DREAM ACT

   Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act  or the DREAM Act is a piece of proposed federal legislation in the United States the bill was introduced in the US Senate on August 1, 2001 and re-introduced there and the United States House of Representatives on March 26, 2009. It failed on December 18, 2010. The next chance for illegal immigrant students to get citizenship through The Dream Act won't be until at least the 2012 election if it passes. This bill would provide certain illegal immigrant students who graduate from US high schools, who are of good moral character, arrived in the U.S. illegally as minors, and have been in the country continuously and illegally for at least five years prior to the bill's enactment, the opportunity to earn  permanent residency if they complete two years in the military or two years at a four year institution of higher learning. The students would get temporary residency for a six year period. Within the six year period, the qualified student must have acquired a degree from an institution of higher education in the United States or have completed at least 2 years, in a program for a bachelor's degree or higher degree in the United States, or have served in the uniformed services for at least 2 years.Military enlistment contracts require an eight year commitment, with active duty commitments between four and six years, but as low as two years. "Any alien whose permanent resident status is terminated according to the terms of the Act shall return to the immigration status the alien had immediately prior to receiving conditional permanent resident status under this Act.

David Cho 21 years old, student at UCLA, an honor student, and leader of the UCLA marching band, plans to join the U.S. Air Force after he graduates in the spring--if  the bill is past. Mr. Cho is among the potential beneficiaries of the dream act that would give some illegal immigrants a shot at becoming U.S. citizens.

Currently, students like Mr. Cho come of age in the U.S. without the right to legally work, join the military or receive federal loans for education. Most of these children had no say in their families decision to settle illegally in the U.S. Generally, they have not been targeted for deportation, unless they have criminal records.
cho came from South Korea when he was nine years old. Without the Dream Act, Mr. Cho will have no legal job prospects when he graduates.

Ciggerette Labels

The FDA is proposing new cigarette warning labels that will be larger on cigarettes boxes
 in an advertisement to try and reduce the number of tobacco-related sicknesses and deaths.


The images are graphic: a thin sick patient in bed, a mother breastfeeding  blowing smoke in her baby’s face, a corpse, and a smoker injecting a cigarette in his arm like a drug. The proposal was announced at a news conference by Health and Human Services. these labels are an important in protecting our children and the health of the America. The existing warning labels on cigarette packs have not been updated in 25 years, so this is very good thing to do.

The FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said at a second news conference on the proposal. “Some of the images, I am sure you will agree, are very, very powerful -- and that is the point. We need to make sure anyone considering smoking, particularly kids, fully appreciate the consequences of cigarette use.”

The FDA is considering 36 different images and will study the effectiveness of them with consumers before choosing the ones to accompany the nine warning statements. Each year, tobacco kills 443,000 Americans, and 30% of cancer deaths are related to tobacco. Each day, 4,000 youths try smoking, according to the FDA.

To see all of the labels click on the top picture.

Increased Tuition Fee's

Students in the UK have been protesting, with marches in recent weeks. Their reason is an objection to the coalition government's planned increase in tuition fees. more protests were planned and they have been going on for some time now. Initially the protests seemed to be in good spirit.

The protesters are in more than one group though and all is not good. in reality it is far from it. Although one group seemed to have an almost carnival atmosphere the situation soon faded. The police have been at pains to ask the press to report the abuse they have received. They do not want one sided reporting that shows them as the main antagonists.

Three police officers have been injured as violence took hold. Only one officer has been seriously injured. Students and protesters have also been injured. News reports  shown casualties who claim they had their arms raised in surrender to the police, only to feel the clout of a truncheon around their head. MPs are set to vote in Parliament today as to whether or not tuition fees should be increased. With some MPs threatening to abstain and others to go against their party line and vote against this increase, the fight is not over yet.

Students have vowed to continue with their protests if the vote is won by those wanting to increase the fees. As they say it is not over until the fat lady sings, and she is far from ready to even go on stage just yet.

BOMBS AWAY!!

Tensions between North and South Korea have boiled over, with shots being fired by both sides leaving at least two marines dead and wounding more than 13 others.
The conflict started  when the North fired artillery at Yeonpyeong, a S.Korean island in the Yellow Sea, according to military officials. At least 100 rounds fell on Yeonpyeong, which
houses and a  military garrison and is home to some 1,600 residents. However, the Defense Ministry has not confirmed how many rounds actually struck the island.
In response, the S.Korea fired more than 80 rounds into North Korea and launched fighter jets. The attacked lasted about an hour.

The attack began around 2:34 p.m. Tensions between thetwo nations have worsened since earlier this year, when N.Korea  torpedoed a South Korean navy ship, killing 46 people.
It was also revealed this weekend that the North has secretly constructed a facility that allows it to produce low-enriched  uranium.

