4 . About 10 million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S. They are not registered with authorities and therefore often hide from the government. They do not pay taxes, and they cannot apply for driver’s licenses, jobs that require a work permit, or loans to buy houses. If discovered, they can be sent back to their home countries.

But this week, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to allow some undocumented immigrants to stay for a limited period and apply to work legally. The decision will affect only undocumented immigrants who meet three criteria: those who have not been found guilty of a crime; those who have been in the U.S. for the past five years or more; and those who have a child who was born here or lives here legally. About 4 million undocumented immigrants meet those criteria.

The case has much to do with a program called DAPA. It stands for “Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents.” The program was approved two years ago. One of the goals of the program was to keep families together. It also aimed to bring more people into legal work. People who support DAPA say the program can greatly reduce the fear undocumented immigrants feel.

A six-year-old girl named Sophie Cruz spoke outside the Supreme Court building. She was born in the U.S., but her parents are here without documents. That means the government can force her parents to leave the country – and their daughter—at any time. “I ask the judges to protect us children and all immigrants,” Sophie Cruz said.

If the Supreme Court decides the DAPA program is legal, the government will protect approved undocumented immigrants. They will receive a social security card, permission to work in the U.S., and a promise that they will not be forced to leave for three years.

Cell phones are used everywhere, but on the road they are a dangerous distraction (分心) to drivers and should be forbidden.

The New England Journal of Medicine reported that "drivers using a cell phone were four times more likely to have an accident than those not using a phone." The major problem is that the driver is not focused on the road, but on his or her conversation. Cell phone drivers are very unpredictable: they drive too fast or too slow, make improper turns, run red lights and even stop at green ones. It's not only annoying; it's dangerous. Accidents related to cell phones include off a road and crashing into a tree, fences, and buildings and even turning over.

In October at the California Traffic Safety Summit, experts showed that "cell phones used by drivers lead to at least 1,000 deaths per year in California." These are the same problems that occur with drunk driving, which is against the law and strictly enforced. For the same reasons, California needs laws that ban the use of cell phone in cars.

Until we take action to pass new laws, drivers at least need to be more responsible when using cell phones. The American Automobile Association recommends that drivers pull off the road before using a cell phone, have a passenger use it for them, or use voice mail to answer calls. Another suggestion is to keep the phone off while moving or simply not to use it in the car. Before using a cell phone, drivers should ask themselves, "Is this call really that important?"

Cell phones can be a very important link in emergencies, but drivers need to use them wisely. As professional NASCAR racer John Andretti says, "Driving safely is your first responsibility." The best road to safety is to just hang up and drive.

6 . Americans are getting older, and family size is getting smaller. That means the United States will have less working adults in the future. By 2030, twenty percent of U.S. residents will be 66 years of age or older. That compares to 13 percent in 2010, and just under 10 percent in 1970.

The aging population could be a concern if Americans expect to have an expanding population, says David Kelly. “If you're investing in things like the housing industry or the auto industry and you need an ever-growing population, then you have to adjust to a world in which the U.S. population is growing more slowly,” he said.

Different studies show that an aging population cuts into economic growth, and older workers who stay on the job are often less productive than younger ones.

But as Americans are aging, last year the birth rate nationwide dropped to its lowest level in 32 years. Less than 3.8 million babies were born in 2018, which is two percent less than the year before. Taken as a whole, the population grew only six-tenths of one percent in 2018, compared to 1.2 percent growth in the 1990s.

Kelly said the low birth rate is not necessarily bad news. Looking beyond economics, a growing world population could do more damage to Earth’s environment. He said that U.S. policy makers should plan for dealing with a smaller workforce. “We really should adapt to a world of slow population growth because it's clearly happening to us,” he said.

What will replace human workers? Like others, Kelly expects the lack of workers to fuel the growth of robotics and artificial intelligence. He said that Americans need to prepare for the U.S. economic growth to slow a little in the future. Another way to fix the decreasing workforce is to add more legal immigrants（移民）. Immigrants usually arrive in the United States when they are of working age.

But this is not an easy solution, because the U.S. Congress and President Donald Trump continue to disagree over how to deal with immigration issues.

The U.S. economy can easily make changes to deal with the slower population growth, Kelly said. But he worries that politics could get in the way of solutions. “The real question is a political question,” he notes, “because it seems even as our population matures（成熟） in years, it seems that our political system gets less mature in terms of thought process.”

8 . Today, some 815 million people suffer chronically（长期地） from hunger. And although this is significantly fewer people than the numbers we saw a decade ago, hunger still kills more people than AIDS, Tuberculosis（肺结核） and Malaria（疟疾） combined.

On May 28th, we observe World Hunger Day. It is an effort to focus attention on the fact that despite an adequate availability of food nearly everywhere, globally, some 21,000 people die every day from hunger or malnutrition（营养不良）.

People do not go hungry because the world does not produce enough food for everyone. According to the world Hunger Education Service, over the past three decades, significant growth in food production, along with improved access to food, helped reduce the percentage of chronically undernourished（营养不良的） people in developing countries from 34 percent to 15 percent. The principal problem is that many people in the world still do not have resources to purchase or grow enough food.

Indeed, hunger is a consequence of poverty, and also one of its causes. Hunger exists because many countries lack social safety nets; because in many countries women, although they do most of the farming, do not have as much access as men to training, credit or land.

Conflict, governance systems that do not encourage investment in agriculture, poor management of land and natural resources, lack of educational opportunity, displacement of small farmers by natural disasters, and financial and economic difficulties that remove jobs at the lowest levels, all contribute toward creating conditions that push the poorest into hunger.

Over the past decade, a global push to reduce hunger and extreme poverty has marked some significant successes, thanks in part to the efforts of numerous international and transnational institutions, foundations, NGOs and governments, including the United States.

But on world Hunger Day, let us not forget that with over 815,000 people still living in daily food insecurity, we still have a long way to go before we can safely say that no child goes to bed hungry most nights and that no parent skimps on（节省） their own dinner so the children can eat.

9 . Is a college education worth the price? This is a question more Americans are asking as college costs continue rising and the job market remains weak.

Attending a four-year college in the United States can cost more than $40,000 a year. Many people with a college education are drowning in student debt. They had to borrow money to finance their education.

A recent study suggests that a college education is worth it, at least in the United States. The study found that someone with a 4-year college education earns twice as much as a high school graduate over a lifetime. And for nearly all study programs, an individual with a four-year bachelor’s degree（学士学位） earns even more than someone with a two-year degree.

But not all college majors have a guarantee (保证) of good wages. For example, a chemical engineer can expect to earn double the earnings of a social worker over a lifetime. On average, a finance graduate makes more than a nurse or medical aide, while the nurse makes more than an elementary school teacher.Generally, college majors that require skill in mathematics have high lifetime earnings. Graduates in computer science, engineering, and physics have the highest wages. Majors that involve teaching children or counseling have the lowest pay. Actually, graduates with bachelor’s degrees in some fields earn even less than people with a 2-year associate’s degrees over a lifetime. They include early childhood education, elementary education, and social work.

The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution noted that future earnings should not be the only reason for choosing a college major. It says, “Personal enjoyment, engaging in meaningful work, and filling a social need should also enter into a student’s decision-making.” The numbers are only averages and there are many exceptions.

“College degrees may not be a guarantee of higher income, but they come closer than just about any other investment (投资) one can make.” said study organizers.