Validation

Short film Validation is the perfect Holiday season pick me up for every person in need of gentle humor and a smile. Directed by Kurt Kuenne, the film is about a parking attendant that gives out free compliments while validating parking for customers. By giving out compliments, actor TJ Thyne, hopes to make people smile. The parking attendant is met with a challenge, when he goes to the DMV to get his driver license photo taken, but can't make the gorgeous photographer, Vicki Davis, smile. The film is takes a viewer back into the old days, with its black/white color and fast photography.

White House Shooting incident

On November 11, around 9 pm Secret Service officials heard a gunshot about 800 yards away from the White House, where they found a vehicle near by with a weapon registered to Ortega-Hernandez. Following that determination, Secret Service issued a warrant for Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez.

Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez was arrested Wednesday, for allegedly being connected with a White House shooting incident. Secret Service found two bullets on the night of November 11, one on the outside of the house and one aimed at a bulletproof window.

Ortega-Hernandez, originally from Idaho, was found in western Pennsylvania and is to appear in Federal Court on Thursday afternoon. The young man was found by a anonymous tip at the Hampton Inn, where his bags were searched and he was later detained.

Overbilled $12,000 over past 10 years

Condo Owner, Tony Santoro, was overcharged $12,000 by Connecticut Light & Power. The 73 year old was overpaying by about $100 a month, paying over $220 for living alone and eating microwave meals.

"The only thing I use is the microwave oven, maybe once a day. And that's it. It's just me here. Just me. At the barber shop I pay $150 a month. We have air conditioning, a lot of lights, a lot of machines," says the elderly man.

Santoro claims that when he was receiving bills, he called to complain, but due to his poor english the company did not care to listen. Tony Santoro finally knew it was time to take more action against the company when he received a bill for $240, after being on vacation for one week out of the month.

Connecticut Light & Power has offered to give Santaro credit for the last four years. However state advocate for utility ratepayers, Joseph Rosentha, says that the company needs to pay every dollar they overcharged for the past 10 years to Tony Santoro.

Oil Plans Halted

The State Department of the United States announced it would delay plans for the Keystone XL pipeline. The 1,700 underground pipeline would help create jobs and would decrease the amount of oil the country would get from the middle east.

However the project is delayed due to the concerns of environmentalists, saying that the underground aquifer in Nebraska would become contaminated if the pipeline passes it. The decision was made by Obama, causing many people to support and oppose.

"We hope he continues to consider climate, health and the impacts of extreme energy like tar sands on our land and water while creating a path to real energy independence," says Founder of BOLD Nebraska.

The pipeline is a $7 billion dollar project that would bring oil to refineries in southern U.S. from the tar sands in canada. For now there is a halt of this project due to it's potential problems, and activists say they plan on making sure this pipeline never gets built.

Penn State Coach

Infamous Penn State coach Joe Paterno was forced to step down from his coaching position on Wednesday night. Paterno was forced to step down due to the associations with former assistant coach Jerry Sanduskly, who was involved with 40 counts of sexual abuse.

Paterno was fired due to the fact that he had acknowledgement of the sexual abuse between Sandusky and a 10-year old boy in the locker room shower and did not do more to stop it. Joe Paterno was willing to retire at the end of the season, but board of trustees at the University fired him immediately.

News of Joe Paterno being fired from the University caused outrage among Penn State students. Students started riots around campus, turning over news vans and chanting the footballs coach's name in the stadium. In addition to the riots on campus, the students showed their support for the coach by gathering outside his home, holding signs and flashing their cell phones in support.

Along with the forced step down of Joe Paterno, Penn State University president was forced to step down due to his knowledge of Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse scandal and not reporting it to the police.

In my personal view of this situation, I felt that Joe Paterno should not have been fired from his position. The 84-year old was willing to retire at the end of the season, after serving the school for 61 years. The University should have let him leave the school with some pride and retire at the end of the season, instead they fired him. In my opinion the University did it just save their reputation, but they should have thought about the man that brought them that famous football reputation.

New tablet

In addition to the article on the tablet that I wrote, Barnes & Noble just announced that they are planning on releasing the new nook tablet on November 16, 2011. The price of the Nook tablet is cheaper than some of the other tablet such as the Ipad. The Nook tablet will cost around $249.

The Nook tablet is similar to the Nook color that Barnes & Noble came out with, except that this new tablet will have a new software. The tablet releasing on the 16th includes HuluPlus, comics, magazines, and Pandora. Lastly the Nook tablet will be 25% faster in turning pages than any other e-reader on the market and have a long battery life that can provide two months of reading.

The prices of the other Barnes & Nobles tablets such as the color and touch will dramatically reduce. The price will range from as high as $249 to as low as $99, making this a great deal.

Review of Classmates blog

Reading other people's blogs was interesting because I got to see what kinds of news stories people write about. Some of the news stories were similar to mine, which was interesting to see.

From last weeks blogs and reading reviews I learned that with every blog you have to keep in mind who the reader is and who you are trying to appeal to. I learned through other people's blog that it is okay to write about the smaller things, not just the headlines in the news. There is always someone your story will appeal to. I think that one thing I feared when thinking about what to write is " will someone want to read this." After seeing everyones else blog, I know I can step out of my box more and attempt to blog about different ideas.

I might start blogging about my academic life, because I never really talked about the issues around me in school. There is so much that needs to be changed or improved on in USP, that blogging about it will help those matters get more attention.

Next in line to Saudi throne dies

On Saturday October 22,2011 Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud dies in New York hospital. Sultan, 80 years old, was set to inherit the Saudi throne after the passing of the current king. From reports at New York hospital, Prince Sultan was thought to be battling cancer. His body is going to be transported back to his native country for a proper burial ceremony.

