US President Archives - The Silver Ink

White House gears up to explore about climate-related health problem

April 8, 2015 By Jeff Suchon Leave a Comment

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday launched an initiative in order to underscore the nexus between the climate change and public health, bringing the data and medical experts to the White House this week.

The White House is going to hold a Climate Change and Health Summit later this spring. The event will witness the presence of leading lights from the health sector, including Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.

The Obama administration is carrying expansion of its Climate Data Initiative, which was launched by the government last year, for the inclusion of over 150 health-relevant data sets.

Addressing a group at Howard University, Obama said that the warmer temperature conditions excessively contribute to several health problems, including asthma. The rising temperature increases the formation of smog pollutants. It also contributes in fuelling wildfires with the emission of soot or fine particles into the air.

“And so there are a whole host of public health impacts that are going to hit home. So we’ve got to do better in protecting vulnerable Americans. Ultimately, though, all of our families are going to be vulnerable. You can’t cordon yourself off from air or from climate,” Obama told the gathering which was attended by Horward’s College of Medicine Dean Edward E. Cornwell, III and Tyra Bryant-Stephens, responsible for directing the community asthma prevention program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The White House on Tuesday announced that a coalition of 30 deans, public health and nursing schools will together work for training the students to address the health impacts of the climate change.

The universities working for the cause include the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins, the University of Nebraska and the Harvard University.

The US Global Change Research Program is also set to release a draft Climate and Health Assessment report detailing how the public health is impacted by changes in the air quality, weather conditions and vector-borne ailments.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is set to release an “Adaptation in Action Report” on Tuesday in order to highlight the actions taken by the state and local leaders in order to reduce the health impacts of global warming in San Francisco, New York, Minnesota, Maine, Michigan, Arizona, California and New York state.

US appeals court denies plea challenging 2012 Obama deportation relief

April 8, 2015 By Stephanie James Leave a Comment

A petition challenging US President Barack Obama’s 2012 executive action for providing relief to the immigrants from the deportation threat was turned down by a US appeals court on Tuesday. The court upheld a lower court’s prior ruling into the case.

A panel constituting the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals from New Orleans found that the plaintiffs in the case- a group of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and the state of Mississippi that are disappointed by the directives of White House- had not shown that they had been harmed by the rule for keeping the case alive.

“We conclude that neither the agents nor the state of Mississippi has demonstrated the concrete and particularized injury required to give them standing to maintain this suit,” said the decision.

The decision comes at a time when the same appellate court has prepared to hear the appeal of Obama administration over challenging a landmark immigration overhaul launched last year that would allow approximately 4.7 million illegal immigrants stay without deportation threat.

In February, the overhaul was put on hold after a federal Texas judge ruled that the Democratic President had failed to provide adequate public notice for his plans.

A federal district court judge had earlier rejected the case. The court had, however, discovered that the ICE agents had standing as plaintiffs.

Obama announces USD 240 mn in new funds to boost STEM education program

March 24, 2015 By Stephanie James

US President Barack Obama on Monday launched over USD 240 million in new commitments for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education program at the fifth annual White House Science Fair.

A White House news release said: “The new private sector commitments are designed to inspire and prepare more girls and boys — especially those from underrepresented groups — to excel in the STEM fields. With the commitments being made today, the President’s campaign called “Educate to Innovate” has resulted in more than USD 1 billion in financial and in-kind support for STEM programs.”

The new philanthropic effort will be led by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Simons Foundation.

The organizations will unveil a Faculty Scholars Program with nearly USD 150 million over five years.

The program intends to support the early career scientists with valuable resources as well as interactions and proper mentoring in an initiative to empower recipients in the STEM education program.

“The effort aim at encouraging students to pursue new and exciting research directions, to ask new questions, and do the types of high-risk, high-reward research that can lead to scientific breakthroughs,” the White House said in a press release.

