Autopsy: SeaWorld Trainer Died From Drowning, Traumatic Injuries

An autopsy report released Wednesday confirmed that SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau died of drowning and traumatic injuries to her spine, ribs, and head after a 12,000-pound killer whale pulled her underwater. On February 24, Brancheau was working with a whale named Tilikum at an Orlando SeaWorld, when the animal grabbed her by the pony tail and dragged her underwater. The medical officer's report says that Brancheau suffered a severed spinal cord, fractures to her jawbone, ribs, and cervical vertebra, in addition to drowning. Because of Tilikum's "aggressive nature," the rescuers weren't able to recover Brancheau's body until 40 minutes later. Tilikum has also been linked to two other deaths. In 1991, a trainer in Canada fell into the tank and was drowned by three whales, including Tilikum. Also, in 1999, the same whale was blamed for the death of a 27-year-old man who hid in the park and climbed into the whales tank after hours. Despite Brancheau's death and Tilikums storied background, the head of SeaWorld said that Tilikum "is a wonderful animal" and "will remain an active and contributing member of the team despite what happened." There has always been special precautions taking with Tilikum, due to his special size and weight. Now there will be even more special procedures put in place for trainers handling this whale.

I don't understand how SeaWorld can keep this whale in active duty. This whale has shown aggression on several occasions, and should not be handled by humans. I think SeaWorld should do one of two things: either put the animal down or release it into the ocean. By keeping this oversized, aggressive whale around, they are endangering the lives of any trainer who handles Tilikum. In my opinion, they are asking for another tragic event to happen. How many deaths does this whale have to be tied to in order for it to be dealt with in more of a permanent matter. He may be "a wonderful animal," but that doesn't make up for his history of aggressive "fits," where someone usually ends up dead. These situations could surely be avoided. I also don't understand why we think we can train whales. Dolphins are one thing, because they are not aggressive by nature. But why would we want to train animals with the nickname of Killer Whale. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Read more about Brancheau and Tilikum at:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/31/florida.seaworld.autopsy/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

House Passes Senate's Health Care 'Fixes' Bill

The House of Representatives passed the health care "fixes" bill Thursday to send the measure to President Obama's desk. This vote is approving changes to the broader health care reform bill that the president signed into earlier this week. This fixes bill was approved by a 56-43 vote in the Senate earlier Thursday. On Sunday, the House passed both the overall health care bill and the fixes bill under the reconciliation rules. Democrats had to go under the reconciliation rules in order to overcome unanimous Republican opposition. The Democrats' passed the fixes bill in order to get their original health care reform passed without having to do any changes to it. This two-bill strategy helped the House pass the Senate bill without changes, and also get fixes through that they want. Since these bills were passed under the reconciliation rules, the Senate only needed 51 votes to pass the bills.

I feel that the Democrats are using pretty sneaky methods in order to get this bill passed. They have the Republicans constantly looking for ways to prolong, or even perhaps stop the bill in its tracks. They have been able to prolong it with the finding of minor changes that needed to be made in the wording. They also filibustered the bill once. Most polls in America tell us that the majority of Americans in this country do not want this bill to go through. Also, not one Republican and a handful of Democrats don't want this bill to go through. Yet, it is being passed anyway. I think the Democrats and president Obama are jamming this bill down the public's throats, even if we don't want it. As soon as they lost Ted Kennedy and the majority vote, they went to the reconciliation rules. This allowed them to pass the bills with less votes. I'm not saying that health care for everyone is a bad thing, but I don't appreciate the methods that the Democrats are using to give us health care. I also don't like that the Democrats through some random issues in with this bill in order to get votes. Some issues I'm talking about include money for a new hospital and student loans. Neither of those sound like health care to me.

Read more at:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/25/health.care.main/index.html

Fargo: A Fortress of Sandbags

The city of Fargo, North Dakota is surrounded by 700,000 sandbags. The volunteers in the area have made up a total of 1 million sandbags. This is in hopes to safe the city from the raising Red River. The river has already risen 3 feet in the last 24 hours. Karena Carlson, the spokeswomen for Fargo, stated that they hope the sand bags will allow the city to be protected up to 40 feet. Just last year the record was set when the river hit 40.8 feet. As of early this morning the river was already at 32.54 feet. That is more than 18 feet above major flood stage. The good news is experts are predicted the crest to be at 38 feet, which will likely occur already this Sunday. College students in Moorhead are also preparing for the flooding on the otherside of the same river.

It makes me feel good to see that there are still good hard working people in this world. When flood season comes around, the people in this area don't complain or ask for the government to bail them out. Many college students and residents in the city work together to fill and place sandbags in order to keep the city safe. It takes a lot of dedication, teamwork, cooperation, and hard work to fill 1 million sandbags and place 700,000 of those around the city. Its great that this many people are willing to volunteer their time and services for the good of the whole city.

Read more at:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/weather/03/18/severe.weather/index.html?iref=allsearch

Texas Tour Bus Crash Kills 2, Injures 18

A tour bus that was going to Matamoros, Mexico tipped over near Campbellton, Texas. The tour bus was a subsidiary of Greyhound. It flipped on its right side on the side of Interstate 37. The bus was carrying about forty people all between the ages of 40 and 60. Two people were killed and 18 were injured. Most of the injured are being transported to San Antonio's Brooke Army Medical Center and University Hospital to get treated for their injuries.

