 On September 4th 2019, the company YouTube, owned by Google, was fined 170 million dollars. Why, you may ask? We'll, YouTube was fined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for a child privacy violation lawsuit. This lawsuit was put into motion because YouTube was “spying” on kids’ YouTube accounts. Now, the reason why they were “spying” was to put out specialized ads for children and to flag the videos that are most commonly watched by the children. To justify this, YouTube says they put this information into the YouTube Kids App to make it a safer and more efficient service to younger viewers. As a response to this lawsuit, YouTube has stated that it is going to completely stop the display of ads on videos related to kids and turn off the notifications and comments of children-related videos.
This Privacy Violation Law is effective until a child is 13 years old. For anyone younger than the required age of 13, it would still be illegal for YouTube to collect data on them. Even though a fine has been paid and YouTube fully understands that it will pay for its actions if a violation happens again, many people still do not fully trust them. For example, Digital Information World said, “Despite the settlement and the new policies launched by YouTube, the majority of people still fail to trust YouTube and accuse it of violating Children’s Online Privacy for years. Even two members of the FTC also voted against the settlement.” YouTube, because of this lawsuit, has lost a tremendous amount of money. Much of this money has been either given to NewYork or to the FTC. The next big issue is the money. It has become very clear that Google and YouTube are going to be losing a tremendous amount of money. Now I’m sure you're wondering, where is all this money going to or who is it going to? Well Google will pay 34 million of it to New York and the other 136 million will go to the FTC. This is said to be the highest amount ever paid to settle a fine. This is also the biggest amount ever paid to the FTC for a case since the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act was formed in 1998. This case has vastly affected YouTube, many people now don’t trust it, but somehow Google’s stock has gone up by +4.10. Story by Hadley Wallace  After demolishing the Bahamas, Hurricane Dorian made landfall on the Carolina coast on September 1st, 2019. It hit as a category 1 hurricane, it was moving at 21 miles per hour. The hurricane leaves 5 dead on the Carolina coast and 45 or more in the Bahamas. The hurricane brought heavy rains, bad winds and lots of flooding. It was quick-moving but the damage was still devastating. 100s of people were stranded on Ocracoke island. Ocracoke is/was only accessible by air or by water on normal days.
The storm surge rose 5 to 7 feet in a matter of hours. As it moved north it started too split up over a wider area. Most of the homes that Dorian hit didn't have flood insurance. In only a couple of days, people have raised 10,000 dollars for recovery after the hurricane. Power has been restored to Dare county but much more is needed to be done. Trees began destroying roofs, and local tree companies in Manteo have already begun clearing trees. But trees are the only problem. Almost ½ of the pair is missing because of the storm. Almost 300 feet were ripped off. Our coast wasn't ready for this kind of devastation. A Virginia based rescue program rescued 21 dogs from Florence South Carolina. They were working to recuse another 40 dogs on the 7th. Most of the dogs will go into the foster families or will be at an adoption event in Washington. One dog has already been adopted. It brought the community closer even though it tore their town apart. Story by Chloe Summerlin SOURCES: Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas. “Hurricane Dorian Whips North Carolina's Outer Banks: Live Updates.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Sept. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/us/hurricane-dorian-updates.html Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas. “Hurricane Dorian Whips North Carolina's Outer Banks: Live Updates.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Sept. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/us/hurricane-dorian-updates.html. “Outer Banks Rallies to Recover after Hit from Hurricane Dorian.” WAVY.com, 10 Sept. 2019, https://www.wavy.com/weather/hurricane/outer-banks-rallies-to-recover-after-hit-from-hurricane-dorian/ “21 Dogs Rescued from South Carolina as Hurricane Dorian Continues On.” Newsela, newsela.com/read/hurricane-dorian-dogs/id/56787/. Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas. “Hurricane Dorian Whips North Carolina's Outer Banks: Live Updates.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Sept. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/us/hurricane-dorian-updates.html. “Outer Banks Rallies to Recover after Hit from Hurricane Dorian.” WAVY.com, 10 Sept. 2019, www.wavy.com/weather/hurricane/outer-banks-rallies-to-recover-after-hit-from-hurricane-dorian/.  On May 1st, 2019, roughly 32 school systems and 4 charter schools closed in North Carolina. Why you may ask? Well, the N.C. Association of Educators organized a rally. The rally was for the teachers of North Carolina to be able to stand up for school budgets. Last year the school systems had a very similar rally. The rally attracted at least 20,000 people and 42 out of the 115 school districts in the state closed so that their teachers could attend the rally. The main points of the day are the arrival, the march to the general assembly, the rally, the legislative visit, and the bus pick-up.
