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Jim Pitts (comics)
James R. Pitts (January 1, 1947 – July 20, 2024) was an American politician and lawyer who served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1993 to 2015. He was the chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee for four legislative sessions. He was a Republican from Waxahachie in Ellis County, south of his native Dallas, Texas. Early life and education Pitts attended Southern Methodist University where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration, a Master of Business Administration, and a Juris Doctor. He practiced law for past thirty-four years in Waxahachie, with a specialty in general and real estate law. He also owned the Ellis County Abstract and Title Company. Community involvement Pitts served as a director of Citizens National Bank, based in Waxahachie. He also served as a director of Waxahachie's Sims Library, and served as a past president of the Waxahachie Chamber of Commerce and past president and treasurer of the board of trustees of Presbyt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is a Right-wing politics, right-wing political parties in the United States, political party in the United States. One of the Two-party system, two major parties, it emerged as the main rival of the then-dominant Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in the 1850s, and the two parties have dominated American politics since then. The Republican Party was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists opposing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the expansion of slavery in the United States, slavery into U.S. territories. It rapidly gained support in the Northern United States, North, drawing in former Whig Party (United States), Whigs and Free Soil Party, Free Soilers. Abraham Lincoln's 1860 United States presidential election, election in 1860 led to the secession of Southern states and the outbreak of the American Civil War. Under Lincoln and a Republican-controlled Congress, the party led efforts to preserve th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scottish Rite
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is a List of Masonic rites, rite within the broader context of Freemasonry. It is the most widely practiced List of Masonic rites, Rite in the world. In some parts of the world, and in the Droit Humain, it is a Masonic bodies, concordant body and oversees all degrees from the 1st to 33rd degrees, while in other areas, a Supreme Council oversees the 4th to 33rd degrees. It is most commonly referred to as the Scottish Rite. Sometimes, as in England and Australia, it is called the Rose Croix, though this is just one of its degrees, and is not to be confused with other Masonic related Rosicrucian societies such as the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Its name may vary slightly in various jurisdictions and constitutions. For example, the English and Irish Constitutions omit the word ''Scottish''. Master Masons from other rites may, in some countries, join the Scottish Rite's upper degrees starting from the 4th degree due to its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capital Punishment In Texas
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who is at least 18 years old. In 1982, the state became the first jurisdiction in the world to carry out an execution by lethal injection, when it executed Charles Brooks Jr. It was the first execution in the state since 1964. Texas, which is the second most populous state of the Union, has executed 595 offenders since the U.S. capital punishment resumption in 1976 (beginning in 1982 with the Brooks execution) to May 20, 2025 (the execution of Matthew Lee Johnson)—more than a third of the national total. Even per capita, Texas has the nation's second-highest execution rate, behind only neighboring Oklahoma. History The first execution in Texas occurred in 1819, with the execution of a white male, George Brown, for piracy. In 1840, a free black male, Henry Forbes, was executed for jail-breaking. Prior to Texas state ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Relations
International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns all activities among states—such as war, diplomacy, trade, and foreign policy—as well as relations with and among other international actors, such as intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), international legal bodies, and multinational corporations (MNCs). International relations is generally classified as a major multidiscipline of political science, along with comparative politics, political methodology, political theory, and public administration. It often draws heavily from other fields, including anthropology, economics, geography, history, law, philosophy, and sociology. There are several schools of thought within IR, of which the most prominent are realism, l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Appropriation (law)
In law and government, appropriation (from Latin ''appropriare'', "to make one's own", later "to set aside") is the act of setting apart something for its application to a particular usage, to the exclusion of all other uses. It typically refers to the legislative designation of money for particular uses, in the context of a budget or spending bill. Ecclesiastical law In ecclesiastical law, appropriation is the perpetual annexation of an ecclesiastical benefice to the use of some spiritual corporation, either aggregate or sole. In the Middle Ages in England the custom grew up of the monasteries reserving to their own use the greater part of the tithes of their appropriated benefices, leaving only a small portion to their vicars in the parishes. On the dissolution of the monasteries the rights to collect "great tithes" were often sold off, along with former monastic lands, to laymen; whose successors, known as "lay impropriators" or "lay rectors," still hold them, the system b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legislative Session
