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‘I am Ana Karen Betancourt Macias, and I’m undocumented’

When Ana Karen Betancourt Macias introduces herself, she openly identifies herself as undocumented.

Ana Karen Betancourt Macias.
Betancourt Macias

“I introduce myself all the time as ‘I am Ana Karen Betancourt Macias, and I’m undocumented.’” Betancourt Macias, WSU Vancouver sociology graduating senior, said. “That was to make the people in the room feel uncomfortable, but also know that I was a force to reckon with.”

During her first year at WSU Vancouver, Betancourt Macias served as ASWSUV director of legislative affairs. It was her first time in student government, she said. In that position, she helped lobby for the Washington College Grant, formerly known as the state-need grant.

Betancourt Macias will be graduating this summer from WSU Vancouver with a bachelor’s in sociology. She said she is planning to apply to Harvard University for her master’s degree. She is also considering law school.

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The Daily Evergreen

No honor among cyber thieves

A backstabbing crime boss and thousands of people looking for free tutorials on hacking and identity theft were two of the more interesting findings of a study examining user activity on two online “carding forums,” illegal sites that specialize in stolen credit card information.

Alex Kigerl.
Kigerl

“The cybercrime marketplace, like most e-commerce, has continued to expand and carding forums are the most widespread formats in the West for exchanging illicit goods,” said Alex Kigerl, a Washington State University criminologist and lead author of the study published in the June edition of Social Science Computer Review.

Kigerl also discovered that the administrator of the two carding forums, the person who is typically in charge of vouching for reputable sellers and banning users who defraud other users, was perhaps the biggest thief of all.

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Tech Xplore
WSU Insider
The Register

Presidential ad wars bring 2020 battleground into focus

President Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden and their allies have reserved more than a quarter billion dollars in television advertising time in the weeks leading up to November’s general election, bringing into focus what is likely to be the broadest set of swing states in recent history.

Travis Ridout.
Ridout

“It does seem like there will be a healthy number of contested states this time around, and there seems to be plenty of money out there to run these ads as well,” said Travis Ridout, a political scientist at Washington State University and a co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks political ad spending.

The bulk of the spending on the Democratic side comes from Priorities USA, a super PAC that has already reserved almost $50 million in airtime from now until Election Day. The group has reserved tens of millions in airtime in 17 media markets across the same six states where Biden is focused, according to advertising data analyzed by The Hill.

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The Hill

Of masks and rights

By Cornell Clayton professor of Political Science & Director of Foley Institute

Cornell Clayton.
Clayton

“My body, my choice!”

A refrain from the abortion-rights movement is now the battle cry of those insisting there’s a right against wearing masks or being vaccinated during a pandemic.

A Kentucky Congressman, Thomas Massie, recently tweeted: “There is no authority in the Constitution that authorizes the government to stick a needle in you against your will, force you to wear a face mask, or track your daily movements.”

In Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905), the court upheld a compulsory smallpox vaccination law against the claim it violated “the inherent right of every freeman to care for his own body and health in such way as to him seems best.” Such a right, the court said, must give way to “the power of a local community to protect itself against an epidemic threatening the safety of all.”

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Seattle Times
The Spokesman-Review

Ask Dr. Universe: What are shooting stars made of?

If you are anything like me, you probably like watching for shooting stars in the night sky. A shooting star, or a meteor, is usually a small rock that falls into Earth’s atmosphere.

Michael Allen.
Allen

When I went to visit my friend Michael Allen, a senior instructor of astronomy and physics at Washington State University, he told me a lot of shooting stars are no bigger than a pencil eraser.

“The earth is going to pass a random pebble once in a while and that will make a streak in the sky,” he said.

When a small rock is falling into Earth’s atmosphere, it falls super-fast. Depending on the meteor, it can travel anywhere from 36,000 feet to 236,220 feet in a single second. As it falls, there is a lot of friction between the air and the rock. With all that friction, the rock starts to get really hot.

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WSU Insider