New blogs to take a look at

Malden News Report - a blog covering the current events in Malden, Massachusetts. 

Take A Stand Blogging - focuses on taking a stand for each issue that needs confronting. 

Norton Net - covers news and events in Norton, Massachusetts with a focus on community, technology, and opinion pieces. 

Rio de Janiero, Brazil

Rio de Janiero, Brazil, or otherwise known as Rio, is on the South Atlantic Coast. Known for its landscapes, beaches, and annual carnival, Rio is a wonderful place to visit. Rio de Janeiro is surrounded by many great geographic features including a unique ocean entry that appears to be a river, the Sugar Loaf mountain at 395 meters, the Corcovado Peak at 704 meters, and the hills of Tijuca of 1,021 meters. This area is actually known as one of the Sever Natural Wonders of the World. In addition, Rio will be hosting one of the many 2014 FIFA World Cup games, including the final, and the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. This is known to be the first South American city to host the Summer Olympics.  Rio de Janeiro was founded in 1565 and is now home to more than 6.32 million people. One of the most visited places in Rio is Copacabana. Copacabana is a bairro located in the South Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is known for its 4 km balneario beach, which is one of the most famous in the world. In addition, Brazil being a very catholic country, many visit Christ the Redeemer, which is a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and was considered the largest Art Deco statue in the world from 1931 until 2010. While in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, enjoy the warm weather, gorgeous beaches, and exotic people.

Effects of Erosion and Pollution in Rhode Island

          Rhode Island is known for its luxurious beaches and beautiful weather, but this could all change in a matter of years. Every hurricane, flood, or storm that takes place in Rhode Island has shown a dramatic change in the state beaches. The coasts within the state are suceptiple to erosion and the storms that happen more and more frequently each year, cause a loss in the shoreline. In addition, the sea-levels are rising due to the greenhouse warming causing an even bigger increase in coastal erosion. A local earth science teacher, Mr. Reis explained to me, "If you look at Block Island (a small island off of Galilee), the beaches continue to erode and soon, it probably wont exist in years to come. This is also happening on Narragansett and Westerly beaches; they continue to shrink each year" (Reis).         There are plenty of signs of global warming in Rhode Island that residents are struggling to deal with each summer. Heat waves have become longer and the average temperature has increased 3.3 F over the past 100 years, meaning the number of hot days in the summer have increased. Due to the warm weather, there is also a water shortage in Rhode Island in which 35% of the people depend on and the seafood that residents love so much will become diseased with the infections and bacterias that increase in warm waters. Also, as mentioned before, the ocean will be rising 1-12 inches over the next fifty years resulting in stronger storms that will wash away beaches, roads, and homes.       How can residents help? Stop polluting the beloved Rhode Island land! Over TWO BILLION gallons of untreated sewage were sent into the Narrraganestt Bay and it's watershed evey year from combined sewage oveflow and recently volunteers picked up 8094 plastic bags, 7186 plastic bottles, 12,755 caps and lids, 6169 plates and pieces of disposable cutlery, 1486 balloons, and 43,023 cigarettes and filters. A local resident, Lynn DiTusa lives in Exeter-West Greenwich, Rhode Island and mentioned, "I get involved in the beach clean up each year! It shocks me each year to see the amount of garbage we find all over the place. It is a real problem!" (DiTusa). If residents and volunteers could help decline the amount of polluntants that are all over the state, these issues could decline quickly and the great towns these residents live in could last much longer!

Minimum Wage

With minimum wage increasing there are positive and negative effects that come with it.

There has been a recent proposal that minimum wage should be raised to $10.10 an hour in order to reduce the total amount of the unemployed by 500,000 workers by the end of 2016. It is also said that a large amount of families will be lifted out of poverty and it will increase the incomes of about 16.5 million low wage workers in the average week.

President Obama is currently fighting hard in agreement that the minimum wage should go up to $10.10. He argued that people work hard for their money and deserve more of it. Many states have already raised their hourly wages over the federal minimum wage set and business owners claim that they want to help the people that work hard for them.

While many believe this is a great thing, others are questioning how this will affect the budget.

Big businesses are not a fan of this proposal. It is believed that up to one million jobs will soon disappear if minimum wage increases. Their argument mentions that many workers will be lifted out of poverty due to the wage increase but it will also result in the loss of about 500,000 jobs.

In contrast, the federal government argues that this will help pull up the middle class to afford more things and will help put an end to poverty in America. They also believe that this situation will generally help the country’s budget.

There is much debate going on about how much this will affect America by the end of 2016. Would it be better to keep minimum wage set where it is now? Or would it be wiser to give people more money by raising federal wages? The choice is up to America.