An outburst of gunfire at Northern Illinois University around 3 p.m. Thursday, February 14, marks the fourth shooting at a U.S. school this week. A young man reportedly wearing all black opened fire in a lecture hall killing five and injuring more than a dozen before killing himself. The remainder of classes Thursday were cancelled as well as all Friday classes. According to Northern Illinois University Police Chief, Donald Grady, there seems to have been no motive for the shooter, who did not attend the university. (Newsday 2/15/08, p. A5)
School shootings have become more and more common over the past couple of years. In just one week, there have been four school shootings across the United States. Being a college student, myself, this story has a lot of proximity. I'm sure that students across the country are wondering why this has happened again. These stories hit the news and we, students, are led to believe that security will tighten, but has it? I think that universities need to stop giving off this false sense of security and actually do something to prevent things like this from continually happening. The shooter at Northern Illinois University wasn't even a student at the university, so how did he get in? How did he get past authorities with a shotgun and two handguns?
The most interesting story of the week was to find out that in Wednesday's hearing, Andy Pettitte revealed that both he and his Yankee teammate, Roger Clemens, used human growth hormone. In regards to Clemens, Pettitte stated that in either 1999 or 2000 his teammate told him he used HGH. Pettitte again recalled a time in 2003 or 2004 when Brian McNamee told Pettitte that he injected Clemens with steroids. As a final point, Pettitte added that in addition to the time in 2002 when he used the hormone to try and recover from an elbow injury, he also injected himself with HGH one day in 2004. Clemens still sticks to his story and denies ever having used HGH or steroids. Though Pettitte did cheat and lie about his usage up until officials got involved, in my opinion, Pettitte is an honorable man for finally admitting what he did, unlike many of the other players accused of having used HGH or steroids. (Newsday 2/14/08, p. A5)
After 49 years as President of Cuba, Fidel Castro resigned and brother, Raul Castro, took over. (Newsday 2/20/08, p. A7)... After a series of losses, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has to win Ohio and Texas. (Newsday 2/20/08, p. A2)... The Pentagon plans to shoot down a U.S. spy satellite loaded with toxic fuel before it reaches Earth's atmosphere. (Newsday 2/15/08, p. A4)... The Albanian government of Kosovo announced their independence as a new country in Europe. (Newsday 2/18/08, p. A6)... After the three month strike, CBS and NBC expect most series to return to television by April. (Newsday 2/14/08, p. A12)...
