Update your bill (all of them) progress.

Unfortunately none of my bills had any progress since my last bill tracking.

Reflect on:
The
current situation for the health care bill in the Senate. What is
happening? What happened over the weekend? What is the path forward for
potential passage?

HOUSE BILL~ NO ACTION

CONGRESS BILL~ NO ACTION

SENATE BILL~ NO ACTION

As far as the executive branch's role within each of these bills, I believe that the president should step in and kind of "coach" each specific one. For example, with the federal reserve transparency act, the presdient shold come and and just kind of tweak the bill so that it could be officially passed.

For my city council bill, hearing notices will be sent out on the 29th of october.

NO ACTION on my congress bill as of today.

NO ACTION  on my state bill as of today.

US Congress Bill ~ NO LATEST ACTION

PA State Bill ~ NO RECENT ACTION

City Council Bill ~  There will be a City Council meeting tomorrow (10/22/09) at 10am in room 400.

Of the three proposed bills, I believe that the City Council Bill (Towing) should be passed becausethe bill movesin the right direction. The bill proposes that vehicles reported stolen should not be towed unless warning has been given to the car's owner. In Philadelphia, there is a problem with stolen vehicles and by passing this bill, owners are able to recover their cars.

Previously, in M.E.T. the topic of conversation has been about schools and education in society today. By reading a variety of resources provided by Mr. Lehmann, my entire perspective of the educational world is somewhat different than before. The ideas proposed in each of these readings have been backed up with actual numbers and sufficient amounts of evidence. Some of the articles stood out in a sense that we as products of education in our society have to sort of come together when it deals with matters of the school system.

Take Diana Ravitch’s article for example; what she stated was “For the past century, our schools of education have obsessed over critical-thinking skills, projects, cooperative learning, experiential learning, and so on. But they have paid precious little attention to the disciplinary knowledge that young people need to make sense of the world.” I totally agree with this statement and I believe that it is so true. Most schools nowadays are so set on getting students to understanding certain answers to some problems, but that isn’t important. In the midst of all this, what’s important is the thought process in which the students need to think about in order to GET to the answer. In modern society today, some schools lose sight of this “way of education” when it should be a top priority. Here at SLA, we value collaboration and the thought process behind finding the answer to a math problem or the answer to a formula in Physics. It weighs more heavily on the actual steps and reasoning to how you arrived at the answer you have. Based on all of this, my vision of school would be an institution where students will know how to think things through and arrive at a reasonable conclusion based on thinking alone. I believe that it is just as important and crucial to know the steps in a math problem than just knowing the answer because it’s the steps that get you to the endpoint. It will include teachers who eat, sleep and breathe teaching children the concepts and well as the thought process that is involved. My school values knowledge and thinking over anything else. At the end of the day an average student will be able to fully explain a problem and give you a solution as well. This type of school would definitely be great for society because I feel that it brings traditional values back while also incorporating new and different ones too. The overall purpose of my school would be to teach children the knowledge that they need to succeed in life and the importance of that specific knowledge. Compared to a “traditional” school, my students will understand the answer more clearly and have the skills to actually explain it at the end of the day.

There hasn't been any recent recent actions on any one of my three bills since about two weeks ago. I mean with the topics that my bills include I pretty sure by the next bill tracking, I'll have some hot action to report. My US Congress bill talks about Federal Reserve and audits by the government. The reason I believe that it isn't getting much attention is because of the Healthcare Bill right now. Congress is pretty focused on America's healthcare system and proposing a better solution.

Because of the lack of action on any of bills, I decided to change them. I figured that my US Congress bill (H.R. 49) isn't going to go anywhere so I switched to H.R. 1207. This is the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 which states how audits are reported and how the Board of Governors in the Federal Reserve are audited. The most recent action was on the 24th of September when the Committee Hearings were held. The PA State Bill that I chose is Senate Bill 1085 which provides funds for expenses through the fiscal year July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. So far this bill has just been laid on the table (introduced). My last bill is the "Towing" section of the Philadelphia Code that prohibits the towing of stolen vehicles unless the police notified the owner of the vehicle. There is no similarities between my three bills because each has its on subject matter.

