• The Sources of Renewed National Dynamism

    What does the historical record reveal about national recovery from long-term national decline? What factors distinguish cases of successful anticipatory renewal from those that fail? Is the United States entering a period of decline, and does it meet the preconditions for anticipatory renewal?

  • In A Decade, Firearm Deaths Among Young Black People in Rural America Have Quadrupled

    A new analysis of CDC data shows that gun fatality rates among Black children and teens in rural places are on par with cities, and are primarily driven by a rise in homicides.

  • Lawmakers Call for Accountability Over Pro-Hamas Campus Violence

    Pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses have become increasingly intense, and even violent in recent days, pushing lawmakers to call for a change. Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) has, along with Tim Scott (R-S.C.), introduced the Stop Antisemitism on College Campuses Act, which would end federal funding for colleges and universities “that support, authorize, or facilitate events that promote antisemitism.”

  • Banning TikTok Won’t Solve Social Media’s Foreign Influence, Teen Harm and Data Privacy Problems

    Concerns about TikTok are not unfounded, but they are also not unique. Each threat posed by TikTok has also been posed by U.S.-based social media for over a decade. Lawmakers should take action to address harms caused by U.S. companies seeking profit as well as by foreign companies perpetrating espionage. Protecting Americans cannot be accomplished by banning a single app. To truly protect their constituents, lawmakers would need to enact broad, far-reaching regulation.

  • The Right’s Bogus Claims about Noncitizen Voting Fraud

    Bogus claims of widespread voter fraud, even when they do not stoke hatred and fear of the foreign‐born, are grossly irresponsible. They exacerbate polarization and malign honest election administrators. Most of all, they undermine public confidence in our election system. The more people believe elections are rigged, the more they are likely to turn their discontents in a direction other than electoral politics. Some will go the passive route of resignation, withdrawing from civic involvements, making themselves the perfect subjects for strongman rule. Others will turn to militia activity or outright violence. Either way, the consequences for the American experiment in liberal democratic self‐rule will be unfortunate.

  • Cash-Strapped Election Offices Have Fewer Resources After Bans on Private Grants

    Pushed by conservative activists over the last four years, 28 states have banned outside funding in elections over the past four years. These activists based their campaign on claims, rejected by the courts and federal regulators, that such private grants – for example, by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan — during the 2020 presidential election benefitted democratic voters.

  • Transporting Hazardous Materials Across the Country Isn’t Easy − That’s Why There’s a Host of Regulations in Place

    Transporting hazardous materials such as dangerous gases, poisons, harmful chemicals, corrosives and radioactive material across the country is risky. But because approximately 3 billion pounds of hazardous material needs to go from place to place in the U.S. each year, it’s unavoidable.

  • Campus Antisemitism Surges Amid Encampments and Related Protests at Columbia and Other U.S. Colleges

    College campuses have been the site of many tense anti-Israel protests and antisemitic incidents since the start of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terrorist attack. Anti-Zionist student groups on over a dozen U.S. college and university campuses have established “encampments” in recent days to ostensibly protest Israel’s actions in Gaza and their academic institutions’ alleged “complicity” in those actions.

  • U.S. Antisemitic Incidents Soared 140 Percent in 2023 – Breaking All Previous Records

    Massive spike Post-Oct. 7 recorded; campus incidents tripled; bomb threats targeting Jewish institutions up 10 times.

  • Trump Pushes the Limits of Every Restriction He Faces – Including Threatening Judges and Their Families

    Judicial independence and integrity are bedrock principles of American democracy. By personally attacking the public servants who have dedicated their lives to the American justice system, Trump has severely weakened public trust in our legal institutions. If these attacks continue, I believe they are likely to further undermine the justice system, and American democracy itself.

  • Unlicensed Dealers Illegally Trafficked 68,000 Guns Over 5 Years

    Unlicensed dealers who aren’t required to perform background checks illegally trafficked more than 68,000 firearms in the United States over a five-year period, according to new data released Thursday by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

  • Biden to Xi: Stay Out of U.S. Elections

    President Joe Biden again warned Chinese President Xi Jinping against meddling in the November U.S. presidential election during the two leaders’ phone call Tuesday. Covert Chinese accounts are masquerading online as American supporters of former President Donald Trump, promoting conspiracy theories, stoking domestic divisions, and attacking President Biden ahead of the election in November, according to researchers and government officials.

  • How Firearms Move from Legal Purchase to Criminal Use

    Between 1996 and 2021, more than 5.2 million handguns and almost 2.9 million long guns were legally purchased in California. During 11 years of that time frame, 2010-2021, California law enforcement officers recovered 45,247 of these guns from crime scenes. New study of California gun data identifies risk factors for weapons used in crimes.

  • Strike Looms at Nuclear Power Plants

    Security officers at nuclear power plants operated by Constellation energy company may go on strike after the union representing them and the company have so far failed to reach an agreement on a new contract. Under federal law, nuclear plants must operate under a costly contingency plan in the run-up to and during a strike, and the union highlights the fact that cost of the contingency plan far exceeds the cumulative cost to the company of the annual wage increases to the security officers during the life of the contract. 

  • ‘Fake News’ Legislation Risks Doing More Harm Than Good Amid a Record Number of Elections in 2024

    “Fake news” legislation that governments around the world have written in recent years to combat mis- and disinformation does little to protect journalistic freedom. Rather, it can create a greater risk of harm. That’s the main finding of a review I helped conduct of legislation either considered or passed over the past several years related to fake news and mis- and disinformation.