Bronwen

International:
The Inter-American Press Association, or IAPA starts it's semiannual meeting in Caracas on Friday. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez predicted members "are going to be saying there's a dictatorship in Venezuela. . . I don't know if I'll go, I have so many things on the agenda." Right now Chavez filters much of the media by bribing judges to convict journalists openly opposing him.

News often bothers me and I wish I could sensor it too, but I don't believe a president (or any part of government) should have that power. Judging from the history of that area I would guess Hugo Chavez is exhibiting doctoral powers. The people aren't crying out because they like him. Chavez needs dethroned.

National:
Teen death rates are going up in Chicago, and principles and parents are hardly able to stifle it. 20 public high school students have been killed since September. Last school year over thirty students were killed, 24 of them by gunfire, and the year before that saw about 15 students shot to death. "The loss of life that we've seen among our young people is ... devastating, this gun nonsense has reached a crisis level." said school district spokesman Michael Vaughn. As a whole, Chicago murders are at an all time low. To help solve the problem of teen violence video cameras are being added to schools, policemen are escorting students, and curfew times have been rolled back.

I go to Chicago frequently and I can attest to it's shadiness. It's split up racially more than any place I've ever been and the south side is primarily black and primarily dangerous. These kids need a role model worthy of their admiration who can show them how to be productive and handle disagreements. Chicago needs a lot more than video cameras and escorts.

International:
In Bogota, Columbia the defense ministry is investigating to see if 66 pounds of uranium recently found was hidden by rebels. Vice President Francisco Santos says it is unclear whether rebels were trying to make a bomb, or sell the uranium for a profit. The uranium was not process, therefore it could not be used to make anything nuclear. "Uranium is not particularly radioactive. The fact that you can dig it out of the ground and it's been there for 5 billion years tells you that it's not terribly radioactive," Ivan Oelrich, American Scientist.

The world is not billions of years old, try thousands. But I'm not particularly concerned about what they found either, although I'm sure there are rebel groups who could be capable of creating something nuclearly dangerous. What Columbia should be concerned about is who the rebels would be selling that much uranium to.

National:
In Charlottesville, Virginia authorities are looking for two people who fired shots at several vehicles. Only two people were injured. This incidents reminds locals of John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo who killed 10 in 2002. "Given the unknown nature of a still-evolving situation, the idea of putting children in buses, cars or unsupervised at rural bus stops did not seem like the best thing to do," said Lee Catlin, a spokeswoman for the county. More officers will be deployed on Thursday if no one is caught by then.

Every time I write blogs it makes me a little more depressed about the depraved state of our world. The fact that these shooters did not seriously injure anyone greatly separates them from the shooters of the past, but I bet Muhammad and Malvo influenced these shooters. I hope they are caught and face serious penalties.