Ohio Abortion Ban

According to the Huffington Post Ohio's state House of Representatives passed a legislation on Tuesday night that will ban physicians to execute an abortion once a fetal heartbeat is heard. In terms of a pregnancy this would be in 6 weeks where some parents wouldn't know that they were pregnant. The Ohio's state house is led by republicans and they feel that now is the time to pass the legislation due to rumors of Donald Trump potentially electing supreme court officials that will approve to ban abortions. Lawmaker in Ohio have been trying to pass the "heartbeat bill" since 2011. The bill now rests on the desk of Governor Kasich who has shown no indication of whether he will sign it or not.

Will Air Force One be Upgraded?

According to New York Times President-elect Donald Trump post a tweet saying that he wants to cancel the order of a new Air Force One. Trump claims that the plane would cost too much and he could still continue to use is own 757. The Secret Service and the Department of Defense claims that Trump's decision is a bad not because of the convenience will be lost but because an array of top-secret communications gear will be lost as well. Trump has bought some of Boeing's stock and on his campaign said that he wants them to make money but not that much. The new Air Force One would be the new Boeing 747-8 which will have new technological advances and a longer range. The new plane would cost over $4 billion and it the decision that Trump makes won't affect him. The new plane is scheduled to be delivered in 2023 but Boeing is known to have a back up in schedules. If Trump were to be elected a second term at most he would only enjoy the plane for a year at most.

New Resolution for Opiod Crisis?

According to Huffington Post a new bill that was to reform the opiod treatment industry was questionable one congress left for its summer recess. The bill passed through the House in May and breezed through the Senate with a win  of 94-1 in June. The bill is now sitting on the president's desk in the White House demanding that it receives over one billion dollars while senate democrats want $600M. After long debate Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) agreed to convene a meeting with Republican leaders to discuss the bill. Senator Portman (R-Ohio) laid out the predicament for the Comprehension Addiction and Recovery act claiming that it would like be fatal slipping through the cracks before recess. Alexander (R-TN) proposed an idea that would use a massive bill that he has been working on to fund medical research including Vice President Joe Biden's idea to cure cancer. Alexander wanted to add another one billion dollars for opioids. Alexander put it together but as predicted it fell through the cracks and never got passed before recess. It came back to life in a late attempt breezing through both the House and the Senate last week. The decision is now up to the White House to see whether or not the first half will get out before President-Elect Donald Trump takes office.

Temporary Victory for the Dakota Access Pipeline

According to CNN the Unites States Army has announced to thousands of protestors that it will not allow developers to build part of the Dakota Access Pipeline under Oahe. Among these protestors are the longstanding Rock Sioux Tribe members. Their camp lies half a mile from the proposed site and claims that it the line were to burst their water supply would be contaminated, but it would also cut through sacred land and disturb burial sites. The companies that were to build part of the pipeline claims that the Army made its decision until President Obama is out of office. The companies have received permission from the corps to build in July but would need easement from the Army under the Mineral Leasing Act.

Iran 10 Year Nuclear Extension

According to FoxNews and the Associated Press the Senate unanimously approved legislation to extend the U.S. ability to place economic sanctions on companies that do business with Iran. The bill passed through the House with a 419-1 vote and through the Senate with a vote of 99-0. This means that the new bill is now waiting on the President's signature. A senior staff member of the Obama Administration says that the President will not sign the bill if it compromises any part of the Iran nuclear agreement. It is believed that the bill will be signed and because the administration does not seeing it compromising any part of the deal but it is considered largely unnecessary.

