Let’s start with the basics. What are ‘forever chemicals?’ And so this podcast begins with Professor Matt Simcik, an environmental chemist from the University of Minnesota, trying to explain to me, a layman, what they are. They have been in the news lately and there are now efforts around the country to limit their use …
Pneumatic drilling from building sites. The dull roar of planes overhead. Your fellow worker’s phone conversations in an otherwise silent office. The suburban drone of lawn mowers and blowers. Noise seems to be everywhere, and it can disrupt our sleep, ratchet up our stress, destroy our concentration–yet it’s a problem we shrug off once the …
While both parties have long histories with gerrymandering Congressional districts for partisan advantage, it’s fair to say Republicans have taken it to a new low by interrupting the every ten -year process, based on the census, and doing it at halftime of this cycle. In the process, they are encouraging Democrats to do the same. …
When political discussions take place, they are often focused on how Democrats or Republicans, conservatives versus liberals or red in relation to blue look at an issue. They leave out a component of the electorate which grows in number and importance year after year–the independent or unaffiliated voter. In fact, if you really analyze the …
Can your star quarterback on a powerhouse Division 1 football program get paid as it stands today? After the recent $2.8 billion settlement in House v. NCAA, which enables universities to directly pay college athletes for their athletic participation, the answer is yes. First came the NIL ruling in which college players could get paid …
The U.S. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)in 1977 with the key objective of ending redlining, the decades-old practice of neighborhood discrimination by banks against African Americans and others based on race and income. The race-based rejection of loans to creditworthy residents of redlined neighborhoods delayed the American dream of homeownership for generations. Our …
There is irony in a man determined to use the powers of the presidency and the administrative state capacity to disassemble the administrative state, aka ‘the deep state.’ Yet that is what we are seeing with the Trump Administration. The military, Department of Justice, homeland security and ICE are all aspects of the administrative …
Attorney Ira Shapiro is a man who has seen it all in Washington. As a long-time U.S. Senate staffer, he has written three books about the upper chamber. The collection has been described by one scholar as an ‘epic trilogy’, capturing sixty years of Senate history. He was the chief U.S. trade negotiator with …
Many lawsuits have been brought against the second Trump Administration on the basis of overreach of its authority in trying to enact policies. President Trump declared victory over ‘radical left wing judges’ when the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the concept of the ‘universal’ injunction, wherein one lower federal court can make a ruling which …
In 2019, the quiet suburb of New Canaan, Connecticut was shocked by the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, a mother of five who vanished one morning after dropping her kids off to school. In 2020, her husband Fotis Dulos–with whom she was locked in a contentious divorce–and Fotis’s lover, Michelle Troconis, were charged with Jennifer’s murder, …