Embedded Files
Local • National • International
A New Supreme Court Justice — Ketanji Brown Jackson
On April 7th, 2022, the first African American woman was confirmed to the Supreme Court. Ketanji Brown Jackson was born in Washington, DC, but was raised in Miami, Florida.
Jackson has traced her love of law back to sitting in her father’s office while he tackled his assignments from law school. As a child, Jackson stood out as a high achiever. She attended Harvard, graduating magna cum laude, and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law.
Jackson is the first African American woman to be chosen for the Supreme Court, winning by a 53-47 majority. She is also the third African American justice, and the sixth female justice to serve on the Supreme Court. Jackson’s appointment to the Supreme Court has a huge symbolic meaning to the entire nation, as law has often been used as an excuse for discrimination.
However, there are arguments from people voting against Jackson. They say that Jackson won’t denounce court-packing, which is an effort to add seats to the Supreme Court. She herself has testified that she’d be “thrilled to be one of however many." They also claim she’s been lenient in sentencing when it comes to child pornography cases. They further claim that Jackson isn’t the first African American woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court. The first African American woman, they claim, was Janice Rogers Brown, nominated by former President George W. Bush. This claim has been denied, though, as it’s been concluded that Bush was only considering nominating Brown, and ultimately nominated Justice Samuel Alito instead.
Despite this, Ketanji Brown Jackson has been nominated to the Supreme Court, and has become the first African American woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
Caitlyn P.
"Jaw-Dropping" Discovery Writes the Final Chapter to a 107-year-Old Antarctic Odyssey
An Antarctic Disaster
It’s 1915, and Sir Ernest Shackleton is attempting the first-ever land crossing of Antarctica. He and his crew of 27 are icebound on the “Endurance” when they realize their ship is sinking, and they would too if they didn’t take action.
“Jaw-Dropping”
Fast forward to January 5, 2022, the veteran Polar geographer, Dr. John Shears, and his team finally discovered the shipwreck of the “Endurance” 3 km under the surface of the Weddell Sea. John Shears and his team called this experience” Jaw dropping.”(Amos, 2022) After all, it was a conclusion to a 107-year-old odyssey.
“The Stuff of Legends”
Sir Ernest Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish explorer who embarked on the first land crossing of the Antarctic in August 1914. The crew sailed to the Weddell Sea, and in December 1914, became stuck in sea ice. Over the course of 10 months, the ice was slowly breaking the ship. So finally, on October 27, 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton ordered the crew to abandon ship. The ship sank on November 25, 1915, and the crew escaped on foot, and by lifeboat. On April 14, 1916, they got to Easter Island. On April 24, 10 days later, Shackleton and 5 crew members left for help, sailing 800 miles, for 17 days, encountering tidal waves over 100 ft tall. When they landed on the island of South Georgia, Shackleton and two crew members trekked 36 hours, reaching Stromness station on May 20th. Following several failed efforts, the crew was rescued August 30th,1916 with a tugboat lent to them by the Chilean government. All 28 crew members survived.
Found at Last
Over time, the legend of the escape made the Endurance shipwreck famous. Unfortunately, it was also one of the hardest to find. Although the general location of the shipwreck was already known, it was getting to it that was the hard part. The ship was on the floor of the Weddell Sea, which was covered in a thick layer of sea ice. Unfortunately for the environment, and fortunately for this discovery, the ice caps were the lowest ever recorded, so Shears and crew took advantage, and found the Endurance. Why they didn’t find the shipwreck until the exact 100th anniversary of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s funeral, I really don't know. Maybe his ghost pointed the way.
Averie C.
"Underwater Robots Find Shackleton's Endurance Shipwreck in the Atlantic"
BBC News • 9 March 2022
Gas Prices Soar in California
Gas prices have been rising all across California. Other parts of the U.S have high prices for gas too, but here, they have been going sky high. In some places, the cost has gone over seven dollars. But why?
The reason is unclear, but there are many reasons why it could be happening. Delivery issues could be part of the reason. Many people have been quitting their jobs, so companies often don’t have enough staff. This would make getting a lot of gas from one place to the other more difficult. Buying oil from Russia has also been banned byPresident Joe Biden, due to the invasion of Ukraine, and that is making getting the oil we need for gas more difficult to get, therefore the rise in prices.
A couple weeks ago on March 23, Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, suggested that people could get four-hundred dollars for gas for each registered car they own. Other politicians have suggested halting the rocketing prices.
Luckily, some places, like Los Angeles, already have gas prices that are lowering, and hopefully, they’ll all be back to normal soon.
Trixie B.
All Over the World, Planes Are Flying Empty "Ghost Flights"
All over the world, planes are traveling from airport to airport. But only some of those planes are carrying passengers. Many of them are empty.
Why are airlines flying empty “ghost flights”?
Last December, at Frankfurt Airport in Germany, about 890 aircraft left the airport or landed there each day. So the whole month would have meant that 27,591 aircraft left or landed at Frankfurt Airport. But, according to Lufthansa, the national airline of Germany, a large portion of those flights were empty - about 21,000! That’s more than half the amount of flights flown last December! And Lufthansa is the only airline that has admitted to flying empty flights, other airlines might be doing the same but haven’t said anything about it yet.
The airlines are doing this to keep airport slots. Airport slots are there because there is a shortage of capacity at airports, so planes can’t travel to whatever airport they want. Instead, they have to claim slots in an area so they can carry passengers. Currently, the demand for slots is much greater than the number of slots available, so different airlines have to compete for slots. And that is where the problem arises. If one airline has claimed a slot to travel from New York to London, but the airline doesn’t currently have any aircraft in New York, and the aircraft is in France, the aircraft will have to travel an empty flight to New York in order to claim the slot. The flight is empty because the airline does not have a slot to travel from France to New York.
Unfortunately, the “ghost flights” are impacting the climate, and not in a good way. According to an analysis made by the organization Greenpeace, if every single airline in Europe was flying “ghost flights”, so far this year over 100,000 planes would be traveling without passengers. And that would produce as much carbon dioxide as 1.4 million gas-operated cars would!
Some people believe that the issue with the “ghost flights” has been over exaggerated and overhyped, while others believe that it is not, that the issue is very serious and could potentially cause great damage to our environment.
“These airlines probably don’t want to do it, but they’re backed into a corner,” says James Pearson, who works for Simple Flying as a route analyst. “They have no option but to do it.”
Liani R.
Report abuse