Formal and Informal Powers in the Senate

Formal Powers of the Senate are ones that are stated in the constitution (Article I)

• Confirming major presidential appointments 
• Ratifying Treaties with other nations by 2/3 vote
• Trying impeachment cases
• Review and provide advice of presidential appointments and nominations
• Elect the Vice President if electoral votes are tied
• Power to debate, modify or block a bill proposed by the house
• Consider any legislation or bill introduced by the president
• Expulsion of members with 2/3
• Ability to Censure Members

Informal Powers of the Senate are things that the Senate does but they are not stated in the Constitution 

• Filibuster and Cloture
• Congressional Investigations

Senate Research

1. Jeff Sessions was first elected as a Senator in 1997 and recently won reelection in 2014 meaning that his fourth term will be over in 2020

2. Senator Sessions have been on the Armed Services subcommittee on air land, and seapower. He has also been on committees of the budget, subcommittees of clean air and nuclear safety, green jobs and the new economy, transportation and infrastructure, water and wildlife, administrative oversight and the courts, crime and drugs, terrorism, technology, and homeland security, and international narcotics control caucus. He chairs the subcommittee on immigration, border security, and refugees as well as the subcommittee on strategic forces.

3.S Senator Sessions is ranked 9th in seniority of the Republican Party, in terms of the whole senate he is ranked 18th.

4. Jeff Sessions top contributors are Southern Company, Balch and Bingham , Drummond Company, Collazo Enterprises, Vulcan Materials, Lockheed Martin. As far as companies from Huntsville Lockheed Martin, Dynetics, and AT&T are some of his top contributors.

5. With Senator sessions being offered to be the Attorney General his seat in the senate will have to be filled. Governor Bentley will have to appoint a short-term replacement and set an election date to officially fill his seat.

6. Gary Palmer is a lawmaker that interest group are rating him as 100%. Representative Mo Brooks is asking Governor Bentley for Senator Session potentially opening seat in the senate.

7. Jeff Sessions has been nominated to be the Attorney General by President Elect Donald Trump. The Attorney General is the head of the Department of Justice and it is supposed to represent the United States in legal matters, supervise and direct the administration and operation of the offices, boards, divisions, and bureaus that comprise the Department, Furnish advice and opinions, formal and informal, on legal matters to the President and the Cabinet and to the heads within the Department, represent or supervise the representation of the United States Government in the Supreme Court and all other courts, perform or supervise the performance of other duties required by statute or Executive Order.

8. Jeff Sessions nomination can cause controversy because he has to be confirmed by the senate and his racist remarks as a federal prosecutor.

9. The Senate would have to confirm Sessions by a simple majority for him to become the Attorney General

10. Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch were both AG's for Obama, Alberto Gonzalez for Bush, and janet Reno for Clinton.

Pat McCrory Refusing to Concede

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory is refusing to concede to his reelection results leaving him more than 6,000 votes behind his democratic challenger Roy Cooper. Governor McCrory had lodged complaints in at least fifty counties about voting irregularities. Some of these irregularities include votes from the dead, people who voted in multiple states, and felon voters. The Cooper campaign team believes that he has won fairly and even tough it was a slight margin. They claim that the margin was significant enough that there is nothing that the McCrory legal can do to change the results.

Jeff Sessions New Justice Department

CNN wrote an article about Alabama senator Jeff Sessions wand what the Justice Department may look like in the next four years. Senator Sessions was offered by president elect Donald Trump to be the next Attorney General. Sessions' main focus is on traditional criminal law like drug and immigration enforcement. Senator Session wants to take a look at the scope narrowly for federal authority and to emphasize deference to states. Many conservatives are supporters of this decision even senator Ted Cruz who was also considered for the same position. Cruz says that this is necessary change from the Obama administration. Cruz was speaking at the conservative Federalist Society and said "'Do not follow the example of the previous administration'" as he realized that many sitting before him may be in the new administration. Sessions already has one democrat backing him that is Senator Joe Manchin. Sessions considers Manchin as a friend and believes that he can work with him. Sessions has been on the Senate Judiciary committee for six years and the new Democrat to take over, Senator Dianne Feinstein, predicts that it will not be smooth sailing but she says that the process will still remain fair and a complete review of the new nominee. 

