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According to the FBI, there were 2.6 million background check requests for gun sales last month. Compared to January of 2022 the number of gun sales in the US has increased by 100,000.

In Maryland, where the number of background check requests more than doubled (133.6 percent) amid a steady rise in gun sales despite a series of shooting incidents, it soared from 17,000 last year to 39,000 this year. This means that as many as 39,000 people purchased firearms in January alone, and since used transactions or rentals are not included in the tally, the actual number is estimated to be higher.

Oregano, which recorded the next highest increase, recorded an 88.7% increase from 29,000 last year to 55,000 this year, recording the highest number of views. Virginia rose 9% from 41,000 last year to 45,000 this year, ranking 14th.

As of January 2023, there were 5 million registered firearms, followed by Texas with 588,000, California with 344,000, Florida with 343,000, Virginia with 307,000, and Pennsylvania with 236,000.

UC Berkeley is removing buildings with racist names one after another. On February 7, the university removed the name “Moses Hall” from the wall of the building after Bernard Moses, who wrote that “lynching blacks is an effective way to deter savages.” This removal operation falls under the fifth.

Moses, one of the founders of UC Berkeley, died in 1931 after establishing political departments and history departments, and being respected as a professor who taught law and economics, and his name was used in the name of the school building.

In February 2020, UC Berkeley removed the name of ‘Boalt Hall’, the name of the building named after John Bolt, which had a tremendous impact on the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act (law that prohibited Chinese immigration) in 1882. As a start, we have continued to work on eliminating racist building names. In 1877, Bolt’s racially discriminatory writings, announcing that “Chinese cannot assimilate with whites because of their physical peculiarity, differences in intellectual level and temperament, differences in language and customs, hatred caused by ethnic characteristics, and religious fanaticism, etc.”

Also, ‘LeConte Hall’ named after the brothers John and Joseph LeConte, who fought for the abolitionist South and scientifically studied the terminology of racism, “Whites are historically the most superior race” ‘Barrows Hall’, named after David Prescott Burrow, who left a book and served as UC president in the 1900s, was also deleted from the building name in November 2020.

A museum and art gallery named after Alfred Crover, an anthropological pioneer who collected Native American remains and claimed that the Ohlone people were extinct, has also been removed.

David Schaefer, a professor of biochemical engineering at UC Berkeley, said, “The George Floyd incident and the #MeToo movement have made us more aware of inequality in our society.” These names are part of our history, but we just don’t want to respect the legacy they leave behind.”

Meanwhile, in September of last year, when the school’s name was changed from UC Hastings College of Law to UC College of the Law, San Francisco, Hastings descendants filed a lawsuit against the state government and the school. It was changed following claims that Hastings, who founded the school in 1878, took part in the genocide of Native Americans, but his descendants are protesting it and demanding that the school be restored or enforced by the state to pay an annual interest rate of 7% if the name is removed.

As post offices in the Puget Sound area, including Seattle, are suffering from staff shortages, in some areas, residents are not receiving valuable mail such as social security checks or drug prescriptions on time, even though couriers work overtime until midnight, the Seattle Times reported in an in-depth article. did.

Jan Staley, the shop owner of Bacion Island, runs the store with mailboxes for 150 residents, but on a fictional day, the deliveryman doesn’t come, so she drives to the post office herself, picks up the mail, sorts it, and puts it in the mailbox. “The store has become a post office,” he said.

Virgilio Gause (30) of the Wallingford Post Office, who has been delivering for 6 years, said that recently, there are many apartments and backyards in the North Seattle neighborhood, so if you go around 895 streets, you will walk more than 7 miles (16,000 steps) over 8 hours. Having worked 55 to 72 hours a week for the past several years, he said that he only slept all day on off-duty days.

Kevin Gottlieb, chairman of the postal union (79 branches) in Seattle, including Mill Creek and Avon, said that the number of postal workers in the branch, which was 1,764 in early 2021, decreased by 200 to 1,547 at the end of last year. He said that many baby boomer generation delivery workers had retired, and many employees had left the post office due to the corona pandemic.

Gottlieb explained that some carriers go to work at 6:00 a.m. and deliver until midnight. They often get into car accidents, get bitten by dogs, or are mistaken for thieves by landlords.

He said that the starting wage for delivery workers is between 19 and 23 dollars per hour, and if they work more than 8 hours a day, they get overtime, but post offices with a lot of labor shortages break their labor contracts and make them work 12 hours a day (60 hours a week), and even managers make deliveries. He revealed, “I’ve never seen such a predicament while working at the post office for 35 years.”

