An ex-drug user was put in jail for three knife point robberies and a 67 yer old women he orbbed at abank machine. he met a guy that was a christian and he led him into christianity, he has changed totally on his life perspective. He wrote a 4 page apolgy about his life and how he has changed and he wants to make it up to them and show them that he has changed and he is different. He wants to talk to students about using drugs and how it affected his life and the dangers of taking them when he gets out of jail. The judge was amazed by this and was impressed she said it was an amazing epistle.

In my opinion i think thats very exciting!! people coming to christ is amazing. Its so wonderful how many different people can come to christ and learn abunch of new things even when your in jail. This man that was a robber and a drug addict and came to christ is very cool. I think that when he gets out of jail and he goes to teach other kids about Christ and about what drugs can do to you and stuff will be very good on kids because them knowing hes done durgs and been in jail maybe he will listen to him and I really think he will makea big impact on these kids hes going to teach n show them the way to God and better life.

Cant forgive premediated cruelty of killers in baby's death, dad says.

Vehicular insurance premiums have increased over the past five years and one of the main reasons for its significant increase is because insurance policies keep speeding and parking tickets on a driver’s record for three years until it is overlooked by other insurance companies, causing drivers’ monthly bills or premiums to raise to a nasty, hefty bill. The policies that force insurance companies to do this are ridiculous because both parking and speeding tickets have nothing to do with how often an individual gets into a moving accident. For one, most mobile accidents occur at lower speeds because at these speeds drivers are less likely to pay attention compared to an individual moving at a speed greater than sixty miles per hour giving his or her undivided attention to the road. Another point on topic would be the correlation between parking tickets and insurance quotes along with how the tickets influence the price of insurance. The opposition seems like they have never even considered it because they cannot explain the connection with vehicular insurance and parking tickets. Insurance companies should not worry about parking tickets and should also reduce the hold on a speeding ticket from three years to one year.

Starting off, exploring statistics relating speeding and accidents as well as look at the percentage of last year’s accidents that were over speeds of sixty miles per hour would be necessary. When driving at higher speeds, one realizes that their life is at greater risk if an accident were to occur, so one would be more likely to pay attention to the road as well as their surroundings. Most accidents occur at intersections and exits because these accidents are not because of speeding, but because of careless operation in general. This proves that speeding may not contain a major influence on traffic accidents. The opposition states that speeding is the main reason for traffic accidents, but statistics show this.

Over the past decade, there has been an increase of economic expansion owed to the establishment of legalized gambling in the United States, this set apart from Las Vegas and Atlantic City. The reason for this economic expansion is due to the increase in revenues needed within the states and cities. Traditionally, the property tax has been the foundation for education aid in communities across the country. While it tends to be the more predictable source of revenue, it has led to wide variations in revenue across municipalities and district innovations (Sack 2005, 58). The case of legalized gambling and other sorts of gambling has led to the question whether gambling or lotteries are the ticket for economic freedom or development of new revenues. This paper will take on the responsibility of dealing with the question in hand, as a result will emphasis the meaning of economic development and apply some sort of reasonable informational applicable cost-benefit evaluation of casino gambling.

Several states in recent years have turned to legalize gambling to secure more revenues. This in turn is able to provide for the demand of more public services in the United States. State and local governments are faced with the growing demand of public interest groups who favor to decrease the reliance on wage, property, and sales taxes, also the federal government is also scrutinized for relying on personal and corporate income taxes as the major source of its revenue. For the states a new source of funding is some sort of gambling. Gambling in some form is now found in every state but Hawaii and Utah (Berman 2000, 325). Nevada, which has been legalized since 1931, derives about half of its revenues from taxes and license fees from gambling. Atlantic City, which opened in 1978 produces about a million a month on its first year of existence (Berman 2000, 325).

