INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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Nex Benedict
February 22, 2024
Ryan Thomas
Staff Reporter
Content Warning: This article discusses sensitive topics, including transphobia, violent hate crimes, and death.
Nex Benedict was a 16-year-old non-binary student enrolled at Owasso High School. On February 7, 2024, Nex Benedict was beaten in a public school bathroom in what has been labelled by LGBTQ+ advocacy groups as a hate crime. Nex died the next day.
Medical examiners are still trying to determine the exact cause of death but have since ruled out the physical trauma resulting from the beating. The cause of death is currently unknown, but medical examiners are still awaiting results from a blood toxicology report that may provide more details.
But does it make a difference? A trans kid gets hate-crimed and dies the next day. Regardless of the official cause of death, the students who beat Nex are responsible. No charges have been pressed yet, and it is unclear at this point whether the accused students will be charged at all. Nex’s family could try to press charges for a hate-crime, but Oklahoma law does not have a provision that qualifies crimes motivated by “gender identity” as legally recognized “hate crimes”.
There was recently a federal trial for the murder of a transgender woman named Dime Doe. This was the first transgender-hate-crime case to go to court and could potentially set a precedent for other courts to follow. The jury ruled that the defendant did kill the victim because of her gender identity. While there have been federal protections in place for years, they have often been ignored, so it is incredibly refreshing to see the rights of transgender Americans upheld. Hopefully this ruling will set a precedent that allows Nex and countless other trans people to get justice.
Image Credit: Freedom Oklahoma
Expensive HealthCare
February 26, 2024
Andrea Zamora
Staff Reporter
Why is healthcare so expensive in America? The USA is the highest spending country worldwide when it comes to spending money on healthcare. In America, the cost for one person to get healthcare is about 13,493 dollars. Compared to other countries in the US it cost 4,000 more. And that is just for one person. Imagine you are a family of 4 or 5. That's a lot of money. Many people wonder why it costs so much since it would not cost as much in other countries.
When you go to the doctor’s, it’s already expensive. And most of the time, they add random charges which makes the bill higher. Sometimes people can’t afford other things like food or rent after paying their healthcare bill. Also, some people can’t afford healthcare, so they don’t get access to what they need. That can have serious consequences for their health. It’s important for people to be able to get healthcare without breaking their bank.
People ask why it even costs so much for healthcare since other countries don’t have to pay as much. Healthcare costs more since technology has become more advanced. Another reason why it’s so expensive is because of the rising cost of inflation. Because of inflation everting has gone up and so has healthcare.
Image Credit: https://www.hoover.org/research/why-health-care-so-expensive-0
Fukushima: How Did It Happen?
February 23, 2024
Jackson Unger
Staff Reporter
Located in the Fukushima prefecture in Japan – 150 miles north of Tokyo, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant supplied power to more than 200,000 people. On March 11th, 2011, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake occurred on the northeast coast of Honshu, Japan according to the United States Geographical Survey. All six nuclear reactors had been shut down and maintained by diesel generators due to the earthquake. However, 30 minutes later a 50-foot-tall tsunami crashed over the wave breakers and swamped the power plant’s generators leading to one of the most dangerous nuclear disasters in history.
“More than 160,000 people were evacuated following the tsunami and nuclear accident” according to the World Nuclear Association website. All of which was unfortunately preventable.
The reactors were boiling water reactors designed and built by General Electric that relied on diesel generators to recirculate coolant water inside the core in the event of an accident. However, the engineers that designed the layout for these reactors stationed the generators five meters below water level. When the tsunami struck, every building was quickly swamped, suffocating the generators preventing cold water from entering the core resulting in the nuclear fuel melting.
In the following days, several explosions were caused by a buildup of hydrogen inside the reactor containment building according to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. To prevent another explosion inside the reactor vessel, engineers decided to begin venting gases into the atmosphere to reduce the risk of fallout. This has brought some major concern to environmentalist groups, but according to operators, it was required to prevent a greater disaster.
Overall, it can be determined that the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi was caused by inadequate emergency measures and poor engineering, rather than the concept of nuclear energy being disastrous.
Image Credit: History.com / Fukushima Disaster
February 29, 2024
Rachel Mealy
Staff Reporter
A man has been convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a Glendale church custodian. The close-knit community was left in shock as the details of this incident unfolded.
The victim, a dedicated custodian serving the Glendale community, was found brutally murdered in the sacred confines of the church. The crime sent shockwaves through the peaceful Arizona neighborhood leaving residents grappling with the loss of a beloved church member.
