Commentary
Indoor air quality improvements in schools will reduce COVID transmission and help students learn
As fall temperatures cool across the U.S., many schools will struggle to ventilate classrooms while also keeping students and teachers comfortable and healthy. Children and teachers spend over six hours a day in classrooms during the school year, often in buildings that are decades old and have inadequate heating, ventilation and air conditioning, or HVAC, […]
If you think scrapping COVID isolation will get us back to work and past the pandemic, think again
COVID is an exceptional disease and was at its deadliest this year, causing more deaths in Australia between June and August 2022 than at any other time. There have been 288 deaths from influenza so far this year compared to more than 12,000 deaths from COVID. The number of deaths from COVID in Australia in […]
About one-third of the food Americans buy is wasted, hurting the climate and consumers’ wallets
You saw it at Thanksgiving, and you’ll likely see it at your next holiday feast: piles of unwanted food — unfinished second helpings, underwhelming kitchen experiments and the like — all dressed up with no place to go, except the back of the refrigerator. With luck, hungry relatives will discover some of it before the […]
NM GOP should apologize, take accountability for racist tactics
When my friend showed me a mailer that had been sent out by the New Mexico Republican Party this election cycle, I was furious. I can’t explain the shock and hurt I felt when I saw this mailer comparing people like me to a predator. People have no idea how monumentally challenging it is to […]
Red flag laws and the Colorado LGBTQ club shooting
The killing of five patrons in a Colorado LGBTQ bar on Nov. 19, 2022, is the latest mass shooting to garner headlines in the U.S. Police have said they have yet to determine a motive. But one thing that has emerged is that the suspect had a history of violent plans, having allegedly threatened to […]
Congress knows how to slash child poverty. It just needs to do it.
If you could prevent millions of children from falling back into poverty, would you? Most of us, I imagine, would answer “yes” without hesitation. But not Congress. For nearly a year, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have dithered as the policy directly responsible for a dramatic decline in poverty last year lapsed. It’s time for Congress […]
End of Title 42 a hard-won victory, but the work of creating a humane approach to migration remains
A Federal District Court judge in D.C. ordered the Department of Homeland Security to end the use of Title 42 at the U.S. border on Tuesday night. Frustratingly, in spite of the fact that it has been in place for close to three years, Title 42 never got the attention it deserved as a devastating […]
How the GOP’s expected red wave crashed on the rocks of the insurrection
When pro-Trump extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, they probably weren’t thinking about the next election. But maybe they should have. Because the long shadow of former President Donald Trump, and the behavior of the rioters, may have helped contribute to a relatively good night for the Democrats. Historically, the party in […]
A new wave of celebrity politicians breaks the rules on acceptable behavior, inspired by Trump
After two former girlfriends accused Herschel Walker, the Georgia Republican Senate nominee and former football star, of pressuring them to get abortions, and giving them money for the procedures, Walker’s standing with conservative voters would have been expected to dip. One reason is that Walker has taken an absolutist position on abortion – no abortions should be legal, even in the […]
State courts are fielding sky-high numbers of lawsuits ahead of the midterms
The run-up to Election Day is often a contentious time. In recent years, it has also become a litigious time — parties increasingly turn to courts to resolve disputes about the rules for voting. This year, our research shows a significant uptick of those lawsuits occurring in the state court system and challenging every step […]
There’s no one ‘Latino vote’ – religion and geography add to voters’ diversity
Nearly 1 in 5 people in the United States today are Latino, and “the Latino vote” has attracted significant news coverage as their political voice grows stronger. Yet considering all 62 million Latinos as a group isn’t necessarily all that helpful in understanding attitudes or voting patterns, as some scholars and journalists have pointed out. […]
Indian Child Welfare Act faces test before the U.S. Supreme Court
Today we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day as a way to honor and reflect upon Native American history and culture. Overwhelmingly approved by Oregon’s Legislature in 2021 and officially recognized in 13 other states, Indigenous Peoples Day is also an opportunity to support efforts that strengthen Indigenous communities. The Indian Child Welfare Act, passed in 1978, […]