Right to Education?

Today while I was on Yahoo, I found an article with the headline, "3,100 Kindergarteners Waitlisted at Local Schools" and couldn't believe that.  The article states that it is around 1,000 more than last year and most of this is occurring Queens, but other parts of NY as well.  The government needs to somehow control this because I believe that everyone should have a right to education.  Being waitlisted at a college is understandable because usually people have other options but these little 4 year olds need a place to learn and it has to be accessible for them.  The last paragraph of the article reads, 


"The [Department of Education] is responsible for making sure there are enough seats in the local schools - that is their reason for being," said Councilwoman Jessica Lappin, who represents the upper East Side. "They definitely should have seen this coming."


Something needs to be done about this, such as funding to build more schools.  I also found another article 


http://gothamschools.org/2011/03/30/kindergarten-wait-lists-lengthen-as-more-families-apply/


^this again talks about kindergarteners being waitlisted - there are many different articles and I think that this is an issue that needs to be carefully looked at because it is extremely important that children receive education when they are young and can then have the opportunity to go to elementary school.

What Is Going On With Our Healthcare???

So recently, I have decided to Tweet about our healthcare and what is going on right now.  A few days ago I read an article on CNN, "Health Care Law Turns One" and I found it to be very interesting and informative.  Since the article was short, I have decided to paste it here, along with the link -

Capitol Hill (CNN) – One year ago today, the House of Representativesnarrowly but decisively passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 221-219. Within days, the health care bill was signed by the president and became, as it is now, Public Law 111-148.

But implementation of some of the bigger health reform chunks is not going as expected.

This week in American Sauce, we drill down to specifics on what is happening with the health care law now. Example: those temporary high-risk pools, set up to help the uninsured before bigger reforms kick in, are not doing that well. Demand is 1/30th of what the Feds expected.

And state capitals across the country are struggling to make pivotal decisions about their role in the new health care system. State governments face deadlines within months but insist that Washington has yet to give them the guidance they need. In this week's show, we talk to a state health director for an on-the-ground account of how the massive health care bill is/is not becoming reality.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/21/american-sauce-health-care-law-turns-one/

Healthcare is a big issue that is happening in America every day - everyone should have healthcare and I am glad that it was passed.  However, many things involving healthcare are not necessarily covered by the insurance companies.  In another article that I read, all of these random costs add up to be $363 BILLION dollars.  So yes, the healthcare billed was signed but Americans are still spending billions of dollars from their pockets to pay for certain healthcare costs.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/23/news/economy/health_care_hidden_costs/index.htm?hpt=Sbin

Above is the link to the article that I found - "Healthcare's Hidden Costs".  I think this is a problem that needs to be looked at and we need to find solutions to this problem.  Should insurance companies have more coverage?  Should these things be included in the healthcare bill?  

Drunk Driving Needs to End

So I was searching around for a good link to put on my blog, having to do with our world and what is going on.  I found many political articles and things about the government/environment and they were all really interesting.  But then I found an article about a woman being arrested for drunk driving...she used to be a MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) member.  This really hit me because here I was looking at all of these articles about people dying in earthquakes or from starvation when this lady could have killed people by driving under the influence.  


Our government needs to do something more effective to stop drunk driving and I think it is a big issue that continues to occur.  


Here is the link - and I found so many other articles about drunk driving and people die every day from this; innocent people that happen to be driving near the drunk driver.


http://www.news4jax.com/news/26995025/detail.html

Racism Needs to Stop

Shawna Forde -Anti-Immigration Vigilante

What is going on in our country?  Shawna Forde murdered an innocent 9 year old girl and her father because they were Latino.  ...they were both US citizens


I found this article to be very interesting because it shows how racist people still are these days. Forde had no reason to kill these poor innocent people and I think people like Forde need to be more accepting of people with different racial backgrounds - they weren't even illegal immigrants!

About ME!

Hey everyone! Welcome to my current events blog!!!


A little bit about me: my name is Sophia Gumbardo and I live in Southbury, CT.  I have two dogs, a lizard, a puffer fish and 3 shark catfish.  I snowboard, wakeboard and play field hockey and lacrosse.  I am a senior and currently don't know where I'm going to college but I'm really excited to be taking AP Gov!  It's an awesome class so far and I can't wait to learn more about our government.  


What I'll be posting: I want to put up articles about what is going on with our government, as well as other events happening throughout the world.  I believe that people in our country need to be more educated about what is going on in other parts of our world and it is very important to raise awareness.


Why Gov? I love marine biology, which is what I plan on studying in college and I love learning about environmental issues.  That made me want to learn more about what is going on these days in general and I like discussing issues that are occurring in our world.  I hope you enjoy my blog!


-Sophia-