Public Schools Face Lawsuit Over Fees

The ACLU of Southern California plans to file suit against 35 California public school districts for charging students for things like using textbooks and sports uniforms, claiming that "the state has failed to protect the right to a free public education" by making it more difficult for poorer students to afford school necessities. This case is the first of its kind, and could potentially encourage similar suits to be filed in other states.

This case applies directly to Chapter 5 in the Birkland textbook. Lawyers have been filing lawsuits to close the quality of education gap between rich and poor students since the 1970's, to little effect. These lawsuits have focused on the amount of funding available, not the actual issue of whether or not public schools are allowed to charge students for activities. Education reform has been an issue on President Obama's agenda, and the by ACLU case putting the issue of education costs into the spotlight, this could provide a window of opportunity for the government to make some major policy changes in the future.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/education/10education.html?hpw

-Stephanie Doctrow

About the National Geographic Society’s Freshwater Initiative

The article titled "National Geographic Society's Freshwater Initiative" discusses the necessity of water for humans and for Mother Nature and what we need to do to preserve it. We use water for just about everything; drinking, farming, producing energy, making goods, raising meat, etc. Humans are seeing less and less freshwater especially in third world countries. In America however, people use on average 1,320 gallons of water a day. Our freshwater in America is slowly dwindling away and there are many things people need to be doing to help prevent water scarcity.
Since it is estimated that there will be 8 billion people on Earth by 2025 and not enough freshwater for the humans now, organizations have been working on a global challenge to reduce people's water intake by 25%. There are many things people can do to work on this such as turning off the water when brushing your teeth, not running the dishwasher/ washing machine until it is full, and not overwatering your yard.

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/about-freshwater-initiative/

Elizabeth Woollen

Number of Families in Homeless Shelters Rises

According to the New York Times, from 2007 to 2009 the number of families-with at least one adult and one minor child- in homless shelters have jumped from 171,000 to 131,000. The numbers are expecting to rise as we continue to stay in this longterm unemployment period. Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing program was given about $1.5 billion from the states. Though there is an increase with the amount of families in shelters, the policies in each state reflects citizens concerns on making sure that those who are unable to take care of themselves were able to have access to resources once they were at the shelters.

-Elizabeth Sziler



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/us/12shelter.html?_r=1&hp

Deep-water Drilling... But not for U.S.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank is in the process of providing a $1 billion loan to PEMEX (the Mexican state oil company.) This is significant because, due to the recent BP oil spill, the Obama administration enforced a hold on U.S. deep-water drilling that is in effect until Nov. 30. The US bank here has said that the hold does not affect their activity in such matters. The use of this money is going to be used for both offshore drilling and a facility to finance sales to U.S. small businesses. An important subject in this matter that the article does not mention though is the NAFTA because it makes trade with Mexico free of tariffs as well as a number of other trade barriers that the U.S., and private companies within, face when dealing with other countries overseas (Saudi Arabia for example.)

Alex Davis

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/11/backs-b-loan-mexico-oil-drilling-despite-obama-moratorium/

Back-to-School Shoppers Focus on Necessities

It is time to go back to school! When it comes to the school necessities, my friends and i are also agree with the idea which is "the only thing we should really look at is sales". For the parents, they said"We don’t just buy something for the kids because it’s a good deal anymore,we’re only buying them what they really need.".
I started to think about the question behind this social phenomenon. Is it related to the side-effect of economy crisis? Clearly, the answer is YES! But, i think it is also a good sign for the government, which is about the growth of the wisely shopping idea and people are closer to the reasonable budget planner.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/business/11shop.html?_r=1&ref=business

A Rock Impresario Gambles on ‘Spider-Man’

Nearly a hundred feet above the stage of Broadway’s FoxwoodsTheater, Michael Cohl wrapped his right hand around one of the cables that will soon fly actors over the audience at the musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” For a moment Mr. Cohl, the accidental producer of the most expensive show in Broadway history, was on top of the theater world, and appropriately so: he is the money man who after years of delays has sent “Spider-Man” airborne. Thanks to him, theatergoers will get to see for themselves if it soars, or falls to earth.

