"More gay and bisexual teens expelled and jailed"

A lot younger people in our communities today are now announcing and living openly gay, bisexual, or as a lesbian. This sounds like an improvement, but there are still many people that judge these kinds of people and are not accepting. Teenagers a bound to get in trouble at one point or another but those who have "a history of homosexual feelings or relaionships were between 30 and 50 percent more likely to be stopped by the police". About 4 percent would be convicted of crimes as adults. And these homosexual students were more likey to be expeled from school. Parents cannot do much for their homosexual teens, other then standing up for them. Just becuse of these teens sexual preferences they "suffer family violence or are harassed by their peers". A lot of this result in depression, commit suicide or even become homeless. Some of thse teens may feel to carry protection, such as small weapons. Our world is harsh and full of judgemental people who believe that people should act a certain way. People can't help, who or what they like. It just comes naturally, sure they may be consequences but they choose to be truthful with themselves and other. People say honesty is the best policy, but when some is honest about their sexual orientation they are constantly abused, boht mentally and physically. These teens don't deserve this kind of harrassment. Society needs to move on from this perfect kind of image, and realise people need to be individuals and take it as a good way.

Cited at The Province : http://www.theprovince.com/life/parenting/More+bisexual+teens+expelled+jailed/3933445/story.html
"More gay and bisexual teens expelled and jailed"
By Alion McCook

"Does lunch in front of a computer make us eat more?"

Society has turned into a multi-tasking world. Meaning many of us are eating infront of the television and/or the computer. Doesn't sound bad right, wrong. It is believed that if you eat with such distractions in front and around you, you tend to eat more then you need. "In a lab study of 44 men and women, researchers found that tose who ate lunch while playing a computer game ended up eating more cookies 30 minutes later than those who'd had their lunch with no distractions". Some reason may be because the brain has a "fuzzy" memory of what was had for lunch, compared to the group without any distractions. More food is consumed due to "poor memory". The group that was playing games on the computer could not remember the order in which their meals were served. When the other no distracted group could tell just fine. It seems that people are more focused on whats happening on the televion or computer rather then what their stomach is trying to tell them that they are full. I've never really thought about this theory, but now that it has been brought to my attention, it makes a lot of sense. I am one of those "multi-taskers" that eats infront of the TV or the computer, and i never really seem to be full. I am always snacking. I am not sure if it has to do with this study or just my personal appetite but it seems to make a lot of sense.

Cited at The Province : http://www.theprovince.com/health/Does+lunch+front+computer+make+more/3987669/story.html
"Does lunch in front of a computer make us eat more?"
By Amy Norton

"Immigrant who didn't tell sex partners he had HIV going to jail, then deported"

Clato Mabio is an HIV positive immigrant who has given a prison sentence of 10 more months in jail, and will be deported back to Sudan, Africa. He failed to notified two female sexual partner of his illness, now they are at "significant risk". "Mabior was originally convicted of sex couints of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to 14 years in prison." This sentence has been reduces, as he has already spent three and a half years in custody. Mabior was originally arrested in early 2006 which included at public warning by the police and Winnipeg Regional Heath Authority. After this announcemen several young women came women. He migrated to Canada in 2000, since then he has lived in the cities of Calgray, Vancouver, Toronto and Londan. It seems  that the fact he was able to keep his "condition hidden during consensual relations does not automatically make him guilty of sexual assault", also that there was no evidence that the women were infected by Mabior. A 15-year-old girl, who says she was one of Mabior's partners, claims that Mabior "lured her from a temporary Child and Family Services "shelter" inside a downtown Winnipeg hotel with the promise of drugs and alcohol". She was 13 at the time. This goes to show that this man is sick. He doesnt notify any partners of having HIV and also he is having intercourse with young teenagers. This man is highly inappropriate and deserves a "one-way ticket back to Africa upon his release from custody". There's nothing you really can do to preven these kind of things happening, unless you test each immagrant for different diseases, but that would be likely to cost the government a lot money and time. Which doesnt seem worth it. We just have to rely on peoples honesty, if they choose to be.

