Tag: lives

With New Controversial Cases That Stand To Change Many Americans’ Lives, The Supreme Court Is Back In Session – Here’s What To Expect
POLITICS

With New Controversial Cases That Stand To Change Many Americans’ Lives, The Supreme Court Is Back In Session – Here’s What To Expect

Following a dramatic year of controversial rulings, the Supreme Court began hearing new cases on Oct. 3, 2022, with a full agenda. The court overturned abortion rights and expanded gun rights in June 2022 as the new conservative supermajority began to exert its influence. Some of the court’s most important upcoming cases focus on the future of affirmative action, equal treatment of LGBTQ people, and the control of election laws. The court will hear the cases in the fall and then likely issue rulings in spring 2023. As a close observer of the court, I think this term’s rulings will continue to reject the court’s previous liberal decisions and instead reflect a conservative interpretation of the historical meaning of the Constitution. At least three of those upcoming rulings are likely to...
College Requirements For Police Forces Can Save Black Lives – At What Cost?
IN OTHER NEWS

College Requirements For Police Forces Can Save Black Lives – At What Cost?

Police forces requiring at least a two-year college degree for employment are less likely to employ officers who engage in actions that cause the deaths of Black and unarmed citizens, according to our new peer-reviewed study of data on 235 U.S. city police departments from 2000 to 2016. Findings from our analysis conducted alongside colleagues professor William Sabol and David Snively, interim police chief in Morrow, Georgia, also revealed that Black citizens were no more likely than white citizens to die during police encounters in places where police are required to have more college education. With a few exceptions, most prior research shows officer education level and department college requirements do not significantly affect deadly police outcomes. That research is mostly limited b...
If Congress Makes Daylight Saving Time Permanent – 5 Ways Americans’ Lives Will Change
HEALTH & WELLNESS

If Congress Makes Daylight Saving Time Permanent – 5 Ways Americans’ Lives Will Change

The U.S. Senate approved the Sunshine Protection Act in March 2022, with the goal of making daylight saving time permanent starting in November 2023. If that happens, the U.S. will never again “spring forward” or “fall back.” Following the Senate’s vote and a recent hearing in the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce – at which I testified – the subcommittee is now considering the issue. The full House of Representatives will need to vote in support of permanent DST before the bill goes to President Biden’s desk for his signature. In my research on DST, I have found that Americans don’t like Congress messing with their clocks. However, the move to DST year-round makes a lot of sense. In an effort to avoid the biannual time change in spring and fall, some DST critics ha...
How People Understand Racial Inequality Shaped By Black Lives Matter Protests
SOCIAL JUSTICE

How People Understand Racial Inequality Shaped By Black Lives Matter Protests

Considered to be the largest social justice movement since the civil rights era of the 1960s, Black Lives Matter is more than the scores of street protests organized by the social justice group that attracted hundreds of thousands of demonstrators across the world. From its early days in 2014 after Officer Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown, Jr. to the protests following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Black Lives Matter has opened the door for social change by expanding the way we think about the complicated issues that involve race. As sociologists who study how protests lay the groundwork for social change, we understand their necessity as a tactic to draw attention toward a movement’s broader agenda. In our study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ...
How Do You Live With Yourself: How Landlords Unfairly Control People’s Lives
LIFESTYLE, TOP FOUR

How Do You Live With Yourself: How Landlords Unfairly Control People’s Lives

The last 20 years have seen a boom in private renting. Approximately 4.6 million households in England, about 19% of all households, now rely on a private landlord for the roof over their head – and there are growing concerns over poor standards in the sector. In 2018, a quarter of privately rented houses failed to meet the decent homes standard, meaning that they have a serious hazard, are not in a suitable state of repair, do not have reasonably modern facilities or lack adequate heating. There is also growing evidence of the adverse effects renting and landlord practice can have on tenants’ wellbeing. Research has shown that private renting can cause renters anxiety due to a lack of security and control over their home. With this in mind, we examine five ways that landlords can exerci...
The Past Lives Of Celebrities
CULTURE