Stalling the Veteran Crisis Line Bill

According to Fox News Nevada Senator Harry Reid and US Representative David Young blame each other for stalling the Veteran Crisis Line Bill. This bill would make the necessary changes needed to the veterans' suicide hotline. After twenty-two veterans committed suicide in Young's district he wrote a letter to the VA expressing his concerns about the Veterans Crisis Line. The hotline is supposed to help veterans with emotional trauma and mental health crisis but he claims that there were many calls, letters, emails, and other communication networks were not answered. The bill was passed unanimously in the House but it has slowed down when it reached the Senate. Young claims that it is because of senior Senator Harry Reid who is about to retire. The Senate has its own hotline to see if the bill will pass by a unanimous vote but unlike the house this did not happen. Senator Reid claims that the GOP decided to take a vacation instead of staying a couple more day to pass the bill.

Election Follow Up

According to The Gazette, Rod Blum won his house seat over challenger Monica Vernon in most of the precincts. Blum said that he is glad to be back in office because he has done what he has said that he would do: work on reforming Congress and balancing the budget. Vernon had called Blum to congratulate him and said that she would continue working on the issues that she campaigned for. This was a great win for Blum because this district is primarily a democratic. Blum has beat the demographics twice and has claimed his seat for the second term. This was also to a plus from Trump winning the state of Iowa.

Election Follow Up

According to The Gazette, Rod Blum won his house seat over challenger Monica Vernon in most of the precincts. Blum said that he is glad to be back in office because he has done what he has said that he would do: work on reforming Congress and balancing the budget. Vernon had called Blum to congratulate him and said that she would continue working on the issues that she campaigned for. This was a great win for Blum because this district is primarily a democratic. Blum has beat the demographics twice and has claimed his seat for the second term. This was also to a plus from Trump winning the state of Iowa.

TV ad Spending Doubles in the Final Week

According to CNN it has gotten data from Kantar Media/CMAG that Clinton has more than doubled her tv ad spending in the final week. She went from $14 million to $32.5 million. Kantar Media is a company that tracks campaign spending money. Clinton has been also buying more airtime in Florida, a must win state for Trump, and in blue states to block out trump ads. In the mean time the Republican National Committee placed its first ad buy spending $2.9 million in Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Iowa. Trump Has pledged to spend $25 million this week all the way to the election and $100 million since September. Some states are seeing ads for the first time or the second in a long time due to Trump's effort to win over undecided voters. Both campaign plan to air an ad during game 7 of the world series.

Early Voting Turnouts Hurt Clinton

According to Politico this past Sunday was the last day for early in-person voting for the state of Florida. Compared to 2012 there were significantly less African-American voters that voted early this year. thirteen percent of Florida is comprised of African-American voters and they typically cast about ninety percent of their  ballots as democrats. This year whites and mixed races have casted eighty percent and seventy-six percent of early ballots compared to 2012. Alcee Hastings, a prominent figure in Florida's African-American population, has told Clinton's aide that they need to put more money in the black community. He was told that someone would get back with him but no one did. Bottom line is that the Democratic party has relied heavily on the African-AMerican early vote and since this year it has been really low it allows for the Republicans to hang in the race a little longer.

Fox News Poll

According to a Fox News Poll on national job approval ratings, Congress hasn't reached an approval rating of fifty percent since February of 2009. This make me wonder how is congress rating so low and has it ever been higher than sixty-six percent. Congress' current approval rating is a staggering fourteen percent. This makes you wonder how will the general election turn out for Congress and what will their approval rating will be after a few months. President Bush's lowest rating was twenty-six percent. His approval rating leaving office was thirty-four percent. President Obama's approval rating is currently fifty-three percent and this overall percentage is right above the independents rating of the president.

"I had a feeling I was going to get shot"

Two weeks ago police sergeant Allen Brandt was shot in the line of duty after responding to report of shots fired. It was just passed midnight and he was inked with his four kids reading them a story. After he was finished with the story he told his wife and kids that he had a feeling that he was going to get shot. Later that night in the middle of the gun battle that was all sergeant Brandt could think about. Sergeant Brandt was wearing body armor and took a bullet in the chest. He also took five in a leg and a piece of shrapnel in an eye. After the surgery there were many complication which continued to deteriorate and died later that day. The criminal that was arrested had a lengthy criminal record and was charged with tampering with evidence, attempt of murder, vehicle theft, and firearm theft. The candlelit vigil was held outside of the Fairbanks Police department.

