Tracking sex offenders? There's an app for that.

I guess nowadays you don' have to be a private investigator or even a police officer to find out where all the sex offenders are. I remember when I was finishing middle school, we got a mailing list of all the sex offenders around our area- but who has time to flip through all those pages and see where they are?

So the iPhone designed an application for it. With the touch of the screen, people can view sex offenders within a 10-mile radius of where the location.

Some BlackBerry and smart phone models are also offered crime fighting apps.

Some people may argue that it isn't necessary because you can just review the sex offenders around you online but I believe its a matter of convenience. However, criminals can use the application to avoid high crime areas.

This application is helpful in general but people shouldn't just depend on it. What happened to using your old school street smarts and knowing that you shouldn't leave your child unattended at a park or store? I think society depends too much on technology and how it can advance their lives. Not everyone has a iPhone, BlackBerry or smart phone. Those commercials show that there's an app for everything but as soon as technology slows down, crime will catch up just as fast.

here's the article.

College students vs. H1N1

Students are constantly reminded about the flu. Although swine flu is all over the media, many students don't seem too worried about it. However, the American College Health Association recorded 13,434 cases of the flu and two students have had flu related deaths.

Students don't seem worried. Dr. James Turner claims that there is plenty of oppurtunity to spread infections and germs because students "tend to socialize in large groups, frats, bars, sharing the drinking glasses, smoking material. They're in real close contact, densely packed into parties which are all breeding grounds for infections."

I think the overall problem is, many students such as myself, can't distinguish the difference between a cold, the flu and H1N1 (swine flu). Many students use the H1N1 virus as an excuse for missing class, depsite the fact that they aren't sick. This semester, many teachers and professors allowed students to only miss three days of classes or they'll assume the student has either dropped the class or fail them. Although no one on our campus has seriously been affected by H1N1, other students will continue going to class, sick or not... because for most college students- education isn't free.

So as posted in the article, "The reminders are everywhere: Wash your hands. Use hand sanitizers. Stay away from class if you're sick."

article: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/22/h1n1.flu.college.students/index.html

Paul Steinmetz; public relations director, teacher, blogger, husband & father

Paul Steinmetz has been director of Western Connecticut State University Public Relations for three years.

He grew up in California, attended a community college and graduated from San Francisco State.

"I saw a news-writing course and I loved it immediately," he said.

The News Times hired him as reporter for four years and editor for ten years. However, an intern publisher fired him. With a wife and four kids, he was determined to get back on his two feet.

Six months after, he became the director of WCSU Public Relations and describes himself as feeling "better, relaxed and happy" and able to more time with his children. He write blogs for newstimes.com and finds it so much more enjoyable. He is also teaches a writing course for freshman.

'I can tell jokes and be funny," he says. "I couldn't in my column before [with The News Times]."

He represents the university and is focused promoting and telling about it.

His advice for future journalists? "Journalism is still interesting, fun, rewarding for the soul but not financially, you can still make a living. Newspaper still has yet to figure out the future and online."

Violence against women

Yale University student, Annie Le's body was found stuffed in the wall of a research building basement. It has now been released that she was strangled. The CNN article, Yale student strangled, medical examiner says, highlights that she has died from "traumatic asphyxia due to neck compression" and a Yale University worker released after recieving DNA request. However, no one has been charged yet. In the News Times article, Technician in custody in Yale grad student slaying, police say that 150 pieces of evidence have been collected from the crime scene and over 700 hours of video footage has been collected. Although the man of interest seemed to have defense marks on him, according to the New York Post, the family say that they are cat scratch marks.

An 18 year old Hofstra University female student was raped on campus around 3 a.m. Four men were arrested and charged. On an article on newsday.com, some students claim that Hofstra didn't inform them about the rape. They learned about the attack on Facebook. Additional information was not given.

