Financial Reform: A Student Perspective

Today Financial Reform took a huge step forward in our country, the actual reform is not as important as who voted on the bill. The supporters on the panel fell across party lines with the exception of Senator Grassley (R). This showed that Republicans are moving away from the Party of No approach. Now on to the bill itself: The bill requires that most all derivative contracts be traded on a public exchange and to be cleared through a third party to guarantee payment if one of the traders went out of business. Some of you may be asking what exactly a derivative is, a derivative is simply an agreement between parties on the future price of what is being traded. Ex: I want to buy stock in Apple at $130 a share (lets pretend that the current value of the stock is $120 a share) John currently owns apple stock and wants to sell but not at the current price. Me and John strike up a derivative that I will buy 300 shares when the stock hits $130 a share. The effects of this current bill are good and minor and will be packed into a larger financial reform bill as a whole. Currently a financial reform bill is cut down party lines. The vote that happened in committee on Tuesday shows that Constituents want a larger reform, It also shows that Republicans are starting to listen to the want of the people and bi-partisan is finally entering Washington. Now many of you may be thinking this is just one man voting it doesn't tell us anything about the party or system as a whole. I must say i would normally agree with you but when you take into context of the situation of Senator Grassley it changes the skew slightly. Senator Grassley is currently up for reelection and his campaign finances are dwindling and low, plain and simply he needs to do his constituents bidding and is in need of the Republicans parties help throughout his campaign. Now i may be completely wrong and this is the last that we will here about this part of financial reform and Grassley but i hope that i am write and that Bi-partisan politics become the norm for Washington.

Legislative Session and Getting involved: A Student Perspective

So the legislative session has come and gone. It is crazy to me that we as a state pass a whole years worth of legislation in the matter of 45 days. My thoughts on this session can be summed up with a few points.

-I believe that we as a State wasted too much time on sending Anti-Federalism bills to Washington that in the end is going to cost the tax payers millions of dollars to defend in court cases.

-Although many message bills were past good legislation was also passed in my opinion. The highlighted bills are as follows

-http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/sbillhtm/sb0150s01.htm "Reading Requirements for Student Advancement-Sponsored by Karen Morgan" It is about time that we take an active role in the education of our students.

-http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/sbillhtm/SB0032S01.htm "Rainwater Harvesting" Sponsored by Scott Jenkins. Simply this bill allows for an individual to collect rain water in rain barrels to be used at a later time.

-http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/hbillhtm/HB0107.htm "Animal Shelter Requirements" Sponsored by Rep. Seelig Requires that when an animal shelter receives an animal to call the owner if the animal has tags or a microchip

-http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/sbillhtm/SB0276.htm "Promoting Healthy Lifestyle in Public Schools" Sponsored by Pat Jones While this bill was not passed the back story is quite interesting and i call the bill a success. Sen Jones originally drafted a bill banning high sugar and fatty foods from vending machines. In committee the argument was brought up that physical education and food choice education is not an active part in our childrens curriculum. Thus this bill was born while it did not have a committee hearing and was not heard on the floor it was assigned to a task force over interm to be studied. So in a nut shell it will be looked at and will most likely pass next year.


Those were just a few of the bills that I enjoyed watching unfold this session.

Now onto the next topic of my post getting involved. Next week the local caucus meetings will be held. I encourage you all to go out and find your caucus location from this site: http://www.utdemocrats.org/resources/view/144774/ for democrats and for republicans well the republican website did not put forth the effort to list the caucus locations and instead refers you to your county website for the information. So look at your county website and you will be able to find it there. This is the grassroots chance that you have to actually have a say in how you want policies to unfold in your community. YOU CAN ACTUALLY HAVE A SAY IN THE GOVERNMENTAL PROCESS :)

Thank you all and have a great week. I will do another post here soon starting with national legislation so be on the look out. Go out and be great this week

