student news 012.01.13student news 2012.01.13student news 2012.01.13student news 2012.01.13.doc

Student News) -- January 13, 2012CARL AZUZ, HOST, CNN STUDENT NEWS: So what if it is Friday the 13th? It`s still awesome. Want to wish congratulations to the students at Cambridge Middle School in Cambridge, Minnesota. One of them got our social media question of the week. I`m Carl Azuz, and this is CNN Student News.First up today, a controversy involving pardons issued by the governor of Mississippi. A pardon released criminals from guilt. The president can grant pardons to federal criminals, and in many states, governors have that pardon power as well.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)AZUZ (voice-over): Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour handed out nearly 200 pardons this week. Most of those people were already out of jail. Governor Barbour said the pardons were intended to help those people find jobs or to register to vote.But some of the pardons went to convicted murderers. They`re supposed to contact prison officials every day, but four of them took off.(END VIDEO CLIP)AZUZ: A state official said they may start a manhunt to track them down. The judge has issued a ruling, stopping the release of any other prisoners. He said some of the pardons, including the ones for the four murderers, didn`t meet certain requirements.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)AZUZ (voice-over): There`s been a lot of debate around this story. What we`re asking on our blog is this: what factors should a president or governor take into account when considering giving someone a pardon? We`re interested in hearing your thoughts at .(END VIDEO CLIP)(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this legit? The Caribbean nation highlighted on this map is Jamaica.Not true. This is Haiti, which takes up about one-third of the island of Hispaniola.(END VIDEO CLIP)AZUZ: Well, yesterday, we talked about the devastation that Haiti suffered when a powerful earthquake hit the country in 2010. Two years later, things are getting better, but you`re going to see in this next report from Jonathan Mann that the re