by Jacyn Dawes
Since the 1940s, Spades has been one of the most popular card games. The premise of the game is to estimate how many hands you are going to win before the round begins. The highest card wins, with the ace being the highest card, unless someone trumps it.
As the name suggests, spades are the trump cards. Even if everyone plays a diamond, including the ace of diamonds, someone could swoop in with the two of spades and win the hand. Whether it be card games or the classic “Go ask you mom” line, this idea of the trump card exists in our everyday lives. One of the large-scaled examples of this is state versus federal laws. Often, individual states can make decisions in their laws that contradict existing federal laws. When this happens, who holds the ‘trump card?’
Some laws that the federal government handles include civil rights, immigration law, and social security. Letting states implement their own laws is a way for the people to have laws that better represent their rights, especially since there are fewer people those laws represent. Some state-decided topics include criminal issues, family matters, real estate, and business matters. Local laws take this one step farther. This does mean that there are many instances where the states implement a law that contradicts the government. The big topic that comes to mind is marijuana.
More states are choosing to legalize marijuana, while the federal government has yet to make that step. When situations like this happen, the federal government does have the king of spades card, called the Supremacy Clause. As a part of the U.S. Constitution, the goal of the Supremacy Clause is not to tell states what laws to make, but rather give the federal government the ability to have the deciding vote when laws contradict. This raises the question: why, then, are states allowed to pass these laws in the first place?
A lot of this can be directed back to enforcement. Enforcement can cause a lot of gray area with the Supremacy Clause because that enforcement falls back on the federal government. While states do not have to enforce the laws, they are also not allowed to stop federal authorities that are. There is, however, one card that can trump the king of spades. If the laws contradict, those under prosecution could take matters to the courts and attempt to declare the law unconstitutional. The rights listed in the constitution hold the ultimate trump card, the ace of spades. Overall, states have the ability to give their people rights that better represent them. But at the end of the day, we are one nation. As long as those laws remain constitutional, the federal government does have the deciding vote.
If you want to research federal and state laws, regulations, and court decisions, please visit https://www.usa.gov/how-laws-are-made. On their website, they have links to many different resources such as the Code of Federal Regulations and the Law Library of Congress.
Bicycle (n.d.). How to Play: Spades. Retrieved from https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/spades/
Daunt, L. (2014, Mar 30). State vs. Federal Law: Who Really Holds the Trump Card? Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/state-vs-federal-law-who_b_4676579
Diffen (n.d.). Federal vs. State Law. Retrieved from https://www.diffen.com/difference/Federal_Law_vs_State_Law
Levy, R. (2013, Mar 18). Yes, States Can Nullify Some Federal Laws, Not All. Cato Institute. Retrieved from https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/yes-states-can-nullify-some-federal-laws-not-all
Roberts, C. & Martin, R. (2018, Mar 15). What Happens When States Defy Federal Laws. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2018/03/14/593398902/what-happens-when-states-defy-federal-laws
Striepe, B. (n.d.). What Happens When a State Law Contradicts a U.S. Federal Law? Retrieved from https://people.howstuffworks.com/state-law-contradicts-federal-law.htm
USA Gov (n.d.). How Laws are Made and How to Research Them. Retrieved from https://www.usa.gov/how-laws-are-made
Jacyn Dawes is a Graduate Assistant at the Gwartney Institute and an MBA student at Ottawa University
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Monday, July 22, 2019
Where Did We Get Time Zones?
By Jacob C. Maichel
In the 1800s time was very loose to say the least. People could not move faster than the speed of horses so schedules were pretty tentative, which wasn’t a big deal in their relatively slow moving lives. As the United States began to industrialize and develop factories, steamboats, mail, etc time needed to be more uniform inside of towns. Each town decided on its own official town time creating thousands of unique time zones across the United States. Michigan, for example, had 38 different times alone!
With the invention of the railroad everything changed as the country opened up. A trip from New York to Chicago that had taken a month by horse could now be completely in two days on a train. Variations in times was not only a scheduling nightmare but ultimately a safety hazard as trains sometimes hit each other due to timing confusions. The railroad’s solution was to make each train its own traveling “time zone”, so that no matter where it went it was based on the time where the line was based out of.
During this period William F. Allen was the secretary general of the time convention and had no shortage of people reaching out to him pleading to change the outdated time system. By the 1870s trains were common across the country as the United States shifted from a collection of towns to one uniform country. In the 1980s the scientific community struggled with meteorologists not being able to collaborate on anything, such as times of shooting star sightings. Allen decided to take on the task of standardizing time as we know it by splitting the country into zones.
