Prof KFVResearch Methods and Super Tuesday This semester my students are in two sections of a research methods course in the Political Science Department. Over the last two weeks we have been using polling data from Super Tuesday and exit polling after Super Tuesday to test some hypotheses (and reliability of polling and exit polling) and create some homemade data visualizations. We used data from California, Texas, and Massachusetts along with data on African-American and Latinx likely voters to make predictions about Super Tuesday and then the exit polling to examine how well the polls predicted the primaries.
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Prof. KFVProf. KFVStudent podcasts for the California State and Local Politics and the Politics, Immigration, and Citizenship courses are officially in, check out our channel on Spotify and on iTunes. The podcasts and the accompanying transcripts will be posted over the following days. Updates to the podcasts will be posted here.
Round two of the podcasts will be posted in approximately four weeks. In the meantime we will post the results of our non-random California Public Opinion survey. This public opinion survey was developed by the students in the California State and Local Politics course along with the students from the Politics, Immigration, and Citizenship course. Prof. KFVPodcast #1 proposals for Immigration course Student in the Politics, Immigration, and Citizenship course have also been working on their first podcast proposals. The proposals include a wide variety of immigrant groups, immigration policies, and time periods. There are several podcast proposals examining the impact of DACA (social, economic), the possible outcomes if DACA is rescinded, and the possibility of Congress passing a DREAM Act. Several podcasts will focus on the impact of deportations under the current administration, specifically the use of private prisons and detention centers, increased interior enforcement, the impact on mixed-status families, and the role/impact of ICE in local communities.
Many students are interested in explaining/exploring how refugees are treated once they reach the US, what types of accommodations are provided, and how refugees from different areas are treated differently (Cuban versus Central American). Another group of podcasts focuses on immigrants, and the children of immigrants, entry into the polity-how or when do these groups engage in politics? A few students will be examining the differences between the processes of integration, assimilation, and multiculturalism within immigrant families. Students are also taking on projects looking at the impact of the REAL ID Act on immigrant communities and how immigrant workers are treated within particular industries, like the meatpacking industry in the US. The first podcasts will be finished in approximately three weeks, stay tuned! Prof. KFVComments on the podcasting project for California State and Local Politics Students have turned in their proposals for their podcasts and the topics cover a broad range of issues of importance to California politics and policy. There will be several podcasts covering immigration in California including the impact of DACA, more restrictive immigration policies at the federal level, and the impact of immigrants on the local economy. There will also be several podcasts on higher education, including access to higher education and increasing levels of student debt.
There are podcasts that will examine environmental issues, including wildfires, water use and management, and alternative forms of energy. Another set of podcasts look at economic issues in California, including raising the minimum wage, wage gaps between racial/ethnic groups, and availability and affordability of housing. Students are also interested in a variety of health and social issues, including homelessness, maternal health, access to mental health, access to disabled services, vaping regulations, and vaccinations. Lastly, there are podcasts grouped around broad criminal justice related themes. Podcasts cover prison reform in California, enforcement of existing gun laws, reform of gun laws, and prison infrastructure. Students will be practicing recording a small section of their podcast in class, by interviewing one another. Podcast #1 will be posted in approximately three weeks! By, The Professor KFVFall 2019 teaching Politics, Immigration, and Citizenship and California State and Local Politics This fall semester my students will creating their own podcasts! One class will tackle immigration issues, and the other class will be podcasting on issues of importance in California state and local politics.
Why podcasting? One of the things I try to stress in the classes I teach is that we have to be able to publicly communicate our research to others in a medium that the average voter/citizen/resident/policymaker can understand. In previous semesters students have created voter guides and election post-mortem analyses aimed at educating the average potential voter. This semester my students will tackle a relatively newer medium, podcasting, to help disseminate their research. Students will create two podcasts throughout the semester, the podcasts will be made available to the general public on streaming services. Students will also produce the accompanying transcripts and Twitter posts advertising their podcasts. MTVAmerican Governments In California, there is currently a large homeless population. In the past years the number of homeless has increased, which is why it is an important issue. It is an issue that is constantly talked about in the media especially in state and local news. It is a critical issue in the state of California so much that officials have called it a crisis. The recent data reporting the number of those experiencing homelessness, on any given day in California, is 129,972 (U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2018). Homelessness can be caused by lack of housing, lack of income to afford housing and other factors such as health problems (National Alliance to End Homelessness). Historically, the cost of housing in California did not directly affect homelessness. However in recent years the increase in rent and housing accounts for the rise in homelessness.
