Current Events Week 17

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/16/high-court-fight-looms-over-right-to-carry-gun/




Gun rights are one of the hottest topics this year is gun control and gun rights, especially after recent shootings in Connecticut. Many people believe that guns should be banned while many others believe that guns are important forms of protection and are needed to be safe. This is a very controversial subject in Washington and around the nation especially in high population states like California and New York.But the answer will come soon since the Supreme Court will make a decision on the right to carry a concealed weapon in public. Defenders of the right to carry a weapon say that carrying a gun is important for personal safety when the police cant get there in time. Those who say guns should be banned say that guns are the reasons for crimes like school shootings and murders. I don't think gun control should happen and i dont think it would work since we have gun control in Los Angeles and New York and they have very high murder rates. I think that people cant expect the police to protect them all the time and when your life is at risk and there are no cops nearby, i would want to have a gun to protect myself.

 "High Court Fight Looms over Right to Carry a Gun." Fox News. FOX News Network, 16 Dec. 2012. Web. 17 Dec. 2012.

Current Events Week 16

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/12/06/zimmerman-files-suit-against-nbc-defamation?hpt=hp_bn15
"InSession." HLNtv.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.

 George Zimmerman, the man who earlier this year who became known for shooting Travon Martin in February when Zimmerman was patrolling a neighborhood as a watch captain. Martin had what was believed to be a gun when he was believed to robbing a store, Zimmerman approached Martin and was attacked, during the attack Zimmerman shot and killed martin. Zimmerman is Suing NBC for defamation for portraying him as a murderer before he was arrested or even tried. He is also suing NBC because they altered a recording of what happened in order to make him look guilty. They also edited pictures that showed Zimmerman covered in his own blood. I think NBC is wrong because they should just report the facts as they are no matter who it hurts or harms and let people make their own decisions on what they think of someone.

Current Events Week 15

 The United Nations is attempting to create a law where the internet can be censored by governments and tracked as well. The law would also bring up the idea of charging .com sites every time someone used their site which means that every time someone uses Google or yahoo to search the website would have to pay for every search. This proposal was introduced by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is calling for "global control over all internet exchanges".The United States Ambassador, Terry Kramer said he is doing every thing he can to oppose the law which is still very far away from being put into effect since it has just been introduced and will not affect anyone for a while.

"We're Trying to Stop the UN from Regulating the Internet, Ambassador Kramer Says." Fox News. FOX News Network, 03 Dec. 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/12/03/us-ambassador-were-trying-to-stop-un-from-regulating-internet/>.

Current Events Week 14

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/29/pennsylvania-man-reportedly-charged-with-stealing-150-from-church/?test=latestnews

A man in State College Pennsylvania has been charged with robbery and breaking and entering into a church, Except he only robbed $1.50 worth of quarters. He broke in throught the door and after searching through drawers he found a jar of change to go to charity and he only grabbed $1.50 in change. I personally think it does not make any sense to waste the courts time and the polices time to charge and prosecute this man but this man also has no right to break into a place and steal money thats not his no matter how much he stole.

Works Cited

"Pennsylvania Man Reportedly Charged with Stealing $1.50 from Church." Fox News. FOX News Network, 29 Nov. 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/29/pennsylvania-man-reportedly-charged-with-stealing-150-from-church/?test=latestnews>.

Current Events Week 13

 The town of Santa Monica California has banned the decades old nativity scene that has been put up by local churches after an atheist group filed a complaint.Atheist groups have been hanging anti-religious messages and posters all over the city while the churches have also been doing the same. A judge said that instead of everyone putting up signs it would be easier just to have no religious nativity scenes and not atheist messages. The Churches are going to protest. I don't agree with the judges ruling that the nativity scene should be taken down because it is a 60 year old tradition that should be able to stay. This affects us because in Murrysville there are also many things that could be forced to be taken down if an atheist group protests them.

Works Cited

"Atheists' Move Halts Christmas Tradition in California, Churches Go to Court to Get It Back." Fox News. FOX News Network, 18 Nov. 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/18/atheists-move-halts-christmas-tradition-in-santa-monica-churches-go-to-court-to/?test=latestnews>.

Current Events Week 12

http://triblive.com/home/2942853-74/district-lawsuit-parents-allergies-allergy-chapel-fox-plan-student-accommodations#axzz2C6uX8F6d

A local Pittsburgh Family has filed a lawsuit against the Fox Chapel school district over food allergies of their son. The family claim that the school did little to help their son with his rare nut allergy and allowed other students to bully him in the cafeteria. The parents also say the school district lied to them when the district said they had a nut free cafeteria table and would provide special nut free lunches. The school did neither and when the students mother called to complain about the handling of her sons condition the district said that if he wanted food at school the family would have to prepare it themselves at home.I think the parents are wrong in this lawsuit because the school doesn't have to legally provide a nut free table or special food.

