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Friday, March 18, 2016

The Week of 3/14 in a Glance

Hello everybody! Hope everybody is doing well. In addition to this week’s news, we would like to notify you all that Lanesborough approved the school building project! It won with 55.9% of the vote. So, we will be getting a new building! Thank you for reading, and remember to comment and remind your friends to read as well.


North Korea
By Rose Gotlieb


This week in Pyongyang, North Korea, a 21-year-old American tourist was sentenced to fifteen years in prison with hard labor.
Why? Apparently, the tourist attempted to steal a propaganda banner from his hotel. When North Korea asked him why, he said that it was a trophy for his friend’s mother, and she wanted to hang it up in her church. He also said she offered a used car worth $10,000 dollars to him for it, and if he didn’t make it back, his mother would get 200,000 dollars. Apparently, he needed the money.
And anything else we should know? Well, tensions have been high between
North Korea and the US ever since North Korea tested its nuclear bomb in the winter. So this is just another drop in the bucket.


Ankara News
By Maddy Art


    On Sunday, March 13, a car bomb attack in the capital of Turkey caused considerable damage. At least 37 people were killed and over 100 more were injured. It is likely that this is the workings of Kurdish separatists, either from Turkey or Syria. Turkish Kurds have been fighting to become independant from the country for decades, and this often leads to violence. For example, the Turkish government suspects that a separate attack last month in Ankara was also the fault of a Kurdish group. Not only has the Turkish government had issue with Kurds in their own country, but they are now encountering problems with Kurds in Syria, which is directly south of Turkey. To further complicate matters, both Syrian Kurds and Turkey are helping the United States in various ways in the fight against ISIS. Because Turkey is having issues with both ISIS and Kurdish rebels, it puts them in a rough position.


The Pinky Promise
By Owen Tucker-Smith


Two days ago, Obama started to play congress’ minds. He nominated a new judge to the supreme court, and basically dared them to turn him down like they said they would to anyone that Obama nominated.


Back up... A little while ago, a judge from the supreme court died. His name was Antonin Scalia (We wrote an article about his death a little while ago) Of the supreme court justices, Scalia was the super conservative one, so to keep the court in the same balance as it was, another super conservative candidate would need to be elected. And these judges aren’t picked for four or eight years, like the president. They serve for life, so this is an important decision. Here’s the way new justices are brought by into the court: the president nominates them, and then congress either approves them or rejects them. The thing is, congress is currently run by republicans. So they made a pinky promise to reject whoever Obama picks. Why? Because maybe a republican will be elected president and they will nominate someone that congress really likes! But now, Obama is forcing Congress to think about that pinky promise...


Who did he nominate? Obama nominated Merrick Garland. Who is this guy? Well, he is the highest judge in the court of appeals in DC. So, he has experience. But the more important part is that he is known for being loved by everyone; he is pretty moderate, and both sides of the aisle kind of like him. So Obama’s thinking is that Garland, because he is known for appealing to everyone, might get in the way of Congress’s pinky promise and make them think twice.


So how are they responding? Pinky promises are stronger than you may think. After Obama dared them to turn down such a good nominee, they leaned back towards their vow to block Obama’s nominees. But people do break away from the crowd, and with a nominee like Garland, this is not unlikely to happen. But congress is still trying as hard as they can to keep their promise, even with this hard psychological element on hand.  


1 comment:

  1. Hurray for the school vote! Now, if they can just get it built in time for your senior year...

    ReplyDelete