Bad weather halts South Korean search for sailors

1,200-ton patrol ship was on patrol when it sank Friday at 9:45 pm. No one knows why the ship sank, so it is still under investigation. There were 104 sailors on board and 58 of those sailors have been rescued. The search for the 46 missing sailors continues in very cold temperatures and dangerous waters. It is being suspected based upon the location of the ship sinking that North Korea my have played some role in the sinking. But officials are down playing the incident and don't want to jump to conclusions.

North and South Korea are still enemies and I think that something like this is just what either of them needs to fight the other. They need a reason and they will find one. Even if this sinking was a complete accident people in the back of their mind are still probably thinking that is was North Korea trying to sabotage them. They need to play it safe and make sure this situation doesn't turn into something bigger.

Read more at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/31/south.korea.missing.sailors/index.html?iref=allsearch

Health bill a huge victory for young adults

The new health care bill was a huge debate in our country for some time. Now that it is passed, it is turning out to be a very good thing for kids around my age. This article explains why it is helping us young adults out. It says it will give us much more coverage than before because we were not covered very well due to our low income but now that is changed and will be much better. It also says that its going to be a huge help for us on our student loans and college expenses. The money saved from this law in the college area will be put to a grant and will help even more with college expenses.

Personally, I did not think this bill was need and I didn't back it up. I thought it was kind of a waste of our taxpayers money. Now that it is passed, though, I am happy with the benefits and changes that are happening that will favor me. I especially enjoy the idea of the help for college students. The fact that kids can stay on their parents' insurance is also very nice because then they will not have to worry about that extra cost while they are going through college and paying for it after. All these things will really help out during those expensive college years and will turn out to be a pretty good thing I suppose but I still dont believe that it should have been passed in the first place.

For more information visit: http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/23/williams.healthcare.young/index.html?iref=storysearch

2 wolves shot; tests to determine whether they killed woman

A few days ago Candice Berner was jogging near Chignik Lake, Alaska when she was attacked and killed my two wolves. The suspected wolves were eventually tracked down and killed by authorities from a helicopter. They are now running test to confirmed that they were the wolves that killed Berner. This attack came as quite a surprise to the little community of Chignik Lake of a population of just 105 people. The whole story is such a big deal because this is only the second deadly wolf attack in North America in over half a century.

This story is also a very big surprise to me. I find it very crazy that these two wolves just spontaneously attacked this lady, it is very sad. I find it even more surprising, though, that these two wolves were just tracked down and killed right there on the spot. I feel like they should have been just tranquilized first so tests could have been done before they just went and killed them. If they somehow shot the wrong wolves then that would be very stupid and wrong. I even find it a bit wrong that they had to kill the wolves at all. I think they should have done test first to see if the wolves were okay or were dangerous and then decided to kill them or not. It just does not seem right that killing action had to happen right away.

Read the whole story at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/18/wolves.kill.woman/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

Soldier gets Silver Star, reprimand for same battle

In July 2008 there was an attack on a combat outpost in Afghanistan and Army Capt. Matthew Myer was at this outpost. When the attack began Myer called for an air strike to come and help out. About 200 Taliban fighters were coming at the outpost and Myer's very important call to help resulted in him getting a Silver Star. By the time the little battle was over, 9 soldiers were killed and 12 others were injured. After the attack, the U.S. military was angry that the Taliban even got close to the base. They gave Myer and two of his superiors letters of reprimand for allowing the Taliban to attack so easily.

This situation seems extremely unfair in my opinion. The soldiers are already over there fighting for us and when one thing goes wrong, they get hardcore punished for it. There is no way that the attack was at all their fault and even if they could have stopped them, I'm sure there still would have been casualties. They should not be singled out at all in this situation for the punishments. I believe that there really should be no punishment at all but if the army believes there needs to be one then they should figure it out fairly. I mean they are fighting a war so there is going to be casualties so I don't think that punishments need to be handed out every time something bad happens or a soldier dies. The whole situation just seems completely unfair and not right.

