Mass Shooting in Virginia Beach

By: Dane Ganis

On Friday, May 31st, another tragedy struck. An armed gunman entered a municipal building and opened fire on the 400 workers with a 0.45 caliber handgun with a silencer. This tragedy should not be taken lightly, having the highest amount of fatalities this year with a total of 12, and 4 injured. I will not be listing the name of the shooter but instead I will be listing the victims to not give this horrible act any recognition, the victims were…

Laquita C. Brown

Tara Welch Gallagher

Mary Louise Crustinger Gayle

Alexander Mikhail Gusev

Katherine A. Nixon

Richard H. Nettleton

Christopher Kelly Rapp

Ryan Keith Cox

Joshua O. Hardy

Michelle ‘Missy’ Langer

Robert ‘Bobby’ Williams

And Herbert ‘Bert’ Snelling

The immense loss of life we experienced last Friday should not be understated and we should send our best to the families of the victims. We should use this tragedy to learn from our mistakes and better ourselves as a nation.

Oregon Teacher Walkout

By: Dane Ganis

On May 8th, teachers in the state of Oregon plan to walk out in support of better funding for schools. Repeatedly, Oregon comes in 21%-34% below district recommended funding and teachers have had enough. It’s said that schools will lose upwards of 200 teachers, with not enough substitutes to cover, the hope for this strike is to get the state of Oregon to better fund schools and programs that help children. Some schools have even already cancelled school on the 8th, in hope of minimizing the damage but only time will tell.

Plastic bag ban in Portland

By: Dane Ganis

There has been recent discussion of expanding the Portland plastic bag ban statewide. Plastic bags are a convenient one time use way of transporting things, but they wreak havoc on the environment. They jam and shut down recycling machinery and account for ⅓ of all labor costs. Along with this, plastic bags account for most of the waste in Oregon's beaches and rivers. Portland hopes to expand this ban further to prevent the large amounts of waste already on Oregon's beaches.

New measles outbreak in the US

By: Dane Ganis

Measles has been long thought to be a exterminated disease but recently we have experienced the largest outbreak since 2000 when the vaccine was invented. However in the past 2 months there has been more than 387 cases between 15 states, people are encouraged to receive their MMR vaccine, but so far it hasn't been working. New York has been hit the worst by this outbreak resulting in their quarantine of all individuals under 18 without the MMR vaccine, people over 18 aren't required to receive their vaccines so people don't lose work. This quarantine has been met with a lot of protests of people saying it is against their constitutional right to not receive vaccines. The outbreak is said to be caused by an unvaccinated child visiting Israel which is currently in its own measles outbreak, no one has died from the outbreak but its only a matter of time. If you are unvaccinated, I strongly urge you to get your vaccines.

College Fraud Scandal

By: Dane Ganis

50 people stand accused of fraud in this recent college scandal. These people include actors, CEO’s, coaches, and SAT administrators. They’re accused of intentionally corrupting data in order for their children to be allowed in to some of the most prestigious colleges. USC recently announced they would be rejecting anyone that is connected to this scandal, this includes the daughter of Full House star Lori Loughlin or Aunt Becky on Full House who paid millions of dollars to influence her daughters SAT scores. Because of this, Stanford and Georgetown must also investigate criminal allegations against some of their staff members who have already moved on. Lori Loughlin’s bail bond of one million dollars was posted after her court appearance 13th of March, and will reappear in court on the 29th of March, in Boston.

The Future of Delivery

By: Dane Ganis

Recently, Amazon has made strides with their Amazon air delivery service. They were able to deliver their first package on December 7th, 2016 and the delivery was fully autonomous, which means there was no human pilot. This was just the start, however; they are currently testing with different delivery methods like on ground autonomous drones for heavier objects and safe, efficient drone delivery routes to keep it as safe and legal as possible. They’re working to keep within general aviation laws but who knows what could transpire in general use. The future is promising however with these companies promising delivery within 30 minutes of the order. Amazon isn't the only company, however, that is working on a new delivery form. FedEx has also been experimenting with on ground drones that can carry bulky packages. Who knows what the future of delivery holds but we can only hope for the best.

The 2020 Election Candidates

By: Dane Ganis

The 2020 election has been heating up recently with politicians announcing their candidacy. So far the list is pretty lengthy, but the highlights are our current president Donald Trump who filed for re-election on January 20th 2017 his inauguration.

Another candidate in the ring is a previous candidate from the 2016 elections Bernie Sanders, who announced his running for president on February 19th 2019. Some other notable candidates are Cory Booker, Pete Buttigige, Julian Castro, John Delany, Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Marianne Williamson, and Andrew Yang.

While the Democratic candidate has not yet been announced, there are many candidates in discussion, such as the previous Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. She's not the only one in discussion. There is mentions of Joe Biden, a former vice president potentially running with Beto O’Rourke, a representative from Texas along with a ton of other potential candidates, mainly including representatives from states, senators, and mayors and governors. This is sure to be a very heated and exciting election for all parties.