This issue is partly due to the cost of housing in California . The cost of rent and housing is high and on the rise and this impacts the number of homeless people. Affordable housing is less available forcing people to live in the streets and face bad living conditions. Even with the help of federal and state housing projects, rental assistance programs, and efforts to establish more affordable housing, the homelessness crisis continue. Homelessness mainly effects those over the age of 24, however the number of homeless youth, even of those enrolled in school is alarming. Males showed higher rates of homelessness and did people of the White race. In California about 34,000 of the reported homelessness, were experiencing chronic homelessness (U.S HUD). The state views homelessness as a serious problem. This year, Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has dedicated 500 million dollars from the state budget to combat homelessness. Governors (Dillon, 2019). California state mayors, have pushed for more money to combat this issue locally. In Sacramento, Mayor Darrell Steinberg has strongly addressed homelessness by proposing temporary solutions such as new shelters. Others city officials do not agree with the amount of spending on homelessness due to the fact that no permanent solutions, like offering permanent housing, are resulting from the funding (Clift, 2019). Organizations are groups that are putting efforts towards reducing the number of homeless population in California. They believe that programs should be available to help the homeless and to provide the services which they need. Homelessness was not a main issue discussed in the presidential election. Presidential candidates chose to focus on other issues within the country.. The topic of affordable housing was however a topic of the presidential election. This issue was addressed by Hillary Clinton, however Donald Trump avoided making the issue a main priority. Homelessness was a main issue addressed in the California Governor election. Newly elected Governor Gavin Newsom has began efforts that would help the homeless. The recent 2018 California Governor election, where Gavin Newsom became Governor has impacted my issue. The governor has made addressing homelessness in California a priority. He has created a new commission named the commission on homelessness and supportive housing. This commission is led by the mayor of Sacramento Darrell Steinberg. Locally, aside from his new position, the fairly new mayor of Sacramento Darrell Steinberg has impacted the issue of homelessness in a positive way. This commission can serve as a long-term impact on homelessness because of its purpose to address homelessness. This commission is supported by California leaders that continue to work together throughout time to find solutions to decrease the homeless population. In the short term the elected state officials continue to work on creating temporary housing and shelters for the homeless, that are offered year round. It is still not clear if the 2020 election will have a impact on the issue of homelessness. However presidential candidates of the 2020 election, like senator of New Jersey Cory Booker, have the history of supporting bills that focus on efforts to reduce poverty. So far Cory Booker, is one of the only presidential candidates that has the bigger background in issues like poverty and homelessness. VVAmerican Governments The fact of the matter is that we rely on taxes and the government to ensure that we can safely and smoothly operate throughout our daily lives. There is almost nothing that isn’t in some way or another affected by a tax. During the last election, California had a few propositions that would use taxation in order to fulfill a need in the state. One of those initiatives was to repeal the 2017 Gas taxes. The gas tax was passed to charge an additional 12 cents a gallon for gasoline and 20 cents a gallon for diesel for the maintenance and building of new and existing infrastructure. There are pros and cons for the gas tax but ultimately the majority voted NO on the prop and the gas tax wasn’t repealed. Underneath the surface, the gas tax contained another important component to it.
