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CNN 10
The Modern Democratic Party; World`s First Color Film
Aired September 18, 2012 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN`s world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, I`m Carl Azuz, bringing you ten minutes of commercial-free headlines on this Tuesday, September 18th. Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS.
AZUZ: First up today, there is no slowdown in protests against an online film that`s offensive to Islam. Thousands of Muslims from North Africa to the Middle East to South East Asia have turned out to demonstrate against this movie. This happened yesterday in Lebanon, where people spoke out against the U.S. Even though the film was made privately, the U.S. government had nothing to do with it, some protesters accuse Washington of approving the movie. And that`s because some other countries` governments approve all films. Some nations also don`t allow the same freedom of speech as the U.S., so Pakistan, for instance, can and did, block YouTube. The same thing happened in Afghanistan, and Google India has blocked the video on its own.
Another big story we`ve been following is the Chicago teacher strike. 350,000 students in America`s largest school district are not back in class today. The earliest that could happen is Wednesday, and the standoff between the Chicago Teachers Union and the school board has not been resolved.
School officials took legal action on Monday trying to force teachers off the picket lines and in the classrooms. The city calls the dispute dangerous and says it`s against the law while the teachers` union accused Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel of trying to bully teachers into accepting a deal. Now, there is a deal. It`s a tentative one, but many members of the Chicago teachers` union aren`t happy with it, and they want more time to look it over before they sign on. The big issue is here, how long the school day is, how teachers are evaluated, and how secure their jobs are.
One of the biggest U.S. news stories of the year hasn`t happened yet. Election day is November Sixth when Americans will choose their leader for the next four years. Yesterday, our reporter Tom Foreman explored the history of the United States Republican Party. Now, you can see that report at cnnstudentnews.com. Look in our archives. Today, we are looking at the Democratic Party, so once again, Tom Foreman.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Democratic Party is a fair bit older than the Republican Party, but just where the heck did it come from?
The Democrats can trace their history back to the lights of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, who really didn`t want the federal government getting too power hungry. In the 1820s, Jackson became the first president known as a Democrat. He was a fierce, cane-swinging, dueling war hero type of president who fiercely defended the rights of slave owners out across the country --farmers, by and large -- saying if they wanted to have slaves, that was effectively none of Washington`s business.
In the still young country, it was a popular and powerful idea, and the Democrats quickly became known as the Party of the People. Jackson`s foes, by the way, said he was as stubborn as a jackass in defending his position, and ever since the donkey has been the symbol of the Democratic Party.
As the years moved on, and the slavery issue was settled by the Civil War, the Democratic sense of supporting regular working class people evolved into an aggressive agenda of supporting security and individual rights and freedoms. For example, Democrats championed the idea of women being allowed to vote. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression and afterward, President Franklin Roosevelt launched many of the programs that Democrats are still most proud of: Social Security assured old people they would not go broke. Rural electrification took power lines out into the countryside. The G.I. bill guaranteed education for those who served in our military, and there was much more. In modern times, Democrats have championed civil rights, labor reform laws, and most recently, health care reform.
The Republicans, in recent decades, have proven more adept at winning the White House, but the Democrats have still produced plenty of chief executives with landmark legacies: the moon programs, the Civil Rights Act and Medicare, the Departments of Education and Energy and on and on. And of course, the current occupant of the Oval Office, Barack Obama. He is a Democrat.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s "Shoutout" goes out to Mr. Hall and Mr. Goldman`s science and social studies class at Margaret B. Pollard Middle School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. "What profession once used a kinetoscope, a vitascope and a bioscope?
If you think you know it, then shout it out! Was it surgery, motion pictures, astronomy or scuba diving? You`ve got three seconds, go! These three devices were used to make and show some of the first motion pictures. That`s your answer, and that`s your "Shoutout!"
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: In the late 1800s, there were plenty of still photographs lying around on film and there were plenty of investors trying to find a way to capture and show motion. Now, it`s hard to say who exactly invented the motion picture. Although, Thomas Edison does get some credit for the kinetoscope. Now as far as color movies go, Phil Han explains how one of the inventors didn`t live to see his success, but we can and we are for the very first time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE0
PHIL HAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What you are looking at is the world`s first ever color film, shot back in 1902, it`s being displayed for the first time in more than a century. Less than a decade after the invention of the motion picture camera, British photographer Edward Turner invented a new way of adding color to a moving image. The method involved using red, blue and green filters on black and white negatives to give the impression of color. In fact, the footage was all shot more than 30 years before the invention of true color film. Turner shot a number of scenes including London traffic, his three children and even a pet macaw. The film was given to the British Science Museum in 1937, but it`s only now that it`s been successfully displayed.
Turner never made it work as the images always came out blurry. Experts at the National Medium Museum spent more than 200 hours digitizing the footage. Turner died just a year after shooting these images, and never got to see the results of this pioneering invention.
Phil Han, CNN, London.
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AZUZ: Can the Ten Commandments be displayed on public property? There are big debates going on over that very question in the United States. Here is one in Pennsylvania. An atheist group from another state threatened to sue Valley High School because it won`t remove a monument of the Ten Commandments. It`s been there since 1957, but the Freedom From Religion Foundation says because it`s on public high school property, it violates the U.S. Constitution. The school`s principal disagrees saying the monument`s significance is more historical than religious. Earlier this month, the Ten Commandments were displayed at the Georgia State Capitol, alongside other documents. Federal courts have ruled that the Ten Commandments cannot be shown in public buildings by themselves, but they can be part of a historical display. And Atlanta lawyer says, because replicas of the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence or nearby, this display of the Ten Commandments maybe safe from a legal challenge. Here is what the First Amendment to the Constitution says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
So the question, do either of these displays violate that? You can comment, share your opinion on our blog at cnnstudentnews.com and if you are on social media, you can check us out at Facebook.com/cnnstudentnews, or the Twitter address right there.
Now, if you know someone who likes to fish, chances are the biggest catch is a little bigger every time the story is told. This girl`s doesn`t need to be.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATE CURTIS, AWESOME ANGLER: I like fishing, I enjoy it, but definitely not my first idea of fun. My poll just kept bending, and bending, and bending and the guide is like, you might want to - you might want to like start reeling that up a little faster.
AZUZ: Kate Curtis says, her arms were like rubber after a half-hour`s fight. Her dad stepped in and fought for another 30 minutes, and at the end of the line, a monster, a seven foot, 375 pound halibut. It wasn`t the first time the 16-year old caught the biggest fish of the day, she did that before when she was younger, and when she was asked, what her secret was, she said she had no secrets, it`s just that maybe the fish know she`s going to release them after they are hooked.
Our last story today has nothing to do with fish, but it does take place at a school. This is the wheel deal, a senior prank for anyone involved in the rat race at Point Loma (ph) High School. A student came up with the idea while watching his pet rabbit run nowhere in its own wheel. So he ran it up, more than 50 other seniors, $900 and they all built the 16 foot diameter human wheel in about three weeks. It`s possible they didn`t get detention, because this prank is more constructive than destructive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CORLIN PALMER, SENIOR: I thought that the principal or someone would suspend me or at least be angry.
BOBBIE SAMILSON, PRINCIPAL: As soon as I saw it, I was just so amazed what the kids had done.
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AZUZ: We are not sure whether she personally took it for a spin, or if the thing has any wheel value, but whenever the seniors were told to take it off campus, they are just no chance, they are going to mouth their way out of it. We`ll rat-turn tomorrow, more commercial-free headlines for CNN STUDENT NEWS, I`m Carl Azuz.
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