Budget Woes Hit Defense Lawyers for the Indigent

In 1963, the Supreme Court decided “that poor people accused of serious crimes be provided with lawyers paid for by the government" (Davey). This article explains how the state of Missouri has been recently refusing cases due to a smaller budget, a rising number of poor clients, and overworked lawyers. Because cases are getting pushed back and attorneys are getting stressed, it is possible that cases are unnecessarily delayed and innocent people are imprisoned only due to Missouri’s lack of funds. On page 34 in Policy Process, it discusses the 1960’s the national standards during that time. One of the judges from the article, however, says of a client that he doesn’t know how to “provide him with what the law of the land provides.” In class Thursday we discussed economic and political freedom. How is America to stay true to its people and also stick to the law if the funds do not allow us to do so? Is this situation “less important” because it deals with poor people who have committed crimes?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/us/10defenders.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Posted By: Elise Leppert

Workplace shootings...what is to blame

A shooting in the workplace is a tragic event that seem to be becoming way to common. Yesterday a woman who had been suspended from her job at a snack plant in Philadelphia, that's right SUSPENDED returned minutes later and opened fire. Just last month in Connecticut a man fired for stealing from his beer distribution job returned and killed 9 people, including himself. So what is to blame for these shocking acts of violence? Is it the gun laws that many believe are still not strict enough? Well that always seems to be the popular answer and in many cases, such as the VA Tech shooting it is a warranted answer. Or could our current economic state mixed with the thought of losing a stable job be the reason people shoot up the workplace? In this situation and the shooting in Connecticut maybe. I believe maybe there is another explanation, one that is more disheartening. I don't believe it's the lack of stricter gun laws, in these workplace shootings many of these people have owned firearms for years and have no history of mental problems. The right to bear arms is still valued by many Americans as it should. So if the gun laws aren't to blame maybe its the stress of our current economic state and job security. Could be, but shootings in the workplace have been going on for years and aren't isolated to the United States. That's why I have my own theory of what is to blame. Maybe people despise their job and co-workers so badly that they will murder innocent people if set off by some event. This woman in Philadelphia was suspended, as in probably going to work there again. She must really despise her job. Besides these people there are still a lot of employees who hate their job. Apparently the workforce can have some negative side-affects. That's why I love college, and hope my 40 years in the workforce is enjoyable.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39089483/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Anger flares in LA after police shooting of Guatemalan immigrant

There have been riots in the Westlake district of L.A. These riots are primarily Guatemalan immigrants expressing contempt towards the Rampart police station. The rioters crouched on roof tops and hurled objects at the police. The riots came to a climax when on sunday afternoon, a Guatemalan immigrant named Jaminez was shot and killed by a police officer. The police testify that Jaminez was intoxicated and threatening someone with a knife. The officer reportedly tried to talk him down and make him drop the knife but Jaminez supposedly could not be convinced. The neighborhood has erupted into angry chaos because of the incident, and because people are "angry at the way the police treat hispanics" as a whole. The shooting has undoubtedly made the rioters even more distrustful of the police. This connects to our topic "what is the proper role of civil society?" Should the people of westlake protest so violently and emotionally? Should police attempt to refrain from using gun violence in an area where there has been strong police protest, in order to allow the anger to die down?

US Government Considering Contacting Pastor Planning Quran Burning

The President of U.S, Obama, against a Florida minister's plan to burn copies of the Quran. "President Obama said publicly burning the Quran is a destructive and dangerous act. He also said the minister's plan is an attention-seeking "stunt" that could endanger U.S. troops, but also is a valid exercise of free-speech rights under the U.S. legal system. " From the above piece of news, it presents the right of liberalism side in U.S society! I agreed that what the Obama said, the society really needs freedom and liberalism. The best way to solve the problem is that they need to find and work out where the real&original problem is, and then, solve it. Not only use violent solution to solve it.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/US-Government-Considering-Contacting-Pastor-Planning-Quran-Burning--102560654.html

Ziying Yuan

Is Europe’s Model Better Than America’s Shock Capitalism?

