President Obama honors fallen soldiers

Washingtonpost.com reports that President Barack Obama flew to Delaware early Thursday morning to honor soldiers who had been killed in action.

The President left the White House just before midnight on Wednesday and flew by helicopter to Dover AFB to pay homage as the bodies of 15 soldiers and three Drug Enforcement Agency agents were transported home.

President Obama bore witness as the Air Force Chaplain offered a prayer over the remains and stood at attention and saluted as the bodies were transferred from the plane to the vehicles that would transport them to a base mortuary.

The Drug Enforcement Agency agents were victims of a helicopter crash Monday, while the soldiers were killed when roadside bombs hit their military vehicles.

Many want President Obama to send more troops to Afghanistan to help beat back the intensifying insurgency, but some analysts believe that would only further build resentment against the United States.

My take: I find this to be a very powerful story because it is nice to see that our president is aware of all the bloodshed in Afghanistan. Also, the fact that he went and participated in the honoring of the fallen soldiers well into the morning, shows that he has respect for the soldiers. 

Flu fallout sending more to emergency rooms

A growing case of the H1N1 virus is keeping children out of school and filling up doctors’ offices and emergency rooms Syracuse.com reports.

One pediatrics office is booking appointments until midnight and seeing between 200 and 250 children a day.

Doctors are saying that they have never seen anything like this, in regards to the number of children sick.  Patients who show up with flu-like symptoms are thought to have H1N1. While the doctors do not perform routine tests to confirm this, public health officials say that majority of the flu circulating is H1N1 and not the seasonal flu.

Since Saturday, total daily patient visits to the four emergency rooms in Syracuse have exceeded 500. This number is unusually high and doctors are once again claiming H1N1 is the cause behind the increase.

In order to prevent the flu from spreading any more, doctors are advising parents to keep children home from school if they are showing any symptoms, and to keep them away from other sick students.

My take: I feel like everywhere you look, there is a story regarding swine flu. Whether it is discussing the swine flu vaccinations or the amount of children sick from the virus. It is starting to hit home now that you can see an increase of people with the symptoms are showing up at hospitals that are right outside of the university.

NFL gives testimony regarding brain injuries as result from football

The House Judiciary Committee listened to testimonies from National Football League Commissioner, Roger Goodell, and others about brain injuries resulting from football Wednesday, npr.org reports.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman, John Conyers, described the matter of football-related head injuries and their long-term effect on the brain as a “life-and-death issue.” After listening to reports from medical experts, former professional football players and NFL executives, there was a general feeling that football had to be made safer.

The hearing was provoked after researchers at the University of Michigan surveyed more than 1,000 former football players and found that the athletes had a higher than normal rate of memory-related illnesses.

With all the attention focused on the NFL and head injuries, it will be hard to plead ignorance in the future. The hearing hopes to incite the want to address head injury issues at lower levels of football, to compensate older NFL players affected and to protect the younger players.

My Take: Football is a sport that openly embraces aggression. Tackling and hitting players is all part of the game. However, I do feel that there should be precautions regarding head injuries and the prevention of anything serious.