Citizen Bank Scandal

All over the country Citizen Banks have been accused for manipulating peoples ATM transactions and debit cards in order to produce excess overdraft fees. The people that have been cheated rallied together in a class-action lawsuit, which is a whole group opposed to one person suing Citizen Bank.The lawsuit targeted over thirty different Citizen Banks over the country, putting Citizen Bank under pressure from the masses. US District Judge James Lawrence King of Miami, and numerous other lawyers took the case to the State District level. Citizen Bank was accused for using software programs to give out false fees to people who owed nothing to the bank. The bank tried to cheat some of its customers in order to make more money for themselves. The bank was changing the order of the debit card and ATM transactions in order to generate the higher fees. Citizen Bank settled with the charges and paid 137.5 million dollars for this scandal, a rather substantial loss. The action was not settled by the judge clearly to save the reputation of Citizen Bank. Jim Hughes, spokesman of Citizens Bank said that he was glad that this issue is behind us. The trust in banks has always been an issue since the Great Depression. When the stock market crashed in at the end of the 20s, people were left with no money, and were cheated out of any money they may have had. Banks in today’s economy clearly reflect that very same dishonesty that people faced in those days.

 Probing Question: What would you have done if you were being cheated by Citizen Bank? Do you think that the 137.5 million dollars was a harsh enough sentence for what the bank has done? Do you think other major banks across the country are also doing this?

 

Conflict in Syria - NOT DUE UNTIL FRIDAY!!

First of all, please note that this is not due until Friday, May 4!!

Now, considering our conversation on foreign policy and your independent review of the just war theory, propose an American foreign policy solution to the conflict in Syria.  This will require you to read the article, "What is Happening in Syria?", attached here (under the Foreign Policy folder).  Also, listen to the NPR story to gain further perspective.  Finally, settle on one of the four foreign policy options shared in class (isolationist, etc.).  Explain why we should adopt your approach using all you know about just war theory and the tools/players discussed.

Foreign Policy Wordle - DUE FRIDAY

You assignment is to create a Wordle and print it out on 8 1/2 x 11 paper.  We will post them on our bulletin board tomorrow.  Here is how you do it:

Review the Foreign Policy Quotations handout found here (under the FOREIGN POLICY folder).  Underline all of the words you think are related/connected to your understanding of foreign policy (ex. power, leader, war, ambition, security).

Then, take that list of words and bring them to http://www.wordle.net/.  Click "Create your own".  Enter your words into the field provided.  The words you think are the most important should be entered multiple times as this will make them appear larger than others.  Then, click "go" (make sure you have entered everything correctly as it will not allow you to go back).  You can use the different tools to make your wordle unique.  Then hit print!

If you don't have a printer, click print and then drop down the printers to Adobe PDF.  This will allow you to save it to your hard drive.  Then email the file to copy.center@hudson.k12.ma.us so that you will be ready for class tomorrow.  OR do a screen capture and then send that to the copy center.  Good luck!

Affordable health care answer

I could not get a computer to do this, so I typed it in my iPhone. But the. It it deleted. But here is a snapshot of it!

Kirsten's Current Event

The main idea of this article is that Stephen Colbert, who is a comedian on Comedy Central, runs a super PAC has taken in over $1 million as of Tuesday according to a disclosure given to the F.E.C (Federal Election Commission.) His super PAC is called ‘Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow.’ Colbert said in a statement to the FEC, "Yeah! How you like me now, F.E.C? I'm rolling seven digits deep! I got 99 problems but a non-connected independent-expenditure only committee ain't one!" He has raised almost $200,000 in January alone. Expenditure means the act of spending funds. The term "independent expenditure" means “an expenditure by a person expressly advocating the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate”. The non connected part means that they can accept money from anybody and they are usually formed by Groups with an ideological mission, single-issue groups, and members of Congress.

Super PACs are independent political committees in the United States that campaigns for or against political candidates, ballot initiatives or legislation. Super PACs can't contribute directly to a candidate, but they can run favorable ads about a candidate—or negative ones about their favored candidate's opponent.

• 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt called for campaign finance reform.

· 1971, Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). This Act further defined how a PAC could operate.

