Today Texas Governor Rick Perry signed a bill into law that will prohibit the use of indoor tanning devices for all Texans under the age of 16.5 and will require in-person parental consent for those between the ages of 16.5 and 18.
The land value tax, an increased tax rate on land and a reduced tax rate on buildings and improvements, can spur urban development and help contain sprawl, but its implementation has been sporadic, according to a new book co-edited by University of New Hampshire Professor Richard England.
Social Security's long-term solvency is a "manageable problem" that will not require "drastic action," but federal policy makers need to ensure that benefits are adequate for widows and other vulnerable groups to survive, said University of Maryland professor and former Social Security Commissioner Kenneth Apfel in recent Senate testimony.
Nasty, politicized Supreme Court nomination battles may erode public support of the high Court, according to a study of public reactions to the Samuel Alito nomination process. A study found that television advertisements opposing Alito's nomination in 2005 had a disturbing side effect: Many people who viewed those highly political ads become less supportive of the Supreme Court as an institution.
Current copyright law has a chilling effect on Internet expression, a University of Arkansas law professor argues. In "Proving Fair Use: Burden of Proof as Burden of Speech," assistant professor Ned Snow says judicial interpretation of fair use "“ a 150-year-old doctrine that allows people to use copied material in their speech "“ has become so constricted that it inhibits speech.
An Indiana University faculty expert is available to comment on issues related to recent news that North Korea conducted its second nuclear bomb test, that it plans to test a long-range missile and that a successor to leader Kim Jong-il has been selected, as well as other developments on the Korean peninsula.
As the U.S. House Judiciary Committee holds hearings on proposed legislation to revise sentencing rules for children who are convicted of crimes for which they receive life without parole, the select list of invited experts providing testimony will include a Baylor University Law School professor.
African Americans are significantly more likely to be sanctioned by the United States welfare system than whites, according to research published in the June issue of the American Sociological Review, the flagship journal of the American Sociological Association.
An international body dedicated to discussing arms control and disarmament unanimously agreed on a program of work on May 29, opening the door to negotiations on space security, nuclear weapons, and fissile materials.
The University of Missouri Press has just released "Distorted Mirrors: Americans and Their Relations with Russia and China in the Twentieth Century," co-authored by Virginia Commonwealth University President Eugene P. Trani and Donald E. Davis, professor emeritus of history at Illinois State University.
Central Michigan University law professor comments on President Barack Obama's recent nomination of New York Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court -- which has brought praise from Latino leaders and civil rights and women's advocates around the country.
Some federal judges are tossing out civil cases based on their own opinions, a disturbing trend that makes background checks even more important in the search for a new associate justice for the U.S. Supreme Court, a University of Illinois legal expert says.
Painful but inevitable Social Security and Medicare reforms will be difficult to sell because years of partisan wrangling have clouded the public's grasp of the programs' dire financial problems, a former government economic adviser warns.
In "Policy and Evidence in a Partisan Age: The Great Disconnect," Paul Gary Wyckoff presents an accessible, compact, and iconoclastic exploration of the paradox between the exaggerated claims made for public policies and the reality of their limited effectiveness.
President Barack Obama's nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter is historic, says Wake Forest University political science professor Katy Harriger, and the odds of confirmation are in Judge Sonia Sotomayor's favor given the current political context.
Although some commentators have argued that governments should be out of the marriage business--whether straight or gay--University of Iowa law professor Ann Estin believes that marriage is such a strong part of American culture that it demands a government role.
Rural workers stand to benefit from the modernization of unemployment insurance (UI) to cover part-time workers, which is an opportunity for states under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Plan (ARRA), a new brief from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire finds.
Resolving ownership issues involving the use of a famous person's image, likeness or voice for publicity can be complicated, says intellectual property attorney Jonathan Faber who comments on King movie, Allen cases.
Legislation intended to protect consumers from the credit card industry by imposing new regulations on fees, disclosures and interest-rate changes may help but is no cure-all, says consumer psychologist Michael McCall.
A judge in Minnesota has ruled that a family must get medical treatment for their 13-year-old son's cancer because it is highly treatable. Based on the family's religious convictions, it chose alternative treatments. According to Jody Madeira, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, a judge correctly found that the parents have medically neglected their son by refusing chemotherapy.
Defense and foreign policy expert and former Clinton administration official Gordon Adams is available to provide insight into Defense Secretary Robert Gates's defense budget and the challenges it faces in Congress.
Family literacy educator Roberta Lanterman will testify today before the House Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness. She will ask Congress to continue to support family literacy programs as an important and successful component of adult education services.
Gambling addictions would soar and an already-sputtering economy could sink into ruin if Congress overturns a decades-old ban on Internet gambling, a University of Illinois professor and national gambling critic warns.
Two University of Virginia law professors, experts on the Supreme Court and the Constitution, are available to discuss likely successors to David Souter and how the court may change.
Michael Steele should embrace a proposed system of checks and balances on the RNC chairman's spending power, says political scientist Carol Swain. Steele has blasted a proposal to impose new controls on his power to award contracts and spend money on legal and other services. Swain said that this has become an unnecessary distraction for the GOP.
"Perhaps the most interesting dynamic from the impending resignation of Justice David Souter is that it creates a vacancy so early in President Obama's term. The most recent incidents of such an early vacancy both resulted in dramatic and significant appointments," says University of Maryland's Trevor Parry-Giles, an expert on SCOTUS nominations.
