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Denying Quorum Has Been a Texas Political Strategy Since 1870
While the Democrats could technically derail the GOP’s redistricting map, such efforts have been largely symbolic and had limited success blocking past legislation, experts say.
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How Special Interests Keep Bad Laws on the Books: The Case of the Jones Act
The 1920 Jones Act restricts intra-U.S. water transport to vessels that are U.S.-flagged, U.S.-owned, and built in U.S. shipyards The law serves as a tribute to how entrenched interests can hijack public policy and make the repeal of failed, costly laws among the heaviest of political lifts.
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Plugging America's Forgotten Wells: Study Addresses Decades Long Problem
Since the drilling of the first oil well in 1859, millions more oil and gas wells have been drilled across the nation. Today, millions of wells – bout 3.4 million of them — sit idle, some for decades. One option for limiting the environmental and health impacts of orphaned wells is to plug them. But the question remains, with so many orphaned wells in the United States, what’s the best way to address this issue?
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Attacks on the U.S. Innovation Ecosystem Are an Attack on a Wellspring of American Prosperity
The Trump administration’s attacks on the country’s science and innovation ecosystem — its cuts to federally funded R&D; its war on higher education; and its aggression toward immigrants, including skilled immigrants — are dismantling America’s science and technology advantage—putting the country’s future prosperity at risk. This frontal assault on the key source of U.S. industry’s competitive advantage is not a recipe for American greatness; it is a recipe for long-term decline.
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Why the U.S. Is Letting China Win on Energy Innovation
The frontiers of global technology have pivoted to AI and next generation energy. In AI, the U.S. has far outpaced any other nation, but in energy, the U.S. has just tied its shoelaces together. The reason isn’t technology, economics or, despite the administration’s misleading official line, even national security. Rather, it is politics. The fact is, the U.S. does not have an energy security problem. It does, however, have an energy cost problem combined with a growing climate change crisis. These issues will only be made worse by Trump’s enthusiasm for fossil fuels.
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Partisan Hostility, Not Just Policy, Drives U.S. Protests
Partisan animosity is a powerful driver of protest participation—sometimes nearly matching or even exceeding concern about the actual issues.
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Building Nevada’s Cyber Future One Summer Camp at a Time
UNLV’s Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering launched GenCyber Camp to create awareness of college and career pathways in cybersecurity among Nevada’s youth. The program has secured an impressive share of success stories. Organizers search for funding to keep the momentum going.
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U.S. Moves Decisively to Avoid Dependence on China’s Rare Earths
The Pentagon’s package of support for rare earths company MP Minerals, announced on 10 July, should free the US military and eventually much of US industry from dependence on Chinese supply chains for rare earth magnets.
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Microsoft Used China-Based Engineers to Support Product Recently Hacked by China
Microsoft announced that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had exploited vulnerabilities in its popular SharePoint software but didn’t mention that it has long used China-based engineers to maintain the product.
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Moving Targets: Implications of the Russo-Ukrainian War for Drone Terrorism
Small and commercially available drones in the hands of violent extremists pose a rapidly growing terrorist threat. This threat hasimplications for global counterterrorism, especially when considering the psychological impact, scalability, and low operational risk of drone attacks.
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Texas Senate Once Again Tries to Give the Attorney General Authority to Prosecute Election Crimes
A similar proposal stalled out earlier this year over disagreements between the House and Senate. This time, lawmakers might clash over whether to approve the new bill along with a constitutional amendment.
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DOJ Plans to Ask All States for Detailed Voting Info
The US Department of Justice has told secretaries of state group it will expand its outreach.
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The Quiet War: What’s Fueling Israel’s Surge of Settler Violence – and the Lack of State Response
Since Oct. 7, 2023, as Israel’s war against Hamas drags on in the Gaza Strip, a quieter but escalating war has unfolded in the West Bank between Israelis and Palestinians. The Jewish settlers’ campaign is not merely a result of rising tension between the settlers and their Palestinian neighbors amid the Gaza conflict. Rather, it is fueled by a confluence of ideological fervor, opportunism and far-right Israelis’ political vision for the region.
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Feds Move to Eliminate Petrochemical Watchdog, Putting Texans and Others at Risk
Amid increasingly intense weather, the Chemical Safety Board is the lone independent agency watching over the Gulf Coast’s petrochemical corridor.
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Will New Interior Department Rules Shackle Wind and Solar? Insiders Are Divided.
Some Republicans felt that the massive budget bill that President Trump signed into law earlier this month did not go far enough in discouraging the growth of wind and solar power. So we know new Interior Department rules will slow wind and solar development — but we don’t yet know how much.
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The long view
What Does Netflix’s Drama “Adolescence” Tell Us About Incels and the Manosphere?
While Netflix’s psychological crime drama ‘Adolescence’ is a work of fiction, its themes offer insight into the very real and troubling rise of the incel and manosphere culture online.
A Shining Star in a Contentious Legacy: Could Marty Makary Be the Saving Grace of a Divisive Presidency?
While much of the Trump administration has sparked controversy, the FDA’s consumer-first reforms may be remembered as its brightest legacy. From AI-driven drug reviews to bans on artificial dyes, the FDA’s agenda resonates with the public in ways few Trump-era policies have.
The Center Can Hold — States’ Rights and Local Privilege in a Climate of Federal Overreach
As American institutions weather the storms of executive disruption, legal ambiguity, and polarized governance, we must reexamine what it means for “the center” to hold.
How to Reverse Nation’s Declining Birth Rate
Health experts urge policies that buoy families: lower living costs, affordable childcare, help for older parents who want more kids
Foundation for U.S. Breakthroughs Feels Shakier to Researchers
With each dollar of its grants, the National Institutes of Health —the world’s largest funder of biomedical research —generates, on average, $2.56 worth of economic activity across all 50 states. NIH grants also support more than 400,000 U.S. jobs, and have been a central force in establishing the country’s dominance in medical research. Waves of funding cuts and grant terminations under the second Trump administration are a threat to the U.S. status as driver of scientific progress, and to the nation’s economy.
The True Cost of Abandoning Science
“We now face a choice: to remain at the vanguard of scientific inquiry through sound investment, or to cede our leadership and watch others answer the big questions that have confounded humanity for millennia —and reap the rewards.”