Sierra Hale
Current Events
October 3, 2013
Tropical Storm Karen
8:35 PM EDT, Thu October 3, 2013. CNN's Sean Morris and Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report
A tropical storm, formed between Cuba and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, is heading towards the Gulf Coast on Saturday. A tropical storm warning is in effect throughout various locations started on Friday. Karen is expected to be hurricane strength by the time it hits land.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has declared a statewide state of emergency. Same is accruing in Florida for selected counties. Residents of New Orleans are asked to “monitor weather conditions and stay alert”.
Karen will be a damp weekend for most around the U.S. Gulf Coast. 3 - 6 inches of rain are expected, with winds escorted with strength of 74-mph at the most.
Storm surges are a main concern. If surges occur with high tide, flooding could end up going to heights of 3 to 5ft. "The combination of storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters," the center said.
Heather
Two Blue Line Trains collided together in Chicago on September 30th. A CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) spokeswoman said that there was no reason they should have both been on the same track. The video footage during this time shows that no one was driving the Chicago Transit Authority train during the time it was going the wrong way.
Thirty-three people were injured during the crash that was on board, and forty-eight people were taken to hospitals but none of them were in life threatening injuries. Some people that were not injured got off the train and went to where they needed to, so there is no way to tell exactly how many people was on the train.
Investigators are still trying to figure out if the train had started moving on its own or if someone else did it on purpose or accident. Amalgamated Transit Union President Robert Kelly stated “If it wasn’t a goof or there is someone not telling us something that creates a big problem because if one train can start moving without anybody doing anything than it can happen to another train.” Forest Park Mayor Anthony Calderone, the conductor of the parked train, said he saw the moving train coming at him with nobody in the front car.
At the 10:30am press conference on Monday President Robert Kelly said that this is just a bizarre accident. Some of the cars on the train were scheduled for maintenance and was supposed to have been taken out of rotation on September 20th, Kelly stated. The only thing that still does not make sense is that the train needed to have been started to get it moving on the tracks, but once again, no one was driving.
Source:
-http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/30/two-trains-collide-in-chicago-injuring-about-four-dozen/
Jacob Government Shutdown
On Tuesday, October 1st, our government has shut down for an unknown duration of time due to a disagreement over Obamacare. The House and Senate at this point are not able to agree on how to act concerning this controversial bill. The government’s cause of cessation is due to Congressional reasonability to pass spending bills that fund the government.
The problem that has arisen is the Republican Party’s insistence of all new bills either defunds or removes Obamacare entirely. On the other hand, the Democratic Party has refused to bow down to any demands that they are making. To pass the bill, a two-third majority vote is required which would require heavy support; at this point, they are trying to bring it up in a way that would require only a simple majority for passage. Both parties are blaming the other for being unwilling to cooperate to bring a resolution to this conflict, and both claim the other party is responsible for the government shutdown.
Democrats claim that Obamacare is a great thing for American health care and will be supplying health insurance to around 44 million Americans that are currently unable to afford any. Then the Republicans claim that it will do more harm than good and will just further raise the debt ceiling. Both sides at this point seem almost willing to negotiate with the other, while they both believe they are in the right and the other is in the wrong. Republicans are furious that democrats have used such strong terms such as “political terrorism” in times such as these.
This shutdown will put all federal employees into two categories; the essential and non-excepted workers. Although no matter how long the active duty military will be paid due to a special fund that congress has put in place. Over 800,000 federal workers have been sent home and will receive no pay until the government reopens. For every day that the government is in hiatus, our national debt is raised by 3 million dollars. At this point, it’s unknown how long this will take. Only time will tell before America is informed our government’s opening again.
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