Delaying the Immigration Reform

The article titled Delaying Immigration Reform Gets Expensive discusses America's lack of immigration reform with President Obama. Obama promised a certain number of illegal immigrants to be deported and we are not reaching those numbers. While the number of illegal aliens with criminal charges has risen, we are still not deporting enough.
One solution to this problem is find and deport more illegal immigrants without criminal charges. To do this, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is offering more incentives to agents who find a certain number of illegal immigrants per month.
While more illegal immigrants need to be deported, studies found that American citizens believe that we should try to grant more citizenships to illegal aliens and try to keep their families together.

http://restorefairness.org/2010/03/delaying-immigration-reform-gets-expensive/

-Elizabeth Woollen

The article titled The Buck Stops Where discusses the issue of the national debt. The research conducted as part of the Choosing Our Fiscal Future initiative, broke the 300 influencers into two groups; the leaders and the opinion elites. The leaders are the governmental staff and the opinion elites are highly respected citizens who are not decision makers but help persuade the leaders' choices.
Both groups believe that our national debt is currently not a large issue. Only 13% of leaders and 9% of elites voted the national debt as our country's largest issue. These influencers believe that jobs and the economy are currently our largest concern and that there is not much that can be done right now to decrease our debt.

http://www.publicagenda.org/pages/the-buck-stops-where-2010

-Elizabeth Woollen

Federal grants to fund police positions announced

“Washington (CNN) -- With hundreds of communities nationwide forced to slash budgets and layoff police officers, the disclosure Thursday of which cities would receive federal grants to fund police positions had been eagerly awaited. Five hit the bureaucratic jackpot. Justice Department officials announced cities in virtually every state would receive anywhere from a single officer to a legal maximum of 50 police officers. In total, the COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) program, administered by the Justice Department, announced it had divided the $298 million appropriation to fund 1,388 police positions. The five biggest recipients, each receiving grants for 50 officers, were Houston, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; Metro Dade County in Florida; the Sacramento, California, Sheriff's Department and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico. ‘There is almost nothing more effective in keeping the public safe than cops on the beat who have the equipment and resources they need,’ said Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli.”

The COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) program is allocating $298 million. The federal program provides grants to fund police positions and more than 4,000 police agencies had requested funds Perrelli led the parade of officials announcing the grants at a ceremony in Houston. Left unsaid was the long list of cities that received little or no funding. Police belongs to “Government Sector” in American life. It helps “market sector” and “non-profit sector” work more efficient and honestly for our society. Police here to protect and serve society. The problem could be solved using half the number of police if cities highbred competent cops, either ex-military or college graduate. Of course cops get a bailout too. Officials acknowledge there remains a continuing hunger for federal assistance among state, county, and local law enforcement agencies. But for the cities that received funds, this was a day for quiet celebration.

Post by: Ziying Yuan

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/30/cops.funding/

China opposes US bill on foreign currency reform

China opposes legislation passed by the US House of Representatives on Wednesday to penalize countries that to use their currency values for advanced trading. China urged US lawmakers to consider the importance of Sino-US trade and avoid harming the interests of the people of China, the United States, and the world. On the other hand, any actions to against China with the excuse of RMB exchange rate would seriously damage Sino-US trade and badly affect the economic of both countries and the world.

Effort to overturn Don't ask don't tell likely to fall short

Senator Susan Collins, republican from Maine says that she won't encourage debates to continue on the defense spending bill. This bill is attached to the don't ask don't tell bill. Collins says "I cannot vote to proceed this bill under a situation that is going to shut down debate." Also, with midterm elections 6 weeks away, this filibuster that the republicans are trying to start will delay the president's pledge until next year, making him out to look dishonest with his promises. This article relates to our class because it demonstrates how competing parties try to knock each other's issues off the political agenda through voting in the Senate. The republicans are going to do anything in their power to get the don't ask don't tell issue off the political agenda because it is not coming from their party.

Aria Greenberg

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/collins-thwarts-vote-on-dont-ask-dont-tell/?scp=8&sq=don't%20ask%20don't%20tell&st=cse

Arizona Mayor Corrupted

An Arizona Mayor on the border city of Nogales was arrested today on charges of bribery, theft, fraud and money laundering. The Mayor supposedly solicited businesses to hire him as a consultant. This allowed businesses to pay the mayor in order to obtain city contracts to avoid the formal bidding process. The Mayor then, with his father who has also been arrested, laundered the money through Western Union and into personal accounts. This sum has reached over millions of dollars. These two are going to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. This is another case of contemporary political corruption and creates doubt in the government from the public. This is slowly degrading the "legitimacy" of our government as Peters would say. Do you think this type of activity is a threat to the "legitimacy" of our government?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/us/politics/29nogales.html?ref=todayspaper

House Passes 9/11 Health Care Bill

On wednesday, the White House approved legislation to provide billions of dollars for medical treatment to rescue workers and residents of New York City. This is for people who suffered from illnesses from breathing in toxic fumes, dust and smoke at ground zero. The one concern of this bill was from the 157 Republicans and three democrats who raised concerns about the $7.4 billion cost of the program. This bill is going to provide $3.2 billion over the next eight years to monitor and treat injuries stemming from exposure to toxic dust and debris at ground zero. Of these expenses, New York City would be paying 10 percent of those health costs. There are nearly 60,000 people enrolled in a variety of health monitoring and treatment related to the 9/11 attacks, according to the sponsors of the bill. The federal government is the one providing most of this money for these health programs. Yes, this bill has been having a lot of discrepancies between parties; but should there be any questions at all? These 9/11 victims did not harm them selves are selectively put themselves in harms way, nor did anyone of them do anything to cause this. This is a major public issue and has been since 9/11. I believe that the government are the ones who should be responsible for these survivors well being, how could they turn there heads on there own no matter money, no matter what party. These 9/11 survivors deserve every bill in there favor and everything they can get to help them with matters regarding to the 9/11 tragedy.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/911-health-care-bill-passes/?hp