Current Events Quiz 5.2 

1. Detectives and forensic scientists have discovered that Weiser was sexually assaulted and died due to strangulation. They have a prime suspect, a homeless 17 year old man, who is being held in jail. The sources were the police, but they preferred to remain anonymous. I’m assuming that this is because they felt that it was important to share this information with the public but weren’t technically allowed to talk about it. I think so many people are talking about this story because it’s been so long since there was a murder on campus, so it’s especially scary and out of the blue.
2. Hired.com found that 69% of the time, males receive more money than women at the same tech company. Hired.com gives people an opportunity to get an insider view of the tech industry online while seeking jobs, as women have lower wage expectations. One cause that they state for this salary inequity is that women “undersell themselves”, causing employers to believe they can get away with paying them less. It doesn’t change my point of view much, as I already assumed that companies like this would have salary inequity, but it doesn’t make it any less unfair. I do think they could’ve made the article more interesting, as it’s a really important subject, but it did end up coming across stale and almost like an advertisement for hired.com.
3. Pat McCrory, who signed the controversial bill in North Carolina preventing transgender people from using public restrooms, recently signed an executive order altering the bill to cover LGBT+ discrimination issues in the workplace. The ACLU responded by claiming that McCrory’s alteration was an attempt to make himself look better after intense criticism. In protest of the bill, PayPal, Deutsche Bank, the NBA, and Bruce Springsteen have all threatened to drop or cancel events, which would definitely pressure McCrory to change something to avoid further scrutinization.
4. According to UNICEF, terrorist group Boko Haram has been using more child suicide bombers than ever. Because of this, people have began to distrust children and become threatened by them. Experts on the subject refuse to call the attacks "suicides", as children have no way of possibly being old enough to understand the missions and be genuinely willing to sacrifice their lives for their ideals they are too young to understand. Boko Haram has aligned itself with al-Qaida because both of their goals is to create an Islamic caliphate, but the Boko Haram is location in Nigera, while al-Qaida is based in the Middle East. According to a new Mercy Corps report, many people join the Boko Haram for financial reasons.
5. The article that caught my eye was "Some Democrats Accuse Sanders Supporters of Harassing Delegates". It's a short and concise article, which basically just quickly elaborates on the topic in the clear headline. Some Bernie Sanders supporters have voiced their issues with the super-delegate system and its unfairness, and have decided to take action by developing a website which releases said delegates' contact information and encourages people to reach out to them and try and change their points of view, or "harass them", as the creator said. The article was fine, and it stayed relatively neutral and delivered the information clearly and accurately.
6. Even though I have little to no context for any of this sports information due to a purposeful avoidance of sports-related news, I appreciated the way he set this up. He provided sufficient information and observations, and the "story-line" segment gave really good background information so that even a complete sports-novice like me could understand and gain some context. The fact that he broke up the column into little concise sections was great for the reader, as one can just choose their section of particular interest out easily without having to sort through a lot of information they're not interested in. It provides all the essential information while also avoiding it being stiff and just stats. A+.