Gas Prices

So while I was reading yahoo news, I came across this story that was unsettling to me. It's about retail gas prices, and how they are a highest in over a year. Gas prices are now up 17 days after a 0.4 cent rise overnight. This makes the price $2.695 now. The sad part about all of this is that oil and gasoline is in high supply! The supply is so plentiful that "producers are running out of places to put it and crude supplies are well above average levels." There are more details in the story. Check it out if you would like. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Retail-gas-prices-highest-in-apf-224722237.html?x=0.
The story seemed to be biased, but it could be thought of as unbiased to me. The writer did not have too many positive things to say, but with this topic, I don't think there were too many good things to say. The only thing that seemed to be missing from this article was when exactly would the prices stop climbing. An even better question to ask and be answered would be when the prices will go down and by how much would they go down. I have a strong opinion about this because it does affect me. I don't see why prices have to go up when we have plenty of gas to supply. The prices are going up like we have such a limited amount of gas when its the complete opposite. This price rise is going to affect me a lot because I commute to school, averaging about 130 miles each day or two hours, and with the prices rising, I'm going to be pulling money out of my already flat wallet or pulling money out of my parent's wallet about every three days! I hope they change their whole attitude and lower the prices, it would help everyone in these time!!

Bank Failures

We have officially passed the 100 mark. Usually, that's a good thing but in this case, 106 banks have failed. This number is the most in almost two decades, when it was 181 in 1992. Even though this number is high, there could be many more and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) expects to spend nearly $100 billion from their fund. Towards the end of June, the FDIC flagged 416 banks being at the risk of failure. Although so many banks have been flagged for failure, the rate at which they are being closed at is very slow. One reason the banks are closing slowly is because of the public. The FDIC wants to keep the public confidence in the banking system. If they close the banks too quickly, the public will go into a panic and it will also go against the FDIC's mission statement. Their mission statement is to "set up to create confidence and prevent bank runs." If you want to read more, in detail, the link is http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091024/ap_on_bi_ge/us_bank_failures. The article was very detailed, giving figures and reasons for what the FDIC was doing. I felt as though there wasn't really any important information missing, because the main question I had was answered at the end of the article. I wanted to ask how many banks would survive in the end of this crisis, and they stated that "ultimately, it's all about employment." Another question that I has was what was the plan for the next couple of years. Is the FDIC going to keep the slow pace mentality for the bank closures? What is Obama's plan? Will there be another stimulus plan? I feel this is an important issue that everyone should know and be fully aware of.

Diabetes Prevention?

I was looking online, at the yahoo news, and found this interesting article about how Chinese herbs show signs that could help diabetes prevention. Some researchers did a number of trials and it was shown that the Chinese herbs helped control the blood sugar levels in people on their way to type two diabetes. A person becomes a type two diabetic when their body does not produce enough insulin or the body can not use the insulin in the right way. The researchers found some astonishing results, such as when the participate added the herbal remedy to their lifestyle it almost doubled the likelihood of their sugar levels returning to normal. They also found that the participates were two-thirds less likely to progress towards the disease. There are side effects, as there are to many medication, but they haven't found any serious ones. The herbs are used for special situations and is not a "one-size-fits-all prescription." I think this is a fairly good topic to write about. This may not be a world issue, but it surely is a national issue that I'm glad someone is addressing. America has experienced a rise in obesity and most of them are on their way to diabetes. Finding a potential prevention for diabetes is great and a issue that could help numbers go down, even obesity numbers. I feel the story was a little bias, saying the negatives of this treatment in one or two sentences. I also had some questions about the treatment. I wondered if the herbal remedy was a pill or if the remedy could help people that already have type two diabetics in any way, but specifically with controlling their sugar levels. I have a few family members that are diabetic, both type one and two. I would love for them to test the Chinese herbs if it would reduce their chances greatly of having type two diabetes or controlling their levels.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091014/hl_nm/us_chinese_herbs

8 years later...

Can you believe it?! We have been at war for 8 years now! October 7, 2001 is when our former president, George Bush, announced that we would be going to war and when our troops first started moving in. While I was watching the 6 o'clock news on channel 7, it took me by surprise that it has been 8 years and we are still at war! The news caster mentioned that Obama is looking for a middle ground, but the tone of the reporter didn't seem that hopeful at all. Many Americans were for the war in the beginning, believing Bush when he said that we would not be at war for long. 51% of Americans now no longer know what we are fighting for and the reasons why we have been at war for so long when we were supposed to be out a long time ago. The Iranians were so happy when the U.S. first came because they were able to do things they never could. They finally had freedom from their government! The men were able to shave their beards and the women could show some of their hair. As of now, they are mad at America because they feel we are putting more effort into fighting than helping out. They want the U.S. to prove they can provide security like they once promised 8 years ago. I completely agree with the Iranians. It seems as if we are just fighting to fight, and I don't understand why we are still at war or even the reasons why we are at war. I feel that there was some missing information in the story, like what exactly Obama plans on doing and how long will it be before we can start getting out troops out of the war. I think this was a good topic to put on the news and spend a bit of time talking about because we have been at war for 8 years, when we only intended on staying for a few years (I'm not completely sure how long we were supposed to stay, maybe 2 or 3 years). It made me wonder what we have been doing for these last couple of years, our reasons for staying, and when we will put more effort into providing security than fighting.

Medicare Changing...

The story that I read, "How health care overhaul could change Medicare," explains how the congress plans on changing things up with health care, and indirectly, effecting Medicare and the elders. The lawmakers have five different proposals, and each of them can affect the seniors in a number of ways. One of the proposals is potentially cutting back on Medicare Advantage, which about 10 million elders are covered by. This means sacrificing added benefits, but this change may also cause commercial insurers to back out of the plan and leave many elders switching their providers. Some positives to this new plan would be that the government wants to prevent illness, by giving free diabetes classes or paying in full for a mammogram, and keep elders out of the hospital, since one of five Medicare patients find themselves back in the hospital within the same month. I have strong feelings towards this change because my grandmother is on Medicare and I wouldn't like for them to change her plan, especially with things as tough as they are now. I think it is great that the government wants to address issues before they come up, and they show that with the prevention services they plan on having. I don't, however, understand why they want to cut back on the number of people that have Medicare Advantage. I would think that the more people that have some kind of health care plan would be good, even if they spend more money on the plan. The money would go to better use if it was put to health care services than bailing out failing companies. I think this story is important to everyone because we all grow old someday, but if they cut back on how much they spend, that will eventually lead to cutting some of the services that are already offered or some of the new ones that could cost a lot more than expected.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091002/ap_on_re_us/us_medicare_seniors