The investigation was led by the Glendale police and the Arizona family. They quickly found the suspect in the murder and found the evidence that led them to this belief. “Glendale police found evidence that another gunshot was fired through Woodruff’s car door, but only one shell casing was found near him” (AZ Family 3). The prosecutor represents the suspect of the crime and leading to a conviction that shook the community to its core.
The motive behind this act remains unclear, leaving friends and family of the victim searching for answers. The court proceedings were marked by an emotional testimony as the prosecution and defense presented their cases.
The Jury ultimately reflected the severity of the crime and made a final decision on the death penalty. He is “guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit armed robbery with a deadly weapon” (AZ Family 4). Supporters of the sentence argued that it served a punishment for such a horrific crime, while opponents raised concerns about the ethnic and effectiveness of capital punishment.
As the convicted man awaits his fate in the death row, the Glendale community grapples with the aftermath of this event.
Image Credit: AZ Family
The Conviction and Death Penalty Of A Church Custodian’s Killer.
Climate Change
February 29, 2024
Andrea Zamora
Staff Reporter
First off, what is climate change? Climate change is the long-term changes in our global temperatures and other things in our atmosphere. Climate change started to become an issue around 1988. There was a charge driven largely by the increase of carbon dioxide emissions that were going into our atmosphere. The main cause of climate change is deforestation, burning oils, chemical fertilizers, pollution and release of industrial waste in the air, and more.
Many People ask why does it affect us? Climate change has a big effect on us. It affects the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, etc. Climate change makes our temperatures different. The heat makes the snow we have be reduced and the sea ice, it makes heavy rainfall, and it changes the habitat ranges for animals and plants.
Climate change is getting worse every day and destroying many living organisms, including humans. We need to cut our greenhouse gas emissions fast before it affects us more. If we don’t the ice is going to melt and that would cause floods. And the change in weather will cause serious damage.
Image Credit: NOAA
Gamma Ray Bursts: Deadliest Things in Space
September 6, 2023
Kaitlin Holmes
Staff Reporter
Gamma-ray bursts have been an incredibly enriching and informative event in space. The effect these bursts have on space and on humanity can be catastrophic. These bursts, that only last a few seconds, can create black holes and end all life on earth without a problem.
Gamma-ray bursts are violent, typically short bursts of intense energy that shoot out into space. GMBs are usually caused by the collisions of neutron stars, which create black holes once the two masses release energy. The light that is released from these explosions can be a million trillion times brighter than the sun, according to NASA.
The bursts can fall into two different categories; long-duration and short-duration bursts. Amazingly, long-duration bursts can last around two seconds to a few minutes. Short-duration bursts can last from two seconds to only a few hundred milliseconds, as further explained by NASA.
GMBs can be incredibly dangerous because they can never be detected until the burst is too close. For example, it is believed that a GMB that hit earth 440 million years ago, was so powerful that it caused the mass extinction of the Ordovician period. According to the APSnews website, Brian Thomas, from the University of Kansas, has stated that the burst could have helped in the depletion of the ozone layer. GMBs can vary in its strength because gamma-ray bursts hit earth at least once every day, and humans are still alive. The bursts are normally unnoticed, but if there happened to be a burst a bit too strong, we would already be gone before we could even move a finger. More information, including a video example, can be found on the NASA website, at https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/bursts1.html.
Image Credit: UC Burkeley Physics
World Carnivore Month
January 31, 2024
Jessica Serrano
Staff Reporter
What is World Carnivore Month? Carnivore is a dietary challenge that people do for the whole month of January. This challenge was created by Shawn Baker, who is also known as Carnivore King. This is the eighth year of the world carnivore month. The rule of the carnivore diet is that you must eliminate all plant foods from your diet and exclusively eating healthy sources of meat (nose to tail, so eat your organ meats), fish, eggs, raw honey, fruit, sea salt, and a lot of raw dairy products according to rawfarmusa.com. The reason Shawn Baker decided to dedicate a month to just eating meat was because he was beginning to experience joint pain and poor body composition. So, he chooses to experiment with different diets like low carb paleo diet, high -fat ketogenic diet and keto. Then he found out about the all- meat carnivore diet and continued to use it. Shawn Baker quotes “As an athlete and doctor, Baker closely monitored his performance and health variables while on these different eating plans. After a two-month elimination diet of only meat, salt, water. Dr. Baker’s symptoms resolved, and he felt like he was in the best health of his life”. The world carnivore diet could also help you in a way.
Image Credit: X.com
On The Edge of Space
January 30, 2024
Jackson Unger
Staff Reporter
After Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, the world forever changed as space travel was just beginning. In America, they started space travel following the Mercury program that had put the first American in space, Alan Shepard Jr., which ultimately was succeeded by Gemini in 1961. However, the Gemini spaceflights, being some of the most crucial for the United States, had been forgotten by the public of NASA’s Apollo 11 and space shuttle flights.
