This week, the Senate takes up a massive bill that would overhaul the American immigration system for the first time since 1986. One thing that is not in that bill is a program that has, since the 1990s, become the primary route to the U.S. for immigrants from Africa. "Can you run an immigration lottery in the U.S. and say no Mexicans need apply?" asks program critic Jan Ting. "No Chinese. No Indians?" A professor of law at Temple and former assistant commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Ting calls the program discriminatory and un-American.

Planning a trip abroad for the summer? It’s important to check with your doctor to find out what precautions, such as vaccines or medications, can help protect your family, explains Stephen Aronoff, a pediatrics professor at Temple. “Here’s why. While virtually nonexistent in the United States, measles, a vaccine preventable disease, is still common in many parts of the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific,” he said.

Bankrupt coal mining company Patriot Coal will be able to void its agreement with the United Mine Workers union and stop funding pensions for retired miners, thanks to a ruling from a U.S. Bankruptcy Court. UMWA claims that Peabody Energy created Patriot Coal because it was “designed to fail,” in the words of a paper written by Temple Fox School of Business finance professor Bruce Rader. Patriot, he writes, “seems to have been created to fail in the long run,” so that it could use bankruptcy to get out of paying health and retirement benefits.

In Washington, senators are debating an overhaul of the immigration system. In Philadelphia, supporters of immigration reform presented new data showing that legislation has support from a majority of Pennsylvania voters. Patience Lehrman, an immigrant from Cameroon, is the director of SHINE, a project at Temple that provides support to elderly immigrants. "I want you all to join me this morning and ask our senators and our congressmen, and let them know that this is the time, that now is the time," she said.