This rally happened because on April 28 2019, the state house education budget papers were released. As you may have guessed many teachers and school attendees disagreed with what was in the budget. One of my school teachers, Miss Forsythe, attended the rally that happened in Asheville. When I asked her why she went, this was her response. “I have gone to the rally for the past two years because I believe that North Carolina should value education more than it does. This includes paying teachers a competitive salary so that they are not leaving of the state, and funding schools properly so that students can have everything they need like mental health services, supplies, and up to date resources.” Also many teachers and attendees of schools that weren’t canceled also had rally’s in their own cities, Asheville is one of those examples. Many teachers went because they disagreed with the budgets, but for what reasons? The NC superintendent’s letter stated that the new average teachers salary was now $54,000 per school year, though the most a teacher can make currently in NC is just above 52,000 per year with 25+ years of experience. Many teachers think that people with higher degrees should get a higher pay, which was one of the rally’s demands. Some also wanted to expand medicare for the teachers and students. Some people did oppose the rally though, people like Senate President Phil Berger and State Superintendent Mark Johnson. Mark Johnson asked that teachers took action while school was not in session but the teachers didn’t take no for an answer. The teachers rallied up in Raleigh and protested for a better budget. As of now no official changes have been made to the budget. Story by Hadley Wallace Sources: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article229714994.html https://www.wral.com/may-1-teacher-rally-who-where-when-why/18349926/ https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article228372884.html https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article229863299.html  Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in 1916 after being outraged that she was unable to give her patients information about contraceptives. Under the 1873 Comstock Law, it was illegal for Sanger to hand out information about birth control. She was arrested 9 days later when she handed an undercover police officer a pamphlet titled “What Everyone Girl Should Know”. According to NPR, “‘The courts ... ruled against her and said 'A woman's right to life gives her the right to not have intercourse with a man,' " says Lepore. "Sanger's argument is that a woman has a right to have sex without fear of death [during childbirth].” When the case was appealed, the courts ruled that it should be allowed for a doctor to hand out information about contraceptives. This allowed Sanger to open birth control clinics around the country. Her organization, American Birth Control League, was later renamed Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Although abortion was legal in the United States up until the 1800s, it was unsafe and unregulated. Connecticut became the first state to ban abortion-inducing medicine in 1921. Legal punishments for the women did not start until 1845. The reasons for these early abortion laws has been debated over the decades. Some argue that early laws were not made concerning the unborn fetus, but to protect the mother’s lives from untrained medical professionals performing the unsafe procedures while others say that pro-life was already influencing the abortion movement. On January 22, 1973, in the case of Roe v Wade, restrictions against abortions were ruled unconstitutional by Justice Harry Blackmun. In the coming years, court cases have been made to limit the effect of Roe v Wade but none have successfully been able to overturn it. According to Britannica, “In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992), the Supreme Court established that restrictions on abortion are unconstitutional if they place an “undue burden” on a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus is viable.” States made restrictions by passing bills that would limit healthcare funding for abortions, banning abortions after 20 weeks (when a fetus is able to feel pain), banning abortions for babies with abnormalities, and more. Recently, Alabama’s legislation has introduced a heartbeat ban on abortions. This bill outlaws the procedure after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which occurs at around 6 weeks of pregnancy. Doctors who perform the procedure after this amount of time face up to 99 years in prison. This law does not leave exceptions for cases of incest or rape. Alabama isn’t alone in passing these bills. Governors in Georgia, Mississippi, and Ohio have also signed bills similar to Alabama’s. These laws may be unenforceable due to the decision of Roe v Wade, but supporters hope that because of Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court as the 5th Republican vote, this could be a step towards outlawing abortion throughout the country. Article written by Erin Chen Additional Sources: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/16/politics/states-abortion-laws/index.html https://abortion.procon.org/history-of-abortion/ Image source: https://abortion.procon.org/history-of-abortion/  The CIA is our nation's main security branch. We had many different security forces in WWll before the CIA was established. CIA stands for Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA was established in 1947. It was officially created when President Truman signed the security act. By 1953 the CIA was an established part of our government. Unlike the FBI the CIA has no law enforcement function.
