What's Going On: Evening News Round-up

  • A 5.4 magnitude earthquake hit just outside Los Angeles. There was no major damage or injuries reported.
  • Senator Barack Obama talked about immigration in front of an Asian American and Pacific Islander group.
  • Now, even the Washington Post is questioning Senator John McCain’s ad. Once they get into the act, you know that the ad stinks.
  • One of the saddest stories that I have seen in a while is this Extreme Makeover house in Atlanta. If you don’t know the story, I summarize. While this family was sent on vacation to Disneyland, this TV show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, destroys their home and builds a bigger, newer one on the same spot. The family was given enough money to pay the taxes on the home for decades. Since then, the family borrowed against the house and now can’t afford payments. The home will be auctioned on Tuesday as another foreclosure.
  • Senator John McCain’s health needs to become a serious topic of this campaign. We really didn’t see his records. Some selected reporters were able to peak at selected records. Now, McCain had another “spot” or lesion removed from his right cheek. We, the American people, should get a detailed history of his melanomas. How deep were they? How large were they? What are his chances for recurrence? None of these questions have really been answered.
  • David Brooks writes an interesting article on education in today’s New York Times. He discusses how America became an economic powerhouse as a result of investment in education. He then points out that we have been stagnant in this area since 1970. What he doesn’t mention is that his Republican party has done everything that they could think of to retard and destroy our public education system. The two best examples are No Child Left Behind, which has been great at dumbing down our students and teachers, and charter schools, which suck needed funds out of our public school system. I doubt if David Brooks will call out President Bush in his next article for Bush’s disasterous educational policies.
  • Finally, bombings in Iraq yesterday killed 61 people and wounded 238 people. In Pakistan, the U.S. bombed a suspected Al Qaeda training camp. Now, we are going on the offense. Where was this over the past four to five years?