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Obama addresses the nation.
President Obama set the tone for the rest of 2014 as well as for the rest of his term, ending after 2016. He explained the 2014 would be a “year of action” in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night. He vowed to tackle income disparity with or without congress, using a series of smaller initiatives. The president plans on enacted said initiatives without legislative support or approval. The President announced an executive order to raise minimum wage to $10.10 from $7.25.
See President Obama’s speech here.
Hospital removes a pregnant, brain dead woman from life support.
Marlise Munoz was 14 weeks pregnant when her husband Erick found her unconscious in their home. Doctors say she most likely suffered from a blood clot. Upon arrival to the hospital she was declared brain dead, however the hospital said they had to keep her on life support because she was pregnant. This case has brought up questions about end of life care, and if a legally brain dead woman should be kept on life support for the sake of the fetus, against the family’s wishes. The Texas hospital was forced to remove Marlise from life support in order to comply with judge’s orders this week.
Watch CBS’s report on the story here.
Details about the gunman in the Maryland mall shooting surface.
Two mall employees were killed in the shooting this past Saturday. The shooter, nineteen-year-old Darion Marcus Aguilar left behind a journal saying he was “ready to die.” He did not express specific targets in the journal but did show a “general hatred of others,” police said. It is still unclear if Aguilar knew his victims. He also wrote to his family, saying that he was sorry for what they would have to go through. But perhaps the most notable section of the journal was that he wrote he thought he may need to see a mental health professional but that he had not told his family. This brings up the issue of people with mental health disorders who need attention and are not getting it. A similar issue was brought to light after it was revealed Adam Lanza, the shooter responsible for a killing spree at Sandy Hook Elementary in late 2012 suffered from mental illness.
See a 60 minutes report about preventing mass shootings here.
Farm bill deal is finally reached.
Legislators have reached an agreement on the long debated farm bill that would decrease food stamp spending by $800 million a year. This reduction in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will take place over the course of a decade. “Today’s bipartisan agreement puts us on the verge of enacting a five-year Farm Bill that saves taxpayers billions, eliminates unnecessary subsidies, creates a more effective farm safety-net and helps farmers and businesses create jobs,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat and the head of the Senate Agriculture Committee. The house is expected to vote on the bill any day. Their decision will affect all taxpayers as well as the more than 47.5 million Americans who depend on SNAP.
See the farm bill explained here in 2 minutes.