People who support refusing to stand for the national anthem argue that athletes are justified in using their celebrity status to bring attention to important issues, and that refusing to stand for the national anthem is an appropriate and effective...
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People who support refusing to stand for the national anthem argue that athletes are justified in using their celebrity status to bring attention to important issues, and that refusing to stand for the national anthem is an appropriate and effective method of peaceful protest. People who disagree argue that football games are an inappropriate place to engage in political protest, and that not standing for the national anthem shows disrespect for the country and those who proudly support it, some with their lives. 

 (via Refusing to Stand for the National Anthem: Top 3 Pros and Cons)

Source: procon.org

The creation of the federal corporate income tax occurred in 1909, when the uniform rate was 1% for all business income above $5,000. Since then the rate has increased to as high as 52.8% in 1969. On Jan. 1, 2018 the corporate tax rate was changed...
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The creation of the federal corporate income tax occurred in 1909, when the uniform rate was 1% for all business income above $5,000. Since then the rate has increased to as high as 52.8% in 1969. On Jan. 1, 2018 the corporate tax rate was changed from a decades-long tiered structure which staggered corporate tax rates based on company income to a flat rate of 21% for all companies.
 (via Federal Corporate Income Tax Rates, Income Years 1909-2018 - Corporate Tax Rate & Jobs - ProCon.org)

Source: corporatetax.procon.org

The California Energy Commission voted 5-0 that all new homes built in California will be required to have solar power installations beginning in 2020. California is the first state in the nation to implement such a requirement. According to a...
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The California Energy Commission voted 5-0 that all new homes built in California will be required to have solar power installations beginning in 2020. California is the first state in the nation to implement such a requirement.
According to a statement by the California Energy Commission, the implementation of the solar power requirement for new homes will cut energy use by 50% and “will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equivalent to taking 115,000 fossil fuel cars off the road… Under the new standards, nonresidential buildings will use about 30 percent less energy due mainly to lighting upgrades.”
Documents released by the Commission estimate the new solar power building standards will raise the cost of new homes in California $10,000 on average, or about $40 per month over a 30-year mortgage; consumers could save an estimated $80 per month on heating, cooling, and lighting bills.  
Some experts contend that the new standards are not the most economical or effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. UC Berkeley Professor Severin Borenstein wrote a letter to the Commission stating that “the vast majority of energy economists believe that residential rooftop solar is a much more expensive way to move towards renewable energy than larger solar and wind installations… This [requirement] would be a very expensive way to expand renewables and would not be a cost effective practice that other states and countries could adopt to reduce their own greenhouse gas footprints.”
The new solar power rule adopted by the California Energy Commission must now go before the California Building Standards Commission sometime in October or November to be approved. According to NBC News, the California Building Standards Commission typically adopts the Energy Commission’s recommendations, and the solar power requirements will very likely be approved.

(via Solar Power Will Be Required on All New California Homes by 2020 - ProCon.org)

Source: procon.org

Maine Legislature passed legislation to launch legal retail sales of recreational marijuana after overriding Governor Paul LePage’s veto of LD 1719 An Act to Implement a Regulatory Structure for Adult Use Marijuana. The legislation allows for the...
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Maine Legislature passed legislation to launch legal retail sales of recreational marijuana after overriding Governor Paul LePage’s veto of LD 1719 An Act to Implement a Regulatory Structure for Adult Use Marijuana. The legislation allows for the creation of a framework to regulate the legal sale of adult-use marijuana.

In Nov. 2016, Maine voters approved legalization of recreational marijuana by ballot measure, making the possession and cultivation of marijuana legal for adults age 21 and over, but the framework to implement legal sales of marijuana products was not implemented at the time. LD 1719, the bill vetoed by Governor LePage, and overridden by the Maine Legislature on May 2, 2018, will now allow state regulators to begin creating and establishing rules to regulate and permit the commercial cultivation and retail sale of marijuana. The bill also reduced the number of plants that can be grown for personal use from six to three. According to legislators, the legal sale of marijuana in the state of Maine is not expected to commence until at least 2019.

