Name: Zanna
Current Event Posting #1
Topic: Economy
Title of Article:Why the unemployment rate will fail
Author: Tami Luhby
Publication Name: CNN
There is talk that the unemployment rate could fall in the upcoming months. There are many people that are starting to lose their federal extended unemployment benefits (more than a half million people). Which means the people who lose their benefits will take any job to make ends meet. It can also mean that they'll just stop working completely. The program that grants the federal extended benefits provides jobless people with up to 20 weeks of unemployment checks after they've gone through their state and federal "emergency" benefits. The reason for these benefits suddenly expiring is because the country's economy is getting better. To be eligible for the unemployment benefits, "a state must show that its unemployment rate is at least 10% higher than it was in at least one of the past three years". The jobless have been finding new work or just dropping out of the work force completely which has led to a decrease in the unemployment rates. More than 400,000 people have already lost their extended benefits, while more than 115,000 more will see their payments disappear over the summer. With the sudden drop in unemployment benefits it will encourage people to take lower paying jobs, simply because they don't take as long to accept you for work. Many people will just drop out of the workforce, go back to school, or some will even have to retire earlier than they planned. "With the way things are going, the unemployment rate could drop as much as 50% over the next year dude to the loss of these benefits" said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. He thinks that cessation will force more younger workers to take available jobs, which is a good thing.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Jeffrey L
Topic: Health
Title of Article: College drops health care plan over religious objections to new law
Posting #4
Publication name: CNN
Author: Dan Gillgoff
Date of Publication: May 16th 2012
Length of article: 531 words, 2 pages
As part of a new health care act, the Obama Administration has mandated that all insurance companies must provide service for anything pertaining to women's health, including contraceptives, birth control, sterilization, and abortion causing medication. In response to this act, the Franciscan Catholic University has recently decided to drop its school health care for the students due to disagreements with Obama's health care plan. Obama's health care plan requires that insurance companies cover contraceptives and birth control of any form for its patients but Franciscan University strictly believes this is a violation of their faith. Over 200 of the schools students who rely on the $50 a month cost of the plan are now left un-insured. Obama has sought a compromise with Franciscan and other Catholic schools with similar objections by revising a rule and requiring the health care insurance companies and not the employers to provide contraceptive coverage in an attempt to mollify the Catholic critics. This however did not succeed as many Catholic groups remain unsatisfied with this change. The Catholic school believes that since they are the ones paying for the insurance coverage of the students, they can decide whether or not to use a coverage that may possibly go against their beliefs. Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has been representing three similar Catholic schools in challenging the new health care act. They however, were unaware that Franciscan has taken a similar approach.
Although, dropping its own health care plan can prove disastrous for the students that have been relying on it, Franciscan has been receiving support from many of the students. 95% of the students there and their families are Catholic and such believe in the course of action being taken. It is however unjust that they completely leave those students who depend on the health insurance without a life boat. Because of the school's moral disagreements with the health care act, they have punished the students.
Andrew D.
Current Event #4
Topic: Science/Technology
Psychiatric Mislabeling Is Bad for Your Mental Health
Allen Frances
Huffington Post
May 14, 2012
Article length: 1 page approximately
Mental illness can have a taxing affect on an individual. For many the mental illness can be fairly unknown to them as they struggle to understand themselves. It is in the knowledge of understanding and diagnosing one's mental illness that helps with coping and dealing with the illness. Just the knowledge is empowering to encourage a person to work through treatment. Many misdiagnosis, however, are common as well. Misdiagnosis has the opposite affect to someone than diagnosis to an actually afflicted person. The diagnoses that are most often harmfully misapplied are schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, ADHD, and autism. Misdiagnosis cause unneeded worries and lower of self confidence which could serious harm a person. Furthermore the release of DSM 5, manual to diagnosis mental illness, has proven to be extremely inaccurate and will further cause unnecessary harm to people.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allen-frances/psychiatric-mislabeling-is-bad-for-your-mental-health_b_1504750.html?ref=science
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Name: Kenny
Blog posting number 4
Topic: Politic
Title of Article:Florida Catholic School considers dropping student health plan, on heels of Ohio
Author: Judson Beger
Publication Date: May 14, 2012
Length of Article: 539 words
Ohio school's decision to abandon its student health insurance plan. Another Catholic university in Florida is considering whether to follow the plan. The school is having both moral and economic concerns. University officials plan to meet Monday to discuss their insurance options and potentially make a decision. The expected amount of money of insurance is increasing. The first stage is at least 100,000. Towey said that lots of students are covered by their parents' plans but not all. " Parents who don't have a health plan-- then these students are out there" Towey has sued Obama administration over the contraception mandate.Towy said his school finds the mandate "repugnant" but he expressed economic concerns regarding the expected premium increase. He said school should drop the student insurance plan.
