http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/26/fox-news-poll-president-trumps-first-100-days-getting-mixed-reviews.html

           This article is about Trumps first 50 days in office and what the public things he has done good and not so much. There was a poll taken when he first took office that said 48% of people thought he was succeeding in his job, when the poll was retaken after his 100th day that dropped to 43%. These polls aren't the most accurate but they are similar to the public opinion.

           The media that wrote this acts as a gatekeeper that provides information based on the way the author feels on the issue. The public has public opinion and public policy that also give the views on how people feel on these the of issues. The articles that are put out by news channels can be very biased on the way that the news channel feels wether or not they are liberal or conservative.

           I think that Donald Trump has done a decent job in his term so far and hope that he continues to help us out In the long run. I think Trump has had some tough things to deal with and has dealt with them appropriately. If I was doing a poll I would say he has done a good job.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/26/politics/el-chapo-border-wall-trnd/index.html

This article is about Donald Trumps wall and a unique view on how the project should be funded. Republican senator has an idea to make Mexican drug lord "El Chapo" pay for it. El Chapos real name is Joaquin Guzman and he is currently serving a life sentence here in the United States after he broke free from his other prison in Mexico. He definitely has the money to fund a project like this but that seems to be quite a stretch to try to get him to do. The United States is currently trying to get 14 billion in hidden assets from El Chapo that Senator Cruz says would be a nice down payment.

Cruz is try to get the "Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order Act" passed that would make the money that is currently being possessed from El Chapo go to funding a project such as the wall. The bill he is trying to pass is what makes this article relate to ap gov because we talked a lot of bills and how they are passed.

I fell that if we get that money we shouldn't use it on building the wall because in my opinion I think they're are way more important things we need to do than drop 14 billion dollars on a wall. We have way more Mexican immigrants that help our country by doing jobs that a lot of Americans don't want to do versus the ones in the United States committing crimes.

blog

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fresno-shooting-suspect-kori-ali-muhammad-custody/

Kori Ali Muhammad was the victim of a deadly shooting on April 19. He is 39 years old and African American. He said he killed the 3 white men because he hates white people. While doing the shooting he was chanting "God is great" in Arabic. These men did not provoke the shooter they were just randomly chosen off of race. He even posted that he hated all whites on his Facebook page.

When someone targets a certain group of people such as blacks, whites, or latinos in a crime like this its classified as a hate crime. Hate crimes mean more jail time for who ever convicted of them. It is still trying to be decided if this should be changed as a hate crime.

I feel that this event was a clear act of a hate crime and that he should be charged with it. Kori posted about hating any white people then went and shot 3 white males. If you ask me thats no coincidence, Kori defiantly went into this shooting with that mindset as well, making this a hate crime.

blog

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/19/politics/vice-president-mike-pence-interview/index.html

This article is by Dana Bash and Joshua Berlinger is about the United States and the very unsteady relationship we currently have with North Korea. In a recent interview by Dana Bash with Vice President Pence, Pence spoke about how there was very likely to be no direct contact whatsoever between the United States and North Korea. The big problem with the North Korea is there dangerous Nuclear weapons that they keep trying out. Trump said he would be willing to speak with Kim (North Koreas dictator) but that this was unlikely to happen.

This article is directly related to our class discussions because of the President and his power as commander in chief of the armed forces. The way that North Korea is currently testing out there weapons is a big sign of caution and a reasonable reason to send troops in.

I feel that Trump should continue to wait and not send troops into North Korea because they have been an enemy and threat for a long time and it really hasn't gotten much worse as of late. Also if something like this were to happen and Trump sent troops in unnecessarily it would make the USA look really bad. I think this issue should try to be worked out verbally before these forces are used.

Budget cuts

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/27/politics/epa-cuts-25-percent/index.html

EPA budget cuts are soon to come and could be up to as much as twenty-five percent. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), is an agency of the Federal government created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment. They enforce regulations based on laws passed by Congress; and cutting funding to this by almost 54 billion dollars would be devastating to the program. The money that is being taken away from the EPA would be going to other defense programs.

The Environmental Protection Agency is a Federally run program. In our last unit we talked about Federal and State governments, this is a perfect example of a power that the Federal government has and that State doesn’t. Being able to make cuts like this is a power limited to the Federal government.

My thoughts on these huge cuts: I think that these cuts on the EPA are needed at this time because of the need for money in other areas such as defense. We need to focus our money on the biggest problems at hand and to do that we have to take away from programs that aren't being as useful. Of course living in a  coastal community, I want to protect our waters and have clean air. But as the government continues to work with limited resources and funds, defending our country is a priority over environmental issues.

Travel Ban 2

Ren Powell                                                                                                                       3/15/17

This story is about Trump's travel ban that prevents six countries from traveling to the US in an effort to block terrorist trying to enter. Trump's first version of this ban was highly disliked by several federal courts that blocked it. After Trump's original version was turned down it took about a month to write a new version that Trump said was a "watered down" version of the first one, and left Iraq out of the list of banned countries. The new travel ban which was to go into effect today (3/15) when a federal judge from Hawaii blocked it. The democratic judge named Doug Chin is trying to get an injunction against Trumps order.

The travel ban has to do with what we have talked about in class because of foreign policy and our political views of it, whether they be republican or democratic. This is Trump's view on foreign policy and it is a republican view on muslims and terrorist. The democratic judge that blocked the ban has a typical democratic view toward the travel ban.

I feel what Judge Chin did by blocking the ban only hours before it was supposed to go into effect was uncool. Chin was the only one to block the ban, so it obviously seemed more agreeable and he could have blocked it sooner, if he felt it was unjust. Personally I feel that the ban definitely needs to be implemented and Trump did a good job of not being too "extreme" on his revised version of the ban.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/15/politics/travel-ban-blocked/index.html

IMMIGRATION- It's not for everyone!

President Trump's new plan for immigration will be similar to Canada's immigration policy. He says he plans for it to be a merit-based system, and that immigrants who can't care for themselves financially would not be let in. Studies show that letting in immigrants that can't care for themselves cost american tax payers billions of dollars. Trump says this will help people enter the middle class.
This is relative to AP Government because immigration is  a "hot topic"  in today's society and is highly debated between Democrats and Republicans. During the State of the Union address, he acknowledged a widow who's husband was killed in the line of duty by an illegal immigrant from Mexico. I feel Trumps views on this are going to make our country better and help us save money...and lives. There is also a strong connection to drugs being brought in by illegal immigrants. I am definitely for Trump's new merit-based immigration system.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/01/donald-trump-canada-immigration-system-merit-based/98594790/