Category Archives: News

The firing of James Comey

Earlier this month, President Trump fired the Director of the FBI, James Comey, in a move that has proven to be very questionable and controversial. In the days immediately following the incident, a number of conflicting stories emerged, from many people involved, muddying the truth further and further.

The choice caused backlash from both the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as many Americans, some of whom suspect that Comey was fired due to his investigating Russia, and President Trump’s potential connections to them. In fact, a recent poll by Quinnipiac University showed that a majority of Americans, more than fifty percent, do not believe his story about the firing, and think that he is abusing the powers of his office.

At first, the White House claimed rather straightforwardly that Trump was acting on the recommendations of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Supposedly, Comey was fired due to the way he had handled an investigation into Hillary Clinton. Later, however, the president rejected this version of events and instead stated that he had fired Comey himself, and that he had been losing confidence in the Director of the FBI since taking office in January.

What actually happened, at this point, is up in the air, but something else that lends a new perspective to the story is Comey’s own version of events, which is that he refused to pledge his loyalty to the president, instead promising his honesty, when pressed at a dinner party.

Many Americans are of the belief that Trump asked Comey to stop investigating possible ties between National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and Russia, and by proxy, between Russia and the Trump Administration. These ties have been a cause of great concern, since before Trump was elected, due to rumors of Russians manipulating the election to get Trump into office.

California family kicked off Delta flight

On April 23, 2017, a California family of 4 were kicked off a Delta flight en route from Maui to Los Angeles. Brittany and Brian Schear from Huntington Beach, CA boarded a Delta flight with their two small children. Issues began when the family was asked to give up their two-year-old son’s, Grayson, seat. The family refused, seeing as they had payed for the seat they didn’t see a reason to give it up.

The Schears originally purchased the ticket for their 18-year-old son Mason, but then decided to send him home early so their 2-year-old could have a seat. The family had explain the situation to the ticket agent and the ticket agent accommodated the families needs and arranged for the four of them to sit together.

A flight attend had ask the Schears to give up their 2-year-old’s seat, and when they refused the Delta flight attendant demanded they give up the seat. Again refusing, the family was then threatened with jail time and having their child put in foster care.

Brittany Schear began filming the encounter on her cellphone. You can hear the flight attention repeatedly asking them to move their child, and Brian clearly distraught and trying to stay calm and reason with the Delta staff. You can hear a female employee say as the Schears refused to exit the plane, “You have to give up the seat or you’re going to jail, your wife is going to jail and they’ll take your kids from you.”  While Brian told a Delta staff member, “You’re saying you’re gonna give that away to someone else when I paid for that seat? That’s not right. You need to do what’s right. I bought the seat and you need to just leave us alone.”

After The video was released Delta responded saying, “We are sorry for the unfortunate experience our customers had with Delta, and we’ve reached out to them to refund their travel and provide additional compensation. Delta’s goal is to always work with customers in an attempt to find solutions to their travel issues. That did not happen in this case and we apologize.”

New school lunches requirements

Many children complain about the healthy school lunches and how to change them, but a lot of parents with children in schools are very happy with the healthy school lunches. Michelle Obama’s campaign “Let’s Move” was an attempt to lower the child obesity rates by putting nutritional standards in school lunches, and encouraging kids to be active. She set many bars in food safety as well for kids, making sure that all food packaging was properly labelled so it was safe for kids with allergies or other medical conditions. According to the American Medical Association, this campaign actually worked. The child obesity rate in kids ages 2-5 has decreased by 5.4%. It may not seem like a big change, but it definitely helped the child obesity problem. Now with a new president, and new ideas, the standards for school lunches have changed once again.

Some specific changes that are going to happen are to whole grains, salt and milk. As far as whole grains go, states with trouble meeting the 100% whole grain rule (100% of grains served must be whole grains or grains that contain an endosperm, bran, and germ) can get an exemption to only serve 50% whole grains. Salt requirements are being lessened so schools don’t have to meet sodium requirements, and live up to what some believed to be unrealistic standards. In regards to milk, the only changes that are occurring are to the type of milk that can be served. The standard previously was that if the milk was flavored (chocolate, strawberry, etc.) it had to be fat-free, but now it can be 1% instead.

