ca Covering politics in a “post-truth” America By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 02 Dec 2016 13:30:22 +0000 Covering Politics in a Post-Truth America Covering Politics in a “Post-Truth” Washington : Journalism has never been better, thanks to these last few decades of disruption. So why does it seem to matter so little? Reflections on the media in the age of Trump. Susan B. Glasser December 2, 2016 For the last two decades, the rules… Full Article
ca The education of Kim Jong-un By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Tue, 06 Feb 2018 13:00:01 +0000 The Education of Kim Jong–un By Jung H. Pak The Education of Kim Jong-Un February 2018 한국어 When North Korean state media reported in December 2011 that leader Kim Jong-il had died at the age of 70 of a heart attack from “overwork,” I was a relatively new analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. Everyone knew that… Full Article
ca The American Dream Deferred By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 27 Jun 2018 13:00:02 +0000 The AmericanDream Deferred by Senator Cory Booker The American Dream Deferred June 2018 My father was born in the small, segregated mountain town of Hendersonville, North Carolina, in 1936. Less than 100 years before his birth, enslaved black Americans were building Hendersonville’s Main Street. The son of a single mother, my dad grew up in poverty. When… Full Article
ca AMLO’s first year: Mexico’s political, economic, and security trends By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Tue, 03 Dec 2019 14:14:59 +0000 Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) assumed office in December 2018, promising to bring a fourth revolution to Mexico and to reduce Mexico’s inequality, corruption, and violent crime. Yet a year into his administration, homicides and violent criminality in Mexico have not diminished. While the new government has undertaken new security initiatives and adopted… Full Article
ca 20191205 Inter-American Dialogue Vanda Felbab-Brown By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 05 Dec 2019 21:13:54 +0000 Full Article
ca What the US and Canada can learn from other countries to combat the opioid crisis By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 13 Jan 2020 18:56:02 +0000 In a 2018 article for Foreign Affairs, we detailed what set off the North American opioid crisis and what other nations can learn from mistakes the U.S. and Canada made. Here, we describe the opioid situation in other countries and then reflect on what U.S. and Canadian officials could learn from them. Key lessons include… Full Article
ca Mexico needs better law enforcement, but the solution isn’t opportunistic decapitation By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 15:23:30 +0000 Over the past several weeks, the AMLO administration appears to have quietly reinitiated targeting drug traffickers, at least to some extent. Systematically going after drug trafficking and criminal organizations is important, necessary, and correct. But how the effort against criminal groups is designed matters tremendously. Merely returning to opportunistic, non-strategic high-value targeting of top traffickers… Full Article
ca Mexican cartels are providing COVID-19 assistance. Why that’s not surprising. By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 27 Apr 2020 20:06:03 +0000 That Mexican criminal groups have been handing out assistance to local populations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping through Mexico has generated much attention. Among the Mexican criminal groups that have jumped on the COVID-19 “humanitarian aid” bandwagon are the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), the Sinaloa Cartel, Los Viagras, the Gulf Cartel, and… Full Article
ca How Latin America can make fintech a priority By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 31 Jan 2020 18:09:08 +0000 Full Article
ca The rapidly deteriorating quality of democracy in Latin America By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 28 Feb 2020 14:36:02 +0000 Democracy is facing deep challenges across Latin America today. On February 16, for instance, municipal elections in the Dominican Republic were suspended due to the failure of electoral ballot machines in more than 80% of polling stations that used them. The failure sparked large protests around the country, where thousands took to the streets to… Full Article
ca Latin America, with few bullets to spare By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 18 Mar 2020 21:44:33 +0000 Full Article
ca As coronavirus hits Latin America, expect serious and enduring effects By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 26 Mar 2020 20:05:16 +0000 As COVID-19 passes across the globe, Latin America may be hard-hit, with deep humanitarian, economic, and political consequences. In early March, there was hope that the remoteness or the weather in Latin America might help it escape the virus. But within three weeks, the number of known infections jumped exponentially, spreading to every country in… Full Article
ca How to think about the lockdown decision in Latin America By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 02 Apr 2020 15:31:02 +0000 Full Article
ca 20200417 Inter-American Dialogue Vanda Felbab-Brown By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 21:29:13 +0000 Full Article
