Study of Current Events 2019

       The Brexit deadline is one month away, and Parliament seems no closer to making a decision. This is certainly not helped by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.         Johnson has been a long time supporter of Brexit, and has not changed position since he became the prime minister. In fact, he has taken a harder line, refusing to back down. In an attempt to gain back control, he suspended Parliament to barrel through an exit from the European Union. However, Britain's highest court ruled that Johnson acted unlawful, and Parliament was forced to reopen.          Despite this, Johnson did not seem fazed, determined to go ahead with Brexit despite being told off. He told off Parliament for not allowing a general election, while his opposition waved his court loss in his face. Now the opposition is trying to slowly weaken Johnson through political torture in an attempt to weaken his and force him to break his promise t...

Some statistics on the state of California's homelessness:         - San Francisco currently has 8,011 homeless people, up 17% since 2017         - San Jose's homeless population is up 42% since 2017         - Oakland's homeless population is up 47%         - In Los Angeles county, there are an estimated 59,000 homeless population. Of those, 75% remain unsheltered       After a recent visit out to San Francisco for a Silicon Valley fundraiser, President Trump says he plans to issue an environmental violation to the city due to its homelessness issue. He claims that the needles used by the homeless are draining into the ocean, causing pollution. It is still unclear under what violation the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) would accuse San Francisco of, or what they would demand for San Francisco so they could avoid the citation.       San Francisco's mayor London Breed...

         On Wednesday, California lawmakers approved a statewide rent cap to try and ease the housing crisis. San Francisco had already had measures like this, but they have done nothing to decrease the rise in homelessness and a housing squeeze.          This new bill limits the annual rent increase by 5%. The governor, Gavin Newsom, had made the protection of tenants part of his first year in office. This new bill will affect about 8 million residents who rent homes and live in apartments. The crisis over housing has been so bad that leading employers and was unopposed by the state;s biggest landlord group.          In passing this measure, California becomes one of five states to impose some form of rent control. Both California and Oregon have statewide rent control, while Maryland, New Jersey, and New York allow some forms of rent control. Other measures were introduced in Florida and Massachusetts to allo...

In recent years, there has been a national crackdown on vaping. This Wednesday, after sharp spikes in vaping related illnesses, Michigan's governor Gretchen Whitmer said she would ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes throughout the state. This would be the first state to make such a move. Gov. Whitmer explained the decision came as a response to the increase of e-cigarette use among teenagers as well as ads that seemed to be targeted specifically at children. This move comes as part of a wave of national pressure to have more regulation of e-cigarettes and their sale to children. Across the country, multiple state attorneys are calling for the federal government to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes California and Massachusetts have introduced bills to stop the sale of these products, and New York's governor raised the age eligible to buy them to 21. In addition to all that, San Francisco became the first city to ban vaping products earlier this year. Many illnesses are...