Starting in 1961, a new program was born with the set goal of testing new equipment and practices to be used in future space exploration including Artemis. The first flight of the program launched on April 8th, 1964, and the first flight with crew members onboard was Gemini 3 in March of 1965. According to Britannica Encyclopedia, the following flights are the most interesting part of the program.
Gemini 4, the first American, Edward White, to walk in space. Gemini 7, longest endurance record of all programs as 13 days and 19 hours. Gemini 12 had Edward “Buzz” Aldrin make 3 successful space walks. Most interesting of all was Gemini 8 piloted by Neil Armstrong successfully docked 2 spacecraft together with an eventually aborted mission. It had been caused by a faulty thruster causing the capsule to begin rotating at approximately one rotation a second!
Fortunately, thanks to Neil’s skilled handling of the vessel, the rotation was stopped before both crew members could become incapacitated. Following this accident, all future space capsules featured different wiring systems that created a safer environment for the astronauts. The pilots of the Gemini program, Michael Collins, Edward “Buzz” Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong would be the crew of Apollo 11 where Neil would say his famous quote, “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Image Credit: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/iss20-iss-evas-white-eva-s65-30431.jpeg
Man Arrested For Attempted Kidnapping in Glendale
February 1, 2024
Justine Ballard
Staff Reporter
Last Friday, January 26th, 37-year-old Joseph Leroy Ruiz was arrested for attempting to kidnap a child near Sunset Elementary School that same morning. According to azfamily.com, the victim was an 11-year-old girl who says she saw the man near her apartment at around 7:55, when she began making her way to school.
Police spoke with the victim, and she described the events that took place that morning. According to reports from both azfamily.com and azcentral.com, she says the man was sitting on a staircase by her apartment when she left her house for school. She described the man and stated that he gave her an “odd look” that made her extremely uncomfortable, which lead her to rush out of her apartment complex.
Shortly after she stopped running, a silver car pulled next to her. She saw the person driving looked like the man she had seen before, causing her to run and scream for help. The man then chased her for a short distance before she made it to a group of students who comforted and protected her.
A video of the event was caught by neighborhood security cameras. The video shows exactly what was described by the victim. Police found a suspect matching the man in the video and the girl’s description of him later that day. Joseph Leroy Ruiz was arrested and charged with attempted kidnapping.
Image Credit: ktar.com
The Colorado Ballot Situation
January 31, 2024
Ryan Thomas
Staff Reporter
Donald Trump’s name has been removed from the ballots in the state of Colorado’s primary elections. The details of primary elections vary by state, but the gist is that primary elections determine the names of the official presidential candidates in that state. Therefore, nobody in the state of Colorado would be able to vote for Donald Trump under this decision.
This decision was controversial from the start. The initial verdict ruled against Donald Trump, removing his name from the ballot based on criteria set by a Civil War era law meant to “bar anyone who has betrayed an oath to uphold the Constitution from becoming President of the United States”. This decision was quickly appealed, and the appellate court ruled in favor of Trump, reinstating his name on the ballot. However, this case went all the way up to the Colorado Supreme Court, which struck down the appealed verdict, removing Trump from the primary elections once again.
The U.S. Supreme Court has since agreed to hear this case. Many people were surprised by this announcement, as there had not yet been an official appeal to the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court also has the authority to hear cases that are a “matter of national importance”, which the Justices have decided this case is.
Several other states have attempted similar action, but the only state to successfully follow Colorado’s lead so far has been Maine.
Image Credit: CNN
Present Day Ukrainian-Russian War
February 5, 2024
Em Pearson
Editor-in-Chief
On February 24th, 2022, the Russian military troops entered their neighboring country, Ukraine. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, had the goals of the invasion to “demilitarize and denazify” Ukraine and not occupy it by force. Tensions between the two Slavic countries have increased since the invasion, becoming a war not long after.
The war between the two countries is still going on today, though many people are currently more focused on the conflict between Palestine and Israel. Since 2022, 10,191 deaths have occurred as 19,139 injured citizens have happened for the Ukrainian side. The Russian Federation suffered a loss close to 500,000.
Millions of lives lost and injured in this war, but more concerns about this war getting worse by the day have been popping up all over the place. Russian forces are being aided by North Korea as seen by the White House with released satellite imagery. Pyongyang has, as early as 2022, been sending the warring country artillery shells for the war in Ukraine. On September 14, 2023, the North Korean Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un, promised the Russian president the full support of North Korea.
As of 2024, neither countries have been determined the winner of this war. If it continues, many can only hope that one country comes out on top to end this now two-year war of aggression between the two.
Image Credit: CNN