http://news.yahoo.com/alabama-county-seeks-file-biggest-municipal-bankruptcy-001117903.html;_ylc=X3oDMTNsYjRuOTVkBF9TAzg0Mzk3OTMzBGFjdANtYWlsX2NiBGN0A2EEaW50bAN1cwRsYW5nA2VuLVVTBHBrZwNlMTYzZDAwMy1iMjczLTNiNTMtOWE0YS0xNDQyMmE4ZTRhNzYEc2VjA21pdF9zaGFyZQRzbGsDbWFpbAR0ZXN0Aw--;_ylv=3

Unable to pay bill, Mich city turns off lights

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Unable-to-pay-bill-Mich-city-apf-2920161472.html?x=0

Being in a jail in a nutshell

reflect on the usefulness of this activity in enhancing your understanding of the operations of state and local governments.

What was your biggest struggle with regard to this assignment?

What did you learn by reading about other students’ experiences?

Would you recommend this CP to a future student?

I am very glad I chose this particular CP. I have been saying I wanted to work with youth prior to release for some time so this gave me the opportunity to do just that. Better than this simply being a good experience, this set the stage for permanent expansion of my record sealing outreach to include incarcerated youth.

In terms of the biggest difficulty, it was certainly getting clearance. In fact, that was the primary reason the scope changed from including both Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall as well as San Mateo to just San Mateo.

I enjoyed reading about both the struggles and successes of other people's CP's. It was good to know which offered useful experiences to people in terms of comprehending any in the future to people looking to get involved in local government at some level.

I would only recommend this particular CP to someone with experience working with this particular demographic, and who was also comfortable being in a locked unit with 15-20 high-risk youth at a time.

Final Study Guide

On the day of the final, you will answer 2 out of 3 of the following questions:

1) What is the purpose and role of local governments within the political framework of the United States?

2) How do state and local governments serve their populations differently from government at the Federal level?

3) Assume that the State of California enacted a progressive tax structure that applied to both individual income and corporate income. What values would be reflected in such a decision? What might be some of the consequences?

4) A discovery is made in the City of Dunn... the lake bed of a lake used for recreation and located near the edge of town is found to contain a large supply of unobtainium. Unobtainium is an extremely valuable industrial resource. How will you, as a city council member of the City of Dunn, propose to manage this resource?

working with Rec & Park has helped me to understand how hard it is for public sectors to get extra funding. the biggest struggle that ive came across in this assignment is finding out all of the information that the blog questions and for myself becasue alot of the employes dont no the history behind rec & park

1. why is it that property tax can keep increasing in fact double over two years in the san francisco bay area?

2. why is it that each county has a different tax rate?

3. what cant sin taxes be higher instead of sale taxes?

Two weeks left.....The real crunch begins.

I am all done with finals the Monday of finals week, so I have two weeks left until summer.

Between now and then, I've got two 15 page papers, one five page paper, several miscellaneous assignments, three presentations, I'm organizing the research conference, an awards ceremony, three 6pm-12am tech rehearsals, three dance shows, and a mandatory party.

Let the fun begin! :)

Now, the CBL assignment is complete and it's time for an assessment. I would not say that weekly contact with the police department has enhanced my understanding of the operations of state and local government in any substantial way. I've learned how to come into a meeting and convey what I'm there to convey in 30 seconds or less, but again- I have not learned about the underpinnings of the system in any substantial way. It may be due to the nature of my interaction with the officers. I was looking to establish a directive for underage alcohol violations. With the exception of the few times I had to ask officers about the nature of certain relationship within state and local government: The mayor, the governor, other local governmental units- we were not discussing state and local government very often. We did; however, talk a bit of local politics.

I recall the second meeting I had with Halloran in which we spent 45 minutes talking about collective bargaining in Wisconsin and crappy school lunches in almost every district in California. Then there were the talks with tangents that turned into THE topic (Law, Morality, and Society) and things of the like. Above all, the CBL project has been enriching for me personally. I've learned how to be quick on my feet. I've learned that being shy is a waste of time.

Perhaps most supplemental to this enrichment has been reading David's blogs about cases and experiences in the juvenile hall system.

There is no question that there are gross injustices that go unatoned because of someone's ability to be diplomatic or political. Similarly, there is also no doubt in my mind that the justice system needs to be reformed.

I do not know if I would recommend my exact community partner project to another student.

As I've mentioned previously, I do not like the way the minds of police officers work. You say consequences and they think extreme punishment.

If the community partner assignment is going to be a requirement, it should be noted in the course description so that students are not scrambling around at the last minute looking for a community partner...and have to settle with a less than ideal one.

Study Questions:

1.) What important social apparatus does the property tax fund?

2.) How would you surmise the political economy of local governments?

3.) Who rates local government bonds?

D.A. takes it to another level...or how I spent the last 3 days

Late Tuesday we get a fax from the D.A.'s office. 2 weeks ago our D.A. had requested a 2 week continuance because she was contesting our reduction motion based on the severity of the offense and the inadequate length of time since then. Same old, same old. The continuance was granted and we prepared our arguments. THen this fax came in and everything changed. The D.A. has decided to challenge the very legal basis by which we have been filing for these reductions. So the last couple days have been a mad scramble. It is a big deal because of something we learned about last class: precident. If they challenge the legallity of this procedure and we loose, then every youth in santa clara county that wants to have his/her juvenile record reduced will have a hell of a time. For those that are interested, I will give you guys the entire run-down next class because I don't think I should post the specifics on a public blog while the case is still ongoing. However it is intersting, frustrating, and in my opinion a pretty big deal.