Photo: Education International
By: Kate Kennelly One of the most concerning gun-related issues are school shootings, which are on an alarming rise. Within just 2019 alone, there have been over 10 mass shootings in California schools. While California has been known to be strict with guns and even have some of the strictest gun laws, we also have some of the most school shootings. Just this past week there was one in Santa Clarita High School. A 16 year old boy opened fire, killing 2 and wounding 3. With yet another shooting, the same question is on the rise: do we need to create stricter laws around guns, or do we need to better monitor who has access to guns? California needs to do a better job of controlling who has access to guns. One example of California failing to do this is Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland High School shooter. Nikolas Cruz was able to walk onto his school campus with a gun, shoot 17 people, and injure several more. While there is no excuse for his actions, there were many opportunities in which people could have intervened and prevented this tragedy. Nikolas Cruz’s mother allowed him to buy a gun, even though she knew he struggled with mental illness in the past. He was easily able to buy guns in California despite his long history of mental illness and the tendency to commit acts of violence. He also had over 140 encounters with councilors in his school by senior year. Not only did his friends, family, and staff at his school know of this, but the police and authority knew of him. The FBI had already received two separate tips about Nikolas Cruz possibly shooting his school and was placed on a watch list. Even with all of these warnings and red flags, he had no trouble buying semi-automatic guns. Clearly California is not doing a very good job of monitoring who has access to buy guns. While the right to own guns cannot be taken away because of the Second Amendment, there are no rules prohibiting thorough background checks. Background checks do exist for people trying to obtain guns right now, but they are not as thorough as they should be in order to keep us safe. While federal law does require that all firearm dealers be licensed, this does not include private sellers. This has been seen as a huge loophole. People can get away with buying guns without as thorough a check as they would have if they bought from a federally licensed dealer. For a state claiming to have such strict gun laws, we have an awful lot of school shootings. If California as a whole could do a better job getting thorough background checks and implementing stricter gun laws, our communities would be a lot safer.
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By: Kate Kennelly Tax returns? Possible impeachment? What does it all mean? Has Donald Trump broken the law? Well, maybe he has. In April of this year, chairman of the United States House of Committee and Congressman Richard Neal requested that the IRS collect the last six years of Donald Trump's tax returns. At that time Trump denied this request. Now, however, Donald Trump has been ordered by a federal judge to turn in all of his tax returns to be investigated. New allegations that Donald Trump has possibly committed tax fraud have come up. It is believed that he may have committed this tax fraud by passing tax cuts. Tax cuts give for tax credit for employers that are providing paid family and medical leave for their employees. Donald Trump tried to get out of turning in his tax returns by filing a lawsuit against New York. However, this suit failed. This is very interesting because in an interview from 1999, Trump made some interesting comments about turning in his tax returns. During an interview about him possibly running for president in the future, he was asked about how he would feel if he was asked to turn in his tax returns. Donald Trump responded by saying he had “no problem ever turning in his tax returns.” At that time he seemed as if he would be happy to do that at any time. This is highly suspicious since he now seems very nervous and is reluctant to do so. He seems like he is definitely trying to hide something. What might impeachment mean for Donald Trump and for our country? Impeachment is reserved for a person who has committed a high level crime. Tax fraud definitely falls under the branch of being a high level crime. In the case that Trump is impeached, the next in command takes over. For us, this would mean that Vice President Mike Pence would take over Trump's position as our new president. ![]() Photo: NY Times By: Josiah Reed-Spratley Should blowouts be allowed in youth and amateur sports? Blowouts occur when a team wins by a significant margin.This question has been a hot debate for a very long time, especially nowadays with teams winning by such a large margin. For example, a high school basketball team beat a team by 97-27, and left in all their star players. Another case like this is was with a youth soccer team who beat a team 13-0. Now there is a rule put in place for these kinds of blowouts in youth sports. It’s called the mercy rule, and what it does is it just turns off the scoreboard if a team is getting blown out that bad. However, in high school sports they don’t have a “mercy rule.” However, some teams have a rule of their own. Over in Long Island’s Nassau County, they have a rule in place for football teams. The rule is that if a team wins by 42 points or more, they must answer to a committee why the score was the way it was. Weird, isn’t