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) said it spent more than $80 million in overtime pay for its employees in 2021, and less than half of that $40 million in 2015.

The shortage of couriers is a nationwide phenomenon, especially after the 2020 appointment of Lewis DeJoy, a Republican mega-donor during the Trump administration, to post office director. Furthermore, union officials explained that it is very difficult to find candidates for postal delivery in Seattle, which is considered one of the most expensive cities nationwide.

On the 30th, President Joe Biden started a full-fledged on-site action to emphasize the reorganization of infrastructure, which has been put forward as a key national task.

After the special prosecutor’s investigation into the leaking of classified documents during his tenure as vice president, which erupted at the beginning of the year, has calmed down, he accelerated the pace of digging into labor unions and the middle class by promoting the achievements of infrastructure-related legislation ahead of the declaration of a re-election challenge in the next year’s presidential election.

President Biden visited Baltimore, Maryland, where construction of an aging railroad tunnel was underway that day and emphasized the importance of infrastructure investment.

Laying the groundwork for the rejuvenation of the US economy by reorganizing outdated infrastructure across the United States is one of the key national tasks that President Biden has emphasized since taking office.

It is also a project that the Biden administration has requested bipartisan support to stimulate the economy to escape from the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19).

President Biden also emphasized China’s threat in his speech that day, and repeatedly sent the message that the United States should respond to China’s progress and restore the middle class through the revival of key manufacturing industries.

President Biden said, “To build the world’s best economy, we must secure the world’s best infrastructure,” and “this is not an exaggeration, it is a fact.”

In particular, he said, “In the past, the US ranked first in R&D investment, but now it is only ninth. China, which was previously ranked eighth, is second.” is a reality,” he said.

“For decades, good jobs have flowed abroad along with cheap labor, leaving the middle class, the backbone of America, empty,” he said.

President Biden also mentioned the Ohio battery plant jointly invested by GM and LG Energy Solutions as a success story like this.

President Biden also said, “We made semiconductors, but today we are only responsible for 10% of global production.” “Because foreign semiconductor companies stopped production during the pandemic, American automakers also had to stop production. This should never happen again, and that is why the bipartisan Semiconductor Act was passed,” he highlighted the legislative achievements.

President Biden plans to visit the Hudson Tunnel construction site in New York on the 31st and emphasize the achievements of his infrastructure reconstruction policy.

The American media also added a commentary that there is no business tailored to President Biden as much as improving train infrastructure.

Since President Biden has been a member of Congress for 40 years by train between his home in Washington, DC and Delaware, and is nicknamed “Amtrak Joe,” his “love for trains” is so extraordinary that there is no one more qualified to improve the facilities than him.

On the 3rd of next month, President Biden will visit Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with Vice President Kamala Harris to give a speech about economic achievements since the inauguration of the Biden administration.

The federal Department of Education recently announced details regarding President Biden’s long-awaited student debt plan. The plan is expected to cut the monthly payments of millions of student debtors by more than half. The regulations proposed by the Ministry of Education amend one of the existing reimbursement plans known as REPAYE (Revised Pay as You Earn). The plan ties debtors’ monthly payments to income and family size. Unlike Biden’s plan, which canceled up to $20,000 of federal debt at a time and faced a series of legal battles, the new repayment plan is a long-term piece of the student loan infrastructure and applies to current as well as future borrowers.

It is unclear when the new plan will be formulated and implemented. After listening to public opinion for 30 days, the administration plans to come up with specific plans that reflect the feedback and finalize the plan by the end of this year.

Parents who received money through Parent PLUS loans to help pay for their children’s school expenses cannot enroll in the new plan. This means that if parents can’t afford repayment, the only option they usually have is an income-based repayment plan, which is the most expensive. Known as an income-contingent repayment, this is a plan in which the debtor pays off 20% of his or her discretionary income as repayments over 25 years, after which the debtor is forgiven.

The revised REPAYE plan is more lenient in several respects. First, the plan reduces undergraduate loan payments to 5% of discretionary income. 10% for existing plans (15% for other plans).

Under current REPAYE, discretionary income is income that exceeds the protected amount, which is set at 150% of the federal poverty line. not a lot of money A single debtor will start a situation on income over about $20,400 ($41,600 for a family of four).

The revised plan raised the amount of protection against reimbursement to 225% of the federal poverty line. That means people earning less than 225 percent of the poverty line—that is, people working on a minimum wage of $15 per year—don’t have to pay back. In other words, singles making less than $30,500 or families of four making less than $62,400 would have $0 repayment.

If you can’t afford a standard repayment plan, you can consider an existing income-based repayment plan, such as REPAYE. By choosing this plan, you can benefit from a lower repayment amount when the new plan replaces the old plan.

