This happened_______ years ago today:
Today I figured I’d try something new and look into history for some ideas to write about. They are random events that I picked, but it was trivial knowledge that I found interesting.
1970-
Appollo 13 was launched. Apollo 13 was supposed to be the 3rd manned lunar-landing mission. As part of project Appollo, the job of the crew was to look more closely at the surface of the moon.
Two days after the launch, an electrical fault caused an explosion in a Service Module oxygen tank. The entire crew did make it home okay.
Since that day, Appollo 13 has become known as a successful failure.
1979-
On this day, President Jimmy Carter thought about appointing an “ethnic advisor”. He met with Peter Rodino, Jr. to discuss the idea.
Some interesting current events
Iowa has become the first mid-western state to allow same-sex marriage.Iowa is now the third state in country following Connecticut and Massachusetts to allow gay-marriage.
Michigan is also changing laws by passing the Medical Marihuana Act. This will allow people with chronic pains and illnesses to receive marijuana as a prescribed treatment.
An interesting point from the act:
Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports and the Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics show that approximately 99 out of every 100 marihuana arrests in the United States are made under state law, rather than under federal law. Consequently, changing state law will have the practical effect of protecting from arrest the vast majority of seriously ill people who have a medical need to use marihuana.
This new law will allow qualified patients to possess up to 2.5 ounces and to cultivate up to 12 plants.
33-year-old man killed in Radford
Radford University had a scare Thursday night.
At around 9:10 p.m. residents around the Calhoun St and Madison Street intersection heard gunshots.
Julia* a resident on Calhoun said she heard 3 shots and then a pause followed by 4 more shots.
The victim was Floyd Wilfred-Linn Wright, Jr. of Christiansburg.
The man arrested was an employee at the University. His name is Phillip Beale Sr.
The police responded quickly and with diligence.
Radford University followed suit. Roughly ten minutes after the shooting happened alerts were sent out through cell phone calls and text messages.
The calls said to go into lockdown mode. Which basically means stay where you are, lock the doors and don’t leave until further notice.
Many messages were sent out throughout the night with the final message that all was clear received by students around 3 a.m.
Radford University has bad rep with animals
Radford University has a bad reputation when it comes to taking care of animals.
Every summer the area in and around campus becomes inundated with almost twice as many stray cats and dogs as normal.
The Radford Animal Shelter that is jointly run between the City Police Department and Pound Pals of Radford has been keeping these animals until they can find them a home or relocate them to a shelter that has more adoptions.
Michael Vest, Senior Animal Control Officer said the reason for the increase in stray animals is a lot of times due to students adopting an animal without their parents’ knowledge. Then they are not allowed to return home with the animal.
Thomas Meade a senior at Radford University did exactly that. He got his dog Frank (the Tank) without informing his parents. But they fell in love with the beautiful Silver Labrador and everything turned out well.
Meade said he didn’t even want to think about ever getting rid of Frank.
With more animal education and property management companies like BCR and Bondurant restricting their residents from having as many animals the problem is resolving.
How do you feel about the Phelps Controversy
Students will need to release their mental health records
Virginians know the date April 16, 2007 by heart now. That is when a mentally unstable student, Seung-Hui Cho shot 32 people and then himself on the campus of Virginia Tech. That day hits home for Virginia Tech student Brent Clinedinst.
Clinedinst feels that House Bill 752, proposed by Virginia Delegate Peace, could help to prevent similar incidents at Virginia Tech and the rest of the Commonwealth’s universities and colleges. “Although it may not have stopped things on that horrific day there’s always a chance that it could have and maybe it could potentially stop it from happening again somewhere else,” Clinedinst said.
House Bill 752 is described by the Virginia General Assembly website as “a bill to amend and reenact § 23-276.5 of the Code of Virginia and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 23-2.2:2, relating to requiring students to provide mental health record waivers upon enrollment in an institution of higher education.”
This means that all students would need to sign a release of their mental health records to their college of choice before they would be allowed to enroll. The bill has been assigned to the committee on education.
There are many incidents of students acting violent towards their classmates or institutions of education.
Some of the most deadly include the shooting at Northern Illinois University just last year, the University of Texas at Austin shooting in 1966, and the California State University shooting in Fullerton in 1976.
