Fires in Southern California

This past week there have been some major fires down in Southern California that has affected a lot of people who live there. Dozen of fires have burned down nearly 200,000 acres over the past week while destroying more than 792 structures officials have stated. There are 4,000 firefighters fighting the fire right now, our governor Jerry Brown said that “This is the new kind or normal”. He states that with climate change happening we will be seeing more fires happening with not enough resources to combat them. President Trump has approved for Federal Aid and has sent FEMA and Homeland Security to help contain the fires. As of right now only 15% of the fires are contained.  

Disney Mishap

A 58-year old Disney executive has was charged with three felony charges of child sexual abuse. He has been arrested for sexually abusing two underage girls on November 16, 2017. Jon Healy was the director of publishing music at Disney. “One alleged victim was 15. The other was abused for four years starting at the age of 11, according to the charges. His attorney Robert Helfend said Heely ‘vehemently denies these allegations’”. He had been accused almost 10 years ago about this but has just been arrested and was let go six days later on a $150,000 bail. He is going to trial soon and if he is found guilty he is facing nine years and three months in prison.
This is important to take account of because it is such a major crime that no one has brought into the light because of how shady the Disney company could be. As seen now in today's day there are many people being accused and showed to be a sex offender. Could Disney have something to do with this? There are many director and people coming out today saying how this has been going on for more than the media says it has. This is honestly very suspicious and though I really enjoy the Disney movies and shows I feel there is something going on at Disney that the people are not informed of.

Primary Investigator In Micheal Brown Case

The primary investigator is the one who is in charge of all of the investigation and informs everyone where he has to go. He is the one that tells the different squadrant where to work and what to take note of at the crime scene. He assigned detectives and police officers tasks and responsibility duties during the investigation. On the day of the Michela Brown shooting his part is essential in the case as he was in charge of making everything go smoothly. The primary investigated or also call the examiner explained how he went on the call and where he parked to get to the scene. He also explained how the scene was full of angry people, how there were no ambulances, and how no firetrucks of any sort. The detective arrived around 1:30ish pm and stayed until 8 pm when everything was cleaned and evidence was collected.  He was aware of how long the body of Michael Brown was on the floor which about 4 - 4 ½  but did not know how to calm down the angry riots emerging. He explained how the scene was chaotic, and many counts of attempt to breach the crime scene. Which lead to progressed to dogs were seen at the scene, police dogs.
What is important to note about this investigator is how he investigated and interview Dorian Johnson the only person also present at the time and Darren Wilson, the police officer. The prime investigator attempted to contact Dorian but failed and there no was also resistance at his home. Learn that Dorian was with his girlfriend but later found him and interviewed him at the police station headquarters.

He had doubts about Dorian being the man present with Michael Brown and pursued to put him on a line up with other people for Darren Wilson to choose and recognize him. To a surprise, Darren picked the wrong person and questions were brought up on how and if this man was present at the time.
At the end of the interview, he did not feel he had probable cause to arrest Darren Wilson at the time.
Explained how the point of the interview was to gather Darren Wilson statement of what happened that day and not to officially arrest him for murder. He also interviewed roughly 80 witnesses; about 50 were eyewitnesses at the moment who saw or heard something that day.
But at the end, he stated clearly how he did not want the grand jury to be convinced or not for probable cause for Darren Wilson's arrest.

The Mirror, Mirror Defense

Mr. Raj a 27-year-old Malaysian working in the distributing company taking new products to different countries or selling it around town. In other words, he was a drug trafficker.

As expected not everyone gets away with everything and that lead to his arrest. He was charged “with transporting 166 kilos of cannabis and 1.7 kilos of raw opium in 2003.” As many states and country are recognizing marijuana as a helpful drug that could be used for medical purposes there was a law that prohibited the distribution of Marijuana in Malaysia and that consequence was sending the suspect to death by hanging.

Mr. Raj had been caught in an act that was sure to put him behind bars with the amount evidence against him including DNA samples. However, they never thought of the possibility of there being two Mr. Rajs.

