Full article: N.F.L. Agrees to Settle Concussion Suit for $765 Million

This past summer the National Football League has agreed to settle the lawsuit with over 4,500 former players and pay a total of 765 million dollars to each of these players and their families. This lawsuit brought to the NFL by all of these former players was about dozens of former players who were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. CTE is a degenerative brain disease that is caused only by repeated head trauma. The money the players received from the lawsuit will go mostly toward medical care. Some people feel that the players should have received more money, the NFL makes 10 billion dollars annually. Players diagnosed with CTE such as former Eagles defensive back Andre Waters,  linebacker Junior Seau, and a former Chicago Bears player Dave Duerson have all committed suicide as a result of CTE. The NFL denies knowing that participating in the sport would lead to brain issues such as CTE but 4,500 players feel that the NFL knew and kept that information from them. The players got their money but in the big picture the NFL won because it wasn’t a large amount compared to the 10 billion dollars the NFL makes a year.

– Marco Venezia

Summary of “Arizona Utility Tries Storing Solar Energy for Use in the Dark” by Matthew L. Wald

Three square miles of huge mirrors in the desert? This 2 billion operation, known as Solana, helps Arizona greatly in their electricity demand. Harnessing the energy of the sun, Arizona is able to efficiently and environmentally consciously produce electricity. With the advancement in solar technology, molten salt is now used to actually store solar energy for times in which there is no sun – like at night or in the morning. This is a great breakthrough in solar energy that will hopefully establish a precedent for the efficiency of producing electricity. If more of the country/world used eco-friendly energy sources, like solar energy, then there would be a significant reduction in pollution, making the world a healthier and more habitable place.

Opinion:

Personally, this advancement in science awes me. Already we have reached a level where we can use alternative energy that is more friendly to the environment. A lot of people have in the past dismissed solar technology because there had been many variables that got in the way of allowing us to use it all full potential. However now that there is a day to use it both night a day, I feel that this is one step closer to a greener world.

– Walter Ma

How many of us really eat McDonald’s fast food anymore? Lately, the harder the company has tried to convince me, the more I feel less tempted to even walk in. I’ve heard plenty of various accounts of dangers encountered through eating a meal from “Mickie Dee’s” including people finding glass in their buns, people getting food poisoning, and people becoming enraged by the contents of the food served by this franchise.

“Not Just a Hot Cup” by Hilary Stout shows one of the many argumentative flaws of our justice system and modern society. In the case of a 79 year old woman ordering coffee from a drive thru at McDonald’s, enduring 3rd-degree burns after spilling the coffee, she sued McDonald’s and a jury decided to award her over 2 million dollars. Yes, that’s right! As absurd as it might sound to many of you, she became a millionaire because this priceless hot cup of coffee was just way too hot.

I find this article intriguing because many aspects of our justice system seem unfair and senseless. Though the amount was later on lowered to about 500,000 dollars and this business almost lost millions to this woman over 20 years ago when this happened, American culture has become one that consistently promotes the intake of hot drinks such as coffee, as well as others. I often hear things like “ The best part about waking up is Foldger’s in your cup” and “America runs on Dunkin’ “ and feel a bit tempted to try these drinks but personally, I think coffee is disgusting. People should be more careful when servicing the public and have been because I haven’t heard of many related occurrence’s. This article, although referring to an incident that happened over two decades ago, it very relevant to our day to day life because it shows us how absurd, outrageous, and irrational the law can be when addressing even the simplest or most insignificant events.

– Shantell Andrews

At 7:15 a.m., on Oct 21 2013, a shooting occurred in Sparks Middle School in Nevada, wounding two students and killing one math teacher. Students on that Monday morning were recently returning from a week long break, when just before the start of the day, chaos erupted. The shooter has been reported to be a student of Sparks Middle School, but his intentions and reasons for the shooting remained unclear. After fatally shooting the math teacher, the boy committed suicide.

The two wounded students, having been rushed to the hospital, were declared not to have life threatening injuries. However, as of that afternoon, one has been announce fair condition while the other serious condition. The late teacher himself was confirmed to be Micheal Landsberry, a war veteran with a wife and two step daughters. At his death, he was regarded as a hero, giving up his own life to intervene the incident.

Classes for Sparks Middle School has been cancelled for the rest of the week. Governor Brian Sandoval of Nevada, along with many other state their condolence. Solutions such as help to the student population focus on tasks like bullying and gang activity.

For more info, find it at the original New York Times article.

After reading the article, I realized that it’s apparent that more and more violence has been occurring in schools, specifically actions that are aimed to kill. It strikes me to see that the patterns have changed, escalated quickly and drastically. Schools are no longer places where children can feel safe. Instead, they can be in constant threat to strangers that act spontaneously to shoot and kill children of young age, evident in the Connecticut Elementary school shooting of 2012. Now it has come to a point that peers will threaten peers, including arming themselves.

What I find important during this situation is that this shooting did not surge without substance; certainly the child shooter had a reason, unknown as they are. But it makes it so that there are more possibilities as to why he carried a gun. Perhaps he was bullied by those in school or received violent attacks from formed gangs. At any rate, it is germane that schools and the board of education get to the root of the problem.

– Mavis Dai