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For my final current event I chose to view a video with a interview and statements from Dr. Ben Carson on poverty. He talks about how poverty is affecting the world, and highlights how terrible it is. There were some comments that were made by Dr. Carson that caused a lot of backlash about his thoughts on poverty. He states in the video that some problems with the poverty in America are the mindsets and attitudes of people. Naturally, this caused some commotion because there are many people who feel that it is not the fault of people who are poor. However, it creates a morally/ethical challenge because essentially what Dr. Carson is preaching is the equality in life for everyone to be afforded the opportunity to work hard. While I do think that his comments may have been a little extreme, I also agree. He states that if he were to take away everything from most successful people that those people would find a way through their determination to get themselves out of poverty. I think what he is saying holds true, however, I believe a very important aspect of this is education. We cannot chalk all of poverty up to just poor attitudes. While there is some responsibility in that regards, I believe if many poverty stricken people were able to be properly educated they would be better equipped to dig themselves out of poverty. The poverty in our country shows the inequality I believe. It shows the inequality of money, but most importantly I think it shows the inequality in education. I do not believe that those who earn their money should be supporting those with the attitude problem Dr. Carson talked about. I will say that I do believe that some people need to be better equipped to become successful in this life.

Reference:
Mackinnon, B. & Fiala, A. (2017). Ethics: Theory and contemporary issues. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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A "state of mind," Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said in an interview with SiriusXM Radio.

"I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind," he told host Armstrong Williams, according to a Washington Post report. "You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they'll be right back up there."

He continued, "And you take somebody with the wrong mindset, you can give them everything in the world, they'll work their way right back to the bottom."

Bad parenting habits and exposure can create the "wrong mindset," he said.

"There's also a poverty of spirit," he said. "You develop a certain mindset."

As head of HUD, Carson oversees the department that provides affordable housing, rental assistance to low-income families and homeless assistance.

The Trump administration's proposed budget for fiscal year 2018 slashes the HUD budget by $6 billion, the Post reported

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson appears on SiriusXM's Town Hall hosted by Armstrong Williams at SiriusXM DC Performance Space on May 23, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Larry French, Getty Images for SiriusXM)

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HUD Secretary Ben Carson: Poverty is caused by a 'state of mind'

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CLOSE A "state of mind," Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said in an interview with SiriusXM Radio. "I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind," he told host Armstrong Williams, according to a Washington Post report.

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Proposed New Curb on Immigrants

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announces a proposal that would seek to ensure that those looking to enter and remain in the United States "will not be reliant on public benefits," such as aid programs for nutrition, prescription drugs or housing. "This proposed rule will implement a law passed by Congress intended to promote immigrant self-sufficiency and protect finite resources by ensuring that they are not likely to become burdens on American taxpayers," DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement. The proposal will undergo a 60-day comment period.

TPS Ends for Hondurans

The Trump administration continues whittling the Temporary Protected Status program, announcing that some 57,000 Hondurans living legally in the United States under TPS will lose their residency in 2020. The Department of Homeland Security initially deferred the decision until July 2018, but on May 4 announced it would cancel TPS for the country. "Since 1999, conditions in Honduras that resulted from the hurricane have notably improved... Honduras has made substantial progress in post-hurricane recovery and reconstruction from the 1998 Hurricane Mitch." Honduras remains one of the most violent countries in the world with one of the highest homocide rates.

TPS ended for Nepal

The Trump administration has decided to end special protections for an estimated 9,000 Nepalese immigrants in the United States.
Immigrants will have until June 24, 2019, to leave or find another way to stay in the country. They were granted temporary protected status (TPS) after an April 2015 earthquake in Nepal killed more than 8,000 people. The Department of Homeland Security says Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has concluded the disruptions from the earthquake "have decreased to a degree that they should no longer be regarded as substantial."

Family Immigration Slowed

A report from the Migration Policy Institute says the Trump administration is achieving its goal of restricting family based immigration by slowing down the processing of green card applications. The report says adjudications of family immigration petitions has fallen sharply: "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) processed 54 percent of immediate relative petitions in FY 2017, compared to about 67 percent in FY 2016 (see Table 1). Nonimmediate relative immigration processing was already low in FY 2016, with roughly 22 percent of applications adjudicated, but fell even further to 9 percent in FY 2017. At the end of FY 2017, the backlog of pending petitions in capped family categories (which span adult children and siblings of U.S. citizens, and spouses and children of green-card holders) increased by more than 35 percent, to 827,744 cases."