Some of the intelligence agencies before the CIA were Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI). Which was founded in 1941 and lasted for 337 days. It was founded because the U.S needed an intelligence agency during WWll. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) it was established in 1942. And lasted for 3 years and 3 months. Strategic Services Unit (SSU) was founded in 1947. It lasted for 1 year and 5 months. It was founded because we needed an agency to temporarily take over for the OSS in London, Paris, Rome, and Cairo until and permanent solution could be found. The last agency before the CIA was the Central Intelligence Group (CIG). It was founded in 1946 and lasted for 1 year and 3 months. It was founded because we needed an organization not only to analyze info but also produce info. All of the version above were used in WWll. The CIA is tasked with gathering and processing international security. The CIA reports to the Director of national intelligence. It also analyzes international data. It has grown in size since the 9/11 attacks. Its headquarters are in Virginia. The CIA is the only agency authorized by law to carry out and oversee covert operations. Story by Maddy Peeples Sources: https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/history-of-the-cia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency https://www.cia.gov/portlet_content/home-slider-images/cia_seal_slider/image.jpg  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) named one of their numerous facilities after Katherine G. Johnson, who computed trajectories for John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission to orbit Earth and Neil Armstrong’s Apollo’s Lunar Lander. The Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility (IV&V) was renamed February 22, NASA announced. President Donald Trump signed a law in December calling for the redesignation, NBC Washington says. The New York Times writes that Joylette Hylick, one Johnson’s daughters, says that her mother is living comfortably and is humbled by the recognition. Hylick added that she hoped the dedication would inspire others in the future, beyond Black History Month. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said, “I am thrilled we are honoring Katherine Johnson in this way as she is a true American icon who overcame incredible obstacles and inspired so many.” Previously, Johnson won the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2015 and countless other awards for her prestigious talent for mathematics.
Johnson, along with Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson, were three main characters in the 2016 film Hidden Figures, which chronicles the journey of these three African-American women and their success at Langley Research center in Hampton, Virginia. The film was based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly and won three Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. CNN reports that “Johnson's contributions, like those of many female ‘computers,’ were often overlooked in history.” That’s certainly true. Johnson was born in 1918 in West Virginia, where equality was hard to come by. Her skill led her several grades ahead of her age. When she was only 13, she was attending high school and when she was 18, she had enrolled in college. Johnson graduated with honors and took a teaching job at a segregated public school, although her sights were still set on math. When West Virginia decided to desegregate schools in 1939, a professor chose Johnson and two male students to enter the West Virginia University graduate school. NASA says that Johnson left the school at the end of the first session to marry and raise children. In 1952, Johnson was told by a friend that a spot was open at the Langley laboratory in Hampton, Virginia. Johnson, then Goble, moved to accommodate the position at Langley. During that time, she analyzed data from flight tests. Katherine’s husband, James Goble, died of cancer shortly before Sputnik’s launch. Johnson did some math for a compilation of documents. The engineers of this compilation later formed the Space Task Group and Katherine “moved along” with them. She did the trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 and coauthored a report describing how to know where a spacecraft would land. Johnson then completed the work she was known for. The IBM machines (the first computing machines, or computers) were prone to blackouts and technology problems, which made everyone at NASA cautious of them. John Glenn basically refused to go into his capsule, Friendship 7, until Katherine Johnson had checked them herself. She retired after 33 years at Langley and several year’s worth of important work in service of America’s space age. Now, after her work being held from the outside world for more than a half a century, Johnson deserves this recognition. Katherine, be proud of this. Your talent and prestigious skill makes all of us proud and inspires young women like me to follow in your footsteps. Story by Caroline Barton SOURCE FOR PICTURE: https://www.makers.com/profiles/591f267c6c3f646439558630  On January 20th, 2017 Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, during his run for president against Democrat Hillary Clinton the election was a close call and many were hopeful for the first woman to be president. From the beginning, President Trump's election has been viewed critically by many political leaders and citizens of the United States. President Trump has made a statement that he will build a wall on the southern border to keep illegal immigrants and terrorists out of the United States. Many professionals and celebrities have made the comment that not everyone that comes into the United States are terrorists and drug lords but President Trump has refused to believe them. Enforcing the idea of a 1,000 mile long wall from Arizona to Texas to keep thousands of famlies from coming to the United States. The wall could take up to 8 billion dollars to build according to nbcnews and millions to take care of every year taking funding away from important departments.
