Stuff YOU Should Know
UN Seeks More Aid for Syrian Refugees
It’s been more than two years since btw brought you news of the growing refugee crisis in Syria brought on by an ongoing civil war. With its neighboring countries like Turkey and Jordan experiencing enormous burdens, the United Nation is calling on more nations, like the United States, for help. The high commissioner of the UN Refugees office, Antonio Guterres, has publicly asked for industrialized countries to provide shelter and safety for 130,000 refugees over the next two years. The total number of persons displaced has risen to around four million.
But there is a big national security concern, especially among U.S. lawmakers. They fear that terrorists could enter the country posing as refugees. Once in the country, extremists with an agenda to cause harm could become very difficult to identify and track. Others believe that this is the worst humanitarian crisis in recent history and that the United States was founded on the principals of providing a haven from prosecution. Germany and Canada have agreed to resettle more than 40,000 Syrians.
What Do You Think? Do the US politicians who oppose admitting the Syrian refugees have valid points in resisting the UN’s urging to admit them into the US? Do some research and support your answer.
Texas Man Dies of Disease Linked to Mad Cow
Mad cow disease was a big news story beginning in the mid 1980s. Cattle raised by ranchers in Great Britain began acting strangely and then dying. The cause was traced back to a deadly protein found in the brains of sheep that had been ground up and made into an ingredient in cattle feed. Once the ingredient was removed from the food, the spread of the disease halted. The number of affected cows grew to nearly 36,000 during its peak in 1992. A human version of the condition called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) was first reported in 1996.
A recent study published in the Emerging Infections medical journal reported that a Texas man who died in 2014 had died of vCJD. The man (who remains anonymous), developed symptoms eighteen months before his death. One of the biggest challenges in treating vCJD is that it can take up to a decade after a person consumes contaminated meat for symptoms to appear. How and where the man was infected remains a mystery. The United States did not import contaminated British beef. The man did, however, live for a time in Kuwait.
Dig Deeper Have there been any additional cases of vCJD reported? If so, are they related the man in Texas? If not, what kind of concern is there that the disease could affect others? Explain your answer.
Court Delays Immigration Reform
Last November, President Obama announced sweeping reforms to U.S. immigration policy in response to what he has called a broken system. These included measures that would ease the threat of deportation of 4.7 million illegal immigrants. While the president described his plan as a common-sense approach toward accountability, his critics, namely Republican members of Congress, have not seen it that way. They accused the president, who made the announcement shortly after Republicans gained control of Congress, of overreaching his authority. Texas governor Greg Abbott filed an official lawsuit when he was the state’s attorney general, charging President Obama with “failing to abide by requirements under the Administrative Procedure Act.”
Photo Credit: jeff reisdorfer/Getty Images
In February, Texas Judge Andrew Hanen of the Federal District Court agreed and ruled in favor of 26 states that have challenged Obama’s measures. In a 123-page opinion, Judge Hanen said that the proposed immigration programs would unfairly place substantial burdens on the states. The Obama Administration began the process of appealing the ruling earlier this month in a federal appeals court in New Orleans, Louisiana. Representatives from both side have addressed a three-judge panel (appointed by both Republican and Democrat presidents.)
Dig Deeper Follow this case, paying close attention to what commentators believe the consequences of a ruling for either side will mean for the future of immigration.
Lawn Mowing Robot Causing Interference
Have you ever heard of a Roomba? It’s a robotic vacuum cleaner made by the company iRobot. Introduced in 2002, the Roomba is a battery-powered, device that is equipped with sensors allowing it to vacuum whole rooms without human assistance. The company that makes them also offers products that scrub and mop your floor, clean the bottom of your pool, and gutters. The most recent development is a machine that will mow your lawn.
The logistics of how it works, however, are concerning to some, namely astronomers. This is because in order to operate, the lawnbot requires the installation of an electronic fence along the perimeter of the property and a communication device to direct its movements. iRobot had to file with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), saying its system would not interfere with cellular and GPS systems. However, it will share a frequency band with enormous radio telescopes used by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Members of the NRAO would like to keep the lawnbots at a distance of 55 miles from their telescopes. The iRobot company, however, say that a 12 mile distance is good enough.