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This is the end of American Government Class of 2008 Blog.

May 23, 2008 the class has graduated...good luck out there.

Jeff Greenwood- Graduating Class of One

Jeff Greenwood is in a class by himself.

He was the only student to graduate from Opheim High School this year, but the small event Friday drew a big name. Gov. Brian Schweitzer gave the commencement address.

Greenwood, who plans to attend Dickinson State University in North Dakota, said the high school is the "hub of activity" for rural Opheim, a town about 10 miles south of the Canadian border.

"The student-to-teacher ratio is pretty good," said Greenwood, who is the student body president and, of course, the senior class president.

Greenwood had a few classmates before high school, but his last remaining classmate moved to Utah during freshman year. He took some classes alone his senior year while sharing others with juniors at the school.

"You get to know everybody and you're friends with everybody," Greenwood said. "At the same time, you can't get away with anything."

Principal LeRoy Nelson, who has also been school superintendent, said he thought this was the first time the school graduated just one student. Six students graduated last year and 12 are on track to graduate in 2009.

Cyber bullying Mom Charged

She was thirteen years old and thought that she was having a MySpace online romance with a sixteen-year-old boy named "Josh Evans." Four weeks later, "Josh" broke off correspondence, allegedly telling the girl that the world would be a better place without her. In response, she hung herself and died a day later.

Now the Department of Justice says that "Josh" was really Lori Drew, 49, of O'Fallon, Missouri. Drew will stand trial in Los Angeles, accused of providing false information to get a MySpace account and violating MySpace terms to harass and harm other people—specifically, a girl -Megan Meier-the same age as her daughter who was a neighbor.

13 Year Old Megan

Drew was supposedly talking to Megan via the Internet to find out what Megan was saying about Drew's daughter, who was a former friend.

In Missouri, the girl's mother, Tina Meier, told the Associated Press, "I'm thrilled that this woman is going to face charges." Megan's father, Ron Meier, 38, said he began to cry "tears of joy" when he heard of the indictment. "She should be punished because she knew exactly what she was doing," Megan's mother, Tina Meier, told CBS' The Early Show , "She was playing a game with my 13-year-old daughter. And there is absolutely no reason that she should be able to be walking on the street... We were served a life sentence without Megan, and she should be serving a life sentence."

This is the first case of its kind. What do you think?

Prom Dress Lands Teen in Cuffs

Houston Senior Marche Taylor did not make it past the lobby. School officials stopped her and refused to let her enter prom because her dress violated school dress code policy. She was told she would have to go home and change if she wanted to attend prom.

"The young lady came to the prom wearing an inappropriate dress after the students were told what the guidelines were," Houston Independent School District press secretary Terry Abbott said.

The school guidelines said, " Only one inch of an attendants' midsection was permitted to be shown and slits in dresses could be no more than three inches above the knee. Additionally, see-through fabrics should not be worn in places which reveal private body parts."

Students planning to attend the function were required to sign the guideline document and return it to their homeroom teacher. If students did not sign the guidelines and adhere to the dress code, they would not be allowed to attend the prom, school officials said.

Taylor failed to leave the prom when she was asked to, according to Abbott, and instead began making a scene. Abbott said Taylor began yelling and acting "belligerently." "After she was told she would not be allowed in unless she went home and changed, [Taylor] became aggressive and belligerent and eventually police were called to escort her from the building," Abbott said. Police hired internally by the school district handcuffed the teen and placed her in a patrol car until she calmed down, Abbott said.

No official arrest was made.

Meanwhile, the story has made national news and Taylor's picture has been all over the internet and TV news. She does not regret the dress and has become "famous" because of it.

New Laws for Teen Dirvers??

MN Legislation is getting close to passing new laws restricting teen drivers. The laws would:
1) Make it illegal for teens to drive between midnight and 5am during the first 6 months after getting their drivers license.
2) May only have ONE teen in the car with them during the first 6 months of having a license.
3) During the second 6 months, a teen driver cold only have 3 or fewer other teens in the car with them.
This laws would not restrict the number of family members allowed in the car.
What do you think? Should it be passed???

What are you going to do????????? An easy one.....

You are graduating soon.......you classmates are wondering....what are you doing next year? If going to school, where? What do you plan to be? If you are going to work, where? Basically, what are your plans????

