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Maggie: Hey guys and welcome back from the long weekend. It is Tuesday, February 17th. I am Maggie Rulli and Channel One News starts right now.

Let's start off with headlines, and we begin in the European country of Denmark which is on high alert today after two deadly attacks over the weekend. 

Authorities believe the gunman who targeted two sites in the city of Copenhagen may have been inspired by Islamic terrorists. The first attack is being called yet another attack on free speech. A gunman sprayed bullets at this cafe Saturday night, during a freedom of expression talk. One person was killed.

The meeting was hosted by controversial Swedish artist Larks Vilks, who has been threatened in the past for drawing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, something that's offensive in Islamic religion and culture. Vilks was not hurt in the attack.

Nine hours later, a security guard protecting a Jewish synagogue was shot and killed.

The gunman escaped, but police caught up with him Sunday, killing the 22 - year old Danish born citizen in a shootout. Five police officers were injured in the shootings. 

The suspect had a history of violence and gang connections. Investigators say he may have been inspired by terror attacks that left seventeen dead in Paris last month. Two other men have been charged in connection with the shootings.

As ISIS continues to take hostages in the Middle East, several countries are ramping up their fight against the terror group. The latest is Egypt, which launched air strikes against ISIS in neighboring Libya yesterday.

Egyptian television showed warplanes taking off on a mission to strike ISIS targets in Libya.

The attack comes as Islamic militants claimed to have killed 21 Egyptian Christians who were working in Libya. Back in their Egyptian village, relatives cried and prayed, devastated by the killings.

The latest killing of hostages comes as members of Congress debate President Obama's request to authorize military force against ISIS.

And now, what many businesses have been waiting for. The Federal Aviation Administration finally released its proposal for how to regulate commercial drones.

The rules require that drones be flown where the operator can see them, during daylight hours, below 500 feet and not faster than 100 miles per hour. Operators must also be at least 17 years old. 

Drones could be used to inspect bridges, monitor crops and help with search and rescue operations.

Amazon had hoped to use drones to deliver packages, but that service and others like it wouldn't fly because the drones would be rising out of the line of sight of the operator.

And from the Midwest to New York, old man winter is here to stay and going nowhere soon enough.

Parts of the Northeast are getting hit with bitter cold temperatures, leaving the usually busy and bustling Times Square in New York City with just a few stragglers braving the cold.

Flowing water fountains in the Big Apple, simply turned to ice sculptures. And in the Hudson River in New York, boats were locked into place by the ice.

It all comes after another storm hit Boston, Massachusetts over the weekend. And in the Midwest, Arkansas and Tennessee drivers battled freezing rain, sleet and snow yesterday.

Alright coming up, we take a look at dirty oceans and polluted seas filled with our trash.

A plastic cup here, a plastic bag there, we use and throw out a lot of plastic every single day. But it is not just us. As Tom Hanson explains, a new report shows that countries around the world are struggling to deal with all that plastic. 

Jenna Jambeck: Five bags, like this, up filled with plastic for every foot of coastline in the world.

Tom: That's how much plastic is in the ocean each year, nearly 9 million tons according to researchers who collected details on how 192 coastal countries got rid of their trash.

Jambeck: Some of it tends to sink and some of it tends to float and then we’re not even sure of exactly what happens to the fragments when they get below a certain size.

Tom: The study found that 20 countries are responsible for more than 80 percent of the garbage going into the ocean. China is the worst with about 2.4 million tons of plastic a year. The United States is number 20, responsible for about 750,000 pounds annually.

Some of that garbage clumps up in "patches" in the ocean. In fact, scientists believe there are five of these "patches" where the ocean currents naturally rotate in a circle, trapping floating debris.

In the past, that debris usually was shipwrecked wood, which would decompose naturally, not harming the environment. But today, it is plastic.

Now, most people think of these patches as mini floating islands, but that's actually not the case. It is more like a plastic soup with tiny chunks floating in the water. And the fish eat that soup.

Scientists researching the garbage patch in the Atlantic are finding fish with bellies full of plastic. That plastic is made up of chemicals. But what's worse? The pieces act like sponges, absorbing other toxic chemicals in the ocean that are poisonous to marine life.

Male: What we don’t know is, how these plastics are affecting the base of the food chain. And I think that's really where the dire implications come from.

And the base of the food chain of the ocean is important to life in many ways. It produces oxygen, draws down CO2.

It is just as important to global climate as the rain forest. So, when we start messing around with the base of food chain in large areas, I think that's when the alarm bells have to be going off.

Tom: Captain Charles Moore has been tracking what's known as the pacific garbage patch aboard his research boat, the Alguita. His latest discovery is a collection of ropes, floats and trash that has created an artificial island.

Moore: Cups like this, there’s lids of trash cans like this. In the middle of the Pacific we discovered, this summer, we were there for a month. And it is beyond my wildest fears how bad it is gotten out there.

Tom: Tom Hanson, Channel One News.

Maggie: The report also finds that if we don't change something, the amount of plastic in the oceans will double over the next ten years.

Alright up next, a new app that lets parents keep track on students skipping class.

With college on the horizon, you might be surprised to learn that at most schools, showing up for class is voluntary. And Scott, unlike high school, if you skip class, no one is going to be calling up mom and dad.

Scott: This is true. And there’s a new app that’s holding students accountable to themselves and to their parents.

Attendance, yup, it continues even in college. Skipping class here can equal big bucks when some families pay up to $50,000 thousand a year in tuition. 

But studies show that of the nearly 2 million students who enter college every year, close to 45 percent will not graduate even in six years, largely because of low classroom attendance.

Jeff Whorley: We’ve even been able to identify how much in tuition costs are wasted on classes that are paid for but not attended. That's $31 billion a year.

Scott: Money and time wasted on just not showing up. And that's where Jeff Worley and his company Core Principle come in.

He calls it Class120, an app for your smartphone that alerts students and their parents or a designated third party that class has been cut.

  

Whorley: We’ll know based on a geo-location pinging system that we have developed to say whether that student and their smartphone is in class at the appointed time for the class.

Scott: Whorley believes the app's time has come and has mapped out 2,000 campuses so far. One thing though, students have to upload class schedules on their phones or the app won't work.

Whorley: We think that's a reasonable conversation for a mom and dad to have with that son or daughter saying, we're all for you having a great time. We just want to have one thing, you’ll agree to go to class.

Scott: Caleb Hiltunen says he definitely notices the attendance issue in his classes.

  

Caleb: There are a lot of people that don't show up.

Scott: He tested the app at Columbia College in Chicago.

Caleb: The message is 'we did not detect Caleb Hiltunen at Art 101 on 1-27-15.'

Scott: And says the reminder makes him buckle down.

Caleb: You feel better about yourself. You don't feel like a bum, you know, for laying around and doing nothing.

Scott: But not everyone has such positive thoughts about being tracked at school.

Hayley: If my parents don't trust me enough to go to class they shouldn't be paying for my college education.

  

Scott: And yet groups of failed students who met with Whorely told him one thing about skipping class.

Whorley: No one noticed. And by the time someone did, the semester's blown up and in many cases their whole college life is blown up.

Scott: And with so much money at stake now, flunking out can really cost you.

So we want to know what you think. Are you more likely to attend class if your attendance is being tracked?  Well, you can head to to weigh in.

Maggie: Alright, and with that, we are done. I am Maggie Rulli. 

Scott: I am Scott Evans.

Maggie: And we can't wait to see you tomorrow.

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