Sweden and Finland have begun talks with the US regarding a Defense Cooperation Agreement DCA with the United States, the intention is to receive stable military support by deploying US forces in the territory.

For Sweden and Finland, it’s a ‘second best’. Since Turkey is interfering with joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the US-centered joint defense body, it intends to resolve security concerns by strengthening bilateral agreements with the US.

The Swedish and Finnish governments announced on the 9th (local time) that they are discussing a DCA with the United States, respectively. The DCA includes contents such as closely coordinating defense policies, strengthening defense-related exchanges, and conducting joint military exercises. In the agreement that Sweden and Finland will sign with the United States, it is expected that the size, status, and role of the US troops stationed in the country will be dealt with.

“The legal status of the US military in Sweden and important defense materials and infrastructure investments will be included in the DCA,” said Swedish Defense Minister Pall Jonsson in an interview with the Swedish media’s Dagens Nyheter. “(DCA) makes it easier for US troops to operate in Sweden,” he added to AFP.

Sweden and Finland have been rushing to sign a bilateral agreement with the United States since the beginning of the new year because they were blocked from joining NATO. Both Sweden and Finland submitted applications to NATO for membership last year shortly after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Joining NATO requires unanimous consent from all 30 member states, but Turkey is vetoing it on the grounds that “Sweden and Finland is protecting the recruits of those we define as terrorists.”

While shootings do not stop in the United States and President Joe Biden is urging Congress to ban assault weapons, the state of Illinois, which governs Chicago, has completed its own legislation.

According to Chicago media and ABC/CBS broadcasts on the 11th, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (57, Democratic) passed the “Illinois Community Protection Act” (Protect Illinois Communities Act) was signed and promulgated.

This makes Illinois the ninth state out of 50 states and the 10th, including Washington DC, to ban the sale and possession of military weapons, according to ABC.

In the Illinois state legislature, where the Democratic Party has a majority over the passage of the bill, both the Democratic and Republican parties have repeatedly argued. After multiple revisions, the bill passed the state legislature earlier this week by a vote of 34-20 in the Senate and 68-41 in the House.

It went into effect immediately with the signature of Governor Pritzker.

Under the new law, the manufacture, sale, and possession of more than 100 types of offensive weapons, including some semi-automatic firearms, large-capacity magazines (10 rounds for long guns, 15 rounds for pistols or more), and rapid-fire devices, are prohibited in Illinois.

Firearm owners who already own the weapon must voluntarily report to the state police, the gun licensing authority, and complete registration by January 1 of next year.

You can continue to own firearms that have been reported and registered, but you may be charged with a crime if the possession or possession of unregistered firearms is discovered.

At the signing ceremony, Governor Pritzker said, “Gun crime is rampant in Chicago and elsewhere in Illinois. We need real action to remove dangerous weapons from the streets that could lead to mass destruction.

He emphasized that this law is “the strongest offensive weapon ban law in the entire country,” and hoped to “make Illinois a safer place by preventing the spread of assault weapons, large-capacity magazines, and illegal gun parts.”

The state of Illinois spurred legislation to strengthen gun control after a shooting occurred at the site of a parade celebrating Independence Day in Highland Park, a suburb north of Chicago on July 4 last year, killing seven people.

The accused, Robert Cremo III (21), is known to have used an assault weapon he had legally purchased in the crime.

However, the Illinois Rifle Association (ISRA) and the National Rifle Association (NRA) said, “American citizens have the right to bear arms as a means of self-defense.” “We plan to file a lawsuit against the constitution,” he said.

The National Rifle Association estimates the law will affect 2.5 million legal gun owners in Illinois.

US Secretary of State Tony Blincoln said, “The United States has a strong competitive relationship with China,” but “President Joe Biden has a strong determination to ensure that competition with China does not escalate into a conflict.”

Secretary Blincoln appeared on the US CBS broadcast that day and said this in response to a question about what Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said on the 2nd to the effect that the possibility of a war between the US and China cannot be ruled out.

Minister Blincoln continued, “The world expects us to manage our relationship with China responsibly.” “I think war is potentially possible because Chinese President Xi Jinping has complete control over China,” Sherman said at an event at American University. “We are working to block it. At the same time, we are supporting Taiwan to have the means to defend itself,” Reuters reported.

In a CNN broadcast interview that day, Secretary Blincoln was asked if he would take a more moderate approach to China’s protests compared to US support for Iran’s anti-government protests. “If any country tries to suppress peaceful protest in any way, we are speaking out against it,” he said.