Pence Plane Crash

Governor Mike Pence was involved in a plane on crash on Thursday October 27, 2016. A full investigation was done and is still underway but the main cause of this crash was that there was bad weather. New York times report that it was racing very heavily Thursday night. The plane was coming in for a landing and over shot the runway. After running through an arrester bed, a section of crushable concrete at the end of the runway, the plane came to a full stop. Governor Pence said that everyone was ok and that he would get back on the campaign trail as soon as the next day. LaGuardia did have a major backup due to this incident. Both runways were closed for  two hours and then the undamaged on would open back up. The Port Authority of New York and NewJersey recommend all passengers scheduled for departures on Friday to check with their airlines for any changes.

Internet Attacks

On Friday October 21, 2016 there was a major attack on the internet through "'Internet of Things'" devices like CCTV video cameras and digital video recorders. Krebs claims that the attack on Friday was a test run for cyber criminals. These criminals have been "training their attack canons" on an internet infrastructure company Dyn. Dyn provides critical internet services to Internet's top sites like Twitter, Netflix, Amazon and Spotify. At first people did not know who was behind the attack on Friday but a computer security firm quickly identifies that Mirari was one of the groups responsible. Mirari previously attacked Krebs and it released a source code for its strain of malware so that anyone could build there own code off of it. Many of the devices that were used as gateways were from the hi-tech Xiongmai Technologies. Xiongmai has said that they will not make a global recall until it is told to do so.

Missouri Senate Race Kander vs Blunt

According to The Gazette the race between Blum and Vernon in Iowa is still varying by seven points. This may not seem like the race is tight but Monica Vernon is closing in on Rod Blum since the last poll taken.

     The Missouri senate race was not a close one until recently. Jason Kander the democratic candidate released an ad showing him assembling a rifle blind folded in September 2016. Jason Kander is an Afghanistan veteran who was very active while he served to protect this country. Kinder was mainly involved in investigating gross suspected of espionage, corruption, and facilitating Al Qaeda. Kinder has been described as an outstanding leader by many of his commanders. Jason Kander is married and is the father of his son True. He graduated from Georgetown's Law school and has a B.S. from American university. He is currently Missouri's Secretary of State and has worked with both republicans and democrats to balance the budget without cutting taxes. Kinder has Raised over nine and a half million dollars and his top contributors are Simmons Hanly Conroy and the University of Missouri. Kinder has spent just over six million dollars and is left whit just under three million. Roy Blunt the republican incumbents raised just over fourteen and a quarter million dollars for his campaign he has spent about ten and a half million. His top contributors are the Crawford Group and Goldman Sachs. Blunt was also previously Missouri's Secretary of State and the governor but his political career in Washington DC started in 1996. Blunt opposes Obama Care, the priority of green energy, and higher taxes on wealthy individuals. Blunt stands with traditional Republican values socially and economically and he supports trump. Kander is now within one point of Blunt because of his campaign ads. Blunt's campaign ads are boring and dry while Kander's grabs the attention of everyone even the ones who don't live in Missouri.

Pika Testing in Miami-Dade

The CDC has released new testing recommendations for the Zika virus. These recommendations come after a response of Florida Governor Mike Rick confirming of local transmission in a Miami-Dade neighborhood. The CDC is suggesting that people not to travel to places with the virus circulating. The reason being is that 4 out of ever 5 people that get the virus don't know they have it. Zika has been a cause of microcephaly. This birth defect is when a newborn has a smaller head than the average size. Microcephaly can lead to learning disabilities and the fact that there is no vaccine or cure for the virus is why the CDC is recommending anyone pregnant women who live in the Miami area should get tested for the virus.

