Medal or Honor 40 years late?

 President Obama recently bestowed his 9 Medal of Honor since being elected, and this one had a truly heartbreaking story behind it. The Medal of Honor is the highest honor bestowed by the president onto soldiers and usually given 2 years or less after ones tour has happened. This Medal of Honor was given to Specialist Leslie Sabo Jr. who fought in the Vietnam war 42 years ago was originally nominated a few years after his tour was over, but he didn't receive a medal then, his paperwork "fell through the cracks." A few years ago a researcher discovered more to his story about how even after suffering life threatening injuries, he crawled to an enemy bunker and pulled the pin on a grenade savings the lives of all of his fellow comrades that day. When this was discovered he was once again nominated for the medal and this time he got it. His wife and comrades from that day all attended the recognition ceremony and there was relief and happiness shown in that this man finally received what he always deserved for his service to our country.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/highest-honor-ultimate-sacrifice-102211016.html

Wasting Money?

Rangers game 20 miles from New Jersey and Delta Airlines is offering a free plane ride to the game. The ride would be 17 minutes long, include a free ride to and from the airport as well, and a free trip to a Rangers away game next year. This is not the first trip like this that Delta airlines has hosted similar to the 20 mile flight. There have been many occasions similar to this and very costly to the buisinesses hosting them. So what do you think? Is it fair to waste money like this on a 20 minute plane ride when it coule be spent on such better things?
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/delta-airlines-offers-rangers-fans-17-minute-flight-181319700.html

"Tanorexic" Doll?

The women in New Jersey last week accused and punished for taking her 5 year old daughter tanning has inspired doll to be made. The doll is named the "Tanorexic" doll, for its orange gross looking skin and over tan overall appearance. The company manufacturing the doll is the Hero Builders company, and they manufacture "superhero" dolls. This is actually their way of showing children and people different examples of "bad people" or bad examples of how people can turn out to be. There are many different dolls made by this company are like the "tanorexic"doll. What do you think of these dolls and their purpose?
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/jersey-tanning-mom-inspires-action-figure-182150456.html

Mother takes 5 year old tanning?

In New Jersey this past week a mother was questioned for allegedly taking her 5 year old daughter tanning. The mother 44 Patricia is said to overuse the tanning bed and she says when she tans she continually takes her daughter with her, but she tans and her daughter waits in the room outside. One day her 5 year old daughter showed up to school with what appeared to be a sunburn and began to be questioned of it, not only by peers, but her teacher as well. School officials soon reported the incident to local police after the child responded "went tanning with Mommy". Police questioned Patricia and she disputed all allegations of taking or exposing her daughter to the UV rays of the tanning booth. Patricia kept repeating, "This whole big thing happened and everyone got involved. It was 85 degrees out and she got sunburned. Nothing else happened." After much questioning and some research by the police, Patricia was arrested and charged with taking her 5 year old tanning. What do you think? How wrong is this?
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/tanning-booth-mom-says-arrest-taking-daughter-5-153138630.html

Ex prostitute tries to sue Embassy

There is a 31 year old former Brazilian prostitute who is looking to sue the Brazilian Embassy due to injuries she suffered outside of a club last year. The prostitute was said to be walking out of the club late one night when she was struck by an Embassy van and left stranded in the parking lot with a broken collar bone, punctured lungs, and several other injuries. The Embassy is said to already be looking into having criminal charges put into play. The prostitutes charges are being looked at as ineligible due to the timing and claims she is making, along with lack of evidence. Is this valid? should her case be taken?

Evidence of human remains found on Titanic

On the 100 anniversary of the Titanic's sinking new photos were released showing possible evidence of human remains on the wreckage site. The photos released (pictured above) was of a boot and a coat, leaving visible evidence of remains possible to be found. The photos released have caused a large controversy between many of the Titanic experts, many saying that they believe there are remains due to the pictures, and some say no way, they need real pictures of remains. These controversy's may never be able to be resolved due to inability to allow research of the site according to the Titanic Maritime Memorial Act of 1986, banning all research and disturbance of the wreckage. These photos have raised the attempts in amending this bill, but since the Titanic sank on international waters, there is only so much the U.S can do. What do you think? Should the U.S be able to amend the bill and solve this controversy.

