The City Limits Band Profile

By Dylan Stevens
Roundtable Reporter

 

The City Limits are a talented band from Middletown, and they came in 2^nd place at The Greene Turtle Battle of the Bands. And they are only in High School.

 The band consists of 9^th graders Sam Bower, Luke Tarleton, Brandon Folio and 11^th grader Chris Bower. Sam Bower plays bass, rhythm guitar, and sings, Luke Tarleton plays bass, rhythm guitar, and keyboards, Brandon Folio plays drums, and Chris Bower plays lead guitar.

I sat down for an interview with the whole band. I first asked them when they get formed. “We got together in the fall of 2009” said Sam. Another question was how they got formed. I got an interesting answer. “Me, Chris, and Brandon were playing Tom Sawyer by Rush and we decided we needed a keyboardist. Since we knew Luke we brought him in.”

Another question I asked was Why did you decide to get together? They answered that “we needed a way to express our musical talents and it was a cool way to make money.” I also asked where there song ideas come from. “Life and random ideas and made-up situations”

To get more information on The City Limits check them out on Facebook.com, just search The City Limits.

The Hazards of Teen Driving

 

By Dylan Stevens
Round table Reporter

 

Each year over 5,000 people from ages 16 to 20 will die due to fatal injuries caused in motor vehicle accidents. More than 400,000 will be seriously injured. Should the driving age increase?

            According to studies, teenagers “tend to underestimate hazardous driving situations and are less able than older drivers to recognize dangerous situations.” I don’t believe that the driving age should not increase, but rather driving instruction should start earlier. States do have certain limitations and procedures on driving but is it enough?

            Most of teenage accidents occur because of text messaging while driving or alcohol consumption before driving. Obviously this is a huge problem and States have put laws into effect to put limitations on text messaging while driving or eliminated it completely. But it is hard to not feel the urge to text while driving because the dependence on cell phones

            As teenagers and even as adults, we live on our phones. Some people use their phone for everything. Most of us fell “incomplete” without a cell phone. Naturally because of the dependence on phones, most people get on their cell phone as soon as they get in the car.

Hosking and colleagues (2009) did a research on the effects of text messaging while driving on novice drivers. The study found that the drives texting while driving spend up to 400% less time looking at the road.

            With all these hazards while driving it is hard for one to concentrate. It is especially hard for a new driver to pay attention. That is why I believe that driving instruction should start earlier and there should be a test to see if the driver can handle the distraction faced with while driving, such as a driving simulator that test how ready the driver can be.

The 2010 Youth Revolution

By Dylan Stevens
Round Table reporter

　All over Northern Africa and parts of theMiddle East, the youth of countries under dictation have started to rebel, And it’s working.

 It all started with a man named Mohamed Bouazizi. InTunisiahe set fire to himself to protest against the Government. His funeral added momentum to protesters against unemployment and repression.

 After this, President of Tunisia Zine El Abidine Ben Ali feed toSaudi Arabia. After thisEgyptstarted taking noticed and started to revolt against its leader, Hosni Mubarack.

 Facebook played a very important role inEgypt’s Revolution. Even so much an Egyptian father named his son “Facebook”. It was one of the only ways Egyptian youths could talk to each other.

 These revolts like this have happened all over. In such countries likeAlgeria,Syria,Jordan,Bahrain, and others. I think this was needed to help the continuing troubling times.

 I think it is about time for this to happen. There are many countries that the people have no say in anything. Many times, in these countries if you even try to revolt, you will be shut up.

 But folks, in these troubling times we as humans needed some hope. Yes, I know it took a while for these revolts to happen. But they eventually did.

 Yes, I am aware that this is old news, but this in part is still going on. All over the world people are oppressed by their governments. I think its about time to take a stand and follow what you believe in.

 One of the main things that helped in these revolts are social networking sites. Sites like Facebook massively helped connecting people and giving a voice to protesters.

The basics of a Shutdown

By Dylan Stevens
Round Table reporter

There was high drama on Capitol Hill April 7^th and 8^th because of the possible government shutdown.  This doesn’t mean everybody will lose their jobs, although many will go without pay.

A government shutdown has happened before. Since 1981, there has been 5 government shutdowns. There was one in 1981, where 400,000 federal workers were sent home, but came back the next day. In 1984, the same thing happened but 500,000 workers were sent home. In 1990, the government shutdown on Columbus Day Weekend, so no workers was really affected. In 1995, the government shutdown for six days.

You may be wondering how the government can shutdown and who would be affected. The reason for a government shutdown comes from the spending bill. If Congress fails to pass a spending bill or if the President fails to sign or veto any of the spending bills than things funded by the government don’t get funding, so they shut down, which causes the government to shutdown.

If the government shuts down, jobs wouldn’t be lost, workers would be furloughed. A furlough is just a leave of absence from employment or the armed services. If the government had shutdown, than National Parks would have closed. Government Contractors wouldn’t get paid, about 800,000 federal workers would be furloughed, and many Americans would get their income taxes on time.

After 11 hours of debate, an agreement was reached. The House agreed on President Barack Obama’s budget plan. His plan cuts Medicare and Medicaid. The proposal would save $ 340 billion over 10 years. Obama plans to cut $4 trillion off the nation’s debt, Obama said in his speech.America’s debt is over $14 trillion. Shortly after his speech, Obama called the budget cut “the largest annual spending cut in our history”.