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Connecting today’s news with the research & opinion you need.

Room for Improvement

What to Know: Federal monitors still say that the Texas Child Protection Services system exposes children to harm.

The TPPF Take: State and federal reforms can work together to improve CPS outcomes.

“While challenging, implementing the Family First Prevention Services Act in concert with expanding community-based care provides Texas with the opportunity to become a model of successful child welfare reform for the nation,” says TPPF’s Charissa Huntzinger.

Two Grand Too Far      

What to Know: The Austin city council unanimously passed two new ordinances that will strictly enforce Coronavirus-related restrictions. Under these ordinances, businesses may be penalized for not following certain health standards and people can be fined up to $2,000 for violating rules set by the health authority, including not wearing a face mask.

The TPPF Take: People should not be fined excessively because they forgot to wear a mask. That is unnecessarily punitive and potentially devastating for the underemployed and unemployed.

“Austin’s gone too far. No person should be fined $2,000 for forgetting to wear a mask,” says TPPF’s Shelby Sterling. “Threatening individuals and businesses with harsher punishments only adds stress to struggling families and businesses that are just trying to survive.”

Silencing Dissent

What to Know: Prominent liberals—even some radicals, such as Noam Chomsky—have signed a letter in defense of free speech. They’re being silenced for doing so.

The TPPF Take: If even this tepid defense of speech is “problematic,” then free speech is truly in trouble.

“In Orwell’s dystopia, 1984, doomed protagonist Winston Smith kept a journal, which he began with the salutation, ‘Greetings from a dead man,’” says TPPF’s Tom Lindsay. “Leftist thinker Noam Chomsky knows the feeling for simply signing the letter in Harper’s supporting free speech and debate, Chomsky, and all the signatories, have been pilloried in social media by the Social Justice Left. If this attempt to stifle free speech succeeds, life in America as we knew and loved it is dead.”