Stream Access: A Student Perspective

Education: A Student Persepctive

Education in our State and our Nation has failed. On the grading scale it would be below or at best the middle of the bell curve. The 2009 ACT test scores became available in November, Results show only 25% of Utah students who took the ACT test are ready for college English, Algebra, Social Science, and Biology. This is unacceptable for the children of this state. This Legislative session Senator Buttars has spoken out with an idea in order to save money we should do away with the 12th grade. In my opinion we need to do exactly the opposite, we need to make sure that our kids are receiving a quality education at each and every grade level. Instead we need to take the Karen Morgan approach with SB 150 "Reading Requirements for Student Advancement." http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/sbillhtm/sb0150.htm This bill would require for students to be reading at their grade level in order to advance to the next. Opponents of this bill say that this is unfair to our school children and cannot be done. I say that our current system of testing without corrected the weak areas is unfair to Utah's school children. What we have in our system today is like an unfunded mandate for our students. We are giving them these tests without giving to proper education in order for them to pass. Liken SB 150 to a scrimmage game in football, or a practice speech in debate, or trial run in a race it is to test our student before they go out for the big game: college and life. It lets us see the weaknesses in our children and allows us time to correct them, and give them a fighting chance to succeed in life. Now this is not to say that our schools will have a battle in their hands in order to achieve this goal, but that is where our children s parents need to take charge. Instead of having your child sit in front of a TV with you at nights end the answer lies in doing the exact opposite. To quote a program that was on when i was younger "take a look, it's in a book."

Climate Change: A Student Perspective

Friday morning HJR12 passed another step to being sent to the federal government. HJR12 is a resolution asking the EPA to halt all carbon emission Regulations. The supporters and sponsor of the resolution say the debate of climate change is not over and this resolution would continue the debate. I agree the debate is not over but that is exactly why this resolution should never pass. The language of the bill is nothing more than political rhetoric and is falling in line of orders from the republican leadership. Our citizens of Utah and our country deserve more from our legislators to have the correct political process take place. I agree with the premise that we need more input from both sides of the scientific argument before EPA proposes these regulations such as the cow tax. Being disrespectful in the way we ask for more input is not the way to do this. More updates are soon
coming and I will keep you all informed.

Fatherhood: A Student Perspective

Today the State of Utah got one step closer in passing a resolution to express the importance of fatherhood in a family. SCR08 Sponsered by Gene Davis is a resolution urging state agencies to take a look at fatherhood and the effects that a fatherless household entails. I agree with this resolution and the statement that it makes. This is not to say that same sex couples or single mothers are not capable of raising great children that will lead an excellent life it only states that a "father-like" figure is a neccessity in the home. Some very interesting facts that i came across while studying SCR08 startled me. The top ten to me were:

1. 24 million children (34%) live absent from their biological father.

2. Nearly 20 million children (27%) live in single-parent homes.

3. 43% of first marriages dissolve within fifteen years; about 60% of divorcing couple have children; and approximately one million children each year experience the divorce of their parents.

4. 1.35 million births (33%) occur out of wedlock

5. Children with involved loveing father are significantly more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, exhibit empathy and pro-social behavior, and avoid behaviors such as drug use, truancy, and criminal activity compared to children who have uninvolved fathers.

So simply put active "father-like" figures in a childs life is extremely important.

Utah Air Quality: A Student Perspective

In January the air quality in Utah was the worst in nation. The answer that we have been receiving from state officials and others in our state is simply wait for the next storm. Waiting for the next storm is not an answer we as citizens deserve or need. Air quality not only effects the look of our valley but the health and well being of the citizens of our state. Air quality effects our health in some major areas: our respiratory system, our cardiovascular system are the main areas hit.

Respiratory System: Not only does the air quality effect our oxygen levels we breathe in but while the air quality is poor we are breathing in major pollutants to our body. The lungs themselves are designed to bring in enormous amounts of air and deliver the contents directly to the blood system. Thus those same pollutants that we are breathing in are delivered into our blood and dispersed to our vital organs. Studies have been shown that breathing in air pollution over an extended period of time creates very similar effects to that of second hand smoke.

Cardiovascular: The cardiovascular system is made up of two distinct parts the heart and the network of blood vessels. As stated earlier when we breathe in poor air those pollutants are delivered to the blood stream which then is delivered to the heart. Exposure of the heart to these chemicals can produce some very serious conditions such as effecting the heart rhythm.

While these two systems are effected in a large way on a wide basis some specific effects have been attributed to poor air quality. Asthma is directly worsened in higher pollution cities and cases are also twice as likely to happen in such cities.
Premature births are also higher in cities with high air pollution.

Now not all of the news is bad, while our state is set up to have a higher pollution than others there are major things that we can do to improve the quality of our air. First and foremost is to make people aware and make it a priority in their lives. There are simple steps that we as citizens can take to name a couple: more fuel efficient stoves such as wood pellet stoves which can be used on a red burn day. Many citizens in our state are still using wood burning stoves that put our high pollution. Overall efficient appliances will help improve our air quality. With the increasing population on the west side our mass transit needs to extend to reach those people.

We as citizens need to let our leaders and other know that we are not ok with the air quality of this state and are expecting a change, and show a willingness on our part to change our air quality.