Students Put WHAT in their Underwear???

In the New York Times article that I read this week, it had to deal with Court debating a strip search of a middle school student on Tuesday. Justice Stephen Beyer, says that for instance students will hide pills in their underwear. A lawyer, Adam Wolfe calls this the 'ick factor'. Back in 2003 Wolfe's client, a 13 year old girl went under a strip search by school officials and was only in the 8th grade! Wolfe continues to say that this iciness has to deal with not only underpants but as well as checking females bras as well. As though, bras are not as bad. Kids are feeling the need to hide ibuprofen, a pain killer in their underwear.

This case did make it to trial and lots of laughter filled the court room which would be hard not to find some amusement but did go on to state that school officials are NOT trained to undergo strip searches unless more so needed.

I feel that in this situation it would be difficult to have a say in what to do. Even though I would not want my kid be sent to school knowing that there are other kids in that school system with percription or non percription drugs I would not want my kid to be around those kids. Nor would I want my child to be stripped down to his undies unless I was informed first. So, here is my question is this such a big problem that the government is going to have to step in and make a 'law' or rule to say a 'strip search' will be held on certain days that you or I will not know about? This to me is getting a little out of hand. Is suspending not working?

Genes Show Limited Value in Predicting Diseases (for week 12-17th)

This week I read an article on certain Diseases from the New York Times by Nicholas Wade.
I found this article to be quite interesting because it had to deal with diseases and theories that people thought about genetics and how diseases were spread throughout families. The era of personal genomic medicine may have to wait. The genetic analysis of common disease is turning out to be a lot more complex than expected. In 2003, the genome method was decoded. Since then researchers have been developing a powerful method for comparing the genomes of patients and healthy people verses the hope of pinpointing the DNA changes responsible for common diseases. Another article that was linked to this one was about more medicines that may help with these diseases that may occur in your family. Not only does that website give medicine reports, it gives information about calories, cool ways to lose weight the healthy way, info about digital health data and much more. I found alot of information on this website that could be very helpful if this was a situation with one or in ones family.
I consider this to be relevant because I can tie in health with government by the national standards of the US Nutrition goal. To look more into that, that would be another episode.

Should She Keep her Day Job? (for week 6-11)

This week I decided to read an article about Sarah Palin, Alaska's governor. I kind of debated on whether to write about this or not because of some of our restrictions for this class which are limited but still taking into consideration. At last, I figured it would be ok to write about because this article has to do with politics and it is in the today's lifestyle. This article says that Palin has hard a time getting back into her normal routine of governing in Alaska. It appears that she has not been pushing any laws nor have the lawmakers had any choice about it. There is at least one bill that has been passed and that is because of the rush of oil revenues that helped Palin press for big ticket projects in the past has been replaced by a budget deficit that will require taking at least $1 billion out of state savings.
The biggest policy fight has been over how much federal stimulus money the state should accept. The governor held a news conference at first to say that she would accept only 55% of the $930 million available. She soon signaled her willingness to accept more, though not enough for lawmakers.
To end this conversation, just asking out of curiousisty, will Palin run for govenor in 2010? and then President?

Fighting Over Child Support

I read an article about parents fighting over child support. Mainly fathers believe or not-- not being sexist or anything may I add. Fathers that were pledged to pay child support recently met in Manhatton to see if they could possibly get a reduction in their checks they have to pay. In Nevada, which includes Las Vegas the child support office have recieved numerous calls about lowering their child support pay because they are being laid off from a job and couldnt find another one.
One father stated that he had to work a Mets game for just under $9 an hour which didnt make it very far. This report is not stating that these fathers could never make their payments, its just that now the economy has gotten so low that everyone is getting laid off and hours from work are being cut. This article continues to say that this case will however go before a judge but doesnt look to positive because mothers with children are struggling as well.
I really dont know how to look at this situtation because I am a mother and I have been in a situation where my dad had to pay child support. Although, there are different ways to go about paying child support even if you did get your hours cut you could go tell your case worker and they could at least work something out. As for the mothers, I would just try to get as much help as I could from the state just for the time being. Im not saying be a moocher for the rest of your life because thats not the way I would want to raise my child. But in this situtation I would try my best to do whatever it took for me and my family to make ends meet.

