John Bartram's historic house and garden
This is a video that I created to tell the history of John Bartram and his historic house and garden.
Here is the link to my annotated bibliography:
Here is the link to the script for my project:
This is a video that I created to tell the history of John Bartram and his historic house and garden.
Here is the link to my annotated bibliography:
Here is the link to the script for my project:
During the break between the last blog post and this one I kept checking in on the progress of my bill. Progress though for this bill though has been very minimal. If you don’t remember the bill that I have been tracking is the S.3921. This proposed bill is to ensure that “approval of pharmaceutical and biological products do not require violations of medical ethics in the testing of products in humans and vertebrate animals.” Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont proposed it on September 29th, 2010.
The progress of how my bill is doing I think is effected by currant events as well as people’s support and awareness. Senator Sanders has no listed co-supporters with his bill. If the people were more informed about all proposed laws not just ones that are pushed to the forefront of the media getting them discussed. If a bill like S.3921 got more media attention it would be more discussed. Discussion would then lead to people supporting it and bring awareness to their Senators. The current discussion about this bill has been very minimal. Only 7 blogs (blogs listed here) have recently talked about it (technically 8 if this one is included). That shows how little information is being pushed out there to help this bills progress.
A major way to get this bill a boast in ordered to be noticed would be to push out the information about the bill to animal rights organization and groups. Think about if groups like PETA and The Humane Society of The United States (as well as many others that you can find listed here and here) were to push out a story about this bill. Sending this information to their followers and supporters that would make a major impact in rising in awareness. More stories would be spread out, petitions could be made and signed to send to lawmakers and so much more could happen. Brining awareness from the people would make politicians step in with the process of this bill and reviewing it. It would almost be like a repeat of the process of the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act of 2007. Because it was relvent to cases in the media and had gained a high amountof support encouraging lawmakers to take part made this bill soon become a law. If this could happen again things would happen a lot quicker.
I’ve been reading some of these links and I can see that over the past few years the numbers in terms of how they spread out the money is pretty much the same at least in the same range. The things that have really noticeable differences are that the 3/30/10 stats went up later in the year when they took the numbers again on 6/30/10. In my opinion this will continue to be an up year rolling into 2011. I think the people who are essential to the turn out of the financial process that we are in are the CFO and the mayor and every individual outlet that our cities money goes out to, such as the police, firemen and public heath services. We as citizens are also partially responsible for how our cities finances are managed. If we are socially responsible and don’t have a high crime rate and armed robberies and other offenses then that in my opinion is us playing a key roll in our cities finances.
• I think that I can influence the people that are around me. Without having more in-depth knowledge about the exact situation of our finances, (which I plan to do) I can’t really give them different statistics just yet.
• The time frame is from now until 12/30/10. That’s when they do the different summaries of what the cities finances are and compare them to other state governments finances.
• Every qtr. of the year CFO and other members of the government such as the mayor sit down and discuss the cities finances and things of the sort.
3/30
6/30
9/30
12/30
Links: http://www.phila.gov/reports/reports2.html
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.phila.gov/finance/pdfs/QCMR_81610.pdf
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.phila.gov/finance/pdfs/Quarterly_City_Manag6.pdf
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.phila.gov/pdfs/qcmr_081809.pdf
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.phila.gov/finance/pdfs/Quarterly_City_Manag5.pdf
This is supposed to be put onto the California ballot in 2012, as mentioned above, but for that to happen, California’s Secretary of State Debra Bowen would have to get the signatures from 433,971 registered voters by April 21, 2011, to qualify it for the ballot. If it is validated, the measure could be placed before voters in February or June of 2012.
Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power the more we know about how to preserve water the faster we can save our planet.
Tajh Jenkins
Science Leadership Academy
Lobbying Assignment 3
Like past years, 2010 has provided it’s share of child pornography happenings. While there have been attempts by United States officials to ban all aspects of child pornography, their efforts in 2010 could have been better.
The U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
2010 has not been a productive year in terms of the governments efforts in banning child pornography. America is currently in a stand still in handling the situation. According to Patrick A. Trueman, former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section in the Reagan and Bush I Administrations, Eric Holder’s indication that the United States is losing in the war on child pornography is troubling but not surprising.
Patrick A.
