Current Event 12: Apes, monkeys among 30 animals killed in German zoo fire

Within the first hour of the New Year, a zoo fire occurred in Germany killing about 30 animals. Some people think that the lanterns celebrating the new year are to blame. The park administrator and firefighters found remains of the lanterns in the zoo. The animals that died include birds, apes, monkeys, and bats. Some of the species were endangered with not many left in the wild. Some people reported seeing that the lanterns were floating at a low altitude near the zoo.

I feel really bad that all these animals died in this fire. It would have helped if people had reported the fire sooner than it was reported. I also don't think that lanterns should be lit near zoos and other public buildings/places. I don't know where these lanterns were lit if it was close to the zoo or the wind carried them over. Anyways, I hope that the zoo was able to recover from the fire quickly.

Current Event 11:62 Years later, No one has topped this monster Lake Trout

In 1958 Hollis Grindle set the record for the biggest fish in the state of Maine. At a whomping 31 pounds and 8 ounces, this monster of a fish caught in the summer rather than the winter. When Grindle cast out his line he had felt it tug but thought that his line was stuck. When the boat started changing directions was when he first realized that it was monster fish. The fish was so strong that it could change the direction of the boat while the outboard motor was running. Grindle cut the motor and let the fish do its thing, all the while Grindle had the line in hand. He said that he was in no rush and had the whole day to fish. After half an hour, Grindle netted the trout and hauled it onto the boat. 

This fish must have been huge and Grindle must have a lot of patience. I would have let the line go and gave up. I am really impressed that Grindle not only held on but that his record hasn’t been broken. Grindle died in 1991 at age 85. August 5, 2008, 50 years after Grindle caught his fish the largest fish caught was only 2 ½ pounds. I don’t think that Grindle’s record will be broken soon.

Current Event 10: Netflix’s ‘Cheer’ is the Documentary that Hard-Working Cheerleaders have long deserved

This article starts out by saying that television shows haven’t been very kind to cheerleaders. Portraying them to be unkind, hard-hearted, beyotches.  Greg Whitley wanted to get rid of that stereotype. He and his camera’s started filming a documentary of a College cheer team called Navarro. This team is from a community college south of Dallas Texas. The cheer team itself had won over 12 national titles in the past two decades. Billy Smith, a competition organizer, called this team “the best of the best”.  The article then goes on saying that this cheer team spends months preparing for the 2 mins and 15 seconds they are on the mat. A cheer routine consists of tumbling, pyramids, dances, and high flying stunts. Some of these cheerleaders come from bad backgrounds but they are still the happiest people on the team.

I am so glad that cheerleading is getting the attention that is deserved. Most of the time when people see cheerleaders on the sidelines they think, Wow, they are annoying, but they don’t know hard and demanding it is, physically and mentally. People now know what it is like, how demanding it is, and how hard you have to work. When you are on the mat, you always have to be 100% or someone will fall out a stunt, or bust their tumbling. I am really happy that this show has lead people to change their opinions about cheer and cheerleaders.

Current event #9: Iranian Women Allowed to Attend Soccer Game For the First Time Since 1981

They cried and hugged over their tickets because of their excitement.  Most of them got out their phones to record the first time that most of them went to a soccer game. After four decades, Iranian women were allowed to attend a soccer game. This decision was made after a woman soccer fan set herself on fire while in prison for attending a club game without being allowed. Women have been disguising themselves as men to be able to watch the games. This has happened multiple times with multiple different sports. “Offside”, a movie by Iranian director Jafar Panahi, was based on the women not being able to attend sporting events. People boycotted going to sporting events until women were allowed in. Though the women and men were on opposite sides of the stadium, the women enjoyed every minute of the game. 

In my opinion, the Iranian women should have gotten the right to be able to go to sporting events after a team captain wouldn’t even play in one of the sporting events until the officials let women in. I think that they shouldn't have waited until a fan set herself on fire to make the decision. Iranian women have gotten more and more rights over the years, this is one of the few freedoms that they have. The women have to deal with all of these rules and they can’t really do anything that they want to do. In Iran, women are only half of a man. For example, women inherit half of what men do. Women in Iran are getting more and more freedom as the years come, but they still only count as half a man. 

Current Event #8 Aroostook County Students Evacuated After Threat Sent to Highschool Principal

The students of Aroostook County were let out of school early today (Jan.2.2020) because a shooting threat was sent to Principal Dave Bartlett of Presque Isle. The email sent said that if “certain criteria” were not met, the shooting would occur on the following day.  Most of the teachers were not informed about this incident until the school’s secretary announced that students were to be dismissed at 9:30 Thursday morning. Police are currently trying to find the person that placed the threat in the first place. 

Aroostook county police officers have been looking for the emailer. Currently, the emailer has not been found. The shooting ended up not happening and no one got hurt because of the urgent dismissal of the students. The interior of the email has not been released to the public.

Current Event #7 "Santa Clara Shooting Is Another Nightmare Made Real"

A 16-year-old boy pulled out a .45-Caliber semi-automatic and within 16 seconds shot five of his classmates without any meaning too, then went on to shot himself. A 15-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy were found dead at the crime scene. Others found injured. Some students ran into the choir room. One, a freshman girl, got shot. Ms. Holt the choir director stated that they couldn’t hear the shots, as they were listening to a tape of the choir singing. Ms. Holt, who had just started in January, had put the grand piano in front of the door and then went to grab the gunshot wound kit that she leaves in her classroom and started to bandage the wound of the freshman girl. 

The article states that “The student sat on Ms. Holt’s floor with the lights off. They were afraid, they were crying, but they also knew how to keep safe, she said. They knew how to muffle their sobbing. They knew to keep their phones silent and dark. One quietly called the police. Another grabbed a fire extinguisher - just in case the gunman got inside.” This text shows me that these students knew what to do and they got told or they practice what to do. I feel that every school should teach their student what to do during this kind of situation. 

Facing ‘Certain Death,’ Teenager With Vaping Injury Gets Double Lung Transplant: Current Event 6

This article talks about a teenager that had to get a double lung transplant because of vaping. The article states, “The patient’s lungs were scarred, stiffened, pocked with dead spots and extremely inflamed, he said. On a CT scan before the surgery, the patient’s chest appeared almost empty, as if the lungs had vanished. Normal lungs look dark on imaging because they are full of air; the patient’s lungs were not visible because they were not working. There was no air.” This means that this patient had vaped so much that his lungs finally gave up on him. A doctor doing lung transplants, as of 20 years ago, said that he had never seen anything like how these teens lungs were. This teen moved to three different hospitals before he got his new lungs.

I think that this article was not only made to tell this teen’s story but to show other teens how bad it is to vape. I think that the teens that are vaping should read this article to see how bad it is to vape. In the article, it says that on a normal CT scan, the lungs are dark because they are full of air. On this teen’s CT scan, you cannot see any air in the teen’s lungs. This shows that the lungs gave up because of all the poison that is entering them.