It appeared that the case would be done everything solved and charged convicted but it wasn't until the discovery that this man had a twin brother.  Sathis Raj and Sabarish Raj were identical twins, and they decided they were going to trick the officials who were after them. When questioned each man pointed the finger at the other, making hard for the officers to identify who had committed this crime. Malaysian prosecutors were baffled, presumably because they had never thought this situation would ever happen and weren't prepared for it.

It got so confusing that in the end, they didn't even remember who was who because they looked exactly the same and had no way to identify who was who.

Ultimately, both men were set free as neither the prosecutor nor the judge and jury could figure out which one was guilty. They could not sentence them both because one was innocent so they did not have another choice. They weren't even certain which twin was arrested at the scene of the crime.

Vegas Shooting

On October 1, 2017, the US was faced with a tragic demonstration of gun brutally. Where a gunman opened fire on a crowd at a concert at a music festival at the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada between 10:05 and 10:15 p.m. 64-year-old Stephen Paddock of Mesquite, Nevada, fired more than 1,100 rounds from his suite on the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel. One hour later, Paddock had done his last, shot after those in a crowd of 22,000, on himself and was found dead in his room from a self-inflicted gunshot wound or as known a suicide. Many speculate on why this happens because his motive is unknown. Many people who knew the shooter as well will never understand how he was capable enough to do such a brutal and deadly action that took the lives of so many people and caught the attention of all of America.
This incident is soon to be known as the "deadliest mass shooting committed by an individual in the United States". This soon brought up and sparked the debate about gun control laws in the U.S., with focus on who is eligible to get guns and what types of guns, as the shooter Paddock used his semi-automatic rifles to fire at the crowd. To begin the build-up to what happens. Paddock first arrived at the Mandalay Bay on September 25, 2017. He soon booked into a complimentary room, because he was a frequent gambler at the casino. Three days later, he moved to the 32nd floor suite, which overlooks Las Vegas Village. He soon later placed  a "Do not disturb" sign on the door and started to pack all sorts of weapons in his room as the County Sheriff, Joe Lombardo phases it, "Paddock carried more than ten suitcases into his hotel suite during his preparation for the shooting."Their weapon consisted of, "Twenty-three firearms, a large quantity of ammunition, and numerous high-capacity magazines capable of holding up to 100 rounds apiece..."

Though it is not clear why he committed this crime all the preparation is a sure sign of some sort of motive or readiness on what he was going to do it shows he was conscious of what he was thinking of doing and what can be the conquerers of his actions. I really do hope those people who survive are well and will not experience anything like this again.

McDonalds Coffee

One of the cases we did not get to look at was the case of McDonalds coffee. In 1994 Stella Liebeck was in the passenger seat of her grandson’s car holding a McDonalds coffee when she spilled it in her lap. She got seriously burned and ended up getting permanent damages done to her. It was reported that McDonalds keeps their coffee at around 190 degrees. She ended up suing McDonalds and won over $600,000 in damages.  This case was extremely controversial because some people thought the lawsuit was excessive while others thought that it was reasonable and this became a big time national news story.

Volume 23

In Volume 23 of the Ferguson case regarding the death of Michael Brown, it was very surprising at the findings and how different they were compared to the rest of the volumes. My group read about the autopsy overall and the witnesses that were present at the scene. The part that was probably the newest information was the toxicology portion because there was a more informative autopsy review and there was also a range of things that the Doctor questioned may have occurred. He mentions that the marijuana chemicals were found in his bloodstream which was surprising because there was a lot of the case that just spoke about the autopsy alone and there was an explanation for why the behavior that he may have been going through could have led to his death.There was a active chemical that is very strong present in his bloodstream but the medical examiner mentioned that those who drink alcohol have a worse behavior than those who have marijuana. The Doctor also says that Marijuana is NOT a drug but the 18 chemicals that are present in the substance. The only cautious thing that they found was that since it was present in the blood stream, there could have been multiple behavior issues that have happened but not as bad as those who drink alcohol. There are a variety of ways that people can react but it's also depending on the person that is taking the substances which then goes to Michael Brown and how he had cigarillos before he was killed even though they couldn't find anything when they were searching him. 

