Tornado flips vehicles, damages Texas school

Summary: On Sunday in Rice, Texas a town was damaged from a very strong tornado. The tornado was able to flip several cars but one that was major was that a semi-trailer flipped and landed on another car going down Interstate 45. Two people were hurt in that accident but the injuries were only classified as minor once they got to the hospital. Another thing that shook the town was that the school was hit by the tornado. As far as the principal knows there were no injuries from the school event. 3 people were omitted to the hospital but all patients were said to have injuries from traffic and the tornado and all injuries were minor.

Opinion: I feel that living in Minnesota I do not know exactly what kind of pain of trauma these people are going through. There are tornado's around here but I feel that they are never quite as destructive and there definitely aren't as many as down south. I do not know exactly what these people or what this town is going through but I feel very sorry for them! I feel that if a school is damaged, no matter how, a community will be hurt from it. I just hope that this community can get together and help the injured people and help to rebuild the school. Possibly out of this destruction this could bring a sense of community and belonging to the town.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39827601/ns/weather/

"Hiccup Girl" charged with first-degree murder

Summary: In 2007 Jennifer Mee was nationally recognized for her condition of uncontrollable hiccuping. At one point in her life she had 50 hiccups in just one minute and this went on for 5 weeks of her life. She tried many different treatments and had seen countless doctors but nobody could figure out what was wrong with her. Eventually the hiccups stopped but still nobody knows what the cause to them were. This young teenager that everybody felt pity for no longer will receive that same feeling. On Sunday she was arrested along with 2 other people and is being charged with first-degree murder. Shannon A. Griffin was the victim and was said to have several gun shots in her upper body. Investigators believe she was a victim of a armed robbery. The crime was committed in Florida and since Florida has the death penalty if the 3 are found guilty they could face the death penalty.

Opinion: Back in 2007 when Jennifer Mee was on the today show and was being interviewed about her unusual hiccuping disorder I did feel bad for her and I'm sure I wasn't the only one watching that day that felt bad for her. I didn't understand how there could be such a thing that doctors could not fix and that instead she just had to deal with them! Once I saw the head line for this article I thought there was no way that it was the young girl who was on the today show just a few years ago...but sure enough, it was. I do not feel sorry at all for people who commit such a terrible crime. I have no idea what kind of mind set they must be in to do such a terrible thing. So many people besides just the person who died and their family is affected and sometimes I feel that the murders don't think of anybody besides themselves when they do such a terrible thing. I feel that the case should be more looked into and I feel that the death penalty should be reconsidered if the 3 are found guilty but also they should get the type of punishment they deserve.\

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39827189/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Man who stabbed boy wanted to kill a kid

Summary: Monday evening around 8:30 at a restaurant in Garden City, New York, a little boy was repeatedly stabbed in his back by Evans Sachs. Evan had been roaming public places for the last couple of weeks to try and scope out a specific target or a specific place where he would commit the crime. Once he had picked out Dave & Buster as the restaurant, he went in and spotted a young boy and decided that was his victim. His parents were sitting very close to him but Evan waited until his parents weren't attention to start stabbing the boy. The police arrived and Evans was arrested. As of right now, Evan Sachs is not pleading guilty as of right now and his parents are saying they are very sorry but are glad that the boy will make a recovery. The mother says her son Evan needs more mental health treatment.

Opinion: When I read the title to the article it immediately grabbed my attention and I wondered what the heck it was talking about. I can't even imagine how somebody could do such a thing to a poor innocent child that they don't even know. I can't even imagine what the family is going through right now. They must have so many emotions going through their mind. One thing that I know I would want to know is to know exactly how did such a thing to my son. The family is very fortunate that the boy will make a recovery because they are going through a hard enough time the way it is. I think that the family and attorneys need to work very hard on the case and figure out who committed this awful crime. I think that because the mother added that her son had mental health issues I feel that it was Evan Sachs who stabbed the child. I do not think it is an excuse by any means to do such a thing though. I think that I will actually follow this case a bit more becuase I ould like to find out who acutally did it and why any person would do such a thing?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39620565/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts

