My Research

My research on the Supreme Court cases is going alright, I just barely found a case that I liked and I found interesting so I’m getting to work on finding out the intricacies of the case. I wanted to do my case on something that mattered to me and I had a background in so I searched for cases involving Native American tribes. I’m planning on researching the case more and more each week and taking down notes so I can give a good layout of exactly what had happened. I’m expecting that I will have a great deal to say about this case once I’m done with my research because even though I’m not Navajo I’m still Native American and I think our governmental issues are overlooked and pushed to the side a lot of the time. My grandfather is on the council of Indian Affairs of the Smithsonian so I want to see if I can get his take on the case and what he might’ve done differently, I think he would be a good resource because then I can get a Native American that works with the government point of view.

Facts of the Case

United States v. Navajo Nation
Facts of the Case
·In 1964, the Navajo Nation entered into a lease with the Peabody Coal Company for the mining rights to some of their land.
·The agreement was 37.5 cents for every ton of coal that was mined.
·The agreement was subject for renegotiation after 20 years.
·After the 20 years was up the tribe’s royalty was only worth 2% of Peabody’s gross.
·The tribe requested for the Secretary of the Interior to set a new rate.
·Peabody’s representatives asked the Secretary to delay the decision, he agreed.
·The Navajo Nation and Peabody ended up settling with a rate of 12.5%
·In 1993, the tribe sued the government alleging a breach of trust and claimed $600 million in damages.
·The Court of Federal Claims ruled for the government saying that although the secretary betrayed the tribes trust and acted in Peabody’s interest it didn’t violate any obligation.
·The tribe came back on appeal saying that under the Indian Mineral Leasing Act the government has an obligation to look after the well being of the tribe.
·The Court of Appeals agreed with the tribe and reversed the decision stating that “the Secretary must act in the best interests of the Indian tribes.” http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2002/2002_01_1375/

Property Rights

In my opinion, property rights are just plain confusing. Things get too muddy because there are so many different standards. If it was me in Pacific Heights, I would’ve first off called a locksmith to remove the lock that he put on the door. As far as I know the landlord has the right to inspect the apartment, and a move-in date was never agreed upon, there was never any money exchanged which could probably hold up in court as an acceptance of an offer. But wouldn’t have to be some type of acceptance for him to be able to legally move in and call it his own. The fact that a tenant can say that a person is irresponsible and might be able to ultimately acquire the property can be a good and a bad thing, one is that there are people that do things that just simply shouldn’t. An irresponsible person is obviously the wrong pick to rent a property out to the public, but most of the time you can get a good feel for a person by first impressions. So, I don’t know why you would want to even consider renting from a person you think is irresponsible. The second is the chance that a person might in fact sabotage you like what was done in the movie.

I’ve never owned real property in my life and I hope to one day. But will I make investments on houses by buying them and then renting them out to the public; I’m not quite sure about that.

In life we don’t know what will come tomorrow, next week or years from now. All we can do is live life the best we can and hope the outcome is positive.

Instant Extra Credit

Three Names I have been called: Taylor, Tee, Asshole :D

Three Jobs I have had in my life (include unpaid if you have to): Retail, Accountant, and Visual Merchandiser

Three Places I Have Lived: Fort Duchesne, Utah. Salt Lake City, Utah. Las Vegas, Nevada.

Three TV Shows that I watch: Flavor of Love, MXC and Hell Date

Three places I have been: Washington D.C., New York, and Orlando

People that e-mail me regularly: My Mom, My Sister and Internship contact

Three of my favorite foods: pickles, bacon, strawberries.

Three cars I have driven: Mazda MX3, Pontiac Grand AM GT and Ford F-150.

Three things I am looking forward to: Learning as much as I possibly can in school, my future and meeting new people.

Greed Is Good: Week 6

Everyone loves getting a bonus. Who would turn down a bonus regardless of how much it is? As a former accountant for a Real Estate Owned company, I know that getting a bonus here and there after you’ve worked hard for the past two weeks is a great feeling, also a great incentive.
Every Thursday I walk out of The Art Institute feeling like I stand correct, this gives me a great feeling but at the same time a horrible one. To hear about the things that are going on in our country makes me wonder why our government isn’t doing anything about this. America was built on the idea that government should have nothing to do with how people operate their businesses but by letting things like this carry on we aren’t doing anything but hurting our citizens and have ultimately created one of the biggest upsets to the American people since the Great Depression.

Naïve minds are being taken advantage of like we just saw in the movie,” Wall street.” We the American people, the foundation of the country are unbeknownst to us being taken advantage of with systems in place like REIT’s, whether the intention of the creation of them was good or bad is obviously not the point. The fact that he just over a year ago got a bonus is astonishing and unfortunately not unheard of. These people should be taxed at a higher amount then everyone else; the money used for the CEO’s so called “bonus” could be used by the government or even put into jobs that are suffering. This money should be being fed into the American economy not being made as a cushion for already wealthy men and women.

As I stated before I feel like I’m repeating myself when I say that the systems in place in America are corrupted, we should be educating the American people about the things that are affecting us.

Bong Hits for Jesus

Bong Hits for Jesus
Minor is the one word everyone that is in fact a minor HATES hearing. But, I think when were in the process of “growing up” we take for granted everything that is put in place to protect us. In this particular instance I don’t think it was wrong that the principal took the banner down, she has to worry about hundreds of other kids and also the reputation of the school. As kids, we don’t understand how immature our actions are, we want the same rights that every adult is given. But this obviously isn’t possible; I don’t think it’s wrong that rights are taken away as soon as we enter a school setting.

BUT, I also think that if the government is going to take away rights that were given to us as Americans. Then, there should be one general standard age. The government likes to use the law to its advantage because they know they can. If we are able to be shipped off to war at the age of 18 with a chance of losing our lives, then we should be able to go have a drink at a bar or club. We can go to jail at 18 probably even younger, but we can’t have a beer?

There are very good reasons for having the laws for kids in school in place, they protect our kid’s, little brother’s, little sister’s, cousins, nieces and nephews. But like I’ve said in my recent blogs, the law has a way of bending itself to play into the hands of the government. So basically what I think about this whole situation is that the kid is an IDIOT for even wasting his time to put a banner up like that, and the principal did the right thing by taking it down.