Month: May 2021

Apple customers are outraged once again over the fact that their Apple phones seem to fail them right when new phones are released. Apple has been known to slow down older versions of their products in order for people to buy their newer iPhones. And people are noticing.

According to CNN, Apple has been sued multiple times over the same reason. In 2017, customers complained about the battery life getting shorter and shorter the older their phones got, and Apple defended themselves saying, “we want to prolong the iPhone overall” and they wanted to protect their technology from aging batteries. Then they offered $29 replacement batteries, but a lawsuit soon followed.

This year the company agreed to a $500 million class-action settlement, which seems like a lot, but as of August, they are worth $2 trillion, putting them as the third most valuable company in the world. The company is now forced to pay another $133 million in order to prevent them from going to court. 

They were sued on the account that they hid the fact that their batteries could wear down, and they were throttling (or controlling) customer’s phones in order to force people to upgrade.  although Apple denied it, they tried to defend themselves by saying that they were not fully aware of what was happening with their batteries.

Even though the company has been sued and still has complaints from many people, they have not really lost any consumers. Tim Cook stated that Apple had 1.5 billion active devices in the entire world and 900 million of those products being iPhones. 

An Apple consumer, Morgan Johnson’s (‘22) first phone was an iPhone 7 and she had it for 2 years before it “started getting glitchy and was becoming slower and slower.” She said that overall it’s a “Nice phone,” But she ended up needing to upgrade. While she was there, they encouraged her whole family to upgrade to the XR with a promotion, when only one phone needed fixing. And when asked about switching to another brand, she said “it’s hard when her whole family uses Apple,” and she likes using “a popular brand.” When asked if the lawsuit affected her opinion on Apple, she said, “It should, but it doesn’t.”

Apple has made themselves an aesthetic by carving it as a way of life and marketing their products as a trend: always new and always modern. The way they present themselves is clean and bright, which is something that people oftentimes look for. That’s why no matter what they do, people stick with them; they might get upset but that does not hold them back from future purchase and living the life that is “Apple.”

Overall people don’t seem to mind this lawsuit, and in fact, it seems like people already knew what Apple was doing before they were held accountable for it. anything but upgrade as they were told to do. Apple could be sued multiple times more and they wouldn’t lose supporters, because once people have it, there’s no going back, your hook. 

Out with the red and in with the blue. America started the new year off with a new president and vice president. On January 20th, 2021, public officials and friends and family of the elected went to The United States capitol to attend the inauguration for President Biden and Vice President Harris. Both of which were the “first” in many situations. Kamala Harris is the first Indian-African American woman Vice president, and Joe Biden is now officially the oldest president in US history.

Amazing speakers gave speeches on this historic day. Amanda Gorman, the nation’s first-ever youth poet laureate, read a poem called “The Hill we climb” it spoke upon the subjects of changes in America and the up and down battles of many difficulties as a minority in America. It also spoke on the light that comes in the form of Hope. She encouraged and inspired many American citizens to take charge and fight for what really matters. She blew people away with her words and amazing poetry. She went from 30 thousand followers on Instagram to 3.1 million in one day.

Chief Justice John Roberts swore in President Joe Biden and Chief Justice Sonia Sotomayor swore in Vice president Kamala harris. Sonia Sotomayor is also the first Hispanic and Latina member of the Supreme Court. 

President Biden also gave his inaugural address and although he spoke on many worries, he simply gave US citizens an assurance of hope. He spoke of our democracy prevailing and how he will make an effort on uniting the politically divided America. He also added that the need for climate change solutions are needed and shortly after, he rejoined the Paris Peace Treaty. President Biden spoke of racial injustice and sexism in the country and problems beyond the US. Predictably, he talked about the Covid crisis and the vaccine rollout.

There were many amazing performers that made an appearance. Lady Gaga came out in a show-stopping dress and was honored to meet both President Biden and Vice President Harris. She sang The National Anthem and Jennifer Lopez sang “This Land is Your Land.” 

Although Donald Trump didn’t attend the event, Mike Pence went with his wife Karen Pence. Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama attended and showed their support with families near. They all thought that it was important to come to such a historic day and show a sense of unity to the American people, especially since former President Bush is a republican, it showed that both sides can join together and express support for different leaders and political parties. 

The walk to the White House was a small but meaningful event. Both President Biden’s family and Vice President Harris’s families were there and all waved and smiled to people and reporters on the sidelines. The President and his Grandchildren all wearing masks, ran out to take pictures and fist bump the supporters on the way to be welcomed as the President’s family, and wife Jill Biden lead side by side with her husband giving smiles all around. While The Vice President wasn’t too far behind came with her family to wave and give people hope in these times of change.

The historic 2020 Election did not end in November. The pivotal question of whether Democrats or Republicans would control the powerful U.S. Senate came down to two January runoff races in Georgia. 

While Georgia is all the way across the country from Sacramento, that didn’t stop local students from making their influence felt in an election that could determine how successful Joe Biden would be as the new president. 

Naomi Piper-Pell, a junior at Rio Americano High School, spent part of their winter break knocking on doors in Georgia to encourage people to vote. 

“I flew out on Christmas and canvassed for four consecutive days in the Buckhead area. Everyone I talked to was super nice and excited and it was so inspiring to see,” they said.

For Piper-Pell, spending winter break in Georgia was worth it. January saw a high-stakes election whose outcome would determine which party would control the Senate in Washington, D.C. Democrats needed both seats to draw even with Republicans and position Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris to cast any tie-breaking vote. 

Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock defeated Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in extremely tight races on January 5. According to The Associated Press, Ossoff only earned 1.2 percent more votes than Perdue, while Warnock beat Loeffler by 2 percent. Warnock’s win makes him the first black Senator from Georgia. 