ca Explained: Why America's deadly drones keep firing By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 21 May 2015 12:00:00 -0400 President Obama's announcement last month that earlier this year a “U.S. counterterrorism operation” had killed two hostages, including an American citizen, has become a fresh occasion for questioning the rationales for continuing attacks from unmanned aerial vehicles aimed at presumed, suspected, or even confirmed terrorists. This questioning is desirable, although not mainly for hostage-related reasons connected to this incident. Sometimes an incident has a sufficient element of controversy to stoke debate even though what most needs to be debated is not an issue specific to the incident itself. More fundamental issues about the entire drone program need more attention than they are getting. The plight of hostages held by terrorists has a long and sometimes tragic history, almost all of which has had nothing to do with drones. Hostage-taking has been an attractive terrorist tool for so long partly because of the inherent advantages that the hostage-holders always will have over counterterrorist forces. Those advantages include not only the ability to conceal the location of hostages—evidently a successful concealment in the case of the hostages mentioned in the president's announcement—but also the ability of terrorists to kill the hostages themselves and to do so quickly enough to make any rescue operation extraordinarily difficult. Even states highly skilled at such operations, most notably Israel, have for this reason suffered failed rescue attempts. It is not obvious what the net effect of operations with armed drones is likely to be on the fate of other current or future hostages. The incident in Pakistan demonstrates one of the direct negative possibilities. Possibly an offsetting consideration is that fearing aerial attack and being kept on the run may make, for some terrorists, the taking of hostages less attractive and the management of their custody more difficult. But a hostage known to be in the same location as a terrorist may have the attraction to the latter of serving as a human shield. The drone program overall has had both pluses and minuses, as anyone who is either a confirmed supporter or opponent of the program should admit. There is no question that a significant number of certified bad guys have been removed as a direct and immediate consequence of the attacks. But offsetting, and probably more than offsetting, that result are the anger and resentment from collateral casualties and damage and the stimulus to radicalization that the anger and resentment provide. There is a good chance that the aerial strikes have created more new terrorists bent on exacting revenge on the United States than the number of old terrorists the strikes have killed. This possibility is all the more disturbing in light of what appears to be a significant discrepancy between the official U.S. posture regarding collateral casualties and the picture that comes from nonofficial sources of reporting and expertise. The public is at a disadvantage in trying to judge this subject and to assess who is right and who is wrong, but what has been pointed out by respected specialists such as Micah Zenko is enough to raise serious doubt about official versions both of the efforts made to avoid casualties among innocents and of how many innocents have become victims of the strikes. The geographic areas in which the drone strikes are most feasible and most common are not necessarily the same places from which future terrorist attacks against the United States are most likely to originate. The core Al-Qaeda group, which has been the primary target and concern in northwest Pakistan, is but a shadow of its former self and not the threat it once was. Defenders of the drone strikes are entitled to claim that this development is in large part due to the strikes. But that leaves the question: why keep doing it now? The principal explanation, as recognized in the relevant government circles, for the drone program has been that it is the only way to reach terrorists who cannot be reached by other tools or methods. It has been seen as the only counterterrorist game that could be played in some places. That still leaves more fundamental questions about the motivations for playing the game. Policy-makers do not use a counterterrorist tool just because the tool is nifty—although that may be a contributing factor regarding the drones—but rather because they feel obligated to use every available tool to strike at terrorists as long as there are any terrorists against whom to strike. In the back of their minds is the thought of the next Big One, or maybe even a not so big terrorist attack on U.S. soil, occurring on their watch after not having done everything they could to prevent it, or doing what would later be seen in hindsight as having had the chance to prevent it. The principal driver of such thoughts is the American public's zero tolerance attitude toward terrorism, in which every terrorist attack is seen as a preventable tragedy that should have been prevented, without fully factoring in the costs and risks of prevention or of attempted prevention. Presidents and the people who work for them will continue to fire missiles from drones and to do some other risky, costly, or even counterproductive things in the cause of counterterrorism because of the prospect of getting politically pilloried for not being seen to make the maximum effort on behalf of that cause. This piece was originally published by The National Interest. Authors Paul R. Pillar Publication: The National Interest Image Source: © Handout . / Reuters Full Article
