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Why the U.S. won’t be able to shirk moral responsibility in leaving Afghanistan
By Michael Blake, University of Washington The majority of the remaining American troops in Afghanistan were withdrawn recently, with the rest due to leave by the end of August 2021. This withdrawal marks the end of nearly 20 years of American military presence in Afghanistan. Support for the withdrawal is widespread in the United States, […]
We are all propagandists now
By Jennifer Mercieca, Texas A&M University The U.S. is in an information war with itself. The public sphere, where Americans discuss public issues, is broken. There’s little discussion – and lots of fighting. One reason why: Persuasion is difficult, slow and time-consuming – it doesn’t make good television or social media content – and so […]
My daughter is enrolled in Pfizer’s vaccine trial because I don’t trust COVID
By Taylor Hirth On a sunny Wednesday a little over a month ago, my 7-year-old daughter bravely held my hand as we walked into Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City to participate in a pediatric vaccine trial. After a numbing agent, a blood draw and a nasal swab, she was finally injected with either a placebo […]
U.S. Senate Democrats push voting rights bills, lambast Georgia election law
By Stanley Dunlap, Georgia Recorder/States Newsroom If the rules in Georgia’s controversial 2021 voting overhaul were in place before last November’s historic U.S. Senate races were pushed to Jan. 5 runoffs, then 76,000 residents who cast their ballots would’ve been unable to register in time for the second round. A U.S. Senate committee gathered in […]
Justice Stephen Breyer, for the love of God, please retire
By Imani Gandy, ReWire Stephen Breyer isn’t retiring, he doesn’t know when he’s going to retire, and, frankly, it’s making me tired. In a new interview with CNN’s Joan Biskupic, Justice Breyer cited two factors that play into his decision about when to retire: his health and the Supreme Court. And while I don’t know anything […]
Cities in Ohio want to use the same clean-energy financing company that saddled Missouri homeowners with debt
By Jeremy Kohler, ProPublica This story was originally published by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive their biggest stories as soon as they’re published. This story was co-published with The Cincinnati Enquirer. For five years, economic development officials in Toledo, Ohio, have operated a pilot program that allows […]
Zaila Avant-garde, spelling bee champ, stands where Black children were once kept out
By Shalini Shankar Why is it news that an African American won this championship? It’s significant because not so long ago, Black children would have faced a lot of obstacles just to compete in this spelling bee. In fact, Black children were routinely sidelined from participating on the national stage until well after the passage […]
Rugby is for every body
By Kat Amrhein During my time as a collegiate rugby player for the Miami Women’s Club Rugby Team, I played alongside individuals of different shapes, sizes, races, sexual orientations and gender identities. Each player brought their distinctive abilities to the team, and there was acceptance for the diversity within our club. A short and scrappy […]
More than 30 states join lawsuit accusing Google of anti-competitive practices
Ohio is not among 36 states suing Google over allegations the tech firm is operating a monopoly with its app store and Google Billing, but the suit could have implications in the Buckeye State. In the Midwest, Minnesota, Missouri, Minnesota and South Dakota also are involved with the lawsuit, Utah v. Google. The states claim Google paid off competitors […]
Pentagon UFO report: No aliens, but government transparency might bring science to the UFO world
By Chris Impey, University of Arizona On June 25, the Pentagon released a much-anticipated report on UFOs to Congress. The military has rebranded unidentified flying objects as unidentified aerial phenomena — UAPs — in part to avoid the stigma that has been attached to claims of aliens visiting the Earth since the Roswell incident in […]
Critical race theory: What it is and what it isn’t
By David Miguel Gray, University of Memphis U.S. Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana sent a letter to fellow Republicans on June 24, 2021, stating: “As Republicans, we reject the racial essentialism that critical race theory teaches … that our institutions are racist and need to be destroyed from the ground up.” Kimberlé Crenshaw, a law […]
A Supreme Court ruling creates an existential crisis for the NCAA and its anachronistic idea of amateurism
By Bob Lewis The world of bigtime college sports is about to change profoundly in ways not even experts yet comprehend because of a bombshell U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Last week’s unanimous and unambiguous decision in NCAA v. Alston eviscerates the American college football and basketball cartel’s business model of earning […]