Chris Wallace

CBS News did a follow up article to Chris Wallace's interview with Fox News' Howard Kurtz once it was decided that he would be the final moderator for the presidential debate. Chris said that his role in the final debate is like the referee of a heavyweight championship. I dealt he says that if he does his job right people will tell him that he did well and would barely notice him on stage. Wallace says that his job is not to fact check the candidates he said that it is up to them to catch those on their own. He will try to do his best to dispel time evenly to each candidate. Wallace is a registered democrat and will be the first fox news general election debate moderator.

Blum Leads Vernon in Iowa

According to Roll Call an internal poll from Rod Blum's campaign showed that we was leading Monica Vernon, his democratic challenger, 52 to 36 percent. Roll Call says that the freshmen congressman routinely occupies one of the top spots on it most vulnerable House incumbents. Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump in district 1 39 to 36 percent. This would make sense after seeing the fact that more money from the democratic side has been poured in for Monica Vernon's campaign. Vernon questioned Blum's internal poll about the accuracy and the reliance it had. 70 percent of the surveys were conducted by landlines and vernon says that this would cause their information to be inaccurate. Vernon is right to say that the data collected would be inaccurate because not many people have a landline today.

Trump Declares War on the Establishment

Earlier tonight Donald trump tweeted "Disloyal R's are far more difficult than a crooked Hillary." This came after Paul Ryan announced that he will not defend Trump and his campaign. USA Today reports that Trump feels like he can say whatever he wants now that "the shackles are finally off". This is bad news for the GOP because the party is no longer going to have a case for reuniting if Trump wants to talk about Republicans and how awful they are if he is running as a Republican candidate.

Delayed Deportations

The Obama administration has delayed more than 56,000 deportations proceedings of illegal immigrants from Central America since entering the states in 2014. Some cases have been pushed back as far as 2023. The New York Times reports that some of the cases that have been delayed have failed to appear in government offices to receive tracking bracelets. Several government officials admit that immigrants may never report for their court dates.

Jose Fernandez

Jose Fernandez died early Sunday morning in a fatal boating accident. Jose arrived in the US on his fourth attempt of fleeing Cuba. He has been previously put in prison for one of his attempts and saved his mother from drowning on another. David Ortiz said that it is sad to hear about this because Fernandez had such a great career going for him and to die at the age of 24 is tragic. Matt Gaetz a Florida state representative tweeted, "To all who kneel during the anthem today - remember that how Jose Fernandez risked his life just to stand for it.". This is a powerful quote because it started a political conversation between the supporters and non supporters of Colin Kaepernick. At a certain point his quote is a true one and people should respect it. For example playing at an international game kneeling during the anthem is something that shouldn't be done because you are representing the freedom and rights that no other country grants to you. Kneeling during an anthem is something that should be done at home and I think it is a great way to get attention but on a national level, not an international one.

Illegal Fishing is Part of National Security?

Secretary of State John Kerry and other world leaders are being gathered in Washington DC to talk about illegal fishing, pollution of waters, and the protection of marine parks. The number one topic to talk about though is illegal fishing. John Kerry is now considering that illegal fishing is a national security issue because it is linked with international organized crime. Fishing vessels is the number one leading cause of this because many drug traffickers use fishing vessels to transport drugs across international waters. In March the Australian Royal Navy seized a vessel that was hiding $2 billion of arms under fishing nets. There has also been a lot of violence between countries about fishing rights and territories. China mainly gets involved with many countries. Some countries have stated that they will use military force on vessels that are illegally fishing in their territory. None the less it is obvious to see how illegal fishing can be linked to a national security issue.

Cascade Mall Shooting

Late Friday night there was a shooting in Cascade Mall in Burlington Washington. The shooting happened around 7:45 and the mall went on lock down. Washington state police are still looking for the gunman. Witnesses said that he was last seen walking towards interstate 5 and due to the fact that the gunman wasn't found in the mall, a nearby high school football game was cancelled. I was shocked to find this article so fast since it just happened last night. This goes to show how fast the media finds and presents a story online. Though this article on the New York Times is not very long and detailed it still managed to get a story out that would grab people's attention. This story was not on the first page of the New York Times but it editors did give it a title that would attract readers as if a shooting happened in D.C.

