Priority issues are governmental or public policy issues that the League's membership has determined merit focused attention in a given year for education and advocacy efforts in the community.
Changes in the climate are affecting us all. Extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, wildfires, and droughts, are more severe and more frequent; water is scarcer; air quality degradation and extreme heat events are causing health issues; rising seas threaten coastal cities; pests are migrating north; food sources are diminishing; and our economy is affected. Some believe these changes are entirely natural. Others, including most scientists, assert that a major percentage of the changes are related to human activity.
Whatever the causes, climate change is happening. It's adversely affecting our children (our future), our elderly (our past), our communities (our present). What can and should we do about it? In service to our community, the League of Women Voters of San Antonio began a series of webinars on Climate Change in San Antonio, with the first webinar on April 30, 2022, the day after Arbor Day.
The first webinar featured
A Q & A session followed the presentations. A link to the webinar recording is available below.
Future webinars will address, in greater depth, our air, water, food production, health (physical and mental), transportation, energy needs, economics, and equity issues.
Conscientious voters too often do not vote for judges, concerned that they don’t know enough about those judges or their work to make informed decisions. It’s understandable. In our high school US History and Government classes, the judiciary does not often get top billing. Their qualifications, responsibilities and purviews may differ depending on the courts they serve and the levels of government. Most of us see only a traffic court or family law judge, if we see anyone at all. Judge Judy not withstanding, many people just do not feel comfortable voting for judges.
On February 17, 2022, the League of Women Voters of San Antonio, in collaboration with the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) and the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), presented a nonpartisan webinar, featuring Judge Norma Gonzales, 131st District Court, and Jane Bockus, trial lawyer and educator, on the role of the judiciary in government and how to evaluate a candidate for a judge position. The link to the recorded webinar is below.
In 2019 LWVSA co-sponsored three candidate forums with Raise Your Hand Texas for primary election contests in Texas House Districts 119 and 121, as well as Texas Senate District 19. These forums posed questions on a variety of issues, but focused primarily on topics related to public education.
In 2019 LWVSA co-sponsored a forum with the League of Women Voters of Texas and FairMaps Texas that educated the public about the redistricting process for the 2021 legislative session and trained concerned citizens to skillfully address the Texas Legislature's House Redistricting Committee at the September 12, 2019 public hearing in San Antonio (video).
With the Covid-19 pandemic interfering with the completion of the 2020 Census count, it is possible there will be redistricting both in 2021 and in 2023, due to a predicted delay in Census data release to the Texas Legislature. FairMaps Texas will coordinating efforts to pass resolutions in city councils and county commissioners courts to support the creation of independent redistricting commissions. Contact us if you are interested in joining LWVSA's participation in this effort.
LWVSA is part of the Steering Committee of Count Me In: Census 2020, San Antonio and Bexar County's organized effort to get a complete, accurate count and provide education about why the Census matters so residents will be motivated to respond. The League developed an informational brochure on the importance of the Census—U.S. Census 2020: Be Counted (pdf) | Censo De EE.UU. 2020: Ser Contado (pdf)—that has been distributed in San Antonio. In addition, the League developed a Census Quiz to teach the role of the Census in governmental decision-making and important points about what kinds of information the Census does and does not ask respondents to provide. See our page on the US Census for information on how and why to get counted.
Use the button below to let us know of your interest in getting involved with education or advocacy efforts connected to any of these priority issues.
