" For Afghan women, the act of fleeing domestic abuse or forced prostitution may land them in jail while their abusers walk free " In Afghanistan, women are being discriminated based on gender, this institutionalized discrimination takes it to another level by arrest abuse victims for fleeing, calling it a moral crime. This alarming trend brings questions and worries to those aware of the fact that Afghanistan new government is supposed to be trademarked for their gender equality. 


post by: christina craig
link: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/28/10897062-400-women-held-in-afghanistan-for-moral-crimes-such-as-fleeing-domestic-abuse

Skid Row Street Populations Rises!

  Seven years ago 50 additional police officers were brought to the skid row area by the Safer City Initiative program. Thanks to the program, crime rates dropped, and homelessness in the skid row area decreased. The Los Angeles Police Department reported in September 2006 that the skid row street population fell from 1,876 to 721 and remained below 800 for the most part in the last few years. However, LAPD is now reporting that as of December, “the number of people on neighborhood streets had swelled to 1,693 even as homeless figures fell across the whole country.” This also means that if there is a lot more homeless people living in the streets, crime rate will also increase in that particular community. They are several factors that are influencing the increase of homeless people living in the skid row streets. LAPD Lt. Shannon Paulson, who is in charge of Safer City Initiative, said that one of the factors that is contributing to homelessness in the skid row area is related to jail budget cuts forcing the early release of inmates. Many of people being released from jails don’t have anywhere to go so they go to the skid row area to get help from shelters and other facilities in the area. Another factor is the slumping economy. Many of the people occupying the skid row streets have lost their homes and/or jobs.

            Shelters and other facilities that help homeless people in the skid row area, will definitely need more help from volunteers and/or donations because due to the increase of the skid row street population, a lot more people will be requesting their services. I greatly encourage anyone who reads blog to go out and volunteer! Please help make a difference!

By: Janeth Avila Del Real
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-skid-row-homeless-20120328,0,3088327.story

19 Kids Too Many?

Michelle Duggar was given her own reality show on TLC, “19 Kids and Counting”, since she has given birth to 19 children to this date. A Yahoo News article covers an interview with her where “the idea of overpopulation” is touched. Although Duggar believes that the concept of overpopulation is a bit exaggerated, experts believe the contrary. “James Hopkins' site on the human population crisis states, Overpopulation applies much more so to the number of people in an area exceeding the resources and the carrying capacity of the environment necessary to sustain human activities." How does Michelle Duggar respond to this? She believes that her family, although consisting of many, are very resourceful when it comes to spending and “discarding” things.  She ends the interview by quoting Mother Teresa, “To say that there are too many children is like saying there are too many flowers. Our world needs more joy”.

According to our Sociology book the total fertility rate for the U.S. is about 2.1; Michelle Duggar and her husband have exceeded this rate by about 9.05 times. It is not clear whether they had any sort of family planning or whether having a family that big was just something that happened by chance. This can happen both by everyone’s own personal choice and by the fact that there is no actual population control in the U.S. to stop people from having so many kids. Whether this is acceptable or not lies in the opinions of each individual.

By: Vanessa Torres

Article can be found at: http://tv.yahoo.com/news/michelle-duggar-doesn-t-believe-in-overpopulation.html

Migration

In this article it explains and talks about how Bejing  had many consumers did not have to pay more for iPads, iPhones and other popular consumer electronics despite a Chinese company's pledge to trim work hours and raise wages for its hardscrabble assembly workers. In this migration many workers paychecks  had already been steadily growing even before this week's pledge. Also  labor expenses remain a small portion of the total bill for most gadgets made in China. Within this migration of labor and workers paychecks their cumulative wage increased when the profits of major technology companies of a exponential growth. Manufacturers have a bigger worry in finding ways to save money on the parts that power the devices also this can refer to social demography because it is explaining the population patterns within a social context. In my opinion I feel that this whole migration is kinda similiar to economics. I feel its related to this becuae it kinda talks about demands and wages increasing and how it is effecting migration of labor and the workers wages. So to me this whole thing is like a geographical economic situation and can hopefully be fixed.
By : Brandie Suncin
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57407421/apple-pledge-likely-to-boost-china-factory-wages/?tag=mncol;lst;1

Is there really a benefit to the overurbanization in China?

