http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/nyregion/shooting-reported-at-connecticut-elementary-school.html?hp&_r=0

There has been another shooting at a Connecticut Elementary school.

It happened in Newton Connecticut, at the elementary school, and the shoot has been identified as 24-year-old Ryan Lanza. The death toll, say officials, is close to 30.

It seems like every few weeks there is a new horrific gun crime that happens in America. A mostly American phenomena, school shootings, are still happening despite the efforts of victims families and concerned citizens, and members of congress want to lower gun restrictions? And making them more strict is straight up out of the question. It reported that more than a 100 rounds were fired. This was no handgun, this was at least a semi-automatic firearm. That kind of power is unnecessary for even hunting or sport, and has one basic purpose: mass killing. That is what these guns were designed for, to kill as many enemies as quickly as possible, and that kind of power does not need to be in the hands of untrained civilians.

The old right to bear arms argument arises when ever this is brought up, that it is our "constitutional right" to own and carry firearms, but what people fail to realize is that the meaning of that simple statement has changed drastically over the years. If we go by the intent of the founders, then it simply means that every citizen has the right to form a militia, and not carry around the biggest cannon they can find.

I am not advocating that we take away peoples guns, but I do think that we need to at least have a better system in place to restrict who gets guns and possibly restrict what kind of guns can be owned by the general populace. Who really needs to own a RPG? The short answer, really, is the army, and that's about it.

TWEET 2

Another shark attack  victim, James Parks, 30, of Oak Bluffs. This is a confirmed shark attack. Beaches are to remain closed until further notice.

TWEET

Kids pose as shark to scare beach goers in Amity. Two people injured in stampede from the water.

Killer Shark Finally Captured

Dozens of local fisherman gathered at a local dock about a mile south of Amity to hunt down the killer shark that has been terrorizing the local waters.

After two deaths of Chrissie Watson and Alex Kitner, police were forced to close down the beaches in order to protect the public.

This all started last night at the Town meeting, where the reward for $3,000 was announced. “Are you going to close the beaches or not?” asked a concerned citizen at the meeting. After what appeared to be a strained response, Police chief Martin Brody could only respond with “yes, we are.”

In the midst of the uproar, Ben Quint dragged his nails across the chalkboard to get everyone’s attention. “You all know me, you all know what I do for a living,” said Quint. “I’ll catch this bird for you, but it ain’t gonna be easy.”

There was some disturbance in the crowd but Quirt silenced them, continuing, “but it’s not going to be pleasant, and I value my neck more than $3,000. I’ll find him for 3,000, but I’ll catch him and kill him for 10.”

Quint was not seen with the party that caught the supposed killer shark.

The caught shark, a large nurse shark, was identified by Matt Hooper, a marine biologist from Woods Hole, Mass. Oceanographic institute. “Nurse sharks are among the most brutal and dangerous of all sharks and have been reputable for hundreds of swimmers deaths,” said police.
 

Chief Brody has given the all clear for the beaches to open again, and just in time for the Fourth of July rush to the beaches. There will still be shark monitors out on the waters, however. “They are simply a safety precaution that we hope will put our visitors at ease,” said police.

If anyone spots a shark, the police have set up a hotline, 1-800-sharksee in order for the public to inform them of any unusual shark sightings.

Sharks of the New England Region

BOSTON - In the entire United States, each year there are only 16 shark attacks per year, compared to the total of lightning strikes, 41, that kill Americans each year. And in total there have been less than 100 recorded deaths since 1900.

The waters of New England are just as safe as any, with most sharks being relatively harmless, such as the Basking Shark and the Whale Shark, and of the three main perpetrators of shark attacks, Great Whites, Tiger, and Bull Sharks, most are uncommon in the area.

"While sharks kill fewer than 20 people a year, their own numbers suffer greatly at human hands," said Brian Handwerk, a shark expert, "but between 20 and 100 million sharks die each year due to fishing activity."

The largest shark, the Whale Shark, can grow up to 60 feet long, but luckily only feeds on plankton.

