U.S. economy still sluggish: It’s safe to say that we’re all aware that the economic situation in the United States has been awful for a few years now. All we’ve managed to do between the financial meltdown in the summer of 2008 and the present day is prevent a complete economic disaster from turning America into a third world nation.
According to CNN, our hopes still aren’t very high. A group of 27 economists believe that it is likely that GDP growth, and by extension job growth, will remain fairly low into 2012. In a worst-case scenario, flagging growth could mean a double-dip recession. But really, who knows? Keeping up with market news has been like riding a rollercoaster.
Only time will tell if America can ever be on top again.
Casey Anthony innocent: After a brutal saga that captured that attention of the American people for 3 years,Casey Anthony was ruled not guilty of the murder of her child, Caylee. Anthony was only convicted on the four misdemeanor charges of providing false information to the police, which carries a maximum for 4 years of jail time. Since Anthony has spent the last 3 years rotting in a jail cell awaiting trial, there is a possibility that she will be released after only one year. The reaction to the verdict has been tremendous, with some people even claiming that it’s worse than OJ Simpson’s trial. But, at a time like this, it’s important to remember that guilt or innocence is not decided by Joe Average, tabloids or Nancy Grace.
Geese gastronomy: A couple of weeks ago, June 20 and 21, Alabama Department of Agriculture agents rounded up and slaughtered more than 200 Canadian and domestic geese from East Lake, Avondale and Patton parks. Sound like occult activity or some sort of insane government conspiracy? Well, the geese were “taken care of” in order to prevent the geese from interfering with the nearby airport. According to The Birmingham News, the Department of Agriculture attempted to donate the geese carcasses to the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, but the food bank turned down the donation, saying that the geese would be unsafe to eat more than twice a month because of uncertainty about their previous diet. So the Department of Agriculture now has 200 geese corpses on their hands and no idea what to do with them. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so disturbing.
Trees for tornadoes: Broken trees were in some of the most powerful images to come out of damaged towns in the wake of the April tornadoes. The storms had snapped evergreens and oak trees like toothpicks.
Their jagged stumps serve to mark the areas affected by the tornadoes. We can rebuild homes and pick up the shattered pieces of life in Alabama, but the barren stretches of land where trees were ripped by their roots from the ground will outline the scars left by the storms for long after. To help heal those scars, the Alabama Forestry Commission and the Arbor Day Foundation have started the Alabama Tree Recovery Campaign to help replant trees. Visit www.arborday.org and click on “Trees for Alabama” to donate. Every dollar donated plants another tree for a storm victim.
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