Albertville Divide

Albertville, Alabama is a prime example of the divide of the US class on the issue of immigration. Albertville was once a small and neat town according to many of the residents who have lived there, but it was gradually increasing in its Hispanic population. Albertville national is known as the "fire hydrant city" because Meuller's manufacturing plant is there, but throughout the sate it is also known for its poultry processing. Many workers who were once working at Maulers has found that the immigrant population has affected the number of jobs available. Residents of Albertville said that they have moved out of their neighborhood once immigrants started moving in. These streets soon went down hill and are no longer nice neighborhoods. In 2011 the Alabama passed a law that scared off a lot of immigrants who had jobs to flee to neighboring states. A CNN/ Kaiser Family Foundation poll

found that over 55% of white working class residents believed that immigrants in Albertville has affected their family while 27% of whit college grads and students said that they have not been affected. Recently Haitian immigrants have been coming into Albertville to work in the same chicken processing plant and Albertville residents are worried about the number of jobs available.

Cuba Flight Safety

Texas Senator Marco Rubio has caught the Obama administration in a lie when he saying that he has failed to follow through on a commitment to place an air marshal on all fights going to and from Cuba. The Transportation Security Administration has claimed that there has not been an air marshall on any flights but on May 17 the Department of Homeland Security said that any flights without an air marshall on board could not proceed. Rubio has asked the white house to provide documents that gave approval that flights could leave and enter this country without an air marshall on board. The TSA had no comment on this act, but airlines seem to be okay with the absence of an air marshall. American Airlines, who conduct most of the flights to Cuba, says that they do not use any airport that doesn't have the highest standards of safety.

Naked Trump Statues

The anarchist collective INDECLINE has made and put up a naked Trump Statue by the entrance to the Holland Tunnel. Another statue was put up in Miami on a billboard in the vacant property of the former RC Cola Factory. Today Albelo who runs an event management team the oversees the property says that he will not take the statue down. He says that it will stay up not as a political statement but as an art statement. Commuters of the Holland tunnel seem to love the statue as well. An INDECLINE spokesman said that motorists will look at it a couple of times and then a smile will break out on their face. This may be the next form of political cartoons and another form of media as well.

Public Confidence in Media

Politico wrote up an article a Gallup poll which asked people if they trust mass media. The results of this poll was thirty two percent of the people polled trusted the media. This percentage is an all time low since 1972. Fourteen percent of people who identify as republicans said that they trust the media. This is a concerning number to hear because the presidential election is coming up soon and it will make for an interesting turnout, but it also means that our culture is becoming more polarized.

Gender Rights Cause Sporting Locations to Move

The Atlantic Coast Conference has decided on Wednesday that it would move all neutral game sites in North Carolina to outside of the state. This decisions was made shortly after a state law curbed anti-discrimination protections for lesbians, gay, or transgender people. The law pass is commonly known as House Bill 2 and it nullifies local government ability to establish anti-discrimination laws. The bill also states that lesbian, gay, or transgender people must use the bathroom according to the gender that is printed on their birth certificate. All institutions that participate in the sporting events are in favor of the move because they are all about inclusion.

Biggest Case On the Planet

Julia Olson is trying to help 21 kids sue President Obama for not creating any regulations on greenhouse emissions. She became interested in this case when she was pregnant with her son in 2006. She was watching a movie on climate change and was inspired to do something about it. Olson became worried about her son and the safety of the planet for her son and she felt that people of her generation are causing the problem. She claims that this law suit is to help the president and his administrations to feel the weight of responsibility of being a parent and the concern that she has. In a March hearing of this case the judge says, "'There is simply no constitutional right to a pollution-free environment'". Olson disagrees cause she believes that the kids are being violated of their constitutional right to "life, liberty, and property". This is where Olson or CNN is wrong when they wrote up this article. Every American has a constitutional right to life, liberty, and happiness, not property.

Obama's First Overruled Veto?