Volume 24

After listening to volume 24, it is clear that there are now new issues to consider. It is first said in this volume that witnesses had far more testimony when the DOJ and FBI interviewed them than when they were interviewed on the scene. This is disturbing because it casts more doubt on whether or not their testimony is actually legitimate. They could have potentially added details that are completely wrong which could lead to a bad ruling. We also learned that they didn’t take Wilson’s belt into evidence. This could have contained potentially important evidence into whether Wilson had a Taser on him that he could have used instead of a gun. These stunning new revelations have an impact on how we interpret the evidence we have.

OJ Trial Race Card

The main controversy that is lingering following the trial is the uneasiness of the use of the race card. White people were mainly shocked whereas black people saw the outcome coming. They knew this would happen since it was a sort of way of payback for all the mistrials of their ancestors and misjustice. As well as validation that the legal system works the same way for a wealthy black person.

Using your position as a journalist to expose racial issues

A friend showed me this video today. It was a reporter on a cable news channel. One day, she apparently was talking about racial issues on the air, and apparently one of her viewers didn't like that. In an email, this viewer called the reporter the n-word, saying that she shouldn't have talked about racial issues on her TV show, because she's black and apparently that's the only reason why she could. The reporter then went on air on December 5, and, in a bold and brave move, called out this person who emailed her as a racist person who misconstrued her viewpoint.

In my opinion, this is fantastic. I think more journalists should be using their power as a social influence to expose these racial issues without having to fear the consequences, because, in the end, if your idea is better, than your idea will succeed in the free marketplace of ideas. If you hold an idea dear, you should stand by it and educate people about your idea, and that's exactly what the journalist did, even going as far as to expose a person who doesn't want her to share her idea. Using your power to share your ideas is one of the best things you can do with that power.

What do you guys think though? I'm interested in hearing.

Explaining OJ's Downfall Through Kanye West's Yeezus

We’ve obviously been looking a lot at OJ. We’ve seen him ascend from a poor black kid in San Francisco, to a hard-working American Football Star at USC, to, at the top of his game, the most successfully advertised black man in America at the time. But we also saw his downfall - The abuse of Nicole Brown, the social homicide of the OJ court case, and eventually the path of wild parties and drug abuse in Miami.

Recently, I’ve been listening through a lot of Kanye’s backlog again. Eventually, I got around to listening to Yeezus. In stark contrast to his past works, Yeezus embodies a brash, abrasive and aggressive sound. Lyrically, the album focuses a lot on Kanye’s personal demons struggles, and insecurities, all revolving around a common theme - Fame.

By listening and analysing the lyrics of Kanye’s songs on Yeezus, we can find a whole lot of connections to the downfall of OJ. However, Kanye hasn’t exactly lived the same sort of life as OJ. Kanye grew up in a middle class household, and lived in the suburbs of Chicago, although his parents divorced, Kanye never really faced a lot of the same struggles of living in the projects. However, there are things that OJ and Kanye can relate to. Through their raw talent and hard work, they have both been able to come up to the upper echelons of American society, and have both created an image for themselves as unique black men in the high class of American society.

In addition, both have also seemed to have fallen from this place. Kanye, while he seemingly has gotten better in the past year (debatable with the release of TLOP), has had countless PR nightmares, starting with the Taylor incident during the 2009 MTV Music Awards, and OJ devolving into the life of drugs and parties

If you have time, look into Kanye’s Yeezus and see what connections you can make. It’s really interesting.

History of Christmas

There are multiple areas that celebrated something during christmas times. For example, the norse in skandinavia celebrate yule, which is eating and partying untill a giant log brought home burns fully. Late december was the best time for partying because all cows were slaughtered so they wouldn't need to be fed during the winter and all alcohols are finished fermenting by then. Later the roman empire celebrated a holiday on the 25th of december, so their Pope, Pope Julius I declared that Jesus Christ was born on december 25th. How do you celebrate christmas, if you do?

Dogs used for wellness week

Yesterday there was a big gathering in the quad to pet a lot of cute dogs for wellness week. There were a bunch of really cool kinds of dogs there and they were all pretty well trained. I was wondering if this was really the way to get kids de-stressed because I feel that this would make me a little de-stressed but I still would be super stressed. I would still be super stressed because of all the finals next week and a couple dogs, even though very cute, can really take all that stress away. What do you think?