Allen begins by going to the Boston Railroads with the idea. They promptly deny him stating they only set time via the Harvard observatory. Rather than admit defeat Allen simply convinces the Harvard observatory to adopt his plan and soon after the city of Boston follows. Allen next approaches the city of New York arguing time may become known as Boston Time if they reject him, which was all the convincing needed to get New York to agree.
As more cities began to adopt the plan there was push back. One preacher was so against it he was quoted saying “we follow God’s time not railroad time” and then smashed his watch on the pulpit. Another notable objection came from the attorney general who stated that government buildings go off of D.C. time. However, enough States adopted Allen’s plan that his objection was ignored. The plan continued and Allen’s team mapped out 4 different time zones that we are familiar with today.
At 12 noon on November 18, 1883 all time is set to become standardized. They used telegraph lines to notify balls across the country of the exact moment to drop and start counting time. These dropping balls eventually give way to the traditional ball dropping in New York every new year. Though there was still some disagreements in 1918 standardized time was officially adopted by the U.S. Federal Government, and in 1966 they abolished all local times.
References
Helm, Sally, Host. Episode 918 “The Day Of Two Noons”. Planet Money, NPR, 7 June, 2019. https://www.npr.org/2019/06/07/730727038/episode-918-the-day-of-two-noons
Jacob C. Maichel is a Graduate Assistant at the Gwartney Institute and an MBA student at Ottawa University
In the 1800s time was very loose to say the least. People could not move faster than the speed of horses so schedules were pretty tentative, which wasn’t a big deal in their relatively slow moving lives. As the United States began to industrialize and develop factories, steamboats, mail, etc time needed to be more uniform inside of towns. Each town decided on its own official town time creating thousands of unique time zones across the United States. Michigan, for example, had 38 different times alone!
With the invention of the railroad everything changed as the country opened up. A trip from New York to Chicago that had taken a month by horse could now be completely in two days on a train. Variations in times was not only a scheduling nightmare but ultimately a safety hazard as trains sometimes hit each other due to timing confusions. The railroad’s solution was to make each train its own traveling “time zone”, so that no matter where it went it was based on the time where the line was based out of.
During this period William F. Allen was the secretary general of the time convention and had no shortage of people reaching out to him pleading to change the outdated time system. By the 1870s trains were common across the country as the United States shifted from a collection of towns to one uniform country. In the 1980s the scientific community struggled with meteorologists not being able to collaborate on anything, such as times of shooting star sightings. Allen decided to take on the task of standardizing time as we know it by splitting the country into zones.
Allen begins by going to the Boston Railroads with the idea. They promptly deny him stating they only set time via the Harvard observatory. Rather than admit defeat Allen simply convinces the Harvard observatory to adopt his plan and soon after the city of Boston follows. Allen next approaches the city of New York arguing time may become known as Boston Time if they reject him, which was all the convincing needed to get New York to agree.
As more cities began to adopt the plan there was push back. One preacher was so against it he was quoted saying “we follow God’s time not railroad time” and then smashed his watch on the pulpit. Another notable objection came from the attorney general who stated that government buildings go off of D.C. time. However, enough States adopted Allen’s plan that his objection was ignored. The plan continued and Allen’s team mapped out 4 different time zones that we are familiar with today.
At 12 noon on November 18, 1883 all time is set to become standardized. They used telegraph lines to notify balls across the country of the exact moment to drop and start counting time. These dropping balls eventually give way to the traditional ball dropping in New York every new year. Though there was still some disagreements in 1918 standardized time was officially adopted by the U.S. Federal Government, and in 1966 they abolished all local times.
References
Helm, Sally, Host. Episode 918 “The Day Of Two Noons”. Planet Money, NPR, 7 June, 2019. https://www.npr.org/2019/06/07/730727038/episode-918-the-day-of-two-noons
Jacob C. Maichel is a Graduate Assistant at the Gwartney Institute and an MBA student at Ottawa University
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
USDA move to KC could benefit Franklin County
by Levi A. Russell
Originally published by the Ottawa Herald on June 26, 2019
Big changes are coming to the USDA and to the Kansas City metro area. Last week, Secretary of Agriculture Perdue announced that two major arms of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), would be moving to the Kansas City area this summer. What does this mean for the KC metro’s economy? What about Franklin County farmers?
To answer the first question, we have to look at what we know about the move. Roughly 600 employees will be relocating from Washington D.C. to the Kansas City area, though we don’t know which side of the state line they will call their new home. The General Services Administration has put out a call for proposals for buildings in the area and, of the 6 buildings that fit their specifications, the closest to Ottawa is the Sprint office building in Overland Park.
