Many voters wanted to hear both candidates’ views on “kitchen table” issues – such as expanding job opportunities, ensuring public safety, and reforming education – in the closing weeks before the election. But that wasn’t always what voters got. Instead, they were often presented not with the issues, but with heavyweight political endorsements.
Commentary
LGBTQ Life Is Flourishing in Small-Town America
LGBTQ people in rural places and small towns are often ignored in the larger conversation surrounding queer life and culture. Even with these omissions, Pride celebrations in those locations are sweeping the nation (including Palm Coast), often encountering initial resistance.
Learning Is for Commie-Pinko Wokesters and We Don’t Need Any of It Around Here
Praise Jesus, here in Florida our governor has decreed that there will be no “The 1619 Project,” and none of that Critical Race Theory making our sweet white children hate themselves, their mamas and daddies, and their great-great-grandparents, who happened to belong to the Ku Klux Klan.
Facebook’s Misinformation Problem
Leaked internal documents suggest Facebook – which recently renamed itself Meta – is doing far worse than it claims at minimizing Covid-19 vaccine misinformation on the Facebook social media platform.
Covid’s Threat to the Already Shaky Status of Arts Education in Schools
In two studies from 2007 to 2008, schools indicated that they had cut an average of 145 minutes per week across the nontested subjects, lunch and recess. Where visual art and music were cut back, it was for an average of 57 minutes per week.
K-Pop Is Trending. So Is Anti-Asian Bigotry.
There is no doubt that the representation of Asian people in Hollywood has improved. The pandemic has led to a disturbing rise in anti-Asian racism and hate crimes.
School Choice: Why You Should Vaccinate Your Kids 5 to 11
The FDA authorization comes after months of pediatric clinical trial investigation involving about 4,500 children ages 5 to 11. Pfizer released new data on Oct. 22, 2021, stating that its vaccine is almost 91% effective at preventing COVID-19 in that age group, with similar tolerability and antibody responses to that seen in older age groups.
Save the Tatas. Sure. But Do a Better Job Focusing on Women at Stage 4, Too.
Breast cancer awareness campaigns can do a better job supporting women who’ve received a stage 4 diagnosis, instead of focusing only on early detection and ‘beating cancer.’
Climate Change: What Big Oil Knew and When It Knew It
The oil industry’s own words show companies knew about the climate change risk fossil fuels posed long before most of the rest of the world. Here’s what corporate documents from the past six decades show.
Fall Colors Aren’t What They Used To Be. Blame Climate Change.
Warming has caused a delay in peak colors for much of the East, ranging from a few days in Pennsylvania to as much as two weeks in New England. It’s not yet known whether this delay is making fall colors less intense or shorter-lasting.
Glasgow Climate Summit: What to Watch For
Glasgow sits proudly on the banks of the river Clyde, once the heart of Scotland’s industrial glory and now a launchpad for its green energy transition. It’s a fitting host for the United Nations’ climate conference, COP26, where world leaders will be discussing how their countries will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change.
What’s Behind ADHD
ADHD affects more than 6 million U.S. children. People who have ADHD develop symptoms by age 12, and it usually continues into adolescence and young adulthood. The condition can affect people throughout their whole life.
Remember When Parents Were Fine With Sweeping Vaccine Mandates?
By James Colgrove The ongoing battles over Covid-19 vaccination in the U.S. are likely to get more heated when the Food and Drug Administration authorizes emergency use of a vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, expected later this fall. California has announced it will require the vaccine for elementary school attendance once it receives full FDA […]
Are Wind Turbines About to Whirl Off Florida’s Shore?
The Biden administration is turning its back on offshore drilling rigs such as Deepwater Horizon. Instead, it’s planning for wind farms along the entire coastline. When it comes to wind, though, Florida is known more for its balmy breezes than any steady gusts that would make wind turbines an energetic proposition.
There Is a Vengeful America and a Just America. Guess Which Florida Promotes.
Florida’s sentencing guidelines statute details the primary purpose of sentencing is to punish, not to rehabilitate. Honor demands vengeance. Respect commands justice. Two significantly different approaches.
Time to Stop Worrying About Children’s Screen Time? Not So Fast.
We still need to be wary of health consequences, despite the absence of strong links between screen time and children’s health. The researchers–the study involved almost 12,000 nine-to-ten-year-olds from 24 diverse sites across the United States–suggested screen time was not a direct cause of depression or anxiety and was linked to improved peer relations, but their findings came with caveats.
Think a Mild Case of Covid Is No Big Deal? Think Again.
Sometimes we can’t see the impacts to our health as internal signs of disease can go undetected for months or years. In this respect, Covid-19 might be of greater concern than initially realized. Few will come out of the pandemic unscathed, whether financially, physically or emotionally.
