Paul Rodriguez

Kevin Sosa
Staff Writer

Paul Rodriguez

I love skating, and one of my favorite skaters, Paul Rodriguez, Jr. is one of the best.  He has many nicknames.  One of them is P-Rod. 

P-Rod was born on December 31, 1984. At the age of 11, Paul’s dad, the famous comedian Paul Rodriguez,  bought him his first skateboard for only $30.   He has a goofy personality, just like his dad.  P-Rod’s height is 5 feet 8.5 inches and he  weighs about 158 pounds.  P-Rod currently lives with his chihuahua, Uma, in Los Angeles, California. 

P-Rod began competing in 1996, still when he was only twelve years old.  His favorite places to skate are in the street or in a park. His favorite things to skate on are ledges, rails, and stairs. P-Rod rarely falls down.  He became a Pro Skater in 2002 by being sponsored by Girl Skateboards.  He became a sponsored skateboarder at the age of 16 for City Stars.   He is currently  sponsored by Plan B, Nike SB, Venture, FKD Bearings, Grizzly Grip, Primitive, Nixon, Mountain Dew, Diamond, Incase, Markisa Wallets, Target, and AT&T.  P-Rod is the first Pro Skater to be sponsored by Nike.

People say that P-Rod was born for skating.  He is the star of skating.  He also starred in movies.  The first movie he was in was called Movie Grind, which came out in  2003. He also starred in one called Street Dreams in 2009, where he was interviewed about his skating. It is an awesome movie.  Paul Rodriguez is also seen in many video games, for example Tony Hawk’s Underground, Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, Tony Hawk’s Project 8, Skate, and Skate 2. 

P-Rod won a gold medal in 2004 in the X Games.  He also took third in the Dew Tour in 2005. In that same year he won another gold medal in the X Games.   He has won a total of six medals at the X Games since he has been competing.

Paul believes that he has achieved his dreams. He is Christian and very religious.  He has a tattoo of Jesus on his arm that says, “ God’s not waiting for me to be perfect.” I think P-Rod may not be perfect at many things but, i know that he is perfect for skating. I think he is a perfect skater because he rarely falls down and if he wasn’t perfect at skating he wouldn’t be sponsored by so many companies and clothes brands.

Work Cited

"Paul Rodriguez Profile." About.com Skateboarding. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.  <http://skateboard.about.com/od/proskaterbios/p/ProPaulRodrigue.htm>.

Paul Rodriguez Nike SB." SPoT Skate Shop at Skatepark of Tampa. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. <http://skateparkoftampa.com/product/56190/Nike_Black_Swan_Paul_Rodriguez_5_LR_Shoes/>.  

"Paul Rodriguez (skateboarder)."Foundation, 25 Oct. 2012. Web. 02 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Rodriguez_(skateboarder)>.  

Joe Biden

Kevin Sosa                                                                            

Staff Writer

  
Joe Biden was born on November 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law School and served on the New Castle County Council.

At the age of 29, he became one of the youngest people to be ever elected to the Senate of the United States. A couple of weeks after this honor, a tragedy happened to his family.  Biden’s wife, Nelia, and their one year old daughter, Naomi, were killed. Their two young sons were also injured in the car accident.  In 1977, he remarried a woman named Jill Jacobs.

As a senator from Delaware for 36 years, Biden established himself as a leader on some of our nation’s most important domestic and international challenges.
Joe Biden was elected as Vice President  when Barack Obama got elected as United States President in 2008.   As the 47th Vice President of the United States, Vice President Biden has continued to face important issues of the nation.

 Works Cited

"Vice President Joe Biden." The White House. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2012. <http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/vice-president-biden>.   
 
Flickr. Yahoo!, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2012. <http://www.flickr.com/search/?l=commderiv>.

President Obama

By Ella Beebe
Staff Writer

Barack Obama, Jr. was born on August 14, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He grew up in Hawaii then moved to Indonesia for a period of time, and  then moved back to Hawaii again. His mother’s name is Ann Dunham and his father is Barack Obama Sr. His parents married on February 2, 1961 and six months later President Obama was born. When President Obama was two his parents divorced. His father attended Harvard University and died in an accident in 1982 after only seeing President Obama once after the divorce. His mother remarried in 1966 and moved her family to Indonesia in 1967. There she had President Obama’s half sister, Maya Soetoro Ng.
   
