Water in Las Cruces-- The development of East Mesa will greatly increase the size of the town of Las Cruces.

Crimes against Women in Juarez--hundreds of women have murdered, but there have been few prosecutions. What must be done to end this? We have a bibliography of resources on this topic.

Torture--some possible questions:

• Does the United States use torture? If so, does torture work?
• How do we define torture? When people are subjected to extremely loud music, is that torture?
• What about the United States sending people to other countries where torture is practiced? Is that ethical.

Privacy and data gathering: How much information is being gathered? How well is private information being protected? Should more laws be created to regulate these practices?

Wiretapping without court warrants. Apparently thousands of American citizens have had their phones secretly tapped. How serious a violation of privacy is this? Do security concerns justify the practice?

War in Iraq: (many obvious issues, such as, was the American public deliberately misinformed about weapons of mass destruction)?

Nuclear weapons for sale-- There seems to be a black market in nuclear weapons, part of which has been run by our ally, Pakistan, and its Dr. AQ Khan What should be done?

Iran is building nuclear weapons-- what should the US do? The UN?

Prisons and sentencing:

• Is it true that we spend more money on prisons than on colleges? Should we?
• What about racial disparities in sentencing? What causes the disparity? Should there be reforms?
• Drug offenders account for some 60% of all federal detainees. Some are arguing that punishments for drug laws are unfair and counterproductive. Are they?

Bird flu (or avian flu). The mortality rate can reach 90-100%.

• Is it likely to mutate so it can spread from human to human?
• What should we be doi.ng to meet this or other public health threats?

Katrina:

• What did we know long before the hurricane? Why didn't we do anything?
• What we know as the hurricane was happening?
• How many people are homeless, and what should be done for them?

Global Warming--

• Is this definitely happening?
• Are politicians trying to bias the science?
• what should the US be doing?

Energy-There are many possible questions, such as what are the prospects for alternative energy, such as wind energy? Or conservation?

Factory farming- is it safe to keep so many animals under these conditions? Is it ethical?

Genetic modified organisms we can create fish that grow more quickly, corn that resists pests, etc. But what happens when these human creations are released into the environment?

The U. S. Budget Deficit: how bad is the deficit? Where does the money go? What should be done? (You should probably narrow to a managable topic; the following have been debated recently)

• medicare
• medicaid
• military spending

Immigration: There are proposals to make illegal immigration a felony, to erect fences on the border with Mexico, etc. Others are talking about a "guest worker" system. What should our policy be?

last revised 8-20-06