ReportWire

Tag: Government/Law

  • Crime expert: Mass shootings show Asian Americans’ vulnerability to inter- and intra-racial violence

    Crime expert: Mass shootings show Asian Americans’ vulnerability to inter- and intra-racial violence

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    University of Delaware professor Ivan Sun can comment on the recent mass shootings in California, including the Jan. 21 attack that took the lives of 11 people and left Asian American communities reeling just as they were celebrating the start of the Lunar New Year. 

    Sun, who studies crime and justice in Asian societies, said the following about the shootings:

    – “They are shocking as Asian Americans’ involvement in violent offending is low – whereas their victimization is high, particularly during the pandemic – and seniors in general are less likely to engage in violent crime.”

    – “They are exceptional events, signaling Asian Americans’ vulnerability to both inter- and intra-racial violence.”

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    University of Delaware

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  • “Flexible electronics” may one day secure classified documents

    “Flexible electronics” may one day secure classified documents

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    Both President Biden and former President Trump have had issues with having classified government documents in their possession that they were not supposed to have. But there may soon be a relatively simple way to prevent situations like this, according to Paul Berger, professor of electrical and computer engineering at The Ohio State University.

    Flexible electronics enables the production of thin, flexible stickers, like the radio frequency identification tags one finds on some items in stores to prevent shoplifting.  But unlike those “passive” tags, flexible electronics can also be “active” tags that allow whatever they are put on to be actively tracked. These flexible electronics are thinner cheaper, and more environmentally friendly than tracking devices like Apple AirTags. One day stickers with these flexible electronics could be printed and put on documents, allowing them to be tracked.

    Berger is available to discuss the future of flexible electronics and how he and his collaborators are working to increase the performance of these flexible electronics devices and build systems that will allow them to “scavenge” energy from light and Wi-Fi.

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    Ohio State University

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  • Identity, not income, drives desire to secede

    Identity, not income, drives desire to secede

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    Newswise — DALLAS (SMU) – What most sparks a region’s desire to seek independence from their country – income or identity?

    A new study from SMU (Southern Methodist University, Dallas) and UC3M (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain) found that the group people identify with tends to play a bigger factor in secession than differences in per capita income between regions. 

    Identity was shown to be a larger factor than income for many real-life examples of pro-independence movements in recent years – such as Tibet in China and Tigray and other Southern Nations in Ethiopia. Researchers looked at a total of 173 countries with 3,003 subnational regions, like Texas and California in the United States or Canadian provinces in Quebec and Ontario.

    The mathematical model that SMU and UC3M created also would have correctly predicted that the Soviet Union was in danger of collapsing before its eventual demise in 1991 and which Soviet republics would have been the first to declare independence.     

    “What we found is striking: separatism would be alive and well even if there were no income differences between regions, whereas it would almost completely die out if everyone spoke the same language,” said Klaus Desmet, Ruth and Kenneth Altshuler Centennial Interdisciplinary Professor of Economics at SMU and author of the study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “From this we can conclude that the key driver of secessionist sentiment is identity, rather than income.”

    Desmet and economists Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín and Ömer Özak used their model to test if support for secession would grow stronger or weaker if there was no difference in the incomes of the people who lived there or no difference in their identity. 

    Across the globe, they found that support for secession would drop from an average of 7.5 percent of a region’s population to 0.6 percent in the absence of identity differences. Yet eliminating income differences would do almost nothing in terms of weakening the desire for secessionism, the study shows. 

    Ortuño-Ortín is a professor of economics at UC3M. Özak is an associate professor of economics at SMU and a research fellow at IZA.  

    The research team wanted to identify the major cause of secessionism because there are often questions of whether economic policies could potentially ease tensions. 

    “Of course, the drivers of separatism are complex, but if we want to simplify a bit, there are two key reasons why certain subnational regions might prefer to become independent,” Desmet said. “A first is income per capita: if my region is relatively rich, I may feel that I am ‘subsidizing’ the rest of the country, and that I would be better off if my region became independent. A second is identity: if my region has a separate ethnic or linguistic identity, I may feel less connected to the nation, and prefer to secede.”

    Desmet, Ortuño-Ortín and Özak were particularly curious about what was driving secessionist tensions in two of the team’s home countries – with Flanders in Belgium having a strong pro-independence movement and Catalonia having made a bid for independence from Spain a few years ago.  

    “Interestingly, because Flanders and Catalonia are relatively rich, the push for independence has been couched in economic terms,” Desmet said. 

    However, the study indicates that economic forces tend to be secondary when it comes to understanding secessionism.

    How the study was done

    The research team’s mathematical model ran on two options – whether subnational regions chose to form their own country or stay in the country they’re currently part of. 

    The economists then plugged different scenarios into the model – such as if the income per capita was the same throughout a country or if everyone spoke the same language. They also looked at what the income and languages spoken in those regions actually were.  

    Income per capita data for the different countries and subnational regions came from a source that economists widely use – Geographically Based Economic Data from Yale University, known as G-Econ 4.0 – for the year 2000.  

    Language was used as a measure for identity, as it has been shown to be a major identity marker that differentiates populations in other studies. The SMU-UC3M team relied on a detailed database of languages that they developed using information from the World Language Mapping System.

    The tricky part was determining how much weight income and identity should get in the model’s calculations.

    “For example, if we gave too much weight to linguistic identity, we would see too much separatism, and if we gave too little weight to linguistic identity, everyone would want to join and stay together,” Desmet said. 

    To gauge how their model matched up with the real world, the research team looked at how the predictions they got mirrored known breakups around the world, like the dissolution of the Soviet Union to create sovereign countries like Ukraine, Armenia and Lithuania.

    Their mathematical model generated predictions for the stability of 173 countries and 3,003 subnational regions. They then looked at how well these predictions lined up with actual secessionist movements and with the actual stability of states. Data for secessionist movements came from Wikipedia. A total of 2,529 hotspots were identified. Desmet, Ortuño-Ortín and Özak also consulted which countries were labeled as unstable in the Fragile States Index, an annual report put out by Washington, D.C.-based Fund for Peace. 

    “When doing these ‘checks,’ it turns out that our model performs very well,” Desmet said. 

    For instance, the model – based on data from the late 1980s – predicted that Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Georgia had a strong likelihood of seceding from the Soviet Union. All of those countries wound up being among the first to leave the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).  

    The identity model also showed that Tibet in China, Tigray in Ethiopia, Bavaria and Saarland in Germany, Aceh in Indonesia and Lombardia and Sardinia all have the potential of wanting to secede from their country. Many of those same subnational regions regularly make the news for pro-independence movements today. 

     

    About SMU

    SMU is the nationally ranked global research university in the dynamic city of Dallas. SMU’s alumni, faculty and over 12,000 students in eight degree-granting schools demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit as they lead change in their professions, communities and the world.

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    Southern Methodist University

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  • Oncology Researcher Joins Rutgers Global Health Institute

    Oncology Researcher Joins Rutgers Global Health Institute

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    Newswise — Wilfred Ngwa, a global oncology researcher and medical physics expert who is developing technologies that integrate with radiation therapy to reduce cancer treatment times and costs, has joined Rutgers Global Health Institute.

    Ngwa, who is a Rutgers Presidential Faculty Scholar and a professor of global health at the institute, also holds an appointment as a professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

    The broad aim of Ngwa’s research and global collaboration is to increase access to cancer treatment and reduce health disparities, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. He leads a research group that is developing low-cost approaches and technologies that can substantially reduce treatment times and costs and that can be implemented in resource-poor settings.

