| Dec 9, 2020 | HP Subfeatured|Peace / Security|Rights / DemocracyElection after election, voters are turning against mass incarceration and the war on drugs that sustains it. In 2020, the people of Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota voted to legalize marijuana, joining 11 other states and the District of Columbia. In...
| | Editors Picks|Environment / Health|HP SubfeaturedAs the semester ends, I fear many of my students will fail my class. Most will pass, thanks to their hard work and a generous grade curve, but I’ve never had this many students failing or dropping the course before. The Washington Post reports that an unprecedented...
| Dec 2, 2020 | Economy / Business|HP SubfeaturedWashington is abuzz with ideas for actions the Biden-Harris administration could take that would not require congressional approval. One of the buzziest: canceling student debts owed to the federal government. The Department of Education owns about 92 percent of the...
| | Economy / Business|Editors Picks|Environment / Health|HP Subfeatured|Rights / DemocracyA few years ago, massive protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock changed the popular narrative about what climate activism looked like. The protests made clear that ramming dangerous pipelines through vulnerable communities wasn’t going to be easy...
| | Economy / Business|Food / Farming|HP Subfeatured|Rights / DemocracyYears ago, Robert Kennedy noted that progress is hard. “Progress is nice,” he said, “but its agent is change, and change has its enemies.” Kennedy’s recognition that gutsy, honest leadership is necessary to confront wealthy interests and advance the common good...
| Nov 18, 2020 | Economy / Business|HP SubfeaturedThis week my students turned in papers relating news articles to what they learned in class about parenting. Every single student’s paper is about how the pandemic is exacerbating pre-existing inequalities. I’m a teaching assistant in a family sociology course, and...