Poured in Lead?

The article I chose to read is from alternet.org and it is about everyday objects being used that might have toxins in them and we are not doing anything about it. The first part goes into a little bit of detail about different objects like baby bottles, lipstick ladles, plastic water bottles, other cosmetics, certain toys and countless of other products. A journalist, Schapiro told alternet, "Whether it is your nail polish, eye shadow, shampoo, essentially personal-care products [are] not regulated by the [Food and Drug Administration]. ... Numerous times in the Senate, over the last 50 years, there have been efforts to expand the purview of the FDA, and it's been repeatedly beaten back by the cosmetics industry."
There have been other rumors about resale clothing stores may be closing because the owner can not afford to buy the lead machine that tests the clothing for certain toxic objects like lead.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics lists numerous toxins that appear regularly in cosmetics and personal-care products, among them lead and phthalates. Phthalates are linked to birth defects, including disruption of genital development in boys, decreased sperm counts and infertility. Lead appears in lipstick and hundreds of other products. The CSC reports that "lead ... is a proven neurotoxin -- linked to learning, language and behavioral problems ... miscarriage, reduced fertility in both men and women, hormonal changes, menstrual irregularities and delays in puberty onset in girls." This is the stuff women and girls are putting on their lips all day, licking it off and reapplying.
I think that if this is a big deal then we should probably step up and take charge so that we do not harm our body's more than we might already be.
This article relates to government because the government has to pass this law before anything can be made final.

Forgetting Marriage??

This was the first time I have visited this website and surprisingly, I liked the website. I read an article from the alternet.org website based on marriage. Now everyone has their own views on how things are suppose to go in a marriage, some have been brought up by routine, some have saw that six or seven significant others is just fine. Below is what I found out.
This article starts out asking if you believe your marriage is a sacred thing. In all do respect, YES obviously it is. But, that is between you and your other. Although, I DO NOT agree that you should be able to marry just anyone. Either man to woman or vise versa. I dont believe that you could marry your grandma or grandchildren or that woman should marry woman. I believe and know that we were put on this earth to marry man to woman. This article is totally silly for putting an article like this on here but they are saying that it should be ok to do the 'wrongs' in states that agree to have set the law.
It just goes on about how in certain states marriage to the same sex is approiate to where in other states they are totally against same sex marriage.
No, there are no rational laws like a white cant marry a black or anything like that but same sex marriage I see is totally different. That is dealing with COLOR. We are dealing with the privacy area!
They say that if you want to pass the law in several states to leave same sex marriage out of the story you can stand in a long line at a city hall and protest. You can find me there!

Budget Cleared In Cali!

The article I chose to read is about clearing a buget plan that has been up in the air for quite some time. After 5 days of nonstop negonations of how to overcome a $42 billion gap in California, Thursday morning senators in the state of California agreed to pull something together. To overcome this $42 billion gap they have chosen to up taxes. Does this make sense?? Is this what we need in the economy RIGHT now? Who knows what we need. We have all of these people that 'think' they know what is best for our country and raising taxes is one of them?

Govener Arnold Schwarzenegger has also had something to do with this budget plan in California. He had agreed several weeks ago to plan a meeting to discuss this situation with the others but didnt get the full 2/3 votes that were needed so that did not go as planed. 2/3 votes is required by the California state law in order to pass a statement. This indeed left the Deomocrats in a tough situation and begging for a Republican to step up, which they are against the taxes being raised.

Mr. Maldonado, the State Senator, a Republican of California somehow has seemed to have won the decreasing in 12 cents in gasoline and amendment that would make California political primaries open and nonpartisan, a bill that many Democrats resisted to the bitter end.

These new statements(taxes) are set to last for at least two years, BUT could be extended another two if voters continue to approve.