...FEMA and Federalism Deanne Norgaard POL 120 - American National Government May 26, 2014 Season Hoard FEMA and Federalism The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is a federal program designed to respond to natural emergencies and disasters all over our country. Its initial catalyst is a governor’s declaration of a disaster area. So when recent tornadoes touched down and cut a path of destruction through Illinois, particularly in the towns of Washington and Gifford, the governor made his declaration and FEMA was expected to spring into action. Upon examination however, FEMA ruled that despite seven fatalities and millions of dollars of damage, the area did not qualify for assistance. Both the Illinois governor and U.S. Senators were stunned and the state was left to respond to the emergency themselves. What is this federal policy and is it better than just having each state respond to its own issues? The qualifications to receive FEMA assistance are determined by the following: the amount and type of damage (major damage and number of homes destroyed); impact on the infrastructure of affected areas or critical facilities; imminent threats to public health and safety; impacts to essential government services and functions; unique capability of Federal government; dispersion or concentration of damage; level of insurance coverage in place for homeowners and public facilities; available assistance from other (Federal, state, local, voluntary organizations); and...
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...The initial response to the extensive disaster in the Gulf Coast area of New Orleans, resulted from Hurricane Katrina, showed high levels of ineptitude and disorganization by government officials. The world was shocked by images of distressed individuals awaiting salvage on their rooftops, and the masses of people packed together in unpardonable conditions, in the Super Dome. There was no hiding from the painful reality and obvious inaction or inability of those responsible for caring for the residents in the wake of this catastrophe. Although, a substantial amount of the blame has been placed on FEMA, it should be understood that various aspects contributed to the circumstances in New Orleans. Some of the levees had been unsuccessfully built and were not properly maintained. Local agencies failed to plan and prepare of such a large event, even though they have been getting hit by hurricanes since the late 1800's. Government officials delayed ordering an evacuation, and did not take into account how to assist those citizens who lacked the monetary resources or had health risks that prevented them from evacuating the area. An 8.3 magnitude earthquake in San Francisco in 1906 that left over 250,000 people homeless and killed 478 people began the Federal involvement in the aftermath of natural disasters. While the disaster itself was obviously inescapable, the fires that burned throughout the city were the result of thoughtless planning. In an effort to improve the nation’s...
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...GLOBAL WARMING: Energy, Fall 2005 v30 i4 p36(2) It could get a lot warmer. (GLOBAL WARMING) Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2005 Business Communications Company, Inc. If humans continue to use fossil fuels in a business as usual manner for the next few centuries, the polar ice caps will be depleted, ocean sea levels will rise by seven meters and median air temperatures will soar to 14.5 degrees warmer than current day. These are the stunning results of climate and carbon cycle model simulations conducted by scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. By using a coupled climate and carbon cycle model to look at global climate and carbon cycle changes, the scientists found that the earth would warm by 8 degrees Celsius (14.5 degrees Fahrenheit) if humans use the entire planet's available fossil fuels by the year 2300. The jump in temperature would have alarming consequences for the polar ice caps and the ocean, said lead author Govindasamy Bala of the Laboratory's Energy and Environment Directorate. In the polar regions alone, the temperature would spike more than 20 degrees Celsius, forcing the land in the region to change from ice and tundra to boreal forests. "The temperature estimate is actually conservative because the model didn't take into consideration changing land use such as deforestation and build-out of cities into outlying wilderness areas," Bala said. Today's level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is 380 parts per million (ppm). By the year 2300, the model...
