The spreading unrest in the Middle East is now gripping the country. Reports of government crackdowns leading to deaths have coincided with the arrival of Saudi Arabian military forces.

The instability in Bahrain is a big issue for the USA as Andrew Sullivan notes

this, unlike Libya,requires an American response. Because Bahrain hosts the Fifth Fleet.

The Fifth Fleet is America’s naval presence in the Persian Gulf. This is a pretty important strategic area for the US to maintain a fleet so we care quite a bit about what happens in Bahrain.

What should America do? Matt Yglesias thinks that the situation proposes a much cheaper soultion than any presented about Libya as

if the Secretary of Defense were to call the relevant royal families and say that the United States does not intend to sell weapons in the future to countries that use them to crack down on peaceful democratic protesters, that this would be an important spur to political change.

Just because there are options to put pressure on the government doesn’t mean the US will. Nick Turse, of Mother Jones, worries that maintaining our ‘friends’ and thus our Naval base in Bahrain

seems to be more powerful than the President of the United States’ commitment to support peaceful, democratic change in the oil-rich region.

So far President Obama has demanded that Bahrain’s government shows restraint. We’ll have to wait and see if there are any teeth in that request.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY from USDemocrazy!

Now a word from your emperor….Japan’s Emperor Akihito makes a rare television appearance.

Fears of radiation continue to stem from nuclear plant involved in Japan’s earthquake.

Can I eat this? Pepsi plans switch to bottle made from 100% plant!

The party of profit: Republicans are hoping to sell debates to get out of debt.

And, Five Guys take over the world?

Take a good look at the image above…now, STOP fantasizing about another Hillary Clinton for President campaign!

That will likely be the last time you see Clinton campaign to become…well, anything.

On Wednesday, the current Secretary of State, former U. S. Senator from New York, and two-term First Lady made it clear she wants to be done with public office.

There isn’t anything that I can imagine doing after this that would be as demanding, as challenging or rewarding”

Don’t get too worried, she isn’t quite done yet. Clinton fully plans to stay in her current position through the rest of President Obama’s first term.

Clinton’s impending retirement leaves one big question…What ladies are left to reach America’s top office?

SGA Senate Meeting- March 14^th

This week’s senate meeting was very productive! With much debate and discussion, various topics were brought to the attention of the Senate this week. The first topic that was discussed was the upcoming budgets for SGA, SEB, and The Retriever Weekly. After finishing a run-through of the budget, President Yasmin Karimian introduced the alterations that are to be made for the upcoming year. The next senate meeting will involve all three organizations coming together to discuss and approve the revised budgets.

Moving onto the next topic, the Senate then discussed and revised legislation for the Retriever Learning Center. For those of you who may not know, the RLC will be a new 24/7 study area in the library for UMBC students to utilize throughout the year. With SGA supporting the RLC, student feedback will be considered while making the decision as to how the RLC will be furnished once it is up and running for some time. The Senate will be voting on exactly how SGA will be supporting the RLC monetarily by the next senate meeting.

Before the meeting came to a close, the senators discussed some of their current initiatives. The UMBC application was discussed, due to one of the senator’s initiative to alter the Common Application’s supplement. Another announcement was that the Senate is currently working to keep some of the Commons dining facilities open for more hours during the week, as well as specific places holding hours during the weekend. As for last week’s outreach hour discussion, there was a significant amount of positive responses. The proposed issues with registration seem to be dwindling and opinions on advising seem to be more positive. This week’s outreach hour discussion will be questions about Stress Free Zone. For one, do you know what Stress Free Zone is? If so, what plans would you like to see in action during Stress Free Zone? Come out and speak to the senators about your recommendations for this SGA event!

Mechanical engineering major Brian Wayman ’99 is using the skills he learned at UMBC and at Georgia Tech (MS, Ph.D.) to improve the lives of premature babies.

A mechanical engineer at GE Healthcare, Wayman was profiled recently on the College of Engineering and IT’s website. Prior to joining GE in July 2010, Wayman was the R&D Team Lead, New Product Development at Becton Dickinson.

Brian has several patents and patent applications for his work at Becton Dickinson on disposable syringes designed to prevent re-use of the syringe following injection.  In addition, he has several publications in peer-reviewed bioengineering journals.

Read the full story here.