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                                                 George HW Bush

On Nov. 30, 2018, the 41st President of the United States and the father of the 43rd passed away. George H.W. Bush, President from 1989 to 1993 was the last World War II Veteran to serve in office.

Some of Bush’s notable accomplishments are;

• According to millercenter.com In August of 1989, President Bush signed into law “The Financial Institution Reform, Recovery, And Enforcement act (FIRREA) Which changed the savings and loan industry and its regulations which included deposit insurance. FIRREA also created the Resolution Trust Corporation. On Nov. of 1989 President Bush Signed into law the Fair Labor Standards Amendment of 1989, this raised the minimum wage to $4.25 which previously was $3.35
• Also in Nov. of 1989 Bush signed an anti-drug law that provided more than $3 billion for anti-drug programs and treatment facilities.
• December of 1989 President Bush met with Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet President at the time) to discuss nuclear demobilization. Later both leaders would announce that the Cold War is over (millercenter.com).
• In July of 1990 Bush signed the Americans With Disabilities Act which banned discrimination in employment, public accommodations, and transportation.

Bush was a very important president in history for many reasons but one that sticks out is his foreign policy. In his first inaugural address on Jan. 20 1989 Bush was quoted as saying “ I take as my guide the hope of a Saint, in crucial things unity, in important things diversity, in all things generosity.” Bush always had very open views on immigration in Nov. of 1990 Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990 which allowed the admission of 700,00 people each year to the United States. A majority of these people are still in the states to this day.

Bush was very effective in the US and abroad. He instituted the following:

• Aid to Poland with a plan for free elections (Poland was under a Communist-ruled Government)
• After the Tiananmen massacres in which hundreds of peaceful protesters were killed Bush announced the sale of weapons to China would be suspended
• US Global Change Research Program which includes thirteen agencies that have a job of understanding the changing Earth system.

On Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, the funeral For President Bush was held. Key people such as the Trumps, the Obamas, the Clintons, and the Carters were in attendance. Many people spoke but one speaker, Bush’s son and former President George W. Bush gave a speech that left many in tears.

“Well, Dad, we’re going to remember you for exactly that and much more, and we’re going to miss you. Your decency, sincerity and kind soul will stay with us forever. So through our tears, let us know the blessings of knowing and loving you, a great and noble man. The best father a son or daughter could have. And in our grief, let us smile knowing that Dad is hugging Robin and holding Mom’s hand again.”

“It coursed through his blood. Loyalty to his country, loyalty to his family, loyalty to his friends, loyalty to the institutions of government.”-Former Senator Alan Simpson said

“I believe it will be said that no occupant of the Oval Office was more courageous, more principled, and more honorable than George Herbert Walker Bush,” Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said.

“George Herbert Walker Bush was America’s last great soldier-statesman, a 20th-century founding father,” -Presidential Historian Jon Meacham said.

To learn more visit Cnn.com Or Whitehouse.gov

                                               Kavanaugh

What happened?

In early July 2018, President Donald J Trump announced his pick for the US Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh. After seeing this Christine Blasey Ford sent a letter to democratic senator Dianne Feinstein detailing a sexual assault between her (ford) and Kavanaugh and Mark Judge (friend of Kavanaugh at the time)

Ford claims she attended a party where Kavanaugh was present and in an inebriated state in which he sexually assaulted her.

Why does all this matter?

The #metoo movement has had a lot of publicity this year. Ford and Kavanaugh were in the spotlight of the #metoo movement. During the past year, the women of the #metoo movement have been exposing sexual harassment and sexual assault in the workplace.

In the past few months, multiple women have come out and addressed a sexual assault they experienced or just inappropriate behavior towards them and this is a prime example of just that except this isn’t an actor or a comedian or a tv personality in the entertainment business that is being accused of wrongdoing. This is someone who is running for a leadership spot in our government.

What happened in testimony to Senate Judiciary Committee

On September 27th Kavanaugh and Ford testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee which led to a delay on a vote for Kavanaugh and finally on October 6th a final vote of 50-48 confirming Kavanaugh

He will be taking the 9th seat on the supreme court replacing retired Justice Anthony Kennedy.

“We’ve heard a lot of charges and countercharges about Judge Kavanaugh, but as those who have known him best have attested, he has been an exemplary public servant, judge, teacher, coach, husband, and father,” Collins said. “Despite the turbulent, bitter fight surrounding his nomination, my fervent hope is that Brett Kavanaugh will work to lessen the divisions in the Supreme Court so that we have far fewer 5-4 decisions and so that public confidence in our judiciary and our highest court is restored.” Commented Senator Susan Collins following the vote that confirmed Kavanaugh.

Who is Brett Kavanaugh?

