In today’s day and age, accessing information and catching up on the news is never more than a click away. However, many people still struggle to fit glancing at today’s headlines into their busy schedule. Here is a list of some of the major events that occurred in October 2019:
College Admissions Scandals
After the College Admission Bribery Scandal was made public on March 12, 2019, defendants are still facing charges.
Acclaimed attorney Gordan Caplan was charged with one month in prison on Thursday, October 3rd. Prosecutors say Caplan paid $75,000 to a test proctor to correct his daughter’s ACT test answers in order to up her score.
Couple Greggory and Marci Abbot were sentenced to one month in prison by a federal judge on Tuesday, October 8th. The founder of a food and beverage packing company and his wife are charged with paying $50,000 to their daughter’s ACT proctor, and an additional $75,000 to the same proctor to correct two of the daughter’s SAT subject tests. The sentence also includes a $45,000 dollar fine, 250 hours of community service, and 1 year of supervised release for the couple.
Felicity Huffman, star of “Desperate Housewives”, is another one of the defendants in this massive scandal. Huffman was released from a federal prison in California after serving eleven of her 14-day sentence. Huffman pleaded guilty to paying $15,000 William Ring Singer to boost her daughter’s test scores.
All parents who had not previously pleaded guilty were met with an additional bribery charge on Tuesday, October 22nd. This affects 11 parents, including actress Lori Loughlin. These defendants now face up to 45 years in prison.
NBA vs China
The NBA has spent millions of dollars and many years of work bringing basketball into the spotlight in China. However, tensions are high as a series of tweets stir bad waters between the two. On Friday, October 4th, Houston Rockets manager, Daryl Morey, sent out a controversial tweet stating, “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong”. China replied by suspending all cooperation with the team, and asking them to “clarify and immediately correct their mistakes”. This has led a long back and forth between the NBA and China. The issue has not yet been resolved.
Hong Kong Protests
The Hong Kong protests started in opposition to the extradition bill proposed by the Chinese Government. The bill would allow extradition to mainland China. Critics believed that the bill would endanger the citizens, and give China greater influence over Hong Kong. On October 1st, the 70th anniversary of the Peoples’ Republic of China, protesters took to the streets. An 18 year-old man was shot, which was the first time potentially deadly action had been taken against the protesters in nearly four months of unrest. 180 other people were arrested, and 25 officers were arrested. This all occurred while festive and elaborate celebrations were taking place in Beijing.
President Trump’s Impeachment Inquiry
The House of Representatives has voted to begin a formal impeachment inquiry for the third time in nearly 40 years. After a series of accusations and Trump and the administration, the tipping point came with the whistleblower complaint, stating that Trump was using Ukraine in order to interfere with the election. Using foreign powers to interfere with an election is unconstitutional, and would go against his oath of office. Recent polls have shown that the majority of people want Trump to be impeached. However, Trump has disregarded the polls as “fake” and “lousy”.
Trump removes U.S. troops from Syria
On Wednesday, October 23, President Donald Trump announced that Turkey had agreed to a permanent cease-fire in northeast Syria. This followed his controversial decision to remove U.S. troops from Syria. However, many government officials do not approve of the Trump Administration’s actions because it gives the Islamic State nearly unhindered ability to expand their power.
Chicago Teacher Strike
Thursday, October 31st, marked the end of an eleven day long teacher strike in Chicago Public Schools, the third-largest school district in the nation. The walkout was the result of unreasonably large class sizes and low salaries. The protest was preceded by a series of major teacher walkouts in other states such as West Virginia and Oklahoma. Chicago leaders promised to spend millions of dollars to reduce class sizes, and a 16 percent raise in salary over the next 5 years.
All Female MoonWalk
On Friday, October 18, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir completed the first all female spacewalk. NASA stated that the event was not planned, and it was bound to happen eventually due to the increasing number of female students in their space program. This milestone is proof of steps being taken to address and eradicate sexism in all industries and places, inside and even outside of the world.
The World Series
On Wednesday, October 30th, the Washington Nationals celebrated their first World Series win in 95 years. After starting 2019 with a 19-31 win loss record, the lowest of any World Series winning team, things were looking bleak for the nationals. During the world series, after winning the first two games in Houston, the Nats lost all three games in Washington, and finally won the last two games back in Houston.
Teamtrees.org
Team Trees is an initiative created by a collective of Youtubers including Mr. Beast, and Mark Rober. The initiative’s goal is to plant 20 million trees in order to combat the rising dangers of climate change. On their website, teamtrees.org, you are able to plant one tree for every dollar donated. Team Trees has experienced massive popularity as many famous figures join in as well, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Youtube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
Article by Steven Wang of Takoma Park Middle School
Graphic by Sophie Zheng of Cabin John Middle School