A counselor at Radford University disagrees with Clinedinst. “I don’t think the law would drastically keep people safer on campus. Usually people with mental health issues are less violent than the general population. They are more likely to be a victim of a violent act than a perpetrator.”–He did not want to be named.
It is not surprising that all of these tragedies are on college campuses knowing that according to the National Alliance on Mental Health or NAMI, “mental illnesses usually strike individuals in the prime of their lives, often during adolescence and young adulthood.” NAMI also states that “early identification and treatment is of vital importance; By ensuring access to the treatment and recovery supports that are proven effective, recovery is accelerated and the further harm related to the course of illness is minimized.”
This backs up what another counselor, who also wished not to be named, at Radford University thinks about the bill. She poses a good question that needs to be thought about before this bill becomes a law,” If folks know that their records will be more open and their confidentiality violated, why would these folks enter treatment or participate fully in it to begin with?” It is not clear who will have access to these mental health records once the release is signed.
Clinedinst was also concerned about how fair this bill would be to students. He was concerned that faculty and staff wouldn’t be included in this bill. The admissions office at Radford University and the rest of the Institutions of Higher Education will have time to think the bill through and pan out all the details before requiring students to sign a waiver of their mental health records.
The bill has been tabled or set aside, and assigned to the Committee on Higher Education. It will then be reviewed at the next session of the Virginia General Assembly.
Today’s Top Stories
TODAYS TOP STORIES, PERSONAL AND INTERNATIONAL
Personal Top Stories:
Ava is starting to get better.
I feel that I have been slacking in my classes. Well slacking isn’t the correct word as I am putting a lot of effort into them it’s just that I am exhausted and can’t do as well as I want or was hoping to do. Oh well, such is life.
Bryan is now sick with what Ava had, fortunately for an adult it is more like a cold than an all out “I feel like I’m dying” sickness.
We are going to a giant family dinner at Ava’s great-grandma’s this weekend! MMM vegetarian food-can you see the sarcasm in my text?
In more interesting Worldly News:
From CNN:
1. Oakland Raiders linebacker Cooper, NFL free agent Corey Smith and William Bleakley, a former college football player, went missing after their fishing boat capsized Saturday.
The Cooper family had been quoted saying that they would not give up hope and thus keep searching for their son, but according to Bruce Cooper, Marquis Cooper’s father, they have called off the search due to new information about the circumstances of that day.
All is not sad though, one member of the boat was found two days ago alive and for the most part healthy. His only real problem was dehydration and being extremely tired and hungry almost to the point of hallucination.
2. Asian restaurants have always been recognized as a little over-the-top or strange by Western culture and a new restaurant that opened in Hong Kong is no exception.
Can you imagine sitting on a toilet while eating out of a toilet and looking at toilets while you do it? This reporter can’t but apparently it’s all the rage in Hong Kong.
Take a look at this video from CNN.
Well that’s all I have time for right now… I’m trying to make this blogging a regular(every few days) thing.
Sick Babies are Sad!!
My almost six-week-old daughter has a virus called RSV and a double ear infection!
That’s what happens when your baby is born perfect even though you did lots of things “wrong” pre-pregnancy.
On the school side of things, I have been getting behind just a little and am definitely not going to make dean’s list this semester, but I’m okay with that. School has dropped way down on my list of priorities. Ava, paying bills, keeping up my relationship with Bryan, school, relaxation time; those are pretty much the top 5 and in that order too.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not going to be failing anything, or even getting any Ds but as of right this second, one week before spring break, I’m assuming that I will get 2 ‘A’s and 2 ‘B’s or 2 ‘A’s a ‘B’ and a ‘C’.
Over spring break, it’s not really a break though. I need to write a report on the Virginia General Assembly, specifically the bill that proposes making it a law to release any/all mental records to your institution of higher education before enrollment. I need to write a report comparing the reporting and writing styles of newspapers for two different eras in time. I also need to go out and shadow a reporter for an entire day and write about that. I need to finish my Diet Analysis project and I need to start putting my portfolio together.
I’m sure that’s not all I have to do that week, that’s just all I can remember right this moment.
Well wish Ava luck on her road to recovery, her granny is saving my butt and watching her for me while I do work and sleep. And thanks to her granddaddy as well for diagnosing her and calling in her Rx.