The last major shark incident in New England was earlier this year, when a large Great White attacked a swimmer of the coast of Cape Cod, but he was able to leave the hospital in a cast and bandaged leg a few days later, able to joke about his experience.

Unless the life gaurd informs you of a shark sighting, it is relatively safe to assume that the waters of New England are safe to swim in (from sharks, anyways). Be sure to stay safe and always swim with supervision.

Gay Conversion Therapy

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/05/us/judge-blocks-california-conversion-therapies-law.html?hp

This is one of the most atrocious things I have ever heard. The fact that this is even up for debate is terrifying. Children should NOT be allowed to be submitted to "conversion therapy." The implications of this law are horrifying, in what it can allow parents to do to there children in which the children would have no legal way to fight if it is decided upon as a freedom of speech issue.

The law is up for debate in California, where two federal judges had opposing rulings about the issue. The potential for these therapies to be damaging to the youths is a serious issue, especially for an isolated youth in a community that does not support homosexuality. The damage that could be caused due to regression and suppression, while not fully understood, is enough that this law should at least be given pause before being ruled legal or not.

Attack on Syrian School Kills Dozens

Today, amid heavy fighting between the Syrian army and the rebel forces, a mortar hit a school, killing up to 29 people.

There are differing reports coming from both sides of the conflict, with SANA, the state news agency, reporting 29 deaths, and the rebel forces only reported nine casualties.

This is not the first time rebels have had their bombs and improvised explosives have civilian casualties, and have angered both sides of the conflict.

The state of conflict has escalated in Syria over the past couple of days, and this event did not help things much. There are reports that the Syrian government may be preparing to use chemical weapons in its fight against the rebel forces, an act completely against international law.

The US has already pulled its non-essential foreign personal in the region.

There is also a large portion of the population relying on the UN World Food Program for aid, which is becoming ever more difficult to provide as the safety of Syria's roads becomes compromised.

World Oldest Women Dies

Today, the world oldest women died at the age of 116.

Besse Cooper lived in Moroe, Gerogia at a nursing home about 45 miles east of Atlanta.

She passed away at about 2 p.m. this morning after being sick over the weekend. While watching family home movies on Monday, she had trouble breathing and was was put on oxygen in her room but did not make it.

The previous record holder, Maria Valentin of Brazil, who was 48 days older than Besse, passed away on June 21, allowing Besse to be formally acknowledged as the worlds oldest person by Guinness Book of World Records.

Gul Meena, an Afghan woman, recently survived a brutal attempt at her life.

In Afghanistan, there is a strong culture of tribal laws and traditions that are very harsh towards there treatment of women, the worst of these being "honor killings." Most often carried out by the victims own family, these killings are for women who are a shame to the family and have to die, for things such as adultery, pre-marital sex, and even being raped.

But, while things may seem bleak, there is a silver lining in all of this. Doctors, who work in poor conditions with little or no money, were able to nurse Gul Meena from the brink of death. Even the doctors face harsh stigma even doing there jobs when helping these women (if they survive), just for doing there job.

Gul Meena has next to no visitors, the Afghan Woman's council has not sent any representatives  she has been dishonored and will likely be killed on sight by most of her family, and her lover was brutally murdered at the same time she was attacked. Without relatives, she doesn't even have a clean set of clothes to wear, and when reporters came to visit, she was lying in her own urine, as doctors have long ago run out of money to care for her on a constant basis.

She does, however, have some champions in her corner. There are a few on the provincial council that are in support of her. The only female member, and a few others would like to see a change in the tribal traditions and codes that hurt the women of the Afghan country so much.

Alex

Child Attacked at Beach, Police Begin to Suspect Possible Shark

Another local boy was killed today in what appeared to be a shark attack on Village Beach.

The boy, Alex Kitner, was at the beach with his mother and his friends, and he paddled out onto the ocean on a toy inflatable device.

The beach was at normal occupancy and there were many small children running around playing in the sand.

A man was playing with his dog on the beach, throwing a stick out over the water for him to catch. A woman is reclaiming back in the water, just floating there, relaxing in the Amity beach water.

When Alex’s friends swam out to meet him on his inflatable, there was a flurry of motion and blood that sent the entire beach into a panic.

