Bellringer 2/26

1. Tiger Woods is known all over for his golfing talents. At the age of 21, Woods became the youngest player to ever win the Masters, as well as the first person of African or Asian descent to win a major golf championship. In 2002, he became the first golfer since Jack Nicklaus to capture the year's first two major tournaments: Masters and U.S. Open
2.He was involved in a legal controversy in 2000 regarding his filming of a Buick commercial during the Screen Actors' Guild six-month strike against advertisers

Bellringer Feb. 25

1.  President Barack Obama is threatening to veto a bill that will fix "No Child Left Behind."
2. No Child Left Behind isn't working. I am against it so, something needs to be done. However, that doesn't mean that this bill that will cost the government money to be passed.
3. Education is public policy because, everyone in America goes to school.

Judicial Notes

Article 3: Judicial Branch
based on Latin system
Levels
County: Magistrates court, Family
State: District, West Virginia Supreme Court
State courts: Family law issues, landlord tenant issues, professional malpractice, personal injury, worker's injury, traffic violations, crimes under state laws.

National: Federal Courts
United States Supreme Court- 9 justices appointed by president, serve for life
Headed by Chief Justice- current John Roberts (Republican)
decided if law is unconstitutional- judicial review
Federal Courts: federal laws, inter. trade, dispute between states, traffic violations on federal property, maritime (military) cases, patents for inventions: copyright, public corportations: forms of investments

Both State and Federal:
crimes punishable by federal and state laws
some civil rights cases
class action cases
cases involving environmental laws

Difference between civil and criminal cases
civil cases: money
criminal: jail

Bellringer 11/10

1. His role will change because, he'll be a Democrat in the Republican controlled Senate. He has to be willing to compromise and make deals here in the Senate.
2. Expanding background checks for gun purchasers.

11/6 Assignment

     Welfare should be high regulated. I believe it is a great thing for this country to be able to help people in need, however it is being abused. Welfare should just be an aid not something you can live off of. I would vote that we keep Welfare, but that it is more regulated. You shouldn't just be able to sign up, and automatically get a check in the mail. Alcoholism shouldn't be a disability that you can receive welfare for because, that is a choice. The money for Welfare should be monitored on what it is being spent on,
     
      Education is a huge issue in West Virginia. We are at a lost for teachers. I would vote to raise the salary of teachers in order to get more interested in the field. Also, education spending is terrible. Computers are nice, but you don't absolutely need the best for kids to be able to learn, however you do need a good teacher. The teachers we have now are working their butts off with paper work and everything, yet seem to get no rewards. I'm sure there are plenty of areas of education that spending could be cut to raise teacher salary.
 
      Being West Virginia, natural resources is always an issue. We have coal, but right now Washington is shutting it down. Coal is working and giving many West Virginians jobs. I would vote to keep natural resources as a source of energy. Why fix something when it isn't broken? Our country and state needs to do what is best for us now. Unemployment is an issue, but taking away coal is simply making it worse. If you take away natural resources then, we need to have an outlet to open up jobs, possibly a factory.

         For many people quality of roads may not seem important. However, children are on them, the future of this state is on roads. The roads in West Virginia are currently very dangerous. Pot holes are everywhere, and we simply fill in the holes, but as winter rolls around they continue to get bad. We need to black top many of the roads again and keep them nice. Don't wait until the hole is huge for us to fix it. In the end this would save us money because, insurance companies wouldn't have as many wrecks, and the state road wouldn't have terrible messes to clean up at the end of winter. If we fix them immediately then, we would only spend a little bit of money at a time.

        We have never done enough for our veterans. They risk their lives for us, and we simply act like they're supposed to. I would vote to give them better rehabilitation programs that are state funded. Also, veterans need jobs when they return. I'm not saying throw non-veterans out of their jobs to make room, but if there were some form of government job we could offer them until they get back on their feet and get adjusted.

       

Bellringer 11/6

1. I think it is a great thing. It is time for a change, and it is great that WV accomplished this.
2. I think it will help and hinder. People see her as a great thing because she is so young. However, she may not be heard because, she is so young so people will just ignore her. People always say, "you're too young."

Icivics notes

1. The first question was on pets. The questions was "what will you do to help abused, neglected, and homeless animals?" I chose the candidate who said that they would start a program to train the dogs to help with blind. I chose her because, this gives a situation where more people can benefits instead of money going else where. New shelters aren't needed, it is finding them homes that is the problems.
2. Question: What will you do to lessen air pollution in our community. I chose the candidate who answered with creating stricter limits for factories. I chose this because the other candidate said they would give a tax break to those who ride public transportation or car pool. How would you monitor this, and not everyone has the resources to do so?
3. How do you plan to reduce crime in our neighborhood? I chose harsher sentencing. The other option was putting up more street lights and more cops on patrol. Money is a huge issue, and we need to find a cost effective way to help the crime rates. Also, street lights won't help that many crimes.
4. How do you plan to help people find and keep their jobs? I chose training classes at our community centers because, it seemed most effective. The other option was holding job fairs, well many businesses aren't going to waste their time with a job fair, this isn't college. If people really wanted the job, they would look on their own.
5. What is the best way to prevent littering? I chose the candidate that said have public education on the importance of decreasing litter. The other option was increase fines of litter. Although I agree with it, it is hard to catch the ones that litter. So, if they knew that it actually caused damage rather than just making the community look dirty then, less people would litter.
Overall I chose the candidate that I agreed with on stronger issues. Neither candidate was perfect, but that wasn't the point. The point was too pick the best of the two. It said I didn't match the candidate, but on the bigger issues I did like getting jobs and reducing crime.