While Americans focused on the tragedies unfolding in Las Vegas and Puerto Rico, Attorney General Jeff Sessions quietly rescinded a memorandum that protected transgender people from workplace discrimination. Eric Holder, President Obama’ first attorney general, had issued the memo in December 2014, extending the Civil Rights Act’s Title VII protections against employment discrimination to transgender […]
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Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Democrats Ponder How to Revive Antitrust
With economic inequality soaring to heights not seen in the United States since the progressive era of the early 20th century, it makes sense that some issues on the policy agenda from that bygone age are re-emerging today. Among them: antitrust. In recent years, the rise of corporate concentration, its negative effects on the broader […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Americans Say Mainstream Media’s Coverage of Science Is Less Than Stellar
A September Pew Research Center poll has reinvigorated the years-old debate over how mainstream news media outlets cover science. Pew found that even though half of Americans believe that “specialty sources” like science magazines, documentaries, or science museums present scientific information correctly, few people actually rely on them for news about science—even though they believe […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Latino Voting Rights Groups Gear Up for 2018
Encouraged by Donald Trump’s poor approval ratings and an unproductive Congress, Democrats believe that they can make up some ground in the 2018 midterms. But if the party wants to make waves, they will need to get Latinos, one of their key voting blocs, to the polls. Nearly 70 percent of Latinos voted for Clinton […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
New Police Crimes Database Provides Law Enforcement Accountability Tool
In September, Bowling Green State University in Ohio published the country’s first online police crime database. It’s a small but noteworthy milestone for groups like Black Lives Matter who have called for greater law enforcement accountability as police brutality and the shootings of African Americans by officers have continued to dominate headlines. The Henry A. […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Target Takes the $15 High Road. Where’s Walmart?
Target, one of the largest retail employers in the country, announced Monday that it will raise its minimum wage for employees to $11 an hour starting in October, and gradually increase it to $15 an hour by the end of 2020. The new standard applies to Target’s 323,000 regular employees as well as to the […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Senator Cassidy’s Home State of Louisiana Gets Hit Hard by the Doctor’s Bill
The Graham-Cassidy bill is atrocious. “Shifting of responsibility” for health care to states simply means fewer federal dollars for most states—but that’s not unexpected. Many Republicans have made it clear that their main focus is to get rid of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act by any means necessary. Unfortunately, this particular proposal doesn’t just repeal […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Graham-Cassidy: Republicans Kill Parents, Complain They’re Orphans
“Right now, 37 percent of the revenue from the Affordable Care Act goes to Americans in four states,” Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, coauthor of the Republicans’ last-gasp effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, said on Monday. Cassidy’s culprits—the four states at the center of this cosmic injustice—are California, New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland. […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
VHA Budget Cuts Threaten Veteran Safety
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is considering budget cuts that could jeopardize patient safety in the nation’s largest health-care system. On the chopping block are ten VA Patient Safety Centers of Inquiry (PSCIs), facilities that have long pioneered innovations to reduce injury, addiction, and suicide that have impacted patients far beyond the VA system. […]
Posted inEducation in America
‘Tax Credit Scholarship’ Program May Soon Be Coming to Illinois
On Monday night, the Democratic-controlled Illinois House of Representatives voted in favor of an education funding plan that includes the establishment of a “tax credit scholarship” program: subsidies that support donors who help families pay for private school tuition. The Democratic-controlled Senate approved a similar bill Tuesday. The money allocated to this voucher-like program is […]
