YG State Conference

By Elan Rodriguez

Over the past ten years, the hottest month’s average temperature has risen nearly 7 degrees which to some may not seem like a big change, but for many people that have a job where they work outside it is a major transition for them. The people who are possibly most affected by this new heat wave are construction workers, the people who quite literally built our country. This new bill is made to help protect our construction workers in the hottest times of the year. The basics of the bill are that environmental heat is the combined heat of air temperature, humidity, radiant heat, and air movement. This bill will also require employers to maintain and utilize an instrument capable of measuring environmental heat such as a thermometer. And that an employee must be provided eight ounces of water at least every 20 minutes during the time they are working. To some people, this bill could cause major delays in construction that could cost companies more money than they intended. However, according to the author of the bill delays would be minimal and they intend to pass this bill for the safety of the workers.

Each year about 1,670 people die every year due to heat stroke complications. Many of those being construction workers. Although this bill is important and has many benefits there are still some gray areas that need to be addressed. For example, it was never specified in the bill what temperature would be considered extreme heat. Without a set temperature employers can argue that they couldn’t consider a certain temperature extreme enough. Another thing that needs to be addressed is that the act shall take place in 90 days which doesn’t seem like much but as many Texans know our weather can change drastically from day to day. If this act does not immediately take effect we could have many more heat stroke deaths.

By Elan Rodriguez

To start this off, this is only my first year in the YMCA Youth and Government program. Back in September of last year, me and my friends decided to sign up to participate in the Youth and Government club at our school – we chose to do media. I wanted to be part of this club because things like this have always interested me. We went on to compete at the district conference and we were able to move forward to state. After all of that, now we’re here.

We arrived at Kalahari at about 1:30 pm on Thursday and sat through the opening ceremonies. After that we were able to go to our rooms to sit back for a bit, before going to the arcade and having some fun. We got back to our rooms at around 10 pm and showered to go to bed. This morning we decided we wanted to go to the State Capital to watch some of the legislative sessions. As I was sitting in the courtroom watching and listening I was also writing notes and things that would go well in my media report. After I wrote my first report I couldn’t think of anything else that wasn’t similar to what I had already written. After some thinking I decided to just write about the experience of being here and hearing all the debating over the different bills. I listened to many different bills, some about worker safety and others about classroom safety. One of my favorite ones was about the safety of construction workers in extreme heat. Overall This was a very enjoyable experience and I am looking forward to the coming days where I will do much more.

By Eliza Pepito

A Dive Into Appellate Court: A Section Often Overlooked

Just as any student who has gone through the US education system should have learned, the First Amendment found in the US Constitution includes the right to freedom of religion. However, if this guaranteed freedom were to be supposedly broken, what would happen?

Well, such a situation in the aforementioned is under investigation in the courts of the Judicial Branch at the Texas YG State Conference. The Appellate Court, the court that addresses appeals (when a party claims that an error was made in the trial court case and calls another court to correct that error), has been tackling the case of Elijah Casey.

Casey, a father and dedicated member of a fictitious religious group (the First Church of the Divine Healing of Our Lord), has decided to decline his daughter the opportunity of medical care due to his faith’s belief in the power of prayer (and prayer alone) to cure diseases and illnesses. Due to Mr. Casey’s choice, his daughter Elizabeth ends up passing away due to a treatable disease, diabetes.

Although Casey had been found not guilty of Second Degree Manslaughter, he did end up being convicted, in the court of trial, for Second Degree Injury to a Child. Consequently, Casey has decided to appeal his conviction over two issues: whether the search warrant used to convict him was improperly issued and whether Casey’s right to freedom of religion had been violated. The intricate and delicate case has forced many delegates to thoroughly study and memorize, inside and out, every little detail and nuance associated with the suit.

According to Appellate attorney Daeun Kim from Creekview High School, the easiest aspect of this otherwise complicated case is that, in being required to argue for both sides of the case, she is “better prepared” and knows what to expect for a counter-argument from the “other side.” Consequently, she can garner the case and its overall issues from a more neutral, “wider perspective.”

Despite this, however, Kim conveys that she still finds attempting to devise an efficient and strong rebuttal to certain counter-arguments the “hardest aspect” of this case, given the complexity of the situation.

In such complex cases, a judge’s role of maintaining neutrality and tackling the case with objectivity is of the utmost importance. For example, Appeals Court Judge and Chief of Justice Candidate, Cindy Ren, expresses the aforesaid attitude. Ren states that, as a judge, she can “see where both sides are coming from” and can only “look forward to hearing more” from each side before coming to a verdict.

Casey’s case truly encapsulates the complexity of our modern world. While society continues to advance and progress, many still choose to stick to and conserve tradition because of comfortability, even if doing such causes harm to others.

With the nature of this case centered around the threat of progression versus the threat of conservation, such a conflict can be and is very viable and applicable to our world today.

By Isabella Martinez

Media is often overlooked by an audience, but great experiences and opportunities are brought along the way once you learn more about YMCA Youth and Government media. Some insight on media is developing communication to interact with other delegates and share your ideas within your branch or outside of your branch. The endless possibilities enable a great space and environment for the mind to have the freedom of creativity. When learning to expand your thoughts into paper, interviews, or documents, you share the final product with the public to keep up a good representation of the YMCA.