TPS ended for almost 200,000 Salvadorans

The Department of Homeland Security announces it is ending a 7-year "temporary" residency status for 200,000 Salvadorans, leaving them vulnerable to deportation in 18 months if they cannot secure legal residency in the U.S. The Salvadorans have lived in the U.S. since 2001, when two devastating earthquakes disrupted life in El Salvador and they were granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to live and work in the U.S., a provision that until now had been routinely renewed with little debate in Washington. The New York-based Center for Migration Studies said the Salvadorans represent more than 135,000 households, with 88 percent of them in the U.S. workforce.

The travel ban is implemented

Four days after the Supreme Court gives the go-ahead to President Trump's order restricting travel, the State Department announces it has been implemented. This version bars entry into the U.S. of immigrants and non-immigrants from Chad, Libya and Yemen, on business, tourist or business-tourist visas; blocks entry of Iranian citizens, as immigrants or non-immigrants, but provides an exception for Iranian students with additional screening; bars all immigrants and non-immigrants from North Korea and Syria; prevents immigration by citizens of Somalia; and bars visitors from Venezuela with government ties.

US to revisit prior visa decisions

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reverses its policy of respecting previous non-immigrant visa decisions as long as key elements were unchanged and there was no evidence of error or fraud. "This updated guidance provides clear direction to help advance policies that protect the interests of U.S. workers," said USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna about his first major policy decision. "There are a few reasons to be very concerned," tweeted immigration lawyer Greg Siskind. "First, workers in green card backlog categories face a serious threat,"

Non-immigrant visas suspended in Turkey

The U.S. suspends all non-immigrant visas at its diplomatic facilities in Turkey after the arrest of a U.S. consulate employee in Istanbul for alleged links to Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Muslim leader blamed by Ankara for a failed coup attempt last year. Non-immigrant visas include those related to tourism, medical treatment, business, temporary work and study. Update: In late December,the U.S. embassy in Ankara announced it would begin taking applications again - in January, 2019.

Refugee Admissions Cut to Historic Low

The Trump administration plans to cap refugee arrivals at 45,000 for fiscal year 2018, senior government officials say. The ceiling is the lowest since the U.S. refugee program in its current form began in 1980. The average annual ceiling has been about 96,000 since the program began in 1980, with an average of 81,000 spots filled every year. Already in FY 2017, the number of refugees admitted has been cut. U.S. officials estimate the country will welcome in only 54,000 refugees by the end of this fiscal year October 1.

TPS ended for Sudan

The Trump administration says it will end Temporary Protected Status for nationals of Sudan in 2018. The Department of Homeland Security says that conditions in the country have improved and TPS is no longer warranted for Sudanese citizens. TPS for Sudan was set to expire November 2, but DHS is extending the program for a year to allow Sudanese nationals currently benefiting from TPS to wrap up their affairs in the U.S. Meanwhile, DHS is extending TPS for South Sudan until May 2019. At the end of 2016, some 1039 Sudanese and 49 South Sudanese held TPS status.

Trump ends DACA

"DACA is being rescinded," Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces, ending President Barack Obama's five-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. There are currently about 800,000 DACA recipients in the U.S. No DACA authorizations will be revoked before March 5, 2018 if those whose permits expire during that time apply for renewals in early October. But all DACA authorizations will have expired by March 2020. The six month delay is intended to give Congress a chance to act on the program.

CAM Parole Program Ends

The Department of Homeland Security ends the Central American Minors (CAM) parole program, which granted Central American minors temporary legal residence in the United States. President Barack Obama established the CAM parole program in 2014 in response to an illegal influx of unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The program allowed young people under 21 to enter the U.S. on a two-year, renewable parole if they had a parent already legally present in the country. The Washington Post reports that termination of CAM parole excludes 2,714 minors who had conditional approval to enter the country.

Trump backs Senate immigration bill

The bill, written by Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue, would cut legal immigration by 50%. It establishes a points system to reward would-be immigrants with points for speaking English and having marketable skills. Casting the measure as putting American families first, Trump's senior advisor for policy Stephen Miller called it a "permanent change to immigration that will endure through time." The bill faces a rocky road in the Senate.