Born on February 12th Kavanaugh is a lawyer and jurist and now Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States who has written 300 opinions for the DC circuit court in 12 years and is only 53 years old which means he could serve on the supreme court for quite a while.

Kavanaugh attended Georgetown Preparatory School. After graduating preparatory school in 1983 Brett moved on to Yale University and wrote for the Yale school news and was also a member of the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon and graduated Yale in 1987.

Who is Christine Blasey Ford?

Christine Blasey Ford is a psychology professor at the University of Palo Alto and a research psychologist at Stanford University of Medicine. Born in 1966 in the DC area Christine attended Holton Arms Preparatory school which is an all-girls private school in Bethesda Maryland. Ford earned an undergraduate degree in experimental psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ford received a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University and she received a PhD in educational psychology from the University of Southern California.

What can you do?

If you would like more information visit the following links

Court Transcript:https://wapo.st/2yEK3GP

Ford Letter To Feinstein:https://cnn.it/2OtGWIA

                                      Vikings Make Cards For Kids

Niles North High School and Cards For Hospitalized Kids (CFHK) have come together to get students and faculty at Niles North to help participate in making cards for children in hospitals across America. CFHK, established in 2011 by Jen Rubino, is a charitable organization that helps spread positivity, love, and hope to children in hospitals across the U.S., according to their website.

Elizabeth Shay, Sponsor commented, “I am so inspired by all the classes, clubs, teams and students who have taken time to make a card for someone in the hospital.  I know these cards are going to make many kids smile.”

Cards that are handed out are made by students and volunteers from around the world. According to the CFHK website, Hospitals let Rubino know how many children they have staying with them, and cards are delivered once a month.

Currently, more than 100,000 children in hospitals have received cards and anyone is allowed to participate and create cards for CFHK. Niles North currently has a goal of making 500 cards before the end of October.

Isaac Irizarry, senior commented, “I really appreciate what this organization is doing by getting people to help spread happiness to those in need and it’s great that some of our teachers are doing this in their class periods”

Here at Niles North students are able to participate by doing the following:

-Going to the student activities office during a lunch or free period where supplies are available to make cards.

-Grab a to-go bag from the student activities office to work with your class, homeroom, club, or friends and create cards.

-With permission use supplies from your classroom or home to make cards

Drop off all cards in the student activities office.

As of Oct. 17, Niles North has collected 75+ cards and is still collecting for the goal of 500 cards.

                            HOCO 2018: A glowing Q&A with Shay

Homecoming week is a week filled with school spirit topped off with a three-hour dance. Niles North’s homecoming this year was held early. On Saturday, September 8th the Niles North student body gathered for a huge dance party with a live DJ, fun and refreshments. The DJ energized the crowd up perfectly and everyone seemed to have a great time. This year’s theme was “Let’s Glow Vikings!” According to Elizabeth Shay, homecoming sponsor, themes were polled via Google Forms and “Glow Vikings” was the most popular theme voted on. In an interview with Shay, she shared some details about Homecoming.

NSN: What is the money from homecoming going to?

Ms. Shay: We use it to do things like pay for the DJ as well as lights. We get some refreshments for that money. And then the money then goes over to the next year for the next year’s fund.

NSN: What is different about this homecoming compared to others?

Ms. Shay: This homecoming is the earliest we’ve had it I think in the time I’ve been here. It’s very close to the beginning of the year which is both good and bad. It’s good because I believe that it’s still early on and everyone is still hyped about school and excited about being in school. But it’s bad because it gives clubs and activities a short window to kind of get ready for it.

NSN: What have you done to prepare for this homecoming?

Ms. Shay: So we started again last year at the end of the year with our lunch and learns talking about the theme. And then we worked with Boom Entertainment to get them into the cafeteria. We then put posters around the school that advertised homecoming then we gathered students and faculty to Put together the assembly for Friday. Also, we worked with the Skokie Police Department to get Lawler Avenue closed for the parade Friday. In addition, we had a hallway decorating and banner making contest and now we’re selling homecoming tickets.

NSN: What is the importance of homecoming?

Ms. Shay:  I believe homecoming really sets the tone for the school year. So whether or not kids come to the dance I think it’s really fun. I like to dance. But the whole week leading up to it with the spirit days and the hallways being decorated I really feel like if we get a really positive homecoming then it’s a really positive year. So that’s what I think is the importance of a homecoming dance.

If you’re interested in participating in planning homecoming next year, join the homecoming committee.

                     D219 Implements changes on Chromebooks

On Sept. 5, D219 students and faculty received an email from Steven Isoye, superintendent, and Oyin Idowu, chief technology officer, detailing security changes about the Chromebooks that were given to students.

What prompted this initiative?

