Medalist leaves Olympics after racy pics hit Web

Scott Lago, an Olympic bronze medalist for snowboarding half-pipe, was asked to leave the Olympic Games after two racy pictures, shown below, were posted on the internet. He had apologized to the U.S Olympic Committee and the U.S. snowboard federation, and left Canada. U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Bill Marolt said in a written statement, "Scotty Lago is a great athlete, but with that comes a responsibility of proper conduct and his involvement in this situation is not acceptable”. However this is not the only incident where an Olympian had behaved inappropriately. There are many events where Olympians have either gotten into fights or have had pictures of them posted while they partied. Remember Michael Phelps? He had a picture of him posted on the internet of him appearing to be smoking out of a marijuana pipe six months after the Olympics and still was forced to apologize.

My opinion is that these athletes need to have appropriate behavior when they around where they compete. However their personal life should be kept personal. This type of incident would never had happened if the paparazzi would just respect their grounds! He won an Olympic medal, let him celebrate. It would be a different story if he decided to do this in front of a crowd of people and live TV, but these pictures, I’m guessing, were never suppose to be seen by anyone else but Scotty and his friend. These pictures are not even that bad! I think people are just in great desire to have a juicy story about some Olympian and catch every single mistake they make. Also if you think about it, don’t you just assume that a snowboarder is going to act that way? That’s the image that they have been stamped with and not saying it’s right, but I’m not surprised that a picture came out after the win by the American snowboarders.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/20/lago.snowboard.pictures/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Girl's arrest for doodling raises concerns about zero tolerance

Alexa Gonzalez was a 12 year old girl who attends the Junior High School in Forest Hills, New York. She was recently arrested because she wrote “I love my friends Abby and Faith. Lex was here 2/1/10 : )” on her school desk. The seventh-grader was taken across the street and handcuffed in front of her teachers and worst of all the entire student body. The school claims that they are just trying to enforce the zero tolerance policy. However they get younger than 12 years of age. A sixth grader was also arrested in New York for doodling with her friend in class. New York schools are also trying the system of ticketing students for being tardy. For a second offence of this you are sent to court and fined $250. In Clayton County, Georgia, juvenile court judge Steven Teske is working to reshape zero tolerance policies in schools. He wants the courts to be a last resort. "There is zero intelligence when you start applying zero tolerance across the board," he said. "Stupid and ridiculous things start happening."

My opinion is that New York seriously needs to look over their rules on zero tolerance. It is outrageous that a school hands out tickets to students who are tardy. These tickets show up on their record forever. Then to further it more they fine them if it happens again! I personally do not want to have to be ticketed if I happen to get behind a slow driver. Yes, the schools say that their tardiness numbers have gone down but at what cost. I can almost guarantee that every student is speeding to get to school, not only endangering their lives but others around them, because they are scared of being ticketed or even arrested. Also do the schools think that the court is going to take these cases seriously? The truth is no, they are not. Who is going to send a 12 year old girl to jail for doodling on her school desk. She even offered to clean it off but no, she was humiliated in front of her entire school. That girl will be scarred for life. Kids in school can get to be really mean and I’m sure none of them will forget that incident. I completely agree with Steven Teske when he says that stupid and ridiculous things are starting happen.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/new.york.doodle.arrest/index.html?hpt=Mid

ISSUE #3 - Social Insecurity

The Social Security fund has become a big problem in today’s world. Many people, under the age of 22, are complaining that they pay into this fund, a fund for retiring baby boomers, yet they will never receive this money back because all of it would have gone to the retired of years before them. This is because as years go by the number of years people live go up or in other words people are living longer. This means that these people need retirement money for longer than they did 10 years ago and there is just not enough money being put in to provide that type of money. However there are people out there that say this is an easy fix; all you have to do is gradually raise the retirement age. Then there are the people who think that you need to make major changes like private investment accounts. There are many different views on whether Social Security is a good working system or not and here is my opinion.