Just recently a bill that would allow family member who are victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks would be able to sue Saudi Arabia. The president met with a group of people that sponsored this act and decided to veto the bill. According to FoxNews 2/3 of congress is already standing by to overrule his veto. If congress does successfully overturn the veto, then this will be the first veto of President Obama that will be overturned. The president doesn't want to sign off on the bill because he believes that it will make diplomatic relations complicated in the future. He also believes that bills like the sin the future should not come up because you just cannot sue someone for creating war.

Will the U.S. Join the Climate Agreement Made in Paris?

President Obama is set to speak at Midway on Thursday to announce $40 million in programs to help countries that are vulnerable to climate change. After his announcement the president will be headed off to attend the G20 summit in China to hopefully join the agreement made in Paris last year. The new promos consist of USAID which will give $9 million to government to help create polices for climate change. Countries that will benefit from this are Micronesia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and few others. The United States will also give $15 million toward disaster-risk reduction initiatives in the region. This reminds me of when Seth came and talked to our class about climate change and how some islands or costal communities are in danger if being flooded.

North Carolina Fail to Enact Strict Voting Law

The supreme court on Wednesday was in a 4-to-4 deadlock on letting North Carolina enforce strict voting laws. The federal court saw these laws unconstitutional as these laws were an effort to target African Americans. Governor Pat McCrory who is up for re-election believes that his states has been denied basic voting rights that other states have been approved for. The North Carolina law had five parts that were struck down: its voter ID requirements, a rollback of early voting 10 10 days from17, an elimination same-day registration and of preregistration of some teenagers, and the ban of counting votes casted in the wrong precinct.

The Power of Social Media

On Sunday the Los Angeles International Airport had to delay, cancel, and divert several flies due to a shooting incident scare. CNN covered the story and said that passenger were running out of terminals and on to the tarmac in the airfield. The south runway of the airport has to stop receiving flights because of people that were on the tarmac. What triggered the scare were loud noises that people thought were gun shots. Originally only one terminal herd these noises but due to social media and word of the mouth the news spread quickly throughout the airport. Airport security officers and Los Angeles Police Department cleared the airport of any type of threat and passenger were finally bussed to safe locations. The fact that some people took loud noises as gunshots makes me wonder is our country on edge due to domestic violence or to the fact that we are receiving Syrian refugees and are not comfortable with the actions that our government is taking to protect this country from ay terror attacks.

President's Misguided Plan to Connect Schools To the Internet

President Obama has recently raised the budget for classroom technology across the nation from $2.25 billion to $4 billion a year. The idea was that because a school in North Carolina received funding from the E-Rate program and the students had showed improved performance in the classroom the President believed that all schools should receive even more money to help students. This however failed miserably. Thomas Hazlett, the author of "Obama's Misguided Plan to Connect Schools to the Internet", and some of his colleagues did a study on whether the E-Rate Program really  helped students or not. The study showed that schools the revived the most funding had students do even worse on the SAT than schools that were in better neighborhoods and received little funding. Schools in L.A. though that it would be nice if each student had received iPads, but schools soon found out that kids became distracted and found ways around the set firewalls. Currently the E-Rate Program still stands but Hazlett believes that the program should be suspended until test and studies are done nationally to determine whether to terminate the program, put the $4 billion in different parts of school systems, or to reinstate.

EpiPen Price Hike

FoxNews covered a story on August 26, 2016 about the EpiPen price hike. Pharmaceutical giant Mylan has raised the price of EpiPen by four hundred percent. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin's daughter runs the company which puts him in a difficult situation. Minchin made a big push to permanently shelve Zohydro ER despite the FDA's approval of it being a powerful opiate. Minchin as been meeting with both Democratic and Republican leaders to discuss whether there should be a regulation on prescription drug prices.

Trading $400 Million for Four Americans

CNN writes an article about how the $400 million traded was a ransom. This topic is highly controversial because as a big part of American philosophy, we do not trade or negotiate with terrorists. Reporters on CNN say that a ransom is that money is dropped first and then the prisoners are traded. According to this definition of a ransom, the money that was dropped cannot be considered as a ransom. To me this seems like a negotiation, trade, and ransom all in one. Whether these people are terrorists or not I still do not believe that $400 million was the best option there was.