According to  Idowu, these changes are a result of the school district becoming more compliant with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). “With Chromebook management, our firewall and web filter will be able to categorize web content better and improve internet safety. This also means that the District is in better compliance with the CIPA. According to the CIPA, which was enacted by Congress in 2000, we are required to monitor internet traffic of minors and to restrict access to obscene or harmful content over the Internet,” Idowa commented.

In addition to being compliant with CIPA, Idowu also mentions how most traffic at Niles North is Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure or HTTPS. This is an issue for the district because it makes it very difficult for the Internet security filters to categorize what is school appropriate and what is not.

What will be affected as a result of these security changes?

“Any traffic matching the categories below is blocked by default:  abused-drugs, adult, command and control, gambling, hacking, malware, nudity, weapons, [and] extremism,” Idowu commented.

How will the District monitor the activity on the Chromebooks?

The District will not directly be monitoring Chromebooks.

“The technology department will not be physically or manually monitoring student Chromebooks. The District invested in a next-generation security solution through Palo Alto networks. All internet traffic leaving D219’s network passes through the Palo Alto security solution for inspection,” Idowu commented.

So what does that mean?

It means that District 219 will not have people on call 24/7 monitoring student activity. Instead a third party, Palo Alto Security Solutions (PAS), will be analyzing your data and looking for specific categories of websites. PAS, founded in 2005,  is a cybersecurity company based out of Santa Clara, California. They offer many products such as security operating platforms, cloud security, threat detection and prevention.

Students can bring in their Chromebooks to get these changes implemented on their computers at their respective schools technology help desk

2020 Presidential candidates at a glance

This article will review just some of the Democratic and Republican candidates that are running for President in 2020. The election will take place on November 3rd, 2020 and as of writing this there are just 624 days left in the Trump presidency. There is currently one Republican running against President Trump and there are many contenders for the Democratic nominee.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

Donald Trump

U.S. president; real estate developer; reality television star

Donald Trump is Currently the 45th President of the United States and again is running as a Republican Candidate for the 2020 presidential election on his platform of “making America great again” while focusing on reversing international arms deal, issues of climate change, and restricting immigration with building his border wall on the US and Mexico border. During his presidency, he was investigated by the Special Counsel for colluding with Russia in the 2016 Presidential election.

Photo Courtesy of Politico.com

William Weld

Former governor of Massachusetts; former federal prosecutor

William Weld who previously served as the 68th Governor of Massachusetts who recently announced his launch for a campaign to run for the presidential election in 2020. Weld has lots of experience in the political field previously serving on the United States House Committee before becoming the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts and later, the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division. As a member of the Republican party, he will be the only other Republican currently seeking office other than Trump in the 2020 election

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

Wayne Messam

Mayor of Miramar, Fla.; former college football champion

Democratic candidate Messam Is a former college football star who is currently running on a platform for gun control and getting rid of the student debt problem in the United States. If elected he would be the second black president in the history of the United States. He is currently the Mayor of Miramar Florida as the city’s first black Mayor.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

Bernie Sanders

Senator from Vermont; former congressman

After running in the 2016 election,  Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders is back and running for the 2020 election. Sanders is entering his 2020 Presidential campaign with plenty of resources being backed by $9.1 million dollars which isn’t as much as his previous campaign in 2016 where his team raised $237 million dollars. Bernie Sanders mainly runs on a platform of reversing economic inequality.

Picture courtesy of Creative Commons

Elizabeth Warren

Senator from Massachusetts; former Harvard professor

US Senator Warren is running in the 2020 presidential election. Warren, a member of the Democratic party formed an exploratory Committee back in December of 2018. Warren is running on a platform of reversing income inequality and what she claims is an attack on the middle and lower class by the rich.

Photo courtesy of Marianne.com

Marianne Williamson

Self-help author, new age lecturer

Democratic party member Marianne Williamson is a Lecturer and author with four New York Times bestselling books. Williamson is a well known political contributor with a reported $100,000 dollars she has donated to various political campaigns. Her success is well known with $1.1 Million dollars in reported book sales, she is one of the wealthier candidates running for office. Williamson is running on a platform of reversing climate change, improving health care, and government ethics reform. Her only past political experience comes from a political campaign for a seat in Congress but lost to California Representative Ted Lieu

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

Andrew Yang

Former tech executive who founded an economic development nonprofit

Democrat party member Andrew Yang has never been in elected office but is well known in both the political world and the business world. Yang is the founder of Venture for America which is a 2-year program which teaches people how to become an entrepreneur and walks students through the ropes of how to launch a startup company. Yang is running on a platform of universal basic income and human-centered capitalism. Back in November 2017 Yang launched a committee to run for President in 2020

Photo Courtesy of Creative Commons

Kamala Harris

Senator from California; former attorney general of California; former San Francisco district attorney