Cited at CBC News : http://www.cbc.ca/cp/health/EG647th.html
"Immigrant who didn't tell sex partners he had HIV going to jail, then deported".

Raising prices for citizens, lowering for homeless?

Recent studies at the University of Victoria say that BC liquor stores should raised their prices but yet, give free alcohol to the homeless. At first glance this seems like a ridiculous idea, but they have come up with some promising points. By raising prices it limits "excess drinking among young people and heavy drinkers, but liquor should be given free to homeless drunks to manage their consumption". Underage and heavy drinkers both prefer to drink cheaper beers and spirits, quality is not much of an issue to them. If liquor stores raise their prices, there will be less purchases of alcohol, therefor leading to "having fewer people dying, fewer punch-ups and fewer people admitted to the hospital". Alcohol has been rated most harmful of 20 psychoactive drugs, then following behind by heroin and crack cocaine. This is a surprise, considering alcohol is the one legal to sell, purchase and consume. Saskatchewan had raised their prices previously and it has seem to shown a significant difference. It makes to raise the price of alcohol for many reason. It will just be unfortunate to customers down the road, but people are working towards a better living for everyone, even if it costs a few dollars more than prefered.

Sited at The Province: http://www.theprovince.com/health/Make+booze+cheap+homeless+costly+everyone+else+Study/3990211/story.html
"Make booze cheap for homeless, costly for everyone else: Study"
By Cindy E. Harnett

Drinking + Driving =Tticket

B.C.'s had no exceptions for drunk drivers on our communities. Changing the limit from 0.08 BAC to 0.05 BAC has had a huge effect on drivers. Not only that but not the penalties are worse. Between late September and early December police have given 110 tickets to people drinking under the influence of alcohol. 52 of these people were "drivers who blew a "fail" on the police roadside screening device." Their penalty was a 90-day driving ban, and their cars were impounded for 30 days, with fines over a thousand dollars. If you refused to blow in the screening device you are charged with the same consequences. 50 people who blew the "warn" range, vehicles were impounded and had a 3 day ban off the road. Before the penalties were if you blew more than .05 BAC you would get away with a 24 hour suspension of your license. Things have changed dramatically, but is it really for the better? Yes, more people will be more cautious about driving under the influence to avoida ticket, but i don't believe these penalties will stop people from driving. Really whats happen is that people are just paying more, and now there is a lot more work for the cops. Due to paper work and days in court. Do these new rules really benefit anyone?

Sited at north shore news: http://www.nsnews.com/news/Drinking+driver+ticket+statistics/3980664/story.html

"Former Sutherland teacher charged with sexual"

Victor Wiens, 63, was charged with sexual offences against a female student in October of 2010. Wiens is a former teacher that taught at Sutherland Secondary for five years. He was charged with "sexual assault, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation against a teenaged girl." It is assumed that these incidents had occurred from December 2008 to July 2009.A school district employee "saw what they thougth was inappropriate touching between Wiens and a girl," during regular after school hours. One of these incidents were first reported on February 17, 2009. Wiens was placed on leave immediately, as police began to investigate. At this time there wasn't even evidence to charge him of anything. In September of 2010 new evidence of the case was found on the sex crimes. Charges were set on October 12th, 2010. He was released on bail under the conditions that he must have no contact with the alleged victim or the victims family, as well as anyone under the age of 18. A former student from Sutherland, Alex Fisher, spoke of Wiens' predicament as shocking. "Out of all the teacher there, I would never have expected Mr.Wiens to do something like this -- if it's true". I personally had Mr.Wiens as a teacher in grade 8, and i would never have thought of seeing Mr.Wiens doing what he is accused of. It goes to show that everyone has their faults and we all do makes mistake. When people thinking of pedophiles and teachers like this, they never think that it will happen in their own school. It is odd that not many peers noticed these things, it goes to show how oblivious people can be. If they don't want to believe in anything, they choose to ignore it.  