Trump Wants His National Archives Papers Censored. Laws May Not Let Him.
At the center of the current conflict between Trump and the congressional committee is the status of presidential papers: Are they public or private? If they’re in the National Archives, they’re not necessarily private. Ex-presidents do not have the ability as former presidents to assert blanket executive privilege.
The Founders Didn’t Believe Your Sacred Freedom Means You Can Do Whatever the Hell You Want
The founders agreed on one principle: They were unrelenting on the notion that circumstances often emerge that require public officials to pass acts that abridge individual freedoms. Even George Washington forced his troops to be vaccinated.
Cities Aren’t Adapting to Climate Change Quickly Enough
the pace of climate change is accelerating much more rapidly than urban areas are taking steps to adapt to it. Failure to adapt urban areas to climate change will put millions of people at risk.
Trump Antidote: How Anti-Celebrity Politicians Can Thrive in a Starstruck World
Amid the Trumps and Johnsons of the world, can “traditional” politicians still compete for power? This is where the anti-celebrity politician comes in. Dressing and behaving inconspicuously, and ostensibly lacking media savviness, the anti-celebrity politician embodies the opposite qualities to celebrity stardom. He or she avoids the limelight, and flourishes when fatigue with celebrity figures sets in.
When Students Attack Teachers
Interviews with 50 teachers from urban and suburban high schools who were threatened or attacked by a student suggest that in light of the constant threat of violence against schoolteachers, the adequacy of current security measures – or lack thereof – are ripe for review.
Antarctica’s Ice Sheet Collapse Is Still Preventable. Barely.
In West Antarctica, the interior of the ice sheet sits atop bedrock that lies well below sea level. As the Southern Ocean warms, scientists are concerned the ice sheet will continue to retreat, potentially raising sea level by several meters.
The Freedom to Vote Act Is No ‘Compromise.’ It’s an Imperative.
The Freedom to Vote Act was introduced in the Senate as the successor to the For the People Act, which was shot down twice by Republican filibusters. The new act, which has the support of all 50 Democrats in the Senate, is sometimes described as a “compromise bill,” but let’s be clear: The bill is no compromise when it comes to essential protections for voting rights.
Bisexual Superman: A Subtext Finally, Happily Out of the Closet
Son of Kal-El will be out this November, and will feature Jon sharing a kiss with friend and online journalist Jay Nakamura. Apart from proving Superman has always had a thing for reporters, Jon expressing his sexuality is a watershed moment in the venerable franchise.
Do Unbiased Jurors Exist in Social Media Age Anymore?
It’s a fundamental question for this era: Is it possible to find unbiased citizens to serve on a jury in high-profile cases during an age of ubiquitous social media? The dilemma facing the Supreme Court is how prescriptive they want the voir dire process to be. It could issue an opinion requiring lower courts to ask jurors more penetrating questions about their exposure to media accounts in high-profile cases.
No, Immigrants Don’t Reduce Natives’ Wages
Nobel Prize winner David Card combined a clever technique with data generated by a unique historical event to credibly answer how large-scale immigration from a poor country affects the wages of native-born citizens. It doesn’t hurt those wages.
Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism: Just Another Day at the NFL
The NFL’s Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen arrogantly believed that their comments would not enter into the public domain. Truth be told, they had ample reason to believe such a possible reality. For more than a decade the NFL gave them free rein to engage in such perverted, hyper levels of toxic masculinity.
What’s Behind All Those Empty Shelves in Stores
There are four primary – and interrelated – reasons for the continuing supply chain crunch, which won’t be resolved by the holidays: soaring consumer demand, a labor shortage, a shipping container shortage, and clogged ports.
On Refugees, Joe Biden Should Emulate Canada: Go Big
The capacity of private American citizens to resettle refugees is large and untapped. It may even bridge the divide over immigration in the United States. Now is the time for Biden to ask the American people to invite homeless and war-ravaged Afghan refugees into their homes and their communities.
We’re Finally Decreasing Child Poverty. Let’s Not Blow It.
Expanded Child Tax Credit payments led to “a notable drop in child poverty” after just the first month. The U.S. Census Bureau also found that after just one month, food insecurity among vulnerable families dropped significantly, and families receiving checks also had less difficulty paying for weekly expenses.
Why It’s Time to Replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day
Since the 1990s, a growing number of states have begun to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day – a holiday meant to honor the culture and history of the people living in the Americas both before and after Columbus’ arrival.
The Nobels: Maria Ressa Speaks Blogging to Power
The importance of journalists who take considerable risks to bring people the truth in countries where this involves going up against authoritarian governments has been recognized by the Nobel committee’s decision to award the 2021 peace prize to Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia.
The Nobels: Abdulrazak Gurnah, the Man and his Writing
Abdulrazak Gurnah is one of the most important contemporary postcolonial novelists writing in Britain today and is the first Black African writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature since Wole Soyinka in 1986. Gurnah is also the first Tanzanian writer to win.
