Current Event 2/25 Kansas Shooting

A police office outside Excel Industries during shootings

People in Hesston, Kan. are recovering from a shooting that happened Thursday at multiple locations in the city.

The shooter, not yet identified, killed four people and injured 14 with his reckless driving and random shooting.

The shooter stole a van and started randomly shooting anyone in his sights. He drove to the Excel Industries, where he was later shot by police.

Newton police and SWAT took control of the situation allowing no more casualties when they arrived.

"the motive for this shooting does not seem to have any link to terrorism," County Sheriff T Walton said. 

The shooter was said to be a confirmed worker at Excel Industries, but no reason for an action like this. The plant does not know when it will reopen, but it reaching out to families in need.

New Lodging Takes Over

Many hotels in the Oxford, Miss. area are seeing a drop in their revenue after new hotels have brought a new standard to the lodging scene over the last couple months.

The hotels feeling this loss are mainly the Super 8 and Quality Inn and Suites located on Jackson Avenue far away from most of the festivities presented in Oxford. These hotels mostly only see guests during the football season or parents weekend when open rooms are hard to come by.

“After this football season passed, things have changed,” Super 8’s General Manager Jack Contello said. “We have not seen the same results in sales as we did last year around this time.”

These preexisting hotels are much farther away from, not only the University of Mississippi and their football stadium, but also the Square, a place where most guests do their daily shopping and family dinners when they come to visit.

The new hotels include The Graduate, which will soon share the Square with both the Courtyard Oxford and the Chancellor’s House hotel. All these hotels, even if not built yet, have set the bar for what people expect from a hotel and their services.

The Graduate, being the newest addition to the Oxford lodging scene, has provided their guests with a very luxurious interior design and a rooftop patio equipped with a night bar for all of Oxford. With these 21^st century improvements it is no wonder their hotel is the most expensive to stay at in Oxford.

Not all preexisting hotels are feeling the loss in revenue like the the Super 8 and Quality Inn. The Hampton Inn, also on Jackson Avenue, has continued to see a similar level of guests compared to last year at this time.

“With the school growing and more people visiting every month there will always be a good income of guests,” General Manager Jobie Charlie said. “With our location still close to the school and restaurants on Jackson, we have maintained a good amount of bookings, just like in the past.”

Over the next year many people will be presented with more and more options for lodging in Oxford while they stay. The biggest development being talked about is The Chancellor’s House.

Located on the corner of University and Lamar, this hotel has been designed for the convenience of its guests. “Its biggest addition is its underground parking garage,” DJournal said. “Allowing its guests to park and walk to square with no wait or troubles.”

A design sure to set the bar once again in Oxford, Miss.

Current Event 2/18 - Apple vs. Government

A dispute between Apple Inc. and the FBI has taking the lead into the topic of discussion about how much the FBI can access our privacy. The FBI requested Tuesday that Apple unlock a locked iPhone so that they could see its data.

Even though the phone belonged to Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the gunmen of the San Bernardino terror, Apple refused.

“Obeying the order would set a dangerous precedent, and that creating a "backdoor" to its own security systems could compromise the security of billions of customers.” Apple’s Chief Executive Tim Cook said.

Now everything is being taken to trial and will set a precedent for how much privacy the FBI is really allowed to monitor.

Apple has already tried to help without unlocking the phone by giving the FBI data from the phone’s last iCloud backup, which was made about a month before the attacks.

Not only would iPhone’s reputation be shredded if they released a backdoor into the iPhone’s security system, but that kind of access in the wrong hands leaves everyone holding an iPhone at risk.

Current Event #1

                                        

ZIKA VIRUS

    The Zika virus, once spread in Uganda in 1947, makes it was to the Americas through the bite of a mosquito.  The common affects the Zika virus contains is a fever, rashes, joint pain, and red eyes (http://www.cdc.gov/zika/disease-qa.html). But, for women the affects are seeming to come at a much greater toll. The Zika virus that now originates from Brazil has been known to affect women during pregnancy.
    The way this virus has been able to be detected is through the testing of saliva and urine in humans (http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/28/health/zika-virus-global-response/). The virus has spread to many areas in the Americas mainly Florida and Texas, where mosquitos are often found during muggy nights, and 30 other countries. (http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/02/05/world/americas/05reuters-health-zika.html?ref=world&_r=0)
    After the bite has already occurred, the next step for the Zika virus to spread through the act of sexual transmission through humans, which can only be stopped by either not being involved or being safe as permitted.