Mothers and fathers rushed out to grab their kids as the police chief Martin Brody yelled for everyone to get out of the water.

Marion Kitner, Alex’s mother, was reported wandering around the beachfront near the incident, calling out her son’s name. His body has still yet to be recovered.

On the heels of Chrissie Watson, this attack would mark the second of two suspicious deaths possibly linked to sharks today.

Last night, Chrissie Watson, 17, of 23 Sharkstooth St. Amity, was at a beach party were alcohol was involved. There, she met a man identified as Christopher P. Hoggenbottam III, and the two decided to go swimming near the South Beach Shoal buoy.

Upon reaching the beach, Watson was able to get into the water, but after some time Hoggnbottam reported to have passed out on the edge of the beach. “I saw him with a couple of beers,” said Erika Dupervil, a party attendant, when asked about Hogganbottam’s state of intoxication.

When Watson did not return from the water this morning, Hoggenbottam reported the girl missing to Amity Police. After a brief search, police were able to locate a body. There was severe mauling by an “attacker of unknown origin” according to police. Her body has been transported to the coroner’s office for an official autopsy.

The police investigation into whether these incidents are, in fact, shark attacks is still ongoing.

There is a special town meeting planned for tonight at 6 p.m. at the Amity Town Hall, where Chief Brody plans to discuss closing the beaches on July 4, for the safety of all residents and tourists.

Chrissie

Local Teen Dies in Possible Shark Attack

Police have begun the investigation of the tragic death of a local teenage girl on the beach in Amity.

Last night, Chrissie Watson, 17, of 23 Sharkstooth St. Amity, was at a beach party were alcohol was involved. There, she met a man identified as Christopher P. Hoggenbottam III, and the two decided to go swimming near the South Beach Shoal buoy.

“I saw [Watson] leave the party, she ran out and Hoggenbottom followed,” said Erika Dupervil, a party attendant.

Upon reaching the beach, Watson was able to get into the water, but after some time Hoggnbottam reported to have passed out on the edge of the beach. “I saw him with a couple of beers,” said Dupervil, when asked about Hogganbottam’s state of intoxication.

When Watson did not return from the water this morning, Hoggenbottam reported the girl missing to Amity Police. After a brief search, police were able to locate a body. There was severe mauling by an “attacker of unknown origin” according to police. Her body has been transported to the coroner’s office for an official autopsy.

“We have no suspects whatsoever, and we are not looking into any suspects,” said Police Chief Martin S. Brody. Police, however, are continuing to investigate the death of Watson.

 “There is no evidence that this could be a shark attack,” said Brody, saying it was possible that it was a stalker in the dunes or some other wild animal as well.

While shark attack is a possibility, the police assure that the beaches are still safe and that residents and guests are in no danger. The beaches are to remain open, pending further investigation. 

(story for class) Assassination Attempt on Local Cop Fails, Five Dead (story for class)

By: Cameron Johnson

New York - Multiple gunshots were reported in a residential area of New York City, with five dead, including the gunman, Pierre Jeantot.

The action all started when Detective Jimmy Doyle was walking home down 57th avenue, when a sniper opened fire from a nearby rooftop. “It was terrifying,” said Karen Johnson, a resident of the area. “When he started firing, a lady pushing her baby in a carriage just dropped down, I couldn’t tell if she was dead or not.” The woman, Olivia Williams, received three bullets to the chest and was dead before paramedics could arrive on scene.

According to Karen, Doyle ducked behind a tree for cover, and then proceeded to approach the building to apprehend the Jeantot. According to witnesses, he was able to climb to the top of the building as the Jeantot was escaping from the bottom floor. Doyle was seen shortly thereafter, giving chase on foot toward the 35st station of the Elevated train.

The chase continued onto a train car, with the Jeantot getting on the train and Doyle being forced to find an alternative mode of transportation. “A crazy man was walking in the middle of the street, flagging down anyone he could,” said Laura Hess, an onlooker. “He eventually managed to pull over a brown sedan and took off like a madman.”