A political party is a group of persons who seek to control government through the winning of elections and the holding of public office. There are many different kinds of political parties in the United States, which give us a wide variety of choice. Political parties in the American government are election oriented; which mean they are focused on winning elections rather then issues. America has a democracy and if you don’t have a choice, then you don’t have a democracy. So, in having different political parties to choose from give us a mixture of different choices.

The United States is primarily a two major party system with the Democratic and the Republican Parties. As well as minor third parties such as: American Independent, Green Party, or the Peace and Freedom Party. Most voters either decided to go with the Democratic or Republican, but if they don’t go with one of those then they have other options of other parties. As the years progress, America has seen more and more third parties develop which give us other options. In all states besides North Dakota requires that most if not all voters be registered to vote. Registration is a procedure of voter identification intended to prevent fraudulent voting. Just because you are registered under a certain party doesn’t mean that you have to vote for that party. People in America like choice and the fact that we have different political parties give us even more choice. There are three –components of a political party which are: the party organization, the party in the electorate, and the party in government Political parties have never been very popular in the United States, but over time that has changed. Most people have accepted parties as necessary instructions, but people do feel we should watch them closely. People see now that they like all the different choices that they now have with all these different parties, which they use to not have the choice of.

Mark Victor Hansen, the co-creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul, once said, “The best way to help the poor is to not be one of them.” In the United States, thirty-seven million people lived below the poverty line in 2004. Edward Wolff, a professor of Economics at New York University, predicts that the top 5 percent wealthiest own more than half of all wealth, and in 1998, they owned 59 percent of all wealth, “wealth is the stuff that people own”. One way to close this gap between the “rich” and the “poor” is through the United States tax system, specifically the corporate tax system. By lowering the taxes that are levied upon small and large businesses, businesses will sell their goods for less, be more flexible, and most importantly expand and grow.

Like the “personal income tax, taxes on corporations in the United States were a temporary emergency levy enacted during the Civil War. Corporate income taxation was ªrst adopted on a permanent basis in 1909. As with the personal income tax, its support arose from opposition to the prevailing taxes of the day and a belief that its burden would fall disproportionately on the wealthy. Unlike the personal tax, however, the corporate tax was able to escape constitutional problems, as Congress packaged it as an ‘excise’ tax. 10 Federal corporate income tax revenues followed a pattern similar to that of the personal income tax up through World War II.” The United States has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, second only to Japan, with a 40 percent tax rate. America's corporate tax rate is higher than the rate in every European nation--even socialist welfare states like France and Sweden. The individual corporate tax rates are the following:

Corporate Income Tax Rates--2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2000
Taxable income over Not over Tax rate
$0 $50,000 15%
50,000 75,000 25%
75,000 100,000 34%
100,000 335,000 39%

Government is an organized system of decision making which provides essential services and ensures society functions smoothly and efficiently. It provides order, organization, stability and security. Laws outline our rights and responsibilities, they define what we can and can’t do, and they provide an acceptable way of resolving disputes without violence. Furthermore, they protect the rights of individuals and minorities. The definition of symbiotic is a relationship of mutual benefit or dependence. A symbiotic relationship exists between law and government.

“Drunk Driver Jailed for Year” is a good representation about how the government and the law work together. Richard Holman would have never gone to court if it wasn’t for the government making it against the law to drink and drive. Holman broke several laws that the government set. This man killed another human being because he was driving while under the influence of alcohol and he was also going over the speed limit set by the government.

In the article “Human Smuggler Deported”, the government plays a role on why Frank Magyar was sent to jail, and also where he was sent to jail. Magyar was found smuggling six Chinese citizens, hidden in his boat, into the United States for money. The government says that in order to come and live in their country you must apply for citizenship, not just come over whenever you want. The government also played a role in where Magyar would be held. Since he was smuggling the illegal immigrants into the United States, and that was where he was arrested, he spent his time in an American jail.