Trueman
Patrick Trueman heads the War on Illegal Pornography, a coalition effort of many national, state and local groups working to encourage enforcement of federal laws against obscene adult pornography. He is also the founder of the website PornHarms.com, http://pornharms.com. The website categorizes and posts peer-reviewed studies on the harmful aspects of pornography. Studies and articles on PornHarms.com explain and discuss the brain science of pornography, which indicates that regular consumers of porn are at risk of brain manipulation and addiction leading to increasingly deviant behaviors, including, for some, an interest in child pornography
Nearly every current government official elected has indicated their support for banning child pornography. The problem is that not enough of the officials are stepping up their efforts to really making a difference on this specific issue. From what I researched, other than the two government officials that I spoke about in my second lobbying assignment as well as Eric Holder, there aren’t really any officials that I researched who has mad significant strides in banning it. This issues does get great media coverage because of all the court cases and news that pertain to child pornography. Citizens have expressed support on banning child pornography as the issue has become bigger throughout the years because of the media attention. There are multiple facebook groups that illustrate citizens tryings to prevent child porn.
There have been past policies on this issue:
* In 2002, the
Supreme Court made a decision to reject Congress' attempt to combat child
pornography
in the computer age.
Stakeholders on
this issue include
There are many people who are working on this issue:
I think that if I am really serious about this issue, I can influence anyone in the public to want to ban virtual child pornography. With the help of the public, we would be able to influence the government to take a more serious approach towards banning all aspects of child pornography. I think that the government does not see much of the public wanting to ban child pornography. When it comes to this specific issue, if the public doesn’t show its seriousness about the situation, then the government won’t act on it as quickly and effectively.
If I could contact the authors who wrote the “Guidelines for Policy Makers on Child Online Protection” I think that we could really make a difference together. The authors who wrote the guidelines are the the same people who I listed as the people who are working on this issue. These are people who are really serious interested in making it aware that child pornography is a relevant issue that should be taken care of. If I could get some personal insight on this issue from these people, it would really help me become more prepared to influence people who are not up on the issue as they should be. I think that I should come in contact with the authors as soon as possible.
After doing some research I have not found any recent meetings or any recent news about government officials attempt to crack down on child pornography in the future. Therefore, there aren’t any future meetings or committee headlines that I can talk about. All of the hearings that I have come across have already taken place.
Have a nice thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the past year, Greenworks Philadelphia has traveled leaps and bounds towards its 2015 goal. Originally funded solely by Philadelphia's Office of Sustainability, Greenworks has developed into a collaborative effort between dozens of benefactors, ranging from federal and local government entities to various private non-profit organizations. As Katherine Gajewski, Philadelphia's Director of Sustainability, stated in the 2010 Greenworks Philadelphia progress report, "In an impressive display of coordination, leaders from numerous City agencies as varied as the Streets Department, the Zoning Code Commission, and the Department of Health, came together in our Sustainability Working Group and committed to bring champions of sustainability across city government."
What seems to be stopping Greenworks Philadelphia from making a true impact on the public is its lack of media attention. Thus far, Greenworks' online presence is limited to a couple of blog posts, several press releases, and a smattering of miscellaneous posts on "green" websites.
People see and use Greenworks' products, sure-- over 500 solar-powered trash and recycling bins scattered throughout center city, energy efficient building materials and methods used to make government buildings, 14,000 residents employed as"green" workers, with plans to add 15,000 more. But this isn't enough. The citizens of Philadelphia need to know more than the what-- they must know why it is important. In order for the project to continue to develop and receive further funding, Greenworks must be publicized on a larger scale.
This is where I come in.
Over the next few months, I'm going to be exploring several options for my lobbying campaign. Here are some of my ideas.
- Publicizing Greenworks Philadelphia on the internet. I would raise awareness of the project via various social networking and link-sharing sites.
- Contacting Philadelphia's Office of Sustainability. I would reach out to the local government in hopes of helping to organize a media outreach program for Greenworks.
- Start a public campaign by means of paper fliers. I would create and distribute throughout philadelphia appealing paper "advertisements" in order to put Greenworks into the public eye.
At this rate, there is little question in my mind that Greenworks will have achieved its goals by 2015. But we must think ahead-- when there are thousands more trees, environmentally friendly building materials available, cleaner energy resources-- who will be relied upon to maintain the green-ness that has been created? The answer is clear-- it will be up to the public to preserve what Greenworks has created.
The only way that they will be equipped to do so, however, is if they are taught how.
