Edgewood High School, El Corral, 1995, World Beat 4

Description:	flashIn the wake of the 1994 LosAngeles earthquake and thesouthern California wildfires of1993, California experiencesmore natural disasters inJanuary 1995 when rainstormscause flooding that kills 11people and leaves 3,000 othershomeless. Flooding is so highin Santa Barbara, fun-seekingteenagers dive off a freewayoverpass into 15 feet of water.President Clinton declares 34counties federal disaster areas.In 1994, the U.S. registers aone-year population growth of2.7 million. One-third of theincrease is due to immigration,the largest such influx since1914.Author and humanitiesprofessor, Ralph Ellison, diesat age 80. His 1952 novel,Invisible Man, has been calledthe most powerful novel writtenabout alienation, identity, andracism in America.A huge increase in killings by14- to 24-year-olds raises thenations homicide rate, whileviolence blamed on preteensrocks communities nationwide.A boy, 13, is sentenced to lifefor strangling a four-year-old.In Chicago, an 11-year-old boykills a 14-year-old girl and isthen executed by his own gang.In Washington state a pair of12-year-olds shoot a migrantworker.Called the Republicanrevolution, Novembermid-term elections putthe Republican partyand its anti-biggovernment platform incontrol of Congressfor the first time in40 years. GeorgiasNewt Gingrich, authorof the GOPs Contractwith America, isthe new Speaker ofthe House.The volunteersfor Silent Marchbring shoes fromevery state for one of thequietest demonstrations toever take place inWashington, D.C. Eachempty pair of shoes represents one of the more than40,000 Americans who havebeen killed by handguns.The prosecutionseeks the deathpenalty in thecase of Susan Smith,who dupes the nation witha frightening tale of theabduction of her two littleboys. The communitys earlysupport grows quickly tohatred when Smithconfesses to murder—she sent her children totheir deaths at the bottomof a lake.Despite powerful National RifleAssociation lobby efforts,Congress passes a crime billbanning the sale of 19 types ofassault weapons. TheBrady Law goesinto effect; inone month 23,610people withcriminal recordsare denied thepurchase of a handgun<f(7Heat, drought, andlightning combine toset Western statesablaze in late June and July.Fires consume 2,000 acresin Colorados SouthCanyon when 50 mile-an-hourwinds whip the flames into afirestorm, killing 14 speciallytrained firefighters; 10 menand four women.
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-edgewood/id/4546
Collection:	Edgewood High School

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