Is Overurbanization really beneficial for china at first glance? Well when I think of China I definitely do not think of overurbanization as being something beneficial, seeing as how it has not worked very well in the past. Well in a recent article it was said that over urbanization would cause an increase economic growth. The article states, “the number of China's city dwellers surpassed its rural population for the first time in 2011.” Generally this means that the cities population will “increase from just above 50 to around 60 percent by 2020 and 65 percent by 2030.” The expansion of urbanization is expected to spread to western China said “Ma Jiantang, head of the National Bureau of Statistics.” This does not seem to benefit anyone but those in charge of corporation (for a while). The article says that "Residents moving from rural to urban areas will see their personal consumption expand by three times, which would bolster the country's economic growth when investment and exports fall.” Well if there is overurbanization there will be more workers but as productivity grows so will the technology, and then technology will take over most jobs and people will be left to struggle to maintain their way of life (because they are used to the introductory salary). In the end this will not be beneficial to many people, as it will in the beginning of a economic depletion due to the demand for jobs and the lack of jobs readily available.

Full article can be found on this link:

http://in.news.yahoo.com/urbanization-major-feature-chinas-economic-growth-100035360.html

Posted by: Jenesis Lopez

278 Years to Pay Bill

A couple was visiting Vancouver from Australia when the mother-to-be gave birth to her daughter eleven weeks before she was actually supposed to be born. Due to her early arrival, she needed assistance to breathe and meticulous care, so she stayed in the neonatal intensive care unit. The parents of the baby believed that their travel insurance covered unexpected circumstances related to pregnancy, but they were mistaken. To their surprise, the travel insurance “did not cover live birth” and the parents were made responsible for a bill worth around one million dollars. The premature baby had to stay in the neonatal intensive care unit for three months, with a total charge of eight thousand dollars per day. That is insane!

Even though, this couple was left with an exorbitant bill, they did not resent it. They are happy parents who appreciated their daughter’s well being. They mentioned that you cannot put a price on this type of situation. They would do anything for their baby just like anyone else would. Family is obviously always important; there can never be a price.

                                                                  Credit: Google Images

Posted By: Jennifer Zesati

Giving Immigrants a Break

Recently, The Los Angeles Times released an article stating that the Obama administration is proposing to change certain aspects of the process of gaining residency, and of course raised much speculation. The United States demographic characteristics are seen as a “melting pot” due to all the cultures combined into one. However, illegal immigrants are mistreated to a severe degree. News have been reporting families being split from their loved ones due to the absence of a document. The United States is surrounded by troubled countries whose residents, in an attempt to escape the hardships, migrate towards the Land of Freedom. This proposal is said to not change the fact that immigrants will need to go through the process of gaining a waiver if here illegally, but to change the amount of time that they are to be away from their families. As of today, the law gives family members up to 10 years of exile punishment from being in this country illegally, and they are now seeing this as unreasonable, due to the abundance of suffering families.

By: Jazmin Gonzalez

Article:http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-new-rules-would-make-legal-residency-easier-for-illegal-immigrants-20120330,0,4561746.story

Beautiful Bald Barbie

Due to a campaign started by a concerned mother, Mattel has contemplated the possibility of making a bald Barbie to encourage young girls, with cancer, that it is not looks that determines your self-worth. These dolls will not be sold in stores, but will rather be donated to children's hospitals. By doing this, girls will have their social needs satisfied within the area they live in. Their community will be more readily accepting and, hence, satisfy those social needs. The mother did not expect the campaign to go so far, but she is amazed and grateful that the stigmatization of children with cancer will be lowered in their community and worldwide.

Posted by: Estefania Giron

Mattel to Manufacture Bald Barbie Doll 

Warren Jeffs' appeal denied; another sect leader is convicted of bigamy

Warren Jeff, a Texas fundamentalist sec leader, was denied appeal for sexual assault. He has been convicted to assaulting two younger girls (12 and 15 years old) because he claimed that they were his "spiritual wives". That same day, he let a man (main leader of a Texas church) go with out conviction for polygamy. Jeff has been working hard to get this life and 20 year sentenced revoked. Jeff attends a mormon church that openly practices polygamy and has many supporters in his trial. People replacing Jeff and other members of the church, are currently on trial for various forms of bigamy. In a world that is changing, there is always new laws that need to be applied to society and government issues that need to be addressed. In the past things like gay marriage is not acceptable, now it is accepted without question. It makes society and courts think about whether situations like this should be accepted. 