President Donald Trump has changed the standards for school lunches under a new slogan labelled “make school meals great again.” According to PBS’s Newshour his argument for this change is that it will lower the cost of school lunches. The USDA reports that school lunches in 2012 (after the increased health requirements were enacted) cost a total of $11.6 billion dollars, but before healthier school lunches were put into schools, the cost was $6.1 billion in total.

Making the school lunches less healthy would decrease the cost of school lunches, but it could also increase the child obesity rates. The USDA also said that the amount of waste from raw, and cooked, vegetables has risen in the years since the new restrictions have been implemented, so the standards are perhaps defeating themselves because kids aren’t even getting the full nutritional value of the lunch.

Another argument made by the president, in favor of changing the school lunch restrictions, was that by having only healthy options it put the agriculture industry in a bad place. This was created by forcing them to conform to unrealistic standards and constant quality checks. In an official statement, on the now president’s campaign website, it even went as far as to call the FDA the “food police” and regulation of school food “overkill.” The FDA didn’t fire back at the comments on the website, only saying that the repeals of health regulations for school foods would be unpopular because people are now much more concerned about healthy food.

Cinco de Mayo performance 2017

On Thursday, May 4th, Highland had its annual Cinco de Mayo performance.

photo courtesy of Señora Romero

The day performance took place during 7th hour and most classes got to go down to the auditorium to watch it. Outside the auditorium there were paintings reflecting the Latino culture. The stage was decorated with red, green and white balloons and a 3D flower backdrop. Pinatas hung from the balcony and banners the 1862, Battle of Puebla painted on them were displayed across the walls. On the stage a Mariachi played while students, parents and teachers found their seats. The performance started shortly after everyone was seated.

This year was a little different than last year. This year’s dances included Bachata, Traditional Aztec dancing and El Baile de Los Viejitos. There was also a special performances by Sra. Nelsons first and fifth hour Spanish Immersion classes. Her first hour danced Cumbia and her fifth hour danced Merengue. The Folklorico dancers had the Mariachi play live during their performance and it was a surprise to everyone.

All performances and dancers looked amazing and well rehearsed, and even though the bell rang during the last performance, it was a very well put together performance.

photo courtesy of Señora Romero

Before the night performance, families were invited into the field house for dinner. Everyone who showed up seemed to enjoy the meal.

The night performance went in the same order as the day version. The night show did not have a live Mariachi performance, but it did included more Aztec dancers and drummers than the day show. Overall, the performance was the same except the Folklorico dancers actually got to finish without the interruption of the 2 o’clock bell.

In my opinion, with more dances and the stage being decorated very nicely, this years Cinco de Mayo performance was my favorite so far.

photo courtesy of Señora Romero

Fyre Festival scam

Many millennials were excited a couple of weekends ago about the new music festival deemed the next Coachella or Lollapalooza. The first ever Fyre Festival had its kick off and went to absolute shambles.

The Fyre Festival was advertised as a “luxurious music event with many A-list artists” but none of those artists showed up. The festival organizers, Ja Rule and Billy McFarland, were trying their best to make this an amazing event, but things didn’t go to plan. Even the employees don’t know if they are going to get paid. Billy McFarland said, “Just keep working ’til Friday, and we’ll let you know Friday.”

This isn’t the first time one of Billy Mcfarland’s entrepreneurial ideas has gone bad. In August, of 2013, McFarland launched his new black card, Magnises. The black card was geared, and advertised, towards Millennials. It stated it could “unlock your city,” as it included many luxury benefits such as member only concerts from various artists and top seats for certain sport events. The black card was launched originally only in New York City, but then expanded to San Francisco and Washington D.C. Many customers started complaining about the card though. One customer, according to Bussinessinsider.com, stated that they would send the same exact email for every problem, but it was more like a fill in the blanks.

In the end, the Fyre Festival was supposed to be a luxury music event with the average ticket being $12,500. Ja Rule and Billy McFarland, the Fyre Festival founders, stated they will try again next year, offering free tickets for those who paid this year. For now though, they are facing up to 100 million dollars in lawsuits for false advertisement and not paying employees.

GOP starts second push on healthcare

Despite the first version of the GOP health bill, meant to replace Obamacare (often dubbed either “Trumpcare” or “Ryancare,” after the president and the speaker of the house respectively), being pulled off the House floor before a vote, the Republicans are making another push at healthcare reform. This time around, the bill is much less controversial among Republicans, and thus passed through the House, promoting declarations of victory from both Republican leaders in congress and the Trump administration.