In every economic system, big corporations and managers bring together natural resources, labor, and technology to produce and distribute goods and services. But the way these different elements are organized and used reflect a nation's political ideals and its culture. It comes to no shock that America is categorized as having a capitalistic economy. The term capitalist is used to describe a system in which a small group of people control the large bulk of money and make the most important economic decisions. In America we call this small group the Federal Reserve, which is our central banking system that controls our money supply. In this article, Gilbert Mercier compares the American capitalistic approach to economy with the European's "new vision." He speculates on how in our economy it seems that the wealthy-few get richer, while the vast majority of Americans grow poorer, which correlates with what we discussed in class about the gap between the two groups growing larger. While America's economic system is experiencing a downturn, Europe is experiencing an economic boom post WWII. It is now the world’s wealthiest trading block, almost as large as the US and China combined. Mercier also states that Europe arguably has "the best health care and other social supports for families and individuals; widespread use of renewable energy technologies and conservation; and an unmatched regional network of trade, foreign aid, and investment that link one-third of the world to the European Union’s 27 member states and nearly half billion citizens." Europe operates as a union, which according to political writer and program director at the New America Foundation Steven Hill, "is an entirely new species of human organization, the likes of which the world has never seen." The European Union marks a "new evolutionary stage in supranational development" in the way it closely integrates entire regions of nation-states economically and politically. Europe used America and an ideal when forming the first stages of this union, but I believe its our turn to step back and what we can learn for their success story.

-Rebecca Jania

http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/04/07/is-europes-model-better-than-americas-shock-capitalism/

Will We Finally Get a Stimulus?

I am going to start this post with adding some credibility to the source of this article. For the past year I have been using a site called The Daily Beast to get a bulk of my current event information. It is an extremely diverse blog started by Tina Brown, previously editor of The New Yorker. The blog is composed of articles written by staff writers, and articles gather from various credible news sources. I encourage you to take a look.

With recent numbers from August showing the number of private payrolls increase by 67,000, President Obama is hopeful that new policies he seeks in Ohio and Wisconsin will be successful. The first of these policies includes tax breaks. The President has plans to implement $12 billion in tax breaks, and $30 billion supplied to people who need aid to “free up” credit. The hope is that small businesses will begin to hire more rapidly. However, it is not all breaks, the bill includes a policy to terminate tax breaks for households earning more than $250,000 annually. This is a bill that was rejected last month, and is now on the table for a second time.

In addition, Obama plans to ask Congress to extend research-and-development tax credit and to increase new infrastructure spending. He believes that it is one of the most “efficient and direct ways” to use government intervention to increase payroll. The last part of the bill could include justification for tax rebates that would stimulate the middle-class spending habits.

Obama has big plans for what he wants to accomplish this fall, but it all comes down to how Congress will vote. He is asking for steep actions, with a lot of money at risk. In order to convince Congress to continue spending and increase, Obama has to be confident his policy will work.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-04/obama-to-unveil-economic-measures-next-week/?cid=topic:featured2

Fastest growing jobs In American

I went through the icebreaker sheet which is about the indentifying the public problems. And there are two main problems that i am interested in most, they are emplyment and education. Actually, every tiem when we are talking about the economy, the employment and education problem will all show up and it is time for people to think about the current emplyment market adn the risk of education. Nurses, networkign systems adn data analyst, software engineer, biomedical engineer and accountants and so on are allextremely popular at the college, which turned out that these majors and the position are going to influence where the American educaiton and the employment market are supposed to go. Since i am a business major, the number of the accounting profession's grouwth is attracte me most. At 2008, the BLS though that there is going to increase 22% before 2018 as a result 279,400 new jobs will be anticipated by 2018

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/artical/1105

Obama Speaks Out Against Pastor’s Plan to Burn Koran

This article reports on President Obama and other world leaders' disapproval of the September 11th Koran burning planned by the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida.

Despite vocal condemnation and warnings of the almost certain global repercussions that would result from such an act, Pastor Terry Jones of the church has not yet indicated that he is willing to cancel the event.

As shocking and horrifying as this is to most Americans, and as terrifying as its virtually inevitable consequences are, there is little to nothing that government officials can do to stop it in addition to what they have already done. Even though this small event would undoubtedly inspire a worldwide wave of violence and hatred directed towards Americans and indeed all Westerners, it would seem that actually forcing the church to cancel the event would be a violation of its right to freedom of speech.