There hasn't been any movement with H.R.49 or my city council bill since my last blog entry. As far as my PA State bill goes, there hasn't been any new action with it as well.I
believe that the overall content of my bills contribute to the pace at
which they are moving.With the American Energy bill, there hasn't been
anyaction for months and it's most likely because of the actual wording of the bill. It's a possibility that neither of my bill will continue to move forward. I might just have to give up on them and pick other bills that have more "potential".

The US Congress bill that I am following is H.R. 49 which is the American Energy Independence Price Reduction Act. What this bill does is it requires the Secretary to establish programs thar develops and produces gas and oil resources. So far there hasn't been any recent action on the bill that I chose. The most recent action took place back on February 3rd of this year. Although the congress bill that I've chosen seems like a good bill, I don't think that it will get very far. Based on its most up to date action, I believe that it'll continue to be at a standstill.

Quarter 4 History Benchmark url: http://www.wix.com/ARollins15/What-IF-American-History?orgDocID=5Fgn2S9R...

 http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=79a1574ce4f50b19253d 

Sports teams have a huge impact on major cities and play a key role in their identities. There are some cities that represent their sports teams to the fullest and some just don't care. With the Phillies winning the World Series, some people are die hard fans that were up til the early hours of the morning just to celebrate the big win. On the other hand, I for one am not a die hard baseball fan so the win was minor in my eyes. I don't like Philly sports teams so once there is a win under our belt, it's nothing major to me.

Horas de Sueño por Noche:

Dormí solamente 2 horas!

El Desayuno:

Crepe, huevos con bacon.

El Amuerzo:

Tacos con refresco

La Cena:

Cazuela

Las Meriendas: 

Nada 

Ejercicio: 

Corrí por 15 minutos 

Horas de Sueño por Noche:

Dormí 4 horas

El Desayuno:

Cereal con leche 

El Amuerzo:

Salmón rosado, ensalada mixta y mazorca de maíz.

La Cena:

Comí bistec, espinacas y tomé té.

Las Meriendas: 

Pastel y zapatero

Ejercicio: 

Nada 

Horas de Sueño por Noche:
Dormí 10 horas.

El Desayuno:

Comí cereal con leche y plántano.

El Amuerzo:

Ensalada de pollo .

La Cena:

Pizza 

Las Meriendas:

M&Ms y brownies 

Ejercicio:

Nada 

Horas de Sueño por Noche:

Dormí 5 horas

El Desayuno:

Nada

El Amuerzo:

Nada

La Cena:

Nada 

La Meriendas: 

Galletas y helado

Ejercicio:

Nada

Horas de Sueño por Noche:

Anoche, dormí 6 horas.

El Desayuno:

Nada

El Amuerzo:

Tomé Snapple y comí pollo bistec de queso con patatas fritas.

La Cena:

Comí jamón con espárragos y arroz. Tomé limonada.

Las Meriendas: 

Comí Reese Cups y Mistic

Ejercicio: 

Corrí por 10 minutos. 

Horas de Sueño por Noche ~

Anoche, dormí 6 horas.

El Desayuno ~

Comí pollo bistec de queso, patata fritas y una Snapple.

El Amuerzo ~

Pizza con Pepsi
La Cena ~

Comí pollo, maíz y puré de patatas con agua.

Las Meriendas ~

Comí Galletas y helado.

Ejercicio ~

Corrí por 20 minutos.

There has been a new medical breakthrough that will help people who are obese. Arena Pharmaceuticals announced that they have exceeded past the experimental stage and found a safe drug called lorcaserin. It is a huge development because unlike other drugs in the past lorcaserin doesn't damage heart valves. For 12 months, the pill has passed many test and is labeled as safe. It is expected to hit store shelves around 2010. The drug sparked concern at first because a similar combination called fenfluramine made by Wyeth cost them millions due to causing heart valve problems and pulmonary hypertension.

