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History Thursday: What a baker from ancient Pompeii can teach us about happiness
By Nadejda Williams, University of West Georgia In a testament to its resiliency, happiness, according to this year’s World Happiness Report, remained remarkably stable around the world, despite a pandemic that upended the lives of billions of people. As a classicist, I find such discussions of happiness in the midst of personal or societal crisis […]
Will Joe Biden’s executive order spark real change in food production?
By Darvin Bentlage President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order aimed at increasing competition across all sectors of the economy. This is a long time coming and a good first step in addressing a number of long term problems. One important point of interest for agriculture is the change to the Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Act […]
How the Trump tax law created a loophole that lets top executives net millions
By Robert Faturechi and Justin Elliott, Pro Publica This story was originally published by ProPublica. In the months after President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December 2017, some tax professionals grew giddy as they discovered opportunities for their clients inside a law that already slashed rates for corporations and wealthy […]
School or ‘Russian roulette’? Amid variants and lax mask rules, some parents see no difference
By Rae Ellen Bichell, Kaiser Health News The child had just started kindergarten. Or, as her mother called it, “Russian roulette.” That’s because her school district in Grand Junction, Colorado, experienced one of the nation’s first delta-variant outbreaks last spring, and now school officials have loosened the rules meant to protect against covid-19. The mother, […]
Profound changes are underway in Earth’s oceans and ice – an IPCC lead author explains
By Robert Kopp, Rutgers University Humans are unequivocally warming the planet, and that’s triggering rapid changes in the atmosphere, oceans and polar regions, and increasing extreme weather around the world, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns in a new report. The IPCC released the first part of its much anticipated Sixth Assessment Report on […]
Afghan government collapses, Taliban seize control: 5 essential reads by scholars
By Catesby Holmes Panic and turmoil grip Afghanistan after Taliban insurgents captured the capital city of Kabul and the president fled on Aug. 15, 2021. There would be “no transitional government in Afghanistan,” Taliban officials told Reuters news service. The insurgent group “expects a complete handover of power” – though many nations may not […]
Don’t want a vaccine? Be prepared to pay more for insurance.
By Elisabeth Rosenthal and Glenn Kramon, Kaiser Health News America’s COVID-19 vaccination rate is around 60% for ages 12 and up. That’s not enough to reach so-called herd immunity, and in states like Missouri — where a number of counties have vaccination rates under 25% — hospitals are overwhelmed by serious outbreaks of the more contagious delta variant. The vaccine […]
COVID brings front and center the tug between individual rights and the public good
By Janice Ellis It seems that getting control of the coronavirus has brought front and center the question: When should an individual’s right become more important than what is in the best health and welfare of the people, the country? The Bill of Rights places high priority on individual freedoms — the bedrock of our democracy that […]
Laws for prescription drug brokers could soon have teeth
By Michael Ollove from Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts Buoyed by a major, unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling, some states are pressing ahead with efforts to rein in one of the most obscure — but also most potent — players in the prescription drug supply chain. Pharmacy benefit managers, known as PBMs, […]
IPCC Authors: This is the most sobering report card yet on climate change and Earth’s future
By Pep Canadell, CSIRO; Joelle Gergis, Australian National University; Malte Meinshausen, The University of Melbourne; Mark Hemer, CSIRO, and Michael Grose, CSIRO Earth has warmed 1.09℃ since pre-industrial times and many changes such as sea-level rise and glacier melt are now virtually irreversible, according to the most sobering report yet by the Intergovernmental Panel on […]
2+2=? Senate uses murky math as it shelves drug pricing rule to fund infrastructure
By Michael McAuliff, Kaiser Health News The Senate’s release of its bipartisan infrastructure plan signals that lawmakers are poised to throw former President Donald Trump’s belated bid to lower Medicare drug prices under the bus — not to mention trains, bridges, tunnels and broadband connections. That’s because the massive spending bill is the first of […]
I was an evangelical and an anti-vaxxer; here’s what changed — Essay
By Julie M. Bach As hospitals again fill up with COVID-19 cases, the vaccinated are getting angrier at the unvaccinated. I get the anger. I also get what it feels like to be on the other side. Being an anti-vaxxer is a lot like being an evangelical Christian, and I’ve been both. In the evangelical […]