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... |Analysis (How does the development affect the current U.S. health care system?) | |1. Marine Hospital |The "Decades Of Healthcare Service" (). In 1798, President John Adams signed into |The relevance of the Marine Hospital service is by the government recognized that | |Service |law the Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen. Creating the Marine Hospital|the servicemen needed federal regulated healthcare. This service was centered to | | |Service. This plan marked the nation’s first pre-paid health insurance plan and was |providing medical care to our servicemen, it evolve to a big organization known as| | |the birth of the modern American medical system. During that time, twenty cents was |the Public Health Service. According to "U.s Department Of Health And Human | | |withheld from the servicemen salaries to pay for their share of their healthcare in |Services Commissioned History" (), " For more than 200 years, the U.S. Public | | |marine hospitals, with the federal government also contributing support. In 1902 the|Health Service Commissioned Corps has been our Nation's frontline protecting |...
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...Implementation and Development of Vehicle Tracking and Immobilization Technologies MTI Report 09-04 MINETA TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE The Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies (MTI) was established by Congress as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991. Reauthorized in 1998, MTI was selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation through a competitive process in 2002 as a national “Center of Excellence.” The Institute is funded by Congress through the United States Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration, the California Legislature through the Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and by private grants and donations. The Institute receives oversight from an internationally respected Board of Trustees whose members represent all major surface transportation modes. MTI’s focus on policy and management resulted from a Board assessment of the industry’s unmet needs and led directly to the choice of the San José State University College of Business as the Institute’s home. The Board provides policy direction, assists with needs assessment, and connects the Institute and its programs with the international transportation community. MTI’s transportation policy work is centered on three primary responsibilities: Research MTI works to provide policy-oriented research for all levels of government and the private sector to foster the development of optimum surface...
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...1. Analyze the organizational environment that Sonoco operates in. Given this context, what are the strengths and weaknesses of Sonoco’s organizational structure? 2. How successful has Hartley been in transforming Sonoco’s HR function to be strategic? What else should Hartley have done? Provide the rationale for your answers to these questions. 3. What is right HR structure for Sonoco – centralization or hybrid? Why? Evaluate the different options (pros and cons). * the secretary of Homeland Security, tell reporters that he “ had no reports ” of things viewers had seen with their own eyes. It seemed he might have been better informed if he had relied on CNN Homeland * Security, Enron, and Home Depot represent only a few examples of an endemic challenge: how to know if you ’ re getting the right picture or tuning in to the wrong channel. Managers often fail this test. Cluelessness is a fact of life, even for very smart people. Sometimes, the information they need is fuzzy or hard to get. Other times, they ignore or misinterpret information at hand. Decision makers too often lock themselves into fl awed ways of making sense of their circumstances.rather than his own agency. * Reframing requires an ability to think about situations in more than one way. We then introduce four distinct frames — structural, human resource, political, and symbolic — each logical and powerful in its own right. Together, they help us decipher the full array of signifi...
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...threats and finding the best ways to avoid those threats, crisis management involves dealing with threats before, during, and after they have occurred. That is, crisis management is proactive, not merely reactive. It is a discipline within the broader context of management consisting of skills and techniques required to identify, assess, understand, and cope with a serious situation, especially from the moment it first occurs to the point that recovery procedures start. Introduction Crisis management consists of: * Methods used to respond to both the reality and perception of crises. * Establishing metrics to define what scenarios constitute a crisis and should consequently trigger the necessary response mechanisms. * Communication that occurs within the response phase of emergency management scenarios. Crisis management methods of a business or an organization are called Crisis Management Plan. Crisis management is...
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...Positive Impact of Business Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility On an Organization Abstract Corporate social responsibility and business ethics have become the focus of an increasing amount of attention from the business sector and academicians following the scandal-ridden era of Enron and others during the 1990s. Although the findings from the research to date are mixed, there is a growing body of research in this area that has lent support to the notion that ethical business practices and corporate social responsibility initiatives have a positive impact on companies in terms of profitability as well as other less quantifiable areas. This review of literature examines these issues systematically to identify current trends and to describe the positive impacts that ethical business practices and corporate social responsibility programs can have for companies of all sizes and types. The Positive Impact of Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility on an Organization To act in a socially responsible way requires organizational leaders to consider the effect of their decisions on the well-being of society; thus, managers must ask themselves what their actions do to society and what their actions do for society. – Ronald Sims, Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility: Why Giants Fall 2003, p. 66 Chapter Two: Review of Literature The epigraph above makes it clear that today, there is a growing recognition among the business community that they...