    One such technology incorporates artificial intelligence and smart radiotherapy biomaterials, such as nanoparticle drones that can be injected intravenously and will emit missile-like electrons when activated by photon beams during radiation therapy. This process is designed to increase damage to cancerous tumors while minimizing toxic effects on body tissues. This technology also can be programmed to sustainably deliver cancer-fighting immunotherapy drugs in resource-effective and measurable ways. This research is supported by the National Institutes of Health and industry partners and is in clinical translation, with multisite clinical trials on track to begin in 2023.

    Ngwa’s overall research program is designed to address many types of cancer, and he is leading studies related to treating prostate, breast, and cervical cancers in Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and the United States.

    “Expanding our multicenter clinical trials to additional U.S. and African institutions will be a focus of my research at Rutgers. Implementation research also will be a priority, so that we can turn knowledge into real-world actions that will improve health care delivery and global health,” Ngwa said. “By building on my work with radiotherapy and the use of advanced information and communication technologies in oncology care, I look forward to developing a vibrant research program at Rutgers.”

    Ngwa is widely regarded as an expert on public health policy and cancer control in sub-Saharan Africa. Since 2019, he has been the chair of The Lancet Oncology commission on cancer in sub-Saharan Africa, which in the spring published its report about the rapidly escalating cancer burden in this resource-poor area of the world. Ngwa is an external adviser to the U.S. presidential administration’s Cancer Cabinet, convened by President Joe Biden to help establish and make progress on the administration’s reignited Cancer Moonshot initiative, and he is a co-chair of the U.S. Cancer Moonshot 2.0 Lancet Oncology commission. He is editor of IOP Publishing’s scientific series in global health and radiation oncology and an editorial board member for Journal of Global Oncology, Frontiers in Oncology and ecancermedicalscience.

    As the founding director of the Global Health Catalyst Summit, Ngwa leads a collaborative that convenes an annual summit and other events designed to catalyze high-impact international collaborations and initiatives to eliminate health-related disparities in the United States and globally. An ongoing project that originated via a summit is C4: Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Cloud, an artificial intelligence-driven platform that Ngwa is developing with multidisciplinary partners to increase access to cancer care, research and education regardless of geographic location.

    Ngwa is originally from Cameroon, where he studied physics and computer science at the University of Buea, receiving a bachelor of science degree. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from University of Leipzig in Germany then completed postdoctoral education and training in radiation oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School.

    Ngwa previously was an associate professor of radiation oncology and molecular radiation sciences at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Medicine and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. He also holds an appointment as a distinguished professor of public health at the ICT University, based in Cameroon.

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    Rutgers University-New Brunswick

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  • Rutgers Philosopher Argues for a “Realistic Blacktopia”

    Rutgers Philosopher Argues for a “Realistic Blacktopia”

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    A philosopher weighs in on the rise of voter suppression, anti-protest legislation and efforts to roll back racial progress

    Fifty-six years after Martin Luther King, Jr., told students at Southern Methodist University that “we have come a long way but we still have a long, long way to go,” Rutgers philosopher Derrick Darby is making a similar argument.

    In his new book, A Realistic Blacktopia: Why We Must Unite to Fight, Darby draws on King, W. E. B. Du Bois and the black radical tradition to explore how to make progress in the antiracist struggle.

    Darby, a Henry Rutgers Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and founding director of the Social Justice Solutions Research Collaboratory, discusses alliances, voting rights, affirmative action and the limits of racial remedies.

    Martin Luther King Jr. argued that voter suppression undermines a citizen’s right to make choices, undermining their dignity. Equal voting rights is something King strived to get the nation to do. What would he think of voter access today?

    The forms of voter suppression seen across America would have been a major concern for Dr. King. Tactics include tougher photo identification laws, closing or reducing polling places, attempts to eliminate Sunday early voting and making vote by mail more difficult.

    It is doubly shameful in a democracy like ours that values equality and justice when it creates a significant burden for groups such as communities of color, seniors, young people and the poor.

    Members of these groups tend to have more limited opportunities to vote because of voter suppression and long wait times on Election Day. We saw this in Georgia in 2020 and during the recent midterm elections. During the 2020 election, Georgia criminalized the distribution of water or snacks to people waiting to vote. Dr. King would have been appalled. He would have supported efforts to make voting easier – including issuing a federal voting ID card, enacting automatic voter registration, expanding early voting and ensuring greater access to polling places and multilingual ballot support.

    During the civil rights movement, King recognized building interracial alliances to address social problems that disproportionately affected African Americans. What were some examples?

    Dr. King believed addressing voter rights and civil rights concerns was crucial to getting America to live up to its promises and potential. Relying on the power of nonviolence direct action by interracial alliances of people committed to these and other causes was vital to this effort. The 1963 March on Washington for jobs and freedom is the most well-known example of the power of such alliances.

    King and other prominent civil rights organizers such as Bayard Rustin believed freedom wasn’t just about racial and other forms of discrimination. It was also about freedom from poverty, hunger, joblessness, illiteracy, preventable illness, etc. Because these issues don’t recognize racial divisions, they provide a broader basis for building alliances.

    King’s support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis and his efforts to build the Poor People’s Campaign are examples of objectives that demanded broader alliances.   

    Although America is awash in race and race-relations discussions, antiracist books are everywhere and diversity seminars are hot tickets. Many efforts are underway to roll back the racial progress clock. What are some of these efforts?

    Following the senseless murder of George Floyd by the police, there was a massive public outcry and scores of organized Black Lives Matter protests around the nation. Protesters – a large and diverse group representing different races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, classes and religions – took to the streets to demand social justice and end police brutality. These protests sought racial progress.

    Some state legislators proposed, and in some cases enacted, anti-protest legislation in response. Alabama enacted a law in 2021 that upgraded obstructing a sidewalk during a protest to a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail. Mississippi has a pending bill that would make “violent or disorderly assembly” of seven or more people a felony and would apply to peaceful protesters who pose a danger to property, personal injury or obstruct law enforcement.

    In your opinion, affirmative action was once a way to provide African Americans with better educational opportunities, but that time has passed. What do you suggest in its place?

    Affirmative action – understood as a race-specific remedy – is unconstitutional. Existing efforts to promote diversity in schools have had to show that considering race as a plus factor among other factors is part of a holistic approach to ensuring diversity. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on whether this practice, is permissible. I’m not optimistic about the outcome.

    Various alternatives have been proposed, such as targeting socioeconomic diversity and targeting top students in districts for admissions but the jury is out on whether they can achieve the relevant kind of diversity without triggering court challenges.

    Whatever the outcome, greater investment in preparing kids from disadvantaged communities and providing support for families seeking opportunities for educational enrichment for their children is part of a broader solution.

    You argue securing racial justice in America calls for “big tent” remedies. That is, antiracists must build partnerships among populations interested in issues that impact them collectively. Could you explain further with an example?

    Big-tent remedies involve paying attention to matters of economic justice in addition to racial justice and remaining mindful of their interconnectedness.

    Marginalized populations are disproportionately impacted by health crises such as COVID-19 because they typically have no health care or poor care. They typically work low-wage jobs with no benefits, sick leave and time off. Individuals in these populations also can’t work from home, as many work in the service industry. They must rely on public transportation, which disproportionately increases the risk of exposure and illness in poorer black and brown communities.

    Health concerns, getting paid decent wages, better working conditions, affordable child care and educational opportunities are among the issues of broader concern.

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    Rutgers University-New Brunswick

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  • University of Notre Dame Expert Available to Comment on House Bill Regarding Immigration Legislation, Border Safety and Security Act

    University of Notre Dame Expert Available to Comment on House Bill Regarding Immigration Legislation, Border Safety and Security Act

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    Newswise — Erin B. Corcoran, Acting Director and Executive Director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and Associate Teaching Professor at the Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame, is available to respond to any media inquiries or speak to the press about this legislation.

