Florida declares state of emergency in 6 coastal counties

Today Florida Governor Charlie Crist announced a state of emergency in 6 costal counties, Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay and Gulf, due the the oil spill from the sunken oil rig. Officials fear that as early as today the oil could start to reach land. Many people along the Louisiana coast are also worried about the damage the oil could cause to their state's environment. The lastest info from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed the leading edges of the slick reaching the Mississippi and Alabama coasts over the weekend and stretching as far east as Pensacola, Florida, by Monday. It seems that measures to get rid of the oil need to be increased and quickly.

I think that the oil from the sunken rig is causing quite an issue along many costal areas of the Gulf of Mexico. I hope that the company of the Deepwater Horizon is held responsible for the spill and will have to pay for the cleanup. I do hope that they are able to clean up the spill soon before any more of the environment is affected.

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Jobs and Welfare- Boosting the Minimum

With 150 million people employed in the United States the standard of living is quickly increasing. However, the cost of living is also rapidly increasing. Many people feel that minimum wage needs to be raised. However, what many people don't think about is that minimum wage has increase by more than 200% in the last 60 years. Still many workers feel that minimum wage needs to be increased. Labor unions are constantly working to protect workers' rights. However, what now seems to be the issue is globalization. Businesses now have to compete with other companies around the world. Because of this and the slowed economy many companies are struggling and they are looking for ways to cut expenses. One of the easiest ways is to decrease payroll. Due to that, they are outsourcing many jobs overseas where labor is cheaper. However, that is now leaving more and more Americans to fall under the poverty line. While many people felt that an increase in minimum wage would help struggling families others did not. Those opponents said that an increase in minimum wage would really just be helping teenagers, who are the majority of people working at minimum wage jobs. Also, since payroll expense would increase many businesses would likely cut their number of employees or raise their prices. Then many more people would be affected. However, people would were for minimum wage increases say that with more money in people's paychecks, the more money that would get back into the economy, causing more good then harm. In the end, Congress did raise the minimum wage in 2007. Still many people feel something needs to be done with minimum wage.

I feel that Congress needs to look into the minimum wage issue. I have a feeling that if wages increase then the price for goods will also increase because the business' overhead is increasing. Right now I think what Congress needs to do is keep the minimum wage at $7.25 for a while. John McCain feels that instead of constantly raising minimum wage the government should just help more people find jobs. Also, McCain feels that a good education is the key to a good life. McCain also stated that if minimum wage increases, it will cost businesses more money to pay employees and due to that they will likely cut down on their number of employees. So not instead of 50 employees they only have 30. That's 20 less people who can put money back into the economy. I feel that it would be more benificial to have more people working at a cheaper wage than to have just a few people working. Also, I would have to agree that a majority of the people working at minimum wage are teenagers. Of course they'd like more money but they don't have a large number of expenses to pay for like adults do. And if we do increase minimum wage then the cost of living is only going to increase and once again we will be in the same boat. However, I do think that every few years minimum wage should be re-evaluated and raised if needed to meet the costs of living and inflation. John McCain also supports the idea of having a living wage for citizens as long as it's not attached to big spending bills. I feel that if the minimum wage is way too low it won't be helping anyone in the economy and everyone will have less to spend and put back in the economy. But right now I think that minimum wage should be left at $7.25 until the economy recovers a bit.

Click on one of the following links to learn more about other surrounding issues:

• All things being unequal
• Welfare

Potential for big spill after oil rig sinks

36 hours after the major explosion and the Deepwater Horizon has sunk. Now officials are worried that many gallons of crude oil could spill into the sea. So far ship have been skimming oil off the surface. But it won't be until tomorrow at least before they find out if the rid is still spilling more crude oil under the surface. They are currently using a remotely controlled vehicle to look around the sunken rig to see if in fact the crude is spilling from the well of the rig.