Only through education on the issues being addressed by Greenworks Philadelphia will the public come to fully understand the severity of our current environmental situation and the importance that we all work to change it. My next blog post will focus on how I plan to contribute to this education.
Phillip, Jose. "Philadelphia Sports Solar-powered Trash Bins." GreenPacks. Greenpacks.org, 1 July 2009. Web. 23 Nov 2010. <http://www.greenpacks.org/2009/06/01/philadelphia-sports-solar-powered-trash-bins/>.
Gates, Kelly Patrick. "It's a green scene for the city." PlanPhilly: Planning Philadelphia's Future. PlanPhilly, 29 April 2009. Web. 23 Nov 2010. <http://planphilly.com/node/8791>.
My issue, despite its obvious presence in this fair city, is not often addressed. Building restoration is too often neglected especially in this city, a living monument to the past. However, on November 9, 2010 headway has been made in the campaign for one of the other shriveling structures: the Divine Lorraine. Now, I feel it necessary to elucidate the manner in which I have chosen to organize this particular blog post. Due to the scarcity of direct building restoration legislation and the difficult financial climate preventing the existing legislation to be enacted, I am solely going to address the Divine Lorraine as my example of neglected buildings. It is my hope that should we manage to save the dear Divine, it will act as an example and inspiration for countless other buildings.
http://www.andipantz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/divinelorraine2.jpg
In November, the current owners of the Divine Lorraine recently applied for the state low income housing tax credit in hopes of turning this abandoned hotel into low-income housing. They are well aware that it will be some time before this lovely structure “shines” once more, but it is a step in the right direction. It is an wonderful example of owners deciding to maintain this historic site, not tearing it down. To read more of this request by the Divine Lorraine, click here.
In order to hurry this renovation along, it is necessary for me to get a great deal more familiar with the Office of Housing and Community. The director of this office is Deborah McColloch and it is this department that can grant the necessary tax credits and finances to allow the restoration of the Divine Lorraine.
The restoration can also be facilitated by my increased communication with the various other legislators mentioned in earlier blog entries. Time for me to make a few new friends!
On the subject of acquaintance making, I am hardly the first to fall in love with the glorious Divine Lorraine and those who discovered this structure before myself have devoted a great deal more time and effort to seeing its continued existence. Below I have attached links to various organizations that have taken an interest in the former hotel in hopes of joining forcing to create a super group of Divine Lorraine protectors!
A fun resource that is invested in seeing this little love live!
An interesting development idea that may be in the works….
A group that lists several buildings in need of saving. (The Lorraine is not alone!)
A slide show made by another admirer of the building. (In case you needed evidence of it disrepair.)
http://philly.brownstoner.com/images/divine%20lorraine%202.jpg
Sadly, when asked to discuss the time frame this restoration will supposedly take place within, I can offer no specific dates. Despite the wonderful step the application for tax credits signifies, it is hardly the first time such revitalization has been promised. This building has been abandoned since the 1990s. It is necessary to first garner the necessary support to ensure there is a time frame.
http://johnnygoodtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/dlorraine.jpg
The Hill:
“Boehner to press bill to enforceObama’s order on abortion funding”
Anti-Abortionists:
KeyComponents
The Combating Online Infringement and counterfeiting act (COICA) has been heated up in these recent weeks with the bill being reported by committee as of November 18, and also being put under calender by General orders. No. 648.
So far, this year has been bad to stop COICA. It seems by the growing days more politicians and big companies are supporting this bill and are pushing for it to be passed. Support still grows strong for the citizens, there are multiple websites that urge users of the free internet to contact their senator, and request them to vote against the bill.
However, with the little support we do have, it seems the oppositions are double in numbers and power. with the RIAA and Chambers of commerce giving their full support to this bill, It doesn't help that other businesses like Nike and Disney are throwing support to the bill's way. Other then these industries, politicians are also pushing forward to advance this bill into law. Such as Senior Sen. Patrick Leahy [D-VT] and the 18 cosponsors who are for this bill.
What needs to be done is that people, citizens, anyone who uses the internet or who believes in the freedom of speech and press need to contact their state senator's convince the senators that this bill is not wanted and the people do not agree with this bill. In order to stop this bill, we absolutely need senators on our side, we need them so they can vote down on this bill and prevent it from becoming a law.
We, as a people, as well as myself cannot singularly stop this bill, we need to put all our efforts together, and direct the message to our senators that this is not the right thing to do. If we do not stand up, our freedom is at jeopardy.
