Bravo to Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, along with Reps. Kyrsten Sinema, Ed Pastor, Anne Fitzpatrick, Ron Barber and Raúl Grijalva, for voting to end the 16-day-long government shutdown on Oct. 16. Boo to Reps. David Schweikert, Matt Salmon, Paul Gosar and Trent Franks for effectively voting to continue the shutdown along party lines.
Bravo to Make-A-Wish Arizona for making a Tempe boy’s dream come true on Oct. 19 at Tempe Diablo Stadium. Ezra, who is battling cancer, became Batman for the evening and with the help of his dad as his sidekick, Robin, rescued Baxter, the Arizona Diamondbacks' mascot.
Boo to Chevron's plans to begin hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, in one of Romania's rural areas. The country is the second poorest in the European Union, and many residents depend on farming to survive. Because fracking employs chemicals that can potentially damage soil, these farmers could lose their livelihoods.
Bravo to the governors of Texas and Florida for challenging their colleges to offer bachelor's degrees for $10,000 and for colleges implementing the programs. Boo to the fact that these degrees are at small community colleges and only offer unpopular degrees like middle school math education.
Boo to snags in the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare," especially the buggy health insurance exchange website that has spent most of the last three weeks running slowly, if at all.
Bravo to the ASU football team for silencing its doubters (including us) and coming up with a big win against then-No. 20 Washington. The ASU defense in particular held Bishop Sankey, the nation's leading rusher, to just 22 yards on the ground.
Boo to mistakes by the Florida state prison system that allowed two convicts with faked documents and forged signatures to gain release from their sentencing. Officials are still looking into how the inmates were able to access such documents.
Bravo to the state of New Jersey for allowing same-sex marriages to take place starting Oct. 21, despite Republican Gov. Chris Christie's request to have the New Jersey state Supreme Court overturn the ruling allowing marriage licenses to be issued to gay and lesbian couples.
Boo to the Chinese couple who allegedly sold three of their children to pay for iPhones and designer shoes. Police discovered them after they placed an ad for their daughter on QQ, a popular Chinese instant messaging system. Bravo to the end of the year, which is approaching quickly. We will soon be seeing lots of Halloween costumes, Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations and, inevitably, the end of the academic semester.
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