Drug Ring Goes Global

To citizens, the words “drug cartel” usually connote the narcotic ring in Latin America. Despite the stigma, the drug business has relocated to an unexpected continent, Africa. To counteract the growing globalization of the drug cartel, the United States has started training officials in Ghana to combat the cartel’s increased presence in Africa to smuggle cocaine to Europe.

The U.S increased its involvement after realizing that shutdown of major countries, like Mexico, forced the cartel to relocate to smaller, inconspicuous countries.

“We see Africa as the new frontier in terms of counterterrorism and counternarcotics issues. It’s a place that we need to get ahead of — we’re already behind the curve in some ways, and we need to catch up,” said Jeffrey P. Breeden, the chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration’ s (DEA) Europe, Asia and Africa section to the New York Times.

            The U.S. plans to expand its efforts to Kenya and Nigeria. For more on the DEA’s efforts, check out the NYT’s coverage.

Mass Shooting Casts Dark Shadow Over Country

Tragedy struck the country as James Holmes,24, opened fire at a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 and wounding 58 others.

“And if there’s anything to take away from this tragedy it’s the reminder that life is very fragile.  Our time here is limited and it is precious.  And what matters at the end of the day is not the small things, it’s not the trivial things, which so often consume us and our daily lives.  Ultimately, it’s how we choose to treat one another and how we love one another,” President Obama said.

Holmes fired a AR-15 rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a 40-caliber handgun into a crowded theater after blinding moviegoers with teargas.  Holmes entered the theater through an emergency door he seemed to prop open earlier that night.

According to a federal official, Holmes, now in police custody reported to the police that he was “The joker”. Mimicking the fictional villain, Holmes died his hair red.  Planning to turn himself in, Holmes left a second surprise for law enforcement, chemical traps in his apartment.

“He was just literally just massacring anybody that got up that was trying to run away," John Seeger, a survivor of the attack said to CNN.

Across the country, the shooting conjured up memories of other tragedies such as Columbine and Virginia Tech. In response to the shooting, Warner Brother Studios cancelled the movie’s premiere in Paris.

With the total count of 71 people shot, the Aurora shooting is deemed to as the largest mass shooting in the country. For more on the tragedy, check out CNN’s coverage.

Politics Running The Newsroom?

Shouted ideas, shuffled papers, the occasional hah! moment, and now political approval? The defenders of the press are being challenged by politicians to obtain the final verdict on stories that contain quotes or attributions from officials.

With the increasing speed of information, introduced by the Internet through social media such as Facebook and Twitter, officials would like more control over the spread of information.

Both the Obama  and Romney campaign mandate quote approval for any interview before sent to production. Following in the two presidential candidates footsteps, other government officials are helping to make quote approval the norm. Most news organizations like New York Times and Vanity Fair agree to conditional interviews.

Approval requests prove to challenge newsrooms as they can hinder or completely reshape a story. Despite these conditions, journalists will not back down to the limitations.

“We don’t like the practice. We encourage our reporters to push back. Unfortunately this practice is becoming increasingly common, and maybe we have to push back harder,” Dean Baquet, managing editor for news at The New York Times said to the New York Times.

For more on these challenges in the newsroom check out the NYT coverage.

Facebook Leads to Father's Arrest

We’ve all seen them; that borderline explicit profile picture that would leave an employer baffled, the obscene comment regarding last year’s epic rager that could stop poor grandma’s heart; Social media users are familiar with the power of the Internet. The ability to reach million in a short time has warranted a caution label to user’s choices. In relation to the dangerous misconception among the younger generation about privacy and the Internet, 25-year-old Yashar Khameneh’s Facebook posts caused his father’s in Tehran.

While in college Khameneh joined a Facebook page that ridiculed a top Shiite Muslim imam, Ali al-Naqi al-Had, 1 of 12 imams regarded as the Prophet Mohammed’s successor. These 12 elite, locally referred to as “Infallibles,” are protected by Iranian law from ridicule.

Contributing to the page in hopes for change, Khameneh, did not consider the reach of the page in Iran. After the page’s popularity spiked in May due to an Iranian rapper’s paralleling ridicule of the imam, government officials tracked down Khameneh’s father. They requested Khameneh’s passwords to any social media used in the mocking.

Attempting to evade the punishment, Khameneh deactivated his Facebook account, which landed his father in Evin prison in Tehran, a confinement notorious for torturing inmates. Officials warned Khamneh that as long as the mocking facebook page existed, his father would remain in jail. Because he does not own the page, Khameneh must find alterenative to obtain his father’s release. For more on Khameneh and his father, check out CNN’s coverage.

Assume The Position! Or Not?

“Assume the position” may cease to occur in conversation between police and suspects as federal and state courts question stop and frisk practices.

A guilty party of overusing frisking, New York City Police Department (NYPD) may have to resort to other tactics as opposition of the frisking policy enlarges. Experts say that NYPD will inevitably have to change their policy as citizens begin to question the true motives behind stop and frisk. Several people in New York City wonder if racial profiling plays any part in the increasing number of stops. Federal intervention was required after a poll suggested that race could influence the growing number of frisks.

