Winter 2007- An Upcoming State
As the new Congress would be coming in, many noted that it would be the last years of the Clinton Administration and many wondered what his plan would. President Clinton seemed to have grown more ambitious, which some attributed due to being the home stretch. As such, when he came in, he brought forth over a proposal that would surprise quite a fair bit of everyone: legislation to go and make DC into a state. While discussed back last year, the mainstream focus of it in this new session was showing he was being serious about this. After all, they had figured out how to deal with the federal district issue by just shrinking it to the core essentials. Meanwhile, the 29th Amendment, which overhauled the voting system of the United States, also repealed the 23rd Amendment since there was no Electoral College anymore. As such, that was another potential issue that was removed. The exciting possibility of this grew over across the media. Lingering questions had remained, mainly if Arlington and Alexandria would want to join this new potential state given their past ties with it. Virginia was uncertain about this, but the special circumstances would have them permit a referendum in the community Alexandria was an independent city after all while Arlington County was an unincorporated community, so both would be able to fit back in with little problem. Beyond this, it would not be known if any of the local areas would be joining though the only confirmed interested party was the independent city of Falls Church.
Currently, the Washington, D.C., Admission Act would be finished up developed in Congress to be put forth in Spring. Should it pass and create the first American city-state, they would then vote if they would be willing to accept Arlington County and Alexandria into them. If so, the two polities would have their own referendum to dictate if they desire to join the new state. Voting for yes will lead to them joining the new state. Of course, there was a lot to discuss, especially since how Arlington County and Alexandria would be incorporated into the political system if accepted. One plan proposed would be inspired over by New York City and its borough system, resulting in the potential Washington DC city-state be divided into three boroughs. Of course, with all these talks of statehood, this raised the question of if the Clinton Administration and Congress would be open for other opportunities of statehood. President Clinton agreed on doing so, even namedropping Puerto Rico as an example of a political entity who could be granted statehood should the people there decide on it. Congress was generally open for it, if for numerous reasons, whether it be ideology, opportunity or pragmatism, so it was not a partisan issue. Puerto Rico, who had been dragging their feet on the issue, would see a sharp increase in the support for statehood. What had been merely been wishful thinking is now clearly in grasp for them to take if they so desired it. And it would also force the Puerto Ricans to confront what they actually wanted to be and how to proceed with it.
Beyond these fascinating developments over in the United States, it was still pretty quiet over in the world. Ongoing elections were mainly peaceful and it seemed like the tranquility would continue. There was some news over in the technological sector. After the last of the talks, it would be confirmed that Veoh would be acquired over by Akashica. According to Akaschia CEO Jeff Bezos, he viewed it as a long-term investment as more and more people would be watching videos on the Internet and on the possibilities that this would have. He would also note the challenges with Veoh competing against a prominent opponent over like YouTube, but he was confident over in what he was able to do. Rumors had it that Bezos would already be discussing with the owners and software folk on potential changes. Another change would be NeXTech announcing its selling of Macromedia over to Adobe. Creator of such programs such as Director, Dreamwaver, Fireworks, Flash and Shockwave, NeXTech Inc originally kept the core team to keep working on the line. However, with NeXTech going back harder into operating systems along with personal decisions of Steve Jobs, the company would make its own counterpart to the Macromedia software line known as NeXTech Mediamaker. Some believe this was out of the difficulty of making differing versions of the same software for multiple operating systems as Macromedia kept making its line for Windows and other major OSes under NeXTech. As such, Macromedia would be acquired over by Adobe to ease the process and allow NeXTech to better focus on its own products. Another bit of NeXTech news would be the release of the Nexton. Considered a successor over to the Apple Newton PDAs, the Nexton would be revolutionary over for its usage of a prominent touchscreen. Rumors even had it that Jobs was working on incorporating phone technology into it, but little has been noted there. In other news, Windows' next operating system would be delayed due to concerns over functionality while a new website would appear that would attract the youth: Tumblr. [1]
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[1]- Information and phrasing from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007
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