Sleeping Defense

In our class was the first time I had heard about the “Sleepwalking Defense” where as heard in class we studied the case of Arizona v. Falater. Where in 1997, Scott Falater, a devout Mormon, stabbed his wife 44 times with a knife. He proceeded to drag her into a backyard pool and held her head under water drowning in only a matter of an hour to commit this entire murder. A neighbor who witnessed the drowning called the police. And as they arrived they found Falater, in confusion and claiming he had no memory of the attack and felony he had committed. Falater had no apparent motive for this killing, he had no affair, no wanting or claim for insurance money and had a happy family. To many, it surprises them that this could've happened in the first place as this was completely tragic and random. Falater eventually came out and tried to defend himself with a sleepwalking defense. He said he had a history of sleepwalking, was sleep-deprived, and stated that he loved his wife a lot and would never hurt her and at the time of the attack he was unconscious. This could have maybe worked if it wasn't for the fact that a neighbor had witnessed the drowning and Falater calling for his dog. Also, there was tampering with the scene showing that “he had tried to conceal evidence: Police found the knife, bloody clothes, boots, gloves, and undergarments stuffed in a Tupperware container hidden in his car.” Eventually, the jury found Falater guilty of first-degree murder in 1999 as there was evidence of him being conscious at the time. To my surprise, this was not the only case that had used this sleeping defense as there were cases from 1846 who actually used this defense and were found innocent such as Massachusetts v. Tirrell when a man named Albert Tirrell was acquitted in the murder of a prostitute in Boston. In this case much more brutal than the one of Mr.Falater, Tirrell slit the woman's (soon to be known as a prostitute) throat, almost decapitating her. This also lead to a fire set off to the body, and later to finding out that he fled to New Orleans, where eventually the found him arrested him. This his trial Tirrells lawyer stated that Tirrell was a chronic sleepwalker and perhaps committed the crime while asleep. The jury was persuaded by this defense and agreed to find him not guilty. Even though this story was not bought by many the Tirrell case is said to be the first U.S. legal case in which the sleepwalking defense successfully worked.

Kate Stein's death and debate

Kate Steinle a 32-year-old was shot and killed in July 2015. This happened when the man, Garcia Zarate found a firearm and not knowing it was a weapon shot it, hitting Kate Steinle and killing her as she walked with her father to San Francisco pier 14. The gun used was a Sig Sauer .40-caliber handgun, the same weapon had been stolen four days earlier from an off-duty Bureau of Land Management Ranger’s car. There was no evidence found on whether or not he stole the weapon. The murder, as Garcia's defence puts it, “attorney said the shooting was accidental and the bullet ricocheted off the ground and traveled about 80 feet before hitting Steinle.” Because of this a women past away that year and so started as well a major controversy that would question and grab the audience's attention.
Jose Ines Garcia Zarate was a 45 year old man who had an outstanding criminal record, which consisted of who had a record of seven felony convictions and five previous deportations. Even though he knew he had a lot of crimes in his past, due the Courtesy of American justice according to the constitution though not a citizen they gave him the entire to having the full benefit of the due process of law conferred on American citizens – legal counsel at every step of the proceedings, an attentive judge, a jury of his peers, and the expectation that the government must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. This was strongly seen as the wrong action as Ms.Steile would not have this right as she was no longer alive to defend herself. As of this month Garcia Zarate was acquitted of murder and involuntary manslaughter charges, as well as assault with a deadly weapon. This trial is one that many take strongly knowledge as there is a controversy on whether or not he got away with murder and considering he is also an undocumented immigrant this lead to a nationwide debate over immigration policy.
The case involving the young woman’s killing has spurred intense debate, Trump administration warnings to suspected sanctuary jurisdictions, lawsuits and proposed legislation on how U.S. immigration enforcement might proceed. This is important as it seems he is basing this one person on the entire population of immigrants and using this as an example to enforce what should be done.
Though this accident was tragic I don't not believe this should be the basis for judging the major population of immigrants as not all people are the same.

