'So many people ... fall through the cracks' the downturn is having an impact on the economics of health care.

Health researchers find that the rise of unemployment rates during economic downturn will increase the number of uninsured people by 1.1 million. Today, 47 million citizens, 16 percent of the population, are currently without medical coverage. It is becoming apparent, even for the middle class citizens, that the high cost of health care is becoming a serious problem because of the economy. Fortunately, Dr. Lorna Stuart opened The Clinic: Medical Center for the Uninsured in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania as an attempt to alleviate insurance problems. After 22 years working in a private practice, Lorna quit after witnessing, first hand, the unfair rules and restrictions of numerous insurance companies. Lorna sold her house and raised $400,000 in donated funds, materials, and service for the newly operated clinic. This charitable clinic received over 40,000 needy patients. Patients were expected to pay $60 for treatment but if they are unable to afford it, they would receive free or low- cost medical care. More than 100 local volunteers and physicians treated 800 patients a month. Since paperwork is not required, doctors are able to talk to their patients and connect with them in an emotional state.
The Great Depression was a time of economic downturn which started after the crash of the stock market in 1929. Prices deflated rapidly causing business activity to fall sharply .They unemployment rate rose massively. People were forced to live in poverty, while diseases were spreading making it hard for people, especially the poor to receive proper health care. There was not enough food and shelter Jobs were limited, which means that minorities would have to give up their jobs for white citizens.

Teenagers and the Internet

In Miami, Florida, eight teenagers were charged with the assault of another teen, Victoria Lindsay who is 16, and recording it. Six teenage girls were accused of actually harassing the

victim, while two boys were charged of kidnapping. In response to this incident, six out of the twenty most viewed You-Tube videos have been responses, parodies, interviews with the parents, and news segments. The responses have attracted thousands of comments and over 700,00 views.
The Country Sheriff, Grady Judd, said that the attack could have been in retaliation for a comment that Victoria posted on her Myspace page about the other girls. You-Tube has said that they would remove any video that is inappropriate, however there are many videos with this same concept. Each of the teens are set on a $30,000 bail and no contact with one another.

The Scottsboro Trials in the 1930s focused on a group of nine African American boys, ages 12-19, who were accused of raping a white woman,Victoria Price. The Trials lasted about seven years and slowly each of the convicted were either released in time, or released when Price finally said none of it happened.

Horses to Cars...Cars to Carts

To the many of us that drive to school, work, and social events in our teenage lives, we have become very dependent on our cars and wouldn’t dream of any other type of transportation, despite the crazy gas prices. In Peachtree City, a city 25 mile south of Atlanta Georgia, there are 90 miles of golf-cart paths and 9,000 registered carts, one for every four of its 36,000 residents. Instead of cars filling the local school parking lots, there are golf carts instead. There has been 80 motor vehicles reported stolen last year but 72 of them were golf carts. There golf carts range from anywhere between $2000 to $5000. There is no license required to drive one of these machines so many student drive them to school instead. The newer shopping centers all have parking spaces reserved for golf carts, and the high school has 200 golf-cart spaces for students but its still not enough. Yes, these carts only goes 15 - 20 miles, but this city can be characterized as being “road-less-traveled utopia where life proceeds, gently, in the slow lane.” The people of this town says that the slow pace of the town is a good thing, it slows people down and ties them closer together, makign them more of a community. This trend is also spreading, adjacent towns have also begun to build paths that connect to those of Peachtree City as well. This different way of life is also “greener”, its saves money on gas, since most of these carts are electric and its also reduces noise and air pollution. As the gas keeps rising, as well as the climate due to global warming, people wonder if this new trend will become the future way of transportation
In October 1908, Henry Ford offered the first Model T for $950.
19 years after production the price went as low as $280. Nearly 15,500,000 were sold in the United States alone. The Model T began what is known as the Motor Age; the car evolved from luxury item for the well-to-do to essential transportation for the ordinary man. Just like the golf cart was a luxury item for a leisure hobby like golf, to maybe in the future an essential transportation for those who are not able to afford the gas prices, or prefer the slower pace life.

Stricter School Laws

In Cheektowga, New York, schools are becoming more strict with how they discipline their students. If any students grade falls below 65, they are not allowed to participate in any after school activities. Melissa Gladwell, a sixth grade teacher, stood in front of the main entrance on Friday night with a list of 150 students that were not allowed to participate in the after school activities that were going on. The only way for students to regain their privileges would be if after a week of improvement and approval by the teacher. Students who failed were also required to wear identification cards and if they did not, they automatically received detention. While walking down the halls, they are required to walk to the right of a dotted yellow line and assigned seats at lunch. They also have to wait for the teacher to call them up to get their lunches.
Many people have said that because these students are not allowed to attend activities that prevent them from doing crimes and wrongful things that they will be prone to bad things in the community. Laura Rogers, a psychologist, says that students are less likely to go to school when they have detention at the end of the day for something as unnecessary as forgetting their identification cards for failing.