However, while getting such a high profile bill through the House might constitute the biggest legislative achievement yet for the Trump administration, it hardly constitutes a victory. In fact, at the very least, the existing bill has to make it through the Senate, and that is unlikely to happen; indeed, some Senate Republicans have already declared they are working on redrafting the bill. Even if the Senate version of the bill passes, it will then bounce back to the House, and potentially move between the two Houses of Congress for months.

And then, even if the Bill passes both Houses of Congress, and President Trump signs it into law, it still has one more hurdle – its staggering unpopularity. While Obamacare (for the first time in its lifetime) has a majority approval, the GOP replacement has had 40% at most, and perhaps as low as 30%. Furthermore, according to FiveThirtyEight’s Harry Enten, healthcare has been one of the most damaging issues to Trump’s approval ratings, and a move this unpopular could effectively extinguish what little political capital the administration has left.

Whatever the case, it will certainly be interesting to see how this situation develops, and what the end result is.

St. Olaf: Racist note was a “hoax”

On April 29, 2017, a racist note saying, “I am so glad you are leaving soon. One less [N-word] this school has to deal with. You have spoken up too much. You will change nothing. Shut up or I will shut you up,” was found on Samantha Well’s car, a black student at St. Olaf college in Northfield, MN.  

The tight knit community, at the small private liberal arts college, initiated a campus wide rally that was streamed live via Facebook that day. The stream featured a variety of visibly shook-up, and very distraught students. The rally turned into a sit in, and classes were cancelled for the following two days, as most of the St. Olaf students spent the day supporting their peers who had been affected by the incident.

Student organizers demanded extensive campus changes regarding the way the

administration responds to, and investigates incidents like this one. Precious Ismail, a spokeswoman for the campus group, the Coalition for Change on the Hill, told the Star Tribune, “Our movement wasn’t about one individual, our movement was about a pattern of institutional racism.”

On Wednesday, May 10, it was announced by the President of St. Olaf, David R Anderson, that the note was a “hoax,” and that a St. Olaf student was responsible for authoring the note. Anderson added, “federal privacy laws prohibit the college from disclosing the identity of the author of that note and disclosing the actions taken by the college now that we know the author’s identity.” In a message to the students, Anderson wrote that the note was “fabricated” and was a “strategy to draw attention to concerns about the campus climate.”

The Northfield police told the Star Tribune that the case has been closed as of Wednesday due to the fact that Wells decided not to file a report, as she is leaving soon and would rather spend her last few weeks at college enjoying herself, than to be preoccupied with a case.

Anderson told the Star Tribune that the campus will continue to investigate similar reported incidents.

The History of Cinco de mayo

Cinco de mayo, or the fifth of May, is coming up and many people don’t know the history of this day; many actually confuse this date for Mexico’s independence day which is actually on September 16, many months away from when Cinco is celebrated.

Everything started during the French-Mexican War (1861-1867) when Benito Juárez was elected as Mexico’s new president. Throughout this war, Mexico was in deep debt and the new president had to stop all payments to the European governments, which created problems with France, Britain, and Spain. After Benito Juárez stopped sending them money, the European governments sent naval forces to Mexico. They demanded a repayment from the president. Britain and Spain made an agreement with Juárez, soon after their naval deployment, and they both withdrew their forces. France however, took the chance to try and overrun the Mexican territory. Not long after, 6,000 French troops were sent to Puebla de Los Angeles.

After hearing about the plan that the French government had, Juárez gathered 2,000 men to go fight in Puebla. They went and prepared for the French to come and start an assault.

On May 5th, 1862, The French attacked. The battled didn’t last long; over 500 French soldiers were killed and only fewer than 100 Mexican soldiers. The French retreated, and after that day, May 5th represented a huge victory for the Mexican government.

Cinco de Mayo is mostly only celebrated in Puebla, where the battle took place, but some other countries also take part in the celebration. For many Mexicans though, the fifth of May is like any other day. In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is seen as a celebration of Mexican culture and its heritage. It’s celebrated with parades, parties, traditional Mexican foods, and huge festivals.

So, go out and see all of the cool and colorful festivals and parades with some loved ones and never forget the history of Cinco de Mayo.