    Corcoran has expertise in U.S. immigration law and policy, refugee and asylum law, human trafficking and the protection of vulnerable migrant populations. Prior to Notre Dame, Corcoran served as a resettlement consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lusaka, Zambia; a staff attorney for Human Rights First in Washington, D.C.; and legal counselor to former Senator Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland.

    The following quote from Corcoran is available for pick-up: 

    “This proposed legislation effectively codifies the Trump Administration’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, which the Biden Administration began rolling back last February. The ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy was subject to various legal challenges because it placed asylum seekers and other vulnerable populations at significant risk of serious harm while awaiting to have their refugee claims adjudicated.

    “This bill requires that individuals presenting themselves at a border, without proper travel documentation, be detained or returned to their territory of origin to await an immigration hearing. This undermines our nation’s domestic and international legal and moral obligations to provide protection to individuals fleeing persecution and serious harm.”

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    University of Notre Dame

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  • New UC Davis documentary set to air on PBS

    New UC Davis documentary set to air on PBS

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    Newswise — A new documentary from the UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center (EHSC) will premiere on PBS stations beginning Jan. 14. 

    “Dignidad: California Domestic Workers’ Journey for Justice” follows domestic workers in California as they organize for job protections during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

    Viewers in the greater Sacramento area can watch the broadcast on Thursday, Jan. 19 at 10:30 p.m. PST on KVIE. It is also available for viewing on the PBS website.

    “Domestic workers lack virtually any protections from arbitrary and unsafe working conditions. This film highlights their struggle to achieve dignity, respect, and safe and humane working environments before and throughout the unprecedented COVID public health crisis,” said Irva Hertz-Picciotto, a professor of public health sciences and director of EHSC.

    Hertz-Picciotto is the executive producer for the film. Jennifer Biddle, digital strategist at EHSC, is the producer. Paige Bierma, an award-winning filmmaker and journalist, directed the documentary.

    “Dignidad” is the second film for the team. Their previous documentary, “Waking Up to Wildfires,” premiered on PBS in 2019. Since then, it has aired more than 300 times on 160 PBS stations and is currently available on PBS Viewfinder.

    Kim Alvarenga, director of the California Domestic Workers Coalition, and domestic workers Mirna Arana and Rock Delgado are featured in the new film.

    Mirna Arana fled deadly gang violence in Guatemala and resettled in California. She started working as a cleaner, where she experienced wage theft, and is now an activist with Mujeres Unidas y Activas. Rock Delgado, a caregiver in Los Angeles, survived a severe bout of COVID-19 after being exposed on the job. He’s now an activist with the Pilipino Workers Center.

    Their stories illustrate the struggles many domestic workers face in California. Domestic workers are predominantly female and persons of color. Many are new immigrants. Laboring in other people’s homes often includes risks such as unsafe working conditions, exceedingly long hours, wage theft and other forms of abuse.

    Exclusion from Cal/OSHA

    The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, is responsible for enforcing California laws and regulations related to workplace safety. In 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Legislature passed SB 1257. The bill was designed to extend Cal/OSHA protections to domestic workers.

    California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill. In his statement, Newsom said: “SB 1257 would extend many employers’ obligations to private homeowners and renters, including the duty to create an injury prevention plan and the requirement to conduct outdoor heat-trainings. Many individuals to whom this law would apply lack the expertise to comply with these regulations.”

    Domestic workers in the state organized in response to the veto. “Dignidad” touches on some of the EHSC research findings about the vulnerabilities faced by domestic workers during the pandemic. It also chronicles domestic workers’ efforts to pass a subsequent bill introduced by California Senator María Elena Durazo: the Health and Safety for All Workers Act (SB 321).

    In 2021, Governor Newsom, after amending the bill, signed SB 321 into law. The measure did not fully bring domestic workers under Cal/OSHA standards. However, it mandates the creation of an advisory committee comprised of members of the public and experts to develop recommendations on protecting the occupational health and safety of domestic workers.

    “It was heartening that after more than a century of having virtually no rights as workers, domestic employees are now recognized as needing occupational protections. While this new law does not actually guarantee those protections, it is a small first step toward that goal and toward the dignity domestic workers deserve,” Hertz-Picciotto said.

    Resources 

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    UC Davis Health

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  • GW Expert Available to Discuss Summit of North American Leaders

    GW Expert Available to Discuss Summit of North American Leaders

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    WASHINGTON (Jan. 11, 2023)— Two days of talks between the leaders of North America in Mexico ended on a positive note during the meeting of President Joe Biden and Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Two years ago President López  Obrador was seen as having a distant relationship with the new elected American president, but the leaders found common ground on migration, economic integration, and fentanyl interdiction. López Obrador, who is known for being recalcitrant, ended their meetings with nothing but praise for Biden, particularly on issues surrounding migration across the border separating their countries.

    Susan Ariel Aaronson is research professor of International Affairs and Director of the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub which aims to educate policymakers, the press and the public about domestic and international data governance issues. She is available to discuss the trade or human rights policies discussed at the summit. 

     

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    George Washington University

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  • Utah’s Consumer Sentiment rises in December

    Utah’s Consumer Sentiment rises in December

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    Newswise — January 6, 2023 (Salt Lake City) – Utah’s consumer sentiment increased from 64.1 in November to 68.7 in December, according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute’s Survey of Utah Consumers. A similar survey by the University of Michigan also found sentiment rose from November (56.8) to December (59.7) among Americans as a whole. The Gardner Institute has now measured Utah Consumer Sentiment for 27 consecutive months. The December 2022 Index for both Utah and the US increased over the prior month, suggesting a slightly better outlook.

    “Current economic challenges from an overheated economy include high inflation, rising interest rates, and slowdowns in construction and real estate.  Consumer sentiment has reflected these challenges,” said Phil Dean, Chief Economist at the Gardner Institute.  “Yet, there are many often under-appreciated economic buffers.  Extremely low employment coupled with improving supply chains and strong overall household, business, and state and local government financial reserves provide a hedge against these challenges in the new year.” 

    The full results and methodology are now available online.

    ### 

    ABOUT THE GARDNER POLICY INSTITUTE

    The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute serves Utah by preparing economic, demographic, and public policy research that helps the state prosper. We are Utah’s demographic experts, leaders on the Utah economy, and specialists on public policy and survey research. We are an honest broker of INFORMED RESEARCH, which guides INFORMED DISCUSSIONS, and leads to INFORMED DECISIONS™. For more information, please visit gardner.utah.edu or call 801-587-3717. 

    ABOUT THE DAVID ECCLES SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

    The Eccles School is synonymous with ‘doing.’ The Eccles experience provides a world-class business education with a unique, entrepreneurial focus on real-world scenarios where students put what they learn into practice long before graduation. Founded in 1917 and educating more than 6,000 students annually, the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business offers nine undergraduate majors, four MBAs, eight other graduate programs, a Ph.D. in seven areas and executive education curricula. The School is also home to 12 institutes, centers, and initiatives, which deliver academic research and support an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation. For more information, visit Eccles.Utah.edu or call 801-581-7676.

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    University of Utah

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  • American University Experts Share Insights on 2nd Anniversary of January 6th Insurrection

    American University Experts Share Insights on 2nd Anniversary of January 6th Insurrection

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    What:  As we reach the 2nd anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, American University has various scholars who are experts in extremism, far-right ideologies, white supremacy, militias and organized political violence. Below please find their insights on last year and their outlook for 2023. They are also available to comment on the January 6th hearings and the anniversary.

