PLN 24

I just read "Niwot High evacuated in asbestos scare" in The Denver Post, by Monte Whaley about how students and staff were evacuated from Niwot High School today when work crews discovered material in the girls' locker room wall that might be asbestos. The evacuation was done as a precaution, said St. Vrain Valley School District spokesman John Poynton. Air quality tests at the school will be done throughout the rest of the day to determine if there was any contamination. St. Vrain Valley School District spokesman John Poynton said that, "Hopefully, everything will be fine and we'll be on a regular schedule tomorrow, but we haven't gotten that green light yet." The suspected asbestos was discovered during a $20 million renovation which included work on the boys' and girls' locker room.

I know that this is a short article, but this is important to the community because we do not need schools putting kids' health in jeopardy. Plus, Niwot is a big school with a lot of students, so we are not just putting a couple of kids at risk, we are putting thousands of kids at risk. This is important to me because a teammate of mine goes to Niwot High School. If something happened to him, our whole team would be upset because we all care about him, and he is a really good soccer player. This matters to the whole state of Colorado because when construction is done on older schools, we need to be aware that running in to asbestos is always a possibility. All the staff and students need to be on alert at all times because you never know when something like this might happen.

PLN 23

I just read "Emmanuel Adebayor retires from Togo international duty" in the BBC News about how the Manchester City and Togo striker, 26 year old Emmanuel Adebayor, has announced his retirement from international football (soccer). His decision comes three months after the attack on the Togo team bus during this year's Africa Cup of Nations. Three people were killed in the gun fire. A statement from Adebayor: "Following those tragic events... I have made the very difficult decision to retire from international football. I am still haunted by the events I witnessed on that horrible afternoon. I have weighed up my feelings in the weeks and months since the attack. We were just footballers going to play a football match and represent our country, yet we were attacked by people who wanted to kill us all. It is a moment I will never forget and one I never want to experience again." Adebayor has represented Togo for nine years and has both great memories and bad ones, including the incident in Angola. This is what he had to say about the coach, "The people who were on that coach together will forever be joined by a special bond - we are all brothers." Two Togolese officials and an Angolan bus driver were killed in the attack which prompted the Togolese government to pull their team out of the event. This led to Togo being handed a four-year ban from competing in the competition, a sanction over which they are currently in an appeal process over.

This matters to the world of sports because Adebayor is a top class footballer and he is walking away from representing his country and captaining his team. Not only is it important to honor your country and play, but to be a captain for your country is a huge opportunity and a once in a lifetime chance. This matters to me because I am a big fan of Adebayor and I just do not think someone as young as him should be walking away from the game you love. He is basically walking out on his country and I do not think that this is a wise decision by him.

There are many people out there that could help him try to get over this event or at least become more comfortable with it. It doesn't seem to me that he is really trying to get help. However, in the end it is his life and his choice. If he doesn't feel safe enough to play in his own country, and feels that strongly about it, then how can we judge.

This also reminds me of my Dad and what he and others went through at Columbine H.S. There are not many teachers left that were there that day because they also couldn't handle it. Those that are left will also have that bond that Adebayor talks about.

PLN 22

I just read "Hernandez gets 60 years in ice-cream shop crash" in The Denver Post by Carlos Illescas about how a 25 year old male named Francis Hernandez was convicted on 19 counts because of a crash that killed three people at an Aurora ice cream shop. He was sentenced yesterday to 60 years in jail. A father of one of the victims, 3-year-old Marten Kudlis, was upset that the sentence was little more than half the 108 years Hernandez faced. On Sept. 4, 2008, the Suburban Hernandez was driving at 80 mph hit a small pickup that was turning into a strip mall. The collision sent the truck, driven by Patricia Guntharp, 49, careening into the store. Guntharp was killed, as was her passenger, Debra Serecky, 51, and Marten Kudlis, a little boy who was in the shop with his mother. Before he was sentenced by judge John Wheeler, Hernandez took the stand and read a letter begging for mercy and apologizing to the families of the victims. "I know this has been very, very hard for you and me." He choked up as he noted that although he had been called a baby killer, he has children of his own. "I have two little girls who need me," he said. "I have to go home." An Arapahoe County jury convicted Hernandez, who is in the country illegally, on Feb. 23. After the conviction, the family of Marten Kudlis filed a civil suit in Arapahoe County District Court, seeking damages from Hernandez and his family; the family of Guntharp, who was high on methamphetamine at the time and several police agencies that had arrested Hernandez before and did not report him to federal authorities.

This matters to the world because we don't need people who aren't supposed to be in our country to be driving illegally and killing innocent people. This matters to me because a lot of my friends are starting to drive and it scares me. I don't turn 15 until this summer and my parents have told me many times that I will not get my driving permit when kids my age usually do because they think it is too early. I would be scared to get in a car with some of my friends, they are not responsible enough to be driving!