Maine Senator Roger Katz, the sponsor of LD 1719, argued the bill was necessary in order to finally establish the regulations necessary to properly implement legal recreational marijuana sales in the state. Katz said “sales of marijuana are going on right now out there… So it’s here anyway, it’s just a question of whether we’re going to do it right and do it in a regulated way and a safe way or whether it’s just going to continue in the black market.”

In his Apr. 27 veto letter, Governor LePage had argued that the bill should not be implemented because it failed to integrate Maine’s medical marijuana and recreational marijuana programs, leaving the two programs with “different levels of regulatory oversight and a different tax structure.” The Governor also voiced his concern that marijuana remains illegal under federal law, stating that “possession of any amount of marijuana under federal law is a misdemeanor crime… and I cannot in good conscience support a law that, on its face, violates federal law.”

Maine is one of 9 states and the District of Columbia where recreational marijuana is currently legal. 

  (via Maine Legislature Green Lights Recreational Marijuana Sales Over Governor’s Veto - ProCon.org)

Source: procon.org

New York joins 14 other states and DC in allowing convicted felons who have served their sentences to vote before parole is completed. Two states allow convicted felons to vote from prison; three restore voting rights after completion of parole; 20...
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New York joins 14 other states and DC in allowing convicted felons who have served their sentences to vote before parole is completed. Two states allow convicted felons to vote from prison; three restore voting rights after completion of parole; 20 allow voting after completion of parole and probation; and in 10 states people with felony convictions may permanently lose their vote.

There are an estimated 6.1 million felons in the United States who cannot vote due to their felony convictions. 

 (via Cuomo Revives Felon Voting Debate by Allowing Parolees to Vote - ProCon.org)

Source: procon.org

A little over one-third of women only buy cosmetics from brands that do not use animal testing, according to a Mar. 29, 2018 survey by beauty app Perfect365. 46% of the 15,000 women surveyed supported a bill in California that would ban the sale of...
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A little over one-third of women only buy cosmetics from brands that do not use animal testing, according to a Mar. 29, 2018 survey by beauty app Perfect365. 46% of the 15,000 women surveyed supported a bill in California that would ban the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals, and 43% would stop using a product if informed that the product had been tested on animals.

Cara Harbor, Director of Marketing for Perfect365, stated, “Based on our recent user survey, data seems to suggest a large percentage of the younger generation of women are expressing concerns about the testing of beauty products on animals.”

California, New Jersey, and New York have banned cosmetic animal testing. At least three states, California, Hawaii, and New York, are currently considering bans on the import or sale of any beauty products tested on animals. Representative Martha McSally (R-AZ) has introduced the Humane Cosmetics Act to Congress, which would ban cosmetics testing on animals and ban the sale of cosmetics if any component was tested on animals.

Internationally, 80% of counties do not have laws preventing animal testing. At least 37 countries have banned or restricted the sale of cosmetics with ingredients tested on animals, beginning with the European Union and including Norway, Israel, India, and Guatemala. Canada is currently considering a ban. 

(via Ban on Animal Testing for Cosmetics Supported by 46% of Women - ProCon.org)

Source: procon.org

According to a Mar. 21, 2018 post by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the application created by Aleksandr Kogan “was installed by around 300,000 people who shared their data as well as some of their friends’ data,” but “given the way our platform...
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According to a Mar. 21, 2018 post by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the application created by Aleksandr Kogan “was installed by around 300,000 people who shared their data as well as some of their friends’ data,” but “given the way our platform worked at the time this meant Kogan was able to access tens of millions of their friends’ data.” Even though Zuckerberg says Facebook banned Kogan’s app immediately upon learning that data had been shared without consent, he also said in a public statement on Apr. 4, “But it’s clear now that we didn’t do enough. We didn’t focus enough on preventing abuse and thinking through how people could use these tools to do harm as well. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, hate speech, in addition to developers and data privacy.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke in favor of stronger privacy regulations, stating, “I think that this certain situation is so dire and has become so large that probably some well-crafted regulation is necessary… The ability of anyone to know what you’ve been browsing about for years, who your contacts are, who their contacts are, things you like and dislike and every intimate detail of your life – from my own point of view it shouldn’t exist.”

