It’s Halloween time and if you’re one of those people who doesn’t have the desire to sift through the shelves of all the pop-up Halloween stores in town, there’s one word for you – Amazon.
But beware of choosing just any costume from this one stop shop. Some of their costumes are treats, but here’s our list of their top ten tricks.
Cover Photo Credit:Mike McCune/Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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This New Carly Rae Jepsen Music Video Just Made An Important Point About Modern Relationships
Carly Rae Jepsen doesn’t have to be one of your favorite musicians (or even someone you can stand) for you to appreciate what she is doing with her latest music video.
The video for the song “Boy Problems” is a throwback of sorts to a 1980s slumber party scene. But it also features plenty of selfies, laptop computers and tablets.
While the song is ostensibly just about those moments when you just can’t stand your friend talking about her troubles with boys, it can also be read in a deeper way.
Perhaps Jepsen is trying to point out how silly modern drama about relationships and social pressures tied to those moments really are.
We shouldn’t be so hung up on another person that we lose sight of ourselves and our own emotional well being. And in the end, drama is such a waste of time and energy.
Anyway, watch the video and tell us in the comments whether you think our theory makes any sense:
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us!
Cover Photo Credit: Carly Rae Jepsen/ Facebook (Screenshot)
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Brutally Bullied As A Kid, She Never Thought She Could Be A Beauty Queen. But Now Miss Hollywood Has A Chance To Win It All
As a little girl Isabella Logins would have never dreamed of being Miss Florida.
She was just hoping that the pain would stop.
Viciously bullied as a child, Logins grew up fighting back self-doubt.
Over time, she learned to love herself and not pay attention to the opinions of others.
But it took time.
And it was painful.
“When I was little I was picked on all the time,” Logins said in an interview with RISE NEWS. “Kids were mean to me and would make fun of me for being ugly, annoying, or just because they felt like it.”
She said that the bullying had a traumatic impact on her.
“It made me feel really sad and it made me feel really bad about myself,” Logins said. “It took me a long time to get myself to not think about what they would tell me.”
A Miami native, Logins graduated from Alonzo and Tracy Morning High School in North Miami.
She’s now a 22-year-old senior at FIU and the reigning Miss Hollywood USA.
Quite a long way from that insecure girl who bullies loved to pick on.
Logins will be competing in the Miss Florida 2018 pageant December 14-17 in Tampa.
She took an interest in pageantry about two years ago for the career networking aspect, but found that competing has helped her grow in other ways.
Reflecting on her experiences through elementary and middle school, she did not expect to ever be involved in pageantry
“I thought [pageants] were only for extremely beautiful women and when I was younger I didn’t feel extremely beautiful,” Logins said. “But I’ve had to grow into a more confident person.”
Read More: The Greatest Sign Spinners In The World Live In South Florida. Yes, That’s A Thing
Her pageantry career has been successful.
Logins’ first pageant was for the crown of Miss Florida Keys 2017, where she ended up winning the title.
That victory made her eligible to compete in the Miss Florida 2017 pageant, where she finished in the top 16.
In the Miss Florida pageant this year, Logins will be representing the Global Children’s Rescue as her cause
A non-profit, Global Children’s Rescue works to educate the public on human trafficking, as well as helping in actively rescuing missing children and human trafficking victims.
Isabella Logins at a Global Children’s rescue event. Photo Credit: Victoria Salas/ RISE NEWS.
The group is made up of a team of former federal, state, local, and military investigators.
“[Logins] took it upon herself to find us,” John Rode, founder of the Global Children’s Rescue said in an interview with RISE NEWS.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, out of 18,500 endangered runaways reported in 2016, one out of every six of those children were suspected of being entered into sex trafficking.
Logins believes that child sex trafficking is an important issue because it is occurring in most communities, yet much of the public is totally unaware.
Logins uses her social media platforms to share statistics and information about how common of an issue human trafficking is.
In a recent post on her Instagram, Logins encouraged people to send their family members a picture of themselves occasionally.
This is to give police a more accurate photo to use in case a person goes missing.
“It’s something that’s always interested me,” Logins said. “Sometimes girls go missing and we don’t have a real photo [of them].”
On average, a missing child’s case costs $25,000 and solving a human trafficking case can cost up to $100,000 according to Global Children’s Rescue.
Logins uses her platforms to promote Global Children’s Rescue fundraisers and events.
Her aim is to also reach younger people who might not be paying attention to how common human trafficking is and hopefully prevent future tragedies.
A broadcast journalism major at FIU, Logins one day wants to be a successful anchor for a news channel.
“I would love to win [Miss Florida 2018] not just for personal growth, but for the cause,” Logins said.
RISE NEWS is South Florida’s digital news magazine. Follow us on Facebook to make sure you never miss a story!
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Millennial Intel: Why The Burundi Crisis Might Delegitimize The African Union
Burundi is a country in Sub-Saharan Africa that is both adjacent to, and smaller than Lake Victoria.
It might then come as a surprise that this tiny country could become a headache for the supranational African Union (AU). Following the announcement of incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza’s run for a third term, which is in violation of Article 96 of the Burundian Constitution, protests and violence broke out.
These responses included an attempted coup d’etat on May 13th. In addition to the spike in violence since President Nkurunziza’s third mandate went into effect, over 217,000 Burundians have fled the country. This has lead to a deteriorating human rights situation condemned by the Vatican, and was met with targeted sanctions from the United States.
The AU responded on Dec. 17th, noting that in Burundi there were instances of “arbitrary killings and targeted assassinations, arbitrary arrests and detentions, acts of torture, suspension and arbitrary closure of some civil society organizations and media”, and concluded that the appropriate response was an initial deployment of six months (renewable) of 5,000 peacekeepers, though with the option to deploy more.
Predictably, the Government of Burundi was not thrilled by the prospect of its sovereignty being brought into question during a violent constitutional crisis.
The AU peacekeeping force has thus far not received the approval of the Burundian government, who called it an “invasion and occupation force”.
This presents several problems for the AU. The first is that the Crisis in Burundi may spiral into a greater regional issue, due to asylum seekers, and spread of violence.
Either the AU convinces the Burundian Government to accept Peacekeepers, deploys them of their own accord, or do nothing. As the first seems unlikely at the moment, the AU would have to choose between two options that delegitimize the AU to varying degrees.
The second problem is the fact that Burundi is the second largest contributor to ongoing AU peacekeeping missions. With over 5,000 troops in Somalia, Burundi’s continued cooperation in the African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is put in jeopardy by both the violence on the home front, and conflict of interest with the AU.
Whatever the outcome, AU leaders will have critical decisions to make in the coming days that could decide just how important a role the IGO plays on the African Continent.
Cover Photo Credit: Dave Proffer/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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