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    Blog Posts by Allison Louie-Garcia

    • Class photo called ‘offensive’ and ‘degrading’

      By Allison Louie-Garcia | The Upshot – Thu, Apr 5, 2012

      Sawgrass ElementaryAn elementary school class picture is causing quite a stir after the photographer Photoshopped a cartoon smiley face over a boy's head.

      David Claussen, owner of Broward County Pictures, took the photo of the second grade class at Sawgrass Elementary school, but was notified afterward that two of the students hadn't signed consent forms and needed to be removed.

      The local news reports:

      "Claussen said he was able to use the photo editing software Adobe Photoshop to lift one of the kids out, but had explained to them that there was a problem with the second student. He was sitting in the front row, right in the middle ... He said he would have gladly come out there to reshoot the image. Instead there was talk about putting a star over his face and then, he said,  the P.T.A. asked him to place a smiley face."

      The news station could not locate the student or his parents for a comment, but was told the boy is no longer attending Sawgrass Elementary and may not even be aware of the picture's

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    • Did Zimmerman say ‘punks’ or racial slur in 911 recording?

      By Allison Louie-Garcia | The Upshot – Thu, Apr 5, 2012

      Though it was widely reported that George Zimmerman grumbled a racial slur before shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, his lawyers have insisted their client instead said "F---ing punks".

      Now they seem to have science on their side. Renowned forensic audio expert Tom Owen analyzed the 911 recording—which was fraught with cell phone interference—and told CNN that Zimmerman indeed whispered "punks" and not the racial slur that has caused so much controversy.                                                     

                                                               Click on image for more photos

      CNN, however, is not convinced, stating that "Owen provided CNN with a copy of the newly processed audio" and that CNN  "enhanced the sound of the 911 call, and several members of CNN's editorial staff repeatedly reviewed the tape but could reach no consensus on whether Zimmerman used a slur."

      Watch this video and decide for yourself:

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    • What’s next for America’s aspiring astronauts?

      By Allison Louie-Garcia | The Newsroom – Wed, Jul 20, 2011
      Click image to view photos of space travel's past, present and future. (AFP)Click image to view photos of space travel's past, present and future. (AFP)

      The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis is seen with from the International Space Station. REUTERS/NASA TV/Handout

      (This report is the third and final in a Yahoo! News series on the shutdown of the space shuttle program.)

      When Atlantis lands at Cape Canaveral on Thursday, back from the very last mission to the International Space Station, 20-year-old Amanda Premer will be getting ready to move to Houston.  The fourth-year aerospace engineering major is headed to Johnson Space Center's Cooperative Education program, where she will be alternating her last semesters at Wichita State University with three "work tours" at the NASA site. She hopes to secure a full-time job with NASA.

      "I want to be an astronaut," said Premer, who has spent the last four summers working at the Cosmosphere space camp in Hutchinson, Kan. "Even though NASA doesn't have anything lined up to follow the shuttle program, the world's always going to need astronauts. And I'd like to be one of them."

      As NASA's 30-year space shuttle program draws to a close, the next generation of aspiring astronauts and talented aerospace engineers

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    • Angelman Syndrome: Close to a cure?

      By Allison Louie-Garcia | The Newsroom – Tue, May 24, 2011

      Rebecca Burdine knew something was wrong the day her baby girl was born.  Sophie was born without a natural sucking reflex, making it nearly impossible to eat.  Later, it became clear that she had hardly any muscle strength at all.  As the months passed, Burdine, a developmental biologist from Princeton University, grew more worried about her daughter's poor sleep patterns:  short blocks of sleep interspersed with intense screaming fits.  When she turned four months old, Sophie began having seizures, sometimes as many as three an hour.

      The first time Sophie suffered an Absence seizure, also known as a "petit mal" seizure, Burdine had no idea what was happening: "It was like watching TV when suddenly the screen turns to static, and then the channel comes back like nothing ever happened," she says.

      Several months later, Sophie was diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome, a genetic disorder marked by severe developmental delays, sleep disturbances, and oftentimes seizures.  Actor Colin Farrell

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