Current Event Quiz 1.3

1. Pope Francis stated that Congress needed to "break out of its cycle of polarization and paralysis and use its power to heal the “open wounds” of a planet torn by hatred, greed, poverty and pollution." His speech was made to Congress and was historic because it was the first time a pope had ever addressed Congress. The pope was invited to make the speech by Speaker of the House, John Boehner, who is Catholic. The article illustrates the huge interest in this address by telling how many people came to see the address, which was in the tens of thousands. 

2. It was debated whether the referee actually made the remarks that allegedly caused the attack. Some people think he did but others say he didn't. The two football players will be allowed to return to John Jay High School on January 15th but Breed has resigned. The chairman of the committee,  Mike Motheral was frustrated that the referee and the two football players did not appear during the meeting, even though they were the people most involved in the incident.

3. The relocation of 6th grade teacher, John Wetherold, caused the parents and students to protest. Wetherold was relocated to "level out" the student to teacher ratio within the district. This hurt the 6th grade at Maplewood Elementary because now students have fewer teachers which means that they'll get less individual attention. A similar protest at Bryker Woods Elementary (aka MY elementary school holla) resulted in the teacher that was going to be relocated being able to stay.

4. Senator John Whitmire asked if the law that will allow holstered firearms to be carried in the open will be extended to school properties. The law in question takes effect on January 1st, 2016. Sen. Whitmire has interpreted to be that school would be allowed to ban guns in outside areas but is not sure if this is correct because it, often, state gun laws do not consider areas such as sidewalks or parking lots to be premises where guns can be banned. The office of Senator Paxton has 180 days to answer Sen. Whitmire's question but that might not matter because the law will take effect in about 100 days anyway.

5. 700 people were killed and 800 people were injured by a stampede during a hajj pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Health Minister, Khalid al-Falih, has stated that the stampede might have been caused by unruly pilgrims unwilling to follow rules and guidelines that were implemented to keep people safe. I think the topic was well covered but they could've stated the probable cause of the incident earlier in the article because it was towards the end and I spent the whole article wondering what caused this to happen, which distracted me.

6. I think that the elements that make up an obituary are human interest, prominence, timeliness, and sometimes proximity and novelty but not always (it depends on who the person is). In an obituary, you read about the person's life, their accomplishments, significant things that happened to them, and who they're survived by (siblings, parents, and/or children). You might expect an obituary to tell you the circumstances of the person's death but it almost never says. I think that it's often a first assignment because it's easy to research and straightforward to write, which might actually make it a quite boring assignment too so it makes sense to assign it to an inexperienced reporter.