Mike Schroepfer, Chief Technology Officer at Facebook, released a statement on Apr. 4, 2018 announcing a series of changes to Facebook’s privacy and data gathering practices to “better protect people’s information while still enabling developers to create useful experiences,” and also stated that “we know we have more work to do.”

As of 2018, about 68% of adults in the United States use Facebook, according to the Pew Research Center. Worldwide, there are over 2.2 billion active Facebook users. Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify about data privacy issues before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Apr. 11. 

 (via Social Media User Data Scandal Raises Privacy Concerns)

Source: procon.org

Kids with Autism and Younger Siblings Less Likely to Be Fully Vaccinated

Children who have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their younger siblings are less likely to have received the full slate of CDC recommended vaccinations, according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics on Mar. 26, 2018. 80% of children with ASD received all CDC recommended vaccines between ages four and six, compared to 94% of children without an autism diagnosis. Of the younger siblings of children with ASD, 73% had been fully vaccinated by 11 months old, compared to 85% of the younger siblings of children without autism diagnoses.

The study surveyed 3,729 children diagnosed as on the autism spectrum before age five who were born between 1995 and 2010 and 592,907 children without autism diagnoses in six locations in the United States.

Lead author Ousseny Zerbo, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Vaccine Study Center at Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, stated, “In this large and comprehensive study, we found that after children received an autism diagnosis, the rates of vaccination were significantly lower when compared with children of the same age who did not have an autism diagnosis.”

Robin P. Goin-Kochel, PhD, Associate Director for Research at the Autism Center of Texas Children’s Hospital, stated, “Fears about an autism-vaccine link persist and contribute to growing numbers of unvaccinated or undervaccinated children.” Her own work found that children with autism are likely to be fully vaccinated up to age 2, when children are typically diagnosed with autism

Source: procon.org

DST was implemented in the United States nationally on Mar. 31, 1918 as a wartime effort to save an hour’s worth of fuel (gas or oil) each day to light lamps and coal to heat homes. It was repealed nationwide in 1919, and then maintained by some...
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DST was implemented in the United States nationally on Mar. 31, 1918 as a wartime effort to save an hour’s worth of fuel (gas or oil) each day to light lamps and coal to heat homes. It was repealed nationwide in 1919, and then maintained by some individual localities (such as New York City) in what Time Magazine called “a chaos of clocks” until 1966 when the Uniform Time Act made DST consistent nationwide. [8]

Approximately 1.5 billion people in 70 countries observe DST worldwide. [26][29] In the United States, 48 states participate in Daylight Saving Time. Arizona, Hawaii, some Amish communities, and the American territories (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands) do not observe DST. [8] In the first quarter of 2018, bills were considered in at least 13 state legislatures to amend DST or exempt individual states from DST. [33] 33% of Americans think DST is worth the effort, while 48% do not and 19% are not sure. [20]

People in favor of keeping Daylight Saving Time say it allows drivers to commute more safely in daylight, promotes outdoor activities, and stimulates the economy. Those who oppose Daylight Saving Time say that the change is a harmful disruption to health and work productivity, and is expensive. While the time change was initially implemented to save energy, studies are mixed and have found our current use of air conditioning and heating may negate the energy saved by not having to use electric lights and may actually increase electricity usage. [24][25] Read on for pros and cons in the debate on Daylight Saving Time. 

 (via Top 3 Pros and Cons of Daylight Saving Time - ProCon.org)

Source: procon.org

2018 CDC Immunization Schedules

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in cooperation with the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics, releases immunization schedules each year. The schedules include recommendations for routine vaccinations for children from birth through 6 years old, children from 7 to 18 years old, and adults, which includes a schedule for adults with medical and other indications (like pregnancy or chronic illness). For people traveling outside of the United States, additional vaccinations may be recommended by the CDC for diseases like yellow fever and typhoid. All data below come from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Feb. 6, 2018 resource, “Immunization Schedules,” available at www.cdc.gov. For a brief description of the vaccines, please see the “Immunizations: More Information” section

