Moose on the Loose!

By: Katie McCollum
On October 3rd, in Beacon, New York, a few streets and areas were blocked off in hopes of trying to maintain a moose that was walking and running around town. As sitting in the window of Ron's Icecream, the ice cream shop I work at, almost a dozen or so cop cars whizzed by; a few of them u-turning to block off Fishkill Avenue. Every customer was wondering what was going on, there were suspicions of a prisoner escaping, a car chase, but no, it was a moose. As the night went on, people from all over town were coming out of the wood works in search of this apparent moose. Kids on bikes were zooming by claiming they were on a moose chase. It was the most bizarre thing to ever witness. Days after there were pictures on Facebook of sitings of the moose, everyone in Beacon was all about it. The moose further moved on into the town of East Fishkill. He was last seen at the Fairview Cemetery, near the Beacon-Fishkill line.

These Stilettos Were Made For Walkin'.....For Breast Cancer That Is!

by: Katie McCollum
Beacon, NY: On Saturday, October 9th, 2010, the Forget-U-Cancer Fund held it's first ever "Stiletto Stampede," a fundraiser for breast cancer in which participants were instructed to wear heels that were at least 2 inches. This event was not only limited to women, men also participated in dressing up in their fanciest attire. The age range also varied. At 1:30 p.m., partakers took their place at the starting line and raced a distance of 150 feet to the finish line. Taylor Lyons, a 19 year old student, says, "This event allowed people of all ages to come together and just have fun, while still raising money for a good cause." Taylor also participated in the NYC Avon Walk for breast cancer with a majority of her family by her side. As a Beacon resident, it is awesome that major events like this are happening in such a small town; even the walkways were painted pink at the first of the month for the cause. Not to mention, when driving at night you can't help but to notice the many pink light bulbs outside on people's porches in honor of breast cancer awareness. Light bulbs are sold at select area stores and are donated straight to the cause.

Radiation Ransack

By: Alissa Coschigano

When patients with cancer get their radiation treatment, they open up a whole world of of issues to everyone around them. Radioactive is highly dangerous and anyone who is around it is affected by it. Ann Maddox was told that she had thyroid cancer and needed to travel 500 miles away from her home in order to receive her treatment . Once she got it, she was able to be released. Issue with this being, everyone around her is no longer safe. In the car on her way home, Ann had to sit as far away as possible in order to shy away from contaminating her husband. She had to check into a hotel, in which others were staying in. She couldn't stay around her daughter because she was pregnant and radiation is extremely horrible for pregnant woman and the fetuses inside (Matthew Wald).
In 1997, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission eliminated a requirement that cancerous patients be kept in the hospital. Instead, patients can now be released right after their treatment, which ironically is at the time when they are the most radioactive. New York City has gone a step further though in attempting to fix this problem. Last June, it advised radiologists and endocrinologists, “Do not advise patients to go to a hotel, ”according to the New York Times article by Wald.
In order to reduce the risk of harming others, cancer patients can continue to stay several feet away from others, and keeping all body fluids to themselves until the Radiation decreases, from the iodine being flushed out and loosing its power.

Money money money money, Moneyyyyy

KABUL, Afghanistan- President Hamid Karzai admits thats his chief of staff has been taking money from the Iranian Government to pay for Presidential Expenses. These payments add up to 2 million dollars a year. Now come on, presidential expenses? What are they? They are most likely absurd reasonings that the President of Afghanistan needs an extra 2 million dollars for his expenses? Supposedly the money is given “to help the presidential office and to help dispense assistance in various ways to the employees here and to people outside,” he said. Ok while the people of your country are suffering to make ends meet you get an extra two million dollars that is supposedly divided between the parts mentioned in the previous statement. the New York Times with this article tried to defame Karzai which it may have but because of this article has caused a lot of controversy because he had taken a strong stand on terminating the use of private security companies. The security companies have become an explosive issue in the last few days because Western countries and private contractors say that they will have to halt projects in Afghanistan if they are not able to protect their employees. Understandable? Definitely, if your workers are not protected they have little drive to work, or at least work up to their potential. So in result until the Afghan police and Army are better trained and well established, especially in insecure areas of the country, they cannot be relied on to protect Western and Afghan employees.

Which to me is totally understandable because if your working in a very insecure or hostile environment or area you want to be able to trust and rely on the police or military for help. With the extra 2 million dollars given to Karzai not a big fan of that especially because some of the money is coming from us the UNited States. When personally how do we as a country have any extra money to send over to other countries to take care of their PRESIDENTIAL expenses when we as a country are in a recession? Yeah America time to get your priorities straight!!