We the people in the United States have a democracy system for our government. Our government is based from the constitution which is strongly influenced by the social contract theory. What is the social contract theory? The social contract theory is an agreement or a compact. It’s giving something up to get something in return out of the free will of the people. A constitution is the body of fundamental laws setting out the principles, structures, and processes of a government. What do these two things have in them and how do they relate?

In a state of nature or anarchy without government, individuals have absolute rights and liberties, which the United States doesn’t have. That would mean that we could say whatever we wanted without there being any sort of consequence to it. In order to leave the state of nature the public/people must agree to give up freedoms or rights in order to get something in return. In the United States we give up some right and liberties so that the government protects up with such things like safety and security. Another thing is a limited government; the source of power is up to the people and how much control they would like to give to the government. In other words if we don’t control the government the government will control us, and no one wants a dictatorship.

There are six purposes of the government which are included in the preamble of the constitution, which are: to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, to provide for the common defense, to insure domestic tranquility, to promote general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty. The nation is stronger together rather than individually. The constitution is like a guideline for justice, we cannot do something that is unconstitutional without there being consequences.

Abstract

Drug testing in the workplace is a controversial issue. There are those who feel that it is necessary to prevent risks to public safety caused by substance abuse while on the job. Others feel that the costs far outweigh the benefits and that it is an invasion of privacy. Ethical issues aside, evidence presented in this report supports the latter. The costs of drug testing are high and only a small percentage of employees are actually found to be substance users. Drug testing in the work place has the opposite effect on productivity than was originally intended. It actually reduces productivity instead of increasing it. Drug testing causes a feeling of mistrust and drug testing should not be a part of a healthy work environment.

Introduction

Drug testing in the workplace is a controversial issue. There are those who hold the position that drug testing in the workplace is an invasion of privacy. On the other side of the issue are those who believe that in today’s society drug testing is a necessary evil, regardless of the invasion of privacy issue. These persons point out that in positions where public and personal safety is an issue, the safety of the public over rides any other issue, as in the case of air line pilots, bus drivers and health care professionals, to name a few. The goals of employee drug testing include improvements in workplace safety, productivity, and product integrity so that the individual industry will have an improved fiscal bottom line. However, as a decline in the use of drug testing by companies would suggest, drug testing programs did not meet these goals. This research will support the theory that drug testing in the work place does not improve productivity, and that it costs more money than it saves for companies.

The Reliability Issue

I don’t believe that this plan will be very effective solution to gun violence in Toronto. This is for two reasons, the first being that the problem is not after the violent act has happened. The ‘reverse-onus’ plan deals with situations after the problem and not before. The crisis is the access to guns in Toronto. There have to be stricter laws on gun control so that they can cut off the gun supply, thus resulting in less gunfire. All this plan will do is hold potentially innocent (and guilty) people in custody. How is this going to help the fact that these criminals have already shot people? It won’t and this is what the government has to take into consideration. The problem is not that they have shot someone; the problem is where they got the gun. Without a gun, perhaps an innocent life could be spared. It seems like an act of desperation from the government after a young and innocent girl was shot while shopping. It is supposed to be comforting, but for me, it only provokes more problems. I also think that their energy could be spent elsewhere, such as looking into where these guns are coming from.

Another problem with this is the amount of people that would be held in custody and the fact that there is no evidence that bail is the problem. There is a chance that officials will catch the culprit but there is also an even bigger chance that they will hold an innocent person. This means that more people will be held in prison for no reason at all, which seems like a complete waste of time and energy for officials as well as the accused. As I have mentioned, bail is the wrong area of violence for the government to target. They have to look at the source of the problem, not the result of it.