Reporters also display the status of conferences between legislatives, delegates, and other members of Youth and Government. Media members get a closer view of the depths in court from different perspectives. As the YMCA website describes the different sections and the meaning of media, it mentions the responsibilities of creating original articles with clear details and highlights to emphasize the great work of all the individuals within the YMCA. I believe the YMCA Youth and Government program is a great start if you plan on having a successful future in the media industry because you get the knowledge of submitting assignments by a certain deadline, developing intellectual understanding, and many more skills that would help you benefit from in the best way possible. Plenty of dedication and confidence is required to continue your journey of becoming an experienced media member. While interviewing a current media member, media means to express an individual’s opinions about their career and their current house branch, also collecting information about why they decided to do pursue their current role. Media has so much to offer in both life and personal preferences to evolve and develop as a social member.

By Ajaila Joseph

Austin, TX – Teams from all over Texas have prepared for this day, the Texas Youth and Government State Conference! Each year the Youth and Government program continues to grow in size gaining new members but losing the old. ” It is a pretty scary but fun experience going to state.” says, Malani McNeil, a first-time Youth and Government member. ” I can’t tell if I feel prepared, over-prepared, or under­prepared! Yes, my advisor and my veteran teammates have told me how it works, but when I’m alone I can’t help but feel a little nervous.”.

Looking around I couldn’t help but sympathize with new members, so I went around gathering evidence to make their first State Conference, a bit easier to navigate. During the opening ceremony Youth Governor, Vannela Mallampati, gave her short speech. “When I first joined Youth and Government I was a shy girl scared to to speak in the room and hiding in the corner. It wasn’t till one day when an advisor told me six words, that I will now tell you guys, ‘Fake it, till you make it!”‘. For the rookies all around let this quote stick with you. The Youth Governor who was once shy, is able now to lead a State Conference, your confidence will get there! As Vannela says “Nobody will remember if you stutter in your opening statement, if you fake it till you make it, eventually you will not be faking it anymore!”. Listening to another delegate, a veteran Esmeralda Rios, give her speech during the opening ceremony, moved me.

I grew up going to school with Esmeralda knowing she was a shy girl. Esmeralda grew in the last year, took a chance, and ran for a state officer position­ and won for that fact! Now seeing her from that shy girl to the confident one I know now, it’s amazing to see that’s what Youth and Government can do! In Esmeralda’s words, ” I would tell rookies to take a chance, I did and look at the outcome! I know it may be scary, but every chance you don’t take is a shot you will a hundred percent miss!” So to all the rookies in YG right now, it’s okay, it may be hard now, but later it will not be!

By Marley Nervais

For rookies coming into youth and government is a new experience. It may not be what they might have expected. For anyone, this could be the case.

No matter what age or grade as a newcomer it’s a very different environment. Although it can be nerve-wracking many people are here to help the rookies.

“I would probably say to have confidence. Your case could suck but if you go up there and just talk with some mediocre level of confidence you’ll be fine. I wish someone would’ve told me that every case is different and the way you have your case set up the way you have your witnesses to talk, the way you have your opening, your introduction, and your pretrial is going to be different than everyone else’s and that is fine. It’s normal and nothing to worry about.”  Delegate Izy Black said.

For another viewpoint student Anna Kate Beck “A piece of advice I would give someone coming in would be to listen to all your evaluators and judges. The reason you’re there is to learn new stuff. If you listen to all their critics it will definitely improve your first to last round.”

“Something I wish someone told me was to not be afraid to object because even if your objection is wrong it still proves that what you know and that you can attempt it.”

Aaron Esquivel and Syed Humaide give a very popular piece of advice by both saying

“Fake it till you make it”

This advice seems to have paid off due to this team winning their first round of prosecution.

“Fake it till you make it and act confident in whatever you have prepared because basically you only succeed in this when you’re confident in yourself and I believe that especially in public speaking confidence is key. Syed Humaide said.

On February 2, 2024, the court trial over the death of a woman at the hands of a police officer took place. Prosecutors Addison Hobbs and Haley Hillhouse gave their evidence on why they believe the officer to be guilty and used their share of witnesses to further prove their point.

The prosecutors institute legal proceedings against the defendant. (Oxford).

The trial had a couple of memorable moments, which eased some of the stress that our delegates were experiencing. Eleven-year-old Sage Alexander, the young nephew of the woman murdered, gave his testimony on how he witnessed the scene. After a while of arguing whether he made burnt fish sticks or cookies that night, the defense grew a bit impatient with the witnesses, giving the prosecutors an advantage in the trial. After the prosecutors asked a question to a witness about their feelings in the matter, the defense interrupted with an objection. A relevance objection is based on the argument that the evidence is not relevant to the case (Robinson). After being overruled, the witness gave touching insight into their personal feelings on the matter. As the defense’s witness gave their testimony, the Judge decided that their arguments were just not strong enough. With the prosecutor’s following witness being a forensic pathologist with knowledge on the wounds of the deceased, the outcome of this trial had come to an end. The Judge declared the police officer to be guilty of murder, and the prosecution was declared victorious.

Written by: Andrea Jimenez