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News Bytes

Immigration Bill

You might have already heard that the USA is planning to take a fee for entering the United States. Experts predict that this fee will have a negative influence towards the tourism within the USA. Background of this fee is the draft law of an immigration fee, which was lately decided by the US-Senator. The fee of 10 $ should be paid by each person who comes from a country which is part of the Visa-Waiver-Program. The final decision has to be made now by the House of Representatives.

The extra income is supposed to be used for marketing reasons: to make the USA even more attractive as a travel destination. Travel experts state that it is not fair to take money from people who are already visiting the USA and are willing to spend money there. Another problem is that the money should be paid by credit card when people are leaving the USA. This way the USA would receive the credit card details of all travelers and together with that personal information.
Fore more information you can check out this website.

At this point we would like to mention again that the application for the "ESTA"-Travel Document so far is still free of charge. Please stay away from all websites who state that a registration is combined to a registration fee. That is not true at the moment. The American Dream will inform you about any changes right away. For more information please click here.

Reconstruction on Ground Zero Slows Down

Eight years after the terrorist attack of the World Trade Center in New York, 11. September 2001, the reconstructions of the World Trade Center are not as advanced as expected. 22 billion dollar can be spend on four new towers which should be finished in 2011. So far the reconstruction of only one tower, the Freedom Tower (new name: 1 World Trade Center), have begun. A great discussion is going on at the moment if New York even needs that many new offices (and that many new towers). It might be possible that the construction works on Ground Zero continue until 2018. The memorial place, which was supposed to be opened already, is still not finished.

Second Oldest Women of the World Lives in New Hampshire

Since September 11th, Mary Josephine Ray, 114 years old, is the oldest women of the United States and the second oldest woman in the world. She has received that title from Gertrude Baines, who died in Los Angeles at the age of 115 years. According to the gerontology researcher group the Japanese women Kama Chinen is older than Ray. Chinen was born on May 19th, 1895, seven days before Ray. When she was 114 years old, she was announced to be the third oldest person world wide. She was interviewed by the "New Hampshire Union Leader" and was asked, what she thinks about her long life. Answering that question she only said "it has been such a long life and I can hardly remember everything".