News Comment #13
November 16, 2020
The article I chose for this week is, “Mexico explains decision to flood poor, Indigenous areas” written by the Associated Press. In the article it discusses how the president of Mexico had to make the decision of letting a city with 350,000 people be flooded or poor areas of 83,000 people be flooded. The city was also home to the president and after days of heavy rain fall, their dam had reached its capacity. They had to let some water out and either into the city or divert it to flood the poor, indigenous areas.
I chose this article for class because this faces both an ethical and moral issue. The president obviously didn’t want to flood the smaller areas of indigenous people, but he didn’t want the bigger city flooded either. However, he says he cares about the poor people, but he had to make the tough decision to flood their homes to save the big city, a city he grew up in. I think that is where I find the issue. There were probably many other options than actually flooding towns/cities. The big issue can be seen as, he grew up in that city, it means a lot to him, he doesn’t want to harm it. The other issue, the areas he flooded, poor and indigenous people. Native people that he decided didn’t mean as much as the people in the city. Especially after they flood those areas, how are the poor supposed to rebuild? They are poor. Is the president going to help give them aid? I wasn’t a fan of this story, it bothered me, but I get he had to make a tough decision to affect more or less people. It’s hard to be a person in power sometimes and its hard for people to see the decisions they have to make.
Chloe P’s Anecdote
November 10, 2020
Chloe Pieper believes that she is a very quiet person. Although, some people might disagree with that, Chloe describes herself as, “An extroverted quiet person.” When she is comfortable around people, she let’s her true self out, but she still thinks before she speaks.
It takes her a moment to process what she wants to say because it is part of the organized person she is. She has to mentally prepare for what is going to be said, before actually saying it. It is like writing a speech, just less formal.
Another reason Chloe says she is quiet is because of her mysterious past trauma. Everybody holds some kind of trauma, but Chloe’s reverts back to her youth when she had less confidence. Her confidence levels then and now, still are the reasons as to why she waits to speak.
There always seems to be the issue of siblings when a person determines a quality about themselves. Chloe says she is also quiet because she is the first born child. She always “had to listen more than talk” because her other siblings would get the spot light. Younger siblings do take over a lot because the first born is almost always like another parent in the family.
News Comment #12
November 8, 2020
The article I chose this week is “Gun-waving St. Louis couple sues news photographer” written by The Associated Press. In this article it talks about how protesters for racial injustice protested down a private street. Along that street was a couple and their $1.5 million house. The couple came out waving guns around and from the street, a photographer took a picture of them. They are now suing the photographer because they are stating since the street was private, the photographer and protesters were trespassing.
I chose this article because I just thought it was interesting in general. Why was it the couples solution to go out waving guns at people that were just walking down a street protesting? The couples were lawyers too, shouldn’t they know better? I also want to know if the street is publicly know that it is private. Is it a gated community? How do people know it is private? I have too many questions for this article and that is why I don’t think it did that great of a job. It was short, but just not enough information was provided for me to come to a conclusion on if the people were dumb or not. The couple could also be considered racists since they came out with guns to protect their $1.5 million house.
Article #3 (Final)
November 4, 2020
Tortoise and Dodo
The islands of Madagascar and Mascarene are home to many mega fauna. A word not often used but referring to the animals that weigh 22 pounds or more. These islands are extremely biodiverse. However, because of human existence, they have lost a majority of their native species.
According to Julia Jacobo, a reporter for ABC News, there has been new research on the two islands. Researchers have studied about, “8,000 years of climate data from cave mineral deposits,” Jacobo said in her article. With the use of these deposits it shows that climate change alone did not cause extinction. Marissa Hernandez, a student at Morningside, commented, “Both the giant tortoise and the dodo bird were likely driven to extinction from human interruption.”
These species thrived before humans arrived at the islands because there was nothing to upset the balance of flora and fauna. The use of this study is proving that humans and climate change are killing off the native features of earth. Now, two of these three species are extinct.
Snowstorm to Red flag Warnings
On October 21st, many midwestern states saw an average of three to ten inches of snow. The amount of snow has made it record high in some states.
The month of October is typical for snow, but never this much before Halloween. In Wisconsin they received 6.9 inches of snow. While in Minnesota they received 7.9 inches. Some areas became so slippery from snow and ice, that planes skidded off runways.
While the Midwest was being coated in snow, the west is still burning up. Fires continue to rage in California and Colorado. Iggy, a student who is attending Morningside, but is from California said, “Sometimes we are even told not to let our kids out or our animals out because the air, it’s way too dry.” As wind gusts pick up, making the air dryer and they create red flag warnings for these states.
Wind gusts as high as forty to fifty miles per hour are believed to sweep through the states. Not just California and Colorado, but through Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico as well. Each state is either under a wind advisory or a critical fire advisory.
US Elections cause for Nuclear War?
The two presidential candidates continue to campaign but have not brought up the issue of North Korea. As last the public knew, president Trump was working on an agreement with North Korea to denuclearize the country.
Arms experts in Washington say that the leader of North Korea, Kim Jung Un, has created a new missiles weapon. With the possibility of firing multiple nuclear war heads at any country, at once.
According to Deb Riechmann, a reporter for ABC News, North Korea is known to fire off missiles before elections in the US and South Korea. North Korea calls these “test” fires, as they have no set location to hit.
As president Trump says, “All I know is we’re not in war and that’s OK.” He has not seemed to make any other agreements since the last time he met with Kim Jung Un. Joe Biden mentions he will not sit down with Kim Jung Un until an agreement is reached. Garrett Arbuckle, a political science major here at Morningside agrees with Biden’s method, “[Joe Biden] mentioned in the debates he kind of has no intention of meeting with certain leaders unless there is a reason to.” The fear that something will happen in the beginning of the new year lingers within the US government.
News Comment #11
November 3, 2020
The article I chose for this week is, “Little girl trapped under Turkey earthquake rubble for 65 hours rescued” written by Haley Yamada. In the article it talks about 7.0 earthquake that struck Turkey killing nearly 90 people and injuring over 1,000. The article also talks about a 3-year-old who was stuck under an apartment for 65 hours that had collapsed and she had almost no injuries. It discusses a 70-year-old man being rescued and a 14-year-old who was rescued after being trapped for 58 hours. These three and among many more are in the process of being saved.
I chose this article because it relates to our class in quite a few ways. This first way it relates is a I believe that this is a spot feature story. The main focus is about the earthquake, but then within the article there are small paragraphs about trapped victims. Another way this relates to the class is how it is written. The written lead sounds like it should be used more for broadcast, just because it doesn’t give away much information. Within the second paragraph it tells me where the earthquake was, but it doesn’t give me much information on it until one of the last few paragraphs. Overall, it was a decent article because this wasn’t breaking news right away, but it doesn’t give necessary information right away.