    When: Thursday, January 5, 2022 – ongoing

    Background:  American University experts who are available for interviews are:

    Kurt Braddock is an Assistant Professor of Public Communication in the School of Communication. His research focuses on the persuasive strategies used by violent extremist groups to recruit and radicalize audiences targeted by their propaganda. He is the author of Weaponized Words: The Strategic Role of Persuasion in Violent Radicalization and Counter-Radicalization.

    “2022 saw an intensification of far-right extremism in the United States, with motivations for violence evolving as the year progressed. In parallel with increased rhetoric by some far-right politicians and pundits about so-called “grooming”, attacks against LGBTQIA+ individuals grew over the course of the year. I expect this trend to continue through at least the first part of 2023, as some far-right politicians and pundits show no signs of abating their rhetoric in this regard. 

    White supremacy, white nationalism, and related topics are also likely to continue being key motivators of political violence, as communication surrounding these topics — by both extremists and some elected officials — shows no signs of abating. As these trends continue, I expect we will see continued — and possibly increasing — incidents of lone-actor plots and attacks against those they perceive as viable targets (e.g., the attack on Paul Pelosi).”


    Carolyn Gallaher     is an expert on extremism and the right-wing, organized violence by non-state actors and urban politics, including the politics, internal dynamics, and patterns of violence of militias, paramilitaries, and private military contractors, among others. Gallaher is the author of On the Fault Line: Race, Class, and the American Patriot Movement.

    Prof. Gallaher said: “In 2022, the January 6th Committee revealed how President Donald Trump inspired a failed insurrection that almost toppled 245 years of American democracy. Much of 2022 was spent on holding insurrectionists and other participants to account. The Department of Justice has arrested more than 900 people who participated in the assault and recently successfully prosecuted several members of the violent Oathkeepers militia, including two for seditious conspiracy. As 2023 begins, Trump’s star may be growing dimmer, but right-wing conspiracy theories, online disinformation, and a distressing lack of trust in the basic institutions of democracy continue apace. In particular, it will be important to see whether the Republican Party will reject those within its ranks who have embrace election disinformation and spread false claims about the so-called ‘deep state.’  The fate of the party, and American democracy may hinge on whether the party embraces or rejects right wing extremists within its ranks.”  


    Brian Hughes     is the Co-Founder and Associate Director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL), where he develops studies and interventions to reduce the risk of radicalization to extremism. His scholarly research explores the impact of communication technology on political and religious extremism, terrorism, and fringe culture.

    Prof. Hughes said: “2022 saw a troubling continuation of ongoing trends in the radicalization of mainstream American politics. Anti-LGBTQ violence and antisemitism were on the rise, while racism, male supremacy, and other forms of extremism have not abated. Unfortunately, these trends are spurred on and exploited for profit and power by a large cohort of media and political figures. It is even more crucial that in 2023 we continue our work inoculating the public against their divisive, hateful, and manipulative rhetoric.”


    Janice Iwama     is an assistant professor in AU’s School of Public Affairs. Her research focuses on examining local conditions and social processes that influence hate crimes, gun violence, racial profiling, and the victimization of immigrants. Iwama has served as a co-principal investigator and lead researcher in projects funded by the Department of Justice Civil Rights Unit and the National Institute of Justice.

    Prof. Iwama said: “Following the recent spike in hate crimes, I expect federal and state legislators to introduce new legislation in 2023 that will actively seek to improve our data collection on hate crimes, develop better preventative measures against bias incidents, and improve law enforcement responses to hate crimes.”

     

    About American University

    American University leverages the power and purpose of scholarship, learning, and community to impact our changing world. From sustainability to social justice to the sciences, AU’s faculty, students, staff, and alumni are changemakers. Building on our 129-year history of education and research in the public interest, we say ‘Challenge Accepted’ to addressing the world’s pressing issues. Our Change Can’t Wait comprehensive campaign creates transformative educational opportunities, advances research with impact, and builds stronger communities.

     

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    American University

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  • ‘Adaptive Leadership’ Led to Successful COVID-19 Response in Alaskan Capital

    ‘Adaptive Leadership’ Led to Successful COVID-19 Response in Alaskan Capital

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    Newswise — To date, Juneau, Alaska has the highest vaccination rates, among the lowest coronavirus cases, and among the fewest deaths among other boroughs (counties) in Alaska. Now, a research team that studied Juneau’s early response to the pandemic has identified a number of factors that helped the Alaskan capital mitigate COVID-19’s impact on residents. 

    In a new study, the team found that local lawmakers’ creation of an administrative system that facilitated making evidence-based decisions and implementing them stood out as a particularly successful example of adaptive leadership within a complex system. Additionally, regular communications by the mayor and city manager ensured that the population supported leadership action. Finally, emergent new collaborative structures with community stakeholders, particularly the local Indigenous Alaskan community, brought additional resources to the effort, while local ownership of key assets—the airport, hospital, convention center, dock and harbors—made it easier for city and borough officials to act quickly and efficiently.  

    The paper, “Juneau, Alaska’s Successful Response to COVID-19: A case study of adaptive leadership in a complex system,” was published in State and Local Government Review. Study authors include faculty from George Washington University, the University of Alaska Southeast, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Northern Arizona University. The National Science Foundation supported the research through a Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant.  

    Click here to listen to co-author, Robert Orttung, Director of Research, Sustainable GW, at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, discuss the study’s key findings.

     

    –GW–

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    George Washington University

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  • Association for Molecular Pathology Commends Congress on Decision to Not Include VALID Act in Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023

    Association for Molecular Pathology Commends Congress on Decision to Not Include VALID Act in Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023

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    Newswise — ROCKVILLE, Md. – Dec. 23, 2022 – The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), the premier global, molecular diagnostic professional society, today applauded Congress for reaching an agreement on the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 and recognizing that it was not the appropriate mechanism for advancing the Verifying Accurate Leading-edge IVCT Development (VALID) Act. The VALID Act proposed dramatic oversight modifications that would have been disruptive to clinical testing laboratories and harmful to patients throughout the U.S.

    “AMP members have worked tirelessly to lead advocacy efforts to inform policymakers on how to best modernize the current regulatory framework for laboratory testing services,” said Mary Steele Williams, Executive Director, Association for Molecular Pathology. “We are grateful for champions in Congress such as U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who shared our concerns about the significant flaws in the VALID Act. We look forward to continuing to work with Congress and other stakeholders in 2023 to help ensure widespread patient access to high-quality, essential medical procedures.”

    “For decades we have allowed clinical labs in our nation’s academic medical centers the freedom to innovate under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). The VALID Act would have upended that system and replicated the testing nightmare of the early days of the COVID pandemic, putting all lab-developed tests under the FDA’s control,” said Senator Paul.  “I have been fighting to stop the VALID Act for years, so I am pleased to say that despite a major push all year by powerful special interests, the VALID Act was kept out of the 2022 year-end legislation.”

    AMP also thanks Congress for including the following provisions and protections for clinical laboratory professionals in the Consolidated Appropriations Act.

    • One-year delay to the implementation of the clinical lab fee schedule provisions within the Protecting Access to Medicare Act.
    • Two-year extension to existing telehealth waivers without any restrictions for laboratory test ordering.
    • Additional infectious disease reporting infrastructure and support for efforts that will enable early detection of emerging variants of concern from the PREVENT Pandemics Act.

