Matthew Zapata - Texas Police Brutality

Summary: Daily News released an article which covered the incident in DISD inn which a police officer had a physical confrontation with a 12 year old girl. Mariana was seen fighting with other students in the video until a police officer physically assaults her. He picks her up and slams her body on the ground. After the incident she was then taken to the hospital because of a clavicle fracture from the body slam. DISD has kept silent about the situation and only released one statement that is vague and doesn't directly talk about the confrontation that took place. 

Analysis: Reading this article makes me so sad knowing that girls, and people in general for that matter, are getting wrongly treated by the police because of the police's interpretation of their "power".

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/school-officer-recorded-body-slamming-12-year-old-girl-dallas-article-1.3170108

Townley Jordan-One of Largest Drug Busts in History

Summary: Eight tons of cocaine were recently intercepted in a double drug bust, one of the largest in history. In the larger, Spanish and Ecuadorean authorities to intercept a shipment of 5.5 tons headed to Spain. In a separate drug seizure, Spanish police stopped a Venezuelan fishing vessel carrying 2.5 tons. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and Britain's National Crime Agency also contributed to the operation. The cargo seized off the coast of Ecuador has an estimated value of $250 million. The first operation resulted in the capture of 24 drug trafficking suspects. Since the beginning of 2017, Ecuador has confiscated about 30 tons of cocaine.

Analysis: This article was written a few days after the first bust, so all of the information was given. It is so crazy to me that people would risk it all to ship that much cocaine at one time, it seems to me that when you get that greedy and ship that much, you are just asking to get caught. I think also that it is impressive that multiple countries had intelligence on this and worked together to stop it. This shows that many countries are worried about drug abuse and dealing and are working to eliminate it.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/05/15/7-9-tons-cocaine-seized-by-multinational-forces-in-two-ships-bound-for-spain.html

Joey Julius~ Harper J.

Summary: Those who have dedicated their lives to studying the minds and mental well-being of elite athletes,  hope Penn State kicker Joey Julius will no longer serve as an outlier. That his openness and honesty about struggling with an eating disorder will be a beacon for others. For people like Mark Aoyagi, director of sport and performance psychology at the University of Denver and a member of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, the hope is Julius will help change a culture that has discouraged weakness of this kind, simply by embracing the idea that it's OK to admit that help is necessary. For the second time in a year, Julius opened up about his struggles with binge eating. After coming forward last fall, appearing on programs such as Good Morning America and College GameDay, Julius announced in early May that he was again struggling and seeking treatment at the McCallum Place treatment facility in St. Louis. While revealing the reason for his spring football absence on Facebook, he didn't beg for support or understanding. Instead, he devoted the majority of his message to emphasizing the importance of seeking help when in need.

Analysis: It is those like Joey Julius who break the standards for people with such disorders. They are the ones who give hope and prove that anyone can do it

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2709729-experts-friends-call-psu-kickers-openness-on-eating-disorder-groundbreaking?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador 

Joshua Klein

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-revealed-highly-classified-information-to-russian-foreign-minister-and-ambassador/2017/05/15/530c172a-3960-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?utm_term=.3b889b46adb2

The article describes how last week Trump disclosed highly classified information on Islamic terrorist threats with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador. Officials say that Trump had no permission to share the information with the Russians. The information was a high level of classification. The White House staff denied the claims stating that Trump did not disclose any information that the public did not already know. The information was code word classified and is information that the United States has not even shared with its allies.

I think this is just scary. Trump is reckless wielding around information with one of our greatest adversaries. Trump has created another problem for himself politically by just being plain stupid. If he can hardly keep classified information he is hardly classified to hold the position of president 

Lauren Brady P4 5/15/17 Handwritten Harry Potter Prequel Stolen

A short story prequel to the Harry Potter series has been stolen from a home in Kings Heath, Birmingham. That short story was handwritten by JK Rowling on a postcard. She is urging anybody who sees the piece for sale to contact the police. The story had been auctioned for $32,000. Other valuables, including jewelry, were also stolen during the theft.

The short story is only 800 words long, but it gives a lot of backstory to the Harry Potter books. It details a misadventure of James Potter and Sirius Black with a muggle policeman. It also shows the flying motorcycle of Sirius Black and a glimpse of Death Eaters. It would be a shame to have this rare treasure stolen and potentially gone forever. This connects to the 1990 robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, in which $500 million of art was stolen and has not yet been recovered.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/12/europe/harry-potter-prequel-stolen/?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool 

Elijah Macias- North Korea threat: US ‘monitoring’ claim missile could carry nuclear warhead

Summary: America is keeping an eye on North Korea after their recent missile test with a missile that North Korea claims to be able to hold a nuclear warhead and could reach the U.S. One day after Kim Jong Un’s dictatorship reported a successful test flight of its KN-17 missile, state-run news agency KCNA reported the “U.S. mainland and Pacific operations” were in range of North Korean weapons. A senior administration official said the White House was warily assessing the latest news out of North Korea, given the country’s propensity to push misleading and exaggerated propaganda; however, the official said if the latest claim is true, it “would be a cause for great concern.” It also should be noted that the recent missile flew longer than any other Korean missile in history.

Analysis: I wish these tensions would die down already because i'm sick and tired of it. Are we going to solve this diplomatically or are we going to launch ourselves into another war? Trump has already shown his quickness to act, so i hope he doesn't screw it up for the rest of us here. Nuclear war would be absolutely terrible and would alter the course of history forever.
This is very similar to the Cold war in that they both are nuclear arms races with no real end in sight.

LINK

Chloe Dupuy- Trump on same-sex marriage and Roe v. Wade

Synopsis- Donald Trump is not shy about his beliefs, especially when it comes to social issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion. Since his election as president, he has now stated that the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage is "settled", but that the issue of abortion is still on the table. The Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade ruled that not allowing women to make the decision on whether or not they get an abortion was unconstitutional. This means that abortion cannot be completely outlawed by any states in the U.S.. Trump is not a fan of this decision, and says that he wants to elect Supreme Court justices that will work to reverse this action.

Analysis: This news makes me furious. The Roe v. Wade decision was a huge step forward in women's rights. The fact that Trump is already looking to take this away from us, not even a week after his election, is maddening. As a woman I am comforted by the fact that if I do not want to carry a child to term, I have access to procedures such as abortion. If this right is taken away, an uncountable number of women will be forced to care for an unwanted child inside of them. Either that, or they will seek out illegal and dangerous methods of aborting the fetus on their own. This could lead to the deaths and injuries of not just the unborn, but the mothers as well.

Synthesis: This news synthesizes to the Supreme Court case of Brown v. The Board of Education. This decision stated the segregation of schools based on race was unconstitutional. This was a ginormous step forward in the fight for equal rights, just like Roe v. Wade. If that decision have been overturned, imagine how different our lives would be today.