The next step of this bill is unknown, once again we are at a pause and will have to wait until congress goes through the calender and picks up this bill to discuss.
No Animal should be treated like this.
Legislature status in the long run great. Status as of now, eh....not so great.
Many states across the nation are having internal battles to legalize medicinal marijuana. Since those who tend to support medicinal marijuana are fairly liberal and those whom oppose it are fairly conservative, we start to see lots of controversy in the states that tend to not vote the same way in each election; among those states is Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is abnormal if anything when it comes to democrat vs republican. Making up for a large portion of Pennsylvania’s population is Philadelphia. In the city of Philadelphia, over 80% of residents tend to vote democrat (liberal). Once you travel outside of Philadelphia, you start to see the republican numbers skyrocket. If all of Pennsylvania were like Philadelphia, then there would be no controversy around medicinal marijuana in this state.What is the status of this issue at the legislature?
There are two main bills pending in the house and the senate that are fighting to approve medicinal marijuana; House bill 1393, and Senate bill 1350. Both bills basically state the same thing, they want medicinal marijuana to be approved. The reasons for this vary from the amount of money it would save to boost our economy, to the number of lives it could help and potentially save from terminal illnesses. The house bill was referred to the Health and Human Services departmenton April 30th, 2009. The senate bill was referred to the Public Health and Welfare department on may 4th, 2010.Who is essential to the outcome?
Representative Mark B. Cohen is the democratic majority caucus chairman, he is largely backing this bill, along with senator Daylin Leach, the democratic legislator. A group called L.I.E.V.E. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, they are all ex-policemen/women or currently employed policemen/women whom get a first hand look at what banning marijuana does to our society. The biggest obstacle/opponent we have to get around is the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), the ones who have the power to allow these bills to pass.What is Medicinal Marijuana?
Medicinal marijuana is a topic that isn’t touched upon enough in our country. For many of Americas citizens, marijuana is a word that makes them jump. The ignorance around the so called “drug” makes many think it has some horrible effects on people who use it. When in truth, the side effects are hunger and sleepiness. Medicinal marijuana if used in the right cases can have dramatic positive affects in the process of fighting and curing certain deceases. According to Live Strong, a cause group that raises millions each year to help cure cancerous diseases, medicinal marijuana has uses such as, pain relief, decreased nausea, muscle relaxation, to treat glaucoma, and having an increased appetite. (http://www.livestrong.com/article/85963-benefits-medical-marijuana/)
Why is This Important to me?
To be honest, I’ve had my own encounters with marijuana, and I can say from a personal stand point that nothing bad happened to me. I didn’t become addicted, I didn’t grow into a couch potato, it didn’t affect any of my relationships, etc. Many of the arguments against using medicinal marijuana are because of their fears of all of this happening. On sites such as abovetheinfluence.com, they say things like, “Heavy marijuana use impairs young people's ability to concentrate and retain information.” this is true, however when used moderately for medical purposes, these kinds of side affects rarely occur.
When I was seven years old, my mother died. She died from a mixture of scleraderma and lupus; one of the main contributors to why it got worse and worse was the fact that she rarely ate. She was given pills by doctors to try to arouse her appetite, but she would refuse to eat. If medicinal marijuana could have been used in cases such as this; it could have a great impact on many lives.
Who supports medicinal marijuana?
On the east coast, medicinal marijuana has three main supporters; senator Daylin Leach(district 17), senator Lawrence M. Farnese Jr. (district 1), and senator Jim Ferlo (district 38). Each of the three are liberal politicians and senator Daylin Leach sits on the Public Health & Welfare committee where the bill that would allow the use of medical marijuana was recently sent.
“act providing for the medical use of marijuana; and repealing provisions of law that prohibit and penalize marijuana use.”-The DREAM Act has been an incredibly huge topic discussed through the news for the past 3 years but has recently risen to its strongest and yet weakest year. Many people are starting to become aware of the DREAM Act because it helps many students to receive a higher education and also due to the fact that many students are getting involved with helping to get this legislation passed in order to become law!
This has been a good and bad year for this legislation, though many universities and people are supporting this legislation, it was shut down in the Senate on September 21, 2010. The bill was attached to a defense bill making it harder for Republicans to shut it, but a filibuster held by the Republicans senators and one Democrat shut it down. When reintroduced in March 26, 2009 it had 134 official cosponsors but after the filibuster in September it was left with 2 cosponsors, we need to convince the Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and House that this legislation is extremely important.