Kelly: DACA won't stand up to challenge

DHS' Kelly tells lawmakers that the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program will probably not stand up to a legal challenge, threatened by 10 Republican state officials who gave the administration a 9/5 deadline before filing suit. Almost 800,000 young people who were brought to the US as children would be affected.

He also warns that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is likely to be eliminated. Currently offered to people from ten countries that are considered unsafe, TPS allows them to live and work temporarily in the US.

DHS halts International Entrepreneurship Rule

DHS issues a notice delaying implementation of the International Entrepreneurship Rule until March, 2018. In the meantime, DHS plans to solicit comments on why the program should be scrapped. Earlier, DHS had estimated the program would result in 3,000 new startups every year and many more jobs.

DHS ends protections for undocumented parents with US children

DHS formally ends the DAPA program (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans). DAPA had been in litigation since 2015 and never took effect. It would have protected parents with U.S. children from deportation.

Sessions seeks to withhold funding from sanctuary cities

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issues a memo defining sanctuary jurisdictions as those that "willfully refuse" to comply with a federal law that bars local governments from prohibiting their law enforcement officers to share information about the immigration status of people in their custody.

Sessions says the executive order "will be applied solely to federal grants administered by the Department of Justice or the DHS and not to other sources of federal funding." A federal court had blocked (4/25) the federal government from penalizing sanctuary jurisdictions.

DHS Calls for Wall Designs

DHS issues two requests for proposals from companies interested in building a wall on the U.S./Mexican border. The bids for both concrete and non-concrete barriers will be winnowed down to 8 -10 winners who will build prototypes on the border near San Diego, CA. While no wall is to be built soon, the talk has a chilling effect and illegal border crossings start to fall off.

DHS implements Trump's order

Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly implements Trump's January executive orders with 2 memos. They do away with prioritizing for deportation those who have committed crimes. "Unless otherwise directed, Department personnel may initiate enforcement actions against removable aliens encountered during the performance of their official duties," Kelly wrote.

The memos also expand the definition of a "criminal alien." Anyone who has been convicted of a crime, been charged with a crime, or even committed anything that might be a "chargeable criminal offense" can be deported.

Thirdly, the memos call for an increase in the 287(g) program which allows local law enforcement agencies to participate as an active partner in identifying criminal aliens in their custody, and placing ICE detainers on these individuals.

Trump wastes no time addressing immigration

Five days into his presidency, President Trump issues two executive orders on improving immigration enforcement and enhancing public safety in the interior of the U.S.

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Putting the Brakes on Immigration | VOA Special Report

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Since President Donald Trump took office January 20, he and his cabinet have acted aggressively on Trump's signature campaign promise, cutting back on immigration in the name of national security. The result, as this timeline shows, is that illegal immigrants have been rounded up in greater numbers, visas have been curtailed and a border wall is in the works.

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Putting the Brakes on Immigration: Mod 6-Gangaway

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Putting the Brakes on Immigration: Mod 6-Gangaway

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In the article that I chose for this week’s current event there is a timeline highlighting President Trump’s actions while in office to change our immigration laws and standards as we move forward. The timeline touches on many things that support President Trump is tirelessly working to make legal immigration the priority and to take measures that he preached on his campaign trail to deal with illegal immigration. It highlights things such as the order that people from Haiti and Nicaragua return to their countries after they had been given many years here because of devastating natural disasters. It talks about the revoking of some processes that were put into place by prior administrations and it highlights many issues regarding visas in the county. It also shows how the Transportation Safety Administration is getting tougher on those who do not process the requirements to travel properly.

The moral issue that I believe is at hand with the process of immigration is universalism. Our book touches on universalism as the ethics of human welfare and the recognition of the moral worth of all people. Depending on how you view immigration, you would be able to say that bans and or tougher immigration laws and processes could challenge some persons right to universalism. If you are not affording all people the same opportunity than this could raise some moral and ethical concerns.

Personally, I believe there are ethical issues that go along with lax immigration laws. Illegal immigrants are at times afforded benefits and commodities that some tax paying American citizens are not afforded themselves. They contribute to the overpopulation of the United States and they also take some of the jobs away. I myself believe that legal immigration is a just process and I would never question us offering the benefits of this country to those who are less fortunate. However, I also firmly believe that illegal immigration is wrong and in a sense is stealing from those who have worked hard to get where they are.