Jordan Leach

Find this article here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/29/justice/texas-bigamy-cases/index.html?iref=allsearch

The Truth

-Ariana Mendoza

The article that I chose talks about the President’s  “controversial individual health insurance mandate” which has finally reached the supreme court  this month. However, further along the article topics such as the ones we were assigned to read this week were mentioned. The first term is infant mortality rate. The article talks about how the United States ranks 43^rd internationally in infant mortality. This article also addresses the term life expectancy . It mentions that although life expectancy ranks 39 “according to U.N figures, in reality when “figures are adjusted  to account for death due to violence, the United States  rank N0 1…” I  found this very interesting because I would never have imagined the United States to hold this position. This definitely made me think more about how violence is something big in the country and made me want to know more ways about what to do to help stop this or at least help control this. Who knew that a country so great as America had big issues to worry about such as that of violence. This article definitely made me become more aware.

More information can be found `at: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-conover-health-myths-20120315,0,2229419.story

Buying Lottery Tickets in Beverly Hills?

As you may or may not know, the current California Mega Millions Jackpot has now soared to $640 million dollars which is the highest it has ever been in world history. As usual, whenever a high lotto jackpot is announced, people from all over scramble to get their hands on the tickets. We have all heard of the past winners and it seems that more often than not, the winner happen to be a person who is on the verge of bankruptcy living out of their car. For theses people, winning the lottery truly does change their life, like the show of the same name demonstrates. However, there has been a interesting development with this new lotto jackpot: even folks living in Beverly Hills, one of the wealthiest communities, or concentration of people whose major social and economic needs are satisfied primarily within the area that they live, in the entire United States, are buying lotto tickets. And not just one or two tickets, but hundreds. This just goes to show that even some of the wealthiest people in the country could still use and extra 640 millions dollars in their life. Hmm. Makes you think.... I might just have to go buy a tickets for myself.
Posted By Audrey Tuna

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/03/mega-millions-beverly-hills.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29

Osama bin Laden on the Run

As we all know, Osama bin Laden was a well-known terrorist who committed many crimes. He was the main subject of an international manhunt. But what about his family? 

Laden was well-known for being a terrorist and he knew how to hide himself for almost a decade until last year he was finally caught and killed. He lived in five different houses and managed to keep a lifestyle of polygny meaning that he had three different wives and fathered four children.

His youngest widow married him in 2000 before the September 11 attack and started a family of procreation which is common among their culture. The entire family was under patriarchal control which did succeed for a while but now the entire family is being charged for illegally staying in Pakistan on April the 2nd.

The following article can be found at : http://news.yahoo.com/run-bin-laden-lived-5-houses-131236231.html

Written by : Jocelyn Gonzalez

Retired Priest Pleads Guilty for Sexual Assault

A retired priest, Denis Lyons, 78, pleaded guilty today for sexually harassing and then sexually assaulting a boy in the 1990s. A Los Angeles Times article states that “Denis pleaded guilty to four felony counts of lewd acts upon a child under 14.” The crimes took place between January 1, 1992, and December 1, 1995. The retired priest sexually assaulted the boy who at the time was between the ages of 7 and 9. Also, the crime took place on church property. Now, Denis is expected to be sentenced on May 25 to one year in prison and will be required to register as a sex offender for his entire life. In my opinion, the punishment that this retired priest got for his crime was not enough. It seems like nowadays one can’t trust anyone. Day after day we see more sexual molestation cases on the news.

By. Janeth Avila Del Real

Biological Clocks

In this article it explains how  a biological clock has always been a woman's problem, but research shows that the clock is not a problem for men. This is a negative fertility toward woman, however, a man does have a biological clock because of their age. For the male sex a man's fertility begins to decline in his 30's however, then steadily drops through his 40's and 50's. For a female gender a woman is born with all the eggs she will ever have while the opposite gender produces a hundred million sperm each day through cell division. Also the more often a cell divides, the more likely a glitch will occur as the genetic code is copied is what happens to the female gender.When I read this I thought it was interesting because it talk about the opposite sex gender when it comes to their fertlities and I really did not anything about that at all, so that was interesting and something I had learned today. Also in the article it talks about how there is a study in the Archives of General Psychiatry which has found the risk of schizophrenia in children being associated with older paternal age which is a shock to myself and I hope it can be stopped
By:brandie Suncin
.http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/15/fyi/main2183997.shtml?tag=mncol;lst;2