While Doyle was driving below the train, the hired assassin Jeantot was taking control of the car above. After shooting one of the conductors of the train, made his way to the controls of the car, where Peter Howe was driving the car. Jeantot threatened Howe with a gun, forcing him to continue through the next stop without slowing, denying Doyle entry to the elevated train.

“[Jeantot] was pointing his gun at one of the conductors, and he just kept saying ‘get back,’” said Patty Levesque, a passanger on the train. “The conductor just kept telling him to put the gun down, and that he wasn’t going to get away with it.”

Jeantot shot the conductor, which caused Howe to go into cardiac arrest. Without anyone controlling the car, the train crashed into the 15^th street stations parked train.

“I helped carry Peter out of the car after the crash, that poor man,” said Levesque. “The paramedics tried to revive him, but there was nothing they could do.

Meanwhile, Doyle pursued the train from below, rushing into oncoming traffic, at one point colliding with a vehicle as it pulled out of the driveway. “I was just trying to get to work when this car came out of nowhere and rammed into me,” said Robert Edgerton. “I was nearly thrown from my car; it was pretty intense.”

Doyle did manage to arrive intact to the 15^th street station, and made his way to the entrance, where he was able to spot Jeantot attempting to flee the crashed train. As Jeantot walked down the stairs to street level, Doyle intercepted, and the two stared at each other, both winded and in shock from their chase.

“[Jeantot] tried to turn around and leave, but [Doyle] shouted ‘hold it,’ and when [Jeantot] didn’t listen and tried to flee, he shot him once in the back,” said Sean Moreau passenger on the train.

The families of the victims are holding a candlelight vigil next Thursday, at the park near where the William’s was shot on 57^th avenue. 

Election Call

Daily Show just called it: Barack Obama will be the President of the United States for another four years

Election!!!

This is getting intense. The projections say that Obama is going to most likely get 269 electoral votes, which is a tie. Florida at one point down to 300 votes (for Obama). This is looking like a very very close race.
At this point, Indiana has had an upset, with Richard Mourdock lost to his Democratic opponent, a race that Republicans thought they could easily win at the beginning of this race. A lot of races for senate had hiccups on the republican side about rape that cost them a lot of votes.
10:25 They are now currently tied now that Nevada is projected for Obama. and Maggie Hassan has won the Gubernatorial election in New Hampshire, and both of the House seats went to the Democrats. This could be a big day for the democratic party if they can hold on to Florida, which is looking eerily similar to the 2000 election. If it comes down to it, there could be another Supreme court decision to decide the presidency, and hopefully it does not come down to that again. 

The Castle Law and why its so crazy.

Back when I was taking a legal studies class in high school, we would always make the joke that "everything crazy happened (at least law wise) in Texas." The number of odd Supreme Court decisions we read about from that state baffled me, and most of them involved guns. The crazy thing about them is the number of people who found legal justification to shoot other people, and some how get off scott-free.
However, some of this Texas-crazy has decided to migrate to other parts of the country. In september, a man named Dan Fredenberg decided he was going to try and find his wife, who was having a romantic fling with Brice Harper. When Fredenberg went to enter the garage of Harper's house, Harper shot him three times and left him to bleed out.
While this may look like a straight case for manslaughter, it is in fact under a new law called the Castle Law, allowing homeowners more power to protect themselves in their own homes, but arguably allows them to get away with killing others at the same time.
The idea behind this is absurd, for most places already have a self-defense clause within the law in order to stop innocent people from being convicted of serious crimes. But a blanket protection clause like this one has the propensity to be abused, and in this case Harper was not even charged by the state, so a jury did not even get to look at the case to see if the law applied.

Colleen Lachowicz

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/419924/october-08-2012/koch-brothers---orc-senate-candidate

This makes me a little upset. First off, really? You're going to campaign against someone using World of Warcraft? Colleen Lachowicz, a Democratic Senate candidate from Maine plays World of Warcraft and the Republican party is attacking her for it. The issue I find here is, on a personal level, I find it disturbing that someone can still be considered by some to be unfit for office for, in their free time, playing a video game. That would be the equivalent of the previous generation being unfit to serve for reading too many books. While I am a fan of video games myself, this brings up the age old question of whether or not personal lives should factor into whether or not a candidate is elected. When the activity in question is literally practiced by millions of people around the world, and is equally prolific within the US, it should not even be a question if a non illegal activity should bar someone or make them unfit to serve; it has no bearing what-so-ever.

