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EXTREMISMAntisemitic Incidents in the U.S. in 2022
Antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in 2022 reached an all-time high last year with a total of 3,697 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism tracked by ADL’s Audit of Antisemitic Incidents. This represents the largest number of incidents against Jews in the U.S., recorded by ADL since 1979.
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ARGUMENT: GUARDING DEMOCRACYHow Jan. 6 Committee Staffers Have Filled in the Blanks
According to Tucker Carlson, the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was not an attempted putsch but instead “mostly peaceful chaos.” Quinta Jurecic writes that the Fox News host’s revisionist take on Jan. 6 has so far received widespread condemnation, and that among the voices criticizing Carlson’s attempted rewriting of history have been staffers formerly on the Jan. 6 committee.
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COVID ORIGINSReport Describes SARS-CoV-2 Market Sequences, Biden Signs COVID Intel Declassification Bill
In two major developments regarding investigations into the source of SARS-CoV-2, an international research group that examined genetic sequences from the animal market detailed their findings in a new report, and President Joe Biden signed a bill to declassify US intelligence on virus origins.
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ELECTION SECURITYMoving to Evidence-Based Elections
In most jurisdictions things went relatively smoothly in the November 2022 midterms, but serious issues, both technical and political, remain. Elections may be made more transparent and secure through the use of voter-marked paper ballots and rigorous postelection audits.
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HATE CRIMES2021 Hate Crime Statistics: 20-Year High
The number of hate crimes in the United States jumped to a 20-year high in 2021, the FBI said in an updated report released Monday. The FBI initially issued its annual hate crimes report in December showing 7,262 incidents for 2021.
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SCHOOL SHOOTINGSPreventing Violence in Schools: Encouraging Students to Report Threats
One of the most consistent findings in research on school shootings is that someone knew an attack was possible and didn’t report it. A recent RAND study looked at how schools can better encourage students to come forward when they see or hear something that should concern them. Its top recommendations: tip lines, training, and a lot more trust.
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SECURITY UNIONSSPFPA Officer Pleads Guilty in $64K Theft Charges
The financial secretary of SPFPA Local 238, which represents security personnel at a nuclear plant in Cordova, Illinois, pleaded guilty in criminal Court to stealing money from the Union. Brent Toppert, 42, will have to reimburse the Union in the amount of the stolen funds, and he faces up to fve years in prison and $250,000 fine.
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SECTION 702Section 702’s Unconstitutional Domestic Spying Program Must End
On its face, Section 702 allows the government to conduct surveillance inside the United States so long as the surveillance is directed at foreigners currently located outside the United States. And yet, the NSA routinely (aka “incidentally”) acquires innocent Americans’ communications without a probable cause warrant. Then, rather than “minimize” the sharing and retention of Americans’ data, as Congress required, the NSA routinely shares such data with other government agencies, which retain it for at least five years.
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BORDER SECURITYCan Biden’s New Asylum Policy Help Solve the Migrant Crisis?
The Biden administration’s proposed immigration policy aims to curb migrant flows to the United States amid record border crossings. What will it do, and how does it compare to the Trump years?
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NATIONAL DIVORCENo, Texas Can’t Legally Secede from the U.S., Popular Myth Notwithstanding
The theme of independence has recurred throughout the history of Texas, which was a republic from 1836–45. But the Civil War established that a state cannot secede. Texas seceded from the Union in January 1861, but even before Texas formally rejoined the nation on 30 March 1870, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that secession had never been legal, and that, even during the rebellion, Texas continued to be a state.
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SCHOOL SHOOTINGSThree Ways to Prevent School Shootings, Based on Research
We study the circumstances that lead to violence in which an attacker picks a target – like a person, group, or school – in advance. We find that the same patterns of concerning behavior emerge among the perpetrators, but that’s not all. We also find that there are often many opportunities to intervene with the perpetrator before the tragedy that peers, family members, school staff, law enforcement officials, and others miss.
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GUNSATF Director: Action Needed on Auto Sears Which Are“Flooding Our Communities”
Fully automatic weapons are highly regulated, but the agency has recovered a startling number of machine gun conversion devices in recent years.
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ARGUMENT: CHINA’S CHIP STRUGGLESGreat Leap Nowhere: The Challenges of China’s Semiconductor Industry
China is struggling in the battle for advanced semiconductor technology. With President Joe Biden’s most recent round of export controls on semiconductors, China is now facing an increasingly urgent challenge as it seeks to ramp up its domestic innovative capacity for high-end chips. These difficulties and challenges notwithstanding, Elliot Ji writes, “U.S. policymakers should be keenly aware that China’s relative success with creative adaptation means that it can boost certain sectors of the chip industry by exploiting leaky export controls and engaging in cyber espionage.”
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RAIL SAFETYOhio Chemical Spill Draws Focus on Railroad Dangers
The U.S. has one of the most extensive rail networks in the world, but diminishing safety standards puts people and the environment at risk. The latest accident has drawn sharp focus onto the safety standards of the highly profitable freight rail industry and its prolific lobbying against regulation.
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RAIL SAFETYThe Train Derailment in Ohio Was a Disaster Waiting to Happen
The derailment of a freight train filled with volatile chemicals in rural Ohio earlier this month captured the headlines, but researchers and chemical spill experts say it’s a situation that plays out far too often across the country. Trains carry hazardous chemicals everyday. They’re also dangerously unregulated.
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More headlines
The long view
ARGUMENT: DEMOCRACY WATCHJohn Eastman and the Limits of Bar Discipline
The memos prepared by John Eastman constitute some of the most disturbing documentation of the plot to overturn the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump. Eastman’s legal analysis sets out a range of supposed options by which swing-state electors from states supporting Joe Biden could be disregarded, thus handing Trump a second term in office. The State Bar of California announced that it will be seeking his disbarment from the practice of law over his role fomenting the Jan. 6 insurrection. Eastman “has now entered the select club of lawyers finally facing bar discipline for their involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election,” Quinta Jurecic writes.
ARGUMENT: CHINA’S CHIP STRUGGLESGreat Leap Nowhere: The Challenges of China’s Semiconductor Industry
China is struggling in the battle for advanced semiconductor technology. With President Joe Biden’s most recent round of export controls on semiconductors, China is now facing an increasingly urgent challenge as it seeks to ramp up its domestic innovative capacity for high-end chips. These difficulties and challenges notwithstanding, Elliot Ji writes, “U.S. policymakers should be keenly aware that China’s relative success with creative adaptation means that it can boost certain sectors of the chip industry by exploiting leaky export controls and engaging in cyber espionage.”
ARGUMENT: GUARDING DEMOCRACYHow Jan. 6 Committee Staffers Have Filled in the Blanks
According to Tucker Carlson, the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was not an attempted putsch but instead “mostly peaceful chaos.” Quinta Jurecic writes that the Fox News host’s revisionist take on Jan. 6 has so far received widespread condemnation, and that among the voices criticizing Carlson’s attempted rewriting of history have been staffers formerly on the Jan. 6 committee.