These two incidents are tragedies. New Haven and Long Island aren't too far from here. Watching the news on TV while reading these articles and writing my blog, convinces that you are not safe anywhere at all. Yale University is said to be tight knit with suvelience cameras but police are still narrowing down the suspects. This reminds me of the time when I went away for school, y first semester in Southington, my brother bought me pepperspray. Although everyone tries to be safe and defend themself, you can only do so much. I hope police are able to find out and solve both cases. Leave closure for their family, friends and people who have been affected by it.

Health care for everyone.

Obama wants to provide healthcare for everyone, even for those who cannot afford it. Without competition, the prices of insurance goes up & quality goes down. The non-profit public insurance option are for those who don't have insurance & does not effect those who already have it. Some say they can't fairly compete. Obama compares it as public universities vs. private ones.

It does not include/support abortion or illegal immigrants. He hopes to end insurance company abuse and cover more Americans. Rather than making claims and fighting against it, why don't we all just work together? And for those who can't afford coverage, provide them with a choice. No one should get in the way of what YOU and YOUR needs.

How does he expect to pay? More spending cuts with the savings he promises within the healthcare system. Just like people against the Iraq war that the last decades have spent trillion of dollars on, lets take the time to spend the money in OUR country for OUR people. Furthermore, the people against this are the same people who are against medicare and medicade. The more money we make/spend doesn't make any of us any healthier. Four decades ago, it took a lifetime of hardworkers to come up and provide medicare. Seniors shouldn't struggle to pay bills, it is a sacred trust passed down from generation to generation. Obama says not a dollar from medicare will be used to help pay for his plan. American seniors get what they were promised. Seniors... let alone, anyone should have to pay thousands of dollasr a year out of their own pocket just to live life. It's hard enough.

There's plenty of arguments to fight this. But for some reason, I believe it. My grandmother lives with me and she is on medicare. She has four or five different medications she has to take and thanks to her medicare, we pay a dollar to five dollars for one.

My brother almost lost his life at the hospital. However, he did not have any insurance although he was a full-time worker. He was allergic to some medication. He spent about two weeks in ICU. Without insurance, his hospital bill was well over $40,000. That... was the price of my car. My parents work full-time at normal everyday jobs. And there was no way they could afford to pay for it in any way, shape or form. Luckily, the hospital has many payment options and plans. They ended up helping my parents & brother pay for the bill and sent monthly payments. Not all hospitals do this. LUCKILY, Danbury hospital must take people in even if they don't have insurance. Later on, my brother was diagnosed with diabetes. He went to drop off his medication at Walmart, pick it up and the price was pretty steep. The guy asked why my brother didn't have insurance and he couldn't answer it. He just didn't have it. He's an American citizen, born and raised here, graduated and works full time. Why didn't he have insurance? he went to his job, worked things out with his supervisor, and luckily, has insurance now. Although his doctor visits are pretty often, his insurance helps him a lot.

My mother lost one of her best friends due to breast cancer, because she didn't have the money or insurance to go to the doctors.

I think people that aren't a big fan of the insurance plan are people who don't know anyone on medicare, medicade or those who are suffering with hospital bills. Instead of being against it, why don't we just share ideas of ways to IMPROVE it?

Eugene Driscoll, independent writer

Eugene Driscoll, an independent writer for Vallyindy.org described his job as the "best job" he'll ever have.

His experience in online journalism and editing allowed him to launch his website on June 22. It is a "one" man newspaper with him and another woman.

His goal is to get the word out because his deepest darkest fear is that no one will no longer care about news. He also allows people to comment on his stories. Commenters are good for page views and people that comment are so much more involved with the website. Despite those who demean journalism by causing problems, including racism.

He receives community help from influential people such as local firefighters, police department and football players. With online journalism, he says people are more understanding. What he loves about his site? That it's him.

I admired that he didn't include any AP articles and kept his writing local. He gives news as it happens and works every hour of the day. Constantly updating the website, answering questions live and still loving his job even if he has to stay up until 2 or 3 a.m. editing his own stories and having to wake up early in the morning to update or write new stories. The reaction may be slow but I believe that it will be here for awhile. Everyone lives on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and other blog sites. His job isn't only important to himself but us too, I mean, somebody has to do it.