Obama presses job plan at La Jolla Fundraiser

President Barack Obama visited La Jolla on Monday, Septemeber 26th to attend a private $5,000 per person re-election fundraiser at Elizabeth and Mason Phelps home. His purpose was to spread his job-creation message across California. In San Diego, the Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, Obama implored Congress to get people back to work by passing his $450 billion jobs plan. Obama spoke briefly about the American Jobs Act at the home.

Adriana Lugo


Edited by Ryan BOCKMIER

Police: Some of the 5 killed in Indiana were shot

Citizens of Laurel, Indiana were in shock when the news reported  that five people were shot in 2 different homes. Some of the victims were found in sparsely populated areas outside the town of Laurel, shot and autopsies were performed and then confirmed the cause of death was planned on Monday. The victims were one family, man,  his ex-wife and their two adult children. Evelyn Renfro who lives near the scene of the crime said her 43-year-old nephew Henry Smith was killed. She said she heard gunfire around noon on Sunday. "Nobody went out because they were loading the cattle here and they didn't pay no attention to that," Renfro said. Evelyn and her grandson Ryan Renfro said there had been drug dealing in the normally peaceful neighborhood. She also said her nephew was not a member of the family who was killed.

            An investigation has begun, two agencies are looking into the case. "We have five dead people and we're trying to find out how they died," said Sgt. Jerry Goodin, spokesman for the Indiana State Police. "Some of the victims had gunshot wounds, or what appear to be gunshot wounds." Police would not say if there had been any arrests but said for people in the area to be careful. "They should be vigilant," Goodin said. "They need to make sure they keep the doors locked. If they see any suspicious people, they should dial 911.”

By Ryan Bockmier

Michael Vick's future isn't going to well for the Eagles

Michael Vick is complaining again about his late hits, but the Philadelphia Eagles are the ones taking the late hit. Three games into the season, it is clear that the Philadelphia Eagles had made the wrong choice for their quarterback. Vick might not be their guy, and will never be their guy, even with his $100-million contracts, Nike endorsements and video games.  Vick can’t stay upright long enough for them to climb on his shoulders. He can’t stay on the field enough to lead them down it. Vick can’t stay healthy enough to make anyone other than his own team absolutely sick. This off-season is giving Vick a contract with a guaranteed $40 million. After three games this year, the Cardinals and Eagles are 1-2, with Kolb owning a 93.7 passer rating while Vick has thrown for a 87.7.

Where on Earth did the UARS fall? By: Marcella Marquez

The NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite fell back to earth Saturday September 24^th, but the questions was where did its pieces make landfall? The 6 ton satellite was caught on tape by sky gazers across the country. In Kahulu, Hawaii they saw a mysterious white streak in the sky, while in San Antonia Texas they saw what seemed to be shiny dust particles. Scientist tracking the 35 foot satellite said it fell back to Earth between 8:23 pm and 10:09 pm PT. The bus like satellite passed over the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans it also flew over Canada, Africa, and Australia. Yet experts cannot confirm the precise re-entry time and location of the dead satellite. “It’s most likely they will never know because it fell over an unpopulated area, where there was no one there to report for sure, and we have the last known tracking position from U.S. strategic command which was in the Pacific Northwest of the coast of North America, but it’s likely to have fallen somewhere between there and the Southwest of Australia” said Randy Kendall space debris expert at the Satellite tracking center in El Segundo California. As this massive satellite headed back to earth it began to disintegrate, 26 pieces were expected to fall down somewhere on earth on Saturday. Those pieces may have fallen into the ocean within a 30 by 500 mile debris field, said Kendall.  Lucky so far there have been no reports of any damage, due to the space junk from the NASA’s UARS. 

Lakers Ron Artest Officially Changes Name by Marcella Marquez

Los Angeles Lakers’ Ron Artest is now officially Metta World Peace reports ESPN. A quick hearing at the Los Angeles Superior Court last Friday made the name change official. According to World Peaces’ publicist, Courtney Barnes, he was not present at the ruling. Nahla Rajan his attorney represented her client to commissioner Matthew C. St.  George. “[Rajan] walked up, the judge said, ‘We understand he wants to change his name and he wants to do it for personal reasons,’ and it was granted, “World Peace’s publicist, Courtney Barnes, told ESPN. “That was it. It was that quick.” Metta’s first request to change his name last month was postponed due to him not being able to pay an outstanding parking ticket. But earlier this month as he was waiting for the change, World Peace told Stephanie A. Smith on 710 ESPNLA “Metta is going to be the first name and it means like friendship, love and kindness. World Peace is going to be the last name, so everybody can get ready to buy their World Peace jerseys.” His 8-year-old daughter, Diamond, also wants to change her surname form Artest to World Peace. “Metta is a Buddhist term, and Barnes told the paper it took World Peace “years of research and soul-searching to find a first name that was both personally meaningful and inspirational,” says The Los Angeles Times. 