Teacher fired for organizing fundraiser

A middle school teacher in Michigan claims that she was fired for an attempt in organizing a fundraiser for Trayvon Martin. The teachers name was Brooke Harris an English and journalism teacher at the Pontiac Academy for Excellence Middle School. She attempted to organize the fundraiser for March 28, and the students were proposed to don hoodies to school instead of their uniforms. They planned to use the monthly program for the students to pay one dollar to be able to wear their school clothes instead of their uniform, but instead donate their earnings to Trayvon's family. The school decided that because the students would be wearing their hoods up to school in honor of Trayvon that the fundraiser would not be allowed. Harris went to the superintendent and tried to find out why the students were being ban from having their fundraiser but she was suspended from teaching for two days. As time passed and Harris worked harder for the cause, she was told that she was meant to be a teacher not an activist and later after pushing harder for the cause she was fired. The superintendent now argues that the protest and the fundraiser were not the reason for Harris' job loss, but the facts are not in her favor. What do you think? Are teachers not allowed to be activists along with their teaching rights?
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/detroit/michigan-teacher-claims-she-fired-organizing-trayvon-martin-144713504.html

Lion claims 4 lives in Northern Door

In door county this past week it was spring break, so luckily many people had fled the county and traveled to safer places. Though some other creature came to door county in their absence and had a plentiful feast out of the people left here. A lion came across the water from Plum island and made his home in North port for the week, claiming 4 human lives for dinner. There were 4 tourists whose names have yet to be released that went to board the ferry in North port heading to Washington Island and they were mauled and dragged away by this vicious lion. This is a tragedy and should not be taken lightly, this lion has yet to be caught so keep your eyes open.

Tidal Wave of Tide Theives?

In the past few months the thefts of Tide laundry detergent have become so high in some places they have had to form task forces to stop people. The police are finding that these criminals are stealing the detergent from the shelves in order to sell it on the black market for drugs. The detergent is said to sell on the market for between 10-20 dollars and is a relatively easy thing to steal. The police are looking into why Tide is being targeted as opposed to other brands of detergent, but they are finding that the reasoning is its one of the most popular making it worth more, and it contains no serial numbers. There has been much uproar in the media about this, with people saying its a "result of inflation" or caused due to the raise in gas prices. Either way you look at it stealing is wrong, and its been found to be sold for drug money, making it worse.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/tide-detergent-being-stolen-stores-across-country-162253268.html

Twins live and die together?

 

Yesterday in South Lake Tahoe California twin sisters Patricia and Joan Miller,73 years old were found dead in their shared home. The two bought the house together in 1976 and were very reclusive, rarely leaving the home, never married, no children and almost no contact with the outside world. One was found in her bedroom, and one in the hall outside of said bedroom. Police and investigators say there is no evidence for foul play, and they suspect they both died of natural causes, whether one died first and just couldn't live without the other or it was something else they don't suspect any outside involvement. This is a very curious case of death, sad, and confusing, but the two died happily and peacefully in their home together.
http://news.yahoo.com/reclusive-twins-73-leave-behind-mystery-death-083220870.html

Benched for saying "I Love You" ?

Yesterday in Shawano, WI a 7 grade girls basketball player was benched right before her game. Why you ask? Well she was benched because she said the words "I Love You" to her friends in her native tongue during class before her game. Her coaches and teachers reprimanded her and chose to keep her from playing in the game that evening at her school, but now it has become a large language debate. The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay now owes an apology to her and her family for not only reprimanding her for a controversial reason, but also disrespecting her, her language, and her family. Things are said to be solved  with a simple apology, but what do you think? Should this ever have even been a problem, reprimanding someone for speaking native tongue?
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1138079--native-girl-punished-for-speaking-her-language

Free College?

How would you like to earn free tuition for your undergraduate degree? At Conn. University in New Haven they have decided to offer free tuition for your undergraduate degree if you win their competition submitting your entrepreneurial ideas and win. The University has decided they will choose four winners and these 4 people will receive free undergraduate tuition. They have created this project to not only gain the artistic and creative students that they desire at the university but also to gain attention as well as gaining more new ways of creating entrepreneurship opportunities for their students. Do you think this is worth it? Creating one good idea to gain free undergraduate tuition, I think its worth it.