     

    ABOUT AMP

    The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) was founded in 1995 to provide structure and leadership to the emerging field of molecular diagnostics. AMP’s more than 2,900 members practice various disciplines of molecular diagnostics, including bioinformatics, infectious diseases, inherited conditions, and oncology. Our members are pathologists, clinical laboratory directors, basic and translational scientists, technologists, and trainees that practice in a variety of settings, including academic and community medical centers, government, and industry. Through the efforts of its Board of Directors, Committees, Working Groups, and Members, AMP is the primary resource for expertise, education, and collaboration in one of the fastest-growing fields in healthcare. AMP members influence policy and regulation on the national and international levels, ultimately serving to advance innovation in the field and protect patient access to high-quality, appropriate testing. For more information, visit www.amp.org and follow AMP on Twitter: @AMPath

     

     

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  • AACC Statement on Excluding VALID from End of Year Legislative Package

    AACC Statement on Excluding VALID from End of Year Legislative Package

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    WASHINGTON— 

    Statement attributable to:

    Shannon Haymond, PhD

    President, American Association for Clinical Chemistry 

    “AACC applauds the decision of the United States Congress to exclude the Verifying Accurate Leading-edge IVCT Development (VALID) Act from its end of year omnibus bill. We are grateful that Congress listened to the united voices of the more than 100 medical and patient groups that joined AACC in opposing the bill. The fact that such a large number of different organizations had concerns about the VALID Act underscores that it was a deeply problematic piece of legislation that would cause significant patient harm. 

    “We continue to advocate for the modernization of how laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) are regulated—discussing whether additional LDT oversight is necessary and, if so, what that level of regulation should be to maintain clinical testing quality without limiting patient access or innovation. We urge the FDA and those who supported the VALID Act to join with us to make any necessary changes.” 

    To speak to Dr. Haymond about this issue, please contact Molly Polen, AACC Senior Director of Communications & PR, at [email protected] or 202-420-7612.

    About AACC

    Dedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, AACC brings together more than 70,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of progressing laboratory science. Since 1948, AACC has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation. For more information, visit www.aacc.org.

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  • Law scholar behind bipartisan supply chain bill calls it critical to economic development

    Law scholar behind bipartisan supply chain bill calls it critical to economic development

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    CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
    FOR RELEASE: Dec. 21, 2022

    Newswise — Last week, Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Ro Khanna introduced legislation aimed at addressing supply chain shortfalls exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Development Strategy and Coordination Act of 2022 is meant to address both long and short-term supply issues in order to prevent widespread shortages of critical supplies like baby formula or medical supplies.

    Robert Hockett, professor of corporate law and financial regulation at Cornell Law School, conceived and drafted this legislation in the fall of 2020. Professor Hockett addresses why this legislation is critical to the United States and will restore “Hamiltonian America.”  

    Hockett says:

    “To its detriment, America has forgotten three things about economic development in recent decades – namely that it is national, that it’s forever, and that it is always cross-regional and cross-sectoral in character. This legislation will rectify that.

    “The National Development Strategy and Coordination Act of 2022 makes creative new use of existing (and democratically accountable) federal instrumentalities – the White House Cabinet, reconfigured into a National Development Council in analogy to the National Security Council, and the U.S. Treasury’s Federal Financing Bank – to develop, regularly update, and finance the execution of a National Development Strategy. 

    “This creative repurposing of existing institutions will restore the Hamiltonian America that we lost sight of over three decades of misguided offshoring that hollowed-out our productive capacity, undermined our national security, and exported most of our best, most middle-class-sustaining jobs.”     

    Cornell University has dedicated television and audio studios available for media interviews.

    – 30 –

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  • Chinese Communist Party zero-covid “volunteers” have suffered from stress and anxiety, study shows

    Chinese Communist Party zero-covid “volunteers” have suffered from stress and anxiety, study shows

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    Newswise — “Volunteers” tasked with enforcing the Chinese Communist Party’s zero-covid policies have suffered from stress and anxiety, a new study shows.

    Having to act as a “buffers” between disgruntled citizens and the Party’s image has led to “grassroots fatigue”, high workloads and people being put under intense pressure, researchers have found.

    These members of residents committees are responsible for monitoring and tracing sick residents and enforcing quarantines, as well as administering vaccines and achieving centrally set vaccination targets.

    Academics conducted 37 semi-structured interviews during summer 2021 in eight Shanghai estates in three districts. This included secretaries and directors from residents committees, government officials, representatives from property management companies and people who worked in party-community and social centres, as well as social workers, volunteers and residents.

    They found an increasingly pressurized grassroots infrastructure, then exhausted after 18 months of mobilizational governance, in which party secretaries are required to shoulder ever greater workloads and manage increasingly hierarchical chains of command.

    At the pandemic’s height, government officials were also sent into communities to assist with grassroots COVID management. In the second phase they went door-to-door providing information about the vaccine, alongside working in their usual party jobs. They were expected to do this voluntary work. One party worker described the work as ‘voluntary’, but when asked if she could choose not to go, she replied, ‘it seems like we cannot”.

    One residents committee secretary told researchers: “Now it seems like the public is forcing Party members onto the moral high ground in all issues. It feels like, if you are a Party member, you have to do this. If you don’t, you will be ashamed of your title of Party member.”

    The research, by Dr Catherine Owen from the University of Exeter and Xuan Qin from Fudan University, is published in the Journal of Chinese Political Science.

    Dr Owen said: “Since Spring 2022, when Chinese citizens have become increasingly dissatisfied with the on-going commitment to zero-COVID, the high costs of resource mobilisation and the hierarchical chain of command have resulted in intensified workloads and intense pressure on local cadres, leading to grassroots fatigue.

    “Following the emergence of Omicron and the hike in public dissatisfaction with the on-going lock-down policies it was the grassroots cadres that filtered out public discontents, protecting the Party’s overall image.”

    Another residents committee secretary said: “Now the secretary and the director are under too much pressure. It’s just hard work, and the psychological pressure is too great. We have indicators for every job, including vaccination, and every residential area has a ranking every day. I’m too anxious to sleep at night. Because the city has indicators for the district, the district has indicators for the streets, and the streets have indicators for the residential areas, it is very anxiety-inducing”.

    Researchers found tensions were created because higher-level authorities have asked for compulsory enforcement of policies at grassroot levels, but citizens are not formally required to comply. Local volunteers were told to meet vaccination targets, but mandatory vaccination was prohibited. This put the grassroots cadres in the impossible position of having to meet rigid targets without the authority to enforce the policy.

    Dr Owen said: “Leeway for street-level bureaucrats to adapt or customise decisions from above during periods of campaign governance is very limited. The tension between the requirement for comprehensive compliance and the basic need for personal freedom is a result of top-level design, but it is experienced and negotiated at the grassroots level.”

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  • ASTRO deeply disappointed in radiation oncology cuts and fears for stability of community-based cancer clinics

    ASTRO deeply disappointed in radiation oncology cuts and fears for stability of community-based cancer clinics

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    Newswise — ARLINGTON, Va., December 20, 2022 — The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) issued the following statement from ASTRO Board of Directors Chair Geraldine Jacobson, MD, MBA, MPH, FASTRO, in response to today’s release of the Fiscal Year 2023 Omnibus Appropriations bill.

    “On behalf of ASTRO’s 10,000 members who are physicians, nurses, biologists, physicists, radiation therapists, dosimetrists and other health care professionals who specialize in treating cancer patients with radiation therapy, ASTRO is disappointed that Congress failed to stop the full Medicare physician payment cuts for 2023, demonstrating that the Medicare physician payment system is broken. Radiation oncology has faced among the most significant cuts of any medical specialty, leaving community-based clinics at the breaking point. We urge the new Congress to immediately begin payment reform discussions, including working with ASTRO and the radiation oncology community to create a new, sustainable payment approach for radiation therapy services.