it? This rule is only about 3 years old, which is fairly new. Coach Robert Shaver has received the first punishment for this rule after his team, Plainedge Red Devils, beat the South Side cyclones by 48. He received a one game suspension for the win. Plainridge superintendent Edward A. Salina Jr says, “Who said they are experts on sportsmanship?...Why are you teaching children to play fairly, but now you are playing too well, don’t play anymore for the rest of the game. Where’s the life lessons?” As well as calling the committee a “kangaroo’s court.” Many see the rule as a waste. Matt McLees, the high school football commissioner, argued that the rule was a great idea, especially with not allowing too many blowouts by 42; plus it has made the games more worth watching. Honestly, blowouts are just part of the game. If you can’t handle it then you shouldn’t be playing the sport. You have to have the mentality as an athlete that you’re gonna win some and lose some. Those loses may be by a lot or a little. Getting blown out should only make you want to work harder. The mercy rule, in my opinion, is not a fair or helpful rule. Blowouts should give people motivation to want to work to get better and not lose by 30, 40, or 50 points. ![]() Photo: Business Insider By: Josiah Reed-Spratley This past Thursday, an explosion on a Pakistan train claimed the lives of 70 people and injured 30. These numbers were confirmed by Nadeem Zia, a medical supervisor from Liaquatpur. The explosion is said to be from a gas canister that exploded while some passengers were preparing breakfast. It is believed that someone left it unattended or knocked it over, causing the explosion to occur. For the record, anything gas-powered is often banned on trains. After the explosion happened, witnesses say it ripped through the train, leaving black smoke oozing from the train. Crowds of bystanders, firefighters, paramedics, and soldiers also arrived on the scene. Army helicopters were called in to take critically injured survivors to a hospital in Multan. The train was passing through the town of Rahim Yar Khan, south of Punjab province. Since the train was on its way to a protest in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital was about 500 miles from where they were passing. The prime minister and president expressed their condolences over social media this past weekend. Their prime minister has called for an immediate inquiry. The President has again expressed his condolences to the victims’ families. First off we send our prayers and love towards the victims’ families. It is just unfortunate that such a thing has occurred. However: rules are rules. I feel that the rules should have been respected: the gas should never have been on the train in the first place. This explosion may have never happened if they used a different source to prepare their breakfast. They should have been much more careful with the gas. The people have to thank the first responders for doing everything they could to try and save as many victims as possible. This should be a wakeup call for some. Gas is nothing to be played with, because as you can see, it can lead to bigger problems. Such a seemingly harmless tool to prepare breakfast ended up killing 70 people who were just there to protest for a good cause in the capital. May they Rest In Peace. ![]() Photo: ABC Action News By: Kate Kennelly It is no surprise that Apple has been dominating the world of phone technology, but could they have more control than we thought? For several years now, there have been allegations that Apple has been slowing down our Apple products to encourage us to replace them with the newer versions. Within the first month of a new phone or iPad, some of the top search results around the world have to do with why iPhones and iPads are slowing down. This is definitely no coincidence. This is one of Apple’s many ways to keep themselves in the news and to keep you buying more products. While any allegations of Apple slowing down products around new release dates were always denied in the past, in 2017 they came clean. Apple audited to slowing down products around release dates. They said this was to encourage people to buy the newer and better items they offer. They want you to think that the newer better version will be faster and surely wouldn’t slow down. Little did its customers know, this was all a lie. They were going to have the same Robles in a year or so. Once the newer phones or iPad came out, the “newer and better” phone would slow down, just as the previous one had. When Apple came clean and admitted that these allegations were true, they were sued. They were fined 5 million euros, or about $5.5 million. They accepted this deal and paid the fine. However, this did not stop them. After they paid the fine, it seemed as if all of the bad press about Apple was out of the news. While it may have seemed as if the problem would be fixed, they continued to do this. The lawsuit has not stopped Apple from slowing your electronic devices at all. As a matter of fact, the same popular search results still come up when new apple devices are released: “Why is my iPhone slowing down?” So next time your iPhone starts to slow down, it might not be your fault. Before you think about replacing the battery or that you did something wrong, look to see if a new Apple phone or iPad has come out in the last few weeks, because that might be the reason for your electronic issues. |
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