Expand the DNA database to bring justice to violent crimes

In the news today is a story about a woman named Laura Neuman who was raped at the age of 18. It took nearly 20 years to identify her attacker, even though he'd been arrested six times before her attack and at least six times afterward. Because of this, Neuman is pushing for an expanded DNA database.

Under these changes, DNA samples would be taken from all people arrested on suspicion of violent crimes. The state of Maryland is already going through with these changes, starting this week.

Critics of these changes say it is a violation of civil rights.

Really, though, this is not much different from taking finger prints. These changes will do much more good than harm. In the case of Laura Neuman, once her attacker was caught his DNA was used to convict him of six other rapes.

By expanding the DNA database, many rape victims will finally get closure.

Obama/Clinton combined ticket if she wins big in WV?

West Virginia's primary elections will take place Tuesday, and new polls are showing that the state favors Clinton by a huge margin. According to the survey, which was released by the American Research Group on Friday, West Virginians favor Clinton by a 43-point margin, 66 percent to 23 percent.

Obama himself acknowledges that Clinton is probably going to win this state. But what does this mean for Obama? Even if he wins the nomination, Clinton's large support in this state could prove a problem for his campaign against McCain.

A big win by Clinton in West Virginia will send a loud and clear message that many Democrats in the state are not ready to jump on the Obama bandwagon.

Defeating McCain in West Virginia could prove to be a huge problem for the Obama campaign, unless Clinton is involved too.

If Clinton wins big in West Virginia, but Obama wins the nomination in the end, he will undoubtedly think long and hard about asking her to share the ticket in order to defeat McCain.

Vaccines linked to autism

In 2004 The Institute of Medicine said that there was no link between vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal and autism. However, recently thousands of families are starting to voice their personal experiences. Their children, who have all received vaccines containing thimerosal in the past, are now autistic. In many of these cases, the children were completely healthy and happy prior to recieving the vaccines. Afterwards, they began to show symptoms.

Although no evidence has been found to prove thimerosal, which is mercury-based, causes autism, these thousands of cases seem to be more than just a coincidence.

In recent years the preservative has been removed from most vaccines, but still exists in the flu shot. Since the flu shot is recieved by millions of people each and every year, including children, this is the most important vaccine to be ridded from it.

If the Institute of Medicine wants proof that thimerosal causes or doesn't cause autism, they should remove it from all vaccines, including the flu shot, and see whether or not the number of new cases of autism declines. I have a feeling the results would be quite illuminating.

No more beers in the cupholders for CT drivers, please.

Lawmakers in Connecticut are divided over whether or not to pass an open container law for drivers.

Currently, drivers in Connecticut are allowed to have open alcohol containers in their vehicles. The primary reasons that no law against this currently exists is because a) it would cause drivers to chug the last part of their drink so as to avoid bringing the container into the car with them, and b) the law would be unfair to drivers of cars such as SUVs that do not have a trunk to safely store unsealed bottles.

But what about the extremely negative effects of this lack-of-a-law? There has been a recent rise in the state's drunken-driving related deaths. I doubt those SUV drivers would care so much about their right to store their half-empty bottles in their trunkless vehicles once they've just hurt or killed themself or someone else.

When lives are being taken it's hard to see any rational reason for not creating a law that could prevent some of these deaths.

In this video, Connecticut state senator William H. Nickerson speaks in favor of open container laws.

Requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship would still contain flaws.

Lawmakers in Missouri are pushing for a constitutional amendment that would require voters to provide proof of citizenship in order to be allowed to vote. The goal of this amendment, which will most likely be approved or disapproved by voters in an August referendum, would be to prevent illegal immigrants from voting and affecting the political process.

The problem with this amendment is that it would also most likely have negative affects on the political process. This is because tens of thousands of legal residents will have a hard time providing proof of their citizenship. The New York Times reports that just last week several nuns in Indiana were denied their right to vote, even though they are legal U.S. citizens, because they were not able to provide photo IDs.

The same thing could happen to tens or even hundreds of thousands of would-be legal voters if the amendment passes. Because of this, there is no way this amendment is going to make the political voting process any more accurate than it is currently.