La película “Mar Adentro” se trata de la vida de Ramón Sampedro quien tuvo un accidente de natación. Antes de la accidente, Él fue un mecánico de barco y fue muy activo pero después Él fue limitado a solamente pocos de actividades.

Hace la pregunta si tenemos el derecho morir o vivir. En este caso digo no tenemos la derecha decidir cuando vivimos o morimos.

Respeto la decisión de Ramón aunque estoy en contra de la decisión. Solamente Él supo que sentía ser en Él predicamento. Pienso si Ramón viviera en eso condición para veinte y cinco años, Él posiblemente continuará.

Para mi, la película fue muy moralistic. Muchas personas tuvieron creencias diferentes sobre la decisión de Ramón morir. Me gusta la película porque haga me pensar sobre mis valgos.

Research the Issue

6. When are key dates - meetings, committee hearings, deadlines, etc.,

Thursday December 2, 20102010 Meeting with Amirah and Sinnea about collaborating

Thursday December 2, 2010 Meeting with Bach Tong about his experiences

Research the Issue

School Lunch Nutrition

Megan Doe and Rumman Haq

Mission:

Supporters:

Opponents:

All current Child Nutrition Bills

• Supports Obama's fight in ending child hunger by 2015
• An additional 1 billion dollars for every 10 years of the authorizing legislation
• Applications regarding free or reduced lunch should be done on the computer to reduce "obstacles", "stigmas", and "unnecessary costs to the School District of Philadelphia."
• Reduce obesity and diet related diseases
• Ensure that all children have access to healthy and nutritious foods while protecting the needs of the citizens of Philadelphia

In 2009, Robert Brady along with other Pennsylvania representatives introduced the  Paperless Enrollment for School meals Act of 2009. The bill allowed:

1) Allows schools or districts that agree to serve breakfast and lunch free to all students for 5 years to be reimbursed based on socioeconomic data rather than individual student applications.

2) Makes it easier for schools serving high-poverty areas to provide free meals to all children by allowing data-based eligibility. The school or district gets administrative relief in exchange for covering any costs that exceed federal reimbursements.

House of Representative Bob Brady and our lobbying group have agreed on many political views in the past such as:National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2010.

As of the last 2 years, minimum wage is set at $7.25. By definition this isn’t really a “good” or bad year for the Minimum Wage Act of 2007, the plan was to raise the wages by 2008, its 2010… the government has done as much raising as they plan on doing, unless another act is created. Which is my new plan of action, as mentioned before, thought the wages have been raised, the amount is only enough to raise our poverty line a few points. Yes, some of the poor are eating, but how much? And what about the others? The Minimum Wage Act of 2007 is highly underpublicized, it seems as ifcitizens see it as “if I’m not scrounging like the poor, why worry about how much THEY make.” People with high salaries, generally pay it no mind because they aren’t paid hourly, and people who have salary jobs usually make more than those who make hourly pay. Therefore they cease to care about the “minimum” at which they aren’t making.

No one realizes how deep we are in the poverty hole. To pull ourselves out we must make change, whether it be little by little or large chunks. The attention of America’s well-known wall street stockholders, as well as our state legislators is needed. Convincing the legislators of the raise in the minimum wage would be needed, then the financial help of stockholders tax dollars is needed to get the pot boiling. My strongest influence would have to on legislators because they are the ones who would have to help me get the bill moving, the tax dollars will come by government enforced laws.

Based on the poverty levels rates, even if the wages were raised to $8.00, on a 40 hour work week for a family of 2 or 3, the poverty line is met. Are we that selfish that we cant raise our rates seventy-five cents more? The facts are there, its jus no one pays them any attention, id be happy to coordinate such a drastic difference in my states level of poverty. The really is no time frame, as long as change is constant, I feel I’d be making a difference.

There currently is no group or organizations helping to raise minimum wage, but maybe that’s where we can begin our change.. starting Minimum Wage Raise Supporters Organization (:

2.     Who is essential to the outcome?

People from the republican part are our key components in this assignment since most of them probably share the same views about how much of the money is being used on welfare and how its being used by it’s recipients as well. I’m not really sure on specific people at the moment since I don’t actually know if there is an open legislature on this topic.