Source: vaccines.procon.org

From Alaska to Wyoming and from Argentina to Yemen, educators in more than 10,000 schools in all 50 states and 90 countries have used the free resources at ProCon.org in their classrooms, libraries, and other instructional materials. With so much...
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From Alaska to Wyoming and from Argentina to Yemen, educators in more than 10,000 schools in all 50 states and 90 countries have used the free resources at ProCon.org in their classrooms, libraries, and other instructional materials. With so much fake news, information overload, and hyper-partisanship in the world today, the pro, con, and related research at ProCon.org is methodologically designed to stimulate education, critical thinking, and informed citizenship. The organization’s motto is “Understand the Issues. Understand Each Other."ProCon.org CEO Kamy Akhavan said, "We encourage teachers to talk about today’s important issues with their students, rather than avoid those discussions. Conversations about gun control, death penalty, immigration, and other controversial topics can be productive, balanced, and enlightening when people use ProCon.org. Empowering future generations with the ability to understand opposing views, disagree respectfully, and have informed opinions is why ProCon.org remains a vital resource for millions of people. We are thrilled to serve educators in more than 10,000 schools.” Students in middle schools, high schools, and colleges comprise more than 40% of the 25 million annual users at ProCon.org. According to a 2017 survey of educators who use ProCon.org, 99.6% said using ProCon.org improved their students’ critical thinking skills; 99.8% said their students found ProCon.org useful; and 100% said they would recommend ProCon.org to other teachers and librarians. Julie Cassel, a Civics and Government teacher at West Marin School in Point Reyes, CA, told us, “ProCon.org was incredibly well organized, and helped students to look at both sides of the issues thoroughly. It provides a way for them to see strong evidence of both sides of an argument, and then to really question their own opinions and arguments for validity.”

Kendra Manon, a Spanish teacher at Gainesville High School in Gainesville, TX, said, “There are many societal issues that students need to understand both the pros and cons of in order to make educated decisions about their world and what they believe in. I think that ProCon.org makes it easier to access that type of information.”

Sonya Paul, a Senior English and Speech instructor at Blue River Valley Junior and Senior High School in Mt. Summit, IN, let us know that ProCon.org “has helped my junior high students with writing persuasive papers, and speech students debate. I think you offer an excellent resource to students and teachers. I teach at a small, rural school in Indiana, so the free resource is a huge benefit for my corporation and for me.”

Paul Samer, a History teacher at Cordova High School in Cordova, TN, stated, “The background material and many of the pairings of arguments help develop the question and critical thinking better than I could have on my own. Then too, there is nothing like visually aggressive video to get the attention and participation of teens. Some students changed their opinion 180 degrees based upon material on ProCon.org.”
ProCon.org’s educational resources remain free of charge, nonpartisan, and include: LESSON PLAN IDEAS - Designed to teach specific skills and content, these 30+ lesson plan ideas range from grades 5 to 12. Plans include “Project Citizen: Transforming Research into Action” in which students translate their research into a community project and a discussion guide for the award-winning documentary Best of Enemies, which leads students to consider and discuss important questions about political conventions, pundits, television debate, and where our nation’s political discourse may have gotten its often nasty tone. ADVANCED PLACEMENT TEACHER RESOURCES – Built to give AP teachers a list of ProCon.org resources that are easily fitted into the AP curricula, these guides for 24 AP courses can also easily translate to other curricula. CRITICAL THINKING SEMINAR - This short highlight reel from a 90-minute seminar demonstrates that opinions can shift and respectful dialogue can take place when structured conversations around controversial issues are carefully coordinated. Teachers may show their students the transformation or translate the seminar into their own classrooms. CRITICAL THINKING QUOTES – A showcase of 70+ powerful quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. to Coco Chanel and from Anne Frank to Bob Marley – all revolving around the topic of critical thinking. For more information about teacher resources at ProCon.org, visit https://www.procon.org/education.php

(via Educators in More Than 10,000 Schools Use ProCon.org to Combat Fake News and Stoke Critical Thinking - ProCon.org)

Source: procon.org