Civic Information Scavenger Hunt

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(need in 4 hours 100% plagiarism free)

 

Please answer the following questions: Selected state “CALIFORNIA” 

·  Who is the President?

·  Who is the Vice President?

·  Who are the Justices of the Supreme Court?

·  Who are your two (2) United States Senators?

·  If you wanted to write them a letter where would you send it? -or- If you wanted to write them an email what address or website would you use to send it?

·  Who is your Representative to the United States House of Representatives?

·  If you wanted to write them a letter where would you send it? -or- If you wanted to write them an email what address or website would you use to send it?

·  What state do you live in?

·  Who is your governor?

·  Who are the Justices of your State Supreme Court?

·  Where does your State Legislature meet?

·  Does your State Legislature have two houses or one?

·  What is the name of the Upper House of your State Legislature?

·  What is the name of the Lower House of your State Legislature?

·  Who is/are your Senator(s) to the upper house of your State Legislature?

·  If you wanted to write them a letter where would you send it? -or- If you wanted to write them an email what address or website would you use to send it?

·  Who is/are your Representative(s) to the Lower House of your State Legislature?

·  If you wanted to write them a letter where would you send it? -or- If you wanted to write them an email what address or website would you use to send it?

·  What is the official website for your state where you can find information on registering to vote? (NOTE: in most cases this should be a .gov website)

·  Does this website contain information on finding where to vote on Election Day, information

Private Health Insurance And Managed Care

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Introduction

Health insurance plans receive premium dollars from buyers who may be employers, groups, or individuals on a prepaid basis in return for a promise to provide payment for covered healthcare services when needed. Payments for those services are typically made directly to the provider. Health plans must make a profit to remain in business. To earn positive profits, health plans must receive payments from subscribers greater than payments for healthcare providers. They must also cover their own internal administrative costs. There are primarily four functions that health plans perform to justify their position in the healthcare marketplace: underwriting of risk, utilization review, claims administration, and marketing.

Directions:

You have received a consulting contract with a health insurance company to help identify ways to reduce payments to healthcare providers for healthcare benefits of the plan members.

  1. Prepare an initial brief report identifying some possible methods that may be useful in cutting costs.
    1. Keep in mind that healthcare benefit cost can be expressed as the product of utilization and price, which is the volume of services provided times the price paid for those services.
    2. What are the possible methods useful in decreasing utilization?
    3. What are the methods useful in reducing prices paid to providers?

Original Intent and the Living Constitution

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The Constitution speaks in a very clear voice on some matters. For example, it says that the United States House of Representatives shall be apportioned according to the population in the states, or that the Senate shall be composed of two senators per state. But other clauses are not so clear. For example, what is meant by the 8th Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, the 2nd Amendment’s reference to the right to bear arms, or the 4th Amendment that deals with unreasonable searches and seizures? Does the 8th Amendment, for example, allow the government to execute people for certain crimes? Does the 2nd Amendment allow people to own guns? Does the 4th Amendment allow the state to search your home without a warrant? These and many other issues are open to interpretation due to the words in the Constitution.

Two Supreme Court justices, Scalia and Breyer,  discussed two different ways of viewing the Constitution–the “original meaning” of the document and the “living Constitution.” For example, the “originalists” (Scalia) argue that the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual does not prohibit the death penalty.  Those who support the “living Constitution” argument (Breyer) say that the Constitution should reflect new circumstances and “evolving standards of decency.”

Please view the videos on the Constitution. Focus on the different ways that Justices Breyer and Scalia interpret the Constitution.

1. Original Intent and the Living Constitution  start 12 minutes into the video

2. The Constitutional Role of Judges  from 1:09 into video to 1:15. Then 2:04 to 2:10.

We will focus on the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution for our discussion this week

The Eighth  Amendment to the Constitution says the following:

“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

Your question for the week: Does the United States Constitution prohibit or allow the use of the death penalty in the United States? 

You must make your argument from the “originalist” or “living Constitution” perspective.  Do not just state your personal opinion. Use arguments from Scalia (originalist) or Breyer (living Constitution) to support your argument.

Should The U.S. Construct A Wall Across Its Entire Southern Border To Prevent Illegal Border Crossings?

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Sample format for Research Paper

Your Name Professor Betancourt GOVT 2305 Date

Title of Your Paper

THE ISSUE Give a summary of the background of the issue. Identify what the issue is and provide an historical overview, summary of past court cases or legislation or any other relevant data. How has the issue changed over time? The end of this section should also include the thesis statement (e.g. “The goal of this paper is to objectively present the two sides of the … controversy, to identify the key political elements of the debate and offer a recommended course of action”). This section should be about 1 page in length THE POSITIONS In this section identify the various positions on the issue (e.g. for and against, pro and con; or different ways of handling an issue). Be sure to objectively cover the issue from both perspectives. Avoid inflammatory language and logical fallacies. Present DOCUMENTED support for each perspective (not your personal opinion, but what other research has found). You should paraphrase all information (put in your OWN words). If you MUST use a direct quote, be sure it is enclosed in quote marks and is IMMEDIATELY followed by the appropriate citation. Information that is paraphrased should still include an in-text citation). This should be the longest part of your memo (aim for 1 ½ – 2 pages) PUBLIC OPINION What is public’s view on this issue? Has this view changed in the last few years? Do some groups have a particular viewpoint (e.g. women, minorities, etc…)? www.peoplepress.org offers a lot of good public opinion data on a wide variety of topics. This section is ideal for including the REQUIRED graphic element. Consider including a table of public information data. (Wherever you chose to include the graphic element, be sure you 1) include the actual graphic in the paper itself 2) include a citation directly under the graphic (where you obtained the image, not just the citation that may be ON the image; 3) Discuss the image in your text (e.g. “For example in the table above you can see….”)) This section should be approximately ½-1 page in length. INTEREST GROUP POSITIONS Identify and discuss 1 or 2 organized interest groups which support or oppose each position/perspectives. Be specific, identify the group, what they stand for and HOW they are working for or against the issue. Try a google search “Interest Groups that support…” This section should be ½ to 1 page in length. PARTISAN CONSIDERATIONS What is the PARTY’s (Democratic / Republican) position on this issue? You can usually find this information on the Party’s website (www.democrats.org or www.GOP.org you can also google “Republican Party view on… or Democratic Party view on…). Be careful not to confuse people who identify with a party with the actual position of the party) This section should be approximately ½-1 page in length. CONCLUSION/ RECCOMENDATION Give a short recap of the main points outlined in the paper. You may also write a general recommended course of action. This is the only section where you can offer your own personal opinion. (e.g. “Based on all of the information presented above, I believe that the best course of action would be to….”)

 

http://www.peoplepress.org/
http://www.democrats.org/
http://www.gop.org/
  • Sample format for Research Paper
  • Your Name
  • Title of Your Paper