· Congress in 1974 set limits on contributions to PACs and established the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

· 2010 case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled PACs may accept unlimited contributions from individuals, unions, and corporations (both for profit and not-for-profit) for the purpose of making independent expenditures.

· They helped publicize and demote candidates, depending on their popularity and amount of money.

As a super PAC the organization can raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions and other groups, as well as wealthy individuals. Speaking in character, Colbert said the money will be raised not only for political ads, but also "normal administrative expenses, including but not limited to, luxury hotel stays, private jet travel, and PAC mementos.” Colbert's super PAC is doing what other super PACs do: spending unlimited sums to overtly advocate for or against political candidates, .Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow ran ads in advance to publicize Rick Parry And while Colbert hit the campaign trail in South Carolina, the super PAC ran ads that referred to Mitt Romney as "Mitt the ripper." He uses Parry rather than Perry so Rick Perry gets less votes. To wrap it all up, he is basically using the money from his PAC to make fun of other PACs that are supporting specific candidates.

Question:

Do you agree with Super PACS, in a sense that they should or shouldn't be allowed to fund a specific candidate? Do you agree with people like Colbert, who are using money to put down or make fun of the candidates, rather than promoting one, or do you think it is a waste of money?

Affordable Care Act

• Governor Mitt Romney signed a health plan act in 2006 so legislation provides health insurance for every citizen.
• Romney signed this act into a law.
• It requires everyone to buy health insurance if their work does not provide it.
• People who recieve under three times the federal poverty level ($29,000) a year, can buy a state-subsidized health plan with no deductables and rich benefits, including dental care.
• Currently, Obama wants to change it to the Affordable Care Act.
• This law aims to improve the current health care system by increasin access to health coverage for Americans.
• This law also introduces new protections for people with health insurance.
• Health insurance plans will now cover out-of-pocket costs for many services, such as a mammogram.
• This law also will help small businesses pay for their employees health insurance.
• Not all jobs offer health insurance, or people could have been denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition, such as cancer.
• This law now offers plans for people with these pre-existing conditions, and insurance companies cannot deny coverage to these people.
• This law aims to reduce premium costs for working families and small businesses by providing tax relief.
• This law also pivots the constitutionality of its requirement that all Americans need health insurance.

**Should health insurance be a requirement in the United States or do you think it should be up to the citizen to choose?

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/03/30/if_national_health_law_falls_massachusettss_law_could_face_challenges/?page=2

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/04/18/mitt-romney-on-romneycare.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5330854

http://www.healthcare.gov/law/full/index.html

http://www.healthcareandyou.org/what-is/

US Postal Service Crisis

Last Thursday the US Postal Service announce new plans to close 223 mail plants. The move is expected to save over 2.1 billion dollars, but would put over 35,000 jobs at risk. The Postal service is making this a part of their effort to save $20 billion in the next three years, a move that will hopefully keep them afloat and competing with private companies. According to the postal service in the past year they had a net loss of 5.1 billion, which would have been roughly 10.6 billion if not for a legislative act which postponed 5.5 billion in retiree health benefits.

The postal service is in debt due to a decline in the use of their services because of competing private companies such as UPS. The United States Postal Service is required to have across the board prices, which reduces its ability to compete with private companies that can change their prices at will. It also is in debt due to a congressional mandate that they must prefund retirement health care benefits. "Passage of legislation is urgently needed that provides the postal service with the speed and flexibility needed to cut costs that are not under our controll, including employee health care costs," said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe.

The plant closings are the latest in a series of moves being considered by the Post office. The Postal Service is also considering cancelling Saturday services and hiking the price of stamps to 50 cents. Under the plan nearly every state would lose at least one mail processing plant with California losing 14, New York losing 12 and Illinois faces the loss of 9 plants. A single plant in Tulsa Oklahoma employs 600 people, and is slated to be closed. According to the Postal Service if nothing is done by the government to bail the Post Office out of debt then they will face 18 Billion in losses by 2015.

Question: How do you think the United States government can save the Postal Service? Or do you think they should allow it to dissolve by itself due to competing private companies?

Sorry, I pressed save instead of publish originally...that's why this is so late.