ca Anwar al-Awlaki, Yemen, and American counterterrorism policy By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 10:00:00 -0400 Event Information September 17, 201510:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDTFalk AuditoriumBrookings Institution1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.Washington, DC 20036 On September 30, 2011, the U.S.-born radical Islamic cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed by an American drone strike in Yemen, marking the first extra-judicial killing by the United States government against a U.S. citizen. Placed at the top of a CIA kill list in 2010 by the Obama administration, al-Awlaki was known for his intimate involvement in multiple al-Qaida terrorist plots against U.S. citizens, including the 2009 Christmas Day airline bombing attempt in Detroit and the 2010 plot to blow up U.S.-bound cargo planes. His calls for violent jihad remain prominent on the Internet, and his influence has turned up in many cases since his death, including the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 and the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris early this year. In a new book, “Objective Troy: A Terrorist, A President, and the Rise of the Drone” (Crown, 2015), The New York Times national security reporter Scott Shane, drawing on in-depth field research in Yemen and interviews with U.S. government officials, charts the intimate details of the life and death of al-Awlaki, including his radicalization, his recruiting efforts for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, and the use of drone strikes by the United States to prosecute its counterterrorism goals. On September 17, the Intelligence Project hosted Shane to examine the roles played by al-Awlaki in al-Qaida plots against the United States, al-Awlaki’s continued influence on terrorism, and the current state of al-Qaida today. Brookings Senior Fellow Bruce Riedel, director of the Intelligence Project, provided introductory remarks and moderated the discussion. Audio Anwar al-Awlaki, Yemen, and American counterterrorism policy Transcript Uncorrected Transcript (.pdf) Event Materials 20150917_awlaki_yemen_transcript Full Article
ca Michael O'Hanlon discusses the future of American warfare By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 09 Oct 2015 15:00:00 -0400 Also in this podcast: Russ Whitehurst discusses the cost of universal education for preschool, and David Wessel comments on the current state of the economy "To use some of the time honored clichés, 'The enemy may get a vote too.' Or the Bolshevik line, 'You may not have an interest in war, but war may have an interest in you' I paraphrase that to say we may not, at the moment, have an interest in counterinsurgency and stabilization missions, but they may have an interest in us… we can't be like the ostrich putting our head in the sand just because we're tired of these kinds of wars. They might come back, whether we like it or not." says Senior Fellow Michael O'Hanlon about his new book, "The Future of Land Warfare." After learning about the various scenarios that might necessitate land warfare, we'll hear Russ Whitehurst, senior fellow in Economic Studies and Editor of the Evidence Speaks project, discuss the cost of universal Pre-K. "The question is: what should the nation or states do to increase participation rates to a universal level?" Whitehurst asks in this project. "And what I've found by looking at the evidence is that actually people haven't provided very good evidence on how many children are presently served." Also, stay tuned to hear expert David Wessel update us on one of the nation's most alarming economic problems – wage stagnation. Show Notes: Read more about O'Hanlon's book, "The Future of Land Warfare" The future of the U.S. army Toward a "Reaganov" Russia: Russian Security Policy after Putin Obama the Carpenter: The President's National Security Legacy What role will evidence play in the 2016 election? Do we already have universal preschool? Why public school vouchers could have bi-partisan appeal Hutchins Roundup: wealth inequality, student borrowing, and more Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu. Authors Michael E. O'HanlonFred DewsBill Finan Image Source: © Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters Full Article
ca A once-in-a-century pandemic collides with a once-in-a-decade census By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 20:15:08 +0000 Amid the many plans and projects that have been set awry by the rampage of COVID-19, spare a thought for the world’s census takers. For the small community of demographers and statisticians that staff national statistical offices, 2020—now likely forever associated with coronavirus—was meant to be something else entirely: the peak year of the decennial… Full Article
ca The fundamental connection between education and Boko Haram in Nigeria By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 20:51:38 +0000 On April 2, as Nigeria’s megacity Lagos and its capital Abuja locked down to control the spread of the coronavirus, the country’s military announced a massive operation — joining forces with neighboring Chad and Niger — against the terrorist group Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State’s West Africa Province. This spring offensive was… Full Article
