Local News Deserts: How COVID-19 has ravaged American journalism
By Damian Radcliffe, Caroline S. Chambers Professor in Journalism, University of Oregon Many newsrooms across the U.S. will be quieter places when journalists return to their workplace after the coronavirus lockdowns end. COVID-19 has ripped through the industry. In...
The Madison Method: Former police chief suggests alternative to military tactics and escalation
David Couper, Madison’s police chief from 1972 to 1993, said law enforcement should ditch the riot gear and tear gas to keep the peace. At least 1,500 young people gathered on Madison, Wisconsin’s Mifflin Street in April 1973 for a block party featuring street...
U.S. Marshals provided covert help to Wauwatosa’s secretive police unit during controversial curfew
U.S. Marshals were on the ground in Wauwatosa during the city’s curfew and emergency declaration in October, according to Wauwatosa Police. The city’s emergency order brought numerous law enforcement agencies from across the state, as well as National Guard troops, to...
Claire Woodall-Vogg: On protecting the 2020 election from a pandemic and efforts to suppress Black votes
Election workers across the nation have been threatened with violence, accused of tampering with results of the Nov. 3 election, and some have battled a virus that has killed more than 300,000 people nationwide. For these people, the desire to serve their communities...
Federal court dismisses Trump Campaign’s SLAPP lawsuit against Wisconsin TV station
A lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump’s campaign against a Northwoods TV station has been dismissed in federal court. The Trump campaign in April sued the Rhinelander-based WJFW-TV over an ad that juxtaposed clips of Trump’s statements about the...
A different kind of political comeback: Dream of a Trump 2024 looms as a national nightmare
By Robert Speel, Associate Professor of Political Science, Erie campus, Penn State American author F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that “there are no second acts in American lives.” Yet it is already assumed Donald Trump will go on to a next act in one form or another....
A system broken by design: How to close the racial health gap for communities affected by COVID-19
By Tamra Burns Loeb, Adjunct Associate Professor – Interim, UCLA School of Medicine; and Dorothy Chin, Associate Research Psychologist, UCLA School of Medicine The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the reality that health in the U.S. has glaring racial inequities....
A Stress Pandemic: Research done over a quarter century finds racial discrimination ages Blacks faster
By Sierra Carter, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Georgia State University I am part of a research team that has been following more than 800 Black American families for almost 25 years. We found that people who had reported experiencing high levels of racial...
300,000 Dead: Loss of American lives reaches staggering record as coronavirus vaccine begins distribution
More than 300,000 people have now died because of COVID-19 in the United States, with the latest milestone coming amid record daily fatalities and the national rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The first shot in the U.S. mass vaccination program was given...
Biden’s Olive Branch: Building a post-White America or placating White supremacists
Shortly after Biden was declared president-elect, he announced that he would reach a hand across the aisle. “We must stop,” he said, “treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies. We are Americans.” This is the Biden playbook at work, honed through years of...
Redrawing the boundaries: Results of the 2020 Census will bring new electoral district maps
By Jon X. Eguia, Professor of Economics, Michigan State University When the results of the 2020 U.S. Census are released, states will use the figures to draw new electoral district maps for the U.S. House of Representatives and for state legislatures. This process has...
A feudal financial state: How the economy was engineered to crush everyone while enriching a few
“Socialism is the fire department saving your house. Capitalism is the insurance company denying your claim…” – Internet Meme, Unknown The reason everybody is so angst-ridden about the economy is because we all have the wrong idea about what it...