When President Obama was ten his mother decided to send him to live with his grandparents in Hawaii. She later moved back with Maya. While President Obama lived with his grandparents he was enrolled in Punahou Academy and excelled in basketball. He graduated in 1979 as one of three black students in his entire class. Due to this, he became conscious of racism and would feel like something was wrong with him. He later saw that he was wrong.

After President Obama graduated, he studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. President Obama then transferred to Columbia University in New York. He graduated in 1985 with a degree in political science. He moved to Chicago in 1985 and worked in a community organizer group. He went to Harvard Law school in 1988 and in 1989 he met Michelle Robinson through her internship, they soon started dating. President Obama decided to move back to Chicago and be a civil rights lawyer. He also helped Bill Clinton with his 1992 campaign.

On October 3, 1992 President Obama and Michelle got married in Kenwood. Michelle had their first daughter, Malia, in 1998. In 2001 their second daughter, Sasha, was born.
President Obama first published his book, Dreams from my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance in 1995. It is now published in ten languages.
In 1996 President Obama ran for Illinois state senator and won. As state senator he expanded the drafting of legislation on ethnic minorities for health care and early childhood education.

In 2000, President Obama was part of the U.S house of Representatives race. But he was unsuccessful. In 2004 he ran again and won. In 2001 he opposed Bush’s request to declare the Iraq war.

President Obama published another book in 2006. This book is titled The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.

On January 20, 2009 President Obama was made the forty-fourth and first African-American president of the United States.

Works Cited

“Barack Obama Biography” Bio.com. A&E Networks Television,  2012. Web. 28 Sept. 2012 <http://www.biography.com/people/barack-obama-12782369?page=1>
Barak Obama. N.d. Photograph. Boomers Life. Web. 3 Oct. 2012. <http://www.boomerslife.org/barack_obama_early_days_career_bio.htm>.

Mitt Romney, a Biography

By Renae Paraiso

Editor in Chief

Born on March 12, 1947 in the city of Detroit Michigan, Willard Mitt Romney is the son of former Michigan Governor George Romney. Though he was born in Detroit, Romney was raised in Bloomfield, Michigan. He attended the prestigious Cranbrook School before getting an undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University. He then attended Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School, receiving a degree in law and a Master of Business Administration degree, in 1975. In 1969, Romney married Ann Davies and they had five sons: Tagg, Matt, Josh, Ben, and Craig. A year before that, his father had run for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.

Mitt Romney

Before his presidential run, Romney worked in the management consulting firm, Brian and Company. Later on he founded Brim Capital in 1984. In the year 1994, he ran for a seat in the US Senate in Massachusetts, but was beaten by Ted Kennedy.  In 1999 he took over as president of the Salt Lake Organization  Committee. Two thousand two, he helped rescue the Winter Olympics from financial and ethical worries.

In 2003 Romney was elected as governor of Massachusetts. During his term, he oversaw the reduction of a $3 billion, deficit, and signed into law a new health care reform program that gave the residents of Massachusetts a practically universal health care. Once his term was finished, Romney declined a reelection, taking his bid for U.S. President in 2008 instead.

He made it past Super Tuesday, winning primaries in the states of Massachusetts, Alaska, Minnesota, Colorado, and Utah. But alas, Romney lost to U.S. Senator John McCain for the Republican nomination. However he still kept his options open for a possible future presidential run, maintaining many of his political staff and action committees, as he raised funds for other Republican candidates.

On June 2, 2011, Romney announced his official start for his 2012 campaign, taking in many standard Republican positions on taxes, economy, and the war on terrorists. His critics charged him with changing his position on other key issues like abortion, which he opposes, and the health care reform. Strangely enough, he publicly opposed President Obama’s health care reform program that was similar to the Massachusetts plan Romney supported in his term as governor.

From the start of the run, Romney emerged as a shoo-in for the Republican nomination and got a decisive victory in the primary with more than 39% of the votes. Far ahead of his competitors, which included Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman, his biggest competition was Rick Santorum. But Romney was able to secure a big lead in the number of delegates that were needed to seize the nomination.

