January 20, 2020

Yesterday, January 19, was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonpartisan organization devoted to defending the rights and freedoms of people in the United States. The ACLU works mainly by providing lawyers and legal advice for individuals and groups in local, state, and federal courts. ACLU officials also testify before state and federal legislative committees, advise government officials, and conduct educational programs. The chief goal of the ACLU is to protect the fundamental rights of individuals as described in the Constitution of the United States.

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ACLU logo. Credit: © ACLU

In 1917, a group of social activists founded the National Civil Liberties Bureau (NCLB) to support the Bill of Rights. The NCLB was led by Roger Baldwin, a social worker and civil rights champion, and Crystal Eastman, a lawyer and leader in the woman suffrage and equal rights movements. The NCLB became the ACLU in 1920, the same year that women in the United States won the right to vote.

The ACLU has defended the constitutional rights of a wide range of individuals and groups. It played an important part in Supreme Court rulings that guaranteed legal aid to poor people. The group has supported fair treatment of conscientious objectors, people whose conscience does not allow them to take part in war. The ACLU urged the desegregation of schools and promoted the African American civil rights movement. One of the current goals of the ACLU is the abolition of capital punishment. The group also calls for further restrictions on government investigative agencies and for stricter separation of church and state. In addition, it seeks greater protection for the rights of immigrants who enter the United States without the required papers and for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

The ACLU has played a significant part in some of the landmark civil rights cases in American history. The ACLU backed both biology teacher John Scopes and attorney Clarence Darrow in the Scopes trial of 1925, which challenged a Tennessee law that outlawed the teaching of evolution in schools. During World War II (1939-1945), the ACLU fought against the internment of Japanese Americans. In 1954, the ACLU joined with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to challenge racial segregation in public schools. The ACLU defended individual freedom of speech in 1968 and women’s reproductive rights in 1973. In 1978, the ACLU famously defended the free speech of an American Nazi group who wanted to march in Illinois. The ACLU believes that constitutional rights apply to everyone regardless of individual ideology.

October 6, 2015

If ratified by the countries party to it, the Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement will cover goods as diverse as automobiles, drugs, and clothing. © Junko Kimura, Getty Images

On Monday, October 5, trade ministers from the United States, Australia, Japan, and nine other Pacific Rim nations reached a deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a sweeping trade liberalization pact that will cut trade barriers and set common standards. The deal paves the way for individual governments’ approvals—something much easier said than done, especially in the often-dysfunctional U.S. Congress. The other TPP countries are Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

If the TPP is approved, it will be the largest regional trade accord in history, representing two-fifths of the global economy. The major points of the TPP include the reduction of tariffs and import restrictions, protections for copyrights and other intellectual property, the enforcement of common labor and environmental rules, and the creation of a forum for international legal challenges.

The TPP is much more than a trade deal, as it creates a common and fair platform on which all member economies must agree to operate. Labor practices, for example—including working hours, wages, work environment, and pollution—would have to meet the same standards in each country. The deal also allows such American exports as agricultural products, cars and trucks, consumer goods, information technology, and machinery to enter countries that currently limit or ban such imports to protect their own industries. Crucially, the TPP also creates an alternative to the current Asia-Pacific economy dominated by China—an economy lacking in the fundamental protections and requirements of the TPP.

In June, the U.S. Senate gave U.S. President Barack Obama “fast-track” authority to negotiate the TPP, meaning the Congressional approval vote will be free of amendments or filibuster. Securing enough votes for approval, however, will require some wheeling and dealing. Many Democrats fear the deal’s impact on trade unions, as well as its Wall Street- and corporate-friendly details. Many Republicans oppose the deal because they fear the loss of American jobs and simply because it was Obama’s initiative. A vote on the TPP will most likely not occur until 2016—an election year, so anything can happen.

Back in time articles

• International trade (2014), (2013), (2012)

January 20, 2015

At tonight’s State of the Union address, President Barack Obama will announce a series of proposals designed to aid middle class and poor Americans and address income inequality in this country. These proposals include an increase in the child care credit and a $500-tax credit for working couples. To pay for it, inheritance and investment taxes, such as taxes on capital gains, would be increased, which mainly affects the wealthy. The president also proposes closing some loopholes that small numbers of the super-rich exploit. These included moving money offshore to such tax havens as the Cayman Islands. Political experts suggest that the president’s proposed change to the tax code will not pass in the Republican-controlled House and Senate but is likely to shape the upcoming presidential race. They point out that as the economy improves, both parties will be forced to address the underlying issues of stagnant wages and inequality that has resulted in a steadily shrinking middle class.