Results from the latest AmericasBarometer Survey showing what the impact of worldwide economic decline might mean for democratic consolidation in Latin America will be presented on May 8 at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C. Political scientists Mitchell Seligson and Elizabeth Zechmeister are the presenters.
The US Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity officially got a permanent home today as the University of Maryland and Director of National Intelligence dedicated its new facility at the University's research park. IARPA's mission is to invest in high-risk, high-payoff research to yield overwhelming intelligence advantage over future adversaries.
Book by Indiana University historian examines criminal justice in China since late imperial period; provides new details about extent of labor camps in 1950s and '60s
"Using the term 'the federal personnel system' is a stretch. The prime instinct of most federal agencies is that, if they can find a way to break out of the existing system, they'll do so...We must lower the procedural barriers to recruiting the best workers into federal service." -Donald F. Kettl, incoming Public Policy dean,University of Maryland.
The Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) announces the release of its latest Commentary, "Canada and the United States: Time for a Joint Threat Assessment?" authored by HSPI's Sharon Cardash, associate director; Frank Cilluffo, director; and James Jay Carafano, senior fellow. The authors outline the shape that a joint threat assessment could take in terms of both substance and process.
Let's set the record straight: It is a clear violation of professional ethics for a psychologist to have played a role in the torture of CIA detainees, as described in the recently released Bush administration memos. These Justice Department documents, which purport to offer medical and scientific justification for torturing detainees, are chilling in their dispassionate analysis of how far to push a human being for the purpose of eliciting national security-related information.
President Obama's first 100 days have been marked by lightning-fast changes, not fully thought out, that are in the process of redefining the role of government, says Donald Kettl, incoming dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and an expert in government management. "While surely needed, they are unrolling without assessment of long-term effects."
Governments at all levels must make major changes or risk failure in the face of unprecedented challenges, says the new dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, Don Kettl. An expert in transforming government, he says the US must get "real smart, real fast." Despite the stimulus, state governments face a "fiscal time bomb."
Women's health is increasingly undervalued in conflicts over reproductive rights, including clashes based on moral objections under so-called conscience clauses, a new study by a University of Illinois legal expert found.
Chicago's suburbs cannot meet their populations' growing need for social services like food pantries, emergency assistance, health care and homeless shelters through the current decentralized system, according to a new report by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago who recommend multiple layers of coordination.
It's a very exciting time in the field of stem-cell research as scientists around the world are finding new sources for creating stem cells. For example, in the United States, President Barack Obama has lifted the ban on federal funding for stem-cell research. But with these advances comes challenges for governments who need to create legislation for the controversial research.
The report is the product of a bipartisan Task Force composed of former senior federal officials, practitioners at the state and local levels, and subject matter experts in the area of homeland security policymaking. Co-chaired by HSPI Director Frank Cilluffo and Deputy Director Daniel Kaniewski, the Task Force identified and reviewed arguments for and against merging the Homeland Security Council and National Security Council, and also assessed crucial factors that merit consideration whether or not there is a merger.
"The allocations to research and science education in the stimulus package are answering the call so many of us have been working for," says University of Maryland president C.D. Mote, Jr., adding the support is critical to U.S. economic recovery. Mote led a delegation of higher ed. leaders acknowledging Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chair Bart Gordon's vital support.
As the Obama administration prepares to disperse economic stimulus money for infrastructure, a timely new book sheds light on special districts, the "shadow governments" that will be responsible for spending a large portion of these funds.
Flawed testimony by forensic experts contributed to the conviction of innocent defendants, according to a new study co-written by University of Virginia Law School professor Brandon Garrett.
The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) applauds President Barack Obama's decision to expand federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research by rescinding the policy of Aug. 9, 2001, which restricted federally-funded researchers to using only the small number of cell lines created before that date.
There's no silver bullet for reforming U.S. Defense purchasing policies, but they do need reform, says University of Maryland professor Jacques Gansler, who testified yesterday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Gansler directed Defense acquisition in the Clinton administration. He says new approaches are needed to meet new security challenges.
University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist Pamela Herd has been a scholar of Social Security for more than a decade, but her most poignant lesson may have come from her own mother's experience last fall.
A University of Arkansas law professor argues that U.S. trial courts impose identical and harsh sentences on juvenile murder accomplices, regardless of the circumstances of the homicide or their degree of participation in it, because the U.S. Supreme Court and the Eighth Amendment "“ the section of the U.S. Constitution that addresses "cruel and unusual punishment" "“ do not provide direction to lower courts on sentencing juvenile accomplices in murder cases.
Washington state's system for imposing fines and fees, or legal financial obligations, on people convicted of felonies is riddled with inequalities and is hindering individuals from rejoining society, according to a report prepared for a state commission by University of Washington researchers.
Like state and local governments and private businesses, America's 1.4 million nonprofit organizations have many major "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects on hold because of the credit crisis, according to a new survey.
Dr. John S. Findley, president of the American Dental Association (ADA), applauded Capitol Hill legislators today for introducing a federal bill aimed at understanding and treating "meth mouth""”a condition where teeth can become blackened, stained, rotting and crumbling from methamphetamine use.
Public support is growing for expenditures on mass transit and infrastructure and remains high for education and health care, according to a National Opinion Research Center survey at the University of Chicago that has been following spending trends for 35 years.
Two Iowa State University researchers have given communities worldwide good reason to implement substance abuse prevention programs. They're economically beneficial, with a nearly $10 return for every dollar invested in prevention.
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