The Saudi Prince only had good words spoken about him from family, friends, and allies. Barack Obmana described him as a “valued friend” and “strong supporter of the deep and enduring partnership between our two countries."

After his passing on, the decision of who will inherit the throne is one being watched around the world. Nayef, brother of Sultan bin Andulz Al-Saud, is likely to become next in line for the throne.

Earthquake In Turkey

After the devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Turkey, rescue crews go on the search to look for survivors. The earthquake did extensive damage in the country, destroying 950 building and leaving 279 people dead.

The earthquake hit southeast Turkey on October 23,2011 and left behind numerous aftershocks. The earthquake destroyed part of the hospitals and health care facilities, leaving people to be treated in the hospital garden.

On Monday night, temperatures in southeast Turkey went down to freezing. People began looking for anything that could keep them warm including wood from collapsed buildings to start fires.

People are described by reporters in the area as being in panic and scared. Many people decided to sleep in the streets and in crowded areas rather than go back to their homes due to fear of their homes being destroyed.

Currently rescue teams are setting up hospital tents to provide more medical help and cargo planes are flying by to supply food and water to survivors.

Gadhadfi Claimed to be dead or captured

On October 20, 2011 Libyan Lead Moammar Gadhadfi is claimed to be captured or dead. France Presse had sent a cell phone image of Gadhafi covered being arrested, but has yet to be correctly identified. The death of Gadhadfi was reported by a television station called Al-Ahrar, people are still waiting for an official confirmation from government officials.

Libyan minister Mahmoud Shammam has not yet confirmed that it is Gadhadfi is captured, but is saying a "big fish" has been captured. Although confirmation has not yet arrived, Libyans still continue to celebrate. Crowds of people gather in Tripoli, firing gunarms into the air. The possibility of Gadhadfi's death could make history in Libya, allowing citizens to finally move on with their lives.

Gadhafi was the Libyan leader for 42 years and ruled strictly, but eventually his rule came to an end when war erupted in Libya. After being forced to give up his power, Gadhadfi had escaped.

Exotic Animal Death In Ohio

In Zanesville, Ohio 49 exotic animals were shot and killed by deputies. On October 18, 2011, a local farm-owner, Terry Thompson, committed suicide, releasing his wild animals.Thompson had cut open wires of the gates to ensure that the animals could not be locked up again, before killing himself. Some of the wild animals set free were lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, and wolves.

After a reported number of 911 calls, Ohio police set out to find the wild animals to protect public safety. When police found the wild animals, they had no choice but to shoot the animals because they did not have tranquilizer guns on hand. When officials with tranquilizer guns arrived the only one animal was left."We just had a huge tiger, an adult tiger, estimated at 300 pounds, that was very aggressive," says one of the officials.

Shooting of the rare animals led to several protests and public outrage. 49 of the 56 animals were killed, including 18 tigers. While the public remains outraged, officials believe they did the right thing, keeping in mind public safety. One of the sheriff justified himself by saying "we could not have animals running loose in this county."

Apparently keeping wild animals in Ohio is not a rare thing. Ohio doesn't have any restrictions against ownership of exotic and wild animals. Local people in Ohio are able to buy exotic animals from other breeders and auctions.

Foodstamp Fraud

Talib Jawad Kadhim from East Haven, CT was sentenced to 15 months in prison for food stamp fraud, along with three years of supervised release. For one year, Kadhim exchanged his food stamps for cash at his privately owned convenience store.

Food stamps help low-income families by providing them with vouchers in a form of a booklet or in the form of an EBT card. These vouchers are to be used at supermarkets and cannot be redeemed for cash.

Kadhim was able to scheme $94,049.59 through his redemption of food stamps. Although he was able to get away with it for a year, eventually Kadhim's fraud caught up with him.

December 22, 2010 Talib Jawad Kadhim pleaded guilty to food stamp fraud and was sentenced a year later.

Blackberry Outage

Blackberry users around the world experienced service outage this week. The outage started Monday in Europe and by Wednesday it had hit users in North America.

The outage caused rage among customers, pushing them towards thinking about switching to other services. "I have been an analyst for 25 years and have watched RIM wrestle with this same outage problem time after time," Jeff Kagan

Head of Blackberry’s Parent Company, Mike Lazaridis, made a public apology saying, "We've let many of you down. But let me assure you that we're working around the clock to fix this."

While Lazaridis is assuring customers that they will get their service back, Competitors are trying to use Blackberry’s problem to attract customers to their phones, such as the iPhone.

Blackberry hopes to win over users with its new line of smart phones and tablet updates, set to be released next week.

Helicopter Crashes!

On October 4, 2011 a Helicopter holding five people crashed in New York’s East River, leaving one dead.

Although the exact cause of the accident has not yet been determined, Mayor Bloomberg told press "the helicopter was inverted, upside down.”

Before rescue teams showed up, four out five of the members aboard were able to get out including the pilot. The fifth person was a woman who was trapped inside, causing her to die.

The mayor claims that the helicopter did not have any “flotation device.” The helicopter was seen floating in the water as dozens of people looked on from the water’s edge.

Surfing As A Sport

Hawaii is known for its beautiful beaches, tremendous waves, and surfing. The tropical state is now recognizing surfing as an official school sport.

The idea was proposed many years ago, but has always been shut down due to budget cuts. Now schools in Hawaii are taking outside help to start an official surfing program, estimated to cost around $150,000 for all 46 schools.

The program is expected to hold competitions for the schools and individuals starting in 2013.

Neil Abercrombie, the governor of Hawaii, says, "Hawaii is the birthplace of surfing. From Duke Kahanamoku to the thousands of residents and visitors who surf both recreationally and competitively, the sport is rooted in our culture and way of life."

By making surfing an official sport, schools of Hawaii hope to provide a wide range of opportunities for young men and women.