It seems that the problems are just getting bigger due to the explosion of the rig. There are still 11 people missing and now to add to it there is a good chance many gallons of crude oil are spilling into the ocean waters. They need to find out if it is spilling and if so stop it quickly before they have even more problems. For everyone's sake I hope that the missing people are found and that there isn't oil spilling into the water.

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Europe flights back to '100 percent'

Finally after many days of no flights, Europe will finally be able to put their planes back in the air. It is expected that today the flights will be back to 100%. The planes have been stranded for the last 7 days due to the volcanic ash from Iceland. Now though the ash has decreased by 80%. But, during the peak of this problem around 1.2 million people or 29% of global aviation were affected by this incident. On Wednesday it was estimated that the airlines had lost $1.7 billion.

It interesting how a volcano in Iceland can affect so many people around the world. I can't believe that they airlines lost $1.7 BILLION due to the stranded flights. That's a lot of money. I also find it unbelievable that 29% of aviation was down due to the ash. It's good to hear that the planes are finally able to fly again.

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Does Facebook user pray for Obama's death?

On Facebook there have been several postings "praying for" the death of disliked leaders around the world. The one posted about President Obama said,

"Dear Lord, this year you took my favorite actor, Patrick Swayzie (sic). You took my
favorite actress, Farah (sic) Fawcett. You took my favorite singer, Michael
Jackson. I just wanted to let you know, my favorite president is Barack Obama.
Amen."

There was also similar posts about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While some people feel that these postings are disrespectful, Facebook says it is not against any of their policies.

These posts are probably not liked by many government officials however, I think that these people are expressing their freedom of speech. As long as they are not threatening anyone, then I think they are alright. If the people of the country don't agree with their president I think they have the right to say so. Also, I think that these posts were meant to be more of a joke than anything. And I have to agree that they are pretty comical.

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Aerial search for missing oil rig workers to resume Thursday morning

On Tuesday, around 10pm, a explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon, an offshore drilling rig. There were 126 people on board the Transocean rig when the incident happened. 115 were rescued with only 17 of them suffering major injuries. However, there are still 11 people that have not been found. The Coast Guard has been searching for them. They did have to call the search off overnight but they were already back out they are dawn this morning.

Its sad anytime a tragedy like this one occurs. However, what really surprised me was that only 17 people had major injuries. I would have thought that from the looks of the fire on the rig that many more people would have been injured. Hopefully, the Coast Guard will find these missing people soon! The longer it is, the less likelihood that they will still be alive if or when they're found.I feel bad for the families of these missing people. I can't even begin to imagine what they are going through. I look forward to hearing about the cause of the explosion in the weeks to come.

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Gov. Manchin: Let's honor miners Friday with safety review

West Virginia's Governor Joe Manchin stated today that he wants miners to return to work on Friday. However, he wants that instead of mining coal on Friday they all take the day to re-evaluate safety procedures. The accident in the Big Branch Mine in Naoma killed 29 miners and proves to be the worst incident since 1972, when 91 miners died. Manchin wants that everyone works together to come up with better, safer working conditions in the mines. Afterall, he feels safetly is the number one concern. Upper Big Branch Mine, the part where the explosion took place, is closed until the investigation is complete. There have also been some interesting details leaked about the record of Massey Energy, the owner of the mine. Davitt McAteer, whose overseen other mine investigations, states that Massey Energy has a "checkered" record. Massey Energy also has a record of doing things the cheapest way, not the way that follows safety laws. In fact, just last year, Big Branch Mine got 450 citations.

It's sad to hear about another mining tragedy. I hope that West Virginia's governor keeps pushing to get safety laws re-evaluated. But even with better laws, I think that what's really important is the follow thru and the actual carry out of these safety procedures within the mines. It seems way too often companies focus more on the cheapest, fastest way to produce a product that they push safety to the sidelines. It can't be this way. This is why accidents keep occurring. Also, the federal inspectors need to keep checking these mines and making sure they are following the laws. If they aren't following the laws then the owners' of the mines need to be punished and severely fined. Hopefully then, there would be less mining accidents like this one.

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