Sited on North Shore News : http://www.nsnews.com/Former+Sutherland+teacher+charged+with+sexual+assault/3673989/story.html

"Former Sutherland teacher charged with sexual assault"

By jseyd@nsnews.com

"McDonald's sued over Happy Meals"

Concerned parents decide to take action against McDonald's and their happy meals. It is believed that McDonald's is taking advantages of young children by advertising toys to go with their happy meals."Bergold described the restaurant's strategy in the magazine article as 'go after the kids'," forcing parents to sue. Parents are concerned that their children's health is at risk. A mother speaks of how her daughter insists on going to McDonald's to get the toys, such as Barbi, I-Carly, Shrek and Strawberry Shortcake. It gets harder and harder to say no to your children, making parents lives difficult. McDonald's spokeswoman Birdget Coffing stated: "WE are pourd of our Happy Meals and intend to vigorously defend our brand, our reputation and our food." She also claims that toys in happy meals aren't a trap to lure children's attention, but to provide a fun experience for kids and families. Which reaches attention to the parents that their children are more interested in the toys rather than the actual meal. McDonald's meals mainly consist of "fatty meat, fatty cheese, french fries, white flour and sugar," all these can easily lead to "weight gain, obesity, diabetes and heart disease -- and may lead to a lifetime of poor diets." This is true in the society today, there are many over weight children and teens nowadays due to the poor food and eating habits around each society. Fast food takes over home cook meals many times a week, due to busy schedules. Parents are sueing for a good cause but it seems somewhat ridiculous to sue McDonald's for promoting toys. It seems that this problem could be taken in a different way, not on such drastic measures.

Sited on CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/12/15/con-mcdonalds-suit.html
"McDonald's sued over Happy Meals"

"Aboriginal grad rates present a challenge"

When someone hears that a native drops out, it comes to no surprise to them. The difference between the enrollment in high school and ones who graduate is a large difference. The last graduation class in Squamish consisted of 35 graduates out of 47. This seems as a success rate, sadly. In previous years the graduates have been 11 our of 35, and the year before that 9 out of 20. Many aboriginal students drop about in or after grade 10. In 2007-2008 93 students entered great 10 but only 66 continued to grade 11.  People blame the past residential school experiences. "Aboriginal parents are sometimes not educated themselves and they can lack parenting skills because they were raised in residential schools, not by their own parents." It seems that people are trying to understand why this drop out rate is a common occurring, but it seem to me that they are only trying to find an excuse. "There is young pregnancy, and there are drugs and alcohol which lead to suspensions and sometimes, these students just don't come back". The is a more liable reason for such drop outs. There is a stereo type for first nation teenagers, "chugs", that consists of the things listed in the quote. Most known as alcoholics, teen parents, or for constant drug use. For children growing up on "the rez," they get this image that everything thinks they are scary. The fact that everyone thinks these things, this teenagers just think of it as an excuse to be lazy and not care about the future. To keep that stereo type alive. Dalious McCullough from Squamish Nation, is not one of these students. She successfully graduated from highschool and is enrolled for an undergraduate degree at UVIC. Her mother quoted "I provided a home that was drug and alcohol free and i told my daughter that education is an investment you are making for yourself. I think she understood that." The right parenting has all the difference, no matter what race you. I believe that a lot of the native community is in one word, lazy. This situation has definitely gotten better, but needs a lot of improvement.

Sited at http://www.thesquamishreporter.ca/index.php?id=66
"Aboriginal grad rates present a challenge"
By The Squamish Reporter

"Police: Remains found believed to be missing girl"

Human remains believed to be the daughter of John DeBlase were found in the woods off a rural in Citronelle, Alabama on December 11 2010 at about 9 a.m. by Kara Rose. John DeBlase "is charged of two counts of felony murder and two counts of corpse abuse". The Wednesday before, the police believe they have found the skeletal remains of DeBlase's 3-year-old son, Chase. DeBlase's daughter, Natalie, found on Saturday would have been 5 in November. Both children have been believed to be missing for months. DeBlase's wife, Heather Leavell-Keaton, is also suspected to be responsible for the murders. Though, she has only been charged of child abuse, not the actual murders. It has been stated that she would duct tape Natalie's hands and feet, put a sock in her mouth and put her in a suitcase in the closet for 14 hours. Also she is accused of "duct-taping [Chase's] hands to the side of his legs, strapping a broom handle to his back and shoving a sock in his mouth, then forcing him to stand in a corner all night while the adults went to bed". A month before the police found the remains, Leavell-Keaton had sought a protective order against DeBlase because she was a afraid that he would harm their new born child of last summer. Making police more suspicious. DeBlase's lawyers say he will plead not guilty due to mental disease and defect, which friends say that that is "certainly not without reason."