Social Security May Owe You Money

In an article on the Washington Post website a well known homeless woman finally convinced someone that the government owed her money. Wanda Witter sleeps outside of a cafe in Washington D.C. every night. She sleeps in a blue sleeping bag with a hand cart full of suitcases locked to the patio chairs. Witter lost her job in Corning, New York and went to study law. She moved to D.C. to find a job but ended up becoming homeless. In those suitcases are papers to prove that the government owed her money. A social worker named Julie Turner was finally convinced that Witter was not crazy. She did look at Witter's  papers and confirmed that the government did owe her money. Witter has been to many mental institutions because people believed that she was crazy. Social security was understaffed and in the end stopped contacting Witter. Witter found a lawyer and eventually she did began to receive checks. The Washington Post mentioned how the baby boomer generation has been swelling while there is not enough young younger generations workers to cover for the baby boomers. Turner also believes that many of the capital's homelessness is due to economic issues rather than mental issues. She says that we often write people off as mentally ill instead of really listening to what they are trying to say.

Ex-Con Voting Rights

The New York Times wrote an interesting article about ex-felons and how they should have the right to vote. Virginia's Governor Terry McAuliffe had just signed papers stating that 13,000 ex-felons could gain their voting rights back on a case-by-case basis. As expected many conservatives were skeptical about this idea and Trump himself said that the democrats are releasing more violence into the polls. The majority of the fellows that gained their voting rights were nonviolent felons. There is however suspicion that this restoration of ex-felon voting rights was done to help Gov. McAuliffe ally Hillary Clinton win the presidential election. Most states ban felons from voting but will immediately retire their rights once they completed a prison term, probation, or parole. In some states it requires all three. This goes to show how much power both the federal and state governments both have and how they can overlap.

Social Media Screening on Foreigners

In an article written by Tony Romm on Politico large companies on the internet wanted to screen foreigners social media accounts to eliminate security threats. Companies including Google, Facebook, and Twitter asked the Obama administration to help them out. The Department of Homeland Security has been contemplating whether to ask foreigners arriving on visas to voluntarily give up their social media accounts and usernames on the forms. Many people of the United States feels that this is violating the freedom of speech online and more importantly intimidating visitors. The senior legislative manager of Access Now, Nathan White, says "'But the process to enter the U.S. is confusing, and it's likely that most visitors will fill out the card completely rather than risk additional questions from intimidating, uniformed officers'". Though what the DHS is asking is strictly voluntary people still feel that their first amendment right is being infringed on. This right, freedom of speech, is one of the unique parts of the United States where people feel that even if it is an order and not a law that is coming close to infringing on their right, they put their foot down hard and are very reluctant to say "yes".

Transgender Bathroom Policy

In May of 2016 the White House told public school's to let students use bathroom like facilities to the gender that they associate or identify as. Fox News reports that states like Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky and more are not complying to this order. The result of not complying is that states lose federal funding. Though that this transgender bathroom use is not a law there is an incentive to make states comply. Texas does not like this idea and will not "'yield to blackmail'" says Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

Most and Least Religious States

In a religious article on Pew Research Center I found out that Alabama is tied for first with Mississippi in being the most religious state. A person is considered highly religious if do two of the following: they regularly attend religious services, pray daily, believe in God with absolute certainty, and believe that religion is very if not the most important part of their life. The states in the south tend to be more religious. Alabama and Mississippi topped out at 77% while New Hampshire and Massachusetts topped out at 33%. In politics the media always talks about how candidates will win evangelists voters. I think that political scientists and candidates use these statistics to figure out if religious people will play a major factor in their votes. Also religious voters like to follow or believe in a set of core values that they look for in candidates policies, especially the social ones.

Introduction to AP Gov

So far in the course I have taken a typology quiz and a news quiz on the Pew Research Center website. I have found out that I am a business conservative were my views on the economy are conservative but my views on social issues are liberal. I scored a nine out of twelve on the news quiz which is fairly high for my age group.