American TV News

In this article, it talks about how people are informed about their news in the United States. This article specifically talked about television news and it's impact. The following facts were very interesting related to what type of TV  and how long news viewers watch:

1. People who watch cable news do it for about about 25 minutes where people who just watch local or network news do it for half than that amount of time.

2. Heavy viewers of local TV news and network news watch more cable news than watching local TV and network news. The heavier local news viewers spend 11 or so more minutes on cable news than local news.

3.The heavy network news viewers watch on avergae one more minute of cable news than they do network news.

4. Between local/network and cable news  there is a large gap for the heavy news watchers and everyone else. The top 1/3 of network news viewers in terms of time spent watching, is close to 32 minutes a day. The next 1/3 spends about only 1/6 as much time, five minutes, watching network news.

5. The most committed cable news viewers average 72 minutes of viewing a day. Whereas it is about 32 minutes for the heavy network viewers and 22 minutes for heavy local news viewers. The second most committed group of viewers is only 3 minutes of viewing.

6. 90% of network news watchers watch local news. 82% of local news viewers watch network news. 58% of U.S. adults watch both network and local news.

7. 28% of those who watch Fox News also watch MSNBC. 34% of MSNBC viewers turn on Fox News.
 
8. 54% of MSNBC viewers watch CNN and 44% of Fox News viewers also watch CNN. CNN viewers also watch Fox News (39%) and MSNBC (38%).

9. In total, 5% of the adult population in the U.S. watches both MSNBC and Fox News. That is lower than the percentage of people that watches both CNN and Fox (8%) or CNN and MSNBC (also 8%).
 
10. There are also viewers who watch only one of the three news types. Fox News Channel has the largest singularly dedicated audience. 24% watch only Fox News, 23% watch only CNN and 15% watch only MSNBC.

Officer slams girl to the floor

This article talks about how a school officer slammed a student to the ground. There were a lot of different videos that showed the officer grabbing the girl by her neck and then tipping her desk over and dragging her across the floor. It is said by the officer's supervisor that he is suspended without pay and will decide about continued employment within the next 24 hours. He said that they want to deescalate the situation no escalate an already escalated problem.

Intro to Media

1. Tv, phones, social media, newspapers, blogs, movies, music, video games, internet, radio, and magazines.

2. There are six companies that own 90% of what any media we might use. These companies are General Electric, News-corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS.

3. Emerson  College is the top journalism college in the nation. They keep their program professional by engaging them in a number of different classes. Many of them journal classes, but each class has a specialty for it. They also must take a U.S. Government and Politics class so they have knowledge about the government when they are writing a story about any political issue.

4. I watch dog media, the government is being watched. This is to warn the people so there is no abuse of power with in the system. This is warning the people and protecting them from the abuse of power in the government.

5. I am going to be honest, I have never heard this phrase before. However, I am going to assume this is about media having a liberal bias over conservatism.

Paul Ryan, the speaker of the house

This article is about Paul Ryan and how he is now the speaker of the house. It is said that he wanted by the majority of the GOP. Ryan has said that he will only push important bills like immigration issues. He also said he will have bold policy ideas such as welfare reform, health care legislation, and a tax overhaul. He is willing to walk away if he is said "no" on any policy. Many find it interesting that he did not want this job not too long ago and here he is as the Speaker of the House.

New background checks to purchase ammunition in CA

This article is about California gun control advocates starting a new regulation on having a background check when buying ammunition. The gun control laws in the presidential candidacy of 2016 are also discussed. Any magazine larger than 11 rounds, report when weapons are stolen, and the back ground checks when buying any ammunition. Not only will California require background checks when buying ammo, but it will also require felons to give up all guns and require the sharing of all residents who are prohibited from own guns. 

Paul Ryan doesn't want to run still

This article is about Paul Ryan and how he does not want to be the speaker of the house. He realized that as a vice president he would see his family more than he would if he was a member of the house. He wants to have a normal job of weekdays and then family on the weekends. He likes to play basketball at the YMCA and he parish on the weekends with his family.  He much rather work on policies than be in the top slot of the House.