With a blue Senate, the Biden Administration will find it much easier to pass legislation on progressive policies like healthcare, climate change, voting rights, police reform, and more. The Democratic wins are huge blows to Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell, who had pledged to block all Democratic bills if the Senate had stayed under Republican control.

Democrats and Republicans funnelled record-breaking contributions into the January runoff races and activated unexpected voter turnout. Part of the effort rested in attracting volunteers from across the country. 

Jennifer Wood, a 2020 Coalition Sacramento phone bank leader said that lots of Sacramentans were showing up to phone bank sessions. Wood lead these events via Mobilize, an online platform that allows volunteers to organize their efforts.

“A lot of people come from all over the country to Mobilize phone banks,” she said. “I’d say 60 to 70 percent of people I saw were coming from Sacramento. People started signing up for tons of things.”

Canvassing, also known as volunteer door-knocking, is the most effective way to get out the vote, Wood explained. However, far less people have participated in door-knockings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Phone banking is the next best thing.

Youth-oriented groups like NextGen, Sunrise Movement, and New Georgia Project attracted mass amounts of teenagers and young adults, hopeful to make an impact, to their phone and text bank efforts for the runoffs. 

Harper Johnston, a junior at C.K. McClatchy, banked on behalf of Democrats Warnock and Ossoff. 

“Most people I talked to were going to vote and had a plan. I had a few people who were just like ‘I’m Republican. Leave me alone,’” Johnston said. 

Phone banking can be slow and tedious 一 an automated system brings up call after call for volunteers, but most don’t answer or hang up quickly. In the rare case that someone does stay on the line, volunteers use a script to provide election information and partisan encouragement. But in the end, all those long hours are well-spent. Convincing just one or two people in a phone bank session to cast their vote could make the difference, especially in a close election like Georgia’s runoffs. 

“I saw this as an opportunity to help what could be the most progressive administration in our history,” Johnston said. 

Typically, runoffs don’t see a large turnout, but Georgia’s election was off the chart. Over 4.4 million people voted. According to news site FiveThirtyEight, that number was more than double the number that voted in Georgia’s 2008 runoff, which had previously held the highest-turnout record in Georgia runoff history. 

Georgians were certainly motivated to vote, but much of the credit must go to volunteers across the nation. Even Sacramento students helped make an impact in an election on the other side of the country.

“I think when I was talking to a lot of Georgians their biggest concerns are the same as ours: healthcare and jobs. The runoffs affect Georgians the most even though it’ll affect all of us. Being able to help out another American is what it’s really all about,” Piper-Pell said.

After less than a year in a quarantine, pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna made international history by quickly developing safe and effective vaccines to combat COVID-19. With the vaccine announced over three months ago, and dispensation starting almost immediately, it has become increasingly difficult to watch California as our vaccine distribution rank has slipped down to 48th place, only using 37% of the vaccines given by the CDC. Distribution ranks are administered by watchdog organizations to monitor how much of the vaccines allocated to a state are administered.

Under the Trump administration, there wasn’t a federal plan for vaccine distribution, much like there wasn’t plans or guidelines for mask-wearing and quarantines. This meant that it was all up to individual states to make plans that they believed would best suit their communities. Florida, a state that was harshly criticized for making seniors wait in overnight lines for vaccines, has managed to distribute enough doses to place 19th, almost 30 states ahead of California. North Dakota, which prioritized the elderly, has distributed over 70% of the vaccines given to their state, allowing it to place 2nd overall.

Biden’s administration has different plans, and has vowed to distribute 100 million vaccines in 100 days. Their strategy is to just release doses when they’re ready, meaning that more people will get their first vaccine, but may need to wait longer to get their second shot. With states like California lagging behind, this could help to speed up distribution.

When the California Health and Human Services Secretary, Mark Ghaly, was asked what was taking so long to distribute doses, he said that the state had “meticulously planned” priority lists and every step of the vaccination process, which had led to the slow-down. Newsom on the other hand seems more focused on people who skip the line (however few that might be), and in an interview with the LA Times said, “we’re just looking for gross negligence: people that are skipping the line that know they shouldn’t be skipping the line”. The governor seems content with remaining blissfully unaware that over 40% of front line workers have turned down the vaccine and that only 2% of his state is vaccinated.

The state epidemiologist, Dr. Erica Pan, confirmed that because of the low distribution rates, the priority vaccination list, which is primarily the elderly and healthcare workers, will most likely not be completed for at least another four months. This in turn, will push back vaccinations for everyone else on vaccine waiting lists including people in prisons or shelters, young adults, and young adults.

Meanwhile, Biden has also announced that he wants to open the majority of K-8 schools to some form of in-person learning within these same 100 days. He plans to do this using a $170 billion boost from the federal government to add virtual learning equipment and improve ventilation. 

However, if California’s children won’t be vaccinated until months after June, will it be possible to start the new school year with in-person learning? Biden and Newsom seem to think so, but science contests this. Dr. Anthony Fauci said in December that it will take longer for people under 18 to get vaccinated because there are still trials to be done on children to verify the vaccines’ effectiveness. 

If that weren’t a problem in itself, when I took NBC’s interactive “When Could I Get the Vaccine” test, I found that I (and other teenagers without health conditions) am behind almost 21,000,000 people in the state and 800,000 in Sacramento County waiting for a vaccine. 

After sharing this information with a few classmates, I was met with a few different responses. One junior said they think we’ll be vaccinated before the next school year but “it depends on how much faith we have in Sacramento”. Another is worried that the state “doesn’t even want to give it to people under 16 because they want to see how it goes with the others”.