According to eMax Health the study has shown that people who took 10 milligrams of lorcaserin twice a day lost an average of 7.9 pounds over the course of 12 weeks compared to 0.7 pounds who took placebo. An earlier study that included 469 patients had no heart valve effects. In order for lorcaserin to be approved fully by the FDA, it needs to undergo more tests and heart scans. Patients also need to be monitored for an additional 18 months on the drug. The main target is fo patients to be able to lose atleast 5 percent of their body weight within a year.

Nowadays, with the large increases in obesity rates among cities and states it's beginning to look like a never ending problem. Many industries are being blamed in the cause of the obesity epidemic in certain cities. Also, there are high percentages of diseases associated with obesity getting reported as well. This is all we hear about when reading local newspapers or surfing on the internet. Unfortunately, the amount of obese children in the United States has increased from 9 to 12 million.

To fight this epidemic, California's governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has teamed up with former U.S. president Bill Clinton and American Heart Association's Dan Jones to create an Alliance for a Healthier Generation. The objective of this program is to completely stop childhood obesity by 2010 so that adolescents can live long and healthy lives. Together, they have formed alliances with the Healthy Schools Program to allow children to eat right at lunch time. Now, healthier food and beverage choices are available to more students in schools across the U.S. They have also partnered with Nickelodeon to create Let's Just Play Go Healthy Challenge. The campaign allows children to take charge in their own health by getting out, playing and exercising. According to igohugo.org here are some steps towards a healthy lifestyle for children:

1. Be a positive role model

2. Limit TV, video and computer game time

3. Encourage physical activities that children will enjoy

4. Be positive

5. Don't reward children with food

6. Make dinnertime family time 

Well we've been working on theis benchmark for many weeks now and we are coming to an end soon. At this point, I'm proud of myself and the work that I have posted because I demonstrates the severity of the topic that I chose to research. Looking back at my first blog post on obesity I've noticed that the information seemed to grow and become better and better each week or so. With all of the new information that I've been receiving through my feeds, it isn't difficult to keep up with new information or to find it for that matter. I'm excited because just recently there's been a breakthrough solution that can actually help obesity in the United States. This information is great and it will be featured im my upcoming blog posts.

With the obesity epidemic affecting billions of people, it's becoming more and more of a problem among adolescence as well. Unfortunately, more children are getting diagnosed with chronic diseases that are associated with adults. Percentages are increasing among children that are being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in the United States. Along with diabetes, these obese children are suffering from hypertension, sleep apnea, fatty liver disease and high cholesterol.

According to Dr. Paula Butler, chief of endocrinology at Mt. Sinai Hospital "The earlier you develop diabetes, the more likely you are to develop complications later on in life. These would include: eye and heart problems, early strokes, knee and back pains and sleeping problems. Studies have also shown that there has been an increase in the number of prescriptions being filled for diabetes. According to Medco Health Solutions Inc. the amount of diabetes drugs rose 167% for girls' ages 10 to 19 between 2001 and 2007 and 91% for boys ages 10 to 19 too. The company has also seen an increase in the number of prescriptions filled to treat high blood pressure.

On top of being unhealthy and costly, obesity is causing a variety of problems in different parts of the world. Over in Wales, obesity rates have skyrocketed so much that even standard ambulances aren't big enough for most patients. Since over 25% more people are becoming obese, eight of these new ambulances are being introduced. The new and improved vehicle holds patients weighing up to 50 stones, that's twice as much than before. The design, which is based on Renault Master vans has been modified by Wilker UK. The Assembly government has spent $9.9 million on each of the bariatric ambulances. The original creator Tony Cowley, who is the Welsh Ambulance Service's fleet manager, designed the vehicle while working in Merseyside. "With the sudden increase in patients we needed a more secure system" Cowley stated. Each of the ambulances will be distributed in different regions in Wales; three will be located in the North and South East regions while the remaining ones will be in Central and West Wales.

