Current Events Activity 2.2 

1) The two possible causes of the Hidden Pines fire in Bastrop might have been an "intentionally set" burn pile or just a "farm accident". At 10:30 am officials let displaced residents who live in the  burn area to return to their properties. The damage the fire has done (which burned 34,000 acres and destroyed 1,600 homes) is estimated to cost around "hundreds of millions of dollars". 

The interviews impacted me reading the story because it shows just how much trauma people went through during the fires and how some people lost basically everything they had.

2) In the Austin area school systems there has been a shift in textbook use, meaning they are being offered online and not in paper form so much anymore. The benefits for this change are they are cheaper and help prepare students for their computer-dependent futures. The Robertson family found a problem with the online textbooks "It's hard to flip between the examples and instructional pages with the problem" he says. So they decided to get a paper copy instead. The opinion teacher Melissa Prepster had on the story was that this is not a super new thing meaning how the digital transition gained momentum about four years ago, with things like videos full of content. What separates the Eanes district from other districts implementing technology on their campus is the Eanes district is one of the few districts that make a device available to each student.
 At McCallum so far I haven't even had to use textbooks outside of class (even though most of them are available online) so I haven't had much experience with this shift, but I know from past experiences with having to carry around textbooks that it was a hassle and sometimes unnecessary weight so having it online would make things a lot easier for for me because I have access to a computer. I do think there is a problem though because other students may not have that access, with this being a debate I would say it would be a good news story for The Shield.

3) The big news outside of Canada yesterday was that the country reclaimed liberal identity with the new prime minister. Justin Turdeau has promised some major policy changes, like legalizing marijuana, dropping out of the U.S.-led bombing campaign against the Islamic State and deficit spending to pump up the economy and rebuild infrastructure. The relationship between the U.S. and Canada will most likely get stronger because Obama And Turdeau are similar.

4) Alan Guckian is among 25 semifinalists for a Grammy-related award. The award is for the 2016 Music Educator Award from the Recording Academy and the Grammy Foundation. Local inspirational musician SaulPaul said Guckian was an obvious choice for the award. Guckian later says if he won he would have a pizza party with his kids.

5) UT coach Shaka Smart is trying to change the mindset of his players heading into the upcoming season by saying that the pursuit of wisdom is "one of the oldest and most enduring human intellectual enterprises." In order to make this change happen Texas must first get beyond it's confusing, dysfunctional past which appears to be fouling up the present.

Current Events Experience 2.1

1) The perk that is "raising eyebrows" is that at ACL (Austin city limits) the people who are part of the "city's parks and recreation board" get to have two free VIP passes for one entire weekend of the music festival and also a free parking pass. The person to receive the perk was Tom Donovan, a 71 year old man who was a member of the Parks and Recreation Board. The Austin Parks Foundation defended providing it to him by saying the free tickets and parking passes are for "work purposes only" for everyone who is a member in the council. Board members Rick Cofer and council member Don Zimmerman were "foregoing" the perk because they "felt uncomfortable" taking the passes because "it doesn't seem necessary to receive two free three-day passes and a three-day parking pass for my role as a parks board member" Cofer also says "I don't think that my presence there is worth basically an $800 expense." Sabine Romero of the city's ethics and compliance division expressed to the council in an email that it's OK for the mayor and council members to accept the tickets. Council members Ann Kitchen accepted the passes and will be attending the upcoming show. Council member Ora Houston said that she gave the passes as a "thank you" to 311 operators who are filling in at her office while a staffer is on maternity leave. I don't think that giving the city's parks and recreation board free tickets is a bad thing, I just think that if one of the workers wants to not accept the tickets they shouldn't have to.

2) Oklahoma implemented a stay of all deaths because last week, two hours before an execution of Richard E. Glossip officials realized that the state supplier had sent the prison officials the wrong drug. Other states are dealing with similar issues like how in Tennessee if the lethal-injection drugs were unavailable prison officials would authorize the use of the electric chair. Also in Montana, on Tuesday, a judge blocked the state from carrying out executions, ruling that one of the two drugs it planned to use did not comply with the state law governing lethal injections. Midazolam is a short-acting sedative and is the heart of this story because midazolam, combined with a drug shortage caused by manufacturers' ceasing production or limiting how drugs could be used.

3) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel barred his ministers from visiting a contested Old City holy site. He also ordered police to stop members of parliament from going there because he also did not want them to go to the holy site. Mhuhanad Halabi was a law student at Al Quds University who was shot dead by Israeli security forces and he relates to this issue because he was apart of the defending of al-Aqsa and he got killed doing so.

4) Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize for literature on October 8th. She is most famous for her deeply researched works about female Russian soldiers in World War 2 and the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It's "a rarity" that she won because her work is mainly nonfictional. Blended in her works are both literature and journalism. She looks to the future by not letting herself slide "but much work remains ahead of me, and many new turns. Now I cannot let myself slide." she says

5) The carrier decision Professor Emeritus Daniel S. Hamermesh has made is to retire from his job due to the "carry law" which he told to the Statesman reporter directly. Hamermesh's is a first for UT in the way of him being the first to actually leave because of this. Other factors that contributed to his decision are the number of students he has in each term (around 475) and he says with that many students he would not be able to tell is they have become "disgruntled" or have "mental health issues".

observation (400 Words)

 On senior picture day at McCallum I observed students in the small gym. They where in the small gym because a few other students were exercising and playing volleyball in the big gym. Around half of the seniors were in line getting ready for their pictures while wearing black gowns over their clothes. seniors do this (and not any other grade) so their pictures can be more professional. I could hear mumbling and talking between the seniors in the room, but no one was yelling. There was two camera set ups that they could go to. I also could hear the cameras as they flashed and made beeping sounds that indicated the picture had been taken. The room smelled of robust dust and wood polish as most gyms often do, it was pretty strong as well. The smell that was less strong was the smell of clothes and sweat from people doing passed exercises. Flashes from the camera went off pretty often, around thirty seconds or so apart. The majority of the teenagers in line were guys, while most of the girls were sitting against the wall in back of the gym. Not only were there people in the back of the gym but also a lot of backpacks in a array of colors, a lot of the backpacks were small and were Jansport and they aligned the side and back walls. The bottom portion of the walls were a beige brick color and the top color of the walls were a white paint color, and they both had a glossy finish. Attached to the walls there were four basketball hoops. The ceiling was painted white  and had bars going across it for support. Though because of the glossy finish on floor you could see the reflection of the bright white lights from the ceiling. The floor was a light brown color and you could see the wood panels under the smooth gloss it also had thin red, black and light green lines on it. Sitting on the floor was a teacher on his laptop computer. He was also sitting next to three tether ball polls that were attached one tire each and a couple of people were playing on them, and they were not seniors, but probably other freshman that were observing the room. The seniors were taking their pictures through out the entire 6th period, but I did not stay till they left