The USD 90 million effort, which is called “Let Everyone Dream”, will primarily focus on encouraging as well as inspiring more students, especially from underrepresented groups, to make a remarkable career in STEM subjects.

Some of the major components of the initiative include a media campaign that will be focused on youths and their families for the expansion of STEM opportunities for the underrepresented people and encouraging their association with higher education.

The participating companies in the “Let Everyone Dream” initiative are: Motorola, Epix, Televisa, 3M, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), City University of New York and others.

List of other initiatives:

A commitment from universities and colleges for training 20,000 engineers to take on challenges of 21st century.
A competition from the Department of Education worth USD 25 million seeking new media with themes of literacy and science in order to encourage student exploration.
A coalition of CEOs eyeing expansion of effective Science, Technology, Engineering and Math programs to an additional 150 million students this year.

The interested people can avail more information about the White House Science Fair at whitehouse.gov/science-fair.

Obama bats for mandatory voting, terms it ‘potentially transformative’

March 19, 2015 By Stephanie James

US President Barack Obama on Wednesday floated the idea of mandatory voting in the country, saying it would serve as a ‘potentially transformative’ step towards revamping the political and democratic system of the United States.

The President made the remark while addressing a civic group in Cleveland on Wednesday.

When asked about the money influence during the elections in the United States, Obama underscored the issues in the voting system and related laws in the US that are barring the people, mostly younger generation, from participating in the electoral processes. He said that the country should work efficiently in direction of making it easier for the Americans to exercise their voting rights.

Calling the mandatory voting “potentially transformative”, Obama said, “If everybody voted, then it would completely change the political map in this country. Not only that but universal voting would counteract money more than anything.”

Obama said the reports suggest that Americans who skip the elections are disproportionately younger, lower-income, less literate and generally immigrants or minorities.

“There’s a reason why some folks try to keep them away from the polls,” the President said in an indirect reference to the process of voter identification and related laws in several states in the country.

As per the figures of United States Election Project, less than 37 percent of eligible voters excercised their franchise during the mid-term polls in 2014. According to a Pew Research Center study, those who opted out of the polls last year were mostly younger, less educated, poorer, and more racially diverse class.

At least two dozen nations, including Argentina, Belgium and Brazil, have some form of compulsory voting laws. In several systems, the absconders are stringently asked to provide valid reason for their absence or face a fine. There are few nations that have laws on the books allowing for potential imprisonment.

Obama asks youths to care more about climate change than weeds

March 17, 2015 By Stephanie James

US President Barack Obama has once again came in support of saving the environment as he pitched his voice for giving more attention to the issue of climate change than legalizing marijuana in his message to younger generation.

In a stern message to the youth about their political priorities, President Obama said that care should be more given on the degrading climatic conditions and lesser to the issue of giving marijuana constitutionally legal status.

“First of all, it shouldn’t be young people’s biggest priority… Young people: I understand this is important to you, but as you be thinking about climate change, the economy and jobs, war and peace, maybe way at the bottom you should be thinking about marijuana,” the President said during an interview to the international news channel ‘Vice News’.

The remarks came in response to a question about the issue of legalizing marijuana being viewed as a top item for the young Americans when considering the President’s legacy.

Obama has been in favor of decriminalising marijuana for a long time and has also openly supported pot smoking in high school. He, however, has never backed legalizing the controversial drug.

The Democrat President has always batted for reform in the criminal justice system and laws meant for disproportionately incarcerating African Americans in case of non-violent drug offences, such as marijuana possession.

The US Justice Department under Obama administration has adopted a hands-off approach in order to enforce a federal ban on the use of the controversial drug in states like Alaska, Colorado and Washington where the use of marijuana for recreational purposes has been legally allowed.

“We may actually be able to make some progress on the decriminalisation side. At a certain point, if enough states end up decriminalising, the Congress may then reschedule marijuana,” Obama said.

If marijuana is rescheduled, the drug would be reclassified under the less dangerous substance category.

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