Reference:
Mackinnon, B. & Fiala, A. (2017). Ethics: Theory and contemporary issues. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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The nation's first sanctioned gene therapy - approved Wednesday to fight leukemia that resists standard therapies - will cost $475,000 for a one-time treatment, its manufacturer announced.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the therapy, called Kymriah, in children and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia whose disease has come back in spite of previous treatments. These patients typically have a poor prognosis, surviving three to nine months, according to Novartis, which makes the innovative therapy.

The Switzerland-based company said the drug will cost nothing if patients fail to benefit in the first month.

Kymriah treats cancer in an entirely new way. The individualized approach involves harvesting cancer patients' immune cells, genetically engineering them, then returning them to patients' bodies. The genetic engineering process aims to rev up patients' immune systems to better fight cancer.

"We're entering a new frontier in medical innovation with the ability to reprogram a patient's own cells to attack a deadly cancer," said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the FDA commissioner. "New technologies such as gene and cell therapies hold out the potential to transform medicine and create an inflection point in our ability to treat and even cure many intractable illnesses."

Novartis officials said it is working with 20 hospitals to provide Kymriah within a month. Eventually, the therapy will be offered at 32 sites, the company said. The first patients could be treated within days. The company is carefully training hospitals and staff to provide the treatment, which can cause a life-threatening immune reaction, as well as long-term complications.

Novartis said that it priced its drug based on several considerations. British health authorities have said a price of $649,000 for a one-time treatment would be justified given Kymriah's significant benefits.

Novartis also considered the cost of bone-marrow transplants, which are currently given to many leukemia patients whose cancer relapses. Those transplants can cost up to $800,000, Novartis said.

More: Breakthrough cancer drug could be astronomical in price

More: Cancer treatment hype gives false hope to many patients

An advocacy group called Patients for Affordable Drugs recently met with officials at Novartis to ask it to set a "fair" price for the drug, whose early development was supported by $200 million in federal research grants.

David Mitchell, a multiple myeloma patient and president of the advocacy group, described the drug's price tag as "excessive."

"Novartis should not get credit for bringing a $475,000 drug to market and claiming they could have charged people a lot more," he said. "The drug pricing system in America is completely broken. Until policy in this country changes, the vicious cycle of patients struggling under high drug prices will continue."

The FDA also is considering a CAR T-cell therapy from California-based Kite Pharma. Gilead Sciences - which has been criticized for the $84,000 price tag of its hepatitis C drug - announced Monday that it will buy Kite for $11.9 billion.

Novartis officials said they will offer a patient assistance program to help people with out-of-pocket costs.

Experts have noted that hidden costs could further add to patients' financial burdens.

Beyond the cost of the procedure, patients would need to pay for traditional chemotherapy, which is given before CAR T-cell therapy to improve its odds of success. They would also have to foot the bill for travel and lodging to one of the hospitals equipped to provide the high-tech treatment.

Because patients can develop life-threatening side effects weeks after the procedure, doctors will ask patients to stay within two hours of the hospital for up to a month. In New York, even budget hotels cost more than $200 a night - an expense not typically covered by insurance.

Patients who develop a dangerous complication, in which the immune system overreacts and attacks vital organs, might need coverage for emergency room care, as well as lengthy stays in the intensive care unit.

Doctors don't yet know what the full range of long-term side effects will be. CAR T-cell therapies can damage healthy immune cells, including the cells that produce the antibodies that fight disease. Some patients will need long-term treatments with a product called intravenous immunoglobulin, which provides the antibodies that patients need to prevent infection.
Kaiser Health News, a non-profit health newsroom whose stories appear in news outlets nationwide, is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
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Revolutionary gene therapy approved for leukemia - at $475,000 price tag

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The nation's first sanctioned gene therapy - approved Wednesday to fight leukemia that resists standard therapies - will cost $475,000 for a one-time treatment, its manufacturer announced. The Food and Drug Administration approved the therapy, called Kymriah, in children and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia whose disease has come back in spite of previous treatments.

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Freedom of Speech and Social Media: Mod 1- Gangaway

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Freedom of Speech and Social Media: Mod 1- Gangaway

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Social media continues to become a larger portion of our lives every day. In the article that I decided to share, there is information in regard to a reporter who works for ESPN posting something about our President Donald Trump in a social media post. In her post, she decided to call Mr. Trump a “white supremacist who only surrounds himself with white supremacists.” The ethical debate that this presents is what is considered freedom of speech. In this situation we have a prime example of hate speech vs. freedom of speech.