A legislative session is the period of time in which a legislature, in both parliamentary and presidential systems, is convened for purpose of lawmaking, usually being one of two or more smaller divisions of the entire time between two elections. A session may last for the full term of the legislature or the term may consist of a number of sessions. These may be of fixed duration, such as a year, or may be determined by the party in power. In some countries, a session of the legislature is brought to an end by an official act of prorogation, in others by a motion to adjourn ''sine die''. In either event, the close of a session generally brings an end to all unpassed bills in the legislature, which would have to be introduced anew to continue debate in the following session. Common procedure Historically, each session of a parliament would last less than one year, ceasing with a prorogation during which legislators could return to their constituencies. In more recent times, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corrections
In criminal justice, particularly in North America, correction, corrections, and correctional, are umbrella terms describing a variety of functions typically carried out by government agencies, and involving the punishment, treatment, and supervision of persons who have been convicted of crimes. These functions commonly include imprisonment, parole, and probation. Bryan A. Garner, editor, '' Black's Law Dictionary'', 9th ed., West Group, 2009, , 0-314-19949-7, p. 396 (or p. 424 depending on the volume) A typical ''correctional institution'' is a prison. A ''correctional system'', also known as a ''penal system'', thus refers to a network of agencies that administer a jurisdiction's prisons, and community-based programs like parole, and probation boards. This system is part of the larger criminal justice system, which additionally includes police, prosecution and courts. "Corrections" is also the name of a field of academic study concerned with the theories, policies, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values; and the relationship between law and other fields of study, including Law and economics, economics, Applied ethics, ethics, Legal history, history, Sociology of law, sociology, and political philosophy. Modern jurisprudence began in the 18th century and was based on the first principles of natural law, Civil law (legal system), civil law, and the law of nations. Contemporary philosophy of law addresses problems internal to law and legal systems and problems of law as a social institution that relates to the larger political and social context in which it exists. Jurisprudence can be divided into categories both by the type of question scholars seek to answer and by the theories of jurisprudence, or schools of thought, regarding how those ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transportation
Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land transport, land (rail transport, rail and road transport, road), ship transport, water, cable transport, cable, pipeline transport, pipelines, and space transport, space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations. Transport enables human trade, which is essential for the development of civilizations. Transport infrastructure consists of both fixed installations, including roads, railways, airway (aviation), airways, waterways, canals, and pipeline transport, pipelines, and terminals such as airports, train station, railway stations, bus stations, warehouses, trucking terminals, refueling depots (including fuel docks and fuel stations), and seaports. Terminals may be used both for the interchange of passengers and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Economic Development
In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and objectives. The term has been used frequently in the 20th and 21st centuries, but the concept has existed in the West for far longer. "Modernization", "Westernization", and especially "industrialization" are other terms often used while discussing economic development. Historically, economic development policies focused on industrialization and infrastructure; since the 1960s, it has increasingly focused on poverty reduction. Whereas economic development is a Public policy, policy intervention aiming to improve the well-being of people, economic growth is a phenomenon of market productivity and increases in GDP; economist Amartya Sen describes economic growth as but "one aspect of the process of economic development". Definition and terminolo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Redistricting
Redistricting in the United States is the process of drawing electoral district boundaries. For the United States House of Representatives, and state legislatures, redistricting occurs after each ten-year census. The U.S. Constitution in Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 provides for proportional representation in the House of Representatives. The Reapportionment Act of 1929 required that the number of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives be kept at a constant 435, and a 1941 act made the reapportionment among the states by population automatic after every decennial census. Reapportionment occurs at the federal level followed by redistricting at the state level. According to , Article I, Section 4 left to the legislature of each state the authority to establish congressional districts; however, such decisions are subject to judicial review. In most states redistricting is subject to political maneuvering, but some state legislatures have created independent commissions. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hill County, Texas
Hill County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 35,874. Its county seat is Hillsboro. The county is named for George Washington Hill, secretary of war and secretary of the navy under the Republic of Texas. Hill County is part of Central Texas, though not included in the Texas Hill Country. Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which are land and (2.7%) are covered by water. Major highways * Interstate 35 ** Interstate 35E ** Interstate 35W * U.S. Highway 77 * State Highway 22 * State Highway 31 * State Highway 81 * State Highway 171 * State Highway 174 Adjacent counties * Johnson County (north) * Ellis County (northeast) * Navarro County (east) * Limestone County (southeast) * McLennan County (south) * Bosque County (west) Demographics As of the census of 2000, 32,321 people, 12,204 households, and 8,725 families were residing in the county. The populati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