Facebook murderer

The Facebook/Cleveland Killer, and former job-counselor for teens, Steve Stephens, posted a video of an apparently “random” murder of 74 year-old Robert Godwin Sr. When the police finally caught up with Stephens in Erie, Pennsylvania, he committed suicide following a police chase.  

Godwin was shot Sunday, April 16, while walking home from an Easter meal with his children, in Cleveland, Ohio. Stephens posted video of the elderly man’s death on Facebook saying, “I snapped, I just snapped.”

Later Sunday, Stephens uploaded a video to his Facebook page showing a gun pointed at a man’s head: Robert Godwin.

Stephens claimed on Facebook that he had killed more people, but police aren’t aware of any other victims. Stephens had many traffic violations but no criminal record, police said.

A McDonald’s employee, in Erie, Pennsylvania, spotted Stephens’ white Ford Fusion in the drive-thru and called authorities on Tuesday, April 18, 2017.

The employee called the police, telling the authorities, “I think that’s the guy.” The Mcdonald’s employee later told the press that he “looked suspicious” and drove off before he received his full order. According to CNN Stephens led the police in a chase for five miles, before being hit with the PIT maneuver by one of the police officers that were dispatched.

“As the vehicle was spinning out of control, from the PIT maneuver, Stephens pulled a pistol and shot himself in the head,” Pennsylvania police said.

For two days, authorities across the country struggled to find Stephens, the man wanted for the death of Robert Godwin, a self-taught mechanic and grandfather of 14.

Cleveland Police Chief, Calvin Williams, told the press,”We’re grateful that this has ended…We would prefer that it had not ended this way because there are a lot of questions, I’m sure, that not only the family, but the city in general would have had for Steve.”

The Tuesday after Stephen’s death, his former girlfriend, Joy Lane, who was identified in the video of Godwin’s death, met with two of the victim’s daughters, Debbie Godwin, and Tonya Godwin-Baines. A CNN affiliate, WJW, or Fox8 News Cleveland, reported the women hugged each other and cried together.

Through their tears, several of Godwin’s children said they held no animosity toward Stephens. “Each one of us forgives the killer, the murderer,” Godwin-Baynes said Monday. His children remembered how their father taught them the value of hard work, and how to love God and forgive.

“They don’t make men like him anymore,” said his daughter Debbie Godwin. “He was definitely one in a million.”

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, discussed Godwin’s death at the company’s annual developer’s conference.

“We have a lot of work, and we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening,” Zuckerberg said on stage. “Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Robert Godwin Sr.”

Trump’s first 100 days

Ever since the groundbreaking social welfare programs that Roosevelt rolled out during his first 100 days, this period has been one of the first points at which the public (mostly the media if we’re being honest) passes judgement on a new president. It is a mostly arbitrary number, but it’s round, and roughly corresponds to when the president’s honeymoon period ends. President Trump recently passed his 100 day mark (on April 28th), so despite the problems with just looking at the first 100 days, now seems as good of a time as any to review his progress so far.

As many have noted, Trump has hardly had the traditional honeymoon period that a president receives; in fact, according to Nate Silver, his popularity hovers around 40%, which is down from around 50% immediately after he was elected. For reference, after 100 days, Obama was at 65%, George W. Bush was at 62%, Bill Clinton was at 55%, and George H.W. Bush was at 54%. So, clearly, the public doesn’t think he’s doing a great job, but 40% is still 120 million people, so he does have some support.

In terms of actual achievements during his first 100 days, Trump again scores relatively low. While he passed 29 laws, more than Obama’s 14 in the same time period, this figure is somewhat misleading. Most of the laws he passed lacked substance, or where minor measures in the first place. As a result, only 133 pages were included in these laws, compared to Obama’s 1,602.

Executive orders have also been ineffective for Trump, with many being struck down by the courts, or amended until their original purpose wasn’t really fulfilled.

Arguably, the most successful, or at least most decisive, aspect of Trump’s presidency was his attack on a Syrian air base. This strike was ostensibly a response to Bashar Al-Assad’s continued use of chemical weapons against his own citizens. However, the PR disaster that surrounded it somewhat diminished the posturing.

Overall, it’s probably fair to say Trump isn’t a very effective president, but it’s also probably not fair to say he isn’t trying. He has pushed stuff forward, and as he catches on to Washington politics, may become more and more effective.