1 Tightened asylum standards fail to keep up with surge of migration
2 SpaceX building network of spy satellites for Pentagon
3 Viagra may be good for your brain
4 San Francisco to incentivize office to apartment conversions
5 Chinese gangs compete in US illegal marijuana trade
3/19/2003 War in Iraq begins
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1 Tightened asylum standards fail to keep up with surge of migration
The U.S. officers who screen migrants at the border to determine eligibility for asylum have been plowing through cases at a record clip since May, when the Biden administration placed tougher restrictions on people who cross illegally. The officers are completing twice as many interviews per month as they did a year ago, and under the tighter rules, the percentage of migrants who are rejected and referred for deportation has more than doubled, according to the latest Department of Homeland Security data. But the number of people screened remains a small fraction of the number who cross the border illegally. And the government does not have the detention capacity to hold others long enough to interview them. As a result, the government has limited ability to reduce border crossings by adjusting the U.S. asylum system, whose delays and dysfunction are widely recognized as a driver of illegal immigration.
WaPo
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2024/03/17/biden-migrants-asylum-new-restrictions/
2 SpaceX building network of spy satellites for Pentagon
SpaceX is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites under a classified contract with a U.S. intelligence agency, five sources familiar with the program said, demonstrating deepening ties between billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's space company and national security agencies. The network is being built by SpaceX's Starshield business unit under a $1.8 billion contract signed in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an intelligence agency that manages spy satellites, the sources said. The plans show the extent of SpaceX's involvement in U.S. intelligence and military projects and illustrate a deeper Pentagon investment into vast, low-Earth orbiting satellite systems aimed at supporting ground forces. If successful, the sources said the program would significantly advance the ability of the U.S. government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe.
Reuters
3 Viagra may be good for your brain
Can Viagra prevent or reverse Alzheimer’s disease? Older men’s ship may be coming in. New research from the Cleveland Clinic suggests the erectile-dysfunction drug could ward off cognitive decline, illustrating how artificial intelligence can help scientists repurpose old medications for new diseases. The study, published this month in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, builds on earlier research by the Cleveland Clinic that identified sildenafil, the generic name for Viagra, as a promising Alzheimer’s treatment.
WSJ
4 San Francisco to incentivize office to apartment conversions
San Francisco is making it easier to turn empty office buildings into homes, a move aimed at easing the city’s housing crunch and reviving its struggling downtown. Voters approved Proposition C, which offers a tax break for developers to convert up to 5 million square feet of commercial space by 2030, according to a tally of results from last week’s election. Mayor London Breed, who championed the proposal, said it will help the city meet a state mandate to create tens of thousands of new homes and to diversify the downtown. The measure comes as the tech sector, a key to San Francisco’s economy, has scaled back its presence and workforce since the pandemic. Major companies, such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Salesforce Inc., have reduced their real estate footprint, allowing employees to work from home or relocate. San Francisco’s office vacancy rate hit a record 36% as of December and it’s expected to tick up further this year, according to an analysis by CBRE Group Inc.
Bloomberg
5 Chinese gangs compete in US illegal marijuana trade
From California to Maine, Chinese organized crime has come to dominate much of the nation’s illicit marijuana trade, an investigation by ProPublica and The Frontier has found. Along with the explosive growth of this criminal industry, the gangsters have unleashed lawlessness: violence, drug trafficking, money laundering, gambling, bribery, document fraud, bank fraud, environmental damage and theft of water and electricity. Chinese organized crime “has taken over marijuana in Oklahoma and the United States,” said Donnie Anderson, the director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, in an interview. Among the victims are thousands of Chinese immigrants, many of them smuggled across the Mexican border to toil in often abusive conditions at farms ringed by fences, surveillance cameras and guards with guns and machetes. A grim offshoot of this indentured servitude: Traffickers force Chinese immigrant women into prostitution for the bosses of the agricultural workforce. The mobsters operate in a loose but disciplined confederation overseen from New York by mafias rooted in southern China, according to state and federal officials. Known as “triads” because of an emblem used long ago by secret societies, these criminal groups wield power at home and throughout the diaspora and allegedly maintain an alliance with the Chinese state.
Pro Publica
https://www.propublica.org/article/chinese-organized-crime-us-marijuana-market
3/19/2003 War in Iraq begins
Thanks for reading!