The Past Lives Of Celebrities

Most people don't realize that you can't have karma without reincarnation, and the theory of reincarnation dictates you are the sum total of all your prior existences. Even though you don't consciously remember, all your actions in past lives, negative and positive, created the challenges and rewards you experience today, along with your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual being. While our findings show there may be some exceptions (such as select souls choosing to incarnate with challenges they didn't earn with the intent of helping humanity through their trials), you are a sum total of all your past lives. Although we acknowledge that reincarnation is a theory we can't prove as fact, we're convinced it's a natural part of the evolution of the soul. We also accept that some pref...
bell hooks – She Lives On Through The Truth Of Her Words And Will Never Leave Us
Journalism

bell hooks – She Lives On Through The Truth Of Her Words And Will Never Leave Us

I was introduced to the work of bell hooks for the first time when I was 14 years old, sitting on my Nana’s porch, complaining about the mosquitoes and the heat. My Nana, who was probably frustrated by my endless complaints about being bored, stuck a copy of “Ain’t I A Woman” in my hand and told me just to “shut up and read.” I remember that summer because after I read that book, all we talked about was bell hooks and who she was and who I wanted to be. I said then that I wanted to be a writer, like bell hooks, and change the world with my words. I took her words with me when I went off to college, and by then, I had my own dog-eared copies of some of her books. I went to her work whenever I needed to be reminded of my strength. The world felt much safer when bell hooks and Toni Morrison...
How Far Has The Black Lives Matter Movement Come?
SOCIAL JUSTICE

How Far Has The Black Lives Matter Movement Come?

Kwasi Konadu, Colgate University and Bright Gyamfi, Northwestern University Black Lives Matter has been called the largest civil movement in U.S. history. Since 2013, local BLM chapters have formed nationwide to demand accountability for the killings of dozens of African Americans by police and others. Since the summer of 2020, when tens of millions in the U.S. and around the world marched under the “Black Lives Matter” slogan to protest a Minneapolis police officer’s murder of George Floyd, the movement has risen to a new level of prominence, funding and scrutiny. BLM has long been seen as a coordinated yet decentralized effort. Lately, the movement and its leading organizations have become more traditional and hierarchical in structure. Public opinion is also changing, as BLM chapters ...
Nine Lives – A Moving Novel From New York Times Bestselling Author Danielle Steel
BOOKS

Nine Lives – A Moving Novel From New York Times Bestselling Author Danielle Steel

BOOKS A woman who longs to avoid risk at all cost learns that men who love danger are the most exciting in this moving novel from New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel. After a carefree childhood, Mary Margaret Kelly came of age in the shadow of grief. Her father, a dashing daredevil Air Force pilot, died when she was nine. Maggie saw her mother struggle to put their lives back together. As the family moved from one city to the next, her mother warned her to beware of daredevil men and avoid risk at all cost. Following her mother’s advice, and forgoing the magic of first love with a high school boyfriend who was too wild to feel safe, Maggie instead sought out all the things her mother had lost—a predictable partner, a stable home, and a regular paycheck. She chose to marry a d...
As States Weigh Human Lives Versus The Economy, History Suggests The Economy Often Wins
MONEY

As States Weigh Human Lives Versus The Economy, History Suggests The Economy Often Wins

Policymakers are beginning to decide how to reopen the American economy. Until now, they’ve largely prioritized human health: Restrictions in all but a handful of states remain in effect, and trillions have been committed to help shuttered businesses and those who have been furloughed or laid off. The right time to start opening up sectors of the economy has been up for debate. But history shows that in the wake of calamities, human life often loses out to economic imperatives. As a historian of early America who has written about tobacco and the aftermath of an epidemic in New England, I’ve seen similar considerations made in the face of disease outbreaks. And I believe that there are crucial lessons to be drawn from two 17th-century outbreaks during which economic interests of a select...