CNN 2012-04-25

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One year, according to the owner of the coastal² Concordia, that's how long it will take to remove the cruise ship from the waters nearly Italian island. The salvage³ process will start in May, first, Concordia will have to get back to floating estate, and then the ship will be toed to port, you might remember coastal Concordia ran into a rock and then turned down its side back in January, the pictures were amazing, there were more than 4,000 people on board the ship, 32 of them were killed, the ship's captain is facing possible criminal charges in connection to the wrack⁴, although he claims that the rock that the ship struck wasn't on his charge to the area.

 

 

Today's first shoutout goes out to Mr Rainey's civics class, at Lake NONA Middle School at Florida. Which of these Middle Eastern countries is the smallest? You know what to do, is it Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar or United Arab *, you've got 3 seconds, go. Bahrain is the smallest of these nations, it's only a fraction of the size of Rode Island, that's your answer and that's your shoutout.

 

 

That small nation is dealing⁵ with some major political unrest right now, some of the recent anger is focused on a formula-won race that happened Bahrain's capital over the weekend, this race, the Bahrain Grand Prix was cancelled twice last year, because of violence surrounding protests against the government, the protesters want changes made their country's government, cancelling the race is estimated to of cost Bahrain hundreds of millions of dollars, there were concerns that this year's race might be cancelled too, oppositions⁶ called for more protests around the race, you can see here of what happened, tires and trash were lit on fire blocking some roads leading to the race track, some protesters called the race a publicity⁷ stun⁸, they said it was being used to make Bahrain look more unified⁹ than it actually is, despite the protest though, the race did happen, and the Bahrain official called it a huge success. 

 

 

Here is a quick quiz for you, what annual event takes place every year on April 22nd, it's Earth Day, the tradition started back in 1917 with 20 million Americans getting involved, now according to the Earth Day network, more than a billion people all over the world participate Earth Day's activities. The goal to raise awareness¹⁰ about environmental issues, at the same year, Earth Day was created, the US government passed the clean air act, and establish the environmental protection agency. Here are some Earth Day related statistics from that agency, in 2010, each person in the United States generate nearly four and a half tons of solid waste, trash everyday. Around 34% of that waste gets recycled. 

 

 

81% of the Americans switch from regular bulbs to energy efficient reflexive bulb, 70% go with reusable grocery bag instead of paper and plastic, and 1.2 millions American homes use solar power, 22nd is Earth Day, but all of April is financial literacy month, last week, we talked about taxes, the thinnest the government's collecting ordered in fund,the goods and services that they provide, while Chistina Romen is going on a break down where that tax money goes in the US. Your government took 2.3 trillion dollars of your money in fiscal¹¹ year 2011, so what are you getting for all that tax money, well, for starters, it's enough, the federal government spent 3.6 trillion dollars, meaning they had to borrow 1.3 trillion, don't worry, you pay taxes, you will be paying me interest, but again, where did all that money go? let's start with medical care, medicate, and the children's healthy insurance program, that's the biggest slice the pie, the blue right here. Social security claimed that one fifth of the total budget, that's yellow right up there, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq costed 159 million dollars last year about a fifth of total spend on defense¹², now spending on safety net programs designed to keep Americans out of poverty actually drop last year. And interest on our debt, that amount to about 6%, that's the purple wage, 6 cents of every dollar, now there remaining 19% split on infrastructure¹³, science, medical research, education, benefits also for retired¹⁴ federal employees and batteries, that's how your tax dollars are spent. 

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