How would you feel if the first two years of your college education were tuition free?

You’d probably be pretty chipper. For the country though, such a big move won’t be cheap. Somebody’s gotta pay.

President Obama announced “America’s College Promise” last month during the State of the Union address. The proposed plan would eliminate tuition for the first two years of community college as long as students attend at least half-time and maintain a 2.5 overall GPA. The change could mean better access to higher education for millions.

Opponents claim it’s just too expensive. In 2016 alone the plan would cost the government $1.365 billion, and in just ten years those costs are projected to climb to $13 billion.

Then again, what’s another billion in a $4 trillion budget proposal.

What do you think? Can America afford to keep its “promise?”

Freedom has a price and for Marissa Alexander that price is $11,000.

And her “freedom” was two years of house arrest. 

In 2010 Ms. Alexander fired warning shots into the air when she (and her nine day old daughter) were threatened by her ex-husband, Rico Gray.  In his deposition, Gray admitted that there was a history a physical abuse towards Alexander. Years earlier, he was briefly arrested when he pushed Alexander and she hit her head on the bathtub (10). He also admitted that he had been arrested for violence against women twice before. On that particular day, he is quoted on saying the following:

I called her a whore and bitch and you ain’t shit, like I told you…if I can’t have you, nobody going to have you (19)

Although Alexander defended her actions with Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law, the law famously used by George Zimmerman’s defense after the death of Trayvon Martin, the judge ruled the law was not applicable in her situation. Instead, she pleaded guilty to three accounts of aggravated  with a weapon.

So why was Alexander unable to use the same defense as Zimmerman? She after all, didn’t kill anyone and was definitely being threatened. Well, according to the judge “she could have just left her house instead“. This says a lot about how we treat female survivors of domestic violence.

When hearing about domestic violence, people frequently ask, “Why did she stay? Why didn’t she leave?”—rather than “Why does this person keep hurting the person he claims to love? Why doesn’t he stop harming her?”…By defending herself, she negates any claim she may have had to being the victim and gets framed as the aggressor

 This is not the first time survivors of domestic violence have been criminalized in the justice system.  

In 2006, Titches Lindley was murdered by is step-father, Alonzo Turner. His mother, Arlena Lindley, had faced multiple violent approaches by Turner famously documented in this BuzzFeed investigative article. By the end of the case, Lindley was sentenced to 45 years of prison for child abuse by “omission”.  When investigating the laws surrounding the charge, sometimes known as “Failure to Protect”, many do not consider domestic violence under special considerations when prosecuting mothers. 

 Lindley would later testify, he had pulled her hair, choked her, sat on her, and pushed her to the ground in public; after she removed a bullet from his gun and threw it in the yard, he forced her to strip naked and search for it in the dark on her hands and knees; when she tried to escape with her son, he threw her in a car trunk and drove her back home, or called and threatened to kill Lindley’s family if she didn’t return

Perhaps, when 75% incarcerated women are domestic violence survivors, it is time that we reconsider portions of laws and try to better coordinate our efforts towards justice.

Boy, what a ride it’s been.

Today, we celebrate the New England Patriots’ 28-24 comeback victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. It’s a high-note to a scandal-ridden season that the NFL might otherwise like to forget.

Looming over the Super Bowl was the Deflategate scandal.

In the AFC Championship, eleven of the twelve New England game footballs were found significantly under-inflated, though the Indianapolis Colts’ game footballs were within the league-specified limits. In comical, innuendo-laced press conferences, both Patriots QB Tom Brady and coach Bill Belicheck asserted that they knew nothing about the deflated balls. The investigation is ongoing.

Other unresolved investigations involve the fifty-five unanswered abuse cases in the NFL this year. Though the league likes to stay out of thorny social issues, abuse has come to the forefront this year, mainly because of two instances:

First, former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was arrested for knocking out his then-fiancee Janay Palmer. The NFL suspended Rice for two games, a punishment critics claimed was too light. To assuage critics, when TMZ surfaced video of the incident, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell swiftly suspended Rice indefinitely. Rice appealed the suspension, won the appeal, and can now play for any team.

As all of the Rice drama unfolded, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was arrested for beating his son with a switch. His four-year-old son had bruises and open wounds on his buttocks, thighs, lower back, scrotum, and hands. Goodell suspended Peterson for the remainder of the 2015 season, without pay. Pending a court case this spring, he may be able to sign for any team.

Today, we enjoy the Patriots’ jaw-dropping fourth-quarter comeback, the largest in Super Bowl history. Time will tell if this season is more remembered Brady’s record-tying third Super Bowl MVP, or for Deflategate and abuse scandals.

Seminars are held on Fridays at 2 PM in the Technology Research Center, Room 206, and are free and open to the public. Registration is not required. Visitor parking passes for the TRC lot may be purchased for $4.00 in the CUERE office in TRC 102/105 shortly before seminar.

January 30, 2015
Matthew Lambert
US EPA
"Bioavailability and Risk Management Decisions at Superfund Sites"

February 6, 2015
Dr. Krissy Hopkins
National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC)
University of Maryland
"From small watersheds to regions: Variation in hydrologic response to urbanization"

February 13, 2015
Dr. Neda Yaghoobian
"Building energy use and urban microclimate"

February 20, 2015   11 AM (Note time change)
Alimatou Seck
UMBC
Department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering
"A fully distributed integrated hydrologic model for quantifying groundwater dynamics in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed"

February 27, 2015
Dr. Allen Place
Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences
"Hydraulics and barley straw (Hordeum vulgare) as effective treatment options for a cyanotoxin-impacted lake"

March 6, 2015
Dr. Chris Hennigan
UMBC
Department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering
"Sources and Processes Affecting Particulate Matter in Denver, CO during DISCOVER-AQ"

March 13, 2015
Anna L. Johnson
UMBC, Dept of Geography and Environmental Systems
"The ecology of urban vacant lands: human-mediated local versus regional control on plant community assembly"

March 20, 2015
Spring break, no seminar


March 27, 2015
Dr. Miranda Mockrin
USDA Forest Service 
"Living in the wildland urban interface: growth of the WUI and policy response"

April 3, 2015
Dr. Lea Johnson
University of Maryland College Park

April 10, 2015
Zhengtao Cui
UMBC
Department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering
"Development and application of a particle-tracking model for nitrogen transport and transformation in aquifers"

April 17, 2015
Dr. Stephanie Lansing
Environmental Science and Technology
UMD College Park

April 24, 2015
Dr. Cynthia Gilmour
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

May 1, 2015
Dr. John M. Sharp, Jr. 
NSF and University of Texas

May 8, 2015
TBA

Master Electrician (Contracted Position)