Problem Solving: Criminal Justice

              This blog is from MeanRachel titled "An Endorsement: On Problem Solving and Criminal Justice," by Rachel Farris.  This blog mainly talks about Rachel's concerns on the topic of poverty and poor decision-making that is emanate in the area that she lives in.  She includes many examples of the kinds of problems that she is constantly seeing such as homeless people asking for money at her doorstep, people trying to sell Popsicle sticks through a shopping cart, people in need of health care, etc.
              I believe that Rachel's main claim in this article, however, is that some people need to address these problems and make them right. One person she suggested was a man named Charlie Baird who is running for the Travis County District Attorney's Race.  According to his claims, "has part in solving them (criminal problems such as poverty and poor healthcare)."  This is the main reason why Rachel is supporting him and his race to become the district attorney is because she feels like it is one of many ways that she can help solve the problems in her neighborhood.  That is why her intended audience in this case would be people just as herself, living in poverish neighborhoods facing crime everyday and whom want justice.
             I agree on this particular topic (lowering poverty rates and healthcare) because I too have sympathy for those who live in poverty for their entire lives.  I too have experienced this in an early year of my life and I can assure you, it is not pretty.  As for Charlie Baird's cause, I also believe it is a great step in the right position.  Promising the help and give aid to many poverty families, much in Travis county, is a great point to address because sometimes that's all it takes, is a little promise.  A little promise gives many families hope for their, sometimes what feels, hopeless lives, and to shine light where needed.  I hope that in the future, more and more people will enforce many more problems just like these.

Is Apple Losing Its Touch?

This news article is from the statesman titled, "Now king of hill, Apple likely to start losing innovative edge," written by Joe Nocera.  This article basically talks about how Apple(the most valuable company in America) is starting to degrade drastically, especially after the death of its chief executive, Steve Jobs.  The author talks about many main flaws in Apple's newest project The iPhone5, such as the new "poorly unmitigated disaster" map application.  It was pointed out that this was a "inexplicable mistake" and many even compared the new application similar to that of MapQuest on a BlackBerry, which we all can inter that it is down there in terms of map technology.

The author's main audience of focus in this article is most likely to all Apple users or fan-boys. According to the way that this author argued you can infer that he does not support Apple much at all, especially after seeing the products produced by after post-Jobs.  He points out multiple times that Apple products in Job's era were so "amazing and innovative" as if they had no flaws at all; which in theory, everything has flaws.

Even so, he still sticks to his claim that Apple is starting to lose their innovative edge, that of which I can agree partially on.  Yes, Apple has made a big mistake by dropping the already great Google Maps to replace with their own product has turned to backfire on them, I'm sure they realize the mistake and will only move on from then.  Apple is still a young company which has many years of improvement ahead of them.

The Rainy Day Fund. What is it?

On September 12, 2011, Claire Cardona posts an article on the Texas Tribune titled, "Can Texas Use the Rainy Day Fund to Fight Wildfires?"  This article is basically about a fund that has been saved up for cases such as wildfires, natural disasters, etc. that would be substantial enough to cover the damages that would have been done such as the loss of homes and expensive household items that may have been destroyed.  Many believe that this fund is being wasted away or "stored" for no good reason and that there are better uses the money could go to.  Gov. Rick Perry however disagrees.  In early 2011, Gov. Perry has "led the fight to prevent the state's Rainy Day Fund from being used to help fill the state's enormous budget shortfall for the 2012-13 biennium."  After seeing large disasters and aftermaths such as the earthquake/tsunami that devasted Japan in March, Gov. Perry believes that it is a type of "insurance policy against major natural disasters" and should therefore be kept safe.  To do this however, you would need an agreement upon the Texas Legislature by a two-thirds majority of the state House and Senate during a legislative session.  Since the 82nd session was already closed on May 31, 2011, the next session won't be until 2013 until something could be done.  This would be a substantial case to not take likely, considering that it is "estimated to contain $6.4billion dollars by August 2013."

Stage One Assignment

 Hi everybody,

My name is Jimmy Pham and I am a first year college student at ACC.  I watch television a lot but unfortunately not the news, which makes me not the typical "political-advised" person to talk to.  I'm am here taking this class to change that! Hopefully talking this class will allow me to be more educated in the world of politics that we so live in today and be able to carry out conversations regarding political type views and such.  And as for the quizzes we took on Tuesday, i knew where Dr. Pepper was invented...Lol.  ***FOREVER A MATH/SCIENCE GEEK***