On top of the extra taxes for buying gasoline or diesel for your car, Proposition 6 would also add another step, voter approval, to the process of making any other laws that would tax vehicle or gas fees. This would not only get rid of the gas tax altogether but make it harder for one to be created again in the future. At least that’s what the description of the initiative would say. The amount of tax on fuel might not seem like much in the short term but if you keep track that amount of money can add up really quickly, especially with gas guzzling or work vehicles. Another reason this was such an important bill was because it was supposed to make more Republicans come out to vote for it. It was backed primarily by Carl Demaio and the majority of Republicans. They explained that the bill hits poorer families harder that count every penny but the rich can careless if they pay an extra dollar or two every time they pull up the a gas pump. Over the course of a year that’s about 500 dollars that those people don’t have now. It wouldn’t be such a problem if everyone could afford a new Tesla Model E but that is just not realistic. Hybrid and Electric cars are still pretty expensive so sadly many people still drive gasoline and diesel cars. The democrats believe that roads are vital for the economy because good infrastructure means that transportation is possible. If transportation is possible then more things can be sold and that means more money in the economy. What this means now for California is that things will remain the same as they were before November 6, 2018. There will still be additional tax on top of every gallon and that accumulated amount of money will hopefully make its way into building new infrastructure, clean and maintaining the upkeep of our highways, and paying the people who will be doing all of that. If we take the following fact into account, “Californians pay 95.5 cents to the government on every gallon of gas. That’s about $18 in taxes and fees on a typical fill-up – much more than motorists pay in other states” (ballotpedia.com), there should be no problem at all when it comes to gathering up money for infrastructure. The proposition might’ve been knocked down at the ballot but we can still expect to see something similar for the 2020 election. There is already an initiative cleared for circulation that will be similar to the 2018 Prop 6. “Transportation Lockboxes, and Terminate High-Speed Rail Project Initiative” will do exactly what the title says. Another factor of the initiative would be to make local governments in charge of infrastructure and that they would need to hire private sector companies to do the jobs but the taxes collected for the projects would go into a special account that would only be designated for those purposes. It looks like Carl DeMaio again in trying to get something to work. The approach he is taking this time is if he can’t strike down the 2017 gas tax completely, he would like to at least make sure that the money is safe and is spent wisely. The lockbox would ensure on the money being spent on the right things and hiring private sector companies would give the local businesses more jobs and opportunities as well as strengthening the overall local economies. Whether or not the right decision for the state were made, the majority of voters have chosen better roads for everyone at the expense of a little more at the pump. The 2017 Gas Tax is here to stay and its effectiveness can be observed already. Many projects have been observed taking place on local highways and streets. The taxpayers dollars are already at work and new smooth roads are always appreciated. Let’s hope for California’s sake that they can continue to reap the benefits of driving on a new, clean smooth road. SMAmerican Politics Women have been fighting for the ability to possess their own rights since the mid 1800’s and since then it has been such a hassle to have supreme sources acknowledge their requests. The right to choose an Abortion has been a public controversy since the 1960’s; the dispute of being pro and anti abortion is the disagreement regarding a women’s right to choose to legally request an abortion or possibly doing something far more dangerous. A woman can choose to have an abortion for many reasons, but the main reason is not being stable enough to bring a child into the world. A woman knows if they are financially ready to support another human being, emotionally stable to be as attentive as possible to a baby, and overall equipped to raise a child; if one is not ready for any of the given obligations being a parent consists they should have the option to say no to bringing a child into the world that has not guarantee of receiving everything it deserves. It is not a matter of terminating a child because one cannot manage to practice safe sex, it is a matter of not knowing how to become proficient in such a fulfilled commitment and possibly not having enough support to raise a human being.
People often believe that a woman should have their own rights to make any decision they want to, especially when it comes to their body; these people tend to be referred to as Feminists. Feminists are obsessed with women gaining the power and rights that they should have had when the legality of humans started. They tend to be the people who are in complete support of having abortion as an option. A feminist may also believe that the woman and the woman only should decide what they do with their body. However, abortion can be affected by anybody involved with the female who is pregnant for instance, the father. Some people believe that the person who got the female pregnant should not have an opinion about whether the woman should decide to get an abortion or keep the baby because they have no say with how a woman should do with their body. This is slightly true, but not everybody tends to consider the feelings or intentions of the male who is apart of the creation of the baby. A male is just as apart of the creation of a baby as a female, so they should have an opinion on whether their partner should keep the child or not. Of course they should not have the right to tell a woman whether or not to