Yes, that's the headline of this Texas Tribune article. Texas taxpayers will be forced to spend an additional $105 million just to cover the raise, but that's not enough for the prison lobby.

The union claims, among other things, that "poor pay" leads to corruption. That's right, people aren't responsible for their own corruption, they can blame their salary.

If prison employees aren't getting paid enough, maybe they should go look for a different job.

Libertarians know what this all comes back to: the war on drugs. Without that, we'd have a lot fewer prisons, prisoners, and prison employees, lower taxes, and a lot less corruption to worry about.

Associated Press reports on a problem in Flower Mound, where a solar-panel-loving homeowner is running into trouble with his less enthusiastic neighborhood association.

They have apparently settled their lawsuit, which may have been filed because "the law, as it stands now, is a little vague." The law lets neighborhood associations block solar panels sometimes.

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with solar panels, but there is something wrong with government subsidies. The article doesn't say how much taxpayers were forced to pay for this homeowner's solar panels, but it's probably safe to assume quite a lot.

It certainly is humorous when the solar-panel-loving government pushes people to install solar panels that neighbors find ugly, so the quasi-governmental neighboorhood association pushes back.

And it's extra funny to hear the neighborhood association worry that the homeowner is generating too much electricity.

Libertarians would get rid of the subsidies, which would eliminate most of the nonsense.

Lindsey Bolton is the Libertarian candidate for Virginia House of Delegates, District 48.

The Houston Chronicle reports on a school board candidate who won an election last weekend with one vote.

Her opponent received zero votes.

The article doesn't say how big the district is, but presumably it's very small. Small jurisdictions are great opportunities for Libertarian candidates, who can win pretty easily, and then start applying Libertarian principles in office.

Virginia holds elections for its House of Delegates this November, and Libertarian Laura Delhomme is running in District 47.

The Houston Chronicle's Ultimate Texans blog is carrying an article about the new Vikings stadium in Minneapolis. It mentions that taxpayers are on the hook for $150 million. That's something that has cropped up in Texas too.

One of the players commented, "We're using public money, but at the same time it's going to benefit the public. In my mind, as a taxpaying resident of the state of Minnesota, that seems like a good way to spend our tax dollars." Thanks for the unbiased opinion.

So once again, taxpayers cough up so really rich people can lower their risk and make even more money. The "economic activity" theory of redistribution is alive and well. It's a good time to be a corporate welfare queen.

If only there were some Libertarians on the city council who could expose this nonsense for what it really is: robbing some people to benefit others.

The Austin American-Statesman reports that for the first time in almost 25 years, two public school bond proposals failed in the Austin Indepdendent School District's May 11 election.

The bonds were opposed by several groups, including the Travis County Libertarian Party. According to earlier reports, anti-bond groups were outspent 30 to 1 by pro-bond groups.

Although two other proposals passed, the results will provide a little relief to heavily burdened Austin taxpayers.

The election was close on all four items. Proposition 2 failed by only about 200 votes, showing the importance of the efforts of everyone who opposed it.

The Libertarian Party doesn't just nominate candidates -- it also helps by getting involved in public policy debates.

The Texas Tribune reports on President Barack Obama's visit to Austin yesterday.

The article says, "Obama also laid out the details of an initiative he mentioned in the State of the Union: a competition to create three 'manufacturing innovation institutes.' The institutes will launch with a $200 million commitment from the federal government..."

That should be music to the ears of Texas Republicans, who have supported things like the Texas Enterprise Fund and the taxpayer-funded Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

Democrats and Republicans seem to believe that without government, there wouldn't be any innovation, enterprise, or cancer research. They just love to holds hands and spend our money interfering in the marketplace. We really need some Libertarians in office.

The Austin American-Statesman reports on yesterday's incident in which an Austin police officer shot at an unarmed man during a traffic stop. Luckily, the man was not hurt.

According to the story, the policeman told the man to return to his car, but the man walked toward the policeman instead. Walking towards someone is grounds for opening fire?

Austin police chief Art Acevedo appeared to blame the driver, saying, "When you get stopped by a police officer, do not get out of the car and start walking toward the officer." Or else!

It's important for police to remember that their duty is to help protect citizens, not shoot them. Maybe we need some gun control laws that only apply to police officers.

The San Antonio Express-News offers a blog it says is "dedicated to remembering every Texan or Texas-based soldier killed in Iraq or Afghanistan."

The latest entry includes a Texas-based soldier killed in Afghanistan a few days ago.

The invasion of Iraq should never have happened. The invasion of Afghanistan was also a huge mistake. It's a shame that President Obama has doubled down there and decided to waste more lives and money.

The time to end the invasion of Afghanistan is now. No ifs, ands, or buts. The president has the power to end the invasion, and he should do so immediately.