On this week’s Edge, how to improve our dismal voter turnout rate, what’s missing in the police union’s contract with the city, the long history of gentrification and displacement, and how the whole community benefits when a kid gets an immunization shot. This edition of the Edge is sponsored in part by NOWCastSA nonprofit member Friends of Communities in Schools San Antonio. To learn more about sponsorship, click here.

It's back to school time again, and children of all ages are required to receive minimum immunizations in order to be eligible to attend school in Texas. Why are minimum vaccinations required? And what makes these and other vaccines important? NOWCastSA sat down with Dr. Dennis Conrad for a conversation on immunizations to find out.

The West Nile virus is considered a seasonal epidemic in North America. It flares up in the summer and continues into the fall. Recent high temperatures and rain have produced ideal conditions for mosquitoes carrying the virus in South Texas. In 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported on 31 cases of West Nile Virus (WNV) in Bexar County and 1,868 cases throughout Texas.