    The omnibus package leaves all physicians with a 2% reduction in the Medicare physician payment conversion factor for 2023, and radiation oncology with an additional 1% decrease due to clinical labor price changes, at a time when patients are returning to clinics and facing more complex cancer care due to delays caused by the pandemic. Cancer clinics must also contend with a wide range of increasing overhead and staffing costs when determining their ability to provide care to Medicare beneficiaries. Payment relief in the omnibus bill is insufficient and could endanger some clinics’ ability to stay open and provide needed care to people with cancer.”

    ABOUT ASTRO

    The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) is the largest radiation oncology society in the world, with nearly 10,000 members who are physicians, nurses, biologists, physicists, radiation therapists, dosimetrists and other health care professionals who specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. For information on radiation therapy, visit RTAnswers.org. To learn more about ASTRO, visit our website and follow us on social media.

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  • American University Experts Look Ahead to 2023

    American University Experts Look Ahead to 2023

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    What: Uncertainty in the economy and a possible global recession, the quest for normalcy after the COVID-19 pandemic; the continued war in Ukraine; record numbers of migrants surging across the U.S.-Mexican border… As 2022 concludes, American University experts share their insights on this year’s headlines and their outlook for 2023.

    When: Tuesday, December 20, 2022 – ongoing

    Background:  American University experts who are available for interviews include those listed below as well as some who have provided insights.

     

    U.S. Politics & Elections

    David Barker is the Director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University’s School of Public Affairs. He is a nationally recognized expert on a broad range of topics, including American political parties, campaigns and elections, representation, culture and polarization, ideology and attitudes, information and communication, political institutions. His latest book is The Politics of Truth in Polarized America.

    Prof. Barker said: “Both at home and abroad, after several years of democratic backsliding, 2022 offered some modestly encouraging signs regarding democracy’s resilience and its prospects for renewal.  However, we cannot allow ourselves to become complacent.  Freedom is always precarious; it must be vigilantly protected and persistently pursued.”

    Amy Dacey is Executive Director of the Sine Institute of Policy & Policy at American University. For more than two decades, she managed prominent national organizations, advised leading elected officials and candidates, including President Barack Obama and Senator John Kerry, and counseled a variety of nonprofits and companies. During the 2016 presidential election, she served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Democratic National Committee.

    Amy Dacey said: “The midterms showed yet again that while all issues matter, certain issues motivate voters. The passion we saw from voters — and particularly young voters – about access to abortion, may have been what prevented the ‘red wave’ that so many observers predicted. But while campaigns are about contrasts, governing is about consensus. That won’t be easy in this age of extremism and political polarization. The number one task for 2023 is to keep our democracy intact and functional.”

    Dean Sam Fulwood, III of American University’s School of Communication is a prominent journalist, public policy analyst and author, whose work addresses key issues of media influences on American life. In addition to his work at SOC, Fulwood is a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he was a senior fellow and vice president for race and equity programming.

    Dean Fulwood said: “Every sector of U.S. society remains in recovery mode from the aftershocks of the COVID pandemic. While most Americans are fatigued by the lingering restrictions the pandemic imposed, it’s perhaps a bit overly optimistic to expect that 2023 will bring an immediate return to past normalcy. In fact, the U.S. – and the world – are creating pathways to a new normal. This will continue well into the New Year.

    I think this emerging new normal will be evident both in our national and local politics and will be revealed primarily in our various media modes. 2023 will not be an election year for most Americans, but politics will continue to be front and center as presidential aspirants jockey for positioning to run in 2024. Campaigns are likely to be particularly contentious among GOP hopefuls as they navigate internal struggles and come to grips with the legacy of the Trump/MAGA hold over much of the party.”

     

    Economy & Finance

    Valentina Bruno is a professor of finance in the Kogod School of Business where she studies topics at the intersection of macroeconomics and finance and opened new lines of inquiry into how global financial markets interact with the real economy. Before joining American University, she worked at the World Bank in the Financial Sector Strategy and Policy Group and in the International Finance Team.

    Prof. Bruno said: “Many indicators point to a global recession coming in 2023. And yet, in the past recent weeks financial conditions have loosened, stocks have rallied, and mortgage rates have fallen from their recent peaks. The US dollar has reaffirmed its dominant role, and data shows that 88% of all foreign exchange transactions have the dollar on one side. And yet, emerging markets have been quite resilient so far. Consumer demand and a tight labor market have partially undone the actions of the Fed. As Chairman Powell said recently, we have a long way to go to get back to price stability. However, once inflation is under control, we will see the light at the end of the tunnel. A soft landing is still possible.”

    Jeffrey Harris is the Gary D. Cohn Goldman Sachs Chair in Finance at the Kogod School of Business. He has an extensive background in market microstructure and regulatory issues. Dr. Harris recently served as Chief Economist and Division Director for the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Prof. Harris said: “With higher rates in store, I expect variable rate mortgages to pinch consumer spending along with dismal house prices. These higher rates will likely tame inflation but will pinch the economy.  Most businesses will persevere, but the housing and financial sectors will slow. The uncertainty in Ukraine will continue to keep energy prices high, but this bodes well for the energy and defense sectors. I expect GDP growth south of 2% but a continuing strong job market as more boomers retire.”

    Dean David Marchick leads the Kogod School of Business to support more than 2,000 students and offer more than two dozen undergraduate, graduate degree, and certification programs. He previously was a managing director at the Carlyle Group and served as Chief Operating Officer of the US Development Finance Corporation during the first year of the Biden Administration, and also served in Clinton administration in various roles.

    Dean Marchick said: “The biggest uncertainty for the global economy is not based on what happens at the Federal Reserve but rather what happens with COVID in China. This month, in the wake of protests in China, Chinese authorities lifted the drastic COVID restrictions across the country.  Now the question is whether China will be shut down not based on policy, but disease. More than 600 million PRC nationals remain unvaccinated or unboosted weeks before the Lunar new year, when more than 300 million PRC nationals travel to see family and friends. Not only could we see a humanitarian crisis worse than the peaks in India, New York or Italy, but the crisis could further stress supply chains, exacerbate political instability and slow China’s economy. Since China accounts for almost 20% of global GDP, the level of China’s growth, or lack thereof, has global implications.  At 4.4% growth in 2023, China is projected to contribute 30% of aggregate global growth next year. But if China’s growth rate falls to zero, global GDP could drop by more than 1%.  Thus, the US and other countries have a deep interest in helping China avoid a humanitarian disaster, but also a self-interest in seeing China grow.”

     

    Extremism & Polarization

    Carolyn Gallaher is an expert on extremism and the right-wing, organized violence by non-state actors and urban politics, including the politics, internal dynamics, and patterns of violence of militias, paramilitaries, and private military contractors, among others. Gallaher is the author of On the Fault Line: Race, Class, and the American Patriot Movement.

    Prof. Gallaher said: “This year, the January 6th Committee revealed how President Donald Trump inspired a failed insurrection that almost toppled 245 years of American democracy. Much of 2022 was spent on holding insurrectionists and other participants to account. The Department of Justice has arrested more than 900 people who participated in the assault and recently successfully prosecuted several members of the violent Oathkeepers militia, including two for seditious conspiracy. As 2023 begins, Trump’s star may be growing dimmer, but right-wing conspiracy theories, online disinformation, and a distressing lack of trust in the basic institutions of democracy continue apace. In particular, it will be important to see whether the Republican Party will reject those within its ranks who have embrace election disinformation and spread false claims about the so-called ‘deep state.’  The fate of the party, and American democracy may hinge on whether the party embraces or rejects right wing extremists within its ranks.”  

    Brian Hughes is the Co-Founder and Associate Director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL), where he develops studies and interventions to reduce the risk of radicalization to extremism. His scholarly research explores the impact of communication technology on political and religious extremism, terrorism, and fringe culture.