get an abortion, but they do deserve a discussion regarding what may be the best solution for the male, female, and fetus. The altercation between pro and anti abortion is ongoing because there seems to be people who want to take this right away from women by making abortion illegal. There is plenty of movements (pro and anti) that happen during elections that attempt to convince voters to vote for the right choice. A very popular organization that has been started to encourage women reproductive rights like contraceptives and abortion is a largely funded program called Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is usually mentioned during elections; the argument is whether to keep an organization that promotes contraceptives and abortion or to cancel the entire institution. During the election in 2018, a particular candidate that was very involved with the issue of attempting to prohibit Planned Parenthood as well as the services they provide was Brett Kavanaugh. He was nominated by President Donald Trump to run for a position in the Supreme Court. He was then later apart of a huge scandal before being confirmed; he was convicted of sexual assault and misconduct so the confirmation was put on hold. Apart from this scandal, Justice Kavanaugh’s has some input about abortion. Justice Kavanaugh claims to be Pro life, but two weeks into his new position in the Supreme Court he was offered a case that was intended to review court decisions that have been made that had temporarily cut Louisiana and Kansas’ funding for Planned Parenthood. He and another judge denied the request knowing that they would not receive the four votes they needed to review the consultation. This made people reconsider if he was really pro life being that he declined the first opportunity he was given to hear a case; especially because it was about Planned Parenthood a major institution that provides services for pro life. If reproductive resources are taken away from women it can cause major long term impacts. Women weren’t born with rights they had to work and fight for them. If abortion is completely banned in this country, females can be willing to do something desperate like going to a foreign country to get a quick abortion or if they decide to have the baby they may not be ready to give the newborn the attentiveness and affection it needs. Therefore, abortion should be kept as an option. RFAmerican Governments A five to ten-year ban should be placed on animal abusers. Five year if it is a misdemeanor and ten years if it is a felony. Animal Abuse is defined as the neglect, not give nutriment or have a safe environment for your pet, anything cruel, anything to inflict harm to your pet, and most recently animal hoarding. On the other side having a five to ten-year ban on animal abusers can be bad not for the person abusing the animal but for the family members. The abuser may be the father or an older person according to the Human Society “predominantly men under the age of 30 and women over the age of 60 intentionally abuse their pets.” But if the ban is put on them other members of the family wanting the animal back would not be able to if they are in the same household for that specific time period depending on if it was a misdemeanor or a felony.
Another viewpoint discussed in “Five-year ban on animal ownership for felony abusers?” By the Citizens Court of New Hampshire states that “...that judges already have the power to ban offenders from owning animals for any amount of time. A mandatory minimum of five years will unnecessarily tie judges’ hands when a more nuanced approach may benefit an offender’s rehabilitation.” Animal Abuse has been around for many years ranging back to “Fighting dogs for sport, for example, has been traced back as far as the 12th Century” (Learning to Give) so this issue has been going on for a long time. Now animal abuse can be seen in farms, puppy mills, and at home. According to the Article “The Animal-Cruelty Syndrome” by Charles Siebert Before 1990, only six states had felony provisions in their animal--cruelty laws; now 46 do. In majority of the state’s animal abuse is seen as much as a felony. Some of the states include California, Florida, Colorado and many more. In other states animal abuse is seen as much as a misdemeanor such as North Dakota and South Dakota. California in 1988 on future ownership states that it may can ownership as a condition of probation but states like Delaware put in force in 1994 that shall ban future ownership for 5 years for misdemeanor; and 15 for a felony The relationship between animal abuse and other types of abuse can be related because if they can abuse the animal, they also can-do other things that are not morally right. According to Charles Seibert in his article “Significant reason for the increased attention to animal cruelty is a mounting body of evidence about the link between such acts and serious crimes of more narrowly human concern, including illegal firearms possession, drug trafficking, gambling, spousal and child abuse, rape and homicide.” If a person is to abuse their animal it can relate to other issues in the world that can also relate as a misdemeanor or a felony so, why not have the same kind of punishments as the crimes that other people commit to correlate how severe animal abuse is. This issue matters because animals should not have to be abused in households. Animals can suffer and should not have to go through what people in our society put them through. A defining moment that shined a light in “2007 arrest of the N.F.L. star Michael Vick for operating an illegal interstate dog-fighting operation in Surry County, Va” (Charles Seibert) The election that had the most impact would be state and local because of how many states either do have the misdemeanor of 5 year and the felony of 10 years. Colorado introduced a bill that stated that a 3-5-year ban be placed on a person trying to own an animal and that can be adjusted |
AuthorUndergraduate student generated content. Blog posting and updating done by Kristina Flores Victor, Assistant Professor of Political Science at CSUS Archives
March 2020
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