“It’s the worst oil spill in the gulf of Mexico since the 2010 deepwater horizon disaster,” the newscaster was saying on my computer monitor, “and the police have been blamed for their handling of the protests that have sprung up on the southern coast. For more on the story, we go to our correspondent on the scene Vanessa Nightly. Vanessa?”

I sat on the couch with my coffee, furiously grading as many tests from the day before as I could. I at least wanted to get through first period to hand them back, because I’d purposefully given Mike a lower grade than what he earned.

“Thanks Dan,” Vanessa said as she stood in front of the protesters behind the police lines near the beach, “the protests have been less about the oil spill and more about Louisiana...

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