Here is the BBC’s take on the recent announcement that the Boy Scouts will be permitting openly gay scouts.
The Boy Scouts of America organisation has voted to welcome openly gay scouts from January 2014, but a ban on openly gay adult scout leaders will remain in place.
At a meeting in Texas, more than 60% of the national council of 1,400 voting members supported the change.
The campaign to overturn the ban pitted conservatives against liberals opposed to what they deem outdated discrimination.
Teen Faces Felony For Lesbian Relationship
Eighteen year old Florida resident Kaitlyn Hunt currently faces fifteen years in prison for her relationship with her sixteen year old girlfriend. Here is a description of the story:
Florida teen Kaitlyn Hunt, 18, started dating her 15-year-old girlfriend last year. The older of the two teens, Kaitlyn, was arrested and subsequently charged with “sexual battery on a person 12-16 years old.” If found guilty of this crime, Kaitlyn could serve up to 15 years in prison and be required to register as a sex offender. But the assistant state attorney offered a deal: if she agrees to 2 years of house arrest and one year of probation, she can forgo trial.
The case has stirred up controversy about the application of this law: is the crime Hunt is being charged with an abuse Florida’s sexual battery law or is the Florida law itself being applied abusively?
It’s impossible to estimate how many Florida teens have violated the sexual battery statute:809,984 teens attend the state’s high schools and it’s certain that thousands of them are sexually active. Kaitlyn’s family believes the law was misapplied to their daughter for discriminatory reasons.
Fracking: The Key to a Combating Climate Change?
Fareed Zakaria recently disgusted how increase access to natural gas has led tode decreased CO2 admissions. Zakaria posits further gains may be made by sharing our hydrofracturing technology with China. Here is a description of the story:
We have been thinking about an idea in the opinion pages of the New York Times to tackle one of the great challenges of our times: cutting carbon emissions to slow down climate change. It would result in the single largest reduction of CO2 emissions globally of any feasible idea out there. But there are a couple of hitches. Let’s explain.
Here’s the idea: it’s time to help China master fracking safely.
By now it’s clear that fracking (the process of extracting shale gas) has dramatically lowered America’s CO2 emissions. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2006, a fifth of our electricity came from natural gas, while almost 50 percent came from coal. By 2012, natural gas had increased its share to 30 percent of our electricity. Coal’s share dropped to 37 percent. The change was because of fracking: over that same period, shale gas production grew 800 percent.
The Changing Politics of Climate Change
This American Life recently devoted an episode to the changing politics of climate change. Here is a description of the show:
After years of being stuck, the national conversation on climate change finally started to shift — just a little — last year, the hottest year on record in the U.S., with Hurricane Sandy flooding the New York subway, drought devastating Midwest farms, and California and Colorado on fire. Lots of people were wondering if global warming had finally arrived, here at home. This week, stories about this new reality.
The Economics of Immigration Reform
Recently, Fareed Zakaria discussed the economics of immigration reform. Here is a description of Fareed’s economic argument in favor of reform. Here is a description of the video:
The latest numbers show slow growth in the United States. That’s bad for jobs, income – it’s even bad for those worried about the deficit because it means lower tax revenues. And it has prompted a revival of the partisan debate about what to do about it.
Well, there’s one idea out there that could have support from both parties. A study out last week suggests there is one very simple way to increase tax revenue, expand GDP, and create jobs – all at the same time. What’s more, Congress is already weighing it: it’s called immigration reform.
How and why? Well, a new paper from the left-leaning Center for American Progress actually calculates the economic impact of immigration reform.