Biden Restores Protection for National Monuments Trump Shrank
On Oct. 7, 2021, the Interior Department announced that President Biden was restoring protection for three U.S. national monuments that the Trump administration sought to shrink drastically: Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts in the Atlantic Ocean. President Trump’s 2017 orders downsizing these monuments, originally created by previous administrations, ignited debate over whether such action was legal.
Journalism Wins
It is revealing that in a year that drew 329 candidates for the peace prize, including organizations fighting climate change or covid 19, the committee opted for journalists. It’s a happy surprise for us reporters. It’s also, finally, a necessary one.
How Facebook’s ‘Dangerous’ Algorithms Can Manipulate You
Social media platforms rely heavily on people’s behavior to decide on the content that you see. In particular, they watch for content that people respond to or “engage” with by liking, commenting and sharing. Troll farms, organizations that spread provocative content, exploit this by copying high-engagement content and posting it as their own, which helps them reach a wide audience.
Should You Have to Conceal Your Gun? Supreme Court May Soon Say No.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, expected by mid-2022, could declare a New York state restriction on carrying concealed handguns in public places unconstitutional. Such a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, which include a National Rifle Association affiliate, could loosen gun regulations in many parts of the country.
The Brutal Slave Trade Within the US Has Been Largely Whitewashed Out of History
Slavery still conjures images of Southern farms and plantations. But the institution was grounded in the sales of nearly 2 million human beings in the domestic slave trade, the profits from which nurtured the economy of the entire country.
Will Democrats Get Their Act Together?
This is not the New Deal or Great Society era, when Democrats had power in numbers. The current era requires “an honest embrace of what the politics of the moment will accept,” if only to prevent a return of the cult that doesn’t give two figs about governing.
The Dishonesties of Cherry-Picking Bible Verses
Many Bible verses are being lifted out of context and repurposed to buttress the anti-vaccine movement. Such shallow reading in service of political and cultural agendas has long been a fixture of evangelical Christianity.
Sex Trafficking Isn’t What You Think: 4 Myths Debunked
Law enforcement, medical providers, case managers, victim advocates and immigration lawyers inconsistently define and apply the label “trafficking victim” – especially when it comes to sex trafficking. That makes it harder for these professionals to get trafficked people the help they request.
The Lie About Border Patrol Agents Whipping Haitians
There are no photos of agents whipping migrants. Nor is there any video, in an age when there’s video of everything. The photographer, Paul Ratje, who took the controversial images to which the president and his acolytes refer, told KTSM TV in El Paso that he never saw agents whipping anyone.
Pot Products Are Being Sold as Sleeping Aids. Do They Help?
As with many issues in research, there isn’t a neat answer to how effective cannabis is in improving sleep. How the drug is prepared, the way it’s taken and the person’s expectations are just some important factors that may influence the outcome. And, as with all health products, there is a risk of side-effects.
Supreme Court’s Docket: Guns, Abortion, Religion
The biggest case this year is a challenge to abortion rights. Several states are asking the justices to reconsider Roe v. Wade – the landmark 1973 ruling that established the constitutional right for a woman to terminate a pregnancy, regardless of the moral beliefs of other citizens.
Why is the Flagler County Commission Holding New School Construction Hostage?
Pandering to home builders, the Flagler County Commission is rashly scuttling the school district’s plan to double impact fees on new construction for the first time since 2005, even though the county is doubling its own impact fees. It’s an unjustified and hypocritical assault on district planning and future student needs.
Why Charter Schools Are Not as ‘Public’ as They Claim to Be
Charter schools are not as accessible to the public as they are often made out to be. This finding is particularly relevant in light of the fact that charter school enrollment reportedly grew by 7 percent during the pandemic. Here are four examples of how charters bring certain types of students in and push other kinds of students out.
‘Thrifty Food Plan’ Update Enables Long-Overdue Food Stamps Benefit Increase
An unprecedented update of the Thrifty Food Plan – an estimate of the minimum cost of groceries to meet a family’s needs–is behind the largest-ever permanent increase in benefits and puts a healthier diet within reach for the 42 million Americans enrolled in SNAP, which replaced food stamps.
The Supreme Court’s Immense Power May Be Its Achilles’ Heel
That immense power of the Supreme Court has arguably made the court a leading player in enacting policy in the U.S. It may also cause the loss of the court’s legitimacy, which can be defined as popular acceptance of a government, political regime or system of governance.
Is It Autumn for the First Amendment?
Freedom of speech has long been the very foundation of our country, but a majority of Americans are now afraid to exercise it. That sad fact has become the new normal in America. And that’s a lot more frightening than the scariest haunted house anyone will enter this autumn.