President Trump recently has declared a state of national emergency regarding the 8 billion dollar wall he hopes to build, after President Trump proposed the amount of money the wall will take to build, Congress passed a bill only allowing 1.375 billion to be used causing President Trump to consider the national emergency. The Pentagon announced they would send an extra 3,750 troops to the wall for more protection. Congress is on the verge of formally repudiating President Trump's national emergency making it a historic first and many agree with this idea. Many celebrities have tweeted comments such as "Speaking of borders, I do believe loving people know that regardless of politics, there are some lines you do not cross. Protecting children seems to be one we can all agree on."- Jennifer Nettles along with many others tweeting similar posts. A national emergency can be declared by the government during three different situations civil unrest, disaster, or armed conflict. There have been 59 national emergencies in U.S. history and 31 of them have been in effect for many years. Some of the National Emergencies that are still in effect today are the national emergency with respect to Iran in effect because of the Iran hostage crisis and was put into effect on November 14, 1979, and the national emergency with respect to prohibiting certain transactions with respect to the development of Iranian Petroleum Resources this was put in to effect in March of 1995 along with 29 other emergencies still active today these are just a few. Most of the national emergencies still in effect are active because the U.S. is still considered to be in a state of crisis. Story by Barret Bryson link  Closing the awards season this year, the 91st Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, made history in many ways. From daring fashion statements to setting new records, the 2019 Oscars didn’t fail to impress us. On Sunday night at 8:00 pm the curtains rose on a smoke-filled stage. Emerging from the background, world famous guitarist Brian May emerges with frontman Adam Lambert to open the show with Queen’s first live TV performance since 1985. Performing songs “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions” brought the awards ceremony to life. When the performance ended, stars Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Maya Rudolph open the show and announce that there will be no host for the 91st Academy Awards. This hasn’t happened in 30 years. Even without a host, the show turned into one of the most memorable, record-breaking Oscar ceremonies ever held. Here are some of the highlights of the night!
Records One of the most monumental records set was "Black Panther" production designer Hannah Beachler’s win. She was the first African-American winner in the production design category. Her speech was tearful and inspiring, saying “I give this strength to all of those who come next to keep going and to never give up and when you think it’s impossible just remember this piece of advice I got from a very wise woman: I did my best, and my best is good enough.” Legendary director Spike Lee also won his first competitive Oscar for “BlacKkKlansman,” even after being discouraged for not winning any direction awards for one of his biggest films, “Malcolm X” (1992). This was such a big moment for Lee. After he heard his name, he ran up to the stage and jumped up onto Samual L. Jackson for a huge hug! The room was ecstatic from the pure energy Spike Lee brought onto the stage. Drama After Lada Gaga won the Oscar for best original song with “Shallow” featured in “A Star Is Born,” she stunned the crowd with a live performance of her award-winning song alongside Bradley Cooper, her costar. Throughout the whole song, all viewers felt a strong sense of chemistry between the two and questioned whether there was a secret romance between them. The day after the performance Lady Gaga tells Randee Dawn, a reporter for ‘Today.com,’ “Yes, people saw love, and guess what? That's what we wanted you to see.” On a much funnier note, Mellisa McCarthy surprised the crowd when she confidently walked on stage wearing a gown covered in bunny stuffed animals. It was a tribute to the nominated film “The Favourite.” McCarthy managed to walk on to the stage and hand out the Oscar for best costume design with a straight face! International The biggest international record set this year was for "Roma." This movie became the first film from Mexico to win the Oscar for best foreign language film. The dialogue in “Roma” is in Spanish and Mixtec. Another new record set this year was Rami Malek receiving the award for best actor. This was his first nomination and first win. During his acceptance speech, Malek says, "I am the son of immigrants from Egypt. I am a first generation American, and part of my story is being written right now and I could not be more grateful." This makes him the first Arab American to win the best actor award at the Oscars. Fashion Feature A Hollywood award show wouldn’t be complete without a red carpet report! On Sunday night, singer Billy Porter