President Obama will give his annual State-of-the-Union address to a joint session of Congress this event. During joint sessions, all members of the Senate and the House of Representatives meet in the House chamber. (© Greg Mathieson, MAI/Landov)

Yesterday, the charity Oxfam released a study on income distribution. (Oxfam is an international confederation of organizations working worldwide to find solutions to poverty and injustice around the world.) The study’s authors concluded that by 2016 the richest 1 percent of the world’s population will likely control more than half of the world’s total wealth. The world’s 80 wealthiest individuals together own $1.9 trillion, reported the study’s authors, nearly the same amount shared by the 3.5 billion people who occupy the bottom half of the world’s income scale. The type of inequality that currently characterizes the world’s economies, and in particular, the U.S. economy, is unlike anything seen since before the Great Depression of the 1930′s, the report concluded. Oxfam’s warning about deepening global inequality comes just as the world’s business elite prepares to meet this week at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Additional World Book articles:

• Income tax
• Tax evasion

November 21, 2014

Last evening, U.S. President Barack Obama gave a speech outlining his plan for changing the United States immigration system. Legal immigration into the United States is a difficult process. Only around 990,000 people in 2013 were granted a “green card” giving its holder the right to live and work in the United States. It is difficult to gauge the precise number of illegal immigrants in the United States, but the Department of Homeland Security estimates it to be some 11 million people.

U.S. Border Patrol members ride all-terrain vehicles near El Paso, Texas, looking for signs of illegal immigration and other crimes. Juarez, Mexico, rises in the background. (© Jim Young, Reuters/Landov)

For some time, politicians have called for a fix to the American immigration system, which many experts call “broken.” Some of the problems with the system that experts cite include the small number of visas available for highly educated immigrants, the way that current immigration laws can end up splitting families when children are born to or brought to the United States by parents who are illegal aliens, and the lack of a path for long-time workers in the United States to become documented workers or citizens. Also, because immigration papers are capped to a certain number of immigrants from each country per year, regardless of that country’s population or location, citizens from such countries as Mexico and China are disadvantaged for becoming legal immigrants to the United States.

Since 2001, American legislators have studied and debated versions of an act on Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors—the DREAM Act. This bill would offer a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children. In 2010, such a bill passed the House of Representatives but did not come to a vote in the Senate. In 2012, President Obama announced his administration would stop deporting qualified immigrants who had arrived in the United States illegally in childhood for at least two years under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program. The DREAM Act passed the Senate in 2013, but the House then refused to allow the bill to come to a vote as written. Because people in the United States have very strong opinions on immigration, it causes politicians to be hesitant to pass new laws concerning it.

President Obama decided to use executive order—a process whereby a president can make an official proclamation that becomes law—to implement some changes to the immigration policies of the United States. President Obama offered a “deal” to illegal immigrants last night, stating: “If you’ve been in America more than five years. If you have children who are American citizens or illegal residents. If you register, pass a criminal background check and you’re willing to pay your fair share of taxes, you’ll be able to apply to stay in this country temporarily without fear of deportation. You can come out of the shadows and get right with the law.” This change will not permit such illegal immigrants to become citizens, but it is a step that allows long-time residents and families to remain in the United States.

Additional World Book articles:

• Citizenship and Immigration Services, United States
• Illegal alien
• Immigration Politics 2006 (a Special Report)
• Passport to Reform: The INS and Homeland Security (a Special report)

November 10, 2014

Parts of the Russian capital, Moscow—including the main shopping areas and parliament buildings just outside the Kremlin—are enveloped in a noxious gas, which is spreading through the city. The gas, hydrogen sulfide, can be highly toxic and smells like rotten eggs. According to experts, exposure to hydrogen sulfide, even in low concentrations, can lead to dizziness, headaches, and nausea. Residents in affected areas are being urged by the Russian Emergencies Ministry to stay indoors.

