Mardi
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Obama's first hundred days: following through on promises
u H aley E ppebly _____________
Staff Reporter
Marty people are
educated on President
Barack Obama's ideal
plans for the United States:
affordable health care,
education for all, investment
in alternative energy, and
more. What Obama has
done for this country so far
and the public response to it
has been overshadowed by
the talk of what is to come.
Already Obama is making
important changes that will
affect nearly everyone with
his stimulus plan, proving
he will follow through with
his policies to better the
country.
The idea of evaluating
a president in the first 100
days in office originated .
from President Theodore
Roosevelt's actions
into watch, Obama issued
three executive orders.
The biggest called for the
closure of the Guantanamo
detention center, a facility
that for seven years has
detained people the
Department of Defense
determined to be an
"enemy."
As discussed in Obama's
first press conference
on Feb. 9, America's
unemployment rate is the
prime issue at this time.
Referring to previous
presidents' attempts to
revive the economy through
tax cuts, Obama noted that
they could not succeed by
only lowering the taxes of
the wealthiest. Reassuring
Americans why they
voted for change, Obama
campaigned to Congress
for the American Recovery
Biden to help repair the
economic situation. This
task force's goals are to
create almost four million
job opportunities, protect
energy and natural
resources and reconstitute
waste. By initiating this task
force, Obama demonstrated
his concern for the general
ideals that initially brought
America into this debacle.
Affordable health care is not
an issue that can be ignored,
rather every person should
retirement security and
revive organized labor
movements. Obama not
only addresses the present
middle class, but states
that the task force is to help
those aspiring to be in the
middle class, staying true
to his "spread the wealth"
philosophy.
Obama and his
task force are finding
that the economy and
the environment are
welfare along with the
physical state of the country
more so than previous
presidents have.
On Feb. 4, as part of the
American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act, which he
signed Feb. 17 in Denver,
Colo., Obama presented the
Children's Flealth Insurance
Program Reauthorization
Act that would broaden
the number of children
provided health care from
se v e n million to 11 million.
be covered because without
healthy children there is no
future for America.
Overall, Obama is
continuing to appeal to
the American population
that voted for him by
following through with his
ideas discussed during the
election. Little complaint
has been heard referring
to Obama's reconstruction
actions thus far, which
may be because Americans
are ready to be delivered
from this economic
^
crisis. Opening up to a
1
fresh Democratic-ruled
government, most people
appear satisfied with the
acts Obama has commenced
in his first 100 days.
in te rd e p e n d e n t. T h e jo b s
th e ta sk fo rce h o p e s to
create will be what are
known as "green jobs," or
jobs that provide products
and services which use
renewable energy resources,
reduce pollution, conserve
President Barack Obama signs his first bill into office. Obama has
made several large-scale changes so far, the biggest of which included
signing a $787 billion stimulus package.
Photo from CNN.com
immediately following his
election and has continued
to be a basis of assessment.
Flaving been in office for
just a month, Obama has
suggested a plethora of
acts. Just three days after
the inauguration nearly
37.8 million people tuned
and Investment Plan to
help the, by no fault of their
own, unemployed men and
women of the country.
In late January, Obama
announced he is enacting a
Task Force on middle class
working families headed
by Vice President Joseph
Itili
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S o m e a rg u e th a t th e h ig h e r
taxes will simply plummet
the United States further
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however, Obama addresses
this concern by stating
that it is these economic
Homework leaves students exhausted
iushana
f\cju
Staff Reporter
Students generally
receive reasonable amounts
of homework per class, but
when five other classes and
outside activities are thrown
onto the to-do pile, students
become overloaded.
Many students balance
after school activities,
chores and other
commitments. Nearly all
experience an overload
of homework. Flow do
students manage to play
this juggling game between
the number of hours in a
day, hours of homework
and the amount of time
spent on outside activities,
plus relaxation time for
themselves?
"When I get home, I
start my homework, then
I participate in my outside
activities and then I do my
chores. I don't have any
down time to myself. I have
so much homework during
the week, and yes, some is
due to procrastination on
my part, but even when I
don't procrastinate, I still
find myself struggling to
balance my own life with
school," Kyle Harbour,
sophomore, said.
Due to the amount
of activities going on
eight and a half or more
than nine hours of sleep
each night. Only 20 percent
of students are obtaining
Alexander Earhart, junior, works on his homework after school.
Many students complain about being assigned large amounts of
homework, with some experiencing physical side effects as a result
of the overload.
Photo by Shoshana Koon
in students' lives inside
and outside of school,
many find there are not
enough hours in a day
to complete the tasks
at hand. Some students
decided that homework
is more important than
sleep, and therefore stay up
extremely late just to finish
it. According to United
Health Care association
most teens need between
the required amount of
sleep, and almost half are
receiving insufficient sleep,"
Christopher Drake, of the
American Sleep Foundation,
said. Sleep deprivation can
cause students to fall asleep
during class, and limit
their ability to function/
participate during class
continued on page 6