    Prof. Hughes said: “This year saw a troubling continuation of ongoing trends in the radicalization of mainstream American politics. Anti-LGBTQ violence and antisemitism in particular were on the rise, while racism, male supremacy, and other forms of extremism have not abated. Unfortunately, these trends are spurred on and exploited for profit and power by a large cohort of media and political figures. It is all the more crucial that in 2023 we continue our work inoculating the public against their divisive, hateful, and manipulative rhetoric.”

    Janice Iwama is an assistant professor in AU’s School of Public Affairs. Her research focuses on examining local conditions and social processes that influence hate crimes, gun violence, racial profiling, and the victimization of immigrants. Iwama has served as a co-principal investigator and lead researcher in projects funded by the Department of Justice Civil Rights Unit and the National Institute of Justice. Prof. Iwama said: “Following the recent spike in hate crimes, I expect federal and state legislators to introduce new legislation in 2023 that will actively seek to improve our data collection on hate crimes, develop better preventative measures against bias incidents, and improve law enforcement responses to hate crimes.”

    Pamela Nadell is director of AU’s Jewish Studies Program and an award-winning historian and expert on the history of antisemitism in America and around the world. Nadell can provide commentary on current trends and problems of antisemitism.  

     

    Foreign Policy – War in Ukraine, Refugees & Immigration

    Ernesto Castañeda is Associate Professor of Sociology at American University and the Director of the Immigration Lab. He is an expert on international migration, borders, social movements, and ethnic and racial inequality. He is currently working on research projects about health disparities, Central American migration, and Afghan refugee integration.

    Garret Martin is the co-director of the Transatlantic Policy Center and Senior Professorial Lecturer at the School of International Service.  He has written widely on transatlantic relations and Europe, security, U.S. foreign policy, NATO, European politics, and European foreign policy and defense.

    Jordan Tama is an associate professor in the School of International Service, he specializes in U.S. foreign and national security policy, foreign policy bipartisanship, presidential-congressional relations, national security strategic planning, the politics of economic sanctions, the foreign policy views of U.S. elites, and the value of independent commissions. He is currently working on a book Bipartisanship in a Polarized Age: When Democrats and Republicans Cooperate on U.S. Foreign Policy.

    Joseph Torigian, assistant professor at the School of International Service, is an expert on politics of authoritarian regimes with a specific focus on China and Russia. His research draws upon comparative politics, international relations, security studies, and history to ask big questions about the long-term political trajectories of these two states.

    Guy Ziv is an associate professor at the School of International Service and expert in U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East, U.S.-Israel relations, and Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. He is the author of Why Hawks Become Doves: Shimon Peres and Foreign Policy Change in Israel.

     

    Media & Technology

    Dean Sam Fulwood, III of American University’s School of Communication.

    Dean Fulwood said: “For journalists and media observers, the runup to the 2024 presidential campaign will dominate much of the 2023 news cycles. While some stories are evergreen, journalists will continue struggle to find audiences as the new normal unfolds with changes in media delivery modes. Twitter, Facebook, Tik-Tok and other forms of social media will continue to erode advertising base for traditional, mainstream media outlets, exacerbating an ongoing trend toward declining local news and expanding news deserts in small American communities without comprehensive media presence.”

    Filippo Trevisan is an Associate Professor of Public Communication at American University’s School of Communication and Deputy Director of the Institute on Disability and Public Policy. His research explores the impact of digital technologies on advocacy, activism, and political communication.

    Prof. Trevisan said: “In a year without elections, no Olympics, and in which the pandemic seems to finally be waning, we likely need to wait until the next “crisis” to know what the media are going to focus on in 2023. The war in Ukraine is certainly going to stay at the top of the agenda and invite a fair bit of misinformation, especially if negotiations will start and each side will try its best to win the narrative “war.” A lot will also depend on what will happen to Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover. Whether or not more companies will withdraw their advertising dollars from it, its brand is already badly damaged, which threatens to put the platform into a vicious circle. Musk’s seemingly erratic moves will continue as it’s one way to keep the company relevant in the news, but it may only be a matter of time before the news media stop reporting every one of his moves verbatim.”

    Sherri Williams is an assistant professor in the School of Communication, her interests are at intersection of social media, social justice, reality television, mass media and how people of color use and are represented by these mediums. Prof. Williams teaches journalism and focuses on how marginalized groups, especially women of color, are portrayed in the media.

    Prof. Williams said: “I hope that next year will include more national and local news coverage about how inequality is embedded into law. We are at a critical time in history where extremely conservative legislators are codifying discrimination into law. State legislation that discriminates against transgender youth, limits protests, restricts education about state and national legacies of oppression and bans abortion all essentially legalize discrimination. Journalism that explores how legislators can help close equity gaps with legislation is essential to helping Americans understand that discrimination is often legal and can be remedied with policy, like the Respect for Marriage Act that President Biden just signed. I also hope to see more reporters localize U.S. Supreme Court stories and translate the importance of the court to the public and what is on its docket.”

     

    Environment/ Sustainability 

    Paul Bledsoe is an adjunct professorial lecturer at the Center on Environmental Policy at American University’s School of Public Affairs at. He was director of communications of the White House Climate Change Task Force under President Clinton from 1998-2001, communications director of the Senate Finance Committee under Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and special assistant to former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.

    Todd Eisenstadt, professor and Research Director at the Center for Environmental Policy at American University’s School of Public Affairs, is an expert on climate change policy. He recently co-authored Climate Change, Science, and the Politics of Shared Sacrifice and has written extensively on climate finance and adaptation in the developing world. 

    Jessica Gephart is a U.S. Department of State Science Envoy and Assistant Professor of Environmental Science. She focuses on the intersection of seafood globalization and environmental change, evaluating how seafood trade drives environmental impacts, and how environmental shocks disrupt seafood trade. Gephart is currently working on the development of a global seafood trade database.

     

    About American University

    American University leverages the power and purpose of scholarship, learning, and community to impact our changing world. From sustainability to social justice to the sciences, AU’s faculty, students, staff, and alumni are changemakers. Building on our 129-year history of education and research in the public interest, we say ‘Challenge Accepted’ to addressing the world’s pressing issues. Our Change Can’t Wait comprehensive campaign creates transformative educational opportunities, advances research with impact, and builds stronger communities.

     

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  • Contemporary Japanese politics and anxiety over governance

    Contemporary Japanese politics and anxiety over governance

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    Newswise — Chapters start by revealing the declining impacts of social capital on politics, the shrinking range of political parties from which to choose, and the mixing of Asian values with liberal democratic values. Then, by conceptualizing and empirically examining anxiety over governance, i.e., the perception of excessive risk for future governance, Ikeda explores the links of anxiety to Japanese political behavior. While the high regard for democratic politics lowers anxiety among the Japanese, the changes in Japanese political behavior/environment and culture contribute to a generally high level of anxiety, which also had a significant negative impact on the evaluation of countermeasures against COVID-19.

    Chapter 1 captures the changes in Japanese political behavior in the 21st century by contrasting social capital and political actors as determinants. A gradual decline in social capital and weakening of the ties with political actors occurred. By examining the elections from 1983 to 2019, especially the 2009 election that switched power from the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Chapter 1 shows that the transition of power to the DPJ in the 2009 election was not supported by the social capital of civil society, but rather by perceptions regarding the political actors. The DPJ administration ended along with a decline in their reputation, whereas what is visible in the LDP administration after regaining power is a decline in the prospective expectations on the administration. 

