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Welcome to Current Events!

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
The important thing is not to stop questioning.” —Albert Einstein

The world events of today shape our future in every way, from how well we understand one another to how healthy we keep our planet. Current Events gathers the most important and unique news stories into a magazine written and designed for students. Our readers don't just learn facts, they learn to think critically about the influences within their world and about their own responsibilities to make this a better world for everyone.

On this site you will find story updates, additional resources, including Smart Stuff quizzes, and links to CE’s News Blog for students. Be sure to check back each issue!

Issue 11 News Updates

  • Wildfires burn more than homes, they also wipe out the vegetation that keeps soil on hillsides from washing away. On Nov. 26, the same Southern California communities that had been devastated by wildfires a week earlier were hit by rain storms that caused mudslides and flooding. In the Yorba Linda area, 1,500 people had to evacuate their hillside homes. Near Montecito, people living in about 2,200 other homes were also urged to evacuate.

  • Tibetans who met in Dharmsala, India, in November to discuss their homeland’s future decided to continue the Dalai Lama’s “middle way” policy toward China. The Dalai Lama, the Tibetans' spiritual leader, called the meeting because he believed that his middle way policy of using diplomacy with the Chinese government to gain greater autonomy for the Tibetan region had failed.

    • ISSUE 4 UPDATE: Lori Drew, the woman who set up a phony MySpace account that was used to torment 13-year-old Megan Meier, was found guilty of three misdemeanor computer fraud chages on Nov. 26. She was acquitted of the more serious felony charge that alleged she used the phony account to inflict emotional distress on Megan. Megan killed herself in 2006. Drew, who is 49 and has a teenage daughter, could now be sentenced to up to three years in prison.

    ISSUE 8 UPDATE: Iraq's Council of Representatives approved a rewritten security pact with the United States on Nov. 27. The deal calls for U.S. troops to leave Iraq's cities by June 30 and to leave Iraq entirely by Dec. 31, 2011. While the agreement gives U.S. troops legal authority to remain in Iraq, it full three years of the deal isn't set in stone. The agreement calls for a national referendum to be held on the plan in July.

    OBAMA CABINET WATCH: President-elect Barack Obama was expected to name severalnominees for cabinet posts on Dec. 1. They include former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as secretary of state; longtime Justice Department official and former judge Eric Holder as attorney general; retired Marine Corp. Gen. Jim Jones as national security advisor; and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of Homeland Security. He also is expected to keep George W. Bush’s defense secretary, Robert Gates, at his current post for at least another year. On the economic side, Obama in November named as his choice for secretary of the U.S. Treasury Timothy Geithner, who is president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank; and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers as his chief economic advisor. The department secretaries will have to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Obama has also named his chief of staff: Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois. The chief of staff often negotiates with members of Congress and controls access to the president.

    A New Tool For Teachers
    WR BOOST gives your students online access to Current Events stories. Students can earn points for taking quizzes about those stories, and you get useful reports outlining how they did. Interested? Find out more at wrteachers.uboost.com/.

     

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