Many universities that have supported the DREAM Act such as University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkley, University of Florida, Harvard University and many others. Universities help give this legislation good media and image because these are some of the top Universities that support a cause which helps students who they know deserve the right to learn the same as everyone else. Supporting the DREAM Act shows that they care about and spend an extreme amount of time with these children.
Public supports that give this bad media attention are groups who want to stop immigration and enforce security on our borders such as the ALIPAC group and Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). These groups do not support legislation similar to the DREAM Act or any legislation that help immigrations because they believe that illegal immigrants are law breakers and that the law should be followed and they should be punished.
Republicans are the major opponents of this legislation they have as much power as the people who support this bill which are the Democrats. Republicans. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said that they would cosponsor the bill as well as Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), hinting that he is most likely going to vote for the DREAM Act when it is presented as a standalone bill. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) Florida GOP Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Diaz-Balart, all said that they would vote for the DREAM Act during its presentation during the lame duck session.
All of the Democrats are essential to the outcome of the bill because if they are all on board with the act they will be then be able to convince the Republicans to get on board as well. Democrats have to support a bill started by their own and so do the Republicans in order for them to succeed. If Republicans such as John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) won’t vote for the bill we need as many Democrats as possible.
Groups that are good to communicate with in order to help us are lobbyist groups such as Peaceful Tomorrows who have already lobbied for the DREAM Act the day it was not passed in the Senate.Contacting many students from different universities who are lobbying for it is another great way to get out that this bill becoming a law is very important.
The embed box is inconveniently small, but there are formatting issues either way. Here is a link to the doc.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, is supporter this decision to somehow take care of these “anchor babies”. Right now many take this as a negative issue because it’s separating a child from their parents or others say that they had to struggle to even sneak in, so they should stay. Then there is also good media attention from news station saying how much these babies cost just to be born in America, and tax payers’ are responsible to pay for this bill that the hospital has for giving birth to the child. During my research, I haven’t ran into any people against this law that has power, but some people I found a while back, were professors at universities that said something like, “there is a solution, we just have to make one.” Even all the research about how much we are wasting on giving birth to “anchor babies”, there hasn’t been a policy put out, but the thing is, I don’t think a policy would really reinforce this to make it work.
Rep. Steve King plays a big role in this because he is part of the house in some way. He can get his subcommittee to agree with this and then convince the committee to pass it on and show the legislative branch how much money we are spending on “anchor babies”
People who might care to hear about this subject are U.S. taxpayers, which is about everyone living in the States. Many people don't know that a hospital wastes about $30,000 to deliver a child and that hospital bill is paid from money from the taxpayers. If they knew that their money is going to children that technically are not supposed to be here, they might have a change of mind.
There is no time frame as of now, but I am hoping to contact a representative that agrees with my thinking to talk about where is most of the money from tax payers is going to.
Attempts have been made to revise DADT, the homophobic law enacted under Bill Clinton to keep gays out of the military. In May 2010, an amendment was passed in the House of Representatives, however it lacked the necessary 60 votes to get the bill passed in the senate.
Also, attempts to pass DADT are becoming increasingly more difficult. Prior to the recent election 90% of democrats were in favor of the repeal, versus 97% of republicans, and since the election has drastically shifted the power to republicans, it can only damage the odds of getting it approved. Therefore it is a fair assumption that the window of opportunity is quickly closing.
Despite the general public being largely in favor of an amendment to the bill, Republicans have decided to vote along party lines.
The pentagon has recently issued a study regarding the current amendment. It has concluded that lifting a ban that prevents gays from serving in the military would result in “minimal and isolated incidents to the risk to the current war efforts.” The pentagon requested that the survey, which was given to more than 400,000 active troupes, address the issue of a repeal potentially hindering the military’s ability to fight. More than 70% of the respondents to the survey suggested the results to the move would be either positive or nonexistent – thus eliminating the only legitimate argument of withholding the ban.
Gay rights activists have begun a campaign around ten different states to aid the process of the DADT amendment. The Human Rights Campaign and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. Joe Solmonese, President of HRC, recently said in a statement: “As we approach the waning days of this congressional session, we must continue to demand immediate action on critical legislation.”
"At this moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be seeking to overturn the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy," he said bluntly, before describing it as "imperfect but effective."
