May 15
- Campaign 2008! Yep, the race to the White House was THE biggest story of 2007, with preparations at all camps getting underway well in advance. With the unprecedented possibilities of having a woman or an African American man for the first time at America’s most coveted top spot, this presidential election promises to be one of the most exciting ever!
- Murder at Virginia Tech. The shocking 33 deaths on campus on April 16 made this the worst campus shooting spree ever in the history of the country.
- Pakistan in crisis. The declaration of a state of Emergency by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and the appalling assassination of the people’s favorite, Benazir Bhutto, days after her triumphant return from exile stunned both Pakistan and the world.
- Degenerate divas! From Paris Hilton to Lindsay Lohan, the media lapped up the distress stories of the most controversial bad girls in celebrity history. And the fans apparently said: Bring it on! We want to hear more! More, more, we say!
- Hate speech on campus! The controversial remarks made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Columbia University sparked off a serious debate on free speech all over America. Why serious, we say? The man thinks there are no gay people in Iran!
- Reporters under fire. The slaying of APF News photographer Kenji Nagai and Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey confirmed that bringing the news to people is definitely not a safe task in the world we’re living in today. 2007 also saw the release of the film A Mighty Heart, which chronicles the abduction and killing of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl by a terror organization in Karachi, Pakistan.
- The teetering economy. America’s mortgage defaulters brought the country’s economy to the brink of disaster in 2007, raising questions about bank regulated loans and irresponsible financial transactions.
- Harry Potter 7. Cited by TIME magazine as being the fourth biggest news story of 2007, the seventh and last book to feature the adventures of the boy wizard and his friends created a media frenzy such as the world has never seen before. Adults and kids alike could be seen dressed as their favorite Potter characters and lining up outside bookstores in the middle of the night—something completely unprecedented in literary history and somewhat rivaled only by the releases of the previous Potter books!
- The Surge in Iraq. With more troops being sent in to Iraq and the US stepping up its strategies with operation Law and Order which began in February 2007, the situation in Iraq became progressively worse in 2007. It remains to be seen how American voters are going to let their views be heard—when the results of the presidential election come in.
- Operation recall: Millions of toys made in China were recalled, including Barbie dolls and Thomas the Tank Engine, after kids started getting sick while playing with them. The toys were found to contain lead paint, and toy giant Mattel issued an official apology to China for ruining its reputation as the largest producer of toys sold in the U.S.