Summer News Recap: Here’s What You Missed

Summer+News+Recap%3A+Heres+What+You+Missed

For those of us who went into a vegetative state over the summer, here is a re-cap of the stories that made headline news:

June 11, 2014:  FBI Begins Criminal Investigation of America’s VA Hospitals.  FBI takes on the case after an internal Veterans Administration audit revealed that more than 120,000 veterans, many suffering from complex health issues, ranging from brain injuries to multiple limb amputations to post traumatic stress disorder, where put on unreasonably long waiting lists for medical care.

June 12, 2014: Germany Defeats Argentina in the Final Round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.  Held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, they win 1-0.

June 12, 2014:  Ukrainian Crisis Escalates.  Ukraine’s interior minister claims three Russian tanks have rolled into the eastern portion of the Urkaine to support the pro-Russian rebel fighters.  Russia denies the report.

June 19, 2014:  House Passes Amendment to Stop NSA Warrantless Searches.  In 293-123 vote, the House blocked the NSA from conducting warrantless searches on Americans’ communications (emails, phone calls, etc.).  As we wait to see if Congress will make it law, we suspect classified info leaker Edward Snowden is smiling somewhere in an undisclosed location in Russia.

June 29, 2014:  ISIS Announces Creation of a Caliphate.  ISIS, a former al Qaeda splinter group, takes advantage of the turmoil in civil war torn Syria and the security vacuum created in Iraq after America withdrew its troops, and starts seizing land (including Iraq’s second largest city Mosul), airports, oil fields, and banks in both countries.

June 30, 2014:  Hobby Lobby Takes on Obamacare and Wins.  The U.S. Supreme court rules in a 5-4 decision that small, private companies can refuse to provide some or all contraceptive medical coverage on the religious grounds that Obama’s Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. “Today’s Supreme Court decision makes clear that the Obama administration cannot trample on the religious freedoms that Americans hold dear,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

July 8, 2014:  Obama Asks Congress for $3.7 Billion Aid for Southwest Border Crisis.  A week after the California town of Murrieta sends 3 busloads of illegal immigrants back to the border, President Obama asks for substantial aid to deal with the mass influx of migrants, including thousands of children from Central America. House approves only $694 million, which then stalls as Senate leaves for summer recess.   By September, however, the President states he will push reform off until after the November elections.

August 19, 2014:  ISIS Decapitates Captive U.S. journalist James Foley and Posts the Video on Youtube.  In retaliation for U.S. starts airstrikes that began when ISIS started attacking Kurds, the caliphate starts posting these horrific videos. Within a few weeks of Foley’s gruesome execution, another journalist is beheaded and the video is posted on Youtube.

August 27, 2014:  Two Russian tank columns roll into Ukraine and attack Ukrainian border forces.  Russia denies any military involvement in the Ukraine, while the Ukrainians and NATO state that there are thousands of Russian troops currently in the Ukraine.

For those of you just re-awakening your brain, this should just about catch you up to the beginning of the school year.