More frivolous lawsuits

In 2004, Timothy Dumouchel, from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin sued a television company for making his wife fat and transforming his children into “lazy channel surfers”. He said: “I believe the reason I smoke and drink every day and my wife is overweight is because we watched the TV everyday for the last four years”. The case kept at least two of America’s then 1,058,662 lawyers occupied for a while, but did not go to the Supreme Court.

In 1991, Richard Harris sued Anheiser-Busch for $10,000 for false advertising. Harris (no relation to the above-mentioned burglar) claimed to suffer from emotional distress in addition to mental and physical injury. Why? Because when he drank beer, he didn’t have any luck with the ladies, as promised in the TV ads. Harris also didn’t like that he got sick sometimes after he drank. The case was thrown out of court.

In 1995, Robert Lee Brock, a Virginia prison inmate, decided to take a new approach to the legal system. After filing a number of unsuccessful lawsuits against the prison system, Brock sued himself. He claimed his civil rights and religious beliefs were violated when he allowed himself to get drunk. After all, it was inebriation that created his cycle of committing crimes and being incarcerated. He demanded $5 million from himself. However, since he didn’t earn an income behind bars, he felt the state should pay. Needless to say, the case was thrown out.

Top Frivolous Lawsuits

In February 1992, Stella Liebeck ordered a cup of coffee to go from McDonalds. Liebeck was sitting in the passenger seat of her nephew’s car, which was pulled over so she could add sugar to her coffee. While removing the cup’s lid, Liebeck spilled her hot coffee, burning her legs. It was determined that Liebeck suffered third degree burns on over six percent of her body. Originally, Liebeck sought $20,000 in damages. McDonalds refused to settle out of court. However, they should have. Liebeck was ultimately awarded $200,000 in compensatory damages, which was reduced to $160,000 because she was found to be twenty percent at fault. She was also awarded $2.7 million in punitive damages.

In September 1988, two Akron, Ohio-based carpet layers named Gordon Falker and Gregory Roach were severely burned when a three and a half gallon container of carpet adhesive ignited when the hot water heater it was sitting next to kicked on. Both men felt the warning label on the back of the can was insufficient. Words like “flammable” and “keep away from heat” didn’t prepare them for the explosion. They filed suit against the adhesive manufacturers, Para-Chem. A jury obviously agreed since the men were awarded $8 million for their troubles.

In 1992, 23-year old Karen Norman accidentally backed her car into Galveston Bay after a night of drinking. Norman couldn’t operate her seat belt and drowned. Her passenger managed to disengage herself and make it to shore. Norman ’s parents sued Honda for making a seat belt their drunken daughter (her blood alcohol level was .17 – nearly twice the legal limit) couldn’t open underwater. A jury found Honda seventy-five percent responsible for Karen’s death and awarded the Norman family $65 million. An appeals court threw out the case.

In May 2003, Stephen Joseph of San Francisco sued Kraft foods for putting trans-fat in their Oreo cookies. Joseph wanted an injunction to order Kraft to stop selling Oreos to children. Once the media caught wind of Joseph’s lawsuit, the media blitz became too much for him to handle. He decided to drop the suit.

In 1997, Larry Harris of Illinois broke into a bar owned by Jessie Ingram. Ingram, the victim of several break-ins, had recently set a trap around his windows to deter potential burglars. Harris, 37, who was under the influence of both alcohol and drugs, must have missed the warning sign prominently displayed in the window. He set off the trap as he entered the window, electrocuting himself. The police refused to file murder charges. Harris’s family saw it differently, however, and filed a civil suit against Ingram. A jury originally awarded the Harris family $150,000. Later, the award was reduced to $75,000 when it was decided Harris should share at least half of the blame.

What do you think??? Are these cases wasting the time of our courts???

Steel Pennies???

It now costs more than a penny to make a penny---1.26 cents to be exact. And the cost of a nickel is more than 7½ cents.

Surging prices for copper, zinc and nickel have some in Congress trying to bring back the steel-made pennies of World War II, and maybe using steel for nickels, as well.

Keeping the coin content means “contributing to our national debt by almost as much as the coin is worth,” Congressmen Gutierrez said.

"People still want pennies, which is why we’re still making them,” Senator Moy said.

Even Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson acknowledged in a radio interview earlier this year that getting rid of the penny made sense but wasn’t politically doable — and certainly nothing he is planning to tackle during the Bush team’s final months in office.

In 2007, the Mint produced 7.4 billion pennies and 1.2 billion nickels, according to the House Financial Services Committee.