Works Cited

 

Tribune Review. "| Home." TribLIVE.com. Tribune Review, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://triblive.com/home/2942853-74/district-lawsuit-parents-allergies-allergy-chapel-fox-plan-student-accommodations>.

 

WIkipedia. Fox Chapel Area School District. N.d. Photograph. Wikipedia, n.p.

Current Events Week 11

Due to the Hurricane that hit NYC last week many people rushed to help those affected by the storm. Unfortunately, a utility's crew from Alabama was unable to help because of a union dispute with a union from New Jersey. The New Jersey union said that only their workers could work in the area. The crew was waiting to help when their paperwork they filed which would make them be able to help was denied by the union. The crew was denied the right to work their and returned back to Alabama. I don't think it was right for the NJ union to not let the crew help because they were trying to help. Clearly the NJ union cant handle the workload now so it is not fair to the people of NJ who were affected by Sandy to be denied this help. This affects the country because people who are affected by a disaster shouldn't be denied help just because of union red tape and hopefully somebody decides to change this.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/government/2012/11/02/union-red-tape-in-nj-causes-alabama-recovery-crew-to-head-home/

Current Events Week 10

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/sandy-cost-hit-50-billion-article-1.1194978
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/10/how-much-will-hurricane-sandy-cost-the-us-economy/264236/

On Monday of this week category 1 Hurricane Sandy hit the New York Metro and Tri State areas. This was the worst storm in recorded history to hit the New York Area. Hurricane Sandy will come with a very steep price tag. The expected costs are supposed to be in the range from $40 Billion to $60 Billion.  Many buildings were damaged along with the most traveled subway system in the U.S. which was flooded and will take nearly a week to restore. New York is the Financial capital of the country and since the NYSE was closed for 2 days, billions of dollars worth of business around the world was lost. Depending on the length of time it takes to fix the subways much more business will be lost considering that 7 million ride the subways a day. The city of New York adds $3.5 Billion to the economy every day. This relates to the U.S. because in an economy that is already horrible this storm could have a very big impact on the economy and the election if this storm isn't cleaned up quickly.

Jury Systems of the World

A jury is a group of people chosen by both the defense and the prosecution in the intent of determining the guilt of a defendant. The US and Canada are the only nations that regularly use jury's for civil cases. Great Britain uses jury's for very few civil cases while juries for civil cases in other parts of the world do not exist. Jury's first were used in Ancient Athens and consisted of up to 500 citizens for normal cases and 1,001 to 1,501 people for larger and more serious cases. In Ancient Athens jury were called dikastai. Today we have 12 people in a jury and up to 6 alternates. Today for jury selection, a large group of people are questioned on their views and beliefs before the trial in the hopes of finding an impartial jury. I think jury's are a very good idea and are important to keeping a fair legal system.

I chose Russia to research.
In Russia potential jurors must be at least 25, be legally competent and without a criminal record. The jury consists of 12 jurors like ours and they are selected from a group of 30 to 40 potential jurors. In Russia there are only about 600 cases with a jury per year out of about 1 Million trials a year. These juries must return unanimous verdicts during the first 3 hours of deliberation and majority verdicts after that, only 6 jurors are needed to acquit. Jurors may also ask the judge to show leniency in sentencing. Juries have granted acquittals in only 15 to 20 % of cases while judges only grant acquittals less than 1% of the time.Most juries not guilty verdicts are usually overturned by a higher judge.  I would definitely increase the number of juries that happen per year and i would give them more power in their verdicts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_trial#Russia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_trial#History

Current Events Week 9

Lance Armstrong has been stripped of all his 7 Tour De France titles and has been banned for life. This comes after he resigned from his position at Livestrong and after Nike dropping him as a sponsor. This was announced this morning and several weeks after Armstrong announced he would stop his defense of these claims and he still says he is innocent. I don't think that Armstrong cheated and i don't think he should be stripped of his medals because other than him stopping his defense there is no evidence like a positive drug test to prove he took steroids.

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/10/22/decision-day-for-lance-armstrong/

Current Events Week 8

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/15/world/asia/philippines-peace-agreement/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Yesterday Filipino Leaders and Rebel Muslim Leaders agreed to a framework agreement in the region of Mindanao. The rebels have been trying to get this type of an agreement set in place for 15 years according to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The government has given the rebels the power to help government he southern region. This rebel group has been responsible for tens of thousands of deaths from terrorist attacks.

Review of Game Site

The game that i played was the Bill of Rights game. I thought it was a very educational game and i learned more about the bill of rights. I wish that the game was a little bit more fun and entertaining because for every question on the game was after a 5 or 6 minute video. For the Naturalization Test I got a 3/4 and I was most like William Paterson  when i took the which founder are you most like test.

http://games.sunnylandsclassroom.org/Preview/Games/?gameid=4