Local News: What would you do at witnessing someone about to jump from the Coronado Bay Bridge? By Adriana Lugo

On Thursday, May 12, Bryan Knowlton, a 42-year-old resident of Kearny Mesa, left his real estate  office near home and headed for Coronado, where he had an 11:00 a.m. appraisal appointment. As he headed towards the bridge he realized that the bridged was packed. "The traffic was backed up, and everybody was trying to get out of the right lane to go around a parked car. Driving by, I saw a lady looking over the wall, and there was a big bottle of wine on her hood and a smaller bottle of beer," Knowlton stated. Knowlton instantly ran out of his car to talk to this woman. He began to talk to her, but the only response he would receive was that her car broke down and that she was waiting for a tow truck. He went back to his car and called 911, asking for advice. When the police arrived, the woman panicked, threw the bottle of wine into the car and ran back towards the bridge wall. After a struggle, the lady finally turned herself in. They handcuffed her and took her away. The police, neighbors, and his family called him a hero and to many people of the community he was. 

Plane Crach at Reno Air Show

On Friday september 16, a deadly plane crash happened at an air show in Reno killing nine people. A P-51 Mustang fighter pilot Jimmy Leeward 74, crashed on Friday afternoon while flying with another plane. 70 injuries have been reported, half of the victims have serious critical or conditions. The reason some people think the plane had crashed was a damaged tail, making the plane lose control. Investigation will take months to figure out what happened to the plane.  

Corrected By Ryan Bockmier

Headlight-flashing faces test as free speech in Florida By Ryan Bockmier

In December of 2009, a Florida resident named Erich Campbell was on the freeway near the Tampa International Airport. He saw two Florida state troopers and flashed his headlights to warn other drivers of the radar patrol. He was very surprised when he was pulled over and given a ticket for improper flashing of headlights. "Literally within one minute, they had me stopped on the side of the road," recalled Campbell, 38. This past August, Land O'Lakes, Florida, resident filed a class action lawsuit against highway patrol and state troopers. He wanted an injunction banning any law enforcement from using any headlight flashing tickets and refunds for damages to motorists caused by the tickets. Campbell's lawyer, J. Marc Jones, claims his client's First Amendment right to free speech was violated. "The flashing of lights to communicate with another driver is clearly speech," he said. "The First Amendment protects all sorts of non-verbal conduct; it protects more than the spoken or printed word," Hudson said. "Courts have found that a wide variety of actions — such as honking one's horn or flashing one's headlights are forms of communication under the First Amendment." Corrected by: Adriana Lugo

White House willing to pay for Job bills by Chey Mello

On Monday, the Obama administration proposed a $467-billion package of savings deal. Changing how deductions count for wealthy income-tax payers, meant to offset the cost of its proposed jobs package. The package is being sent to Congress along with the $447-billion jobs bill. The extra $20 billion is designed to create a cushion to make sure the job plan is fully paid for, as the president has promised. Jay Carney says, “In order to invest in jobs and growth, we're going to have to pay for it.” The proposal includes limiting some deductions for those earning at least $200,000 a year or for families who make $250,000 a year. This would be a change that would save America $400 billion over 10 years.   
Corrected by: Adriana L.

Texas Drought May Change The State Forever By Ryan Bockmier

Normally Texas is full of huge green pastures, full of sheep and cows grazing the grass. This hasn't been the case as grass starts to turn yellow and black. The cattle have been sent to slaughters rather than starving to death in the barren fields. Texas has received just  7.33 inches of rain for a whole year. This is the lowest for the state in 40 years. On top of that the state has had the hottest summer in U.S. history with an average temperature of 86.8 degrees Fahrenheit beating the record set by Oklahoma in 1934 which had an average of 85.2 degrees.
With no rain wildfires broke out killing two people and destroying 1,500 homes in less than one week. Wildfires this entire year have burnt a record 3.7 million acres about the size of Connecticut. "It's just burnt up," says Jim Hughes,68, a local cattle rancher who has lost 7,000 acres of his property to wildfires and sold off most of his herd. "It's the worst I've ever seen it."
All of this has cost the sate a total of $5.2 billion in livestock and crop losses, that number is still growing. Statewide water restrictions have caused waitresses in restaurants to stop giving out water unless specifically asked. People pray at their dinner tables and at the churches for rain. Still, no rain.
"Everything about this is historic and comparable to the Dust Bowl years," says Robert Dull, an assistant professor of geography and the environment at the University of Texas at Austin.

9/11 10 year Anniversary by Marcella Marquez

          
Ten years after the horrific terrorist attack on 9/11 2001, thousands gathered at Ground Zero to hear the names of the 2,977 victims that lost their lives at the World Trade Center a decade ago. Family members of the victims had emotional break downs as they saw the thousands of names inscribed on the dark bronze parapets that surround the waterfalls, built over two reflecting pools where the twin towers once stood.  President Barack Obama led the nation in honoring and mourning the victims. When he read a passage from the bible, Psalm 46, which reads “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” At the memorial service in New York, he also attended the ceremonies in Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Former President George W. Bush was also present at the service and looked deeply touched as held his hand to his heart. Later on he read a letter that President Abraham Lincoln wrote to console a mom, who lost 5 sons during the Civil War. Obama and Bush both paused at the reflecting pools to run their hands over the names. Relatives did the same, and when someone began to take paper rubbings of the names, the 9/11 memorial staffers began to hand out crayons. The ceremony took place on a very peaceful day that stared almost as beautiful and blue as that of 9/11/2001. 