PLN 21

I just read "Restaurant owner with connections gets 18 months in prison" in The Denver Post, by Felisa Cardona. This story is about how a Thornton restaurant owner, Dan Tang was ordered Wednesday to serve 18 months in prison for funding a major marijuana growing operation. Chief of U.S. District Judge Wiley Y. Daniel decided Tang's crimes were too serious to grant a probationary sentence requested by his attorneys who said his mental and physical ailments were mitigating factors. Tang, the 47-year-old owner of the Heaven Dragon restaurant cried throughout the hearing and looked regretful as he addressed the judge in both English and Cantonese. In November, Tang pleaded guilty to money laundering and was ordered to forfeit $1 million to the government. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to request a sentence of 11 to 30 months, which is below the guideline range for his offense which could carry a term of 70 to 87 months in prison. Two police officers from Northglenn and Thornton have sued their chiefs and supervisors on the North Metro Task Force because they said they were retaliated against for cooperating with the DEA's investigation into the leak. After psychiatrist Dr. David Kan testified about Tang's depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and physical problems - including hepatitis B and psoriatic arthritis - Daniel asked whether the Bureau of Prisons could handle his medical needs. A medical director for the BOP testified those conditions could be managed within the prison system.

This matters to the State of Colorado because we do not need restaurant owners, or any kind of business owner to be involved in this kind of stuff. When people passed the bill to legalize "medical" marijuana, what did they think was going to happen? Marijuana is a drug and should be kept that way. There are many other problems (money laundering) and doors that can be opened that go along with the whole marijuana "businesses". When this gets out, you will be a little scared because you do not know if the owner is putting a little something extra in your food or not!

PLN 20

I just read "Soccer coach sentenced in sex assault" in The Denver Post about how a soccer coach, Delbert Wallace Stiewert, was accused of having sex with a teen-aged girl in Jefferson County. The 41-year-old Delbert pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to two years in jail and 10 years to life of intensive supervised probation for sex offenders. He was arrested last year when the former student told police he sexually assaulted her in 2005 and 2006, when she was 13 to 14 years old. According to prosecutors, Stiewert began coaching the girl privately while he was also working for the Colorado Rush soccer organization. At the time of his arrest last year, he was coaching for another youth soccer organization, Real Colorado. "Shortly after the coaching sessions began in 2005, Stiewert told the teen that he was suicidal," the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office said in a statement. "He told her that she was the only one who knew and asked her not to tell anyone. The teen became worried and feared that if he did kill himself it would be her fault." Later, Stiewert began to call the girl on her cell phone. "He told her that he loved her," according to prosecutors, and became controlling and jealous of her friends. He convinced the girl to have sex with him at his townhouse in Lakewood, and continued to use his threat of suicide to manipulate the girl into sex on multiple occasions.

This matters to me because I know Del. I am a youth soccer player in the Real Colorado soccer club and Del was the coach for the U-14 girls' team when I met him. I used to see him 3 days a week at training and I wonder now if he felt like he had gotten away with what he had done? It creeps me out that he could have done the same thing to one of the girls on the U14 team too. I know that if Real had known about this before hand, they never would have hired him in the first place.

I am going to connect this to my 2 police PLN's. This matters to society in general because these are people who are suppose to be helping us and teaching us good things. Instead, they are taking advantage of not only what and who is around them but they are taking advantage of their professional positions. They are throwing away their lives for something stupid and ridiculous. David Dolan and Del should be ashamed of themselves!

PLN 19

I just read "Trooper charged with DUI now in treatment" in The Denver Post by Carlos Illescas. The story is about how a State Trooper was pulled over for suspicion of drinking and driving on the job. I first wrote about this in PLN 17 when he actually got pulled over ans arrested in Castle Rock. The State Trooper was charged with driving drunk while on duty and his lawyer said today that his client is in a facility for mental health and substance abuse issues. Today, the attorney, Geoff Heim, made an appearance on behalf of David Dolan, 48, in Douglas County District Court. Dolan was not at the hearing and did not have to be. The judge told Heim his client had $1,000 bond. The other terms include that Dolan cannot drink alcohol or possess a gun while he is out of jail. When he was arrested, Dolan was in his Colorado State Patrol trooper uniform and was carrying a gun. His blood-alcohol content, according to a police report, was 0.194 percent — more than twice the legal limit. Dolan has been charged with driving under the influence and is now prohibited use of a firearm. In Colorado, it is illegal for anyone to have a firearm if they are under the influence. Dolan is on unpaid leave of absence as the state patrol conducts an internal investigation. His next court date is May 7.

Like I said in PLN 17, this matters to the State of Colorado because we do not need people who are suppose to be protecting us breaking the law while they are on duty. I am glad that he has been suspended from his job without pay. I hope that the investigation shows that he is not fit to be a member of the state patrol anymore. Anyone who has a job of protecting the public ie. police, firemen etc. should not be given any "wiggle room" whatsoever where drinking on duty is concerned. If you know what you are doing and are on duty you should lose your job! Enough said!

PLN 18

In our English Class at Arapahoe H.S., laptops are an every day tool that we use for many things like blogging, research, and typing. Instead of writing your thoughts out on a piece of paper, you can type it onto a computer, save it and come back to it later. Having laptops in my classroom is great because when you type you never get tired, you can do so many different things with laptops, and they do not take up that much space. On a laptop, if you do not know a word, you can look it up right then, or if you do not know how to spell a word you can also look that up while you are working. If you used paper though, you would have to find a dictionary and find what you are looking for, possibly erase multiple times etc. On laptops we can do different things on them that we could not do before. You can use Google Earth to find places, Blogger to show your thoughts, Wordle to finish a project in a cool way, Diigo to organize all of your work, and the internet to make researching easier. If I could not use a laptop next year, it would be hard because I rely on computers almost every time I do school work. I do not think that I have changed as a student because laptops are readily available thanks to projects like this one. Laptops are just a easier ans simpler tool to use in class. It is also nice because not all students have computers at home!