FYI--The dime costs a little over 4 cents to make, while the quarter costs almost 10 cents. The dollar coin, meanwhile, costs about 16 cents to make, according to the US Mint.

What do you think??? steel pennies?

Nebraska State Senator Sues God

State Sen. Ernie Chambers is suing God. He said that he is doing this to prove a point about frivolous lawsuits.

The lawsuit accuses God "of making and continuing to make terroristic threats of grave harm to innumerable persons, including constituents of Plaintiff who Plaintiff has the duty to represent."

It says God has caused "fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects and the like."

The suit also says God has caused "calamitous catastrophes resulting in the wide-spread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants including innocent babes, infants, children, the aged and infirm without mercy or distinction."Chambers also says God "has manifested neither compassion nor remorse, proclaiming that defendant will laugh" when calamity comes.

Chambers's suit was filed in protest at frivolous suits in general. It is not known when or if any hearings have been scheduled.

TeEn RePeLlAnT???

A wall-mounted gadget designed to drive away loiterers with a shrill, piercing noise audible only to teens and young adults is infuriating civil liberties groups and tormenting young people after being introduced into the United States. Almost 1,000 units of the device, called the Mosquito, have been sold in the United States and Canada. The North America importer of the device sold under the company name Kids Be Gone. The high-frequency sound has been likened to fingernails dragged across a chalkboard or a pesky mosquito buzzing in your ear. It can be heard by most people in their teens and early 20s who still have sensitive hair cells in their inner ears. "It's horrible, loud and irritating," said, Eddie Holder, 15, who sprinted from his apartment for school one morning covering one ear with his hand to block out the noise. The device was installed outside the building to drive away loiterers. "I have to hurry out of the building because it's so annoying. It's this screeching sound that you have to get away from, or it will drive you crazy." The town of Great Barrington, Mass., banned the device last year after a movie theater owner installed one. "There was an outcry, and people didn't like the idea of torturing kids' ears like that," said Ronald Dlugosz, a town official. "People here don't tolerate that kind of stuff." Milford, Conn., faced similar resistance when the city announced plans to install the Mosquito in a park. They increased police patrols instead. Elsewhere, there have been few or no complaints. A mall in Maryland announced plans to introduce the buzz to disperse skateboarders, and officials and police said they haven't had any outcry. A school district in Columbia, S.C., recently installed one on the front grill of a school vehicle and another in a parking lot where students gather after high school games, with no complaints. "We'd have crowds gather in parking lots, and there'd be the usual trash talk, then you'd have fights," said Rick McGee, the school district's emergency services manager. "Now there's no confrontation at all, they just get aggravated and leave within a few minutes." A spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union said the organization does not yet have a position on the issue. But James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Boston's Northeastern University, said crowd-monitoring devices in the hands of private businesses and citizens is "dangerous." What do you think???

McCain Calls for Summer Vacation from Gas Taxes--MIDQUARTER BREAK..7 MORE TO END OF SCHOOL YEAR-FROM HERE

John McCain presented two ideas yesterday.

1)For the federal government to free people from paying gasoline taxes this summer.

To help people weather the downturn immediately, McCain urged Congress to institute a "gas-tax holiday" by suspending the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. He also renewed his call for the United States to stop adding to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and thus lessen to some extent the worldwide demand for oil.

Combined, he said, the two proposals would reduce gas prices, which would have a trickle-down effect, and "help to spread relief across the American economy."

2) The federal government should ensure that college students can secure loans this fall.

Lawmakers, students and financial experts are worried that the credit crisis might make it more difficult for students and their families to find loans. Nearly two dozen lenders have dropped out of the federally backed student loan program.

Students, McCain said, "should not be denied an education because the recklessness of others has made credit too hard to obtain."

(He also proposed some ideas to reform the tax system in the US and raise the deduction for dependent children from $3500 to $7000.)

What do you think of his ideas????

Mn Vote-Medical Marijuana

A proposal allowing patients with cancer and other debilitating illnesses to use marijuana has cleared its final legislative committee.

The 13-4 vote by the House Ways and Means Committee means the bill's next stop is the House floor.

The Senate approved the medical marijuana bill last year.

But Governor Tim Pawlenty remains opposed because police and sheriffs say the legislation would make it harder for them to enforce drug laws.

Those who oppose the bill say it would make marijuana more accessible to those who aren't sick. Remember the news clip we watched about California and its medical marijuana problems??? What do you think about having it come to MN?