The artillery fire followed a routine military drill by the South near Yeonpyeong Island. North Korea's indiscriminate artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island is a clear military
Provocation on the Republic of Korea, Hong Sang-pyo, senior secretary for public affairs at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, said in a statement. "Furthermore, recklessly
shelling against civilians can never be tolerated." The United States, which has thousands of troops stationed in South Korea, was also quick to respond to the North Korean
attack.
The US strongly condemns this attack and calls on North Korea to halt its belligerent action. The White House said in a statement, "The U.S. is firmly committed to the defense of
our ally, the Republic of Korea, and to the maintenance of regional peace and stability."

Bullying In Schools

Bullying in schools is as old as any problem that happens in schools, and yet it gets the least amount of attention. The air of denial is sometimes so pronounced that some schools brand themselves as "bully free" schools. In the end, these bully's leave victims traumatized and scarred for many years while the bully's gain more confidence to continue with their bullying.

Verbal, physical, indirect, social alienation, intimidation, cyberbullying and exclusion of the victim from popular groups and pastimes are some symptoms of bullying in schools. The victims are students who are typically insecure, branded as "nerds", and lack a circle of friends.

Although most victims of bullying in schools are too afraid to take matters into their own hands, a few of them can be pushed to certain critical limits. Shooting incidents such as the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre and the Eric Mohat suicide have raised suspicions that bullying in schools can lead to dire consequences.

Even if the connection between bullying and the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre incident has been subject to much debate, the connection between bullying and fatal consequences isn’t in doubt.Studies show that 60% of bullies during their grade 6-9 years eventually got involved in at least one criminal conviction by age 24. Clearly it's a problem that builds to fatal consequences, and something has to be done to prevent it, to stop bullies as early as possible.

Person Of The Year

The person of the year should go to Sergey Brin who is the co-founder of Google. Google is internet search engine that holds billions of different websites to choose from. Created in 1998 Google changed the world. Google has changed and shaped the world we live in today, people around the world use Google for their main search engine. The name “Google" is intended to be similar to "googol". "Googol" is the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros.

Sergey Mihailovich Brin is the co-founder of Google, and is now the President of Technology at Google and has a net worth estimated at 11 billion US dollars. Born 1973 in Russia to a Jewish family. In 1979 Brin Moved to America with his family where his father worked as a professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland, and his mother working as a specialist at NASA. Brin had an interest in computers at an early age, and he received his first computer, a Commodore 64, from his father for his 9th birthday.

Sergey had a natural talent for mathematics and computing was soon apparent, surprising a teacher by submitting a project printed from a computer, at a time before computers were usual. Brin also gives credit for his success to having attended Montessori schools. In 1990, after he finished high school, Brin enrolled in the University of Maryland to study Computer Science and Mathematics, receiving his Bachelors of Science in 1993 with high honors. After graduating he received a graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation, which he used to study a masters degree in Computer Science at Stanford University, and completing it ahead of schedule in august 1995.  While in Stanford Brin met Larry Page (second co-founder of google) Although the two at first didn’t hit it off, they soon found a common interest in data-mining and retrieving relevant information from large data sets in which the two collaborated on a paper titled “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” which has today become the tenth most accessed scholarly paper at Stanford.

Soon after they started working on a project that later became the Google search engine. After trying to sell the idea failed, they wrote up a business plan and brought in a total original investment of almost $1 million to start their own company.. In 1996, the first version of Google was launched on Stanford's servers.In 1998 they officially opened up for business working out of a garage in Menlo Park, California.Brin and Page founded their company and officially named it Google, Inc. There were a bunch of other search engines, but the paper that Brin and Page had worked on at Stanford contained the conceptual foundation which set Google apart from the competition at that time. The idea of ranking search results by the number of times each site had been linked.Brin figured that if a site was linked on a number of other sites, then it was more likely than not a relevant search item and thus should be ranked higher than others. In 1999 Brin and Page launched their search engine on the internet. Since that time, it has continued to rise in popularity and mainstream. The company grew so quickly and gained so many employees’ office relocations were made due to lack of space, with Google Inc. finally settled in its current place at Mountain View, California. 

Over the next few years lead by Larry and Sergey Google made many innovations and added to its list of products and employee’s (nearly 5000 by 2006). By October 2004 Google announced their first quarterly results as a public offered company, with record revenues of $805.9 million. As of 2005 Brin has been estimated to be worth $11 billion US dollars and is sixteenth in Forbes 400 list and ranked the 2nd richest American under the age of 40.