Brief #134 – Environmental Policy
By Todd J. Broadman
On January 27, the country’s largest ever oil and gas lease sales were canceled by a federal judge. A total of 308 tracts totaling nearly 1.7 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico had been auctioned to thirty-three oil companies – Shell, BP, Chevron and Exxon Mobil among them. $192 million had been paid to the government for drilling rights.
Brief #31 – Social Justice
By Erika Shannon
The one-year anniversary of the attack on our nation’s Capitol may have passed, but one thing is clear: the House Select Committee is no longer playing games with their investigation. Their quest for answers has been long, full of obstacles, yet they continue to try and delve through all the information they can possibly get their hands on. They have faced people trying to stonewall the investigation, as well as a severe lack of cooperation from the former President himself.
Brief #145 – Health and Gender Policy
By Inijah Quadri
Getting ill in prison is a bad idea. Because of years of underfunding and privatization, the medical treatment provided to those who are jailed is deplorable.
Brief #127 – Health Policy
By Yelena Korshunov
“Depression on my left. Loneliness on my right. They don’t need to show me their badges. I know these guys very well,” wrote Elizabeth Gilbert in her New York Times bestseller, Eat Pray Love. Can you imagine that one in three of your neighbors suffers from pandemic depression? Or maybe you are the one who knows what depression feels like?
Brief #65 – Education
By Lynn Waldsmith
As the House committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol gains momentum, teachers throughout the country are struggling more than one year later with how, or even if, to teach students about that pivotal event and its impact on our democracy.
Brief #133 – Environmental Policy
By Timothy T. Loftus
The race to electrify the transportation sector, now the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, will entail controversial decisions and tradeoffs involving the use and management of America’s public lands.
Brief #141 – Foreign Policy
By Reilly Fitzgerald
Ukraine poses a threat in some ways to the stability of the borders around Russia as they have long sought entrance to the European Union and have also sought NATO membership. Russia sees these actions as threatening because it would bring Russia closer to the military alliances of the West that they have rejected since the days of the USSR.
Brief #64 – Education Policy
By Yelena Korshunov
“Is my child safe in school?” This is a question that millions of parents ask themselves today. Remote learning vs. in-person. In-person vs. remote. Multiple pros and cons, dipped in wordy discussions without being resolved, challenge students and their parents to solve this dilemma on their own. On Monday, January 10th, the New York City Department of Education reported 11,825 students and 2,298 staff COVID cases.
Brief #139 – Foreign Policy
By Brandon Mooney
With the War in Afghanistan having come to an end and the neoliberal experiment of nation-building being tossed on the metaphorical scrap heap, the U.S. confronts a radically changing world in which traditional conceptions of warfare are both antiquated and ultimately disastrous.
Brief #63 – Education Policy
By Stephen Thomas
Years ago, segregationists relied on the states to pass laws to exclude black students from their children’s schools. Today, their objective is to exclude blacks from the social studies curriculum. Either way, it is a movement centered on the debate about a crucial campaign issue that arose in the Virginia governor’s race and will rise again in the congressional mid-term elections and in state-level elections in 2022.