Students: We're sixth grade from Rockridge JuniorHigh, and Channel One News starts right now!
Tom: Thanks to Rockridge Junior High in Illinois. Allright now, early voting is already under way. The candidates are hitting the battleground states, and a lot of people across the country are exercising their right to vote.But some voters who are sharing their experience may actually be breaking the law.Arielle starts off the show with a sign of the times we live in.
Arielle: These days, you can pretty much take a selfie everywhere: by the water, with a celebrity, at a sports event. Even our very own Channel One anchors like to snap a photo or two.But there is a place where you probably shouldn't take a pic: the ballot box.
Now, for those of you who may have taken a few selfies during our OneVote election, you are probably fine.But for you first-time voters in the real election,better think twice before you snap.Posting ballot selfies is against the law in 17 states, whilemany othersstill have restrictions.
Last week in Colorado, the Denver district attorney sent out a notice reminding voters that posting selfies with filled-in ballots is against the law.The Colorado secretary of state says it is a misdemeanor that carries up to a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail.
Secretary Wayne Williams: The reason for that is the possibility of selling a vote or trading that vote for something.
Arielle: But in Californialawmaker Marc Levine thinks banning ballot selfies is wrong.
Marc Levine: We need to do everything we can to encourage more voting, and I think ballot selfies is sharing voting, and that voter experience on social media is a great way to encourage greater voter participation in California.
Arielle: The American Civil Liberties Union, a group that pushes for First Amendment rights, agrees.
ACLU representative: I thought that issuing that release at this point in time is like a tacit threat to prosecute people for exercising their right to takephotographsof themselves with their ballots.
Arielle: As of now, not many have been prosecuted in Colorado.
Williams: I can’t speak for has anyone ever;I’m not aware of any within the last few years.
Arielle: But it doesn't mean it is not taken seriously, so think twice before you snap. Arielle Hixson,Channel One News.
Tom: Okay, so we want to know what you guys think. I can’t believe I am saying this, but should ballot selfies be allowed? Make sure to vote, and leave us a comment on ChannelOne.com, or send us a video to .
All right, after the break, fossil hunters unearth an ice-age beast.
Tom: Okay, let's check out what else is making news today.First up, we start off in the country of France in a place called the Jungle. It is where thousands of refugees fleeing war-torn conflict in the Middle East and North Africa have called home, but no more.
The refugees living in the Jungle camp in Calais,France, have little choice but to pack up and leave. French authorities started tearing the camp down earlier this week.Now government buses are expected to take thousands of the camps' inhabitants, including 1,000children, to temporary centers. That is where they will be allowed to apply for asylum.
Asylum is the protection granted by a nation to someone who has left their native country as a political refugee. Some of the refugees are refusing to leave the camp, but police came in with force over the weekend, and by the end of the week, the camp is to be emptied and destroyed. Human rights groups say at least 8,000 people will find themselves yet again displaced.
Okay, are you guys in the mood for some guacamole? If so, then get ready to pay a small fortune for it.That is because avocados are becoming green gold. Across the country avocado supply is low and prices are high due to the growers’ strike in Mexico. Another problem? California's avocado season already peaked in July.
Kaitlynn Bauman: With prices are what they are,and wejust literally can't get them; our supplier can't keep up with demand.
Tom: America usually imports about 40 million pounds of avocados a week from Mexico, but because of the farmers’ strike, that number has plummeted to just about
13 million pounds — as if we already don’t pay enough for that extra guac.
All right, moving on.This is a pretty coolprehistoric find that is getting a lot of attention.A huge, 13,000-year-old, ice-age beast — the mastodon — was found in a Michigan field.Researchers with the University of Michigan have recovered what they say is the most complete ice-age mastodon skeleton unearthed since the 1940s.
Paleontologists are washing off the mud of the skeleton. The bones of this extinct relative of the elephant were first found in 2014. The scientists believe the people who lived in Michigan when the mastodon died probably sunk the body in a pond as a way of preserving the meat.
Students involved in the project say this has been a great experience.
Nichole Lohrke: I've never been on a dig before, but I want to be a paleontologist, so when this opportunity came along, I jumped on it.
Tom: Such a cool story.
Okay, after the break, Keith Kocinski takes us on a journey with one girl who is in the fight of her life.
Tom: Okay, so we are back with a really serious subject, and it affects thousands of young people across the country each year: cancer. The disease is one of the leading causes of death for children under 15. Keith Kocinski met a teen battling cancer at a hospital made especially for young people.
Keith: Seventeen-year-old Emily Hines was in her junior year of high school, on top of the world.She was vice president of her senior class, involved in drama club, and she loved life.
Emily Hines: I never took life for granted before, so I didn't understand why it was happening to me.
Keith: Then the energy and enthusiasm she once had began to escape her.
Emily: I was sleeping almost 18 hours out the day. I would come home from school and go to sleep, and then I would go to school the next morning and sleep through my classes, which wasn't like me at all.
Keith: Emily and her family sensed something wasn't right, so she went through a series of blood tests.
When you received that diagnosis, what went through your mind?
Emily: When I received my diagnosis, my whole body went into shock. I just kept saying,“I have cancer.”
Keith: Emily had leukemia — a cancer of the blood. Cancer is when cells don't grow normally and instead spread very fast, crowding out healthy cells. Emily needed immediate treatment, so her family turned to one of the most well-known and top-ranked children's cancer hospitals, St. Jude in Memphis,Tennessee.
St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research hospital where families don't have to pay for treatment, so every child gets the medicine he or she needs. Here, hallways are full of color, art and fun. The goal? To make patients feel at home as they battle for their lives.
But not all young children walking through the doors here make it back home.
When you are introduced to some of these young people, what goes through your mind about the struggle and challenges that they face as a young person, and can you imagine dealing with something like that?
Racquel Collins: I've actually had friends who have become patients here at St.Jude. And it's really hard — I’m going to get emotional because we just found out this week that, sorry — you know, sometimes we win, and sometimes we don't.
Keith: One out of five children being treated here loses the battle to cancer, a stat
St. Jude is also trying to change. About a thousand scientists are working with experts from around the world to come up with new treatments and possible cures for cancer.
Thanks to research done here at St.Jude, the amount of kids cured of cancer over the last 50 years has gone up tremendously, from 20 percent back in 1962 to 80 percent today.
Emily's battle started with chemotherapy, a type of cancer treatment that can be very harsh on the body.
Emily: It makes my skin peel; it makes my lips very chapped. My hair would fall out in the beginning. It’s something so trivial, but to a teenage girl,that's so important to who you are. During the first two months of treatment,I was home maybe 12 days.That’s definitely one of the most difficult parts emotionally.
Keith: But while she was gone, her community, family and friends rallied behind her. After all the support and weeks of treatment, sunshine began to emerge from this dark time of her life…
Emily: After exactly 29 days of chemotherapy treatment, I was declared medically in remission, which is incredible. To be able to say that I am in remission, it feels like I am saying I have my body back and cancer doesn't own me anymore.
I think if you’re strong enough, you can turn your cancer into something beautiful. My oral chemotherapy pill is from China, and it’s helping save my life, and it’s revolutionary.So that's what I want to do.I want to travel the world and find new medicines to bring back to St. Jude to help kids just like me.
Keith: …with hope of giving countless kids the same second chance she had. Keith Kocinski, Channel One News.
Tom: And one cool update: Emily is just one month away from finishing up her treatment at St. Jude. So, Emily, from all of us here at Channel One News, we are sending good vibes your way.
All right, guys, that is it for us today.Have a good one, and we will see you right back here tomorrow.
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