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.

Republicans in the house

With the new elections taking place the republicans are in a good position to take a the majority of the seats in the House of Representatives. At first it looked as if the democrats would hold control of the house but by the end of the day all the projections say that the republicans will win enough seats to gain control of the the House. By 10:30, thirteen of the thirty nine seats they needed to take control in the House had already been won.

I think that this is a good thing. now that we have had democrats in the house for a few years our         country is switching views and becoming more republican again. this could help make this easier for the republicans to get their views across in the house. hopefully they will work together to help solve some of the issues that we have as a country today.

source: NBCnews.com

Major quake

On Monday a large earthquake hit the western parts of Indonesia. This earthquake hit a 7.5 on the rictor scale. on Monday at about 10:30et this quake devastated the area. the temblor was 8.8 miles deep. this area is very prone to earthquakes as it is located in the ring of fire. similar quakes have hit this area before. the death and damage tolls have not been calculated yet.

I think it is good that the scientists in the area were able to predict that this quake may hit and that they also warned the area of a potential tsunami that could have devastated the area if it really did hit. keeping data on this type of accident is very important and i think that they are doing a good job of it because scientists are becoming better at warning or predicting of accidents like this.

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39831929/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

drone attack

Eight people were killed on Monday after a U.S. drone attack. This took place just outside of Afghanistan. three missiles were shot and they hit a home in the town of Mir Ali bazaar. According to the report many Germans were living in this house. These men were believed to be linked to the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. This is not the first drone attack the U.S. has sent out in this area and probably wont be the last as some Europeans have turned on the U.S.

I think that this is a good sign for the US using these unmanned air crafts we can make sure we are saving American lives and possibly preventing more terrorist attacks against other Americans. I think it is important for our troops and all Americans that we are now using this technology for a very good cause. Using things like this will help end this war much faster.

source: http://www.msnbc.com/

Issue #3 Social Insecurity

Entitle­ment programs like Social Security will soon be in big trouble. In the next few years the social security program will now be spending more money than it can bring in. There are many views on how we can fix this. Some people think that nothing is wrong and we just need to ride it out making only minor changes. Others have the belief that the system needs to be overhauled to compensate for the high number of people filing for social security. If this problem is not solved soon entitlement programs like social security will be using about half of the yearly federal budget.

I agree with the people who think that we need to make minor changes and that we should do small thing to keep this program running without using a lot of the federal budget. these minor changes could include things like raising the cap for earnings that can be taxed or raising the retirement age from what it is now. all of these small changes could all heavily affect the amount of the federal budget that would be used on programs such as social security. To learn more about social security you can visit http://www.ssa.gov/ for more info.

Issue # 1  http://briansoccer77.blogspot.com/2010/10/federal-budget-blog-issue-one.html

Issue # 2 http://beireis.blogspot.com/2010/10/issue-2-spending-what-we-can-afford.html

Sri Lanka

A truck parked outside of the police station exploded. there are 25 confirmed deaths and there are expected to total up to 60 deaths in all. The truck was loaded with many explosives that were to be used by a rock quarry. Military officials believe that it was truly and accident and that the truck was not sabotaged. The explosion was even bigger because there was also 3 cases of dynamite inside the prison, making the blast much more deadly.

I do not think this was an accident. the report has even stated that this was an area of much conflict. I am also not sure who thought it would be a good idea to park a truck full of explosives right in front of a police station. how will region deal with not having any cops to enforce the laws. Things like this will continue to happen if someone doesn't step up take control of the region and start making good decisions.

Kraft Plant

 In Philadelphia a woman was suspended from her job. After learning that she was suspended she returned to the plant and fired her hand gun. She killed two people and injured another. Eventualy the police were able to arrest her. Kraft would not anounce why this woman was suspended. The shootings happed just after 8:30 pm on Thursday. 

I think that these kinds of accidents need to be avoided. i know the unemployment is going up but Kraft clearly did not tell this woman that she was loosing her job very well. Also security at this plant must not be very good because she was able to bust through them and walk into the building to light up some of her co-workers. If i were the familys of the victoms i would be very upset with Kraft. Things like this should not happen!