While there has been some discussion of immigration in this year’s presidential campaign, there’s been little action on Capitol Hill. But in one state, voters will decide on a local version of an immigration bill that’s been debated in Washington. The so-called Maryland Dream Act would offer in-state tuition to undocumented college students the state.
There are more than 180 foreign embassies packed into Washington, D.C.’s 68 square miles, and these buildings are more than just brick and mortar — they’re part of public diplomacy, representing a nation to the American public.
Monday marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s Battle of Antietam, one of the bloodiest battles of any war. At the battlefield in Sharpsburg, Md., some of those reenacting the battle have family members who were there for this pivotal moment in history.
A small town on the bluffs above the Mississippi River, Herculaneum, Missouri, was always a company town. The company, Doe Run, is the largest lead producer in North America, trucking in lead from Missouri’s rich mines to a 120-year-old smelter on the river. For 25 years, the smelter didn’t meet federal air standards for lead, and now, after decades of battling government regulators and angry parents, Doe Run is leaving town at the end of next year.
In Missouri state prisons, about 60 percent of inmates have kids. That’s 18,000 moms and dads behind bars – and tens of thousands of kids on the other side. To help those parents and kids connect, volunteers make their way through the metal detectors each month with big tubs of blank tapes and CDs, stamped envelopes, and lots of children’s books.
Missouri is fertile ground for payday lenders. With some of the loosest regulations in the nation, it’s among the states with the most payday lending stores per capita. Now, the payday lending industry in Missouri is fighting for its life, as activists aim for the November ballot to try to rein in these lenders they say trap the working poor in a cycle of debt.
Ever since Mormon prophet and founder Joseph Smith revealed the Book of Mormon in 1830, his followers have struggled for acceptance. If you want to understand the “why” behind this rocky relationship, the rolling farmland of northwest Missouri might be the best place to start — the birthplace of the human race, according to Joseph Smith, and the place where Christ will first step down in the second coming.
In Joplin, Missouri, runners are gearing up for the city’s second annual marathon tomorrow. Some local runners say having a goal to shoot for helped them carry on, after they lost everything in last May’s devastating tornado.
BBC presenter Matt Frei asks why so many Americans fetishize their own history – and why so many others can’t even name the Vice President. Jacob Fenston hits the streets of DC to find out what Americans know about history and current events.
At colleges across the country, some 90 percent of student housing is now coed. Notre Dame and Brigham Young are among the universities that never followed that trend and stuck with single-sex housing. Now the Catholic University of America thinks that’s the way to go. The Washington, DC school is turning back the clock and returning to single-sex dorms. As Jacob Fenston reports, the university is fighting back against what it perceives is a culture of drinking and casual sex.