Certainly the broader Kansas City area will benefit from the additional jobs, larger tax base, and economic activity from support services provided to these new-to-Kansas-City federal workers. Additionally, the federal government estimates that there will be a $300 million in federal government budget savings over the next 15 years due to lower building rent and other advantages from the relocation.
NIFA allocates grant funding for the bulk of the grant programs the USDA provides each year. Due primarily to our world-class Land Grant University in Manhattan, Kansas receives tens of millions of dollars each year in research funds from NIFA for a range of research efforts including crop and animal agriculture, agricultural economics, natural resources, food science, health, and education. I don’t think NIFA’s location change will mean much for Franklin County agriculture; grant funds will flow into and out of NIFA just as they did when the employees were housed in D.C.
However, I think there’s a possibility that Franklin County agriculture will benefit from ERS’s move to Kansas City. ERS is an in-house research division within the USDA. It houses a gaggle of economists who are trained in analysis of markets, rural economies, farm management, food and nutrition assistance, food safety, international trade, and other issues related to agriculture.
What I’m about to say is not intended to be a jab at ERS employees. I’m sure all of them are fine people, and the ones I’ve met over my short career as an agricultural economist were sharp, knowledgeable people who really want to help U.S. agriculture succeed. However, I think it’s possible that living and working in D.C. has a stifling effect on one’s broader perspective of agriculture. There’s nothing wrong with boutique organic stores and high-overhead-cost hydroponics operations, but these niche businesses don’t represent the backbone of agriculture.
I’ve written in this column before about Franklin County agriculture. We have a lot of cattle, corn, and beans around here. I think it will be good for the economists at ERS to be a little bit closer to the agricultural producers who feed our nation and the world. It just might broaden their perspective and increase their focus. If it does, Franklin County producers will benefit from more effective government policy driven by the analysis of the fine folks at ERS. I hope all our new neighbors working at the USDA will feel welcome in northeast Kansas.
Dr. Levi A. Russell is the Gwartney Institute Professor of Economic Education and Research at Ottawa University
Originally published by the Ottawa Herald on June 26, 2019
Big changes are coming to the USDA and to the Kansas City metro area. Last week, Secretary of Agriculture Perdue announced that two major arms of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), would be moving to the Kansas City area this summer. What does this mean for the KC metro’s economy? What about Franklin County farmers?
To answer the first question, we have to look at what we know about the move. Roughly 600 employees will be relocating from Washington D.C. to the Kansas City area, though we don’t know which side of the state line they will call their new home. The General Services Administration has put out a call for proposals for buildings in the area and, of the 6 buildings that fit their specifications, the closest to Ottawa is the Sprint office building in Overland Park.
Certainly the broader Kansas City area will benefit from the additional jobs, larger tax base, and economic activity from support services provided to these new-to-Kansas-City federal workers. Additionally, the federal government estimates that there will be a $300 million in federal government budget savings over the next 15 years due to lower building rent and other advantages from the relocation.
NIFA allocates grant funding for the bulk of the grant programs the USDA provides each year. Due primarily to our world-class Land Grant University in Manhattan, Kansas receives tens of millions of dollars each year in research funds from NIFA for a range of research efforts including crop and animal agriculture, agricultural economics, natural resources, food science, health, and education. I don’t think NIFA’s location change will mean much for Franklin County agriculture; grant funds will flow into and out of NIFA just as they did when the employees were housed in D.C.
However, I think there’s a possibility that Franklin County agriculture will benefit from ERS’s move to Kansas City. ERS is an in-house research division within the USDA. It houses a gaggle of economists who are trained in analysis of markets, rural economies, farm management, food and nutrition assistance, food safety, international trade, and other issues related to agriculture.
What I’m about to say is not intended to be a jab at ERS employees. I’m sure all of them are fine people, and the ones I’ve met over my short career as an agricultural economist were sharp, knowledgeable people who really want to help U.S. agriculture succeed. However, I think it’s possible that living and working in D.C. has a stifling effect on one’s broader perspective of agriculture. There’s nothing wrong with boutique organic stores and high-overhead-cost hydroponics operations, but these niche businesses don’t represent the backbone of agriculture.
I’ve written in this column before about Franklin County agriculture. We have a lot of cattle, corn, and beans around here. I think it will be good for the economists at ERS to be a little bit closer to the agricultural producers who feed our nation and the world. It just might broaden their perspective and increase their focus. If it does, Franklin County producers will benefit from more effective government policy driven by the analysis of the fine folks at ERS. I hope all our new neighbors working at the USDA will feel welcome in northeast Kansas.
Dr. Levi A. Russell is the Gwartney Institute Professor of Economic Education and Research at Ottawa University
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