stole the show with his tuxedo top the flowed into a magnificent gown. He later told stunned reporters that he wasn’t part of the drag community, he was simply a “man in a dress.” This red carpet outfit has hopefully opened up a new world to all boys watching, teaching them that stereotypes about boys not being able to wear skirts and dresses are unnecessary. Billy Porter taught everyone to move past gender stereotypes and do what others were afraid to do. After all, he ended up being the star of the red carpet at the 2019 Oscars! Story by Lily Crum Sources: https://abc7chicago.com/entertainment/women-win-record-number-of-oscars;-see-2019s-oscars-firsts/5155000/ https://www.cnet.com/news/oscars-2019-winners-best-picture-best-director-green-book-reactions-black-panther-bohemian-rhapsody/ https://www.vogue.com/article/billy-porter-oscars-red-carpet-gown-christian-sirian https://www.bustle.com/p/hannah-beachler-is-the-first-black-woman-to-win-oscar-for-production-design-her-speech-is-so-moving-16051138 https://www.today.com/popculture/lady-gaga-talks-oscars-performance-bradley-cooper-shatters-our-dreams-t149566 https://people.com/movies/oscars-2019-melissa-mccarthy-rabbit-dress-presenting-costume-design/ https://www.bustle.com/p/rami-maleks-2019-oscars-speech-for-bohemian-rhapsody-honored-his-immigrant-parents-16051557  This shows the man leaving with the shark disguised and in a baby carriage. On Sunday, July 29, 2018, in an aquarium in San Antonio, workers discovered that one of their sharks went missing out of their ‘interactive touch tanks’. The shark was a 16-inch female horn shark which is part of the bull shark family. Her name was Miss. Helen. She was good with kids and being touched and that is why she was in the touch tank. This also explains why she didn’t fight back or bite the men when she was getting ‘sharknapped’. After this was brought to the attention of the aquarium manager, they went through every piece of security footage from the time frame of when the shark was stolen. This then turned the attention to the security team and how they didn’t see anything wrong.
After going through all the security footage, the aquarium called the police to take over the investigation. The police then found the three suspects, brought them into custody, and then questioned them. Once they were confronted, all three confessed. Also according to abc news 13 eyewitness news the three men staked out for more than an hour by the exhibit. Now, this confused the police. Why didn’t the employee’s see anything wrong with the men? According to abc news 13 eyewitness news the men distracted the employees by dumping a bucket of bleach into the aquariums cold water filtration system. All this happening right by at least two different employee’s. Currently the shark, Miss. Helen is back safe and sound in the aquarium. In the end Miss. Helen was stolen at about two pm. She was found alive in a makeshift tank in a garage in a San Antonio home. Investigators say that if the thieves didn’t know what they were doing the situation would have ended very differently. As of now one of the men has been charged with theft and as for the other two suspects charges are still pending. The three men got away with stealing the shark by putting it in a baby carriage and disguising her. The three men's names have not yet been released. Story by Hadley Wallace SOURCE FOR PICTURE: switchyourmood.com  I'm sure you've heard of the 2018-2019 government shutdown. But I bet you didn't know, unfortunately, there was $3 billion that will never be recovered from the shutdown. It was the longest government shutdown in the history of the U.S.A. Ms. Kelly Spencer, a contractor at the Justice Department, said she thought she wouldn't be able to pay her mortgage because she was one of the many people that didn't get paid during the government shutdown. Many other positions got affected also, for example, as said by PayScale, the department of education, health, and human health services, transportation, and more didn't get paid either.
The government shutdown took an economic toll, and cost the U.S. about $11 Billion, as said by New York Times. According to The WSJ President Trump wants to take money from the defense budget for funding for the wall. He also signed a bill that will fund the government for 3 weeks, while they negotiate the security on the southern border. The reason the government shutdown was because President Trump and the Republicans wanted to build a wall between the U.S.A. and Mexico for National Security. On the other side, the Democrats disagreed they did not want the wall. CNN said that our President, Donald Trump got offered $2.5 billion from his vice president and chief of staff, for the wall but turned it down because he needed $5.6 billion. In conclusion, the U.S. has lost a lot of money to the government shutdown. Most employees that work for the government did not get paid. The government is on a bill to fund them, and President Donald Trump wants to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Story by Rowen Dollar-Raynolds SOURCE FOR PICTURE: Picture |