This is a tragic story about two unfortunate children who have been through so much abuse and then finally murdered. This article has stated no reason why DeBlase would want to murder his children. The children were murdered separately and had both dumped immediately. It seems this man had no remorse for his children's deaths or that he was the one who murdered them. The article isn't very clear if Leavall-Keaton is the mother of the two young children. It seems they were just brought into her life and she did not want to put up with them , so she just locked them away. She has no sympathy, she was willing to beat those poor children and then put all the blame on her husband, DeBlase, so she would not get in trouble. She uses the child they have together to help protect herself and keep the innocent role in this story. They both are at fault in this case, but unfortunately these things aren't so black and white. Lawyer have ways of bending the rules. The real question is not if they're guilty or not it's if the guilty will be punished properly.

Cited from Yahoo! News : http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_missing_children_alabama;_ylt=AuLLwtpj5a8uei3QFKCvXTWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTN2NzFmaGdjBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAxMjExL3VzX21pc3NpbmdfY2hpbGRyZW5fYWxhYmFtYQRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzQEcG9zAzEEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl9oZWFkbGluZV9saXN0BHNsawNwb2xpY2VyZW1haW4-
"Police: Remains found believed to be missing girl"
By Brian Skoloff - Sat Dec 11 2010

"Madoff son found dead in NYC in apparent suicide"

Bernard and Mark Madoff

  In the morning of Saturday, December 11 2010, ``Mark Madoff, 46, was found hanging from a ceiling pipe in the living room of his Soho loft apartment``. Mark Madoff is the son of Bernard Madoff, a financier that was arrested  for a multi billion dollar Ponzi scheme. This was the biggest investment fraud in U.S. history. It has been said that Bernard Madoff had been scamming investors money for over two decades. In doing this Bernard had made a profit estimated to be about $20 million dollars. Mark Madoff and his brother Andrew Madoff were suspected to be apart of the Ponzi scheme. After Bernard`s arrest, there was a noticeable change in Mark`s behavior, ``you could see somthing sharted to happen physicall, and he wasn`t as talkative.`` It became a concern to his wife, Stephanie, that something was wrong. After recieving an email by her husband late Friday night, Mark, while in Disney World with their 4-year-old daughter, "that someone should check on their 2-year-old son"

Bernard Madoff tried to take the easy route by making billions from scamming investors. But in the end he had to pay the consequences and so did his family, and their families. It would be assumed that Bernard had given money to his sons and wife, or whoever else. They may have thought nothing of it, or Bernard would have a reason why he had the money. Because Mark had such great amounts of money, Police suspected him of spending tremendous amounts of money on homes in NYC, Nantucket and Connecticut with the fraud money. Bernard family should have seen what was going for years, but maybe they did not want to accept such a thing. In a way they were being benefited, but nothing comes for free. Bernard is playing his consequences by ``serving a 150-year old prison sentence in North Carolina``. His wife and children are forced to deal with the publicity, lawyers and humiliation Bernard has put on the family. The sons claim that they knew nothing of their fathers scheme, but it didn't stop people from trying to blame them. This must have gotten to Mark Madoff, and make him feel so depressed that he was willing to kill himself and leave his family behind on the two year anniversary of his father arrest on December 11.

 Sited off Yahoo! News : 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_madoff_son;_ylt=Agk5nVaUgmDyq19RDaZn54Cs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNkMGptanFoBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAxMjExL3VzX21hZG9mZl9zb24EY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwMxBHBvcwMzBHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNmdWxsbmJzcHN0b3I-

"Madoff son found dead in NYC in apparent suicide"
By Colleen Long and Tom Hays, December 11 2010