Some people will believe that this type of action is protected under the first amendment, while others believe that speaking out like this is wrong. In my personal opinion I am very supportive of the freedom of speech that, so many people have fought for in our country. Personally, I have a problem when people are using their jobs to push their political views or agendas. This reporter works for one of the biggest corporations in the United States and her social media account is directly used for her work at many other times. With all these factors considered, I believe it was wrong of her to be expressing herself in a negative way over social media. Your employer holds you to a standard that she failed to meet. It is worth noting that the reporter was fired.

Reference:
Mackinnon, B. & Fiala, A. (2017). Ethics: Theory and contemporary issues. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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One day after an ethics complaint was lodged against her, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that she didn't actually call for ESPN to fire a sportscaster who called the president a white supremacist.

"That's something for ESPN to decide," she said.

An anti-President Trump super PAC filed a complaint with the government ethics office after Sanders said an ESPN broadcaster's remarks would be a fireable offense.

Earlier in the week, Jemele Hill, who has worked for ESPN since 2006, said in a series of tweets that the president was the "direct result of white supremacy."

"Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists," Hill said in one tweet.

Hill has since said that the comments were her personal beliefs. "My regret is that my comments and the public way I made them painted ESPN in an unfair light," she said in a Wednesday tweet. "My respect for the company and my colleagues remains unconditional."

After Sanders initially called Hill's tweets "one of the more outrageous comments that anyone could make," the Democratic Coalition filed an ethics complaint on Thursday against the Trump spokeswoman.

According to the super PAC, Sanders' "fireable offense" comments violated a law that prohibits federal employees from influencing a private employment decision. The group's complaint was filed with the Office of Government Ethics.

"This is yet another example of the Trump White House's blatant disregard for the Constitution and its authoritarian efforts to quiet dissenters," coalition executive director Nate Lerner said. "It is of the utmost importance that we hold the Trump administration accountable for this illicit behavior and protect our democratic institutions."

Sanders addressed the complaint on Friday, saying that while she called the comments were a fireable offense, she was not specifically telling ESPN to fire Hill.

Sanders said it's ridiculous for the Democrats to focus on her rather than Hill.

"I'm not the one in the wrong here," she said. "I'm not the one making outrageous comments."

While Sanders is taking the heat, the president himself appeared to jump into the fray on Friday, when he targeted ESPN in a tweet.

"ESPN is paying a really big price for its politics (and bad programming)," Trump said. "People are dumping it in RECORD numbers. Apologize for untruth!"
Contributing: David Jackson
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Sarah Huckabee Sanders responds to ethics complaint over ESPN sportscaster comments

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CLOSE One day after an ethics complaint was lodged against her, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that she didn't actually call for ESPN to fire a sportscaster who called the president a white supremacist. "That's something for ESPN to decide," she said.

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The article that I chose for this week is about another method of treating patients who have cancer. The method is going to be sort of an additional method to treat cancer patients who are on the verge of dying and have tried all of the more conventional methods. The method that is being explored her is called gene therapy. This method was approved August of this year. The way that it works is that a patient’s healthy immune cells will be collected and basically bred to reproduce and then they will be put back into the patient’s body.

While this will seem like a positive thing to most people that technological advances have allowed us to provide another treatment for cancer, it comes with some moral and ethical issues. The main ethical issue that is presented in the matter is the question of what is too far, and what is the boundary on good health. If one found out that a parent or spouse were taking every means necessary to keep their loved one alive, it is uncommon that they would disapprove. However, when you talk about genetic modification, it would be common that some would disapprove of this. Of course, in the regards to treating cancer it is easy to approve, but what if it was two parents genetically altering a child? This is where the morality ethical issues play in.

Some religions would argue that this could fall into the lines of playing God. It could be that confidentiality and privacy of the body are being invaded during the process of this practice. Medical issues are usually attended to and remedied within the rights of the patient. However, some would argue that there are certain privacy things in the body that are reserved for God alone. This causes some great controversy when dealing with genetic alteration.

Personally, I believe that the use of this practice should be completely up to the patient or the guardians of the patient. I am a firm believer that technology is a important part in the evolution of our species. I would choose to use this method if my life was on the line and there was a solid chance it could help. I think those decisions should be made individually by the person in the situation and should not hold a negative connotation because of someone else’s personal beliefs.

Reference:
Mackinnon, B. & Fiala, A. (2017). Ethics: Theory and contemporary issues. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.