Not only in Ohio, but also many schools have the problem of dropping student health insurance. Every schools is low on their budget to provide health care. But there are still a lot of schools think they should keep health insurance. Nick Alexopulous, spokesman with Loyola University Maryland, said " we are not considering dropping our student health insurance plan." Sooner of later, this is going to a problem to every schools. Recently, colleges have raise the tuition. We need to be aware of this situation.
Blog posting number 4
Topic: Politic
Title of Article:Florida Catholic School considers dropping student health plan, on heels of Ohio
Author: Judson Beger
Publication Date: May 14, 2012
Length of Article: 539 words
Ohio school's decision to abandon its student health insurance plan. Another Catholic university in Florida is considering whether to follow the plan. The school is having both moral and economic concerns. University officials plan to meet Monday to discuss their insurance options and potentially make a decision. The expected amount of money of insurance is increasing. The first stage is at least 100,000. Towey said that lots of students are covered by their parents' plans but not all. " Parents who don't have a health plan-- then these students are out there" Towey has sued Obama administration over the contraception mandate.Towy said his school finds the mandate "repugnant" but he expressed economic concerns regarding the expected premium increase. He said school should drop the student insurance plan.
Not only in Ohio, but also many schools have the problem of dropping student health insurance. Every schools is low on their budget to provide health care. But there are still a lot of schools think they should keep health insurance. Nick Alexopulous, spokesman with Loyola University Maryland, said " we are not considering dropping our student health insurance plan." Sooner of later, this is going to a problem to every schools. Recently, colleges have raise the tuition. We need to be aware of this situation.
Coffee Drinkers May Live Longer
Name: Josie
Current Event Posting Number: 4
Topic: Health
Title of Article: Coffee Drinkers May Live Longer
Author: Tara Parker-Pope
Publication Name: New York Times
Date of Publication: May 14, 2012
Length of Article: 10 paragraphs, 2 pages
A recent study shows that drinking more coffee is linked to having a lower risk of dying of a variety of diseases. The study was written and investigated by Neal D. Freedman from the National Institute of Health and was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Their exact findings were taken from surveying 229,199 men and 173,141 women aging 50-71 years old. This made it the largest study ever done on the relationship between coffee consumption and health. The people they surveyed were from AARP and they followed them from 1995 to 2008, and by that point 52,000 had died. Although coffee is a stimulant that can increase heart rate and blood pressure temporarily, it also has many unique compounds and antioxidants that could be beneficial to health. Researchers learned that the more coffee a person consumed, the less likely he or she was likely to die from a myriad of health problems including diabetes, heart diseases, respiratory diseases, strokes and infections. A problem that arose when conducting this experiment was that the regular coffee drinkers in the group were also more likely to be smokers, eat more red meat and fewer fruits and vegetables, exercise less, and drink more alcohol. This would sway the results in that it would make it seem as though the people who drank more coffee were less healthy and at a higher risk for diseases. Once researchers controlled for those risks, the data showed that coffee was in fact beneficial to health. Freedman cautioned that the findings were only observational, and that there was an association between coffee consumption and lower risk for disease but they do not know that coffee will lead to better health. Drinking coffee has been considered a risky thing to do for a long time, but these findings provide reassurance for coffee drinkers that this is not the case. During the 14-year study they discovered that the risk of dying was about 10% less for men and 15% less for women who drank from 2-6 cups of coffee a day. The next step the researchers plan on taking is to learn more about the 1,000+ different types of compounds in coffee and to see which ones are causing a beneficial affect. Scientists believe that it could be either one, or a mixture of these compounds that could affect health. They want to discover this more because they want to see if they could possibly use these compounds in new medicines to help treat patients with heart or respiratory disease for example.