Voter ID Law

While I already wrote my article on this, I wanted to express what I personally felt about these laws and how they will affect all of America.

I would like to state, first and foremost, that this is not a bipartisan issue. This should not be Republicans vs. Democrats, despite the overwhelming amount of ID laws being passed by republican congresses. If the situation were to reverse, and the Democrats were desperately drying to get their candidate elected, if the supreme court lets these laws stand, Democrats will do the exact same thing.

These laws are infringing on one of the things we hold most dear in America, our vote, and restricting who can vote, even if only through subtle and minute ways, is a recipe for disaster. And while voter ID laws do have their place, the way Connecticut is doing it makes the most sense. They are offering free voter ID's that will be valid basically for the purpose of voting only (possibly other government documents) and are implementing it AFTER the election. This way, people have at least two whole years before the next round of federal elections to acquire one of these free ID's, instead of taxing the DMV's way over what they could possibly do to get photo ID's for the thousands who would need it in the next month.

My Relationship to the News

I am a child of my time: I certainly grew up in a digital era and my relationship with the news reflects that. I get the vast majority of my information about the world around me from the internet, and even the TV news that I watch is usually streamed (I don't even have a cable hookup in my dorm).
For the most part, I receive my news from two different people, Brian Williams and Jon Stewart (and by extension Stephen Colbert). While I usually watch Williams because that is the network my family would always turn on at dinner time, Jon Stewart was something I picked up on my own. While he hooked me with his political humor, what struck me was how topical he was and how what he was actually saying was really informative. But what struck home that this "comedy show" could and should be taken seriously is when the 9/11 first responders were not being granted health care by the government despite the medical ailments the had due to their heroic actions. And almost no one was covering it. But Stewart brought on a group of first responders and did an interview with them that nearly single-handedly helped that bill pass through congress. My uncle was nearly killed in the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon (a lucky traffic jam saved his life, his office was completely destroyed) so this may hit a little closer to home for that, but on that day Jon Stewart earned my trust as an established Journalist and my respect as a human being.
My relationship with journalism is a little different from most, in that I first got into through my photography and the writing came after. I view things from that angle a lot of the time, and putting together an article that didn't belong in the entertainment section was difficult for me at least at the beginning of this semester, probably because of all the time I spent as entertainment editor of my high schools paper. My ideal goal is to eventually become a photo-journalist who travels the world taking pictures of serene landscapes exotic animals and even more exotic cultures. The life of a behind-the-desk journalist doesn't really appeal to me very much (though, granted, I don't think it appeals to many others, either), and a job as either a photographer for a paper/online publication/ photographer in general would be fine.

Iran Duped by The Onion

Well its 6:18 in the morning and its no time like the present to crank out a post.or two

http://www.wmur.com/news/national/The-Onion-dupes-Iran-s-news-agency/-/9857926/16781434/-/9wg2o4z/-/index.html

This lovely article comes from WMUR, and shows the hilarious situation of an Iranian news agency thinking that the onion was a legitimate news source. Several US news outlets have also fallen into this trap, Fox news a notable offender, putting an article of theirs on the front page of the Fox website, with equally hilarious results. This is the reason you always check your sources, because this can happen to anybody if they aren't careful, and if you are caught posting something like an onion story about Ahmadinejad is more popular with white Americans than Barack Obama, you will probably never be taken seriously again.

Local Teenager Saves Life

Two local residents, a teenager and a police captain, are being hailed as heroes today for saving the life of an 80-year-old man stalled on the train tracks.

James Laboke, 17, was on his way to work when he spotted a running car sitting on the train tracks, the driver slumped over the steering wheel. Laboke ran 100 yards to the police station to warm someone of the impending accident.

“I never thought about it, I just knew I couldn’t let that man get crused by a train,” Laboke later said.