    Chapter 2 examines the changes that have occurred in micro-level vote choice and macro-level meaningfulness since 1996 when voters became entitled to cast two votes in every national election in both Houses. Voting behavior is a choice for a set of alternatives, i.e., a set of political parties, but voters do not vote from the full range of the set as available choices; rather, they vote from a limited set of parties. On the other hand, the set of possible party choices defines the sense of meaningfulness that voting brings, i.e., the subjective empowerment on national politics. In fact, voters’ perceived set of party choices fluctuated in multiple LDP- and DPJ-centered clusters, and vote choices were basically distributed among possible choice sets of parties in each cluster. The LDP-centered clusters were consistently stable in determining vote choice, while the DPJ-centered clusters were less stable, and vote choice for the DPJ was rather heavily dependent on selective cues provided by its political actors. After the collapse of the DPJ administration, the perceived set of possible political parties to choose from has been greatly reduced to for or against LDP-centered clusters, along with the sense of empowerment.

    Chapter 3 examines whether the Japanese are unique in Asia and the world (which is often claimed) and whether such uniqueness is linked to the Japanese people’s social capital and their support for democracy, using extensive international comparative data from the Asian Barometer and World Values Surveys over a 20-year period. Although the Japanese are outliers in the Asian value system, which consists of the two dimensions of “vertical emphasis” and “harmony orientation,” in that the Japanese are weak in these characteristics, Japan is not uniquely positioned on the cultural map of the world. Nevertheless, Japanese people’s attitudes and actions are influenced by Asian values in terms of general trust and political participation, which are formed through social interactions with others, whereas this is not the case in terms of support for liberal democracy, which is enculturated by the post-war formal education. Overall, the Japanese may not necessarily be capable of making political and social decisions in a value-consistent manner, which may have a negative impact on the operation of the process of politics.

    Chapter 4 examines Japanese idiosyncrasy in their perception of social and national risk. In the World Values Survey, the degree of anxiety about future unemployment, education, and possible involvement in war, terrorism, and civil war perceived by the Japanese is considerably higher than objective indicators, demonstrating excessive risk perception, termed the “anxiety over governance index.” It was presumed that this excessiveness comes from Japanese people’s sense of worry over the future governance of their country. Analyses confirmed the excessive level of risk perception among the Japanese and revealed that this perception was reduced when the country was perceived to be democratically governed, i.e., the index was precisely related to perceptions of governance. Finally, anxiety over governance was more conceptually sophisticated as a pair conception, i.e., political distrust and anxiety over governance expressing diffuse negative evaluations of the past and the future, respectively.

    Chapter 5 explores the structure of Japanese anxiety over governance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite Japan’s relatively good control during its first wave, an international comparative survey demonstrated that not only was there an overperception of risk, but the intensity of fear (risk perception) was positively correlated with a low evaluation of government handling ability, especially among the Japanese, which is consistent with Chapter 4. An Internet survey on the first general election of the Kishida administration in October 2021 revealed that Japanese excessive risk perception corresponded to the newly constructed direct measure of anxiety over governance, indicating that it was indeed anxiety about the future direction of Japanese politics and political dysfunction. Anxiety was reduced by perceptions of Japan’s degree of democracy, while its high level was explained by the cumulative negative effects of factors such as nonfunctioning social capital, reduced party choice, and inconsistent values.

    Chapter 6 examines a possible countervailing approach from citizens’ perspectives using an analysis of the 2021 election. While criticizing the government in the face of anxiety over governance, many Japanese are less involved in politics, even when confronted with the pandemic. However, the analyses indicated possible pathways for the Japanese to engage in politics, starting with protecting their everyday lives. The book closes by arguing that such grassroots movements are one way to reduce Japanese people’s anxiety over governance.

    [Book URL] http://www.routledge.com/9781032159331

    [About the author] Dr. Ken’ichi Ikeda is a professor in the Department of Media Studies at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan since April 2013, after 21 years of teaching at the University of Tokyo. He has been involved in many national/international survey research as the Principal Investigator of Japan, such as Japanese Election Study, World Values Survey, Asian Barometer, and Comparative Study on Electoral Systems(CSES).

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  • GW Expert: State Credit Enhancement Programs Help Low-Income School Districts

    GW Expert: State Credit Enhancement Programs Help Low-Income School Districts

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    Newswise — More than half of all public school districts in the United States are in need of capital improvements. Those projects are usually funded by issuing bonds on the municipal bond market, which can be challenging for under-resourced school districts saddled with low credit ratings. It is a story that plays out all too often: poorer districts pay higher interest rates on debt issued for badly needed improvements, leaving students in low-income communities at a disadvantage compared to their more affluent peers.

    Lang (Kate) Yang, an assistant professor at the GW Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, has identified a potential solution to school districts’ capital financing woes. In her most recent working paper, Dr. Yang encourages state governments to serve as a financial backstop for school districts through credit enhancement programs. 24 states already offer these programs, which allow school districts to benchmark their credit ratings to the state’s rating, making district bonds more attractive to investors. These programs do not require any upfront spending by the states, and in recent history, districts have almost never relied on state resources to repay debt.

    Dr. Yang found that state credit-enhanced district bonds carry lower interest rates, leading districts to increase capital spending by 6 to 7%. State credit enhancement programs are especially beneficial for school districts in low-income communities, which saw bigger interest rate reductions and increased capital spending at a higher rate than wealthier credit-enhanced districts.

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    George Washington University

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  • Tackling Crowd Management in Subways during Pandemics

    Tackling Crowd Management in Subways during Pandemics

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    Newswise — Mass transit, and subways in particular, are essential to the economic viability and environmental sustainability of cities across the globe. But public transit was hit hard during the COVID pandemic and subways especially experienced substantial drops in ridership. Spurred on by a Columbia Engineering Transit Design Challenge in 2020, researchers from across the University have been collaborating on a project to strengthen both the preparedness and resilience of transit communities facing public health disasters.

    The team, led by Civil Engineering Professor Sharon Di, recently won a $2,500,000 four-year grant from the National Science Foundation to tackle crowd management in subways. The project–”Preparing for Future Pandemics: Subway Crowd Management to Minimize Airborne Transmission of Respiratory Viruses”–is focused on developing a system for public transit communities, including riders, workers, and agencies, that will help transit riders to make informed decisions and adapt travel behavior accordingly and provide transit agencies engaged in planning and policymaking with recommendations for mitigating virus transmission risks to riders and workers. 

    “We think our system, which we’re calling Way-CARE, will be transformative, especially for people in low-income communities who are among the most impacted by reduced accessibility to safer travel modes,” said Di, who is a leader in transportation management. “We expect our project to improve the social, economic, and environmental well-being of those who live, work, and travel within cities.” 

    The team, which includes Co-PIs Jeffrey Shaman (Columbia Climate School; Mailman School of Public Health); Marco Giometto, Xiaofan Jiang, and Faye McNeill (Columbia Engineering); Ester Fuchs (School of International and Public Affairs); and Kai Ruggeri (Columbia University Irving Medical Center), is working with New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and local rider communities in Harlem and at Columbia on the Way-CARE project. They hope that their system will enable smart city transit operators to access real-time sensing information collected from subway stations and/or trains for crowd management.

    The researchers are integrating sensing and crowd and airflow modeling with public health expertise on a microscale applied to subway crowd management. They are developing coupled airborne dispersion and epidemiological models that account for microscale processes–the transport of droplets and aerosols–that affect respiratory virus transmission. In addition, they are integrating behavioral science data that will help inform travel choices and policy making. 

    “This is an important interdisciplinary collaboration,” said Shaman, an epidemiologist who is a leader in infectious disease modeling. “The transmission of respiratory viruses is not directly observed, and the microscale processes influencing infection risk are not well known. Our project will address these shortcomings by advancing understanding of the physical, biological, and behavioral features that enable transmission of respiratory viruses in subway settings, and equip transit officials and the public with real-time information that improves worker and rider safety.”

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    Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

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