 “More than 80 percent of those stopped in New York are black or Latino, and last year there were 686,000 stops, with this year’s numbers heading higher,” Randolph M. McLaughlin, a law professor at Pace University. A majority of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court in Manhattan favored a cessation of the policy claiming it bordered violating individuals’ constitutional rights. For more on the future of stop and frisk practices check out the NYT’s coverage.

A Modern Day Boy Genius

A 4.0 grade point average (gpa), 150+ community service hours, and a varsity athletic record; those characteristics used to constitute an exceptional college bound student. Today a young age defines exceptional in the collegiate world.  Nine-year-old Tanishq Abraham is currently working on his degree at American River College in Sacramento California.

Mensa, the high IQ society, inducted Abhrams when he was 4. Mensa only offers membership to people who obtained a score within the top two percent of the general population on an approved intelligence test. For more on this boy genius check out ABC's coverage.

California Strikes Back Against Immigration Law

As a response to a controversial issue that is sweeping the country, California passed a bill known as the TRUST act, commonly referred to as the Anti-Arizona, that will prevent racial profiling by police and allow local governments to ignore federal requests to detain orderly immigrants for deportation.

"I think this policy was flawed in that it pits sheriffs throughout the state between undocumented immigrants and federal authorities,” Michael J. Rubio, California State Senator, said to CNN.

A trailblazing legislation, the bill was proposed as a response to Arizona’s Immigration act SB 1070 that allows police to verify with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) an immigrants status if police believe the suspect to reside in the country illegally. The bill has garnered acknowledgment on both sides of the issue.

“The Trust Act repairs the relationship between the local police and the immigrant residents they serve and protect,” Angela Chan, senior staff attorney of the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus, said to CNN.

Serving as an opposition to the Supreme Courts’ decision to uphold SB 1070, Anti- Arizona will allow police to disregard requests from ICE to detain an illegal immigrant, except in cases where the suspect poses a serious threat.

The Senate approved the TRUST act 21-13. Now that the law has passed the Senate it will be sent to the Assembly for approval. For more information on Anti-Arizona or Anti-Immigration, check out CNN’s coverage.

No Child Left Behind Is Being Left Behind?

In only five months, the Obama administration has waived crucial provisions of Bill PL 107-110, commonly known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), in most schools.

Today, the Department of Education (DOE) plans to release Washington and Wisconsin from its NCLB contract. With the two states addition, over half of the country will have ceased to meet NCLB goals that requires all students to achieve proficiency in mathematics and reading by 2014.

 In 2001, the Bush Administration attempted to address the issues of public schooling with NCLB.  After its introduction the bill received praise for holding schools accountable for students education, but also acquired criticism for its obsession on results.

The waiver will cease the labeling of struggling schools as failures and place them on the DOE’s watch list. For more on NCLB, check out the NYT’s coverage.

Improving Race Relations, One Daughter At A Time

Breaking a 236 year old tradition, the Daughters of American Revolution (D.A.R.), a non-profit women’s service organization that is notoriously known for its racial exclusivity, acknowledged its first chapter started by an African-American woman June.

Dr. Olivia Cousins could barely contain her astonishment, as she scoffed at the suggestion of joining the D.A.R. A black woman applying to a notoriously discriminatory group seemed hardly worthwhile. But in late June, she shook hands with President Wilhelmena Rhodes Kelly as one of the five black members to join the Queens, New York chapter.

The D.A.R. first opened its doors in 1890, welcoming dozens of citizens who strove for patriotism. Despites its mission improve the country’s general wellbeing D.A.R. acquired such a harsh reputation as a white only organization that Eleanor Roosevelt renounced her membership. The organization has since attempted to overcome it. Because of the DAR’s reputation, the organization struggles to obtain diverse members. Cousin’s membership signifies a start to a diverse D.A.R. For more on the ground breaking induction, check out NYT’s coverage.

America Celebrates Its 236th Anniversary!

Hotdogs and Hamburgers galore! What patriotic citizen could ask for more? Celebrating the 236th anniversary of the the country's birth, today, citizens will don on various shades of red, white, and blue,watch fireworks, enjoy colorful drinks. From the Digital Newsroom Buzz Office, Happy 4th of July.

Unrest Continues To Plague Syria

Casting the country back into the global spotlight, tensions continue to rise in Syria as well as along it’s border despite China and Russia’s backing for peace.

On June 30, global leaders meet in the United Nations (U.N) headquarters in Geneva to create an agreement that would end the civil unrest in Syria and bring peace to the country. Plans for peace halted as a deafening crack interrupted a funeral for a man allegedly killed by the Syrian government. A bomb blast interrupted the funeral killing 85 people and injuring 300 others. Anti-government activists claimed that the tragedy was the result of a government-organized bombing.

According to an opposition group, now 14,342 people have been lost to violence since the conflict began. Global leaders continue to strive to bring peace to the tumultuous country.

 According to Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan, to end violence, the country should implement the six-point plan drafted by the U.N and Arab League of Nations. The proposal would charge Syrian government with the responsibility of acknowledging and catering to the people’s concerns. It also specifies that the government should pull out troops to end the violence.

            For more on Syria’s journey, check out CNN’s coverage.