Law enforcement reform

On tuesday morning, February 25th, an aggressive, unstable man armed with a machete was shot down in Houston for attempting to attack an officer. While justified as self defense The Houston Chronicle questions if there was any way to prevent this in their article "Police Rethinking". The article argues that while understandable, incidents like this one happen too often across the nation; and while it's unclear if this specific incident could have been prevented, a future, similar incident can be prevented. The article goes on to comment on recent law enforcement attempts to implement methods used to defuse tense situations without the use of violence- and while it's possible that those methods were used here, a man is still dead. I don't believe that this article is geared towards a specific target audience, though I do think that it  was written to bring up the topic of the need for change in current law enforcement methods and to supply another example of why it's so necessary. The author of the article isn't clearly stated, however, considering the fact that the article is in a large news outlet and the piece presents a relatively common opinion, I would consider this article to be credible. Additionally, I appreciate the fact that the article takes a step back from the heated topic regarding police officers- the recent support, or lack of support for law enforcement has become what feels like a large pissing contest and instead of participating in that the article acknowledges the solemnity of the fact that a life was lost. The article then concludes by again expressing the immediate need for reform, leaving the reader with undeniable fact that we can do better.

Zika Virus, too close for comfort?

    According to The Texas Tribune, (In Jamie Lovegrove's article "Travis County Confirms First Case of Zika Virus")  Travis County health officials (on Thursday the 4th) confirmed the first case of the Zika virus in the county. The virus is obtained via mosquito bite, and can be sexually transmitted. Researchers have warned that the Zika virus could be linked with microcephaly, a condition causing children to be born with abnormally small brains and skulls; for this reason officials are urging pregnant women not to travel to the 20+ Lain American countries where there has been roughly 4,000 reported cases of microcephaly since October. 
    The first Zika virus case in the country was found in a man who contracted the virus while travelling in Columbia. While the virus may currently affect Texas due to travelers, The mosquito that carries the virus is found in Texas, however their activity is low during the colder months- because of this, as temperatures rise signs of the virus moving northward through Mexico will be monitored. This virus can potentially cause many people to fall sick, and impair thousands of infants in our community. So fellow classmates I highly recommend that you keep up with the migration of this virus and wear some sort of repellent during the oncoming spring and summer seasons.