Health and Marriage

Individuals who are married may benefit from better health. Now, how can this be? Today there is a higher divorce rate then there has ever been. However, research has been done and it  has been found that those who are in marriages tend to be healthier. This is because they have intimacy, shared support, and household roles, something single independent individuals do not have (it is not to say there is anything wrong with being independent). These benefits are mostly manifested in marriages that are under democratic control. Responsibilities are evenly split, which allows for individuals to thrive more. It has also been found that marriages that tend to last are those between educated individuals. Marriages between young, uneducated, or involving those pregnancy are less likely to last and are a significant part of the divorce rate. This may be something to think about when considering marriage!

Posted by: Estefania Giron

Why Marriage Makes People Happy

On the Ladder to Equality

Do men and women have equality in society? Although women have made great progress on the social and power ladder, realistically the answer is still no—at least when it comes to the work place. In an article in Yahoo News, it has been said that top ranked companies sometimes do not portray such inequalities since their policies and several different aspects are questioned under a spotlight. But this is not the case with “mid-cap companies” who don’t have many to respond to about who they hire. Yes, women aren’t filling as many executive positions as men are; but, on the bright side women’s pay is slowly creeping up to that of the men’s.  

This article backs up the proof that our society consists of a dual labor market; the males in society are those that some if not most companies either currently have them labeled as or have had them labeled as “preferred workers” in the past. This issue with sexism has been seen throughout our society over past years; women have fought hard so that we can achieve statuses that give us power that other women did not have in the past. Being a past and current problem in societal equality, I see women gaining complete (or as close to completely possible) equality to men in times to come.

By: Vanessa Torres

Article can be found at: http://news.yahoo.com/heart-corporate-america-women-struggle-break-top-jobs-231147190.html

Woman Conspires to Kill Cancer Stricken Husband

    Recently  a woman was sentenced Friday in Orange County for plotting to kill her cancer stricken husband for her own financial gain. She was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Sandra Jessee, 61, carried out a complex scheme with her son to kill her husband of 15 years. Sandra’s husband, Jack Jessee, became ill with cancer in the summer of 1998 and prosecutors claim she wanted to avoid paying for his cancer treatments and instead receive funds from his 401(k) death benefits. Unfortunately Jack Jessee was found stabbed to death in August 1998. Authorities say Sandra Jessee collected over $650,000 after her husband’s murder from the sale of their home, his death benefits and insurance. It is interesting how marriage has evolved over the centuries. It began as almost a business transaction between families, rarely involving any romantic inklings. Then slowly starting to shift with more romantic love as the basis for the marriage. Now it appears to be more of an economic exchange; once again. It seems as though marital violence and certain economic situations lead to a fatal end.

Nicole Emerich 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/03/woman-gets-life-for-conspiring-to-kill-cancer-stricken-husband-.html

AM I PRETTY OR AM I UGLY?

Many girls have grown up thinking that they have to look perfect in order for society to not look down upon them. The situation has become viral and completely gotten out of hand. Teenage girls are posting videos to YouTube asking viewers if they think they are pretty. I find it very sad that girls who are supposed to be having fun and growing up care so much about the way they look. A couple days ago an article was released about a fifteen year old girl posting videos about how to look like a doll. What is the explanation for all of the teenage girls wanted to look so fake and perfect? The biggest thing to blame is the media. When girls go through gender socialization, they are learning what is write and wrong from the way media portrays a beautiful woman. The gender roles of women these days seems to be so skewed. These "beautiful" woman that are seen on TV are so made up and airbrushed that teenage girls don't realize that you are not supposed to look like that or be that skinny. Numbers in anorexia and bulimia are sky rocketing with this trend of being and looking perfect. Girls take their lives every day because they feel ashamed that they do not look a certain way. It is so sad to see the way girls are being pressured to try and fit a mold that they are not necessarily meant to fit.

Jordan Leach

Find the story here:

http://www.the33tv.com/news/kdaf-am-i-ugly-new-dangerous-youtube-trend-20120315,0,3476986.story?track=rss