Feature Channels: Government and Law

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A University of Vermont mathematician has developed a new tool to identify gerrymandered voting districts. The research shows Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina strongly gerrymandered for Republicans, while Maryland’s and California’s voting districts have been strongly tipped in favor of Democrats. The new tool could be important in the wake of two Supreme Court cases now being considered that might outlaw certain partisan gerrymanders.

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New York University’s Department of Environmental Studies will host “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You,” a panel on the role of business and local and state government in environmental action, on Wed., March 28.

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Workers and residents in Ontario are not benefiting as much as they could from the city’s economic development projects. Ontario’s politicians have overlooked the community building potential of economic development projects found in other California cities where politicians have engaged residents in negotiations to incorporate community benefit agreements (CBAs) or project labor agreements (PLAs) into public agreements with developers.

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A Missouri University of Science and Technology civil engineering professor will lecture and conduct research in Australia as a Fulbright scholar in advanced science and technology. Dr. William Schonberg, professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering, has been named a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Advanced Science and Technology. His appointment begins in January 2019 at the Defence Science and Technology Group, a government agency in Melbourne.

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WASHINGTON -- Following is the statement of Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, CEO of the American Psychological Association, regarding President Trump’s plan to address the opioid epidemic:

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Tracy Boyer has been named the new Lynde B. Uihlein Endowed Chair in Water Policy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and director of the Center for Water Policy. Boyer examines how human behavior affects the use of water resources through markets, pricing and institutions.

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Curious about the idea that international law is good medicine for bad policies, Ian Hurd examines how and why governments use and manipulate international law in foreign policy.

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African-American voters who dislike and feel threatened by Donald Trump and his presidency are much more likely to vote and to engage with politics, according to new research from California State University, Sacramento, and the University of Washington.

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On March 18, Russian voters will head to the polls for their seventh presidential election since 1990. Reuter, who holds a senior research appointment with the Moscow-based International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development, shared his political predictions and his long view on the way forward for improved U.S.-Russian relations. He also talks about the special counsel indictments that have roiled Washington, D.C., in recent weeks.

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Sean Carr, Ph.D., executive director of Darden’s Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation interviews John Haltiwanger of the University of Maryland and the National Bureau of Economic Research to discuss entrepreneurship, the U.S. economy, and what graduate education and policy have to do with both.

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Individuals with lower-pitched voices are more likely to win elected office because they are believed to be superior leaders. But is voice pitch a reliable signal of leadership quality? And is the bias in favor of selecting leaders with lower voices good or bad for democracy? A novel study is the first to address these questions.

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Caroline Beer has spent her career researching comparative data between Latin American countries and the United States that often debunks false stereotypes. Her latest study showing Mexico as more progressive than the U.S. when it comes to LGBT rights, especially in the recognition of same-sex relationships, is no exception.

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More than 66,000 football fans poured into U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis this past February and were able to enjoy the nation's 52nd Super Bowl in a safe and secure setting thanks to a few DHS S&T programs, which enhanced the overall security efforts were fielded before and during the big game.

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Mercury, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) make their way into Great Lakes fish. Chronic exposure is a problem for fish-reliant Indigenous communities; they asked, when can we eat the fish? A transdisciplinary team led by Michigan Tech set out to find answers.

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Those who have withstood the test of gentrification to East Austin’s historically black neighborhoods hold overall negative views of the changes they believe disrupted the area’s sense of community, according to urban policy researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.

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The Dominguez Poll, a survey undertaken by California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) and its Urban Community Research Center to gauge the opinions of residents within the university’s service area on a variety of national topics, found that approximately 7 out of 10 respondents believe immigration has a positive effect on the United States.

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Attitudes of Jewish and Arab public concerning coexistence deteriorate, but foundation of relationships is still firm

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With the student-led March for Our Lives scheduled for March 24, an expert at the University of California, Riverside, is available to comment on topics related to the outpouring of student activism that has occurred in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.Joseph Kahne, a professor of educational policy and politics in UCR’s Graduate School of Education (and a former public high school teacher), studies various aspects of youth political and civic engagement, as well as what schools can do to enable and encourage more thoughtful activity.

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Political equality and democracy matter, but to improve the global distribution of wealth we must reduce global poverty, according to a new paper from faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

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The implementation of Proposition 47 – which reduced the prison population by charging certain drug and property offenses as misdemeanors rather than felonies – is not responsible for the recent upticks in crime throughout California, according to a new study from researchers at the University of California, Irvine. This is the first systematic analysis to be conducted of the measure’s statewide impact since its 2014 implementation.

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There are many factors that account for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election victory, but Americans would be doing a disservice to their understanding of the country’s political system by ignoring Trump’s 14-year starring role as a reality television personality, according to an associate professor in the University at Buffalo Department of Psychology. Shira Gabriel is lead author of a forthcoming study which is the first to scientifically examine how viewers’ parasocial bonds with Trump, formed through his television shows, “The Apprentice” and “The Celebrity Apprentice,” contributed to his being elected to the nation’s highest office.

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Analysis of research from 1991 to 2015 on talking on the phone while driving can inform lawmakers in crafting driver safety legislation.

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New research by Vanderbilt economist Joni Hersch finds there are not strong enough incentives to push companies to eliminate or mitigate the risk of workplace sexual harassment.

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Social justice and environmental conservation are considered great values in our society. However, in some conservation efforts, conflicts arise. A team led by Michigan Technological University explore ethical frameworks to resolve these conflicts.

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CFOs from leading publicly traded and private equity-held companies based in the Washington, D.C., region shared their insights on Trump's tax stimulus package and its impact as part of the Top-of-Mind topic — It’s All About the Stimulus — at the Strategic CFO Roundtable held 4 January at the offices of Sands Capital Management in Rosslyn, Virginia. The roundtable is a select peer-to-peer forum hosted by the University of Virginia Darden School of Business Institute for Business in Society.

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As leaders in pain medicine and patient safety, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) has proposed several ways for Congress to address the ongoing opioid abuse epidemic through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) programs. In response to a request by the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, ASA put forth several recommendations for combatting opioid abuse, including increased funding for research, coverage for non-opioid alternatives, including interventional therapies for chronic pain, and Congressional support for public-private education initiatives aimed at improving practices in the perioperative setting and encouraging opioid sparing techniques.

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Today, the Obama Foundation and the University of Chicago announced the Obama Foundation Scholars Program, a new program at the Harris School of Public Policy to support the next generation of leaders making an impact on issues in their communities and around the world.

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The stress on survivors and the families of victims of mass shootings is obvious to anyone who listens to the many firsthand accounts that come to light in the days that follow these incidents.

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In the wake of a mass shooting that took the lives of 17 students and teachers at a South Florida high school, a vast majority of Floridians support stricter gun laws, including a ban on assault-style rifles, universal background checks and raising the minimum age for gun purchasers, according to a statewide survey by the Florida Atlantic University Business and Economics Polling Initiative (FAU BEPI).

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Diplomats, scholars and activists from across the globe, including United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, former Foreign Minister of Poland Radoslaw Sikorski, and former Canadian Justice Minister Allan Rock, will gather at Tufts University’s Institute for Global Leadership’s annual symposium March 1 through March 3.

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