Week+1-5

Bailout Blues Last week and early this week, key members of our government put together a plan to bail our country’s banking system out of a serious crisis. Currently our Congress is debating whether or not to use **$700 Billion** of taxpayer’s money to stop the crisis. Use the links below to gain a better understanding of this critical financial period. To put a billion dollars into perspective, I have a simple illustration. If you were given a million dollars and told you could only keep it if you spent a dollar a second, it would take you 11 and a half days to spend a million dollars, 32 years to spend 1 billion, and 22,500 years to spend 700 Billion! The amount of money that our representatives are talking about is HUGE!
 * Current Events WK5—Group 5 **

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[|http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3750388&FullBreadCrumb=%3Ca+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww2.scholastic.com%2Fbrowse%2FtopicBrowseLevel2.jsp%3FFromBrowseMod%3Dtrue%26Ns%3DPub_Date_Sort|1%26N%3D0%26TopicValue%3DScholastic%2520News%22+class%3D%22endecaAll%22%3EAll+Results%3C%2Fa%3E+%26gt%3B+International+News] [|http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3750389&FullBreadCrumb=%3Ca+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww2.scholastic.com%2Fbrowse%2FtopicBrowseLevel2.jsp%3FFromBrowseMod%3Dtrue%26Ns%3DPub_Date_Sort|1%26N%3D0%26TopicValue%3DScholastic%2520News%22+class%3D%22endecaAll%22%3EAll+Results%3C%2Fa%3E+%26gt%3B+International+News]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/business/30bailout.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/27/business/economy/20080927_WEEKS_TIMELINE.html http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1845325,00.html?cnn=yes http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/29/markets/stockswatch/index.htm?cnn=yes http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7641733.stm [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_bailout_of_U.S._financial_system_(2008])

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Performance Enhancing Drugs The new millennium has seen many professional and amateur athletes turning to a plethora (many different) of drugs to give them an edge against their competitors. Check out the series of links, to establish or reaffirm your beliefs and then answer the questions and make your post.
 * Current Events WK4—Group 4 **

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=213 -- Check out various article from this site. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/sport/debate/drawingline_1.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/sport/debate/drawingline_2.shtml http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/02/14/bp.clemensstats/index.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7140000/newsid_7143600/7143625.stm?bw=nb&mp=wm&news=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&nol_storyid=7143625&bbcws=2 --Video

media type="custom" key="2044606"[|View Results]** Current Events WK3 - Group 3 ** Remembering 9/11 Last week marked seven years, since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The ripples from this event are still felt in many ways today, and many of our leaders use 9/11 as a talking point when discussion emerges about terrorism. Most major news agencies addressed the day in their news coverage.



[|http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3750290] [|http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/nyregion/11views.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=9/11&st=cse&oref=slogin] [|http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/12/candidates.sept11/index.html?iref=newssearch] [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attacks]
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 * [|http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3750257]

media type="custom" key="2017764"**[|View Results] Current Events WK2 - Groups 1 & 2 ** Over the last couple years, many people have realized that the rise in fuel prices has affected many aspects of life (transportation, vacation, food, and heating/cooling). This week there are reports that crude oil prices are falling below the record prices set in July. Even though prices have fallen, they still remain high and their impact is far reaching. Below you will find links to several articles that discuss this situation. Please respond by discussing the issue and explain why it is important.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-09-08-gas-prices_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip http://www.usatoday.com/news/snapshot.htm?section=N&label=2008-09-09-gascost&loc=interstitialskip http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7605584.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7549044.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7506346.stm media type="custom" key="2017770"[|View Results]