Recently, the Wales Air Ambulance Service is proposing to add three new helicopters which are bigger and better for paramedics in the region. In order for the helicopters to comply with certain aviation rules, they must be leased by the year of 2009. Although these planes are for a good cause, this operation isn't cheap. In fact, it's going to take $1 million dollars a year to run on top of the $3 million dollars for the planes flat out. Currently, local charities are trying to come up with some money. It is stated that the special charity has to come up with $4 million dollars a year in order for the air ambulances to run. Opera singer Bryn Terfel and Royle Family star Ricky Tomlinson have help aid the efforts in raising the money.

This project has been under way for a couple of weeks now and I'm proud of my work so far. As far as deadlines go, I've been meeting them all except one or two blog post that was turned in late. With so many blog posts that have already been completed, it's kind of difficult to keep up with new information. Sometimes I find it extremely difficult when writing new posts because I have to remember to keep the information fresh. I have to keep in the mind the fact that I want each post to have something different than before. One crucial point to keep in mind is the repetition of ideas, facts etc. If I look back at all of my posts, they all must contain a variety of things. It's hard to keep up with new information for future posts. We have a few more posts to complete for this project and I must make sure that they end well.

After I look through and sort out many parts of the information that I read, I then try to take it in to my liking. It helps to read some articles more than once so that I get a great understanding of it. Once I comprehend, the information begins to sort of take shape and form into my posts. This part has been easy because I usually don't have trouble putting things into my own words. Anoither thing that I'm proud of is my elevator pitch because it has come together pretty well.

Despite all the possible attempts to lower obeisty rates, the simple fact is that they are continuing to climb at an unhealthy rate. In 2006, the adult obesity rates were up in 31 states from 2005. Of this, 22 states seemed to have an increase for two consecitive years now. Missisppi is currently at the top of the list for the third year in a row for having the highest obesity rates in the country. According to the special report "F as in Fat: How besity Policies Are Failing in America, not only is Mississippi number one, but it's also the first state to ever have an obese rate over 30 percent (30.6 percent to be exact). Even the thinnest state in the U.S, Colorado has seen an increase in their obesity rate from 16.9 percent to 17.6 percent. Adult obesity rates have reached more than 25 percent in 19 states which is up from only 14 states exceeding 25 percent the previous year and only 9 in 2005. These statisitcs are alarming based on zero states exceeding 20 percent back in 1991.

The Southern part of the United States is where the problems are only increasing. According to Levi, 10 of 15 southern states have the highest rates of obesity among the other regions. To add to that, 8 of the 10 states have the highest rates of obesity among children. When it comes to physical activities among adults a disturbing 31.6 percent in Mississippi don't engage in them. This is higher than the 15.4 percent in the state of Minnesota. Overall in the United States only 22 percent engage in daily physical activity. When it comes to obese children 22.8 percent exist in Washington D.C while only 8.5 in Utah. Overall, there are about 25 million children in the U.S that are considered obese or overweight. 

Obesity isn't just something that surfaced many years ago, but an issue that's been lingering since the beginning of time. The Egyptians saw obesity first-hand as they depicted the disease as paintings on the walls. Back in Ancient China the people were aware of obesity and knew that it affect a prolonged life for those who were affected. Even the Aztec people thought that being obese was a "supernatural force" from God. Later on down the line in the 1940s, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company created a chart that listed different heights with the preferred weight as well. After that was going well, BMI (body mass index) was introduced in 1966. Many people were not fond of this new obesity and BMI thing at this time.

Two years later Erwin Stillman and Samm Sinclair Baker came out with a best seller titled "The Doctor's Quick Weight Loss Diet". Then in 1972 the world famous Atkin's Diet was introduced and put out on the market. During a time where obesity rates didn't truly exist, Americans were trying hard to keep their ideal weight and not to become obese by all means necessary. A few years later is when obesity rates really started to skyrocket. According to the "American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons" a devastating 51,072 liposuction surgeries were performed in 1994 alone. With this being said, almost 86% of Americans finally believe that obesity is becoming a huge epidemic in the world that needs some national attention.