Drugs in a Working Environment

By: Alissa Coschigano


In Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, a now unemployed Sue Bates was fired from her job of 22 years, due to a certain medicine she was taking. As jobs keep hiring more and more employees, the list of things that are deemed as unsafe is growing. Certain jobs disapprove of the use of drugs and now it is getting even more serious, where they are looking to disapprove of prescription drugs that their employees are taking. For Sue Bates, it ended all to soon, according to the article "Drug Testing Poses Quandary for Employers" in the New York Times by Katie Zezima and Abby Goodnough.
After being fired for a such a ridiculous reason, Bates took action by firing the employer, Dura Automotive Systems, where she worked as an assembly line worker. The issue of privacy came into play where Bates felt violated by the company because they personally invaded her life to find out what prescription drugs she was taking, personally given to her by her doctor! Dura decided to run drug testings and hired an independent company to administer these tets. They chose to screen for 12 types of drugs, including hydrocodone and oxycodone.
Reports were made within the company of people passing around illegal drugs, which is why these tests were made. Even with that being the issue, to go further into someone's life and fire them for something that they need to take for medical reasons only is obsurd. When it comes down to it, we do not have as much protection of privacy as we are led to believe.

freedom of Speech

Do we honestly have "Freedom of Speech"? Or is that just the wool being pulled over our eyes? Think about it, we have freedom of speech but it is only acceptable if it is at the right time or place and depends on what is being said. Personally i feel that is fair but at the same time it can be and is interpreted differently between people. Some people feel they can say anything about anyone but, in the end that is not true. Or it should not be the truth for anyone but some people do not limit themselves at all about what they say and not even caring about who they hurt as long as it makes them feel good. But, what these people do not understand or take into consideration is someday, someone is going to be talking bad about you and they are not going to be able to take it well. Everything is fair game until it happens to that person playing the game or in this case talking bad about someone or something. It is funny how Freedom of Speech technically does not mean what it actually means. There are levels of Freedom of what we speak, so be careful of what and how you say something for it could land you in the middle of a lawsuit or worse, in jail.

How far will Bullying go...?

The online article, "Taunted on Internet, Dying Girl Gets Shopping Spree," was not found on a newspapers website but could be located on the homepages of yahoo and aol.com. This piece was emotional and makes you wonder what is wrong with people in this world? The article was about a young girl who is only seven years old and is dieing of Huntington's Disease which her mother passed away from last year. This child is being bullied online and in person by her neighbors across the street, which are not children but adults. They have posted online images of this child with a skull and crossbones or in the arms of the Grim Reaper and have driven around her grandmothers home carrying a coffin in their truck. The women claims that "It burns Rebecca Roses's a-- raw for me to make fun of her dead daughter on that page," as in the feud that she had going on with the child's mother is in her mind continuing even though the mother is dead. The families had apparently been feuding for the past few years. This article is exemplifying just how far bullying has gone in this country. Not only are kids and teens bullying each other but now adults are joining in with torturing sick kids, it makes you wonder what is going on with today's society and will it stop?

Don't Ask, Don't Tell...

By Jerilynn Sweet
In the online article, Judge Orderes Injunction on 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell', posted by the New York Times the writer explains how U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips issued a world wide injunction to stop the military use of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tel Policy. This policy as been in effect for 17 years and over the years has brought about a number of issues and people for and against it. On one hand the policy is considered an infringement on a homosexual soldier’s fundamental right under the Constitution. On the other hand one of the main reasons the policy was put into effect was not to disregard anyone rights but to protect the person from discrimination. While we like to think we live in a country full of tolerance and equality when it comes down to it its still not true. The policy was put into effect so that homosexuals would not be discriminated against for promotion and would not be emotionally or physically harmed by other soldiers. In part of the articel actually states "Under the 1993 policy, service men and women who acknowledge being gay or are discovered engaging in homosexual activity, even in the privacy of their own homes off base, are subject to discharge." This section of the law is the unconstitutional section that people are fighting against. The article also discusses how the Dept of Justice attorneys believe the decision to real this law should be left in the hands of Congress and not a judge. While she means well she is affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of US Soldiers both heterosexual and homosexual. And another issue arises in that you can change a law that's 17 years old but can you really change the mindset of the United States Military no matter how screwed up it may seem?