Kamala Harris is one of the many women presidential candidates. Harris has been a Senator since 2017 representing California. As a member of the Democratic party, Harris vows as president to focus on the “largest middle-class tax cut in a generation”. She previously served as the attorney general of California and the district attorney for San Francisco.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

Kirsten Gillibrand

Senator from New York; former congresswoman Was once a congresswoman from a conservative House district who now has transformed herself into a self described  “progressive champion” as well as being one of the Senate’s leading liberal voices. as a member of the Democratic party she is running on a platform of women’s equality and opportunity and the abolition and replacement of U.S. Immigration

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Julian Castro Former housing secretary; former mayor of San Antonio Castro who has never won a position in elected office has announced his campaign for office in the 2020 Presidential election. If elected, Castro would be the first Hispanic President in the United States. As a member of the Democratic party he previously served as the youngest member of former President Barack Obama’s cabinet. He is running on a platform for supporting better medicare and for immigration reform.

Photo Courtesy of Creative Commons

Joseph Biden

Former vice president; former senator from Delaware

Joe Biden who previously ran for office two times before and previously served as the 47th Vice President of the United States under the Obama Presidency, has launched his campaign for the 2020 Presidential election as a member of the Democratic party. Biden is running his presidential platform on issues such as foreign policy and economic protections on lower class citizens and workers

The Trump and Mueller report

Based on the evidence presented in the Mueller Report, Donald Trump should be impeached because of his actions. Nobody should be above the law, including the President.

First off what is the Mueller Report? For those of you who don’t know, the report is the result of the Mueller investigation, which was an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. After James Comey a former FBI Director who was already conducting an investigation into Russian interference was fired by President Trump in May of 2017, Rod Rosenstein, who was in charge of the special counsel’s investigation, appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller, who in finishing his investigation, released the Mueller report.

On April 19, The Mueller Report was released. In this report, there were numerous instances in which President Trump obstructed justice or had the intent to seal certain information. So, what was in this report that has many fired up and ready to impeach?

The first instance of possible obstruction is involving Trump’s National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who left the Trump presidency after he lied to administration officials such as Vice President Mike Pence and FBI agents about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. On the day that Trump found out that Flynn lied to a bunch of people, he went to dinner with James Comey and is quoted as asking for loyalty from him. Trump is also quoted as saying to an outside advisor “Now that we fired Flynn, the Russia thing is over,” on the same day Trump is quoted as saying to Comey “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go,”

The next instance is Trump’s decision to fire James Comey who had previously been leading the investigation into Russian interference. By the time of the termination of Comey, Trump was fully aware of the investigation of Flynn and Russian interference. After firing Comey, the White House claimed it was done at the recommendation of the Department of Justice. In the report it quotes “The day after firing Comey, the President told Russian officials that he had “faced great pressure because of Russia.” Later inquiries would reveal that Trump never consulted the Justice Department and Trump himself would say he “decided to just do it.” The termination of Comey would be considered obstruction of justice if Trump, by firing Comey, had the intent to impede the Russian investigation that Comey was heading.

The third instance is from a meeting that took place on June 6, 2016, between Trump Campaign aides and a Russian lawyer with “Damaging information about Hillary Clinton” Mr. Trump told his aides “not to publicly disclose the emails setting up the June 9 meeting, suggesting that the email would not leak and that the number of lawyers with access to them should be limited.” The question in all this is did Trump try to stop this information getting out and what damaging information did Trump acquire about his competitor Hillary Clinton?

That is just some of what was in the 480 page Mueller report. In conclusion to the release of this report, many Democrats Immediately called for justice and the impeachment of Trump. Just to be clear, impeachment is not removing him from office, to impeach the President or another federal official is to bring a charge of wrongdoing against them then the accused goes to trial with the Senate acting as a court. The question is will it happen?

In my opinion, I feel that Trump should be impeached and face charges for obstruction and other offenses, however, I feel that he should not be removed from office. For Trump to removed from office the US Senate would have to vote on his removal but I believe the Senate would never vote yes to removing him from office because it is a Republican-run Senate. So from where I’m sitting, Trump’s position as POTUS is secure. But again in my opinion, no one is above the law and he should face consequences for his many actions.

Senior edition front cover-Made in Adobe Photoshop

Being a reporter and Head Political Correspondent taught me many things. Before I joined Northstars New Production I had a lot of problems with essays. It was hard to put my ideas on a piece of paper but through Northstar I learned skills that will benefit me for a while. I learned A.P Style and how to properly format my papers. I learned how to have non-bias reporting in my papers and how to have balanced ideas. I also learned how to organize my papers properly and how to make the paper flow with the Inverted Pyramid Technique

In the future, I plan on going into some industry in which I can use my computer skills. I feel that in the future this skill of being able to write journalistic pieces correctly and efficiently will help a lot in College and in a field that I plan on going into whether it be Broadcast Production or Journalism or some other career