The James Logan Courier

By Veronica Brown, Courier Staff Writer

I originally jumped at the opportunity to cover the New Haven Community Forum because my teacher bribed us with double credit; and I needed the credit.

As soon as I walked in the room I was greeted by a couple staff members who made me feel very comfortable, despite the fact that I was the only student there. I sat there quietly taking my notes on the brief presentation just stating the topics of discussion for the evening. Then after about ten minutes, of three repeating the same topics, we broke off into two groups.

On one side of the room, there was a discussion about the pros and cons of random searches for students; these would be done on students that have been previously suspended for possession of a weapons or controlled substance. And on my side of the room, we discussed the pros and cons of installing surveillance cameras around the schools in the district. We all took turns, going around a circle, expressing our thoughts on the potential policy.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)

The following editorial appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Thursday, Jan. 18:
President Bush was interviewed Tuesday on PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." Lehrer asked the president the following question: "(W)hy have you not, as president of the United States, asked more Americans and more American interests to sacrifice something? The people who are now sacrificing are, you know, the volunteer military _ the Army and the U.S. Marines and their families. They're the only people who are actually sacrificing anything at this point."

Here is the president's reply: "Well, you know, I think a lot of people are in this fight. I mean, they sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night. I mean, we've got a fantastic economy here in the United States, but yet, when you think about the psychology of the country, it is somewhat down because of this war."

Really. That's what the president said: Americans are sacrificing their peace of mind when they see the war on television. And even though we've got iPods and plasma TVs and SUVs and all the other glories of a $13 trillion economy, the war is taking some of the fun out of it.

William T. Sherman: "War is hell."

George W. Bush: "War's a bummer."

By John Chau, Courier Staff Writer

Six months ago, I decided to fulfill my ethnic studies requirement by enrolling in an Asian-American Studies class. Since then, the class has led me to investigate my identity further. Through Internet databases and Government press information, I found an impressive amount of statistics based on the Asian-American population in America,

— For detailed Asian group alone, the US Census update in 2000 showed the total Asian population in the United States as 10,171,820 accounting for 3.61% of the total US population. For Asian group alone or in combination with other ethnic group the total population stood at 11,859, 446 accounting for 4.21% of the total US population. However, the Census Facts for Features Update issued in May 2006 showed the Asian American population currently at 14 million.

By Bill Ferguson
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

I can't understand why anyone would want to run for president. Who in their right mind would willingly open himself up to the kind of scrutiny and criticism that a person has to endure just to compete for what is probably the most difficult, stressful job in the world?

Obviously some people do covet the position badly enough to try to run that bruising gauntlet because every four years a number of high-profile politicians throw their hats in the ring. I guess we should be grateful that is the case, but it's painful just to watch the process chew people up and spit them out sometimes.

By Silvio Laccetti
(MCT)

The credo of modern civilization is MORE ... of anything and everything you can get your hands on. We now have more college football bowl games than ever before, 32 of them to be sure! They ran from Dec. 19, 2006 to Jan. 8, 2007.

Some athletes wanted money for playing in the national college football championship bowl. "We all deserve more money," commented one player in an AP story. It's not greed, just reality, says another participant.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service
(MCT)

The following editorial appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday, Jan. 9:

President Bush will present his new Iraq strategy in a televised address to the nation Wednesday evening. All indications are that he will advocate a "surge" — the Pentagon prefers the odd term "plus-up" — of U.S. troops into Baghdad in an attempt to stabilize the capital, thereby making it more possible for the Iraqi government to get sectarian violence under control.

That's the theory, anyway.

By George Stalk
(MCT)

Economic soothsayers are closely watching 2006 holiday sales figures to gauge the strength of the economy.

But sales are not the only figure experts should be watching. They also should be looking at the amount of goods returned for refunds. This figure has been growing rapidly in recent years and is eating significantly into companies' profits.

By John Chau, Courier Staff Writer

When the crystal ball completed its descent in Times Square on 12-31, the year of 2006 was officially over. In this way, we bid farewell to another year of the Dubya’s political blunders, crazed gamers battling each other for their ps3s and odyss-wiis, Hillary Clinton’s bid for presidency, North Korea and Iran’s nuclear advent, and teenagers worldwide killing each other with alien-made motorcycles and chainsaw bayonets.

With the above information, one can reasonable assume that the top news stories of last year would be controversial and certainly deep impacting. However, according to Yahoo! News, the following are the ten most searched News stories of the year:

1.Steve Irwin dies
2. Anna Nicole’s son dies
3. Iraq
4.Israel and Lebanon
5.US elections