Jordan Davis

I think Michael Dunn was totally guilty. First of all, he should not have been driving after drinking any hard alcohol that day. Second, he should not have had access to a firearm while under the influence of ANYTHING no matter how little. The stand your ground law means you can respond to a threat of some kind with an equal reaction. For example, if someone hits you or pulls a gun on you, you can do the same thing back. On the other hand, the law also says that you can not escalate anything, for example if someone starts cussing at you or hits you with their fists, you cannot just pull out a gun and shoot them. Here it was his problem that he didn’t like the type of music or how loud it was. He should’ve just ignored it and gone home to where he could control things like that, instead he expected the kids to respectfully listen to him when they honestly had no obligation to do so. He overreacted and felt that he had some kind of power or authority over them because he was older and white. Being “disrespectful” is not a reason to get shot and killed.

Coffee Trial

While many might refer to this day see this trial as a dumb and gold digging lawsuit against Mcdonald's. Many forget to take into account the real story of what happen and not take in what the media is giving out as it is known to be unreliable and incredible. Many coffee businesses like Starbucks or other well-known places are now known to take extreme precautions about distributing their coffee and why is that? The media has painted an image of this elder lady driving in a car maybe even recklessly and her not knowing the coffee would be hot accidentally spill coffee on herself, burning herself leading to a trail nobody has ever thought of and become a millionaire instantly. As one digs into this fake news one believes this extended truth and forget what really happen. In this situation what happen was on February 27, 1992, Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old woman from Albuquerque, New Mexico, ordered a 49-cent cup of coffee from the drive-through window of a local McDonald's restaurant as many people saw the women were the driving this was false as it was her grandson who was operating the vehicle. When they parked in the parking lot, she also admitted to accidentally spilling her coffee and it was her fault but not intentional. Because of this, she went to the hospital coming out with 3-degree burns which were scaring and unforgettable. As many aren't clear about Ms. Liebeck intention was never to sue Mcdonald's at first. She only wanted them to pay for her medical bills which were quite expensive because of the server injuries. As a result, McDonalds after a long time past ended up only giving a small fraction of the cost of her bills. Leaving her unsatisfied and angry this was the real reason for her lawsuit not because she was greedy but because she wasn't given a fair amount of compensation. She won for the reason that McDonald's knowing about the dangerous and extreme hot temperature of their coffee that even their employees feared touching.

Ferguson Trial

I went into this project completely siding with the cop. I heard all over the news that some big black kid robbed a store then assaulted a police officer while walking down the middle of the street and got shot. I thought “of course, what did he think would happen”. I never considered Michael Brown’s point of view before reading and hearing about what actually happened. He didn’t really “rob” a store, he stole a pack of cigarillos so he could go roll a blunt. He was already high and I am sure many high schoolers even around here do things like that. I also realized that maybe he didn’t assault the cop, no one actually knows for sure what happened when the cop backed up and almost hit them. I am not sure if they should’ve pressed charges on the officer but he should have received a punishment because no matter what happened, Michael Brown was not armed and officer Wilson should have been trained to handle the situation without unloading his entire clip into an 18 year old kid. It was wrong place and wrong time for both of them and the minimum punishment I think Wilson should have received was being relieved from duty.

Trumps Travel Ban

I'm sure most if not all of us have heard about the Supreme Courts decision on passing Trump's third version of his Muslim Travel Ban, which is banning 6 Muslim countries; Chad,Libya ,Iran, Somalia,Syria and Yemen people from being able to enter the United States. Many of the lower courts talked about how those of the countries listed could not be completely kept out of the US if they were able to use "Bona Fide." This was known as a way to prove that they have a relationship with someone that lives in the U.S. Many have gone against this decision saying it was unjust and violating everyone rights. But a spokesman for the White House Hogan Gidley, said, "We are not surprised by today's Supreme Court decision,"calling it "lawful and essential to protecting our homeland."Trump and those supporting are seeing it as "Protecting Our Homeland," But is it really? or Is it just going to create more conflict between the countries being affected by it?.