Panic attacks feared during miner rescue

Summary: For over 2 months in San Jose, Chile, there have been 33 miners trapped in a caved in mine. But the miners will soon be able to see daylight again! On Wednesday there will be a capsule sent down to the mine to rescue the workers. But before the capsule is sent down there must be many precautions taken. Chile's health minister is worked about the workers. He fears that their body temperatures could be off or that blood clotting could occur on the way up to the surface since it is over a half mile back up. The blood clotting worries were taken seriously and each miner is taking aspirin before they take their journey back up. The biggest concern about the workers right now is that since there have been 33 workers in a mine together for 2 months the workers may have a panic attack when they are all alone in the capsule on the way to the surface. Another thing that the miners are doing is being put on a special diet so they do not become nauseated on the curvy path up.

Opinion: First off I am so glad to hear that the miners are finally getting rescued! I feel that after being in such a small space with so many men for such a long time it would be extremely hard to get back to reality. I feel as if once all of the miners are out of the mine an organization should hold some type of recovery for the miners. I think that if all of a sudden after being trapped in a mine for 2 months ans you were thrown back into reality it would not be an easy switch. There would be so much more to deal with and there would be more people but such a bigger space that all of the change would be so overwhelming to the miners. For example when troops come back from war there are places for them to go to get back in to the swing of things and they are gradually put back into the real world. I feel that because the miners were living in such a different place than all the rest of us they should do a type of recovery similar to troops returning from war.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39599067/ns/world_news-americas/

Issue #2- Spnding What We Can Afford

Summary: The U.S. is 13 trillion dollars in debt, and growing every second. Also our countries budget deficits have risen to over 1 trillion dollars each year. Because our budget deficits are so high the U.S. Treasury must borrow money and because they are borrowing money from other countries there will be interest put on the money borrowed, just like if you took out a student loan you would pay more back then what you actually took out because of the interest. Federal deficits are not a new thing to our country though. In 1992 the deficits reached an all time high of $290 billion. People in the country were so worried about it that they passed the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 which increased taxes and had many spending cuts for the government. After the Act our deficits increased again so George W. Bush and Congress passed tax cuts which helped, but then the terrorist attack of September 11th, 2001 happened which lead our country to a new record high budget degicit of $412 billion in 2004. Because of our ridiclious amounts of spending Congress passed a pay-as-you-go budgeting in 2007 which is now known as "paygo." Paygo requires that if there are going to be tax cuts to the people there also has to be reduction in spending in the government so that the two will balance each other out and our countries debt will not increase. But there are debates about whether or not this will work. Many people believe that paygo will work because they believe people will take better care of their money becuase now they can only spend what they have and it could help our economy from a crisis. Others believe that paygo will just hurt our economy because all paygo will do is get peoples taxes to pay for new progrmas that our country dosen't need.

Opinion: If I would have been able to express my feelings toward the pay-as-you-go plan I would have voted in favor of it. I think that people need to not think about themselves so much and realize how much stress and how many problems they could potentially create for generations to come. For example the generation dealing with paygo proably did not really care if they left a bunch of debt to other generations becuase they didn't have to deal with it. But now in 2010 with our debt being over 13 trillion I see that people should have cared more for our generation now so that we can help ourselves and help the generations to come. If they would have passed the paygo I think it would have helped our country. I think that the money would have been budgeted better and watched over more closely becuase they would have known only to spend what they have because they didn't want to go further in debt. Even though paygo was in the 1990s there are still huge debates about it today. For example President Obama has even talked about bringing paygo back into action to try and help us get out of debt, even in the Senate there are still debates and votes going on about paygo today. I feel that paygo would have been a good idea for our country and I stand with the people who are still pushing for it today.

Issue #1- War Dollars
Issue #3- Social Insecurity