"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