ProQuest Platinum
Rioting in Watts
August 11 marked the 45th anniversary of the Watts riots of South Central Los Angeles. Unfortunately, many of the conditions that sparked the riots have not been addressed to this day. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, race relations seemed to be headed in the right direction.

Students: What were underlying causes of racial tension that led to the Watts riots of 1965? What did Los Angeles and the state do to address the causal factors? What are conditions in Watts today: better—why or why not?

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CultureGrams
Mexican Independence Day
Mexico's Independence Day is celebrated on September 15 and 16. This year's celebration marks the two hundredth anniversary of the start of the Mexican War of Independence.

On September 16, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo called for the Mexican people to take up arms against the Spanish colonial government; his battle cry became known as the "Grito de Dolores."

Help your students learn more about the relationship between Mexico and the United States with this activity from CultureGrams World Edition.

Begin with the picture entitled Missing a Son, from our Mexico Photo Gallery. Read the caption out loud and discuss the ways in which the United States benefits from the cheap labor that Mexico provides.

Using the Economy section of the Mexico CultureGrams report, introduce NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) to the class, outlining both the pros (increased jobs with higher-than-average wages for Mexicans, increased profits for U.S. companies, etc.) and the cons (U.S. jobs exported to Mexico, etc.) Full activity details.

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World Conflicts Today
The Iraq War: End?
Last month, President Obama announced that he was fulfilling his campaign pledge to end U.S. combat operations in Iraq that month: "Shortly after taking office, I announced our new strategy for Iraq and for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility. And I made clear that by August 31, 2010, America's combat mission in Iraq would end. And that is exactly what we are doing, as promised and on schedule."

But the September 1st transition from Operation Iraqi Freedom to Operation New Dawn is perhaps more of a milestone on paper than in practice.

When should the Iraq war be considered over? What might be the benefits and drawbacks of a reduced number of U.S. troops in Iraq after August 2010? After December 2011? How should U.S. troops respond if major violence again erupts in Iraq? How are the different parties involved in the war, including Iraqi civilians, affected by U.S. timelines and troop deductions?

Go in-depth using World Conflicts Today
from the editors of CultureGrams.

New WCT Video: Full Conflicts Training

Explore more timely, history-related themes inside Retroview and History Happenings, ProQuest's hands-on social studies email newsletters.

Spotlights & Challenge Quests
In Sept. 1787, the U.S. Constitution was signed by 39 delegates from 12 states. That day is now celebrated each year as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, and the week of September 17 is annually proclaimed as Constitution Week.

SIRS Knowledge Source explores the history and impact of the U.S. Constitution in this month's Spotlight of the Month.

"The recent passage of a tough new immigration enforcement law in Arizona has heated up the national debate over the best way to deal with illegal immigrants."

SIRS asks: How does the scene in this SIRS Discoverer editorial cartoon (new!) illustrate a point of view in the current debate about illegal immigration?

ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Extend the Bush Tax Cuts?
The Bush tax cuts are set to expire by law on December 31, 2010. Recently, the Republicans and some moderate Democrats have campaigned to restore the Bush Tax Cuts, especially for the top 2% of tax payers because they claim that this would help create jobs, or at least prevent more jobs from being eliminated.

The Democrats argue that because most poor and middle-income families consume their entire income, higher tax rates for those families would indeed deprive the economy of much-needed short-run stimulus funds. But extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest families would have significantly less impact as a stimulus because these families typically consume much less than their income.

Students need to be able to understand the conditions and reasoning that lead to the Bush Tax Cuts and whether or not they were effective in creating a robust economy.

Assign students to address the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can add or substitute others): What were the "Bush Tax Cuts" and what were they designed to accomplish? What other tax strategies were proposed at that time as an alternative? What problems did President Bush have in passing the tax cuts?

Top 3 Websites  
Each month, our SIRS team scours the Internet for top-quality websites for classrooms and libraries. Dive into this month's selections: First Americans, Hispanic Heritage, U.S. Constitution.

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