ca Putting women and girls’ safety first in Africa’s response to COVID-19 By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 15:12:51 +0000 Women and girls in Africa are among the most vulnerable groups exposed to the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Although preliminary evidence from China, Italy, and New York shows that men are at higher risk of contraction and death from the disease—more than 58 percent of COVID-19 patients were men, and they had an… Full Article
ca In the Republican Party establishment, Trump finds tepid support By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 18:37:25 +0000 For the past three years the Republican Party leadership have stood by the president through thick and thin. Previous harsh critics and opponents in the race for the Republican nomination like Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Ted Cruz fell in line, declining to say anything negative about the president even while, at times, taking action… Full Article
ca Class Notes: Harvard Discrimination, California’s Shelter-in-Place Order, and More By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 19:21:40 +0000 This week in Class Notes: California's shelter-in-place order was effective at mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Asian Americans experience significant discrimination in the Harvard admissions process. The U.S. tax system is biased against labor in favor of capital, which has resulted in inefficiently high levels of automation. Our top chart shows that poor workers are much more likely to keep commuting in… Full Article
ca Africa in the news: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, COVID-19, and AfCFTA updates By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 11:30:14 +0000 Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan political updates Ethiopia-Eritrea relations continue to thaw, as on Sunday, May 3, Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki, Foreign Minister Osman Saleh, and Presidential Advisor Yemane Ghebreab, visited Ethiopia, where they were received by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. During the two-day diplomatic visit, the leaders discussed bilateral cooperation and regional issues affecting both states,… Full Article
ca India’s energy and climate policy: Can India meet the challenge of industrialization and climate change? By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 Charles Ebinger writes about India's ongoing efforts to achieve climate targets while balancing other considerations. Full Article
ca The presidential candidates’ views on energy and climate By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 Now that there are presumptive nominees for both major political parties, it’s an important moment to outline, in broad strokes, the positions of Secretary Hillary Clinton and businessman Donald Trump on energy and climate. Full Article Uncategorized
ca LIVE WEBCAST – Pursuing justice in a globalized world: Reflections on the commitment of Madeleine K. Albright By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 On June 28, the Hague Institute for Global Justice, in partnership with the Brookings Institution and Municipality of the Hague, will host Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Lloyd Axworthy for the second annual Madeleine K. Albright Global Justice Lecture. Abi Williams, president of the Hague Institute, will give welcoming remarks and Ted Piccone, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, will moderate the discussion. Full Article
ca Africa in the news: COVID-19, Côte d’Ivoire, and Safaricom updates By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Sat, 02 May 2020 11:30:23 +0000 African governments take varying approaches to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 As of this writing, Africa has registered over 39,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,600 deaths, with most cases concentrated in the north of the continent as well as in South Africa. African countries have enacted various forms of lockdowns, external and internal border closures,… Full Article
ca Contemplating COVID-19’s impact on Africa’s economic outlook with Landry Signé and Iginio Gagliardone By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 04 May 2020 23:05:26 +0000 Full Article
ca The carbon tax opportunity By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 06 May 2020 19:17:01 +0000 The COVID-19 pandemic has brought economic and social activity around the world to a near standstill. As a result, carbon dioxide emissions have declined sharply, and the skies above some large cities are clean and clear for the first time in decades. But “degrowth” is not a sustainable strategy for averting environmental disaster. Humanity should protect… Full Article
ca Figures of the week: The costs of financing Africa’s response to COVID-19 By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 16:21:13 +0000 Last month’s edition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s biannual Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa, which discusses economic developments and prospects for the region, pays special attention to the financial channels through which COVID-19 has—and will—impact the economic growth of the region. Notably, the authors of the report reduced their GDP growth estimates from… Full Article
