Written on October 16th, 2014 in the San Antonio Express, columnist Thomas Friedman discusses Oil and the looming question of whether or not an oil war is about to emerge; pairing up the US and Saudi Arabia against Russia and Iran. He seems to dance around the topic listing a plethora of information but not ever getting around to his personal opinion. Although one might speculate that he is simply objective in regards to this matter. He claims that the Americans and Saudis are attempting to do to Putin and Khamenei what they did to the last leaders of the Soviet Union which is "pump them to death," literally. To drive them into bankruptcy by lowering oil prices so immensely that there would be no return. After carefully examining the document and comparing this piece to some of Friedman's other writings I have come to the conclusion that he is in support of resolving this matter and that he does not desire there to be any further escalations, eventually leading to war. I believe that in this article his audience is the world; anyone and everyone who has interests on the matter. And although he does not utilize any hard evidence to make personal claims he still is considered one the of best columnists in the US, and for a good reason. He leaves you wondering, contemplating whether or not there is a resolution to this matter. Whether or not war will break out between these nations. Will it?

Published today at 12:33 pm in the Dallas Morning News Mike Hashimoto discusses the possibility of implementing a pilot program in Dallas Texas, that would allow police officers to issue citations to appear; instead of making the standard arrest for a plethora of class A and B misdemeanor offenses. Specifically in regards to the possession of marijuana. Due to a state law passed in 2007 officers now have the authority to exercise this at their own discretion. However Dallas law force and officials have been reluctant to do so. Travis County Sheriff's Department is the one and only law force that currently has this policy in effect. Officials say that in 2012 alone 4,500 people were ticketed for marijuana possession. Given that it takes an average of 2-3 hours to book an assailant into the Travis County Jail the use of this program has saved the officers more than 11,300 hours of work. Allowing the men and women of law to be on the streets protecting the city from real crime rather than sitting in a jail house waiting for the kid who was busted with 2 joints to be put into the system. I believe that this article is meant for a variety of viewers but that Hashimoto intends it primarily for the Dallas Police force and Dallas County district attorney Craig Watkins (who currently has no statements on the topic.) Hashimoto argues that this policy could in turn assist the police and save them stress and man hours. I feel as if Hashimoto has a point and is credible in his most recent article being that Travis County has had a 90% show-up rate among those cited, instead of incarcerated.