AP Government Current Events Blog/Portfolio

Megan Pohler                                                          9/22/2017   In 2012 the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to have juveniles serve a mandatory life sentence without a chance for  parole. The documentary follows two people convicted of crime as juveniles that were given  life  sentences . The first person examined is Anthony Rolon who was convicted of murder at 17 in 1997. Due to an altercation at a party Rolon stabbed Robert  Botelho  three times and eventually died do to the third stab that had hit his heart. Rolon was given life without  parole, as well as many  others  as  the  crackdown   on  "s...

Megan Pohler Life on Parole http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/life-on-parole/ 9/15/17 For a year and a half PBS  followed four people in Connecticut that were put on parole. In an effort to reduce the number of inmates the Connecticut has been granting parole to many people. The main people being examined in this program are all ex-convicts  who are serving parole  sentences from several months to several years.   Erroll   Brantley ,   who  was sentenced for 30 months in prison for burglary  was placed  on parole for   3.5  years .  Erroll  leaves and goes straight home with  his girlfriend  Katherine, violating the terms of his parole on his very first day.   Later he is caught using  opioids  and is  recommended  a rehab center and he  refuses  to go .  He then misses his parole meeting after checking into a detox center violating his parole. Eventually he ...

9/7/2017 "EPA chief on Irma: The time to talk climate change isn't now" https://tinyurl.com/yd7thw85       Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt was interviewed to hear his thoughts on hurricane Irma. In his interview Pruitt stated that "To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm; versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced." He then followed this by saying: "What we need to focus on is access to clean water, addressing these areas of superfund activities that may cause an attack on water, these issues of access to fuel. ... Those are things so important to citizens of Florida right now, and to discuss the cause and effect of these storms, there's the... place (and time) to do that, it's not now." According to Pruitt the EPA is currently only focusing on providing people in Florida the assistance they need and it is up to Congress to approach the and begin disc...