ca Putting women and girls’ safety first in Africa’s response to COVID-19 By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 15:12:51 +0000 Women and girls in Africa are among the most vulnerable groups exposed to the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Although preliminary evidence from China, Italy, and New York shows that men are at higher risk of contraction and death from the disease—more than 58 percent of COVID-19 patients were men, and they had an… Full Article
ca Africa in the news: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, COVID-19, and AfCFTA updates By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 11:30:14 +0000 Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan political updates Ethiopia-Eritrea relations continue to thaw, as on Sunday, May 3, Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki, Foreign Minister Osman Saleh, and Presidential Advisor Yemane Ghebreab, visited Ethiopia, where they were received by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. During the two-day diplomatic visit, the leaders discussed bilateral cooperation and regional issues affecting both states,… Full Article
ca How the EU and Turkey can promote self-reliance for Syrian refugees through agricultural trade By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 03 Feb 2020 13:30:48 +0000 Executive Summary The Syrian crisis is approaching its ninth year. The conflict has taken the lives of over 500,000 people and forced over 7 million more to flee the country. Of those displaced abroad, more than 3.6 million have sought refuge in Turkey, which now hosts more refugees than any other country in the world.… Full Article
ca There are policy solutions that can end the war on childhood, and the discussion should start this campaign season By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 18 Mar 2020 14:52:34 +0000 President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced his “war on poverty” during his State of the Union speech on Jan. 8, 1964, citing the “national disgrace” that deserved a “national response.” Today, many of the poor children of the Johnson era are poor adults with children and grandchildren of their own. Inequity has widened so that people… Full Article
ca Are you happy or sad? How wearing face masks can impact children’s ability to read emotions By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 14:55:52 +0000 While COVID-19 is invisible to the eye, one very visible sign of the epidemic is people wearing face masks in public. After weeks of conflicting government guidelines on wearing masks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that people wear nonsurgical cloth face coverings when entering public spaces such as supermarkets and public… Full Article
ca Africa in the news: New environmental policies on the continent, Zimbabwe’s IMF stabilization program, and Sudan update By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Sat, 08 Jun 2019 10:00:56 +0000 Tanzania, Kenya, and UNECA enact environment-positive policies and programs On Saturday, June 1, Tanzania’s ban on plastic bags went into effect. According to The Citizen, the new law targets the “import, export, manufacturing, sale, storage, supply, and use of plastic carrier bags regardless of their thickness” on the Tanzanian mainland. The law also bans the… Full Article
ca Africa in the news: South Africa bails out Eskom, Kenya Airways is nationalized, and Kenya and Namibia announce green energy plans By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Sat, 27 Jul 2019 10:00:11 +0000 South Africa offers bailout for state-owned power utility Eskom On Tuesday, July 23, the South African minister of finance presented a bill to parliament requesting a bailout of more than $4 billion for state-owned power utility Eskom. Eskom supplies about 95 percent of South Africa’s power, but has been unable to generate sufficient revenue to… Full Article
ca Taxing mobile phone transactions in Africa: Lessons from Kenya By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 05 Aug 2019 18:26:05 +0000 Abstract Taxation on mobile phone-based transactions and on airtime has been introduced in Kenya and is spreading to other African countries. Some countries in sub-Saharan Africa view mobile phones as a booming subsector easy to tax due to the increasing turnover of transactions and the formal nature of such transactions by both formal and informal… Full Article
ca Corruption and terrorism: The case of Kenya By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 17:00:31 +0000 Around the world, corruption poses a major threat, contributing to many of the crises that have plagued economies and democracies over the past decade. One aspect of corruption that receives too little attention is the link between corruption and the success of terrorism. Research has shown that high levels of corruption increase the number of… Full Article
ca Africa in the news: Tunisia and Mozambique vote, Nigeria closes borders, and Kenya opens new railway By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Sat, 19 Oct 2019 12:45:43 +0000 Tunisia and Mozambique vote: On Sunday, October 13, Tunisians participated in their run-off presidential elections between conservative former law professor Kais Saied and media magnate Nabil Karoui. Saied, known as “Robocop” for his serious presentation, won with 72.7 percent of the vote. Notably, Saied himself does not belong to a party, but is supported by… Full Article
