Do We Have The Courage to Stop This?

By Nicholas D. Kristof

 This article,"Do We Have The Courage to Stop This?" is about the children who died in the school shooting in Connecticut. Twenty children were shot and killed between the ages 5 and 10. Eight adults were murdered as well including the person who did the shooting and his mother. It is said that he had mental disabilities but no one knows why he did what he did.
This article is also about trying to eliminate as many of gun usages as possible. Everyone knows that we can't stop all gun violence but we can stop some of it. The U.S is really going to band guns, but people want to at least decrease the carnage.
"Ladders kill around 300 Americans a year , and guns 30,000."
No one will stand up to the N.R.A (National Rifle Association), not even the lawmakers will "regulate real guns as carefully as we do toys."
Some people say that regulating guns won't make much a difference because someone crazy will always be able to get a gun.
In Canada, you have to wait 28 days to be able to get a hand gun and need two people to vouch for them. It is too easy to get a hand gun in America. Why can't we do like Canada and make it harder to get a gun.
I agree with this article on the fact that guns are too easier to receive. I think that the law should change on being able to get guns so easily. It is not safe to just give out guns to everybody who wants one, especially because people are crazy and you never know what a person might do with that gun that your handing to them. I think if the lawmakers change the law and make hand guns harder to get that the world would be much safer than it is right now.

Marijuana law just creates criminals

By Hakeem Jeffries, Special to CNN

This article, "Marijuana law just creates criminals," is about how the law on marijuana has made arrests on it go sky rocket. The state made a law 30 years ago, making a private possession of marijuana of less than 25 grams a violation and having to pay an $100 fine. Having possession of the small amount out in public will still be a misdemeanor. Unfortunately, more than 50,000 citizens were arrested in 2011 in NYC for having small amounts of marijuana in their possession. Most of them were Latino and black. NYC spends about $75 million dollars on arresting people for having a possession of marijuana every year. "Marijuana is the number one arrest category in NY."
"The vast majority of these people live in communities of color, and almost 90% are immediately released without arrest or even a summons."
Police approach young people often and make them empty their pockets and she them whatever they have. Those of them who have a small possession of marijuana, it is now in public view.
"Thousands of people are arrested and charged with misdemeanor possession, punishable by up to three months in jail and a $500 fine."

I think that what the cops are doing is wrong. Making young people, especially young people of color,  empty out their pockets and being frisked. Basically what they're doing here is looking for people, just to look for them. I believe that they just want to have a reason to pull a black or Latino person over and give them a misdemeanor.

Suspect arrested in Kutcher-Bieber 'swatting' prank

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By Alan Duke, CNN

 This article, "Suspect arrested in Kutcher-Bieber 'swatting' prank," is about how someone, possibly a youth, called 911 reporting an emergency at actor Ashton Kutcher's house in Hollywood, California. Los Angeles police says that they've captured the person that they think  made the prank call. A California juvenile, who is not identified, is suspected of the prank calling on the October 3 swatting incident, who was also targeting Justin Bieber's home.The prank caller told 911 that there were about seven people shot in Kutcher's home and that there were men with guns and explosives.
"The comments of the call advised that there were individuals inside the location with guns and explosives, and that several people had been shot," police said.
Lots of cops and firefighters rushed to Kutcher's home after the report to find only Kutcher's workers and no emergency. Kutcher also rushed home after he found out. He was on the set of the sitcom "Two And A Half Men." 
"Hollywood division detectives worked with the FBI and police in Long Beach, California, to find the suspect, who was arrested on December 10," police said.
"swatting is when computer hackers utilize their skills to place false emergency calls of serious crimes in progress to law enforcement and fire dispatch centers, thus a large number of first responders to arrive," police said. "The swatting practice is extremely dangerous and places first responders and citizens in harm's way."
The District Attorney's Office in Los Angeles County is looking over the case trying to figure out how to prosecute the suspect.
police also said that. "other incidents that may be linked to the suspect have also been identified."

I don't think that they should prosecute the youth just yet. I think that they should wait a little while longer to gather up more information first. I do think that what the person did was very wrong and not exceptable at all and whoever did it should serve some time in jail. Serious pranks like this is not funny and it can lead to harm. I hope they find the person who really did it and stop this from happening again weither it is a celebrity's home or a normal person's home.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/18/showbiz/kutcher-swatting-arrest/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Why it's taking so long to restore power after Sandy

By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, Mashable
Daily News Article

This news article,"Why it's taking so long to restore power after Sandy," is about how it is taking a long time to bring back power in the Northeastern coast of the United States after Sandy came. There are major power outages in lower Manhattan from 30th street down to the tip of the island and in New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy was one of the worst storms that the Northeast has ever encountered and it damaged the whole electrical grid.

"The severity of the storm hit us so bad that it really took a beating on both our underground and overhead systems." Said Alfonso Quiroz, a Con Edison Spokesman.

"Each circuit has to be checked to make sure it's in good shape." According to Sakis Meliopoulos, a professor of electrical energy.

Sandy's winds knocked out trees and overhead power lines, and the water flooded underground substations. 930,000 customers had no power within the last couple of days due to "the most devastating storm in company history," as Con Edison referred to it.

In New york, Hurricane Sandy knocked out distribution lines, flooded basements that held backup generators, and transformers, and overwhelmed underground substations and subway lines, which sometimes held electrical cables. Sandy even cause some of the transformers to explode.
In Manhattan, the flooding of the substations are seemingly the problem. Technicians have to pump out the water and then clean all the equipment to get rid of the salt water before drying them. 
"If you re-energize the system without cleaning, you could cause more widespread damage," says Vijay Vittal, a professor of electrical engineering at Arizona State University.
After all the cleaning and drying, some of the equipment might have to be replaced or fixed. And then, it needs to be tested and checked before using them again.

My thoughts on this article is why are the engineers taking so long to fix the problem. It been a little over a month since Sandy hit and their still not done? I hope that everything goes back to normal and they fix them properly and hopefully there will not be any more severe storms coming in a long time. They have their work cut out for them and the faster they get it done, the faster things will go back to usual.

http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/daily-news-article/why-its-taking-so-long-to-restore-power-after-sandy/