In an age where the amount of blind belief and number of vitriolic leaders seems to multiply every day, it would appear that one of our nation's greatest sources of pride, our democratic freedom, can sometimes cripple us.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/us/10obama.html?_r=1&hp

In one day, two asteroids buzz the Earth!!???

Most people are thinking of political, public, and personal problems but there is one huge problem that does not cross peoples minds everyday but should. On this past Wednesday two small asteroids passed within the moon's distance from the earth. These two asteroids were only about 12 hours apart from each other. The first asteroid which was estimated to be 32 to 65 feet in diameter, passed within 154,000 miles of earth and the second was seen to be about 20 to 46 feet in diameter which passed within 49,088 miles of earth. Luckily both of these asteroids were caught three days prior on sunday. Seen through calculations, it was determined that these asteroids would not hit earth and if it were to do so would not break through the crust and only give a bit of a light show. But, what if? What if there was an asteroid that was not spotted in time that we could do anything to prevent it, what if it were traveling at twice the speed and twice the size, what would we do? I am not saying that political matters and solutions should not be worried about and forgotten, but i do think that more money and research should be put into NASA and other world space associations to come up with preventions if an asteroid were to be directed right towards earth, along with ways of spotting these asteroids in a more efficient accurate matter. I mean think about it if an asteroid hit earth there would not be any more political matters or money problems to be thought about, world as we know it could and defiantly probably would be over. Now do you think the money and time is worth it?

Indiana's financial aid rules squeeze older students

Similar to most all of America, the state of Indiana is struggling to come up with the money and resources in order to pursue the necessities of life. In this day and age attending college is essential to achieving the "American Dream". Unfortunatley the majority of college students cannot afford the high prices of tution. This obstacle is defined as a condition (see Birkland, chapter 5)- which can develop overtime into problems as people develop ways to address conditions. Because of financial aid, a larger and more diverse group of young people are now able to attend colleges at a more affordable rate. Although the main issue is solved, a new condition arrises: non-traditional students (over 25 years old) are now in need of financial aid in order to attend college. These students are currently unable to recieve a large amount of aid because they earn too much annual income to qualify. Many people are proposing to shift a bulk of the money from the traditional student fund. Do you think that this is a fair resolution? Should there be a more strict policy placed on the academic aspect of decision making?

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100908/NEWS04/9080333&odyssey=mod_mostview

Clinton Speech Offers Policy Overview

In this article Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton is criticized for her arrogant description of the United States at the Council on Foreign Relations this past Wednesday. During a speech that was intended to highlight the Obama administration's success in foreign policy, Clinton stated that "The United States can, must, and will lead in this new century." We are in a time when US partnership with other nations is crucial but Clinton seems to be sending the message that American leadership is more important. The class expressed that one of the most significant issues facing America today is its wavering status as the world leader. The fact that our leaders feel the need to reassert the world so blatantly of our power does nothing but undermine that power.



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/world/09diplo.html?_r=1&ref=world

Obama is Against a Compromise on Bush Tax Cuts

President Obama has made it clear that he opposes any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year. In this situation Obama is using his hand in politics to say who gets what, when they get it, and how they get it. Mr. Obama's opposition to ending these tax cuts open up the door for even more attacks from the Republicans. It has been put to question whether or not Obama still holds enough popularity to prevail through this economic recovery and divisions within his party. However, Obama is hoping to present this issue as a choice between supporting the middle class or breaks to the wealthy. Obama's main goal is to help the economy get better by time election day rolls around. He is doing this by putting his agenda together and finding a window of opportunity to increase his popularity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/us/politics/08obama.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

30 False Fronts Won Contracts for Blackwater

Government contracting work to private businesses has become increasingly common. A prominent contractor was Blackwater Worldwide, now Xe Services. Although contracting is justified as a means to increase the capacity and efficiency of providing public services, it can threaten democratic transparency and accountability. The article illustrates the concerns of some legislators about the conduct of Xe Services in the defense and national security arena. When you read the article, consider these questions: Is contracting out of government work really more efficient?; Are contracting practices as transparent as they need to be in a democratic society? ; Can contracting out sometimes undercut public policy goals?; and Who benefits from contracting out?


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/world/middleeast/04blackwater.html?_r=1&emc=eta1