Friday News Roundup: "The Friday Five"

In an effort to keep myself entertained, I'm going to start calling this feature the "Friday Five." It's hard work being this clever....

1. While the swine flu continues to spread across the United States and around the world, many leaders are relieved to find that it doesn't appear to be any more dangerous than an "ordinary" round of seasonal flu. Health experts warn us, though, that may come back in a more deadly form this fall. You can read about it here.

2. California's on fire again.

3. One of baseball's biggest names, Manny Ramirez, was suspended for 50 games after he failed a drug test. Meanwhile, the Royals are playing some pretty good ball.

4. The Kansas legislature passed a revised budget for the next fiscal year which includes a 2.75% across-the-board cut to funded programs. While this isn't great news, it's probably a lot better than it could have been. Earlier versions of the budget had included cuts that were closer to 5%.

5. The economy still sucks, but it's not quite as bad as it was predicted to be.

This week's top stories

A Friday roundup of top news stories:

1. The H1N1 "swine flu" has gone global.

2. Kathleen Sebelius was confirmed and sworn in as the secretary of Health and Human Services. Mark Parkinson was sworn in to replace her as governor of Kansas.

3. President Obama marked his 100th day in office.

4. Senator Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania announced that he would switch parties from republican to democrat. Specter was expected to loose the republican primary for his seat next year, and switched parties in an attempt to keep his job. This move will give Senate democrats a fillibuster-proof 60 seats when the dust settles in Minnesota.

5. The economy still sucks.

This week's top stories

Since it's Friday, I thought I'd run down my top news stories for this week:

1. The lone survivor of the band of Somali pirates that hijacked the freighter Maersk Alabama on April 8 arrived in New York this week and will face federal charges there as an adult. Let's just say it's been a long time since the US has tried and convicted anyone of piracy...

2. The US Supreme Court heard arguments about whether or not public school administrators went too far when they strip searched a student whom they suspected of hiding ibuprofen in her underpants. Here's what should happen...the court will rule that the school administrators, while having a duty to protect other students by conducting a reasonable search for suspected contraband, went WAY OVER THE LINE by forcing her to disrobe. That announcement will be followed by record demand for SecretPocket underwear.

3. There was continued talk about the government's use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" (i.e. TORTURE).

4. Environmental activists around the world celebrated Earth Day on Wednesday.

5. The economy still sucks.