This is a very scary, and also sad event. When people go on these tour buses, they aren't sitting there thinking: "Man, I sure hope this bus doesn't flip over on me." But that is exactly what happened. When people ride these buses they are expecting to be in safe hands. I almost have to wonder if these accident was due to corporations trying to cut expenses. It raises the questions like: was this bus inspected before it left? Were the tires re-treads? Was the driver being careless? I could have been a result of anyone of these problems. However, it could have been just a freak accident. In any case, 2 people were killed and 18 more were injured. My condolences go out to those families who had loved ones on this bus. This accident could have resulted in many more deaths however. In my knowledge, these tour buses generally don't have seat belts. That would mean these people weren't stapped in and they could've ended up anywhere. This is just sad moment.

Read more at:


http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/16/texas.bus.crash/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

Costa Rica Elects First Woman President

Costa Rica elected its first female president, Laura Chinchilla. Chinchilla is a part of the National Liberation Party. She also gave thanks to the pioneering women of Costa Rica, who years ago opened the door for women in politics. Earlier that day, second-place candidate Otton Solis conceaded from the race as Chinchilla had an overwhelmenly 46.8 percent of the vote. Election day was also festive throughout the nation. They had mock elections for the kids and many people came out to support their favorite canidate. In all, some 2.8 million Costa Ricans were eligible to vote in this election. The outgoing president Oscar Arias cast his vote in the election and stated that the electoral process was transparent and trustworthy. He also added, "I would like to thank the Costan Rican people for filling the streets with color."

In my eyes, and in the eyes of many, this is truly a historical event. This is the first female president in Costa Rica's history. That says a lot for the country that they don't discriminate on gender, and they chose the best possible canidate. This is comparable to the United States latest election, when we elected the first African-American into office. That was a big change in our country, but it was a good change. In fact, Costa Rican's were equally excited when Obama was put into office and they wished us the best of luck with him. However, I don't think the United States is ready for a female president. We can all watch and see how Chinchilla does, but in the end the countries are two different worlds. Costa Rica is more of a third-world country that for the most part sticks to themselves. A female president in the U.S. would have to deal with a lot more baggage. For instance, she would have to deal with the tremendous debt, the war on terror, and numerous other difficulties. I just don't think there is a woman out there who would be ready to become president in the U.S.

Read more about the election at:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/08/costarica.election/index.html?iref=allsearch

‘Unjustifiable’ Airstrike Kills 27 Afghan Civilians

Over this past weekend NATO authorized an "unjustifiable" airstrike that lead to the deaths of 27 civilians. NATO received, what was supposed to be reliable Intel, from an Afghan saying that there would be many Taliban leaders traveling to a destination in 3 buses. So NATO and the American commander thought this would be a perfect opportunity to take out some strong leaders. So they saw on their satellites that there are 3 buses traveling, and this matched there Intel. So planes fired at the buses and took them out, when they sent people into inspect the damage, they found innocent civilians and among them four women and children. NATO apologized Monday saying the attacks were "Unjustifiable". This is the third time this has happened in Afghanistan since starting there major offensive there.

This is a horrible event that could have easily been avoided. The army should never take intel from an Afghanistan source unless they know for a fact that it is reliable. Really, the only intel I would take from over there is intel that comes either straight from American's or Afghanistan officials. With so many terrorists over there, it is to easy for a group of them to fake intel. Plus, NATO should have looked into the intel more. They easily could have checked the buses before dropping an airstrike on them. With all of the satellites out there today, and with our technology, it wouldn't have been too hard to confirm if it was the Taliban leaders. Besides from being a sad event, it also hurts the civilian trust that we were gaining. We swore to protect civilians, and instead we killed 27 innocent ones. This also makes NATO look incompitent. With the war going the way it is, NATO leaders need to have a little more patience and look into decisions before they make them.

Read more about the airstrike at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35515880/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/#storyContinued

Issue #2 - Spending What We Can Afford

In our country, both the president and Congress help prepare an annual budget for the federal government. Together they decide what we will spend our money on. It can be spent on things like defense, health care, education and many other federal programs. What the budget does is it outlines the nation's priorities for the coming year and describes how the government will reach those goals. Our budget is supposed to be less or the same as our governement earns, otherwise we have a budget deficit. In the last few decades, our government has spent more money than it has earned, making these deficits happen. Every time our country has a deficit, it needs to borrow more money, which puts us further into debt. This over spending is threatening our entitlement spending programs. An example of this is Social Security. Many of the "baby boomer" generation is starting to take more money from Social Security than is being put in, threatening its very existense. To counteract this persistent budget deficit, Congress passed a pay-as-you-go (otherwise known as paygo) budgeting measure. This basically means that Congress can only spend what they can pay for. Many supporters of paygo argue that paygo rightly responds to citizens' concerns about profligate spending and the rising national debt. Some opponents to this measure argue that paygo will merely result in higher taxes in order to pay for the new programs.

I believe that paygo is a good idea. It shows and helps Congress to understand that deficits matter and should be contained. Our national debt is rising at a horrific pace. Right now it is at astaggering 12 trillion dollars. Paygo could help manage this debt, and hopefully somewhere down the road even eliminate the debt. Some critics claim that paygo will restrict Congress's ability to respond to national emergencies, such as recession. But the in those times of emergency, the government can suspend paygo if necessary. Current President Obama also agrees with paygo. He as said, "paying for what you spend is basic common sense." And he proposed making paygo a law.

Read more about Obama's stand on paygo here:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/09/obama.paygo/

Link to Issue #1:

http://jordanericksonsblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/issue-1-war-dollars.html

Link to Issue # 3:

http://dbcooper2424.blogspot.com/2010/02/issue-3.html