RYMS Rewind: January 2017

PubSquare Media
PubSquare Media
Published in
4 min readFeb 1, 2017

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Written by Rising Young MindS Editorial Board — February 1, 2017

Photo courtesy of Flickr user nubui

January was a politically-focused month in the United States. Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States, succeeding Barack Obama as commander-in-chief. Sparks flew as he quickly got to work with over a dozen new policy initiatives aimed to satisfy his campaign promises. But what did we miss during his rather eventful first 11 days in office? Brandon, Tim, Dillon and Chris have the scoop with our very first RYMS Rewind!

Secret Subpoenas for Social Media Metadata

Photo courtesy of Flickr user AJC1

Twitter announced Friday that they had been permitted to speak for the first time on their compliance with two national security letters (NSLs) the company received from the FBI — one in 2015 and 2016 respectively. The letters were each accompanied with gag orders, which prevented them from informing the affected account holders or publicly disclosing the letters to begin with. Similar requests had previously been made of other tech giants such as Google and Yahoo!, reminding users to be careful of their online activities (insert Signal messenger plug here). Twitter has been involved in an ongoing legal battle with the federal government over transparency since October 2014.

Brandon C. Kesselly

Tragedy Strikes Quebec City Mosque

Photo courtesy of Pixabay user chidioc

On the 29th day of the new year Alexandre Bissonnette murdered six people in the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec City. He has since been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder. 19 people were injured in total. According to his Facebook profile, Bissonnette, 27, is a supporter of Donald Trump and detractor of multi-nationalism. He has also participated in the Cadet Program, a nationwide affiliate of the Canadian Armed Forces. The program focuses on developing self-confidence, self-awareness, citizenship and physical fitness but does not provide military training. While two people were arrested following the shooting, Bissonnette is the only suspect, with the other being deemed a witness. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the tragedy an act of terror. The Quebec City mosque previously faced intolerance when a pig’s head was placed at its door during Ramadan, a month where Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. Practicing Muslims do not eat pork, which seems to be the basis of the provocative gesture.

Timothy Lewis

Boy Scouts of America to Accept Transgender Applicants

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

On Monday, the Boy Scouts of America announced that they will begin to accept children based on the gender written on their application, rather than the biological sex with which they are born. Per a statement by the organization, they believe that the change will “truly serve the whole family.” Boy Scouts’ chief executive Michael Surbaugh admitted that state and regional interpretations of gender are changing, and that the BSA needs to follow suit. The movement to include transgender boys happened after the mother of 8-year-old Joe Maldonado filed a lawsuit following the exclusion of her son. The progression towards equality falls in line with the BSA’s 2015 repeal of their block against gay scouts and leaders.

Dillon Payne

Damn, the Bulls are a Mess

Photo courtesy of Flickr user rmtip21

The Chicago Bulls are coming apart at the seams. This isn’t the type of thing that a couple of benchings and fines will fix. There’s no clear leader for the current 7th seed in the East, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better. When your stars drop comments in the press like they’re LeBron James, but don’t win like the Cavaliers, then there’s issues. Maybe it’s because Dwayne Wade doesn’t practice enough. Maybe Rajon Rondo is as much of a headache as we all think he is. So now what? Do they go forward as is, or blow it to pieces and see where they may fall? The trade deadline is February 23rd at 3 PM Eastern Standard Time, and the clock is ticking away.

Christopher Walker

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