America at a Standstill

Congressional squabble over the ratification of Obamacare caused the whole Government to be shutdown. Anyone working for the government was without pay from October 1-17. National Parks and memorials were shut down do to this lack of funding. Families of fallen military did not receiving death benefits, and many other government functions ceased.

Papal Misinterpretation

A long, 200 page interview with the recently elected Pope Francis seemed to have one gem in it for the press. The New York Times published the article “Pope Bluntly Faults Church’s Focus on Gays and Abortion” on September 19th (later altering the headline to “Pope Says Church is ‘Obsessed’ With Gays, Abortion, Birth Control). They were, however, just one of the news agencies to highlight this particular segment of the interview, disregarding Francis’s other suggestions.

Zimmerman’s Reluctant Rescue

Though it had been a year and a half since the crime had been perpetrated, George Zimmerman, first charged as a murderer of Trayvon Martin in April 2012, was finally deemed “not guilty” on July 13th. Unfortunately for Zimmerman, he’d not be free from the public eye. A week later, Zimmerman had managed to save a family from a backed up SUV, but their only response was to avoid him, as he’d only seem to bring them unwanted attention. Though he may be innocent in the eyes of the law, his image won’t falter anytime soon
Concerns for Privacy

Ever since Edward Snowden had leaked the facts about this political organization, privacy concerns have arisen nearly everywhere on the internet. Emails and texts had been monitored by them for quite a while, with some workers admitting to using this spy power for personal reasons. And they aren’t the only one’s either: Google, for instance, scans your emails for the purpose of “better targeted advertising”. That applies to every school email sent this year.
No War in the Near Future

Bashar al-Assad’s chemical attacks on Syrian minorities attracted the attention of the United States. There had been plans to stop this genocide by force, but support for war was wavering. With countries like Britain and Canada refusing to aid, President Obama decided to pull the plug on the 13th of September.