A cloud of hydrogen sulfide wafts over central Moscow today, the area that  includes the Kremlin (building at right) and other historic buildings in Red Square (Superstock).

The emergencies ministry has confirmed that the source of the gas is a leak from a sulfur-dioxide processing facility at an oil refinery just outside the city. Meteorologists note that the effects of the gas are being made worse by automobile-related smog, which is “not conducive to the rapid dispersion of pollutants in the air.”

November 7, 2014

The United States Department of Defense yesterday confirmed that more than 600 American service members had been exposed to chemical weapon agents while serving in the Iraq War (2003-2011). The New York Times in October had published a detailed report about the exposures in which the writers suggested that the Defense Department had tried to conceal the facts.

In 2003, the administration of President George W. Bush accused Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein of actively developing weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons. The presence of such weapon programs was the administration’s primary justification for invading Iraq.

A United Nations inspector in December 2002 examines dismantled equipment used during the 1980′s and 1990′s in Iraq’s chemical weapons program. American soldiers in Iraq were exposed to chemical agents left over from the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980′s. (Reuters/Getty Images)

After the invasion, United Nations weapons inspectors failed to find any evidence of active chemical or nuclear weapon programs. However, American soldiers found many chemical weapons that had been discarded after Iraq’s war against Iran in the 1980′s. Some of these dormant weapons had been manufactured with the help of western  countries, including the United States, which at the time supported Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran.

While disposing of these old munitions in Iraq in the wake of the invasion, a number of U.S. soldiers were exposed to such chemical agents as mustard gas and sarin. Others were exposed during attacks in which the insurgent groups al-Qai`da in Iraq used bombs loaded with Hussein’s discarded chemical agents. In The Times October article, the writers reported that U.S. military officials in Iraq had failed to adequately address these injuries and in some cases ordered victims not to discuss that they had been exposed to deadly agents. Yesterday, the Department of Defense confirmed the validity of The Times investigation and vowed to find and help affected veterans.

Additional World Book articles:

• Chemical Weapons Convention
• Islamic State
• Iraq 2002 (a Back in Time article)
• Chemical and Biological Terror (a special report)
• The War in Iraq: the Military Campaign and Aftermath (a special report)

October 16, 2014

A second Dallas hospital nurse, Amber  Vinson, who treated Liberian Ebola victim Thomas Duncan before his death has tested positive for the deadly virus, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital confirmed yesterday. Public health officials in Texas continue to monitor some 48 contacts of Duncan and the health care workers who treated him. However, that number is rising.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disclosed yesterday that Ms. Vinson flew on a commercial jet from Cleveland to Dallas on October 13. “She should not have traveled on a commercial airline,” CDC Director Tom Frieden subsequently stated. “The CDC guidance in this setting outlines the need for what is called controlled movement.” However, it was revealed today that Ms. Vinson did, in fact, contact the CDC before flying home to Dallas and reported that she had a fever with a temperature of 99.5 °F (37.5 °C). CDC officials did not stop her from boarding the plane because her temperature was below the range the CDC then categorized as dangerous. The CDC is currently attempting to contact the more than 130 passengers and crew aboard Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 on Monday.

Scientists remain unsure about the exact ways in which the Ebola virus (above) is transmitted. (Cynthia Goldsmith)

CDC Director Frieden has expressed regret about his agency’s initial response to the first Ebola case in Dallas. “In retrospect, with 20/20 hindsight, we could have sent a more robust hospital infection control team and been more hands-on with the hospital from Day 1.” The CDC has since issued stricter guidelines for U.S. hospitals with Ebola patients. The guidelines are closer to the procedures used by Doctors Without Borders, a Paris-based relief organization that is currently battling the Ebola epidemic that has killed some 4,500 people in West Africa.

Amber Vinson was flown last night from Dallas to Atlanta, where she entered Emory University Hospital. An American doctor and nurse, Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who contracted Ebola while working in Africa, were successfully treated at Emory in September. The physician who oversaw their treatment, Sean G. Kaufman, today condemned the earlier CDC guidelines as “absolutely irresponsible and dead wrong.”

