Daily News Recap (2-26-15)

By Holly Henrichsen
Assistant Web Content Manager

The masked Islamic State militant who has been featured as an avid role in multiple execution videos and is known as “Jihadi John”, has been identified as British Citizen Mohammed Emwazi. According to The Wall Street Journal, it is believed Emwazi traveled to Syria from London in 2012 and soon after joined ISIS. Emwazi has become a figurehead in the ISIS videos where he is shown wearing his signature black robe and speaking with a british accent. British Prime Minister James Cameron has said the British Government will find those responsible for the executions and take action.

The judge who granted Texas’ first same sex marriage license is under investigation by the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct after a lawmaker’s complaint. According to Dallas Morning News, Republican Representative Tony Tinderholt filed the complaint yesterday against Sate District Judge David Wahlberg. Tinderholt says the judge violated statutes requiring that judges notify the attorney general when ruling something unconstitutional.

Marijuana is legal today at the nation’s capital, however this legalization is a bit different from other parts of the country who have already legalized it. According to the Washington Post there will be no pot shops and no open-air smoking, so all of the smoking needs to happen inside someone’s home. People in the District are able to possess up to 2 ounces of marijuana, but not on federal land, they are also able to grow marijuana plants in their homes, but only up to six plants with three of them being mature.

Texas House Lawmakers announced earlier today that a new bill will provide additional funding to school districts that offer certain curriculum and teacher quality standards such as pre-kindergarten programs. Last week, Governor Abbott announced that education reform would be on the legislative fast track and many republican house members and calling this a step in the right direction. The state currently pays for half-day prekindergarten for students from low-income, English-language learning, military and foster families and the funding is expected to be less than 300 million dollars.