Blue Ridge National Park

Wilson Brown

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ridge_Parkway

 

Blue Ridge National Park is located east of Asheville, North Carolina. The park is funded by the US Federal Government. Due to the Government shutdown, the park has since been closed. All of the park rangers and tourist have been told to leave. Park rangers are now out of work with no unemployment check. The park has been open for nearly 80 years, providing a decent amount of revenue for North Carolina’s economy. This time of year the tourist attraction is highest which gives high profits. Now that the park is closed, all profits are completely diminished.

In 2005, the amount of tourism was estimated at 17.5 million people. Billions of dollars in profit were made. North Carolina will soon feel the effects of the Government shutdown with a major decline in the economy. The last time this has happened was in 1995 for a period of about 30 days. During those 30 days, the economy had nowhere to go except down. Campers on the site were given a 24 hour notice to leave before the park has shut down. Park rangers were told to come for half the day and work without pay. Blue Ridge is now completely deserted of people. A sign hangs at all the entrances that states “do not enter park is closed”. All of this is due to the government shutdown. All national parks across the US have been closed and or abandoned. Until Congress can come up with a solution, Blue Ridge Park will remain closed off.

 

 

BRUCE MAHLSTADT

SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Current Events

Mitch Weiss & Jeffrey Collins. “Jonathan Ferrell, Unarmed Man Killed In North Carolina, Was Shot 10 Times By Officer: Police.” September 15, 2013.

 

            Jonathan Ferrell, a 24-year-old African American male, was shot to death at the hands of a police officer. The tragic confrontation occurred when, earlier in the day, the young man’s car had crashed into a group of trees. Having survived the crash he immediately went looking for help and came across a collection of houses nearby. He began banging viciously on the door of one of one woman’s house. The woman answered the door, thinking it was her husband coming home late, but was surprised to see it was Ferrell. The woman shut the door and promptly called the police.

            When the police showed up, they found Ferrell on a road leading to the neighborhood’s pool. One of the officers shot Ferrell with a Taser, after he began running towards the officers. After realizing the Taser had not worked, Officer Randall Kerrick fired his gun 12 times at Ferrell, killing him.

            Officer Kerrick’s handling of the situation has been considered by many to have been unlawful and irresponsible. Ferrell’s mother said that Kerrick has not right to be a police officer if he can’t react responsibly to a situation where a citizen is just asking for help. Officer Kerrick has been charged with voluntary manslaughter due to Ferrell’s death.

 

 

Jacob Esenwein

10-1-13

Currents Events

"Wake County suspends students without shots | abc11.com." ABC Owned Television Stations. ABC11 News, 30 Sept. 2013. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. <http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=9265119>.

As of Friday, Wake County Public Schools has enforced an NC law that states that all sixth grade students have to provide proof of immunization. If they are unable to provide their school with this proof, they will be suspended until they are able to show their immunization records to the school.

Officials from Wake County have had to suspend 103 students since Friday for not receiving their pertussis vaccination. West Millbrook Middle School principal Kelly Aman called all 62 of her students’ parents to notify them of the fact that their children had not received this vaccination and that if they didn’t, they would not be able to come to their classes. If they came to school, the students would have to sit in Aman’s office. She said to ABC11 News, "I need those kids in class, if they're not here, they're not learning". By the end of Friday, the number of students still lacking proof of the TDap shot was drastically reduced to only one student. On Monday morning, this student gave Aman proof of the shot. “He and I did the happy dance around my office.  He was so tickled to be back...,” Aman said after the student showed proof.

Though Wake County is safe this school year from pertussis, the first death from it has been reported by the NC Department of Health and Human Services. The disease took a three-week-old’s life in Transylvania County on Friday.

 

 

Wake county suspends students without shots

Allan Lopez

October 3, 2013               

               

            Wake County Public schools has begun to suspend students starting September 27 if they did not have their required immunizations.  The County enforced a law that required their sixth graders to show proof of proper immunization. Many kids were suspended because of this type of law in Wake County, Johnston County, and Durham County.

            West Millbrook Middle School principle Kelly Aman was upset that they had sixty-two students who were not allowed into the school for not having their T-Dap shots.  She said,” I need those kids in class, if they’re not in class they are not learning”. What she found hard to believe was that some of the parents said that they were not aware of the recommended shots. Mrs. Aman said that they sent flyers, phone blasts, and emails to the parents. She then did personal calls herself to all the parents, so that they could get their kids vaccinated.  As of October 1, her last student showed up with proof of vaccination, she says both of them did the happy dance in her office.

            Not only did this school suffer, Durham county had 5 students suspended, while in Johnston County 92 students still needed to show proof of vaccination. What the schools goal is to prevent their students to get sick from tetanus, or diphtheria, or pertussis (whooping cough). Whooping cough is the most dangerous in young kids, elder and people with breathing problems or with compromised immune systems. A 3-week year old baby from Transylvania County died the 25th of September from whooping cough disease. This is the state’s first death report of someone dying from the whooping cough. Trying to prevent this disease, the officials of Wake County had to suspend 103 of their students.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=9265119