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.......... 4 Competition and Regional Alignments ............................................................................................. 8 Components of Supply Chain Management (SCM) ............................................................................ 11 A. Main Elements ................................................................................................................................ 11 4. Wal‐Mart’s Method of Managing the Supply Chain ........................................................................... 13 A. Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 13 B. Technology Contribution to overall efficiency ................................................................................ 13 C. Benefits of...
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...9 - 5 12 - 00 4 REV: MARCH 19, 2012 "One time permission to reproduce granted by Harvard Business Publishing, 10/9/2012" DAVID E. BELL PHILLIP ANDR EWS MARY SHE LMAN Domino’s Pizza Before 2007, wheat prices didn’t have a pulse. We’d buy for the next six months and the price would be plus or minus 10 cents a bushel over the last six months. Then one day in 2008 wheat shot up $24 a bushel! Now, as a norm, we strategically consider corn, dairy, and wheat to better leverage our supply chain expertise and improve store economics. — John Macksood, executive vice president, Domino’s Pizza On the morning of August 22, 2011, John Macksood, executive vice president for supply chain services at Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (Domino’s), was reading the daily headlines while sitting in his office at the Domino’s World Resource Center, the company’s global headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Domino’s was the world’s second-largest pizza company and the largest pizza delivery quick-serve restaurant (QSR) chain. One item in particular jumped out at Macksood. An article, titled “Quiznos chain faces tough finance issues,” indicated that Denver-based Quiznos, a privately owned QSR sandwich company with 4,000 U.S. stores, was nearing bankruptcy due to “sharpening competition, waning sales, and debt woes.”1 One of the problems cited was Quiznos’ “protracted battle” with its franchisees over operating costs and profitability, with some franchisees blaming low or nonexistent store...
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...9 - 5 12 - 00 4 REV: MARCH 19, 2012 "One time permission to reproduce granted by Harvard Business Publishing, 10/9/2012" DAVID E. BELL PHILLIP ANDR EWS MARY SHE LMAN Domino’s Pizza Before 2007, wheat prices didn’t have a pulse. We’d buy for the next six months and the price would be plus or minus 10 cents a bushel over the last six months. Then one day in 2008 wheat shot up $24 a bushel! Now, as a norm, we strategically consider corn, dairy, and wheat to better leverage our supply chain expertise and improve store economics. — John Macksood, executive vice president, Domino’s Pizza On the morning of August 22, 2011, John Macksood, executive vice president for supply chain services at Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (Domino’s), was reading the daily headlines while sitting in his office at the Domino’s World Resource Center, the company’s global headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Domino’s was the world’s second-largest pizza company and the largest pizza delivery quick-serve restaurant (QSR) chain. One item in particular jumped out at Macksood. An article, titled “Quiznos chain faces tough finance issues,” indicated that Denver-based Quiznos, a privately owned QSR sandwich company with 4,000 U.S. stores, was nearing bankruptcy due to “sharpening competition, waning sales, and debt woes.”1 One of the problems cited was Quiznos’ “protracted battle” with its franchisees over operating costs and profitability, with some franchisees blaming low or nonexistent store...
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...a smarter planet. To some, this might not have seemed the most propitious moment to launch such an ambitious strategic initiative. However, we strongly believed there was an opportunity to address exactly the problems and challenges that were then gripping the world. Now it is nearly two years later and events have, if anything, strengthened this belief. The idea of a smarter planet is speaking powerfully to forward-thinking leaders and citizens around the world. It is opening up a growing global dialogue and generating thousands of innovative ideas. Hundreds of our clients have seized upon new capabilities to build smarter systems, and are achieving measurable benefits for their companies, communities and cities. Without question, this response is proving beneficial to IBM’s business. However, the phenomenon of a smarter planet is about much more than enhancing one company’s growth and profitability. And that is what this report is all about. 2 LETTER FROM SAMUEL J. PALMiSAnO IBM Corporate Responsibility Report Addressing the issues facing the world now...