When asked what he would say to President Xi about protests in China when he visits China early next year in terms of follow-up discussions at the US-China summit held at the G20 summit last month, he said, “President Biden mentioned to President Xi. “President Biden said that human rights and basic civil liberties are fundamental to the United States, and that no US president has been silent on this issue,” he recalled.

“We want to make sure that there are no misunderstandings with China,” he said.

On the other hand, Minister Blincoln said on the CBS broadcast that the Iranian government decided to abolish the police’s guidance patrol due to the spread of protests, saying, “We have to see how it actually goes in the enforcement process.”

“If the Iranian government responded to the protests, it might be positive, but it depends on what the Iranian people think about it,” he said.

The Honolulu city government is preparing to introduce a new system to shorten the lengthy building permit process.
At a press conference on November 15, Acting Director Don Takeuchi-Apuna of the Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) of the Municipal Government prepared a more efficient building permit process through a new system, including automated document review, staff recruitment, and classification of residential and commercial permits. stated that the purpose was to
Currently, DPP’s average building permit period is 298 days, of which 175 days are known to be spent on finding and correcting defects in applications.
Acting Director Takeuchi-Apuna said the goal is to reduce the time it takes to find and correct application defects to less than seven days.
In addition, he pointed out that to operate the automated process more successfully, six employees should be assigned to the task of verifying compliance with the laws and regulations in the residential area.
According to a report by Star Advertiser, DPP’s Residential Compliance Inspector vacancies currently stand at 24 positions in two positions.
DPP is planning to recruit 15 people in addition to 6 inspectors for compliance checks in residential districts, and it is known that they are planning to supply insufficient labor through an internship partnership with Honolulu Community College.
In the Commercial Zone, 17 positions in 6 positions are vacant. The DPP is said to currently have 80 vacancies.
Reportedly, DPP expects it to take six months to a year to prepare for the introduction of automated tasks.
DPP is also seeking to transform the final stage of building permit issuance into automation.
Acting director Takeuchi-Apuna said that the average duration of the final phase is 60 days, with the goal of eventually reducing it to 7 days.
The City Planning and Permitting Bureau has been criticized for taking too long a building permit process.
Long procedural periods have often led to attempts to shorten them illegally.
For example, in 2017, there was an incident in which a compliance inspector in a residential district received $100,000 in black money on condition of shortening the permit process period, and in February of this year, the inspector received a bribe of $1,000 and was charged with meeting with an architect in private. There was an indictment.
Meanwhile, former DPP director Uchida and chief innovation strategist Danet Maruyama left their positions at DPP earlier this year due to differences of opinion with Mayor Rick Blangiad.

Hawaii’s Mauna Loa is currently the largest active volcano in the world with a mass of over 10 miles. Mauna Loa begun to erupt on November 27, 2022, and continued to pour lava throughout December. This is Mauna Loa’s first eruption since 1984, and due to its lack of historical data, experts anticipate that calculating the trajectory of the lava is going to be much more difficult.

According to Mike Zoeller of the US Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Mauna Loa has been releasing lava at an estimated rate of 21 yards per hour, and if it progresses any further, it creates a major issue by interrupting the major highway that connects the eastern and western parts of the Big Island. It also has the potential to destroy other infrastructure along the way, which causes the situation to be even more detrimental. Although the lava could bring great danger to any person nearby, it seems highly unlikely because the closest town center is about 37 miles northeast. The lava flow didn’t cause any damage to the nearest village even back when the volcano erupted in the 1880s.

Mauna Loa isn’t the only volcano that has been erupting in Hawaii; a second volcano known as Kilauea has been consistently exploding for the past year. Only 21 miles away from Mauna Loa, Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes that attract countless tourists and locals. The volcano has erupted before in 2018, and it led to the destruction of hundreds of homes in the Leilani Estates neighborhood. This incident had an extremely traumatic effect, resulting in the whole summit collapsing into a crater four times its size. However, unlike the past 2018 eruption, the most recent eruption has not been as dangerous as the shooting lava has been staying within the summit crater. Because the explosion isn’t creating any threats to the nearby residents and tourists, the eruptions are deemed to be an exciting experience for many people.

Although the dangerous outcomes from volcano eruptions make these explosions seem abnormal, it is normal for these eruptions to occur on a regular basis. According to the United States Geological Survey, there is an estimation of at least one volcano eruption per week since there are about 50 to 60 eruptions per year. Mauna Loa and Kilauea are not the only active volcanoes; according to the Smithsonian / USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, there are still 27 active volcanoes worldwide. Many researchers anticipate that current active volcanoes will continue to erupt.