Current Event Posting Number: 4
Topic: Health
Title of Article: Coffee Drinkers May Live Longer
Author: Tara Parker-Pope
Publication Name: New York Times
Date of Publication: May 14, 2012
Length of Article: 10 paragraphs, 2 pages
A recent study shows that drinking more coffee is linked to having a lower risk of dying of a variety of diseases. The study was written and investigated by Neal D. Freedman from the National Institute of Health and was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Their exact findings were taken from surveying 229,199 men and 173,141 women aging 50-71 years old. This made it the largest study ever done on the relationship between coffee consumption and health. The people they surveyed were from AARP and they followed them from 1995 to 2008, and by that point 52,000 had died. Although coffee is a stimulant that can increase heart rate and blood pressure temporarily, it also has many unique compounds and antioxidants that could be beneficial to health. Researchers learned that the more coffee a person consumed, the less likely he or she was likely to die from a myriad of health problems including diabetes, heart diseases, respiratory diseases, strokes and infections. A problem that arose when conducting this experiment was that the regular coffee drinkers in the group were also more likely to be smokers, eat more red meat and fewer fruits and vegetables, exercise less, and drink more alcohol. This would sway the results in that it would make it seem as though the people who drank more coffee were less healthy and at a higher risk for diseases. Once researchers controlled for those risks, the data showed that coffee was in fact beneficial to health. Freedman cautioned that the findings were only observational, and that there was an association between coffee consumption and lower risk for disease but they do not know that coffee will lead to better health. Drinking coffee has been considered a risky thing to do for a long time, but these findings provide reassurance for coffee drinkers that this is not the case. During the 14-year study they discovered that the risk of dying was about 10% less for men and 15% less for women who drank from 2-6 cups of coffee a day. The next step the researchers plan on taking is to learn more about the 1,000+ different types of compounds in coffee and to see which ones are causing a beneficial affect. Scientists believe that it could be either one, or a mixture of these compounds that could affect health. They want to discover this more because they want to see if they could possibly use these compounds in new medicines to help treat patients with heart or respiratory disease for example.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Name: Max
Current Event Posting #4
Topic: Economy
Title: Facebook raises share price range after strong demand
Author: BBC
Publication Name: BBC
Day of Publication: May 15. 2012
Length: 500 words
Facebook, only a mere 8 years old, already has 900 million users worldwide. Last year alone, Facebook made $1 billion. With success can only come investors, and high demand for the Facebook stocks has pushed Facebook to raise the price. Currently, Facebook sells its shares for $28 to $35, but the price was raised to $34-$38. This change has raised Facebook's total value to above $100 billion. This makes Facebook worth more than US corporate giants Disney, Ford, and Kraft Foods, and rivals Amazon's current worth of $100 billion. Facebook hopes to sell 337.4 million shares, for a total profit of $12.1 billion if investors buy at the mid-point of $36. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder, still remains in control of the company despite the flotation, controlling over 57.3% of the voting power through his own shares and through voting agreements with other shareholders. Despite Facebook's apparent success, many question its ability to maintain a steady profit. Currently, Facebook makes only $1 billion, 1% of its prospective market value. Last month, Facebook reported a drop in revenue between quarters, a first of its kind for 2 years. In response, Facebook plans to invest more in the mobile market, an area that Facebook believes has the most potential. Facebook is still in the process of buying Instagram, a popular mobile app for photo sharing and editing, for $1 billion.
Since Facebook's creation in 2004, the social network boom has been unprecedented. Gaining almost 1 billion users in a mere 8 years, Facebook is a global icon as both a social network and a successful company. Its clear that, despite its already enormous gains, Facebook is still steadily growing. However, there are still signs that make me doubt this legacy of unbelievable profit can continue. With Facebook reporting its first loss in revenue in 2 years, its possible that the market for social networking has begun to slow, and I believe it was a smart choice for Facebook to make the move into the mobile industry. Nonetheless, Facebook's increase in share value is a clear indication of the companies success and its continued success for many years into the future.
Current Event Posting #4
Topic: Economy
Title: Facebook raises share price range after strong demand
Author: BBC
Publication Name: BBC
Day of Publication: May 15. 2012
Length: 500 words
Facebook, only a mere 8 years old, already has 900 million users worldwide. Last year alone, Facebook made $1 billion. With success can only come investors, and high demand for the Facebook stocks has pushed Facebook to raise the price. Currently, Facebook sells its shares for $28 to $35, but the price was raised to $34-$38. This change has raised Facebook's total value to above $100 billion. This makes Facebook worth more than US corporate giants Disney, Ford, and Kraft Foods, and rivals Amazon's current worth of $100 billion. Facebook hopes to sell 337.4 million shares, for a total profit of $12.1 billion if investors buy at the mid-point of $36. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder, still remains in control of the company despite the flotation, controlling over 57.3% of the voting power through his own shares and through voting agreements with other shareholders. Despite Facebook's apparent success, many question its ability to maintain a steady profit. Currently, Facebook makes only $1 billion, 1% of its prospective market value. Last month, Facebook reported a drop in revenue between quarters, a first of its kind for 2 years. In response, Facebook plans to invest more in the mobile market, an area that Facebook believes has the most potential. Facebook is still in the process of buying Instagram, a popular mobile app for photo sharing and editing, for $1 billion.
