The North Atlantic’s marine life may soon be treated to near-constant seismic blasts as energy companies hunt for new oil and gas drilling sites. A proposal from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), published last month, lays out a plan to allow five companies to use seismic air guns to conduct geological surveys in […]
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Posted inHealth and Social Policy
FEMA Loophole Leaves Communities at Risk
A disaster-relief program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) promises greater flexibility in rebuilding damaged towns and cities, but instead often allows for the diversion of resources from those communities. FEMA’s Public Assistance Alternative Procedures pilot program, created by the 2013 Sandy Recovery Improvement Act, is designed to provide “substantially greater flexibility in use […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Kansas Redux: Illinois Legislature Overrides Governor’s Austerity Politics
It’s becoming increasingly clear that conservative governors trying to push trickle-down tax cuts for the rich and austerity for everyone else will, eventually, face a political backlash. Once again, a bipartisan coalition of fed-up legislators has overridden their intransigent governor’s veto to keep their state from driving off the cliff. On Thursday, Illinois Republicans joined […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
With Air Quality Rules at Risk, Black Seniors May Suffer Most
As the Trump administration moves to dismantle clean air regulations, a landmark study in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that existing air quality rules do not go far enough. The nationwide investigation, published last week, finds that long-term exposure to fine particulate matter and ozone, even at levels deemed safe by federal rules, […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
New Initiative Takes on Fight for Women’s Leadership in the Labor Movement
Women are set to overtake men in union membership in less than a decade, but their representation in the labor movement’s leadership lags far behind. Georgetown and Rutgers are joining forces in a new project to help bridge the leadership gap. Women already make up nearly half of union membership, and the Center for Economic […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
How to End Our Dysfunctional Congressional Election System
The American electoral system is a holdout from another era. First-past-the-post elections, in which the top vote-getter in a single-member legislative seat wins, are now used in only two other developed countries-Britain and Canada-alongside a cadre of African, Asian, and Pacific countries, usually nations with strong ties to British colonial rule. Representative Don Beyer, a […]
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
New Mine Fuels Trump’s Coal Crusade, But Global Energy Markets May Have the Final Say
“You’re going back to work,” President Donald Trump promised a group of coal miners who came to EPA headquarters in Washington to witness the signing of a March executive order on energy independence and economic growth. The president’s declaration takes his promises to coal country full circle. During the 2016 election campaign, he claimed that […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
New Documentary Challenges the Rhetoric of the So-Called War on Coal
Exactly one week after Trump’s announcement that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, a new film from director Michael Bonfiglio premiered at National Geographic’s Washington, D.C.’s headquarters. From the Ashes closely examines the repercussions-environmental, health, economic-of something the Trump administration has not only denied, but has gone to great […]
Posted inElection Night Blog
Why Did Brookings Ignore Federal Pre-K’s Positive Results?
In the five decades since its launch, more than 33 million low-income children have participated in Head Start, the federal government’s early-childhood education program designed to narrow the gaps between rich and poor students by providing disadvantaged children with comprehensive preschool. Nearly one million children were enrolled in 2015 alone, and research has shown that […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Extreme Gerrymandering Complicates 2018 Congressional Map for Democrats
It will take nothing short of an electoral wave for Democrats to retake the House in 2018, and that’s exactly the problem. A new report from the Brennan Center at the New York University School of Law underscores the devastating effect of gerrymandering on recent House elections: The researchers found that over the past decade, […]
