Oakland Unified School District spokesman Troy Flint says roughly 18 percent of the district's 2,000 teachers were absent, as compared to the 1-percent rate on a typical Wednesday.  Thousands of people joined anti-Wall Street protests throughout the city.
Several teachers' unions have expressed support for the Occupy Oakland movement, which made international headlines after an Iraq War veteran participating in the demonstrations was injured in last week's clashes between protesters and police.
Flint says the district got substitute teachers for most classrooms, and where that wasn't possible, children were sent to other classrooms.
This connects to what we are learning in class because this relates to the right to assemble and  There is no law that says they cannot for groups of people(assemble) in orderly manners.
This relates to something i have seen because i have heard many times about teachers petitioning, mostly because of pay cuts. My opinion is that it would be perfectly fine to assemble to protest. As citizens, they have that right and there would be nothing wrong with it. For example, a group of people protest about the signing of a bill saying that all people must go to a college. They would have the freedom assemble and protest.

S.C. Sheriff wants women to carry guns

a sheriff in South Carolina is trying to get women to carry concealed guns in order to create safety and to protect themselves.

Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright made the suggestion Monday while discussing the arrest of a suspect in an attempted rape last weekend.

he suggests that women carry a .45-caliber weapon because he says they wouldn't have to be accurate, just close to the target. He showed reporters at a news conference a fanny pack women could use to carry a handgun while jogging.

Forty-six-year-old Walter Monroe Lance of Spartanburg was charged Monday with kidnapping, first-degree criminal sexual conduct and grand larceny in a Sunday attack on a woman in a park.
This connects to what we are learning in class because the right to own a gun/weapon is part of amendment 2 in the bill of rights. There, it states that people have the right to own a licenced weapon. It it perfectly fine for them to own a weapon. My opinion is that it shouldn't be a gun. For example, a gun is quite dangerous itself and some women could use it for the wrong purposes.It may stop crimes with rape and harassment but it can cause unwanted shootings and other crimes. I think that this could be a good idea for threatened women but substitute the gun for something else.
This connects to my life because if this idea spread around to the other states then this could improve the safety of me and billions of other women. This could stop lots of crime with rape, harassment, and other things as well. It could create problems for women and for other people to know that women are allowed to walk around randomly with a gun even though its used for protection.

Supreme Court Denies Republican Challenges

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected two Republican challenges to the state's new electoral maps, dealing a blow to halt new district boundaries that could diminish their political clout.
The state's high court rejected two petitions from Republicans challenging the validity of the state Senate and congressional redistricting maps recently adopted by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission. The Supreme Court also rejected their requests for an emergency stay that would have stopped use of the maps in 2012.
The commission had asked the court to reject them, arguing that opponents had failed to provide facts showing the commission's work was unreasonable. The court voted 7-0.
"The Supreme Court has struck a blow against politics as usual by upholding the fair and representative maps created by the Citizens Redistricting Commission," said Commissioner Stan Forbes, a decline-to-state voter from Yolo County who is the current rotating chairman of the commission.
Voters approved the citizen-led redistricting commission to create California's legislative and congressional districts in response to decades of gerrymandering by lawmakers that preserved districts for incumbents and the parties. In July, the 14-member panel approved final versions of the district maps for Congress, the state Assembly and Senate, and the state Board of Equalization, which administers sales and use taxes.
The maps were certified Aug. 15.

Republicans contend the Senate and congressional maps failed to comply with the Voting Rights Act and did not meet the constitutional criteria for drawing the maps in a transparent process and trying to keep communities together.
(nctimes)
This relates to what we are learning in class. Congress and the Supreme court were dealing with a republican problem that only the Constitution could fix. like the article said, the maps failed to go with the Voting Rights act. The citizens did not have a say so on what they wanted to do. For example, The supreme court is a part of the judicial branch (reviews laws) and so they had to review if this was constitutional to create the maps and use them.
This relates to me because i am a citizen. being able to vote is a right as a citizen and if we werent allowed to vote, we would have major problems in choosing the "right path" to our society.for example, If we didnt get to choose the president of the u.s. then we could have a terrible president and a terrible place to live in! he could make up rules that go againts the constitution, create unimportant wars, ect. anything could happen but its out job as citizens to choose correctly