California has recently passed several new propositions including the legalization of marijuana, required background checks for ammunition, and an increase in tax on tobacco.
Marijuana Legalization(prop 65): California voters voted yes on the legalization of growing and using marijuana for people ages 21 and up. This new proposition will not be in effect until the 1st of January so marijuana is still illegal until then. According to the proposition you must be state licensed to be able to sell but whatever is sold must be taxed by 15 percent. Gun Control(prop 63): Proposition 63 is mainly about the purchasing of ammo and the amount of bullets your magazine can fit. For the purchasing of ammo part you customers must obtain a four year license from the California Department of Justice. The part about magazines(the part of the gun that holds the bullets) is that gun owners may now not be allowed to have magazine that holds over 10 bullets. Tobacco Tax(prop 56): Voters in California agreed on raising the price of taxes on tobacco products. The exact number of the tax on cigarettes are 2 dollars and 87 cents per pack. Death Penalty Procedure(prop 66): There are many parts of this new proposition. First, the death penalty will remain in place or legal. Second, the time for trials will be speeded up. Lastly, all inmates on death row will be required to work and pay the victim’s family restitution. -Vincent Back
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On November 9th, 2016 Donald J. Trump was announced as our President-Elect. Even though he lost the popular vote, he won the electoral college and won the presidency. Many people were extremely upset when they heard the news. It was a very extremely emotional day, and there were people crying. People express their anger in different ways: people riot, protest, cause violence, or just let things happen. At KIPP, however, they decided to do a walkout, along with many other schools in the bay area.
Nick Hernandez and some other seniors were organizing the walkout in order to have our voices heard. They planned for the students to stand up during class at exactly 11am on Thursday, November 10, and yell “WALKOUT!” Then all the students would walk out of class and start marching towards the streets. We planned to go to a specific place where there will be a lot of people that will see us. They also planned on calling local news stations to let them know about our walk out so they can air it. At exactly 11 am, we all stood up and walk out of class. We went towards the streets and started marching down Education Park Drive. We invited all the schools around such as ACE, Independence, and DCP. To our surprise, many students from different school showed up to come and march with us. There were even some ACE teachers there supporting us and guiding us through the streets. We started going towards King Rd and there were people honking and shouting at us as a way of showing their support. At least most of them seem to support us. We chanted, marched in the hot sun, and we even played music. We chanted things like “WE ARE THE STUDENTS! THE MIGHTY MIGHTY STUDENTS! FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE!…” A nice lady at a local 711 brought us cases of water bottles and there was a mob of students trying to get to it. At around 12:15pm or so, we arrived at San Jose City Hall. There was already some school there peacefully protesting and some news stations recording. We joined them and all started chanting more things like “WHEN I SAY LATINO, YOU SAY POWER!” There were even some students that gave some inspiring speeches, including our very own Diego Zaragoza. People say that what we did didn't make a difference and that we just wasted our time. However, I believe that we did some good for our community and that we got our voices heard. We did the things we needed to do to protect our rights and our families. It was worth sweating through my shirt and missing lunch because we can not let that sexist and racist pig be our president. We have to come up with more ways to get out voices out there. This can not just be a one-time thing or just a day to skip school. We have to make a change in our community. -Laura Reyes The 2016 election has been very upsetting to some people. The two main candidates were Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump is a republican who argues about the issues of veteran affairs, trade, tax, immigration, and ect. Hillary is a democrat who argues about the issues of tax, rights and inequality, education, gun violence, and ect. Many people were shocked to see the outcome of the election. I remember watching the election on and then going to bed not staying up for the results. So then I wake up and go on the social media and see this weird stuff that people posted about the election. So then I googled who won the election and then it popped up and said that Trump had won.
This was upsetting to me because he had said all these bad things about women, black people, and hispanics. While Hillary talked about improving our jobs, healthcare, and tax you would think that she is the obvious winner. But that wasn’t the case. Other people have some very deep feelings about this as well; like that day we had in class after the election results the teachers had a student circle to talk about our feelings. Some people got emotional and others didn’t. I fear that America will become a target for other countries and our allies will turn on us because he is very opinionated about certain topics. Hillary Clinton made a speech about the election result saying that we should accept and give Trump the chance to lead. I agree with this because there is nothing we can do about is now so we should just accept it. I hope that he does what's best for the country and improves it in a way that benefits the people. Some of the things he does talk about are pretty good so it is not all bad. It is things like replacing the obama care and creating a new one. There is that one event where he gave money to the military veterans who served in our army. So looking on the bright side he may be a good president and make the right call on tough decisions -Isiaiah Hernandez |