Check out the entire article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/03/12/silver.star.reprimand/index.html?npt=NP1

Suspect kills self in Ohio State shooting, police say

A man killed his manager and himself at Ohio State University at 3:30am this morning 3.9.10. Apparently he was angry over a bad performance review. His name was Nathaniel Brown and was 51 years old, he had worked at the university for 10 years. One other person was shot but only wounded.

This article is very sad but quite ridiculous at the same time. Any time anyone ever takes their own life, or someone else, its very tragic and I can't help but wonder if it was preventable. There are many other things I'm sure that played into this event, like what exactly was said during the review that was given, how he was treated as an employee and most likely there were some mental issues that Brown had. Something must have been very wrong because i can't imagine working with someone for 10 years and then going and shooting them. I think it will be interesting to hear about the details of this situation.

Read the article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/09/ohio.state.shooting/index.html

Issue #1 - War Dollars

In 2008 President Bush added $4 trillion to our national debt to bring it to nearly record highs of over $9 trillion. Now it is over $12 trillion and is continuing to rise. Over the last 8 years, the number has done nothing but rise and it is nearly all due to our decision to go to war. Every American knows that we are at war and have been ever since 9/11, but people were so caught up in the idea of getting back and Iraq and Afghanistan that they didn't realize just how much this war would cost. People still believe that the cause is good but now the majority of people believe that we have done nothing but waste money. We did put away some terrible people and have most likely brought the terror threat way down but for the most part it was just money being wasted. In the past, Congress has used its power to put more control on the amount of money being spent for a war. All war bills or requests cannot take effect until Congress has approved them and if spending is getting out of hand from what has already been approved, Congress can intervene and put a stop to it. This whole idea is called "power of the purse". This has been the case before during the Vietnam War when Congress put a cap on the amount of troops and also in 1982 when they wouldn't allow President Reagan to fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. With Congress having the ability to do this, people are starting to wonder why they are not doing it now. This war has not done much for our country other than put us deeper in the hole. If Congress is thinking the same way as the people are, they should step in and put a stop to all this unneeded spending.

I think Congress needs to step in and stop our countries spending overseas. I believe we have done our job over there, especially in Iraq, and it is time to make some changes. I think that the real problem is in Afghanistan now and that we should be more focused on that country. We are only wasting our money and our troops' lives in Iraq. I think we should send most of the troops from Iraq into Afghanistan and the ones that stay behind should only be there to help out the rebuilding of the country and its infrastructure. By doing this we are balancing our spending out way more and will no longer need to increase the amount of money being used over there. Al Qaida is more of a problem than anything right now so it should be focused on. About a year ago, President Obama had the same idea. He backed the pentagons plan of sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. He believes that not enough has been done in Afghanistan and says "we've got to ramp up our development approach." This is the same way I think things should go because it just a big waste over in Iraq.

Issue #2 - Spending What We Can Afford

Issue #3 - Social Insecurity

Who will light Vancouver's Olympic flame?

There are many names out there right now about who will light the Olympic Torch this year in Vancouver. Names such as Terry Fox, Wayne Gretzky, Rick Hanson, Cindy Klassen, and even Sidney Crosby are all being considered. I, personally, do not know much at all about Terry Fox and honestly don't have a huge preference as to who should light it. If I had to choose, though, I would definitely pick Gretzky. He is one of the greatest hockey players of all time and would fit the role perfectly because of him being a Canada native and it being the winter games. I think Rick Hanson would fit the role well also but I don't see him being the one to do it considering he has already traveled thousands of miles with the torch around the world. I feel as though he has already had a great opportunity and does not need to be in the glory any more. I think someone else deserves to do the lighting of the torch. I also think any other previous Olympic athlete from Canada is a great candidate for the lighting and deserves to do it. Still, though, I think Gretzky should be doing it because he is the most widely known and was such a great player that he really would be the perfect person for it.

Read more about these people at:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-features/news/newsid=384587.html