Additional World Book article:

• Disease Detectives (a special report)
• The Origin of New Diseases (a special report)

October 13, 2014

A nurse who treated Liberian Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan before he died has been infected with the virus. The case is the first known transmission of the Ebola virus on U.S. soil. The unnamed woman is in stable condition in an isolation ward in a Dallas, Texas, hospital.

Tom Frieden, head of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated yesterday that while the nurse wore full protective gear while treating Duncan, there obviously had been a clear breach of safety protocol. He informed the media that the CDC will carry out a complete investigation into how the infection had occurred, focusing on two “high-risk procedures”–dialysis and respiratory intubation–carried out on Duncan before he died.

The first known transmission of the Ebola virus in the United States has been  reported. (Frederick Murphy)

The Ebola virus causes a hemorrhagic fever, an illness characterized by fever, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, and massive internal bleeding. About 80 to 90 percent of all people who become infected die. The current outbreak, largely concentrated in the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, has resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 people.

Additional World Book article:

• Disease Detectives (a special report)
• The Origin of New Diseases (a special report)

August 15, 2014

The Panama Canal, a waterway that cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and links the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean,  opened 100 years ago today. When the canal was completed in 1914, it shortened a ship’s voyage between New York City and San Francisco to less than 5,200 miles (8,370 kilometers). Previously, ships making the trip had to travel around South America—a distance of more than 13,000 miles (20,900 kilometers).

The Panama Canal cuts the trip from New York City to San Francisco by about 9,000 miles (14,400 kilometers). (World Book map)

Work on the Panama Canal was begun by the French in the 1880′s. After a few years, however, they stopped the project. They had lost nearly 20,000 workers to endemic diseases, mostly yellow fever and malaria.

Teddy Roosevelt became president in 1901 and immediately wanted to start building a canal across Panama. The political and engineering challenges were still formidable, but the timing was better for disease control. Since the 1880′s, scientists had learned that both yellow fever and malaria were transmitted by mosquitoes.

President Theodore Roosevelt visited the construction site of the Panama Canal in 1906. He wrote his son about the Gaillard Cut, saying, "They are eating steadily into the mountain ... ." (Bettmann Archive.)

Steps taken to defeat these two dread diseases in Panama included draining standing water or covering standing water with kerosene to prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs; and heavily spraying areas with insecticide to kill adult mosquitoes.

Work began on the canal in 1904 and it was completed in 1914. Worker deaths on the project the second time around were still very high—6,000 Americans died building the canal.

When the canal opened, approximately 1,000 ships a year passed through it. Today, some 15,000 ships a year pass through the canal.

Additional World Book articles:

• Building and Construction 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Panama 2009 (a Back in Time article)
  

May 16, 2014

Trade unions in Turkey held a one-day strike yesterday to protest the country’s worst-ever mine disaster. Thousands took to the streets in cities across the country in solidarity with the coal miners of Soma, the scene of a disaster on May 13 that left at least 284 men dead. (Soma is approximately 155 miles (250 kilometers) south of Istanbul.)

In Ankara, the capital, some 3,000 people marched on the labor ministry. In Istanbul, people attempted to march to Taksim Square, the scene of massive antigovernment demonstrations last year, but they were pushed back by police. In Turkey’s third-largest city, Izmir, police fired tear gas and aimed water cannons on some 20,000 demonstrators.

An explosion triggered by an electrical fault in the Soma coal mine cut electric power, shutting down the elevator and air circulation fans. Most of the victims are believed to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Up to 20 miners remain unaccounted for.

Prime Minister Recep Erdogan has drawn fire for comments that seemed to downplay the seriousness of the mine disaster. (AP Image)

Many people in Turkey blame the disaster on the privatization of the mining sector, resulting in dangerous working conditions. The operator of the mine, Soma Holding, denies any negligence. The privatization of the country’s coal mines was major priority of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On May 14, Prime Minister Erdogan was booed and jostled by angry protesters when he visited the site of the disaster. Erdogan’s response to the tragedy has been closely scrutinized. The Turkish media has repeatedly aired his comment, made on his visit to Soma, that “mine disasters are usual things.” Erdogan’s reputation has been sullied in recent months by allegations that he and his son and members of his government have profited greatly from various public works projects.

Additional World Book articles:

• Turkey 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Modern Turkey: A Delicate Balance (a special report)