Taking the temperature

This Dallas neighbor weighs in as the healthiest county in Texas, says U.S. News

The typical life expectancy in Collin County is 82.7 years, compared with 77.5 years nationwide.

Photo courtesy of City of Plano

For babies and baby boomers alike, Collin County stands out as the healthiest county in Texas, according to a new study by U.S. News & World Report.

Collin County lands at No. 50 on U.S. News’ list of the 500 healthiest counties in the U.S., making it the healthiest county in Texas. U.S. News assessed 2,735 of the 3,143 counties across the U.S. but ranked only 500 of them.

For the study, U.S. News examined 89 metrics across 10 categories tied to health:

Community health
Health, income, education, and social equity
Education
Economy
Housing
Food and nutrition
Environment
Public safety
Community vitality
Infrastructure

Collin County earned its highest score in the economy category (95) and its lowest score in the housing category (50). Data published by U.S. News highlights Collin County’s health status. For instance:

The typical life expectancy is 82.7 years, compared with 77.5 years nationwide and 79.2 years statewide.
The smoking rate is 12.4 percent, compared with 20 percent nationwide and 15.5 percent statewide.
Cancer and heart disease are less prevalent than in the U.S. or Texas.
12.5 percent of residents under 65 lack health insurance, compared with 11 percent nationwide and 20.7 percent statewide.

Collin County — home to more than 1.1 million people — also appeared at No. 1 in a report released in May by University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute that ranks the healthiness of the state’s 254 counties. This report relied on criteria similar to those used by U.S. News.

“Where we live, learn, work, and play matters to our health. And Collin County appears to be in great shape,” the Collin County government website boasts.

Two other counties in Dallas-Fort Worth made the top 500 in the U.S. News study.

Rockwall County wound up at No. 70. Its highest score was in the economy category (87), and its lowest score was in the housing category (54).

Further down the list was No. 180 Denton County. Its highest score was in the economy category (88), and its lowest score was in the housing category (43).

Other Texas counties that fared well in the U.S. News study are:

No. 91 Kendall County (San Antonio). Its highest score was in the economy category (79); its lowest score was in the housing category (53).
No. 121 Williamson County (Austin). Its highest score was in the economy category (93); its lowest score was in the housing category (52).
No. 291 Fort Bend County (Houston). No. 291. Its highest score was in the economy category (90); its lowest score was in the environment category (25).
No. 295 Travis County (Austin). Its highest score was in the infrastructure category (92); its lowest score was in the equity category (41).
No. 453 Comal County (San Antonio). Its highest score was in the economy category (75); its lowest score was in the environment category (43).

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Weed News

Texas AG Ken Paxton sues Dallas over decriminalization of marijuana

Photo courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife

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The City of Dallas has been sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for its efforts to decriminalize marijuana.

According to a release, Paxton has sued the city for adopting a city charter amendment that would decriminalize marijuana-related offenses and prohibit police from enforcing Texas law.

That amendment was Proposition R, or Dallas Freedom Act, which decriminalizes possession of four ounces of marijuana or less. Voters passed the amendment in the November 5 election, with 67 percent voting in favor.

The lawsuit, filed against the Dallas City Council, alleges that Proposition R is unconstitutional and violates Texas drug laws criminalizing any amount of marijuana.

Paxton says that cities can't "pick and choose which state laws to follow." He's proposing a permanent injunction to stop Proposition R from going into effect.

"The City of Dallas has no authority to override Texas drug laws or prohibit the police from enforcing them," says Paxton in a statement. "This is a backdoor attempt to violate the Texas Constitution, and any city that tries to constrain police in this fashion will be met swiftly with a lawsuit by my office.”

Before the recent election, possession of two to four ounces of marijuana could result in a punishment of 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Ground Game Texas, the activist nonprofit that has also helped get marijuana decriminalization on the ballot in elections across Texas, first got the issue on the ballot in July with the necessary 50,000 signatures.

Dallas is not the only city to be sued; Paxton also filed lawsuits against five other cities in Austin, Denton, Elgin, Killeen, and San Marcos in January for their ballots and policies decriminalizing marijuana.

Both Austin and San Marcos had a judge overturn their cases, according to a FOX 4 report.

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