Speaker of the House

1. The Constitution says that the House of Representatives will choose their speaker. There are no requirements to be the Speaker of the House.

2.   a. House of Representatives

The Speaker: "presides over proceedings on the House floor, influences which bills go to which committees, influences committee assignments for new members, appoints the party's other leaders, and rules on questions of parliamentary procedure"

The Majority Leader - The second ranking member of the majority party. Usually hand picked by the Speaker. The leader helps plan the party's legislative program.

The Minority Leader-  They lead the minority party and the voting power is generally less. If the leader succeeds in the next congressional election, they could very well be the next Speaker.

      b. Senate
President of the Senate -  the Vice President of the US can only cast a vote in the event of a tie.

President Pro Tempore - if the president of the senate is not there, this man/woman will take his/her place.

3. Both the President and Vice president would have to die in order for the Speaker to become president.

4. Samuel Rayburn served the longest as the Speaker of the House for 17 years.

5. Nancy  Pelosi of California was the first woman to become speaker of the house. She became the Democratic speaker on January 4, 2007.

6. Newt Gingrich served as speaker in 1995-1999. He is famous for the so called republican revolution in the 1990s and he had to resign the speakership for an ethics scandal.

7. John Boehner resigned from speaker recently. He became speaker in 2011 and resigned the Friday after the pope visited. He resigned because he knew that he would lose the fight against his own party and he was trying to do things that were too conservative with President Obama in the white house.

8. Kevin McCarthy was going to be the speaker until his recent comments about Benghazi and giving Hillary Clinton a chance to accuse the house of republican house of a right-wing conspiracy of her. Since that, he decided to not do this because he would be given so much "hell" from his own party and the democrat party.

9. Paul Ryan is wanted by the republicans because he is very firm in his beliefs and would be able to unite the republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in over 80 years. He said he still does not want to be the speaker because he has three school aged kids and a wife and does not want his political role to interfere.

10. He is the Chair of the Committee of Ways and Means. This is the chief tax-writing committee of the House of representatives.

11. It is a committee that is legislative sub-organization that handles a specific duty. There are 50 committees and 100 sub-committees.

12. He wants to stay with his family and said that this job is for an "empty-nester" rather than a guy with three kids.

13. I would not take the job, because it would take me away from my family and as it is shown by Newt Gingrich, politics do not help any with a family.

14. It is not necessary to be the speaker to become president. In fact, James K. Polk of Tennessee is the only one that has become president as the speaker of the house.

15. A caucus is a meeting of a specific political party. There are over 100 caucuses. A committee decides which bills see the floor whereas the caucus deals with anything that is real.

16. The house of freedom caucus is a conservative caucus regarding those who believe the government does not represent the citizens.They want a strong conservative leader who is willing to stand up for their ideas.

17.  Added to the blog separately.

Memphis Police officer killed

Officer Olridge

This article is about a Memphis police officer who was killed at his house. Officer Olridge was on his way to work one day and had an encouter with Clark. Clark then presented a gun an then shot Olridge. Olridge made it back to the garage and called for help, but he then passed peacefully from the wound. Clark will be tried tomorrow, Tuesday. Olridge's fiance, who is 4 months pregnant, was inside of the house when he was shot. It was reported by neighbors, that there was up to 15 gunshots heard. In Memphis, there has been 4 fatal shootings of police officers in the past four years.

First Quarter Reflection

This quarter, I have learned everything from the very basics of how the government works, to the constitution, and even learned about federal grants. I always knew that the constitution was a thing, but i never really knew the depth of it or even what it all consisted of. It was also good to learn about those who were the founding father of the country and what they intended for this nation. The last part of this quarter was the grant project. The grant project was not my cup of tea because it was a very broad project where we were given too much liberty to choose. I rather have a few topics to choose from. This next quarter I am hoping that we get more involved in politics with the current presidential campaign. Maybe analyze what of each candidate works and doesn't work for our nation and what the citizens want to see.