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...The Grassroots Battle: Wal-Mart Supercenter Rosemead Stephen J.J. McGuire, Christine Chueh, Tia Mao & Isela Mercado California State University, Los Angeles September 11, 2008 Wal-Mart, founded in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas, was the largest retail chain in the world. Its growth was derived from a wide range of competitive advantages, such as Wal-Mart’s sophisticated use of information technology to keep track of and reorder items, the use of “Just-in-Time” shipments of merchandise from distribution centers that eliminated the need for costly in-store inventory storage2, and the sheer economies of scale it achieved compared to its rivals. Wal-Mart also exploited “economies of density” to make the most of its centralized distribution hubs.3 These advantages, combined with its “Every Day Low Price” strategy, enabled Wal-Mart to serve its target market, of which the residents of Rosemead, California were typical. In 2003, Wal-Mart’s attempt to establish a Supercenter 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles in the city of Inglewood, California was stopped by a community grassroots effort to keep the retailer out. Wal-Mart then diverted its expansion plan to the nearby city of Rosemead, where a new Supercenter would benefit from two Wal-Mart distribution centers within a cluster of ten neighboring Wal-Mart stores. In September 2004, the Rosemead City Council voted in favor of Wal-Mart’s plans to open its first Supercenter in Los Angeles country, alienating many residents who felt their...
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...1 United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Study Can the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary survive in the 21st Century? How changing generational attitudes will affect an all-volunteer organization August 2006 1 This page intentionally left blank INDEX 1. Introduction 1 2. Analysis 3 A. The canary in the mine 4 B. Understanding generational attitudes 4 C. Four generations 5 D. Exploring the next generation of retirees: The Baby Boomers 6 E. Gen-X: It’s about lifestyle 8 F. Call them Gen-Y or Millennials, they deserve our attention 10 G. The new volunteers: What to expect 12 ` H. My time is not your time 14 I. Generational differences shaping leadership 15 J. American volunteer rate steady 17 3. Conclusions 19 A. Past expectations 20 B. Present construct 20 C. Spontaneous volunteer: Something new 21 D. High touch 21 E. Exploring contemporary trends in volunteering 23 1. Volunteer burnout 23 2. The human touch 24 3. Professionalizing the volunteer corps 25 4. New forms of volunteerism 25 5. Diversity 26 6. Technology 26 F. Communications challenge 27 4. Summary 29 6. Appendix 31 1 Membership numbers How many members the Auxiliary needs to meet their mission obligations and how many members it needs to meet its financial requirements would be two different answers. Getting a specific answer from the leadership is difficult because of the way the two spiral around each other like a double helix strand of DNA. They are – for now – inseparable...
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...binding. Examined in Section One are problematic premises related to the four fundamental approaches to countering terrorism; increased security, eliminating the terrorists, attacking the support infrastructure, and altering conditions that breed discontent. Despite trite, albeit politically popular, commentary proposing those methods, execution of those concepts is extremely difficult, often controversial, and sometimes counterproductive. Section Two of this monograph addresses several other policy decisions that generate problems that are difficult to resolve, but directly impact the forces involved. Among those topics are; roles of contractors, individual loyalties versus national interests, alliances of convenience, foreign response to our policy on preemption of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), the consequences of our stated objective of spreading democracy, the impact of U.S. presence in the Gulf region, and quandary associated with defining winning. Section Three will offer a few solutions to extremely contentious, often emotional, issues that are strategic in scope. This includes the development of an organization that can predict threat objectives and evolution, thus reducing the probability of continued unanticipated consequences from U.S. actions. Additionally, means of extraction of information from prisoners without...
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