First up, though, a shakeup in the race for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. Yesterday, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum announced he is suspending his campaign. Santorum won nearly a dozen primary and caucus events. But he had less than half as many delegates as the frontrunner, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. And yesterday, Santorum said his campaign may be over, but his fight isn’t. 

 

“We made the decision to get into this race at our kitchen table, and against all the odds. And we made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are not done fighting. We are going to continue to fight for those voices. We’re going to continue to fight for the Americans who stood up and gave us that air under our wings, that allowed us to accomplish things that no political expert would have ever expected.”

 

Next up, wildfires. They’re not in Texas or out west in California where these blazes are often reported. These fires are happening in the northeastern United States, places like New Jersey where this fire spread around about 1,000 acres. One official said strong winds were helping fan the flames. That was true with several of these wildfires, high winds and dry conditions helping them spread. This blaze in Connecticut covered about 60 acres. There were fires in Pennsylvania and New York this week as well. The New York fire led officials in one county to declare a state of emergency. 

 

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says the violence in Syria must stop now. He came up with a peace plan that the Syrian government had agreed to. It included a deadline for Syrian troops to leave cities and towns. That deadline was yesterday. It was not met. This YouTube video that was reportedly shot yesterday shows the city of Homs under artillery attack. In fact, there’s been surge in violence in the last few days. At least 65 people were killed in Syria yesterday. The government blames that violence on armed terrorists, and it demand that they put down their weapons. The government and rebel fighters have refused to back down until the other side does. 

 

Just the facts, Fidel Castro was born in Cuba in 1926. He led a revolution to overthrow the country’s leader in 1959. Then Castro took over Cuba’s government, turned it into a communist nation and stayed in power for nearly 50 years. During his rule, Castro was criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech. 

 

That oppression led thousands of Cubans to leave their home country. Many of them came to the United States and settled in South Florida. And right now, some of that Cuban community in Miami is talking about boycotting the city’s Major League baseball team, the Miami Marlins. That’s because of comments that manager Ozzie Guillen made about Fidel Castro. During a recent interview, Guillen said that he respects the former communist leader. He later apologized saying his comment was misunderstood, but his team, the Marlins suspended Guillen for five games. Major League Baseball’s commissioner supported that decision. He said, quote, “Mr. Guillen’s remarks have no place in our game.” The Marlin’s manager said he’s hoping to make amends fro what happened. 

 

“I’m very, very, very sorry about the problem, about what happening. And I will do everything to make him better.”

 

College professor said that Guillen had the right to make those comments about Fidel Castro. The professor said the problem is he Guillen is Miami. That’s a place where people are particularly sensitive about Castro. That leads to today’s question on our blog. Just because you can say something, should you? Check it out at cnnstudentnews.com. 

 

A new report says the rate of American teens who give birth is at the lowest level since 1946. These findings are based on the number of births in a group of 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 19. The national rate in 2010 was just over 34. That means for every thousand women in that age group, 34 of them had a baby. It’s 9% lower than in 2009. One researcher says it’s hard to pinpoint why the rate went down, but experts suggest education programs about abstinence and contraception are part of the reason. The U.S. is still behind other industrialized nations when it comes to teen birth rates. For example, Canada’s rate is 14 per every thousand, compared to 34 in the United States.