Psychopath

Psychopath's are those who feel like they can do anything or hurt anyone without giving a damn about human life. But you can never know if the person you live with or you work with can be a psychopath because we can't read their minds and sometimes we don't feel like asking people if they are crazy enough to kill someone. How a psychopath is kind of born can be due to their childhood and how they were treated or what type of problems they had with their families and constantly getting in trouble with the law because they just don't care. Some psychopaths can seem very charming and outgoing while some are seen as very anti-social and have a hard time connecting with other humans. Sometimes I question myself if there are some people that are crazy like that or even if I am a psychopath but I do feel empathy for others which is a big trait that psychopaths don't have. Some example shows or movies that show "psychopathic ways" as it can be said can be the TV show Dexter on Netflix, American Psycho, an No Country for Old Men.
Do you think you are a psychopath? Go to this link and take a quiz.

Juvenile's Sentenced To LWOP

Something that America doesn't deal with a lot but it's an issue is that teenagers committing horrific crimes like killing their own family members or going out killing others for money or a robbery gone wrong. Some say that teen killers should be sentenced to life-without-parole but some argue that teens should be given another chance in the world due to them being young and how much knowledge they have about life. There is scientific proof that the brains between teens and adults are different and the way they act in the same situations, but others say that teens do know what they are doing and just use the excuse that they are young and they don't think right. What do you think about sentencing Juveniles to LWOP?

Sexual Assault: Audrie and Daisy

Audrie and Daisy's case really got to me knowing that these two cases were similar but they both had didn't ends. They were both raped while under the influence, they were not able to give consent to what was going on. While Audrie was passed out John R and his friends covered her face with sharpie and drew all over her body, they stripped her naked and drew on her body.Pictures were taken of all of stuff that was written on her and were exposed to everyone in her school. The day she went back to school she was slut shamed for something she didn't even know happen, she didn't let John R and his friends finger her, she couldn't do anything about it. she was unconscious. That moment ruined her life, the pictures that were taken ruined her life. She spent one week at school dealing with a lot of bullying because of what happen, she couldn't take it anymore, she couldn't stand what everyone was saying about her so she committed suicide. Daisy was 15 when she was raped by one her brothers closest friends, he invited her over to their house to drink even though daisy was already drinking with her friend Paige who was 14 years old. Daisy's brother was home asleep when daisy and Paige snuck out of the house to Matty's house. They thought that they would become cool because older guys wanted to drink with them. When they got to Matty's house daisy took about 11 to 12 shots after that she couldn't remember anything else, Paige was half drunk ,she knew what was going on when they raped her so she tire to fight back  but she couldn't because of how much alcohol she took. Daisy was then taken to the room and they began to rape her unconscious body, she was laying on the bed asleep, she couldn't do anything her alcohol level was .14, the alcohol  level that shows you are drunk is .10. Daisy was left out on her porch in the freezing cold, her hair was wet and frozen to the front door step, until her family found her the next morning and took her to the hospital where they checked her alcohol levels and to see if she was raped. A girl named Delaney who also went through a moment like hers and Audrie's and was able to contact Daisy to help her through his rough moment, Delaney wanted to save daisy from committing suicide like Audrie did.

Sociopath

A Sociopath is a person  with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and lack of conscience.  All sociopaths are born MAOA-L gene aka the warrior gene which controls the production of a protein that breaks down brain signaling chemicals like dopamine, noradrenalin which influence mood, But people who are born with this gene become sociopath when this gene is activated in their childhood. The warrior gene is activated through the environment that they are exposed to in their early life. Others can be born with this gene and not become a sociopath because they didn't have a rough and violent childhood so their warrior gene was never activated to become one.

The Ghosting of O.J. Simpson

In regards to an article on Edmodo, O.J. Simpson's life has been changed forever. According to some coaches, back in 2002, USC was in Florida practicing for the Orange Bowl game. OJ decided to stop by and watch his alma mater practice. Although he was one of the most celebrated athletes to come out of USC, coaches were furious that he came to draw attention away from practice and did not want their players interacting with him. Another thing that has started to get noticed is that around the NFL, announcers and broadcasters don't ever really speak about OJ. Instead, when they want to compare explosive running backs currently in the league to NFL greats, they usually refer Barry Sanders, Jim Brown, Emmitt Smith, and others. Never is O.J. brought up for comparison because it seems frowned upon to bring up his name without thinking about the double murder he got away with. It seems as if O.J.'s athletic accomplishments have been washed away and disregarded because of criminal acts he has committed outside of the sport. It is kind of crazy to think about how with one wrongful action, all of your best accomplishments in life can be forgotten and wiped away. Do you guys think it is fair that O.J.'s football accolades aren't accounted for because he has committed horrible acts outside of the sport? Should he still be referred to with high regard within the sport, or does his actions take away his credibility? 

