Earlier this monthGene Barfield and his partner, Tim LaCroix married the same morning the LTBB tribal council voted to recognize same-sex unions as long as one member belonged to this tribe.  They got married to celebrate their 30th aniversary in Michigan a state that doesnt recognize same sex marriages.  They said that they never wanted to go to another state to get married but wanted to get married in the state they love and live in.  Native Americans are self goverened so they are able to make their own laws, however it doesnt mean that Michigan or any other state will recognize it.  Michigan is one of the states that recognizes marriage as a union between one man and women.  i think that this is strange becuase according to full faith and credit each state must recognize the official documents and civil judgment

Manatees have been on the endangered species list since 1973.  Unfortunately since January of this year 174 manatees have died.  They have been perishing at alarming rates this year due to the red algea in the warm waters of Florida, where many manatees migrate during the winter months.  Since January there has been a boom of red algea in Florida.  This is not unuaual and happens about every year around the time of January in Southwest Florida and can last up to a few weeks.  However this year the red algea has lasted much longer than in the past.  The toxic algea has remained in an area of warm water where the manatees have migrated and has settled into the see grass.  This sea grass is then eaten by the manatees and the toxins go into the manatees bodies.  The red algea attacts the immune system and can cuase lack of coordination in the water and siezures.  What is dangerous is that becuase of these effects the manatees are not able to get to the surface of the water to breath.  This year only 12 have been rescued and officials have asked fo

In July 2010 a baby girl was born in a rural Mississippi hospital.  After bloodwork came back from her mother after the birth and found her HIV positive, doctors quickly checked the baby to see if she came up positive as well.  When she did they sent the child tothe University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.  Becuase the mother had nor recieved any prenatal treatment for HIV the doctors quickly put the child on threeHIV-fighting drugs - zidovudine (also known as AZT), lamivudine, and nevirapine.  She was only 30 hours old when they began the treatment.  Usually only one drug is given to the infant but becuase she had recieved no prenatal drugs, she was put on all three.  only 29 days after birth the child showed signs of improvement and the virus became undetectable.  The child continued recieving treatment for 18 months but after that the mother stopped coming for an unknown reason for 10 months.  After this period when the doctors did tests almost all came up negative except the RNA which the doctors only found one strand of the virus in two samples.  This was the first child to recieve a functional cure. 

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/u-s-baby-s-hiv-infection-cured-through-very-early-treatment

For the first time since 1415, the pope is resigning.  On February 28,2012, Pope Benedict XVI, who is 85 years old, is resigning due to old age.  He is said to be having difficulties walking and has been contemplating this course of action for a few months now.  The Pope says that to complete his duties fully he needs both strenght in body and mind.  He was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1927 and became the 265th pope in 2005 making him the the oldest pope elected in the last 300 years.  Although this announcement shocked and suprised almost everyone, it takes great courage for one revered as much as he is to

Over the weekend Navy SEAL and author of "American Sniper" Chris Kyle was shot with another man at a gun range in Texas.  The suspect of this shooting, Eddie Ray Routh, is a retired Marine and veteran of the Iraq War and is now being seen to see if he suffers Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Chad Littlefield was another victim in this shooting.   Capt. Jason Upshaw of the Erath County sheriff's office has indicated that so far no motive of the shooting has been revealed.  It appears that there was no struggle at the sight of the scene, but now Routh is in jail segregated from the other inmates.  Routh was arraigned with two Capital offenses of murder on saturday.  The president of the non--profit orginazation Kyle had set up said that Routh suffered from PTSD and he and Littlefield were taking him to the range to help him.  It is unclear on how many deaths occur at gun ranges becuase the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting system

Dick Durban says that spending cuts and tax reforms are needed for a balance plan to reduce the deficit.  However by linking them to an increase in the debt ceiling was not a good plan made by Republicans.  He also said that we need to put this behind us in a hurry.  Currently the U.S. has exceeded its legal limit $16.394 trilion.  Becuase of this the Treasurey isnt able to borrow money from the markets, therefor they are now using "extrordinary measures" to ensure that all the Goverments bills are paid.  Yet, this will only by them about two months.  The united state runs the risk of defualt if the debt ceiling isnt raised by February.  Republicans demand that spending cuts equal that of the debt ceiling, however the Democratic minority leader in the House of Representatives thinks that it doesnt make sense to link the spending to the debt ceiling. 

Gun-rights advocates in Senate absent from Sunday shows

After the shooting in Conneticutt on Friday there were no Senators who supported gun rights who would appear on any shows Sunday.  Many network news shows reached out to these Senators yet there were no takers.  An executive producer for one of NBC's shows tweeted that they had reached out to all 31 pro gun rights Senators yet no one wanted to appear on the show.  On CBS they tried to get a Republican on the Judiciary Committee to appear yet everyone was either unavailable or said no.  One Senator, a Republican from Texas, cancelled his appearance on "Face the Nation" due to a sudden case of Laryngitis.  Each one of these shows or stations was completely dominated by Democrats or Senators in favor of gun control laws.  Senator Diane Feinstein said that at the next Congress she will introduce an assualt weapons ban.  Each person appearing on one of the shows were similar in that everyone on them advocated for gun control laws.

On Sunday suicide bombers attacked the U.S. base in Afghanistan.  The taliban launced this assualt at 6 a.m.  There were two bombers that had blown themselves up in cars and seven others who were killed during gunfire.  Along with those casualties Afghan lost three soldiers and two civilians in the gunfire.  At the end of 2014 NATO will be pulling out all of its forces and becuase of this the United States and Afghanistan are preparing to have all the security of NATO handed over the the Afghans.  The president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai claims that the security forces so far have done very well.  However there are many people who do not think that Afghan forces will be enough to defend themselves against the Taliban if they attempt to sieze power.  Also many people feel that with the withdrawal of NATO troops a civil war could be approaching.  In a text message a Taliban spokes-person said that "This morning at 6 a.m. a number of our devotees attacked the major U.S. Base in Jalalabad city and so far have brought heavy casualties to the enemy."