Each week, include the following information on the blog post: (a) news sources (author, date, headline, web site if applicable) – 3 required and 1 additional sources; (b) summary (who, what, where, when, why/how) based on ALL of the articles; (c) any changes from the previous week (starting December 19), and (d) how the issue / events during the week relate to themes in the course.
Themes / topics in the course include:
Federalism Civil Rights / Liberties Civic Action
Federal separation of powers/ checks and balances
The Media Human rights Congress
Policy-making (laws) Interest groups The Presidency
Economic policy Non-governmental agencies/organizations
The Courts Social policy Military policy
The Bureaucracy (government agencies)
Environmental policy Political parties Campaigns / Elections
Citizenship International relations Pluralism/diversity
The blog post is worth (a) news sources – up to 16 points (4 points each) (b) summary (15 points for each component of a summary and evidence that all the news sources are synthesized) (c) change from the previous week (9 points), (d) paragraph explaining the issue/event’s connection to the course theme (identify at least one theme and give explanation - 10 points) . The post will count as a writing assignment and is worth a total of 50 points each week except for the week of Dec. 12 (41 points since to (c)
EXAMPLE:
(a) New York Times, "A Futuristic Plan for NJ," 12/1/11
CNN, "New Jersey Leads the Way," 12/3/11
Christian Sci. Monitor, "Is NJ First?" 12/5/11
Phila. Inquirer, "NJ Leaves PA behind," 12/2/11
(b) New Jersey's new environmental policy, lead by the NJ legislature and environmental organizations such as the Clean Air Council , have agreed to a ten year plan to decrease air pollution. The plan includes cutting car and power plant emissions and a surcharge or tax on anyone with a car more than 5 years old and power plants with emission levels above 1.7. The decision to improve NJ's air quality was in response to a federal report which listed NJ as the 38th state for air quality.
(c) Last week I also researched clean air policies. NJ's policy is different from Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania legislature refuses to pass laws to decrease car emissions.
(d) This issues is related to "Environmental Policy" and federalism. Car emissions are regulate by both the state and federal government but are primarily a state issue. Air quality is an environmental issue.