State of Missouri v. Darren Wilson

After listening to the many presentations of the volume of the case regarding the death of Michael Brown I feel like no concrete conclusions can be made. Every witness has some sort of discrepancy to their point of view and different recollection of the scene. Some people even changed their stories after reading articles and listening to other people's opinions. Because there was no way to know exactly what was going on, I don't think Wilson could be charged with anything. Even though he shot Michael Brown much more than was needed, I feel as though Wilson could have felt endangered because Brown was known to be a little bit aggressive and had committed a crime. It is a tragedy that someone's life was taken, but if you were in Wilson's position and feared for your life wouldn't you do the same?

Women's Rights

Since forever women and men have always been treated unequally, especially in the work force. Society has definitely progressed as women have gone from not being able to have a job to making up almost half of the America's workforce, but they are still not treated the same. Women have lesser pay rates, and gender is still considered when applying for jobs, but why is this so? Women and men are both capable of doing the same things and having the same impact on a company. Why are people with the same abilities being discriminated against because of their gender? It seems as if every CEO or boss of every big company is a male and that image is engrained into society's head. What can be done to improve gender equality?

Theuerkauf teacher arrested on sexual assault charges

Bryan Rios, 36, was arrested on Nov. 29 on charges including forced sodomy and forced oral copulation. Rios was a First-Grade teacher at Theuerkauf Elementary School who now has multiple sexual assault charges committed. What do you guys think will happen to his future? Will his teacher degree keep him out of jail??

DACA

What was DACA? (2012)
It stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. It was an American immigration policy that allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who came to the US as children to remain in the US. This policy allowed them to no longer live with a fear of being deported and they were able to work and study (go to college). This policy didn't grant them any permanent legal status. It just allowed them to work legally and obtain documents like a driver's licenses that they lacked.

Present day...Trump ordered an end to it around September. Trump made a statement that millions of Americans are being victimized by "this unfair system". Attorney General Jeff Sessions backed up that statement by saying that DACA has "denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same illegal aliens to take those jobs".

I saw this video in The New York Times that showed a couple of different people talking about what DACA and how they feel about the fact that it is getting taken away. You could see the fear in their eyes and some were so devastated that they started crying. They talked about how DACA opened so many doors for them, but now that it is going to be gone they are going to be fired from their jobs and won't be able to continue studying.

Since September, there hasn't been any new news. Do you think it is fair what Trump is doing to Dreamers? Do you think Congress will actually come up with a way to not have DACA end or at least come up with a better policy?

Guilty: OJ Simpson

Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman were found dead in her home at Brentwood. I think the years of abuse towards Nicole led to her getting murdered. Nicole would always call the police on OJ for abuse but they wouldn't do anything to him because he was "The Juice". There would be many photos of Nicole's face with bruises and scrapes on it from OJ. Nicole's sister testified that OJ was abusive towards Nicole,  Nicole's sister witnessed times OJ would be abusive towards her sister. One incident Nicole told her sister was OJ got mad that Nicole wouldn't sleep with him so he abused her. In my opinion, I think OJ should have got charged with abuse the first time Nicole called the police. Ron Goldman went to Nicole's house to drop off her mother's sunglasses she left at the restaurant. He happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.  Maybe if the police did something about OJ abusing Nicole in the first place, she and Ron Goldman would still be alive.

The Shooting of Walter Scott

On April 4, 2015, Michael Slager, a North Charleston police officer, shot an unarmed black man, by the name of Walter Scott. This was a rare case, because there was video evidence of the entire incident. This was unbeknownst to Slager who filed a police report that directly contradicted the video evidence. Once again, this seemed like another case that was going to fall flat and end in no conviction, but today Michael Slager was sentenced to 20 years in prison. This is a rare instance of a policeman actually being held accountable, and it is hard to imagine that this sentence would have occurred if there was no video evidence. This is an example of what should happen when an officer uses excessive force.

