PLN5

"Jaywalker struck, killed in Lakewood"
By Howard Pankratz

In the article "Jaywalker struck, killed in Lakewood" by Howard Pankratz, it talks about how a women was hit by a truck and killed crossing the street on Sunday. A middle aged women was crossing a street and jaywalking when she got about half way across and was struck by a Toyota Tacoma on Sunday. When they paramedics got there she was pronounced dead on the scene. There were two cars involved and the driver of the Tacoma said that she stepped out in front of him and he hit here into another car waiting to turn left. This matters because I see teens my age jaywalking all of the time either at school or just on the weekends with friends and people should be more careful of where they cross because she would most likely still be alive if she went out of her way by a couple minutes and used a cross walk. Clearly, crosswalks were put there for a reason and they should be used whenever you are crossing the street.

PLN4

"Laptops are a waste of time and money"

Computers are definitely not a waste of time or money because they are very useful in the class room and can help the students with almost anything. Sure having a computer for every kid in the class can get very expensive but if you use those computers for years to come then they will be paid off by the school. Students who use computers get to learn like no other generation has because the laptops are getting more affordable and you get to learn much more if you are focusing on a topic. You have an infinite amount of information at your finger tips.

PLN3

"RTD bus runs light, hits three cars"
By Howard Pankratz

In the article "RTD bus runs light, hits three cars" by Howard Pankratz, it talked about how a bus driver ran a red light and hit a few other motorists putting them in the hospital. Today on the corner of Florida ave. and Sheridan blvd. a bus driver sped through a red light hitting three cars and sending three passengers to the hospital, they said non of the injuries seemed to be life threatening ones and that the victims would be there only over night. The driver of the bus claimed that there were technical difficulties and that the brakes went out before the light, Nobody on the bus was injured during this but they are still investigating on how it really happened. This matters to the whole community because someone could have gotten seriously injured during this especially if there was a pedestrian in the cross walk. One of the comments below the article said that another person was riding the same exact bus a few weeks before and the driver fell asleep at a red light, the passengers had to scream at the driver to wake them up! Clearly, you never know where to watch your back because even the best drivers can have an accident and we should pay attention at the stop lights better.

PLN2

Change The World Topic PLN

An injustice I picked when we were asked to think about it was, how under paid policemen and fire fighters are paid for what they do. Fire fighters are paid around 50,000 dollars a year and police are paid about 30,000 dollars. They should be paid much more because of what they do for the community and how they risk their lives everyday just to save other people or keep people from getting in trouble. While athletes are paid millions of dollars every year just to entertain people while the workers and heroes of the community are saving lives everyday and are not getting paid even close to what the entertainers are. If there was a lot of crime or people dieing or homes getting burned down in fires there would be nobody to entertain in the long run. People kind of take cops and fire fighters for granted because they are just always there to do the job and nobody thinks twice about it except the people's houses that get saved and lives that get saved. Clearly, police and firemen are undermined in the community and cities and need more rewards and yearly earnings.

PLN27

"Dangerously cold weather keeps icy grip on Colorado"
By Kieran Nicholson

In the article "Dangerously cold weather keeps icy grip on Colorado" by Kieran Nicholson, it talks about how the cold weather is affecting people in Colorado and how we are almost cold enough to break the record. Over these past couple days the lowest the temperature has gotten was to -16 degrees without the wind chill put into consideration. The record low for this week was - 20 degrees in the year 1919, and the average temperature over the years has been somewhere between 45 and 17 degrees. People say they are having car problems in this cold weather because sometimes their cars just do not start in the morning, so that might make them late to work or wherever they are headed. Another thing that is being affected by the cold is people's electronics because one person said they left their Ipod in the car over night and that night it dropped below negative fifteen degrees! When the person got to their car in the morning their Ipod was too frozen to work and to this day has not been able to be turned on. Clearly, there has been some cold weather in Colorado over the past week and people are being effected by this in many different ways.

PLN26

"Public policy analyst calls for legalization to aid U.S. economy"

By Ben Kage

In the article "Public policy analyst calls for legalization to aid U.S. economy" by Ben Kage, it tells about how much the legalization of marijuana would help the economy. There were statistics done in 2005 which said that marijuana was the number one cash crop of the U.S. and it produced a little over 35 billion dollars in the market every year. The case of whether to legalize this drug or not still has not been decided, even though more people are opening up to it as a medical prescription. The doctor will give you a prescription for it if you have cancer or to relieve severe pain, in some cases medical marijuana halp breast cancer be fought off. This matters to people all over the world because if it was legalized then the economy would be able to make all of that money they are losing back, which in time would make the economy rise. People get put into jail for smoking marijuana which costs the city and government lots of money each year that they could be spending on something else. The article also showed that marijuana was better for people than smoking cigarettes because it does not have tar and nicotine in it. A couple of the major reasons they have not legalized it is because the alcohol business might crash and so would the tobacco companies. They should not legalize this because it might hurt people's academic scores if it has a long term effect on the brain and we would not want am irresponsible country if people can not make decisions that are good. Clearly, there is a big argument if marijuana should be legalized or not.

PLN25

"Usain Bolt Adopts a Cheetah"
By Associated Press

In the video "Usain Bolt Adopts a Cheetah" by Associated Press, Usain Bolt travels to Kenya and adopts a cheetah from a wild animal reserve. The three time Olympic gold medalist, Usain Bolt, traveled to Kenya not too long ago for a safari. While he was on his safari he talked about seeing huge bull elephants, tigers, lions and cheetahs. He liked the cheetahs so much that when a cheetah in an animal reserve gave birth to a cub the staff members let him adopt it. The fastest man in the world just adopted the fastest animal in the world and he gave it a very fitting name, Lightning Bolt. He makes a speech to some of the staff and the governor about how great his experiences were in Kenya including the people, animals and also the safari ride. Clearly, Usain Bolt fell in love with cheetahs while in Kenya decided to adopt one while he was there.