Legal Issue:

Holocaust Victims and Heirs' Recovered Funds

"Jewish Holocaust Survivors Frustrated by Swiss Banks"

http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2001_02/holocaust.htm

(Law students in Virginia collected questionnaires of Holocaust victims and their families to ascertain where the money belongs)

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/israelis-to-sue-swiss-banks-for-refusing-to-return-money-deposited-during-holocaust-1.426775

http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/13747/report_swiss_banks_holocaust_fund_paid_out_1_24_billion_dollars

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-bank-money-repaid-to-holocaust-victims/34822348

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/nazis/etc/cron.html 

(A chronology of the events that occurred in relation to Swiss banks and Holocaust victims' money)

Holocaust victims and their families/heirs began to file suits and speak out against Swiss banks who held money from WWII that belonged to or was stolen from Holocaust victims. When the victims would go to these banks to retrieve the stolen money, they had difficulties. The banks would require death certificates of the victims, which were rare during the Holocaust and efforts to keep the finds. Lawsuits were filed against the banks alleging that the banks knowingly kept and held assets of Holocaust victims and also alleged that the banks aided the Nazis by holding looted and illegally obtained money including slave labor profits. The banks agreed to a settlement in 1998 that stated that the banks would pay $1.25 billion to end the suits claiming they withheld money. The settlement also ensured the lawsuits would be dropped and those who threatened sanctions on the banks would stop. The Swiss "Claims Resolution Tribunal" oversaw the payouts and was then disbanded in 2012. $726 million has been paid out to victims and heirs, where most of the money was related to 4,600 dormant accounts. For assets and accounts that could not be one hundred percent solidified as correct, $5000 was given. This applied to around 12,300 cases. Virginia law students assisted in the class action lawsuits and the recovering of assets. The Swiss Banks had difficulty in tracing victims and their families as survivors were and their families as survivors were scattered throughout Europe after they were freed. By 2009, most of the money had been paid out. Money that was stolen had been accounted for and compensation for the labor at displaced persons camps. Investigations led by the Swiss government also revealed more controversy on Switzerland. They found that some Swiss banks bought Nazi Gold during the war and that Jewish refugees were turned away from Swiss borders-seemingly to maintain neutrality. Edward Korman, a judge from New York who oversaw the management of the funds, concluded that the investigations and payouts and said that there was "a conspiracy among the Swiss banks to stonewall heirs of survivors who were making claims to Swiss bank accounts, and, specifically, those which had been improperly transferred to the Nazis.(2009)" As of 2012, two Israelis were to file lawsuits against two Swiss Banks for allegedly refusing to return their money to them. They filed these lawsuits in US Courts in order to use US law that allows them to sue foreign states for matters concerning the Holocaust. They alleged that they were lied to and cheated out of money from the banks and denied access to information about their loved ones

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It is a shame that the victims and their families have had such a hard time acquiring the money that was taken from them and the money they deserve. It is important to also consider the fact that the Swiss banks also had a little bit of a challenging task of returning the billions of dollars that they held from the war. This, however, does not take away the fact that they made it challenging for the heirs and victims to claim their money. 

Energy Plan

Smart Highway

The "Smart Highway" and "Smart Road" are technologies that incorporate solar energy into the roadways to assist in autonomous cars, lighting, and road condition. The technology used is photo voltaic pavement that generates electricity through solar power. A photovoltaic system uses solar panels comprised of many solar cells to produce solar power. The photovoltaic effect is when photons of light excite electron into higher energy levels, which then act as carriers for an electric current. There solar cells can be useful to recharge a battery or power equipment.  The conversion of sunlight into electricity this way does not require any other equipment or parts. Solar energy storage is done through thermal mass systems, rechargeable batteries, and molten salt. Thermal mass systems and molten salts can store solar energy in the form of heat, while the rechargeable batteries store the solar energy as electricity. The batteries are useful in off-grid endeavors though extra electricity can be pumped into the grid.

A start up in Idaho, Solar Roadways, has designed a solar powered roadway that would eventually, in their hopes, form a smart highway. They have a prototype that they built as a parking lot and have ideas to change all sidewalks and parking lots to these solar roads. The parking lots would have parking spots that are able to move because of the LED lights, These roads, sidewalks, and parking lots could heat themselves with stored solar energy to melt snow and ice and also light up with LED lights to display messages and road signs. Other companies have developed photo-luminescent paint that would glow if temperatures fell below freezing, warning drivers of icy conditions. A downfall of this paint though, is that the paint would need to be repainted after two weeks. 

Smart highways could feature interactive lights, wind lights, electric priority lanes, glowing lines, and dynamic lines. The interactive lights would save energy by only turning on when cars are approaching. Wind lights would use energy generating from passing cars turning a windmill turbine to keep lights on for the safety of vehicles and their passengers. Electric priority lanes would have the ability to charge electric cars as they drove on them, a way to promote sustainable travel. Glowing lines would be charged throughout the day with solar energy to help light dark roads at night. The dynamic lines feature of a smart highway would be the ability to change the road deck markings to help with traffic flow and control depending on the traffic situation. All of these feature would and could be used with solar energy, when necessary, as a clean and efficient source of energy for a technologically advanced road system. 

The solar power collected during the day can also be used at night to power the LED lights and melt ice and snow. There are some issues though, on what would happen on days where there is no sunlight on cloudy days. Solar Roadways has a vision to have all pavement transformed into solar roadways pavement to help reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. 

This type of complete reworking of the road system would take a lot of money and time to complete. These companies hope to start small with parking lots, driveways, and sidewalks to work out all of the bugs that come with a system so vast and off the grid. Businesses and companies have the incentive to begin this work with a dent in their electricity bills from the solar energy they are collecting out in their parking lot. This clean, and renewable energy source, if made into a large highway would supposedly create three times as much electricity as Americans already use, therefore paying for itself. More research needs to be done on how to store all of the extra electricity for days when no solar energy is being generated and also on how expensive it would really be to update all of the US's roads and highways.