Man's Miracle

Ludovic Masciave is a 36 year old father of 2 who was driving his car through the French alps on February 10. He was driving on a road under a large rock face on the opposite side of a mountain of a popular ski hill. As he was driving a 20-ton boulder crashed down onto the top of his car, leaving his 4x4 car so badly damaged investigators couldnt tell the make of it. Investigators say that the overuse of the mountain area around the boulder eroded so much that the boulder became loose and fell from the mountain at just a moment to land on Masciave's car. Masciave says he remembers waking up in the car and being "completely compressed" with his back against the bottom of the door and his torso being pushed down upon by the boulder. As recuers arrived on scene they were all expecting the worst, a dead body, though as they freed Masciave's body from the car they saw a miracle. Masciave was lucky enough to have been able to compress himself into a small enough area to live through this severe and nerve racking event. He is in the hospital now, condition improving, and says he is just glad to have earned another chance to live.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099167/Now-THATS-lucky-escape-Miracle-driver-survives-4x4-flattened-20-tonne-boulder-French-Alps-road.html

California Stands for Gay Rights

Yesterday in California, "Prop. 8" which is a proposition against gay marriage was struck down by a federal appeals court. Proposition 8 has been in the court system being shot down, revised and appealed in California since May of 2008, where it was originally an answer to an earlier proposition. This past November the court found that this proposition after being shot down again earlier in the year, was eligible for an appeal and believe you me, there were plenty of people to fight for that appeal. The proposition was brought up again in the court systems in California recently after it was found eligible again. This caused much conflict, being seen by many as a necessary appeal, and by others as just another attempt to take away more rights for gays and unconstitutional.
Yesterday this proposition was finally found unconstitutional due to the constitutional rights of gays and lesbians to wed. This caused much uproar in California, partially because of issues found with the ruling, and the reasons behind it. It is said that even though the gays and lesbians of California are technically within their rights to marriage as of yesterday, the marriages will probably not continue anytime soon due to the suspicion of more appeal attempts being made in the next few months. There are some that do not believe this though, some people believe that many gays and lesbians will rush to the courts and get their marriages approved in the time that they have left. What do you think? Is it fair to try and strip people of their rights and threaten them will law suits and court propositions just based in their personal sexual orientation?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204136404577209183209519256.html

The Amish Project

Jake Reilly is a 24-year-old copy writing student at the Chicago Portfolio School, where he also works and lives. From October to December Jake decided that he didn't like how necessary his virtual life was becoming to him, so he decided to cut himself off for 3 months. Reilly cut off his cell-phone completely, and limited his computer usage to online bill paying and nothing else, including work. Along with these things he didn't use an iPod or any other version of technology.
Reilly says that one of his motivations for doing the Amish Project was that his roommates and him had some friends from New York come to stay with them, they only get to see them about once a year and while they were together all any of them did was use their computers or cell phones, or iPods. This was absolutely appalling to Reilly, he did not understand how him and his friends went from being so excited to see each other once each year, to barely spending any time together while they were together and not even caring that they didn't.
What do you think.Would you be able to cut yourself off from technology for 3 months? Would you be able to find new ways to communicate with people, face to face? There is no hiding behind machines and avoiding people, if you need to talk to them it will either be in letter form or face to face. Do you think that its normal that everyone is using technology too much? Would you try and change your habits?

Change the Tax rate

Mitt Romney made 24.7 million dollars last year and had a tax rate of about 15%, while the average person has a tax rate of about 30%. Now you tell me how is this fair? You take a poll of some of the richest or highest paid politicians, and just general people for that matter and find out their tax rate. Now compare it to the average tax rate of the working class, big difference huh?

                You tell me, how is it fair that the highest paid people in America have the lowest tax rates, while the people who need their hard earned money to put their kids through school, or pay their mortgage are stuck paying around 30% to taxes. I’m not implying that these upper-class people aren’t good people or don’t understand what it’s like to have to pay to put your kid through school, or pay a mortgage, or that they don’t care, I am simply saying that it needs to change. If you want a lower tax rate for yourself or even just a fairer one, then contact your local representative, or get involved. Let people know how you feel, get the word out and change it, because you shouldn’t be stuck with high taxes unable to pay for your home while some wealthy man just throws his money away at whatever he likes, not worrying a single bit about taxes.

Keep our voices loud

Wikipedia is closed for the day. Its Wednesday January 18 and Wikipedia along with a few other websites, including Google have "closed their doors" for the day in protest of new laws going through the House and Senate.The PIPA or Protect Intellectual Property Act bill is going through the senate right now, as the SOPA or Stop Online Piracy Act is going through the house. These bills are both designed to stop the sales pirated American products overseas.These bills both have the support they need from the film and music industries, but they have yet to gain the support of the internet, as you can see by today's protests.
Wikipedia and Google, along with many other internet sites believe that these bills would hurt the industry and infringe on the free speech of people, as well as threaten theses sites credibility. So what do you think? Do we need to stop these bills from being passed and save our freedom of speech, or do we let them silence our voices.
http://news.yahoo.com/wikipedia-editors-sites-blackout-120914984.html