Essay 13 Reapportionment

 2008-1) Congressional reapportionment and redistricting are conducted every ten years. When redistricting is conducted, politicians often engage in gerrymandering.
(a) Define congressional reapportionment and explain one reason why it is important to states.
(b) Define congressional redistricting.
(c) Explain two goals of politicians when they gerrymander during redistricting.
(d) Describe two limits that the United State Supreme Court has placed on congressional redistricting.

With the always changing population, reapportionment is an important factor in determining our political representation. As the states change in population, the number of representatives of the state is reflected by the state's population. Reapportionment is the changing of the number of representatives in a given state to reflect it's population. Another method of change that occurs in our political climate is congressional redistricting. Redistricting is the making of state electoral boundaries. Politicians often try to use redistricting to their advantage. Such as encouraging redistricting to have a district containing more of the candidate's political party. Also the attempt to redistrict to contain more of one racial ethnicity in the district is an example of gerrymandering.

The supreme court has taken steps to limit gerrymandering while redistricting. They have limited the process of redistricting to every ten years. Also the idea of arranging the electoral votes to those candidates that did not get the popular vote. Another rule is that districts must be equally populated and cannot be compact.

Answer Key: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/ap08_gopo_us_sgs.pdf

Oil Spill Bibliography

Annotations:

"Blowout: The Deepwater Horizon Disaster." CBSNews. CBS Interactive. 04 Mar. 2014 <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/blowout-the-deepwater-horizon-disaster-16-05-2010/>.

This source outlined the events that contributed to the BP oil spill. It shows how BP was negligent in maintaining safety regulations and could have prevented many of their fatal disasters. Also this source shows the differing perspectives regarding BP including interviews with former employees and management and current ones.

Webs

"BP oil spill timeline." Theguardian.com. 22 July 2010. Guardian News and Media. 01 Mar. 2014 <http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jun/29/bp-oil-spill-timeline-deepwater-horizon>.

This source shows a timeline of the construction and operation of the oil rig that caused the BP oil spill. It shows the rise of the company from a small corporation to a major power in the oil markets. Also it is important to note that the timeline provided specific events that effected the public opinion of BP.

"Thought that was cool? 04 Mar. 2014 <http://lmgtfy.com/?q=pbs+frontline+oil+spill>.

This source discusses the history of BP and the lead-up to the big oil spill. It goes in depth to show how BP was a mismanaged company. Also it shows the structure of BP and how they handled crisis. Lastly the source explained more about the public opinion of the company.