I've got a little something for everyone today...
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Tiguas
I had a great laugh at the bill being pushed by Congressman Reyes that would basically remove the "birth right" requirement for being a Tigua. The El Paso Times wrote the bill up HERE.
If the bill passes anyone can be a Tigua as long as the Tigua Bigs approve you. This also means you can become un-Tigua by the same process. Tribal membership pretty much will work like club membership if the bill passes. It's going to be a great political tool for current Tigua Governor who can basically un-Tigua his opposition and make people he likes, and like him back, Tiguas.
This has huge ramifications for the Tiguas if the tribe ever gets its wish to reopen its casino. The last time Tiguas had casino cash rolling in they kicked out a bunch of people for various reasons with the real goal being to reduce how many ways they were splitting the pot. I'm told that at that time people were asked to leave because they didn't have pure enough blood, which brings me to my next point.
Unlike most tribes living on reservations, the Tigua are smack dab in the middle of the city surrounded by non-Tiguas. To put it simply - they've bread the Tigua out themselves and it's unlikely that anyone in the tribe under the age of 30 is anywhere near 1/8th Tigua. Tribes that are isolated from other populations tend to have no problem retaining the purity of their bloodline.
Once the Tribe has no members with 1/8th Tigua in them, it becomes hard to operate the tribe. With this bill they can circumvent that little rule and reestablish themselves under different terms.
And remember - the government really never recognized the Tiguas like they have other tribes - mainly because they called "bullshit" on their native American status. That's neither here nor there for me to comment on because I'm not sure how that process went along when it was pursued so many years ago.
The feel good story that the Times printed may have a not-so-great ending.
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DC has a plastic bag tax of $.05 per bag. I haven't received a straight answer as to exactly why they put the tax on plastic bags, but I get the general idea. It was an environmental issue where the local government saw dollar signs instead of clean air, earth and water.
The Anacostia river is a notoriously dirty place and apparently collects all the bags that blow out of the city. Locals cleaned up the mess and then set about having the offenders (plastic bags) permanently banned from the city. They also like the general idea of not adding to global pollution problems by doing their part in "getting off plastic bags."
The local government wasn't going to ban bags. However, they didn't meeting in the middle by agreeing to tax the bags. Government likes money and the environmentalists felt like they scored a small victory.
I can tell you that I refuse to pay for bags. I just carry whatever I buy in the city in my briefcase or in my bare hand. I'm not alone - many people feel the same way I do. This should mean that the plan worked and that the Anacostia river is as pristine as ever, right? Wrong - it's still a dump.
The city collects a good amount of dough on the tax, though. At least somebody got something out of this.
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DC has bike lanes all over the place - it's like Beto O'Rourke's little heaven on earth. There are also lots of bike riders. However, very rarely do you ever see a biker rider in a bike lane. They simply don't work and it's not the bike lane's fault.
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If you aren't traveling to Dallas, Houston or Phoenix out of El Paso, your travel time is ridiculous. I've had to go back and forth a few times now and had the opportunity to experience it. In conversations with business folks I have gleaned this one bit of information about cities and travels - if you can't get there easily, then you won't get their business.
You gotta do something about the crappy selection of flight you have in and out of El Paso.
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I have on good authority that Jaime Abeytia has something huge in the works. Make sure you keep an eye on his blog.
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People in DC complain incessantly about the heat. I think it's rather nice with the moisture in the air. There's nothing like a hot, dry win on a 100 degree El Paso day to literally suck the breath right out of you.
I will admit that it doesn't cool off at night like it does in El Paso. I always loved that about El Paso - the evenings when things cooled down and you could watch the sunset.
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If they remove the bloodline requirement then the Tiguas are no longer Tiguas. As such they should receive no further consideration that being an Indian Tribe brings with it.
Posted by: Texaswoman | July 21, 2011 at 01:29 PM