On April 2012, Romney benefited from the competition narrowing when Santorum suspended his campaign. This left only two opponents: Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich. However Gingrich threw in the towel in  May. With the nomination practically his, Romney and President Obama began their war of words in June.

President Obama’s campaign ran ads claiming that Romney was the head of Bain Capital until 2001, not 1999 as he had stated previously. At about the same time, reports on the news began circulating around the economy suppressing practices by Bain Capital. The reports had stated that Romney’s company had invested in businesses that relocated jobs overseas. Both this and the ads were a huge blow on Romney’s campaign. But in retaliation, his campaign sent out its own ads, which claimed Obama was more interested in helping his donors then the American people.

However in late July, Romney received negative attention while attending the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. During his stay, he had stated in an interview with NBC that London’s preparations for the upcoming Games were “disconcerting”. This outraged Londoners and viewers worldwide.

It was only hours after the interview had been broadcast that David Cameron reprimanded Romney’s remarks by stating; “We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities in the world. Of course its easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.”

Later on, Romney retracted his earlier statement by saying, “I am very delighted with the prospects of a highly successful Olympic Games. What I have seen shows imagination, forethought, and a lot of organization, and [ I ] expect the Games to be successful.”

In early August, the criticism around his Games remake started to falter when Romney announced 42-year-old U.S. Representative, Paul Ryan as his running mate for Vice-President. Almost instantly after the announcement, ending the eight month-long coverage of potential Vice-President candidates for 2012, the media around Romney’s Campaign now focused on Ryan.

August 28, 2012, Romney officially became the Republican Party’s nominee, on the first day of the 2012 Republican National Convention. Romney and Ryan received support from other Republican politicians, including his competitor in the 2008 Republican presidential primaries, John McCain. On the second day of the convention, McCain said, “For four years, we have drifted away. People don’t want less of America, they want more. What they want to know is whether we still have faith... Mitt Romney has that faith and I trust him to lead us.”

But in retrospect, exactly how much faith should we give to one single person?

Works Cited

"Mitt Romney Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://www.biography.com/people/mitt-romney-241055?page=1>.

For Picture - "Why Mitt Romney Won't Apologize." PARADE.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.parade.com/news/intelligence-report/archive/100221-why-mitt-romney-wont-apologize.html>.

Paul Ryan, Candidate for Republican Vice-President

By Alexia Garcia

Staff Writer

Paul Ryan was born on January 29,1970 in Janesville, Wisconsin. His dad was Paul Ryan, Sr. who worked as an attorney. His mom, Betty Ryan, was a stay at home mom. Paul Ryan had one sister named Janet Ryan. Paul also had 2 brothers, Tobin and Stan.

At age 16 Ryan found his father, only 55 years old, dead in his bed from a heart attack.

Ryan has been married to Janna Ryan since 2000. They have three kids, a daughter named Liza Ryan, and two sons, Sam and Charlie.

Ryan got a degree in economics and political science at Miami University in Ohio in 1992. In 1998, at age 28, Ryan was elected to the U.S House of Representatives, representing Wisconsin Congressional in District 1. While working in the U.S. House of Representatives, he has also worked on the House Budget Committee and also is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Ryan has criticized several of President Obama’s political and spending plans, as well as his 2012 – 2013 federal budget proposal. Now Ryan is currently running for Vice-President of the United States of America.

Works Cited

"Paul Ryan Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2012. <http://www.biography.com/people/paul-ryan-20828085>.

United States Congress. Official Portrait of U.S. Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI). 2012. Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. United States Congress, 2012. Web. 2 Oct. 2012. <http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Paul_Ryan_official_portrait.jpg&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Ryan_official_portrait.jpg&usg=__IHfS8H1EoOF_qSVgjRpvqTRZmf8=&h=2557&w=2046&sz=2246&hl=en&start=2&zoom=1&tbnid=4pEiPWW7VwDzFM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=120&ei=myhrULyJJ4PUiwLln4CYBQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpaul%2Bryan%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DX%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disz:l%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1>.