----- Why Did Democrats Block Human Trafficking Bill?  ------

23 March 2015Unit 4: Institutions of National Government

Divisive issue of abortion stalls human trafficking bill

http://www.aol.com/article/2015/03/21/divisive-issue-of-abortion-stalls-human-trafficking-bill/21156024/

The Democratic Party in the Senate found a small but largely controversial addition to the human sex trafficking bill being discussed.  That small find is a “slip-in” addition by the Republicans that adds a reference to abortion. The bill itself was introduced back in February of 2015 with a bi-partisan effort backing it.  There is no telling when the bill will be moved forward or at worst, forgotten about.  This bill is important to the United States because it helps the thousands of children that will find themselves a victim engaged in sex trafficking.  According to the US Justice Department, an estimated 300 thousand adolescents are at risk of being lured into human sex trafficking each year in the United States, most of these children are runaways.  Some of the biggest cities for trafficking are El Paso, Houston, Philadelphia, etc.  The bill is supposed to launch a program that would give police officers all over the nation the funds to purse trafficking cases.  It would tighten the way prosecutors target their offenders of the law, by tightening it was established in the proposed law that anyone convicted of sex trafficking or other similarities of the bill is automatically charged a $5,000 dollar fine that would go back into the funded program to help with resources and salaries for officers.

One of the current issues that the United States and in many foreign countries are dealing with right now is human trafficking whether for drugs, prostitution, or other means of slavery.  Human trafficking happens on all levels of government: national, city, and local.  President Obama’s attorney general nominee, Loretta Lynch, was practically in the middle of signing the bill before the republicans held her back until the abortion issue between the parties is solved.  Many women, even those who are Republican, believe that it is a woman’s right to do what she wants with her own body.  Many Democrats and Republicans were appreciative that this bill was looking promising before the abortion battle began.  The democrats want funding for abortion clinics and had to filibuster the bill would it came to Republicans slipping into a hole that would cut funding for abortions.  It does not look good from a political standpoint on either party holding up the bill as they are.  Negotiations are being done yet there are thousands of children being forced into human trafficking situations.  This bill could help thousands of adolescents be rescued from this miserable way of life.

Feds appeal judge's order to protect gray wolves

Feds appeal judge's order to protect gray wolves

Unit 3: Political Parties, Interest Groups, & Mass Media

1 March 2015

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/28/gray-wolf-population-in-oregon-returning.html

Who the matter is concerning is conservation groups (such as Oregon Wildlife) who believe that the gray wolf is worth protecting versus the farmer organizations (Cattlemen’s Association) who believe that wolf populations need to be kept a low numbers in Southeastern states where the gray wolf population resides and has resided for hundreds of years.  Early 2015 district judge Beryl Howell said that certain states (Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota) did not provide the proper protection to gray wolves; stating that they had not reached their historic levels of population.  There is conflict over whether or not gray wolves should be protected by national wildlife services in the states they reside in because scientists say that their population is still not viable yet conservative groups refute by saying that the population has exceeded the terms for endangerment and hunting is necessary for population control, protection of livestock, etc.  In 2011 the federal government decided that the gray wolf population was viable enough to take the species of the endangered list so they turned the protection of the wolves over to the states.  This has prevailed in the conflict of whether or not the wolves need protection from large hunting groups who want the population sustained.  Certain hunting Interest Groups want to extinguish the population of gray wolves because they believe the wolves harm their livestock and that the wolves are not worth protecting.  The reason the wolves are worth protecting is because they are an important part of the ecosystem and if the population were to dwindle then the food chain would be at risk.

My opinion on the matter concerning the ruling of District Judge Beryl Howell, unlike the Obama Administration and states Wisconsin and Michigan, I believe that gray wolves should remain protected.  I disagree with the non-governmental organizations (NGO's) such at the Cattlemen's association because gray wolves do serve a purpose to the food chain.  The purpose gray wolves serve is they keep deer and elk migrating (and their population healthy) so that they do not over-graze, that vegetation helps against erosion of riverbeds, provides nesting areas for birds, and helps river life survive.  There are interest groups such as Oregon Wildlife and scientists who think that the wolf population is still not viable and needs to be protected.    Not necessarily suggesting that they are an endangered species but aiming toward the goal that would have states protecting their wolves against aggressive game hunters.  Hunters and NGO's are stating that their livestock is being tampered with by the wolf population and they believe that the numbers should stay low.    The refute against this from the Washington State University with conduction of a study that shows that killing gray wolves that prey on livestock only leads to more killings of livestock.  This being factual because Alpha males and females are the only wolves in the pack that are allowed to hunt down livestock (and breed for survival of the pack) thus when hunters kill one or both of the alphas, other members in the pack breed and thus create more livestock killings.  Oregon has made progress in keeping their wolf species alive and healthy and since hunters were not able to hunt the wolves while the population grew, livestock killings were kept low.

In April, wildlife officials plan to decide whether or not the protections of the wolves will be lifted off Oregon or not even though that northern two-thirds of the state will still have the wolves marked as endangered.