Letter format

When writing a letter to an elected official-use a proper format. This not only looks better, but will ensure that you receive a response!!
See below:

March 16, 2001

Dear Mr. English:

The first paragraph of a typical business letter is used to state the main point of the letter. Begin with a friendly opening; then quickly transition into the purpose of your letter. Use a couple of sentences to explain the purpose, but do not go in to detail until the next paragraph.

Beginning with the second paragraph, state the supporting details to justify your purpose. These may take the form of background information, statistics or first-hand accounts. A few short paragraphs within the body of the letter should be enough to support your reasoning.

Finally, in the closing paragraph, briefly restate your purpose and why it is important. If the purpose of your letter is employment related, consider ending your letter with your contact information. However, if the purpose is informational, think about closing with gratitude for the reader's time.

Sincerely,

Lucy Letter

123 Winner's Road
New Employee Town, PA 12345

Congress questions Big Oil’s big profits

Top executives of the five biggest U.S. oil companies were pressed by Congress to explain the soaring fuel prices amid huge industry profits and why they weren’t investing more to develop renewable energy source such as wind and solar. The executives said they understood that high energy costs are hurting consumers, but deflected blame, arguing that their profits — $123 billion last year — were in line with other industries. “The anger level is rising significantly,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., relating what he had heard in his district during the recent two-week congressional recess. “On April Fool’s Day, the biggest joke of all is being played on American families by Big Oil,” Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said as his committee began hearing from the oil company executives. The House last year and again on Feb. 27 approved legislation that would have ended the tax breaks for the oil giants, while using the revenue to support wind, solar and other renewable fuels and incentives for energy conservation. The measure has not passed the Senate. Write your senator--tell them what you think about this issue. And/ or comment here

Youngest Mayors in US

Sam Juhl of Roland, Iowa is among the youngest mayors in the US. He ran for mayor unopposed in 2005 and won-he was a high school senior at the time. He ran again in 2007 and won 57% of the vote. He is now running for State Representative.





Michael Sessions of Hillsdale, Michigan also won in 2005 while he was a senior in high school. He, however, did not run unopposed. Sessions defeated incumbent mayor Doug Ingles, age 51, as a WRITE-IN candidate.








Christopher Seeley was also elected mayor in 2005. Seeley was a high school senior when he won the election in Linesville, Pennsylvania. He ran against long-time Linesville Borough Council Member Kevin McGrath.

All three are still serving as mayor. How's that for Government in Action credit???

Youngest Super Delegate

Jason Rae is the youngest Super Delegate. He is from Wisconsin and has pledged his support to Barack Obama. “As someone elected to represent that generation, it seems fairly clear that they are speaking out in favor of Senator Obama,” he said.

“I was on the fence and had been the target of heavy lobbying from both campaigns,” he explained in an e-mail. For. Sen. Barack Obama, “I had heard from Senator (John) Kerry and met with Michelle Obama. For Sen. Hillary Clinton, “I met with Chelsea Clinton and spoke to Madeline Albright and President Clinton.”

What is a Super Delegate????

Right to Bear Arms heard by Supreme Court

In 1976, Washington, DC passed a law banning handguns. In 2003 , Richard Heller, a security guard, and others, sued the District of Columbia after it rejected his application to buy a handgun for home protection.

"Make no mistake about it, this is a public safety case," D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said. "The reason the city council enacted the gun ban in the 1970s because crime was getting out of control and guns were the cause of a disproportionate number of fatalities. When the gun ban became law, violent crime dropped significantly in the city and has steadily gone down since then."

The District of Columbia law not only bans ownership of handguns, but requires other guns like rifles and shotguns that may legally be kept in the home to be disassembled or kept under a trigger lock.

The case has been appealed to the Supreme Court. The court decided to hear the case and is expected to make a decision in June. The Supreme Court has not heard a case on the 2nd Amendment since 1939. This case is being called the most important gun case in 70 years.

The Second Amendment reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The good news for gun rights advocates, is that the court seems prepared to rule that the Second Amendment ensures individuals the right to own guns for personal use. The more complicated and unsettled issue, however, is whether the Second Amendment allows government restrictions on firearms use in the name of public safety.

Because none of the justices now on the court have ever confronted a Second Amendment case, any prediction about how the court will rule is little more than pure speculation.


What do you think? Should residents of DC be allowed to have handguns? What about the rates of violent crime?

Political Parties

What does this mean?