Vol. 56, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2018
A GEOGRAPHICAL COMPARISON OF DEATH PENALTY POLITICS IN NEBRASKA
(pp. 1 - 14)
H. Jason Combs, Emma Neil, and Paul R. Burger
Department of Geography
University of Nebraska-Kearney
Kearney, Nebraska
Abstract
This particular study provides a brief history of the death penalty in the United States and evaluates in more detail the death penalty in Nebraska. Information regarding Nebraska’s legal position on the issue is provided, but this study goes beyond that to spatially examine recent vote patterns regarding the death penalty. The geographical breakdown demonstrates how Nebraskans vote compared to their elected officials in the legislature’s single chamber known as the unicameral, which was implemented in 1937. In 2015, with support from liberal Democrats and moderate Republicans, unicameral members voted for life imprisonment to replace the death penalty, a measure which also withstood the governor’s veto in an override vote (LB268). In 2016, Nebraska’s citizens by a wide margin (60.6 percent of Nebraskans voted in support of the death penalty) retained the death penalty with Referendum 426. Four unicameral members were also voted out of office in 2016; history demonstrates that outside of term limits sitting senators are rarely replaced. All four had voted against the death penalty but resided in districts that supported the measure, and three of the four were Republicans replaced by Republicans. Ultimately, Nebraska’s citizens decided the state’s stance on the death penalty, which supports long-time Nebraska politician George Norris’ contention that elected officials would be held accountable by the people.
(pp. 15 - 29)
Eric Clausen
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
Temple University, City Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Abstract
Detailed topographic map evidence is used to test a recently proposed hypothesis that deep valleys eroded headward across massive and prolonged southwest-oriented floods to create what are today the Neshaminy Creek-Perkiomen Creek and the Tohickon Creek-East Branch Perkiomen Creek drainage divide segments of the Delaware River-Schuylkill River drainage divide. The hypothesis was found to be extremely productive in terms of its ability to explain previously unexplained valley and drainage route orientations, through valleys (defined here as valleys that extend across present day drainage divides), barbed tributaries, asymmetric divides, incised meanders, and drainage divide origins. Further the hypothesis explains how and why many southeast Pennsylvania drainage routes cut across geologic structures and do not follow zones of more easily eroded bedrock. The source of the hypothesized immense and prolonged southwest oriented floods was not determined, but may have been a large and rapidly melting North American continental ice sheet.
CHILDREN’S BLOOD LEAD LEVELS: A CASE STUDY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
(pp. 30 - 49)
Robert C. Ziegenfus
Department of Geography
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Kutztown, Pennsylvania
Abstract
Pennsylvania Department of Health unpublished data at the ZIP code level were analyzed to determine the geographic patterns for elevated blood lead levels in children 0-6 years of age for Berks County. A distinct departure from the conclusions of other research was that whites had the highest percent confirmed elevated levels, especially for Reading. Old housing and female-headed households were found to be important correlates of elevated lead levels. Data at the census tract level should be examined to obtain more precise insight to the gender, race, and ethnicity differences for lead levels among Berks County’s children.
(pp. 50 - 68)
Rachel Pierson and Gina Bloodworth
Department of Geography and Geosciences
Department of Environmental Studies
Salisbury University
Salisbury, Maryland
Abstract
Agricultural drainage ditches form a fundamental alteration to Maryland’s Eastern Shore. This ditch network has evolved in recent decades and now includes newer, larger, mechanically-dug “tax ditches,” introduced as methods of flood control due to the flat, marsh-like geography of the land. A mixed-method geographic analysis looked at this small-scale local water management infrastructure from several angles: (a) historical, utilizing archival research, documents obtained from various county offices, and oral history to establish the extent of the ditch network, (b) comparative land use, using applications of GIS mapping to display current ditch systems in relation to land use categories, and (c) spatial implications, assessing hydrologic proximity and drainage trajectory to the Chesapeake Bay. The hydrologic network shows tax ditches flow toward the bay as extensions of natural streams, and land use maps display the great extent to which tax ditches are located in agricultural areas, yet still close to development.