businesses or the military. Think-tank funding often includes a combination of donations from very wealthy people and those not so wealthy, with many also accepting government grants. Think tanks publish articles and studies, and even draft legislation on particular matters of policy or society. This information is then used by governments, businesses, media organizations, social movements or other interest groups. Think tanks range from those associated with highly academic or scholarly activities to those that are overtly ideological and pushing for particular policies, with a wide range among them in terms of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equal Pay For Women
Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the full range of payments and benefits, including basic pay, non-salary payments, bonuses and allowances. Some countries have moved faster than others in addressing equal pay. Early history As wage-labour became increasingly formalized during the Industrial Revolution, women were often paid less than their male counterparts for the same labour, whether for the explicit reason that they were women or under another pretext. The principle of equal pay for equal work arose at the same part of first-wave feminism, with early efforts for equal pay being associated with nineteenth-century Trade Union activism in industrialized countries: for example, a series of strikes by unionized women in the UK in the 1830s. Pressure from Trade Unions has had varie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregnancies. When deliberate steps are taken to end a pregnancy, it is called an induced abortion, or less frequently "induced miscarriage". The unmodified word ''abortion'' generally refers to an induced abortion. The reasons why women have abortions are diverse and vary across the world. Reasons include maternal health, an inability to afford a child, domestic violence, lack of support, feeling they are too young, wishing to complete education or advance a career, and not being able or willing to raise a child conceived as a result of rape or incest. When properly done, induced abortion is one of the safest procedures in medicine. In the United States, the risk of maternal mortality is 14 times lower after induced abortion than after chi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texas Senate Bill 5
Texas House Bill 2 (HB2) is a bill within the Eighty-third Texas Legislature, first introduced into the Texas Senate as Texas Senate Bill 5 (SB5) on June 11, 2013, related to abortion rights within the state. Among provisions include banning abortions 20 weeks post-fertilization, and mandating that doctors practicing abortions must have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. SB5 was heavily criticized by state Democrats, and passage during a special session in the Texas Senate was blocked by a filibuster by Senator Wendy Davis by the end of the legislative term at the end of June. Governor Rick Perry created a second special session, in which the failed SB5 was reintroduced within the Texas House of Representatives as HB2, and eventually passed both Houses and signed into law by Gov. Perry on July 18, 2013. The law faced immediate legal scrutiny, and in July 2016, the United States Supreme Court held some parts of the law to be unconstitutional in its decision on ''Whole Woman' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Term Limits
A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potential for monopoly, where a leader effectively becomes " president for life". This is intended to protect a republic from becoming a ''de facto'' dictatorship. Term limits may be applied as a lifetime limit on the number of terms an officeholder may serve, or the restrictions may be applied as a limit on the number of consecutive terms they may serve. History Europe Term limits date back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Republic, as well as the Republic of Venice. In ancient Athenian democracy, many officeholders were limited to a single term. Council members were allowed a maximum of two terms. The position of Strategos could be held for an indefinite number of terms. In the Roman Republic, a law was passed imposing a limit of a single ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Obamacare
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. The ACA's major provisions came into force in 2014. By 2016, the uninsured share of the population had roughly halved, with estimates ranging from 20 to 24 million additional people covered. The law also enacted a host of delivery system reforms intended to constrain healthcare costs and improve quality. After it went into effect, increases in overall healthcare spending slowed, including premiums for employer-based insurance plans. The increased coverage was due, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empower Texans
Empower Texans was a conservative advocacy group in Texas that was active from 2006 to 2020. It was affiliated with Texans for Fiscal Responsibility and the Empower Texans Foundation. Empower Texans was based in Austin with operations in Dallas, Houston, and Midland. Empower Texans focused on fiscal conservatism by supporting lower taxes and spending restraint. It operated in Republican state-level politics in Texas, targeting candidates whom the group views as insufficiently conservative in Republican primaries. History Empower Texans was formed in 2006 by businessman Tim Dunn. Dunn was the group's primary financial contributor. Dan and Farris Wilks were also major donors to Empower Texans. The group was described as Tea Party-aligned. In 2014, Empower Texans CEO Michael Quinn Sullivan was fined by the Texas Ethics Commission after the agency alleged that he had failed to register as a lobbyist starting in 2010. Sullivan said his activities were best described as journalism rat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Americans For Prosperity
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States funded by Charles Koch and formerly his brother David. As the Koch brothers' primary political advocacy group, it is one of the most influential American conservative organizations. After the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama, AFP helped transform the Tea Party movement into a political force. It organized significant opposition to Obama administration initiatives such as global warming regulation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the expansion of Medicaid and economic stimulus. It helped turn back cap and trade, the major environmental proposal of Obama's first term. AFP advocated for limits on the collective bargaining rights of public-sector trade unions and for right-to-work laws, and it opposed raising the federal minimum wage. AFP played an active role in the achievement of the Republican majority in the House of Representativ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medicaid Expansion
In the context of American public healthcare policy, Medicaid coverage gap refers to uninsured people who reside in states which have opted out of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), who are both ineligible for Medicaid under its previous rules that still apply in these states and too poor to qualify for the ACA's subsidies and credits designed to allow middle-class Americans to purchase health insurance. The number of Americans in this gap has been estimated to be almost 3 million as of January 2016, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The Foundation has also said that 90% of the people in this gap live in the South. In states that have not expanded Medicaid, eligibility requirements for Medicaid are limited to parents making 44% or less of the poverty line, and in almost all such states, all adults without children are ineligible. The coverage gap results from this and a number of factors, such as the fact that the ACA was designed so that the poor w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism. Roles Journalists can be broadcast, print, advertising, and public relations personnel, and, depending on the form of journalism, the term ''journalist'' may also include various categories of individuals as per the roles they play in the process. This includes reporters, correspondents, citizen journalists, editors, editorial-writers, columnists, and visual journalists, such as photojournalists (journalists who use the medium of photography). A reporter is a type of journalist who researches, writes and reports on information in order to present using sources. This may entail conducting interviews, information-gathering and/or writing articles. Reporters may split their time between working in a newsroom, or from home, and going ou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
In the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal program that provides food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income people. It is a federal aid program, administered by the United States Department of Agriculture under the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), though benefits are distributed by specific departments of U.S. states (e.g. Division of Social Services, Department of Health and Human Services, etc.). SNAP benefits supplied roughly 40 million Americans in 2018, at an expenditure of $57.1 billion. Approximately 9.2% of American households obtained SNAP benefits at some point during 2017, with approximately 16.7% of all children living in households with SNAP benefits. Beneficiaries and costs increased sharply with the Great Recession, peaked in 2013 and have declined through 2017 as the economy recovered. It is the largest nutrition program of the 15 administered by FNS and is a key co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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