fireball

A gas explosion took place in Philadelphia on January 19. this explosion created a 50-foot fireball that was heard all around the city. this explosion killed one utility worker and injured five others. it took place at about 8:30pm. there was a worker in the location because there was a reported water main break in the neighborhood. the cause of the blast is still uncertain at this point. many people were evacuated from their home in the aftermath of the blast

this is very surpising that a gas explosion of this size would take place in a large us city. clearly someone screwed up and is at fault for a water main break and a gas leak in the same area. luckily one one person died from this large of an explosion. there were also a few injured but. this shouldnt have happend.

source: cnn.com

swiss banker

A former swiss banker is being charged for handing over bank information to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Rudolf Elmer was fired from the bank back in 2002 and is going on trial on wednesday for breaching bank security. Elmer gave Assange information on about 2,000 banking clients. Elmer was one of the first people to give information to the now famous WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

I think that we should put Elmer and Assange in jail for publishing and shareing peoples personal bank account information. now if it was just information on people who were scamming the banking system then we should reward them both. in my opinion they would be doing the right thing if they were trying to show everyone the people who were trying to hide their money.

Source: msnbc.com

Simone

On Christmas day, Simone Back, posted her suicide note on Facebook.  The shocking part is that none of her close friends in England cared to respond or do anything about it.  Simone posted, "Took all my pills be dead soon bye bye everyone."  Simone wasn't joking and she died that night.  Facebook is working with the National Council of Suicide Prevention to prevent things like this from happening again. 

This is a very sad story. i think the worst part is that her friends and family could have seen this and helped prevent it, but instead said and did nothing! I'm glad to see that facebook is becoming involved with organizations to help prevent things like this from happening again. We all need to watch carefuly for signs that this could be happening to someone we know.

source: cnn.com

spy

An american women was claimed by Iranians to be a spy for America when they detained her for supposubly having spy gear hidden on her body. Thursday when she was got the Iranian police said that she had sponge type material implanted between her teeth that she would use a microphone. Several names were released because she had different ones for every news station that she was a reporter for. She stated she did have material in her teeth and the US embassy did nothign because this took place over christmas break. If the arrest does fall through she will be the fourth spy in under 2 years.

I am tired of hearing about other countries taking american citizens just because they are americans. There is very little proof that these people are truely spys and these countries are arresting them and holding them with almost no proof. this is taking their human rights away that everyone should have. we need to put an end to things like this.

source: cnn

something fishy!

Another mass death of animals is now being reported. This time 2 million fish were found dead in Maryland. This come after thousands of blackbirds died in Arkansas after New Years Eve. The fish are almost totally juvenile spot fish, and experts are agreeing that the most likely cause is the extremely cold water temperatures. Another contributing factor was probably the unusally large number of this species of fish this year. The water could just not support all of the fish. This is at least the third time that a massive fish kill has happened in this area, the others were in 1976 and 1980.

This is a very strage event thats has continusly happend to this area. I have never heard of anything like this before. a mass death of animals is a new term for me. And that this happend in the United States is even stranger. i dont understan what really happend to all these fish that they died at once but it is weird. we need to find out how to stop things like this from happening again.

source: cnn

Issue #2 - Ensuring Quality Care for Medicare Patients

More that 42 million Americans age 65 or older who have disabilities receive Medicare benefits.  The problem with this is that for the past years health care expenses have soared.  This in tern has caused the federal spending dedicated to Medicare to rise dramatically.  Many policymakers agree that Medicare must be reformed if it is to remain solvent.  With the "baby boom" generation reaching retirement the program is expected to run out of money early in the century unless reforms are implemented.  The goal is to do this and still regulate and ensure the quality of care that Medicare patients are receiving.  The way things are now doctors get paid based on their quantity of services not the quality of those services.  In 2006 legislators approved a new "pay-for-performance" system that would allow Medicare to pay doctors a 1.5 percent bonus for providing good quality services.  Supporters of this want Medicare to reward doctors and hospitals for doing a good job.  Opponents of this policy say that the policy undermines doctors' autonomy and judgment in treating their patients.
I would have to agree with those that object to this piece of legislation. Doctors dont need to be payed more to do their job. It their responsibility to treat patients. They take an oath that they will do this in their practice.  I believe that doctors shouldn't need a financial incentive to provide quality care to their patients. At any other job the person would be fired it they said they wanted more money to do their job well.  So why should we do that for doctors.  After all we entrust them with the most precious thing we possess, our own live. I agree with Representative Pete Stark when he said federal officials "do not have the capability, the understanding, the knowledge, or the training" to set standards for the quality of medical care 

Issue #1 - Comprehensive vs. Incremental Health Care Reform

Issue #3 - Safe to Eat?

Andrew Strater

Warning Shot

In the past couple of days tension between North and South Korea has risen. there have been shot fired from both sides. Yesterday South Korea fired warning shots at a North Korean fishing boat. This boat  had drifted to close to the boarder so the South Koreans fired. 10 total shots were fired at the boat all of them were warning shot not intended to hit the boat. The North Koreans do not like to follow the boarder laws because they feel that area is theirs.

I think that North and South Korea should work out some of their problems so it doesn't come down to shooting a simple fishing boat. This could cause many problems in the future and they should work out some of the problems. I know the North is controlled by a crazy leader but someone needs to take control over there.