Crime time

By: Katie Schaefer

Police have discovered that in the school years of 2005-06, there were over 400 fights in the Des Moines school districts. When I read about this I was shocked.

School districts need to get grant money so they can have better security matters and try to cut down on the incidents. To be able to get the grants it has to look like there are a lot of fights going on. Cops right down everything they can about incidents so they can get a lot of grant money.

The Des Moines police department reported 415 fights and assaults and got a grant for $250,000. The more that you report the more money you are going to get. But it's not all about the money. Kids need to be able to go to school and feel safe.

Still, even if 200 of the 400 are actual fist fights that's still a lot of crime going on. We need to come up with a way for kids to go to school and not get in fights. Schools are made for learning, not for fighting.

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News- As valid as High School Gossip

By: Christina Woldt

Most people have the radar for what is valid news and what is not, but what about others who cannot make this distinction? Celebrity news is all over and insights much gossip that many times proves to be false. When this gossip travels from celebrity to politician, is when the media needs to do a little bit of homework. 

We are at a time where we need our voters to be informed about each political candidate, the problem arises when that information gets overloaded with gossip and here say. I wouldn't consider Barack Obama and Sarah Palin to be celebrities but many think I am wrong. Palin and Obama are seen on the cover of  People Magazine as much as famous actor and actress "celebrities" are. 

 

These political candidates are important but it concerns me that their lives are getting plastered over gossip magazines. Websites like Wikipedia, TMZ, and various news blogs that roam our web aren't an innocent party either. This is where the news vs. false news battle really ensues. When doing a google search for Sarah Palin, the search results are flooded with blogs and opinion editorials about her. There are informational and valid sources along with the gossip but in a time like this, shouldn't we have filters? 

 

When searching the web I came upon a story from  The Los Angeles Times about a blog called, "Blue Tidal Wave", a liberal blog. The blog reported that the CBS News was not releasing information about an embarrassing Palin videotape in order to secure the McCain/Palin Campaign. The article hit the "Top Topics" over all topics on the blog site. Many of this blogs readers know that this blog has a political agenda and bias, but, what about those who don't? 

The LA Times had to prove the blog article to be untrue and clean up the mess that this blog could have or did leave. It shouldn't take a valid news source, like the LA Times to reflect on a meaningless blog. 

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