Trumps Clock

There is a new invention today that has been based on our current president and his craziness specifically online. This invention is an alarm clock that wakes you up when whenever trump posts something. It will not only wake you up but it does so in the most settling of ways with trumps voice reading his tweets to you in his own voice. This clock will let you know the news of trump as it comes from the newsmaker himself. As a nation, I do believe this clock is innovative and will keep us updated and informed. However there is defiantly a darker side to this concept as a whole, how we got to this product and how it is sort of a mimicry of our leader.

"Undocumented immigrant acquitted in Kate Steinle death"

On November 30, 2017, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an undocumented immigrant, was found not guilty in the death of Kate Steinle. She was shot in July 2015 by Garcia Zarate as she was walking with her father in San Francisco on Pier 14. He was acquitted of murder and involuntary manslaughter charges and assault with a deadly weapon and was instead convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He could potentially serve a three-year sentence for that. His defense was that the shooting was accidental and the bullet ricocheted off the ground and traveled about 80 feet before hitting Steinle.

Garcia Zarate had been deported from the US 5 times prior to the shooting. Before the shooting, SF officials had released him from custody instead of turning him over to immigration authorities. So after the jury's decision was released, the attorney general said: "San Francisco's status as a sanctuary city was largely to blame for what happened that summer day".  A lot of people were against the decision, even our own President. He tweeted: "A disgraceful verdict in the Kate Steinle case! No wonder the people or our Country are so angry will illegal immigration."

One of the defendant's lawyers said, "From day one, this case was used as a means to foment hate, to foment division and to foment a program of mass deportation," public defender Francisco Ugarte said.Nothing about Mr. Garcia Zarate's ethnicity, nothing about his immigration status, nothing about the fact that he is born in Mexico had any relevance as to what happened on July 1, 2015."

What's your opinion on the trial decision? Were SF officials to blame for this?

The Ball Family vs China

LiAngelo Ball a basketball player for U.C.L.A. has now blown his chance to make it to the NBA. A college basketball game in Shanghai turned into a trip to jail for LiAngelo. LiAngelo and two of his teammates went to the mall in Shanghai, they went to the Louis Vuitton store and took a couple of items. They thought they had gotten away with the items, but the next morning police officers showed up in their hotel. Three players from U.C.L.A. have now been waiting in jail for a sentence. Donald Trump was involved in this situation and was able to convince Chain's president to let them go. LiAngelo got suspended for most of the basketball season, but he decided to quit the team. He still has the mindset of making it to the NBA. What do you think?

Andrea Yates - Did the justice system function properly?

In 2001, a woman named Andrea Yates drowned her five children as a result of postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. In this case, Yates admitted to the crimes, but her defense team argued the murders were a result of insanity. Yates was originally convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but after an appeal, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. As a result, she was moved from Harris County Jail to the Rusk State Hospital for psychiatric treatment. The justice system functioned properly in this case because Andrea Yates received a fair trial, and she was able to appeal her conviction. In my opinion, this was the correct decision because Yates was clearly not mentally stable during the time of the murders. What is your opinion on this case? Do you think the justice system functioned properly?

Jordan Davis? Is it his fault?

In the Jordan Davis case, a 40-year-old man named Micheal Dunn and his wife were stopping at a gas station to grab a bottle of wine after coming back from a wedding, when they came across Jordan Davis and his friends. Jordan Davis was playing loud rap music when Micheal asked if he could turn the music down because he couldn't "hear himself think". Micheal was mad that Jordan wasn't cooperating and turning down the music so he felt threatened. Micheal Dunn claims he saw a weapon in Jordan's hand so, that's when he grabbed his gun from the glove department and fired shots at the car that Jordan Davis and his friends were in. After shots were being fired, Jordan and his friends reversed the car and tried to drive away. Michael Dunn continued to shoot at the car. While investigating the case, They found no evidence showing Jordan Davis had a weapon in the car. Micheal Dunn had no reason to shoot at the vehicle were Jordan and his friends were in. After the investigation was over, Micheal Dunn got charged with First-degree murder.