In 1992, officer Allen Schindler was stomped to death by a shipmate for being openly gay in the military. This was later used as a means of justifying the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Law - with claims of protecting the well being of homosexuals. However, this blatantly homophobic law has been embraced by the military as a way of recruiting straight officers, who would have otherwise been deterred by the awkwardness of boarding with an openly gay man. Since the policy was put in place in 1993, over 12,500 troops have been discharged due to their sexual orientation. The Government Accountability Office reported that it has cost $95.4 million for recruiting and $95.1 million for training replacements for the 9,488 troops discharged from 1994 through 2003. This law has been used as a tool to reject the very people it was made to protect, and it is costing the government money to train the replacement troops that it could have otherwise used to bolster the military.
This issue has been widely debated, especially within the past few months, with John McCain being the leading advocate. When asked about the repeal on DADT, Senator McCain backs the current policy. "This successful policy has been in effect for over 15 years, and it is well understood and predominantly supported by our military at all levels," McCain said “At a time when our Armed Forces are fighting and sacrificing on the battlefield, now is not the time to abandon the policy."
This bill has unfortunately been made into another example of a left vs. right wing issue. When asked about the repeal of the bill, Senator Susan Collins was quoted saying “It’s the right thing to do. I think it’s only fair, but I cannot vote to proceed to this bill under a situation that’s going to shut down the debate and preclude Republican amendments. That too, is not fair.” This is what politics in the United States has come to entail – a type of science where politicians tread a thin line between what is right, and what will get them reelected.
Accused of being a political ploy with the November elections coming up, President Obama has made this his main priority. Obama claimed he delayed acting on the repeal because with two wars he did not want anything to distract him from his health care fight. Although there is no constitutional right to serve in the military, President Obama made it clear that DADT would not impose on our first amendment right. “We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal, that no matter who you are or what you look like, if you abide by the law you should be protected by it.”
There has been several attempts to change the bill, however the pending legislation has increased within the past couple of months. The Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2010 is a bill that seeks to establish a tradition of nondiscrimination regarding sexual orientation in the Armed Forces, by repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. This bill would also authorize the reappointment of otherwise qualified individuals previously discharged on the basis of their sexual orientation
Although this bill was made with the intent of helping homosexuals, it has served as a of homophobic legislation, that has lead to the dismissal to thousands of qualified soldiers. My partner and I are lobbying for the repeal of DADT because not only is it not fair, but it will make our military stronger, and allow us to allocate funds elsewhere to help bolster the military. Our goal is to bring more publicity to this already heated debate in hopes of more people acknowledging the need to repeal this widely contested bill. There is plenty of already pending legislation that we hope to bring recognition too.
From my previous blog post, I mentioned that the S.167 - COPS Improvements Act of 2009 bill is related to my lobbying topic. Senator Herbert Kohl is the sponsor of the bill. He is a Democrat from Wisconsin serving his 4th term. Kohl is one of the United States’ wealthiest politicians, owning his own family business.
Someone in my city that represent me is Mayor Michael Nutter. He is Philadelphia's third black mayor. Nutter was a councilman of the city's 4th Council District, that included the neighborhoods of Wynnefield, Overbrook, Roxborough, Manayunk, East Falls and parts of North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, and my area, West Mount Airy.
Mayor Nutter shares the same interest as I do. I want to have the city of Philadelphia safe place. He supports having Philadelphia declare a "Crime Emergency" in certain areas of Philadelphia. This involved stationing more officers in needed areas of Philadelphia, limit the ability to gather on public sidewalks, impose a curfew for all residents, and limit the ability to travel in certain areas.
I am lobbying for more police officers to be dispatched around public transportation, schools and around urban areas. On my way to and from school I travel a good distance and I really don’t see police officers in the area. My motivation for investigating and influencing public policy is to see crime decreased and safety increase. I’m sure that victims of crime, parents that want safety for their children, supervisors of recreation centers and teachers at school who care about their students would support my lobbying idea. An opponent to my lobbying idea would be who ever is in charge of the city finances. I don’t think the city would support me.
The S.167 - COPS Improvements Act of 2009 is a bill related to my lobbying topic. Its a “bill to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to enhance the COPS ON THE BEAT grant program, and for other purposes.” This law does support my lobbying topic. I want to have more police patrolling the city, especially around public transportation. The law that mentions, "to increase the number of officers deployed in community-oriented policing" is perfect.