Corrected By Ryan Bockmier

Power Outage hits the Southwest and Mexico by Adriana Lugo

On Friday, September 8th at around 3:40pm, a blackout hit Southern California, Arizona and parts Mexico. Leaving 1 million people in dark, causing a nuclear power plant to shut down, and 2 Million gallons of sewage to spill into the San Diego waters. Arizona was blamed for causing the outage. APS said they believed that an employee at the North Gila substation tripped a 500-kV transmission line that runs from Arizona to Southern California. The power outage knocked out traffic lights, causing chaos in the San Diego streets. Many businesses and restaurants were closed as the power went out while several kept business open giving people food and water. Gas stations were shut down, airports were closed. Internet was down, and cellphone towers failed leaving many civilians without any form of contact with their families. Schools were closed leaving many kids with a three day weekend. Firefighters, ambulances, and police responded to numerous medical emergencies and rescues of people trapped in elevators. During what was reported as the biggest power outage in the region's history. Generators also failed at two hospitals, backup was given a couple of hours later.  "San Diegans did a magnificent job of turning what could have been a real disaster into something they all handled really well,” Mayor Jerry Sanders said. 

Local North Park Elementary School involved in segregation scandal by Adriana Lugo

Local North Park school, Jefferson Elemantary, has been recently involved in a segregation scandal. Kathy Taylor, a local parent toured Jefferson Elementary noticed that most of the Jefferson students were poor and many were still learning English. Families that live just blocks from the school decide to send their children elsewhere. Taylor, also a local parent, ended up sending her child to private school. “I wanted this feeling of community. But what we have is not a community,” she said. “Everybody is sending their kids to other places.”
This problem can defined by race, dozens of white families who live blocks from the school do not send their kids there, often choosing schools just a mile or two away with higher test scores. Dozens of Latino families who live elsewhere do, saying they love this school. The kids who actually come to Jefferson are mostly Latino and African-American in some cases these children are poor. What most parents don't realize is that while choosing other schools over Jefferson because of race, the parents are segregating themselves and their children. The purpose of the public school system is to let all races and ethnicities have equal education. Apparently parents have forgotten this purpose and have decided to segregate their children in order for them to have a better education. Jefferson Elementary offers great education but parents don't see through the race difference.

Hurricane Irene the Overview by Marcella Marquez

Hurricane Irene the first major hurricane of the 2011 season formed August 20, 2011 from a well defined tropical wave. This wave came from Africa and formed Irene in the tropical Atlantic. As it slowly began to move west with the Trade Winds and it got to the Windward Islands it became more organized. The next day Irene made landfall near Puerto Rico at hurricane strength but at a weak category 1 (SSHS), nonetheless Irene caused significant property damage. The hurricane was closely monitored north of the Hispaniola as it began to intensify; it skirted the coast causing strong winds and heavy showers. Irene quickly became a category 3 while passing through the Bahamas and later curving northward to Florida where it left extensive amounts of damage. The Hurricane made landfall in North Carolina on August 27 and then began to hit most of the states in the east seaboard of the U.S. Overall Irene has damaged 15 states (North Carolina, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington) 13 of which President Obama declared in state of emergency. As it move northward it affected at least 55 million people, killed at least 44, flooded a $ 750 million tobacco crop in N.C., and left about 5.12 million customers in 13 states and D.C. without power (according to the U.S. energy department). It is said that the cost of Hurricane Irene is somewhere between $7 billion and $ 10 billion. According to the New York Times it will be one of the 10 costliest catastrophes in the nation’s history.

Earthquake Rocks Alaska By Ryan Bockmier

At approximately 6:55 am ET Alaska was struck by a 6.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Alaska's Aleutian Islands. Mostly a remote area with the exception of a little town named Atka. Home to around 60 people the town is around 100 miles from the epicenter. There were no reports of damages or injuries. The USGS issued a tsunami warning for the area which was later called off. This isn’t the first quake in this area which is frequented by them quite often. Earthquakes in this area normally go unreported because they are either to far out to sea or to deep in the earth’s crust.

This earthquake compared to Haiti’s earthquake (back in January of 2010 measured as a 7.0m) had a lot less catastrophic effects. Mostly because it was in a remote area as opposed to a heavily populated Urban city. It is mostly said that it isn’t the earthquakes that do the damage it is the triggered events after them like tsunamis and fires that cause the damages. A perfect example of this is the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami which killed 230,000 people and caused 1.69 million people to be displaced from their homes. The earthquake that caused this event measured in between 9.0 and 9.3m and is the third largest earthquake ever recorded on a  seismograph.