Readable, teachable news.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
There are two main political parties in the United States: the Republicans and the Democrats.
Right now, the Republicans have to choose someone to run for president against Democrat Barack Obama, in time for the presidential election on Nov. 6.
To pick a Republican candidate, every state in the U.S. holds an early election called a primary.
The front-runner in the Republican race is Mitt Romney, who was the Governor of Massachusetts and is now in business.
Yesterday, some schoolkids in Toronto learned first-hand what democracy is all about.
Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, was proposing some cuts to the city’s budget.
He said many of the city’s services should go on the chopping block to balance the city’s budget, including closing down services at: 10 arenas, three daycares, three shelters, a city zoo and a farm on Toronto Island.
The city also proposed cutting services like swimming lessons at five swimming pools in Toronto schools. That could potentially lead to the pools being closed in the future.
The parents and kids at those schools went into action to try to prevent the budget cuts.
In one episode of her popular talk show, Ellen DeGeneres bemoaned the fact that she couldn’t be in two places at once.
Lots of people wanted her at events, but her schedule was packed.
John Kernaghan was listening to her show that day.
He’s a Toronto-based mascot maker. His company, Hogtown Mascots, makes life-sized puppets that are used as “mascots” for companies and sports teams.
He decided to make it possible for the entertainer to be in two places at once.
John created a giant mascot costume that looked just like Ellen DeGeneres. And then he sent it to her.
It began like any other cruise, with more than 4,200 people aboard the Costa Concordia.
However, the scene became tragic on Saturday as the massive ship ran aground a few hundred metres off the tiny island of Giglio near Tuscany, Italy.
Rocks tore a 50-metre gash down one side of the hull and the ship took on water.
By Sunday morning five people were dead and 10 unaccounted for. Two of the victims were French and one was from Peru. Another 30 people were hurt; two people were seriously injured.
Others on board were from Italy, Germany, France and Britain. There were 1,000 crew members on board.
Stephen Hawking turned 70 on Jan. 8.
Cosmologists – scientists like Hawking who study the origins of the universe – gathered in Cambridge, UK, to pay tribute to him.
Hawking was a mathematics professor at the University of Cambridge for 30 years. He retired from that job in 2009. He still works for Cambridge, in cosmology research.
Hawking is a mathematical genius, who changed the way scientists think about the universe.
What do you get when you start with a white room and then give thousands of children coloured dot stickers?
That is exactly what artist Yayoi Kusama wanted to find out.
She painted a room in the Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art completely white.
The walls, floor and ceiling were white. The piano was white. The couch, TV and seats were white. Even a fern was painted white.
And then she invited thousands of children inside.
This year, the “euro” celebrates its tenth anniversary.
The euro is a unit of money (or “currency”) that is used by 17 countries in Europe.
It wasn’t always that way.
Before the euro, every country had its own currency.
For instance, France had the franc, Italy had the lira, Germany had the Deutschmark and so on.
The euro was created in 2002 when a group of European politicians and financial leaders decided it would be helpful if they had the same type of money.
The idea of the euro was to make it easier for countries to buy and sell more easily between themselves, because they would all be using the same currency.
Every year, news editors across Canada vote for the “newsmaker of the year” – the person who dominated the headlines.
For 2011, that person was Jack Layton.
A whopping 90 per cent of editors polled said they thought the NDP leader was the newsmaker of the year.
Layton helped to build his political party up from just 19 seats in 2003 when he took over as leader, to 103 seats last year — enough to make the NDP Canada’s national opposition party for the first time in history.
Layton died from cancer in 2011 and the country mourned for this great “representative of the people.”
There were many fascinating news stories in 2011.
Today and tomorrow TKN takes a look at some of the most significant news stories from the past year.
Protests and dissent
The year 2011 may be known as the year of “dissent” – the year people protested. In a number of Arab countries — including Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria and Libya — people took to the streets to protest against their governments and many leaders were ousted.
It was known as the Arab Spring.
There were other protests closer to home. In North America and many other places around the world, young people rose up to protest the growing difference between the rich (the one per cent) and the rest (the 99 per cent).
Cairo, the capital city of Egypt, has a lot of traffic. Commuters often find themselves stuck in a traffic jam, unable to move.
One book store came up with an ingenious program to help the people who take taxis in the city. They call it, “The Taxi of Knowledge.”
Alef Books gives taxi drivers five free books, which they can place in the back seat of their cab.
Passengers can read a good book while they’re stuck in traffic.
The taxi driver gets to choose which books he wants. He can also trade them in whenever he wants, for different books.