I think that major changes need to be put in place. My paychecks are small enough and yet I get taxed on a social security fund that I will never see. Now I know that this fund is for the elderly which include my grandparents but you know what, my grandparents agree with me in that I shouldn’t have to pay money to support the enormous amount of baby boomers so they can take fancy vacations; especially when I don’t get the same treatment when I’m ready to retire. Me and my grandparents are not the only ones who agree with this idea. Vice President Joe Biden also agrees that there needs to be a change in social security. He believes that we should raise the cap of $97,500. However he agrees that raising the retirement age would help but he also says that by simply raising the cap you could solve the problem.

Issue #1- War Dollars:

http://felicia01.blogspot.com/2010/02/issue-1-war-dollars_18.html

Issue #2- Spending What We Can Afford:

http://mayaseverson.blogspot.com/2010/02/issue-2-spendin-what-we-can-afford.html

Seattle authorities to review security rules after transit beating

This article is about two unarmed security guards watching an assault of a 15 year old girl and doing nothing. You can see in the security camera video that two women are actually fighting and eventually, one ends up on the ground being violently kicked in the face by the other. The security guards are within feet away from the incident and continue to stand and watch is criminal act. The guards did however call the police and when they arrived, the authorities arrested four suspects. King County has a contract with a firm called Olympic Security Services Inc. that helps the Metro transit police, and according to that agreement, "unarmed security guards are instructed not to intervene when witnessing suspicious behavior or criminal activity, but to 'observe and report' and radio the Metro Transit Control Center, which relays requests for assistance to the appropriate law enforcement agencies."


My opinion on this issue would be that the Metro transit police should have stepped in as soon as one of the girls fell on the ground. How a human being can stand there and watch a brutal beating like that, I do not know, but something needs to be done. It’s a miracle that someone wasn’t critically injured or killed in that matter. King County needs to look over this contract again and make some big changes. One change that I would make is that the security guards are there for a reason, to protect people. If they just stand around and do nothing, you might as well not have them there at all and save some money! Also if you have them there it needs to be known that they can step in to an incident and take control if needed. If that is not known than crimes like this will keep occurring more and more often because people will know that they can get away with it until the police arrive. Something like this should never happen in America; a change needs to be made.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/11/seattle.beating/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Video of the incident:
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/crime/2010/02/11/rickslist.seattle.beating.cnn

Joint Chiefs set to review 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy

President Obama and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair man are going to meet in a closed door meeting discussing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and whether to repeal it or not. President Obama is in favor of repealing the policy that has been set since 1993 where as Sen. John McCain says that it has been working just fine for 15 years, why change it now? There has been no decision made yet.

　My opinion on the issue is that it shouldn’t matter what your sexuality is in order to serve your country in the army. It’s not like they are any less capable of getting the job done over a straight man or woman. If they are capable of fighting for our country who are we to say that they cant? Telling them they cant serve in the army is like telling a African American that they can’t serve in the army. And since African Americans can serve in the army why not gays. The army is not a place to share your feelings but a place to protect the country and if everyone knows that this shouldn’t be that big of a deal. http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/01/military.gays/index.html?hpt=Sbin

White House: No decision yet on moving 9/11 trial

The white house has yet to come up with a decision on whether to hold the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City. There are many different views on if it would be right and civil to hold in NYC. The mayor of New York City is saying that first of all it would be extremely expensive to hold the trial there because this trial alone could take years to finish. It would be an estimated $200 million per year to have the trial in New York. However earlier on Mayor Bloomberg had said that it would be fitting to have the trail so close to where so many New Yorkers were murdered. Not long after he decided that it would be better to have it held in a military base where it would be cheaper and easier to provide security. No decision has been made yet.


I think that there should be a vote taken by the people of New York. I feel like they deserve the right in deciding whether or not to have the trial there. It could be very offensive to some and it only seems fair that the people should have a say. If they choose to have the trial in New York, than there needs to be a secure place to hold Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The cost is also something to think about but most likely the government can come up with enough money to hold a trial. Even if it were held in a military base it wouldn’t be that much cheaper.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/31/terror.trial.site/index.html?hpt=Sbin