The Importance of Saying ‘No’

The United Kingdom has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Lisbon Strategy since it was agree on by the Council of Ministers in 2000. The initial goal of the strategy was to make Europe the most competitive knowledge based economy by the year 2010. This economy was to be able to promote sustainable growth, greater social cohesion and a focus on the environment. The broad goals of the strategy were revised in the year 2005, when it was decided to redirect the focus of the program to growth and job creation. This paper will seek to describe the aspects of the Lisbon Programme as it applies to the United Kingdom.
The UK has a three-pronged strategy for adhering to the Lisbon Strategy: promoting macroeconomic stability, promoting productivity growth and increasing employment. In relation to macroeconomic stability, the government of the UK will seek to meet the inflation targets set by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee. As part of the programme, the government will seek to borrow only to finance investment and not consumption. In addition, net debt will be maintained below 40 per cent of GDP over the economic cycle. As a result of these stringent fiscal policies, the UK’s economy was the only G7 nation to not experience a recession during the economic downturn caused by higher oil prices in 2001. In addition there has been an effort to make the public sector in the UK more efficient, with the launch of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), which was launched in 1997 and reviewed in 2000, 2002 and 2004. In addition, it will attempt to create 20 billion pounds of efficiency gains in the public sector which will then be recycled into front-line services. Below is a graph that represents the efficiency targets that the UK aims to hit in the year 2010.

One of the biggest challenges to the UK programme that was set in 2005 is maintaining fiscal responsibility will be its aging population. With forty percent of the United Kingdom’s population set to hit retirement age in 2030, there will be a lot of strain on the pension system. In order to counteract this, the UK government will work to encourage both private and public savings by workers now. Also, the Finance Act 2004, which sets up the set of rules governing taxation on pensions, was passed and will come into in April 2006. This is to ensure the workers have clarity about where their money is going. Another aspect of their plans for dealing with the raging population is to encourage people to work longer. While this may seem like a plausible idea, it is also sure to be unpopular with the public.
The second aspect of the UK reform programme focuses on a broad goal: to increase productivity. The economy of the United Kingdom, has until recently lagged behind other G7 countries when it comes to labour productivity. In order to counter this, the government is working to increase incentive to invest in research and development, improving access to credit, encouraging the growth of small and medium sized businesses. The sector of the government that is most responsible for promoting competition is the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). This office works to make sure that consumers are not negatively affected by unfair agreements between companies. Also, this agency works to find how public sector spending affects the economy. In order to promote more enterprise, the OFT has been working to improve access to credit with greater regulation of lenders.
A cause for concern has been an overall lack of investment in the economy. The solution for this according to the UK government is to increase investment, especially in the housing sector. While this will be a way of keeping the housing market stable, it might have the undesired effect ‘crowding out’ private investment in that sector. Although a lot is made about the fact that the UK does not have the rates of investment comparable to other wealthy countries, there does not seem to much in the programs to increase investment.
Another major aspect of the Lisbon reforms in relation to promoting productivity growth are in relation to Research and Development. While the amount of research that happens in the UK is second only to the United States, translating advancement made into the lab into increased productivity has proved to be tougher to the UK. One of the ways that the UK government is working against this is to strengthen the scope of copyright laws, while making the process of getting a copyright simpler for businesses. In addition, there is an ambitious ten-year plan to enhance the educational system for those studying in fields related to science and technology. Other reforms that have been planned include giving tax credits for research and development and lowering the corporate tax on small scale enterprises from 23 to 19 percent. While it can be debated how much of an impact all these reforms will have, it is easy to see on the simplest graphs that increased productivity will have positive effects on the economy.

The immediate effects of increasing productivity can be seen in this graph. Output per factor of production would increase even as the inputs remained the same. This effect is shown on the overall supply and demand curves for the economy:

In this graph, the supply curve shifts out to ‘S*’ with improvements in technology. It is easy to see that society is better off producing at ‘Q*’ at price ‘P*.’

It is easy to see that Lisbon strategy is having some impact on the way that policy-makers in the United Kingdom. With this three pronged strategy the government is working to promote sustainable long-term growth for the economy. Although the overall effect of some of these policies will be minimal, it is good to see that governments in the European Union are taking an interest in increasing the overall competitiveness of their economies.