A mile down the road, Captain Paradiso was sitting in her cruiser when she got the call on the radio about an abandoned vehicle. She arrived on the scene as the train was rapidly approaching the stalled car. “I knew there was no time. I had to do something,” said Paradiso. According to chief Paul, she accelerated and rammed the car out of the way with her cruiser, as the 40 mph train barreled by 30 seconds later.

The man in the stalled car, Francois Truffaut, a tourist from Quebec City, Canada, is a diabetic. “I don’t remember a thing,” said Truffaut. The police report suggested that Truffaut may have gone into insulin shock while on the tracks, which may have led to his unconscious state.

After the incident Laboke immediately went to his work, and not even late, spoke nothing of what he had just done to anyone. His boss, Champaigne, only heard of the news when a reporter called. “It doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Champaigne. “That young man is one of my most responsible employees. He’s just a great kid.”

Car Crashes on Mile Hill Road

Two teens were hospitalized Tuesday after a serious car crash on Mile Hill Road. The driver was able to walk away from the crash, leaving the two passengers trapped in the car until rescuers arrived.

The driver, Jamie Peterson, was driving two unnamed females in his white Mustang. At approximately 9 p.m., the car suddenly picked up speed and flipped off the side of the dirt road.

Josie M. Crandall, a resident of 27 Mile Hill Road, witnessed the Mustang travelling at fast speeds just before the crash.

“I’ve never seen a car going so fast on this road. It’s a dirt road, and it’s really easy to lose control,” said Crandall.

Tom Carroll, Jr., 17, was driving behind the car before it flipped. “I thought the worst, they were flying,” said Carroll. Carroll was the first to arrive on scene and told police he found three empty beer cans underneath the car.

Rescuers used the Jaws of Life to free the two girls. After 45 minutes, the girls were rushed to Memorial Hospital in Belmont, where one of them was airlifted to Mass. General Hospital.

What is News?

News is what the fourth estate generally interests itself in (if it is doing its job correctly). Mostly its just a series of facts that create a story, and that story has some spin or angle put on it by the writer, that then gets parred and edited by an Editor, which at some point is delivered to you, the viewer/reader/user. That is the news in a nutshell, congruent facts comprising of a story that interest an individual. Other, more strict definitions of news exist, such as only stories that are not fluff pieces or only the most sophisticated stories, but I prefer to have a broad definition because what each person considers "newsworthy" is a matter of personal opinion.

Cameron Neilley marvels at his own "news"

Improv Anonymous’ First Show: A Smashing Success

James Conklan, the new Improv Director, improvising a diddly on the guitar last semester 

By Cameron Johnson

Last Thursday, UNH's one and only Improv Comedy Troupe Improv Anonymous held their first official show of the new semester, with many of the same familiar faces from last year. With games such as Slow-motion Olympics, involving a made-up sport (by audience suggestion) and two commentators responding to the actions of two other improv performers pantomiming the sport in slow motion; and ABC, a game were two performers had to create a scene, with the restriction that each new sentence must start with the next letter of the alphabet. They had the audience in uproarious laughter the whole night, culminating in the final game where even the audience was allowed to join in. “[The show] was fantastic,” said Keisha Warriner, a Sophomore, “not all the jokes were to my humor but [on a whole] it was very funny.”  When asked about how the group could be so cohesive, and what made them so enjoyable, Dan Shine, a member of the group, responded “Improv Anonymous is easily one of the best groups on campus: it’s fun, laid back, and a very loving group, and we have a lot of fun.” The group announced the new leaders of the group, Parker Callahan and James Conklin as director and production manager respectively. In addition to this news, Parker announced that the improv auditions would be held on Tuesday, the 4^th at the MUB entertainment Center, at 7:45. Prospective member Nate Landolt, was very excited about the idea of joining the group. “I love improv and have done it four years” said Landolt, a Freshman, “at first I thought I would get into acting, but [improv] was more free form and allowed me to express myself.” Improv Anonymous has shows every Thursday at 9:00 in the Entertainment Center of the MUB, but the line grows quickly, so it is wise to show up at least 45 minutes to an hour early.

A promotional photo I took for Much Ado About Nothing