ca Africa in the news: AU summit, Kenyatta meets with Trump, and Lagos bans motorcycles By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Sat, 15 Feb 2020 12:30:26 +0000 African Union summit focuses on “silencing the guns” This week, the African Union (AU) held its 33rd annual Heads of State and Government Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This year’s theme, "Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa's Development,” refers to Aspiration 4 of Agenda 2063, “a peaceful and secure Africa.” Despite the AU’s… Full Article
ca Figures of the week: Perceptions of COVID-19 in South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 02 Apr 2020 17:59:43 +0000 On March 17, GeoPoll released the results of their survey deployed to determine perceptions and understanding of COVID-19 in South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria. South Africa currently has the highest number of diagnosed cases of the virus of any African country, and, while the number of diagnosed cases is currently low in Nigeria and Kenya,… Full Article
ca Africa in the news: COVID-19, Côte d’Ivoire, and Safaricom updates By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Sat, 02 May 2020 11:30:23 +0000 African governments take varying approaches to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 As of this writing, Africa has registered over 39,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,600 deaths, with most cases concentrated in the north of the continent as well as in South Africa. African countries have enacted various forms of lockdowns, external and internal border closures,… Full Article
ca In a polarized America, what can we do about civil disagreement? By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 10 Apr 2020 19:08:37 +0000 The 2020 presidential election and the partisan divide over the coronavirus crisis have highlighted what we have known for some time: American politics is increasingly polarized, our political communication is nasty and brutish, and thoughtful deliberation and compromise feel increasingly out of reach. On the positive side, we don’t seem to like this state of… Full Article
ca The opioid crisis and community-level spillovers onto children’s education By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 13 Apr 2020 04:05:55 +0000 Introduction Recent high-profile litigation and settlements among states and local governments with drug companies have highlighted the costs of the opioid epidemic on communities. The dollar amounts discussed in some of these cases have been huge. For example, Purdue Pharma and Mallinckrodt agreed to a national settlements of about $10 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively,… Full Article
ca The troubling impact of America’s opioid epidemic on student learning By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 13 Apr 2020 14:09:14 +0000 Today, the Brown Center on Education Policy is releasing a new report on one of the unexplored effects of the opioid crisis: the link between the opioid epidemic and the educational outcomes of children in hard-hit areas. Written by Rajeev Darolia and John Tyler, the report suggests a need to be aware of the potentially… Full Article
ca How early colleges can make us rethink the separation of high school and postsecondary systems By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 15 Apr 2020 16:06:01 +0000 The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a historic spike in unemployment insurance claims, and there is growing consensus that the economy is headed for a potentially deep and protracted recession. In the past, postsecondary credentials or degrees have helped mitigate the impact of an economic downturn. Of all new jobs created after the Great Recession, 99%… Full Article
ca Latest NAEP results show American students continue to underperform on civics By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 27 Apr 2020 18:31:24 +0000 Public schools in America were established to equip students with the tools to become engaged and informed citizens. How are we doing on this core mission? Last week, the National Center of Education Statistics released results from the 2018 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civics assessment to provide an answer. The NAEP civics assessment… Full Article
ca Our employment system has failed low-wage workers. How can we rebuild? By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Tue, 28 Apr 2020 15:35:51 +0000 Surging unemployment claims show that our labor market, built for efficiency, can crumble in times of crisis at huge human and economic costs. The pandemic has exposed a weak point in the country’s economy: the precarity of low-wage workers. Many have adapted to unimaginable circumstances, risking their own well-being, implementing public health protocols, and keeping… Full Article
ca How the Sustainable Development Goals can help cities focus COVID-19 recovery on inclusion, equity, and sustainability By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 29 Apr 2020 15:04:49 +0000 Prior to COVID-19, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were gaining traction among local governments and city leaders as a framework to focus local policy on ambitious targets around inclusion, equity, and sustainability. Several cities published reports of their local progress on the SDGs in Voluntary Local Reviews (VLR), echoing the official format used by countries… Full Article