We've been working on this project for almost four weeks now and I'm beginning to realize how serious my topic is. Prior to researching obesity and its affect, I knew alittle information about it off hand. Now after digging deeper into the history and other relevant facts, I see that this problem needs to be adressed more. Obesity rates have been climbing for the past twenty years in the United States. One reason for this increase is the lack of care in households across the world. If you ask any person over 60 years old what they normally ate during their childhood, the answer most likely will not be sweets.During that time parents were way more strict on what their children ate daily. Now and days, you can find sugary sweets in every home you enter. I'm not saying that there's something wrong with snacks, but I think that there should be a limit. If parents cared a bit more on what their children ate, then kids wouldn't be so obese today. It's not the parents that are to blame, but I just think that they should pay more attention to what they buy in grocery stores.

For example, maybe next time a child ask for that box of fruit roll ups the parents should pick something healthier. So one solution to this obesity epidemic is to pick healthier food choices and stick with them. If there were more healthy supermarkets available to people in communities all over, there wouldn't be a problem. Another problem is the lack of fitness/exercise among people ages 11-35. Staying in shape can help reduce the amount of health problems that you will have and also increases your life by a couple of years as well. I think the problem is that exercise isn't stressed enough in adolescent's lives these days. If there were more fitness facilities in rural areas or better fitness programs in schools then changes will start to occur.

"What's wrong with a little extra fat on your body"? is what some people might say about the growing obesity issue. That may be good and well with them, but what they don't know is all the serious health problems that those extra pounds bring along. Being obese is not only costly around the world but it also contributes to many health issues. One main disease that is bought on by obesity is heart disease. Heart Disease along with strokes are the main causes of death for millions of Americans each year. Another health problem is high blood pressure. According to Web MD, people who are overweight are twice as likely to have high blood pressure (which is a contributing factor to heart disease) than those who are not overweight.

Type 2 Diabetes is another issue that comes with obesity. Obese people are more than twice as likely to have type 2 diabetes than those who aren't obese. Recently, scientists have linked obesity to cancer. According to Cancer Research UK, studies have shown that in some cases obesity is a risk factor for some types of cancer.

Going back in time to the 1950s, obesity was a minor health issue that wasn't really addressed. One reason that it was rarely heard of was because of the amount of people who were considered obese. According to the Obesity Epidemic Jack L. Samuels stated " I graduated college in the 1950s and do not recall one person in high school or college who approached 300 pounds, not even members of the football team". Now, obesity known as a minor health problem seems to be a thing of the past as the rate increases. Between1960 and 2002, obesity has become a huge epidemic in the world. In the United States alone, the average rate for a male has increased from 166.3 pounds to a disturbing 191 pounds. Women's weight has jumped as well from 140.2 to 164.3 pounds. Since the 1980s, the amount of children who are obese has triple. Currently, there is approximately 9,000,000 young people that is considered to be obese.

One main reason for this unfortunate problem is the lack of healthy foods in people's diets today. During the 1950s parents had more stricter diets for their children and allowed sugary snacks once in a while. According to the Department of Health and Human Services , less than 25% of adults and children get the recommended amounts of vegetables and fruits daily. Nowadays, you can walk around and see almost every child with a bag of chips in their hand. I'm not saying that the parents are to blame for this situation, I just think that this issue needs to be addressed directly. Another important reason for the increase in obesity is the lack of exercise in households. It is becoming common more and more as adults would rather snack on chips while watching TV than simply go to the park to play football with their children.

Up to this point, the process has been easy for the most part. It was simple for me to find lots of information on obesity. One reason I think so is because it has been a major worldwide problem that needs some more attention. The majority of my information is reliable and checks out. I am satisfied with my first two blog posts that I've posted. I'm extremely proud of my first blog post because I put in a lot of numbers and facts that would help readers understand the problem. The second blog post is nice too but it would have definitely helped if I had posted it on time.

Now we are getting into the difficult parts of the project. Our future tasks include contacting agents that is involved with our specific topics. For me this is going to be difficult because I have to find the right people to contact and talk to. Honestly, this part will take quite some time to complete but I believe that I can get it done in a timely manner.