This story is closely related to the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and the 1920s when the Great Depression restricted children from going to school. The Civil Rights Movement was a time when many African Americans began attending white schools and were not allowed most of the privileges as whites had. This also happened in any common place when whites had better bathrooms and drinking faucets then the blacks and were also allowed to use the front entrance of a place. The1920s was a very hard time which led to children being forced to go to work for their families instead of seeking an education to make it farther in life. They did not even have the privilege to go to school, let alone fail subjects and make their parents feel bad about working hard for them to get an education.

Congress Presses Oil Execs on High Prices

On Tuesday April 2, five giant oil company executive met with Congress to discuss the soaring prices of petroleum. The companies sought to portray themselves as part of the energy solution and not the energy problem. Lawmakers sought for a way to deal with motorists concern and aimed at the oil companies and the record profits they registered last year with record oil prices. But the oil executives turned some of the blame back on Congress, complaining that Congress and past administrations had barred oil companies from drilling in much of the Outer Continental Shelf. The president of Shell Oil Co., John Hofmeister talked about the US oil and gas production that has been dropping steadily for two decades. The oil executives also criticized a tax package passed by the House that would extend tax breaks for solar and wind projects and pay for that by eliminating a tax break for the five biggest international oil companies. The House bill would not alter tax rates on oil and gas production, but would prevent oil firms from sharing a small cut in income tax rates given in 2004 to US manufacturers.

This can be compared to John D. Rockefeller. In 1870, Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company and ran it until he retired in the late 1890s. He revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040100157.

html?hpid=topnews

Roe v. Wade? That Never Happened

In South Dakota, voters are asking legislature to pass a law that would make it nearly impossible for a woman to get an abortion. To qualify for an abortion, a woman would have to go to the police and report rape or incest. It would also be a felony to induce abortions, perform any type of procedure, or prescribe any type of drugs to induce an abortion. There is only one abortion clinic in South Dakota, which performs about 800 abortions a year. The landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1973, Roe v. Wade, gave women the right to choose to have an abortion. Critics say that if the initiative is passed that it could end up going to the Supreme Court, where Roe v. Wade could be overturned.

Court Documents Revealing Details of Football Player's Rant

POSTED April 2, 2008
Jacksonville, FL

Jaguars cornerback Brian Williams (an African American) hasn't made the headlines on the football field but he made news off the field, accused of making various offensive comments to an officer the night he was arrested on suspicion of DUI. According to Jacksonville police, Williams went on a racist, profanity filled rant on the September 2006 night he was charged with driving under the influence.
This can be compared to the discrimination and segregation blacks have faced throughout history, and still today. It is a statistical fact that today, the average prison sentence for a black male is 6 months more than the average prison sentence for a caucasian male.

The complicated measure of being Hispanic in America

In the United States, the largest minority group are the Hispanics. The terms used to described people of Latin origin such as Hispanic American, or Lationos, misrepresent the 44 million people to whom it is refered to. It Many Dominicans,for emaple, want to be identified as “ Dominian- American”. They feel as though they are packeage into a certain label, making it harder for people to notice them as individuals. Manuel Baez , 49, owns an insurance agency in Tampa, Florida and claims to never using the term Hispanic to identify himself. "Hispanic doesn't go with me because I don't believe that Spain was the best thing for Latin America."
In the 1970s, U.S. government created the term "Hispanic" to refer to people who could trace their origin to Spanish-speaking countries. The ethnic title Hispanic was the result of efforts by a New Mexican U.S. Senator, Joseph Montoya, who strove for a label that could be used to identify the Spanish-speaking population for the US Census. The Hispanic population consists of the people of Spain and anyone with origins in any of the Spanish-speaking nations. Today, this term is known as misleading since in fact many spanish speaking people are not of Spanish descent (Trace back to Spain) and there are many of those who are mix raced.

Whoops

U.S. officials claim that parts to nuclear missiles have been mistakenly shipped to Taiwan instead of their destination somewhere in America. It was stated that the parts shipped to Taiwan were 4 electrical fuses used in the missile construction, but do not actually contain nuclear material. Experts on security says that this incident is a good indicator of the deterioration in the safeguards and controls that the military has over nuclear warheads. Previously, Taiwan had ordered batteries for helicopters and the Defense Logistics Agency sent four shipping containers that officials thought contained the batteries, but that actually held the fuses. Officials don't know whether the package was mislabeled or improperly stored.

Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne stated: "In an organization as large as the DOD, the largest and most complex in the world, there will be mistakes. But they cannot be tolerated in the arena of strategic systems, whether they are nuclear or only associated equipment." Other officials eagerly notified the Chinese government upon realization of the incident to clear any possible misunderstanding. It was figured that there could have well likely been action upon this incident if the Chinese thought the United States was arming Taiwan with nuclear weapons. This is related to the Cuban Missile Crisis in which the Soviet Union placed missiles aimed at the United States in nearby Cuba. Confrontation was avoided making the mishandling of the fuses similar to this crisis.