Across the globe more than 20 million people are victimized by human trafficking, the modern form of slavery. Public policy professor Judith Kelley has been digging in to the WikiLeaks documents to see whether ranking countries on how well they are tackling human trafficking issues is having an impact on their efforts.
Category: Politics-Public Policy
What’s Next For The Prison At Guantánamo?
The Trump administration is contemplating plans to expand detention at the site, and possibly extend the scope of military justice to terrorist suspects in the United States. Whether courts might uphold such a plan is another question. “The correct answer to that is, no, because the Constitution’s Treason Clause makes clear that citizens who act as an enemy are to be treated under criminal law,” says professor Madeline Morris, a former State Department adviser on international and counterterrorism law who now directs the Guantanamo Defense Clinic at Duke Law School.
Read More in The Christian Science Monitor
Cooper Aims To Steer NC On A New Course In State Of The State Address
Cooper can use the platform to advance his message that the state can reclaim its progressive sheen after four years of Republican control, says public policy professor Pope “Mac” McCorkle, who worked for former Democratic governors in North Carolina. “When (Gov.) Easley did it in 2001, it was to raise the red flag about our fiscal situation, given the dot-com bust recession.” (Gov.) McCrory in 2013 talked about how much things will change. “With Roy, I think, there is a new governor in town and he’s setting the agenda for what North Carolina can and should do.”
Read More in The News & Observer
What Happens When You Fight A ‘Deep State’ That Doesn’t Exist
The Trump administration, in its fight against the “deep state,” could risk exacerbating the very problems it has pinned on shadowy bureaucratic forces: leaking, internal conflict and the politicization of institutions like intelligence agencies. Political scientist Timur Kuran says Turkey’s leadership has employed a similar narrative. “Team Erdogan used the ‘deep state’ narrative to destroy political institutions and restructure the bureaucracy. Happening now in USA,” he tweeted.
Read More in The New York Times
A Novel Way That Citizens Can End Gerrymandering
“North Carolina’s current system of gerrymandered voting districts is indeed harmful. Undemocratic and alien to American values, gerrymandering – drawing electoral districts to favor certain parties and minimize competitiveness of general elections – also undermines our society in many ways. The answer to this problem, we believe, may seem counterintuitive, but is compelling: convince non-Republicans to register Republican or, almost as usefully, Unaffiliated,” write economics professors Charles Becker, Bruce Caldwell, Edward Tower and Michael Munger.
Read More in The Charlotte Observer
Boiling Down the GOP Health Care Plan
“In summary, this bill is a tax cut for high income folks that is funded by cuts to the Medicare program as compared to the ACA new baseline. In addition, it provides a fundamental change of the federal governments financial commitment for Medicaid which weakens the safety net we have, while wiping out coverage gains from Medicaid expansion,” writes health policy scholar Don Taylor.
Read More on the FreeForAll Blog
GOP Health Care Plan: ‘Seems DOA in 24 Hours’
Health policy scholar Don Taylor talks about the new Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (7 minute mark). “My first thought was, ‘It took you guys six years to come up with this?’ And it seems DOA in 24 hours. I think what it shows is there’s really never been a consensus in the Republican Party about what to do about health care policy other than to counter-punch the Affordable Care Act.”
Watch on TWC’s “Capital Tonight”
Why A Russia Probe May Make The Left Squirm, Too, Not Just The Right
“If conducted thoroughly and impartially, the Russia probe could generate not just answers to troubling questions, but also thoughtful and even cathartic discussion. However, everyone should be prepared — regardless of where they may be on the political spectrum — for moments of real discomfort. But maybe that’s exactly the right prescription these days for America’s profoundly distressed political environment,” writes law professor Charlie Dunlap.
Read More in The Hill
Trump’s Allies Keep Talking About the ‘Deep State.’ What’s That?
Political scientist Timur Kuran, who has also studied the dynamic in Turkey, says leaks would only be evidence of a Deep State if there was definitive proof they were all interconnected and connected to a conspiratorial plot. There is no evidence of that. “(Leaks are) evidence of people upset with the bureaucracy and upset with individual policies, but doesn’t in itself point to an organizational hierarchy to systematically undermine the government.”
Read More in TIME
As Trump Targets Carbon Rules, Green Groups Promise a Legal Fight
With President Trump poised to issue an executive order aimed at undoing a key pillar of the Obama administration’s climate-change agenda, environmental activist groups have joined forces for what they say will be a tooth-and-nail legal battle that could drag on for years. “Altering a final rule, like the Clean Power Plan, isn’t as simple as the stroke of a pen. It will likely require the EPA to undertake a new rulemaking process including public notice and comment that could last a few years,” says Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions
Read More in The Washington Times
Millions Risk Losing Health Insurance in Republican Plan
Millions of people who get private health coverage through the Affordable Care Act would be at risk of losing it under the replacement legislation proposed by House Republicans, analysts said Tuesday, with Americans in their 50s and 60s especially likely to find coverage unaffordable. The result, says health policy professor Donald Taylor, is that people who buy coverage are sicker, causing the cost of premiums to soar. “This looks like to me adverse selection on steroids,” he says. “I don’t see how it doesn’t crater the individual market.”
Read More in The New York Times
What Trump’s Pending Budget May Slash at EPA
Congress is awaiting President Donald Trump’s budget proposal with the details about his vision of government. According to some reports, the Environmental Protection Agency may lose as much as a quarter of its budget. One of the EPA’s programs, Energy Star — it puts those labels on appliances — could be slashed. Billy Pizer, a professor of environmental sciences and policy, is interviewed.
Listen on “Marketplace”
