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Thursday, March 28, 2024
generic Darts and Laurels
generic Darts and Laurels

The end of the week is finally in sight, which means Spring Break is mere hours away. As you’ve dealt with midterms, presentations and essays, you’ve been planning for break and all of the adventures you’re going to have. You finally finished your last exam, and you’re ready to start packing. Visions of blue waves and sugary sand dance through your brain. With a wistful sigh, you grab your suitcase and start thinking about everything you’re going to need for a spring break spent on the shore.

You start throwing in anything and everything. Beach towels? Check. Swimsuits? Check. Frisbees? Check. You end up having to sit on your suitcase, struggling for a few minutes with zipper, until the sweet “zzzp” sounds signals its close. With all of the essentials packed, you move on to racing around your apartment grabbing all of the best road trip snacks, snatching up anything remotely crunchy and salty. You’re raiding your pantry when you see an overturned box with small snack packages spilling out. You reach for one and turn it over in your hands. It’s the perfect snack for your Spring Break road trip, truly the perfect mix of sweet and salty. It’s a nice little bag of…

Darts & Laurels

Since it’s Spring Break and we’re in a good mood, we’ll start out with some good Florida news. A laurel goes out the two newborn, endangered clouded leopard kittens. The two female kittens were born at the Naples Zoo weighing in at 240 grams each, according to The News-Press of Fort Myers. The leopard kittens will be raised by zoologists, as it’s the best practice in ensuring their survival. It’s unknown how many clouded leopards are left in the forests of Southeast Asia where they naturally live, but they continue to face endangerment from habitat destruction and poaching. Making sure they are at least able to be monitored and cared for in Florida is important in aiding in their survival.

Moving to Florida marine life, Michael Wenzel accepted a plea deal in Hillsborough County court after he was accused of being a part of a video that shows a shark being dragged at a high speed behind a boat. The video, which has gone viral, was uploaded in the summer of 2017 causing, rightly so, an outcry for the people responsible to be brought to justice. A dart goes to Wenzel and anyone else involved in the actions of that disturbing video. Wenzel will have his fishing license suspended for five years, have to spend 10 days in jail and have to complete 100 hours of community service in an addition to 11 months of probation. Honestly, Wenzel’s punishment seems a bit lenient for a man that has shown so much cruelty to our fragile Florida marine life.

On Capitol Hill Thursday, the House approved a piece of legislation that would call for the expansion of federal gun-control legislation. The bill will allow the FBI to have more time to do background checks on those who are trying to buy a gun. This bill comes only a day after another bill was passed by the House that would extend background checks to the selling of private firearms. The bill, unfortunately, has a long way to go before it can be made into a law, but it’s important to have a legislature that realizes gun control and gun safety are major issues in our country. A laurel goes out to the lawmakers who are trying to make necessary changes in government. But the issue is far from being resolved. If anything, they’re just scratching the surface.

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