Since Facebook's creation in 2004, the social network boom has been unprecedented. Gaining almost 1 billion users in a mere 8 years, Facebook is a global icon as both a social network and a successful company. Its clear that, despite its already enormous gains, Facebook is still steadily growing. However, there are still signs that make me doubt this legacy of unbelievable profit can continue. With Facebook reporting its first loss in revenue in 2 years, its possible that the market for social networking has begun to slow, and I believe it was a smart choice for Facebook to make the move into the mobile industry. Nonetheless, Facebook's increase in share value is a clear indication of the companies success and its continued success for many years into the future.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Name: Cassie
Current Event Posting #4
Topic: Civil Rights
Title: Obama Says Gay Marriage Stance ‘The Right Thing to do,’ Courts Women, Gay, Young Voters in NYC
Author: Associated Press
Publication Name: Washington Post
Day of Publication: May 14. 2012
Length: 2 pages
President Barack Obama recently declared his support for same-sex marriage saying "That doesn't weaken families. It strengthens families". Aiming for appeal towards women, young people, and gays/lesbians, he gave a commencement address at Barnard College, a women's college, and held an interview with "The View", a day-time talk show mainly for women. While these audiences have supported him through the 2008 election, Democrats hope that Obama's new embrace for gay marriage will encourage and re-energize previous supporters. With his new competition, Republican Ritt Romney, Obama plans on focusing on those groups, under the belief that “At root, so much of this has to do with a belief that not only are we all in this together but all of us are equal in terms of dignity and in terms of respect, and everybody deserves a shot,”. He has begun taking action as he called for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as commitment between a man and a woman. During his address at Barnard College, he recognized women as the ones who will "help lead the way", gaining women's support, giving him a leading advantage over Romney with 54% over Romney's 39% women voters. He also encouraged young people to fight through the nation's challenges and look up to history's leaders who have worked through them in the past. Overall, Obama's recent declarations have won support as shown through surveys revealing 19% of voters gaining favoritism towards Obama.
Obama has been an inspiration through his reign as president, making history as the first African-American President, now fighting for equality within sexual orientation, and the persistence of women and young people. While Congress may not currently agree with Obama's actions towards the Defense of Marriage Act, Obama is making a distinct effort in improving the lives of the mistreated, and will continue on with his encouragement and support of the people. Although controversy also exists between voters of different ages, as a shown 42% over the age of 65 view the president less favorably, Obama still strives to live in an equal society, despite the difference that exits.
Current Event Posting #4
Topic: Civil Rights
Title: Obama Says Gay Marriage Stance ‘The Right Thing to do,’ Courts Women, Gay, Young Voters in NYC
Author: Associated Press
Publication Name: Washington Post
Day of Publication: May 14. 2012
Length: 2 pages
President Barack Obama recently declared his support for same-sex marriage saying "That doesn't weaken families. It strengthens families". Aiming for appeal towards women, young people, and gays/lesbians, he gave a commencement address at Barnard College, a women's college, and held an interview with "The View", a day-time talk show mainly for women. While these audiences have supported him through the 2008 election, Democrats hope that Obama's new embrace for gay marriage will encourage and re-energize previous supporters. With his new competition, Republican Ritt Romney, Obama plans on focusing on those groups, under the belief that “At root, so much of this has to do with a belief that not only are we all in this together but all of us are equal in terms of dignity and in terms of respect, and everybody deserves a shot,”. He has begun taking action as he called for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as commitment between a man and a woman. During his address at Barnard College, he recognized women as the ones who will "help lead the way", gaining women's support, giving him a leading advantage over Romney with 54% over Romney's 39% women voters. He also encouraged young people to fight through the nation's challenges and look up to history's leaders who have worked through them in the past. Overall, Obama's recent declarations have won support as shown through surveys revealing 19% of voters gaining favoritism towards Obama.
Obama has been an inspiration through his reign as president, making history as the first African-American President, now fighting for equality within sexual orientation, and the persistence of women and young people. While Congress may not currently agree with Obama's actions towards the Defense of Marriage Act, Obama is making a distinct effort in improving the lives of the mistreated, and will continue on with his encouragement and support of the people. Although controversy also exists between voters of different ages, as a shown 42% over the age of 65 view the president less favorably, Obama still strives to live in an equal society, despite the difference that exits.
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