Bernanke Gets to Stay as Federal Reserve Chairman, but Only Just

Ben Bernanke was instrumental in bringing the economy out of its deepest parts of the recession, in dictating the saving of big businesses and the stimulus package that jump started the economy. It wasn't an immediate fix, but the economy is slowly coming back. But with CEO's and other upper management people in companies all over suddenly receiving thousand to million dollar 'bonuses,' America began to doubt the logic of the stimulus package.

People wanted to see more results on Main Street, and less massive amounts of taxpayer dollars being given to the upper management on Wall Street. Even with this drop in popularity, Bernanke was able to hold his office, and hopefully will continue to work quickly and effectively when the economy is in need.

NPR Photographer tells of the tragedies in Haiti

David Gilkey is a photographer from NPR sent in to photograph the current state of Haiti after the earthquake that has caused the deaths of thousands of lives across the island nation. Not having to deal with the earthquake shattering his own home, Gilkey was able to continue to do his job without losing his mind by knowing that he was doing his job to help show the world what the real situation is in Haiti.

But where will the money come from?

In his State of the Union Address today, President Barack Obama made a lot of big proposals. Throwing out the names of various bills for Health Care, Jobs, and Environmental reforms. Although the idea of these bills are good ones and should be moving the nation in the right direction, there are certain realities that cannot be ignored.

We are currently in a constantly growing, multi trillion dollar deficit, along with two wars, and a nationwide recession. With all of these expenditures already, there are only two places that the government will find the money to get it. Either from taxing, which cannot happen in the recession, or increasing the national debt, which will only push back the debt onto the children of America. These solutions may work on a short term basis, but when it comes time to really pay up on our debt, it will be the children of America who pay.

Habitat for Humanity East Bay

Habitat for Humanity East Bay is a non profit largely volunteer based organization created in 1988 as an independent group from the national Habitat for Humanity program. Habitat for Humanity East Bay works all around the Alameda and Contra Costa Counties to "to create successful homeownership opportunities for families with limited incomes by building sustainable housing and revitalizing neighborhoods."

Habitat for Humanity Easy Bay does not give away homes, as thought by many, habitat homeowners have their income taken into account, and pay a certain percentage of their yearly wages. In addition to this, each habitat family must work a combined amount of at least 600 hours of 'sweat equity' for their homes. Every day there is at least one family out on a job site, working towards completing theirs and their neighbor's homes.

Volunteers come from all over through church, school, or work organizations to come contribute to the cause, along with a steady group of individuals who come every day without fail and get paid an extremely small amount for the amount of work they put in every day.

Habitat for Humanity East Bay is an organization that is an attempt to fight off the growing amount of homeless throughout the East Bay. Being homeless is a terrible situation to be in, and Habitat for Humanity cannot help all the homeless, but it is not only the families that are helped. The surrounding neighborhoods of each habitat developments are all able to see how each family has turned their lives around, providing incentive for all to try and achieve happiness just as they did.

Child Soldiers Freed From Nepal Training Camp

Former child soldiers in Nepal from the old Communist regime are slowly being taken out of old training camps. Some 3,000 former soldiers from seven camps around Nepal. Although this is a good thing, many of the newly freed former soldiers of the Maoist regime now have nothing to do with their lives. The camps are slowly being cleared out of everyone, each is given about $90, new clothes, and is 'freed' into Nepal.

Tensions Mount Between Egyptian Christians and Muslims

Following the drive-by gunning of a crowd of churchgoers leaving service by a few Muslim extremists Wednesday night that resulted in the deaths of seven Christians and the injuries of others, local Christians began rioting as a response to this attack. Although relations between the two religions have never really been stellar, lately things had been going on relatively well, but this one attack was all that was needed to bring back the anger and rioting.

Local police have for the most part kept the protesters in check, as they demonstrated outside of the hospital where the bodies of the victims were being held for a short time, along with around the funeral for six of the seven victims. The Christians are angered by the country's lack of security, and tensions unfortunately will continue to rise between the two religions until an agreement is reached, or, more likely, another outburst of violence will occur.

Want to Get Paid to Play Video Games all Day?

As new video games like the Call of Duty series, the Fallout series, and more continue to come out, new ideas are constantly being tried out to see which new effects, graphics, or controllers will turn into the next 'Guitar Hero.' But all these ideas need testing, and a new market is slowly expanding for people to have the chance to be paid to literally sit around and test out new video games. The testers give feedback, make suggestions, but mostly just play through games all day.

Although this may seem like a pretty sweet job, it is not for everyone, and because it is the dream job of many teenagers and adolescents that grow up playing video games, the competition is pretty steep. Even colleges now have degrees such as interactive media, over 200 colleges and universities across the United States have degrees that lead into these careers.

Former Blackwater Members Being Charged with Murder

Two former members of the U.S paid Blackwater contractors who previously offered up their services in supporting the war in Afghanistan. Last year, the two men reportedly saw a vehicle get involved in an accident in front of them, after which the car turned and began speeding towards the car occupied by the blackwater contractors. Acting with fatal precision, the two men shot and killed the driver and passenger of the speeding vehicle. The men are now currently being charged with murder in a Virginia court. Chris Dotleff, one of the men charged with murder justifies the use of deadly force:

"I feel comfortable firing my weapon any time I feel my life is in danger. That night, my life was 100 percent in danger."

This is just one example of the various cases that have been brought against former and current members of Blackwater, or as the organization is now called, Xe. This questionable group basically involves the United States government hiring mercenaries to go into Iraq and be effectively another army that is not the US Marines, and whose actions therefore cannot be fully traced back to our country. Although it appears that the U.S. has backed off on their funding of these mercenaries, new stories continue to emerge and reveal the 'contractors' for what they truly are.