3.     Who else is working on this? Can you coordinate?

I wasn’t actually quite sure what this question meant i.e. who else in school is working on this or who else of actual congress is working on this or other sources outside of school.

4.     Who can you influence?

I can influence my own household (full of people who can vote) as well as my peers who can spread the word to their families to educate them on the situation. I truly believe that the biggest obstacle will be getting people from the working class to be on board with this since welfare probably benefits them a lot more than republicans . 

• Public Transportation Act 2010- implemented to ensure transit safety nationwide.

• The bill is bipartisan and was written by Chairman Chris Dodd, Ranking member Richard Shelby & Chairman Robert Menendez.

The Pubic Transportation Safety Act 2010 aims to:

Currently, there are no laws regarding crime prevention for SEPTA, however SEPTA Safety Plans and Actions are being negotiated. SEPTA created a Resource Management Review Group to brainstorm ideas for the safety and betterment of the customers and the company.

The SEPTA community affairs unit works with the Transit Police and various communities. The unit communicates with schools, community groups via presentation, etc to discuss crime prevention, transit etiquette, and other issues.

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

The issue of driving and efficient cars has circulated in the news this year in the United States. After the problems Toyota and customers has faced, transportation is looked at more frequently in terms of being safe. Secretary Ray LaHood is in charge of the Department of Transportation. At the “United States Department of Transportation” website, he discuss the problems we face when behind the wheel and under the hood. I would like to lobby about safe cars in general as well as improving the drivers. There should be more regulations and check ups for cars before setting out into the market.

The outcome of more regulations and checkups will help drivers and pedestrians. NHTSA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is also working on perfecting laws and regulations of vehicles like cars, trucks, even bicycling. Other allies that can help influence safe driving are insurances that give praise for safe driving and discounts like Allstate.

The crowd I’m trying to influence can vary in all ages. One website called “Faces of Distracted Drivers” shows the emotions of friends and family who lost their loved ones from car accidents. Many accidents can be from a distracted driver, reckless driving, and even damaged cars. Distraction.gov is also an organization that gives ideas on how to improve driving and the safety of the people inside. With laws and regulations, having more scheduled appointment to check up on car corporations would be nice.

The Department of Transportation needs a budget to continue working, their time frame of work being accomplish depending on the budget of how much they receive from the government. Here is a picture of how much they will spend in 2011.

In the future, Sec. LaHood considers banning cell phones while driving on a highway or populated areas. This can be a step further for the protection of driving.

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

“Government cannot solve the child pornography crisis in America unless it takes a broader approach than currently pursued and looks to the root causes of such deviancy.”

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

”Our efforts today are not partisan because the protection of children, violence against women, addiction and sexual trafficking are not partisan issues. Nor are we here today to quarrel with Attorney General Holder … The Attorney General previously indicated support for the enforcement of obscenity laws. We are asking that the prosecution of obscenity, which seems to be on hold in the Obama Administration, be given a high priority because of the widespread harm we now know that obscene material is causing.

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:

• Children's Internet Protection Act of 2000 (CIPA)
• Child Online Protection Act of 1998 (COPA)
• Child Protection and Sexual Predator Punishment Act of 1998
• Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 (CPPA)
• Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA

* 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

• Children and young people
• Parents Guardians and Educators
• Industry
• The Research Community and NGO’s
• Law Enforcement
• Social Service Organizations
• Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other Electronic Service Providers (ESPs)
• Teacher Organizations, Academic and Research Communities
• Government Agencies

• Owners of Internet cafés and other public access providers e.g. libraries, telecentres, PC Bangs6 and online gaming centres etc

There are many people who are working on this issue:

• Cristina Bueti and Sandra Pandi (ITU)
• John Carr (Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety)
• Raoul Chiesa and Francesca Bosco (United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute)
• Catherine Cummings and Jessica Sarra (International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children)
• Johan Martens (Child Helpline International)
• Michael Moran (Interpol)

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!

http://philly.brownstoner.com/2010/09/the_divine_lorraine_revisited.php?gallery3874Pic=2#gallery-3874

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 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.