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Category: What We’re Reading

What We’re Reading, January 8-12

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Here is a selection of articles we’ve read this week.

Politico Special Report – Does the white working class really vote against its own interests? In exchange for policies like the new tax bill, which several nonpartisan analyses conclude will lower taxes on the wealthy and raise them for the working class, did they really just settle for a wall that will likely never be built, a rebel yell for Confederate monuments most of them will never visit, and the hollow validation of a disappearing world in which white was up and brown and black were down? Read more from Politico.

Today’s College Students – Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Republicans on Capitol Hill are advocating a fundamental rethink of higher education, pushing for more vocational programs and shorter pathways to credentials.  Today’s college students aren’t just 18-year-olds living in cramped dorm rooms on ivy-covered campuses. Rather, the men and women who attend college often work at least part-time to cover their tuition and living costs, enroll in schools they were guaranteed to get into and major in professionally focused degrees like business and nursing. Read more from the Wall Street Journal.

‘Sh*thole’ Heard Round the World – President Trump on Thursday balked at an immigration deal that would include protections for people from Haiti and some nations in Africa, demanding to know at a White House meeting why he should accept immigrants from “shithole countries” rather than from places like Norway, according to people with direct knowledge of the conversation. Read more from the New York Times.

2018: Year of the Woman? – With the seating of Minnesota Democrat Sen. Tina Smith on Tuesday, Jan. 3, the 115th Congress is now able to claim 106 female members — the most of any Congress to date. Smith is the 51st woman to serve in the Senate since the first was appointed in 1922. There are currently 22 female senators serving, an all-time high for the chamber, and 84 women serving as voting representatives in the House (just one below the record of 85 set in 2015).  Read more from Roll Call.

VIDEO: The Week in Hits and Misses – Roll Call’s Congressional Hits and Misses is back! With both chambers on the Hill for the second session of the 115th Congress, hear lawmakers’ funny, bizarre and awkward moments of the week of Jan. 8, 2018. Check it out on Roll Call.

5 (White) Guys Burgers – Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi complained Thursday that immigration negotiations are being led by “five white guys” — and was quickly rebuked by her No. 2, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, himself one of those white guys involved in the talks. “The five white guys I call them, you know,” Pelosi said at her weekly news conference. “Are they going to open a hamburger stand next or what?” Pelosi said, complaining that minority members of Congress were not involved in deciding the fate of Dreamers. Pelosi’s quip was a reference to the hamburger chain Five Guys and the five white men leading the immigration negotiations. Watch the press conference on Politico.

 

What We’re Reading, October 9-13

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Here’s a selection of articles we’re reading this week.

Meet the Trump Whisperer – Few people are closer to Trump than Thomas J. Barrack Jr., his friend for three decades. Barrack helped rescue Trump’s real estate empire years ago. He was the top fundraiser for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. He turned down a Cabinet offer, preferring to be an outside adviser, although his name is still mentioned as a potential White House chief of staff should Trump decide to choose a new one. Above all, Barrack has remained unfailingly loyal to Trump, who he sees as a shrewd politician. Read the full profile on the Washington Post.

Ryan Threatens Work During Christmas – Nothing seems to push lawmakers to get their jobs done and pass legislation more than the threat of having to be in Washington over the holidays. Read more from Roll Call.

The New, Improved IPEDS – A decade in the making, upgrade of the federal government’s main higher ed database enables tracking part-time and adult students and gauging graduation rates for Pell Grant recipients. Limits remain, though. Read more from Inside Higher Ed.

Not Just About Free Speech – It’s a dizzying battleground: civil libertarians resist demands that even hateful speech be shut down as students protest controversial speakers and right-wing critics dismiss young liberals as delicate “snowflakes.” … But the push and pull isn’t just about speech. Many liberal students believe a tolerance for hostile rhetoric is an indicator of bigger injustices, both on campuses and in society, that need to be addressed. Read more from Time.

Where’s Zinke? –  At the Interior Department’s headquarters in downtown Washington, Secretary Ryan Zinke has revived an arcane military ritual that no one can remember ever happening in the federal government. A security staffer takes the elevator to the seventh floor, climbs the stairs to the roof and hoists a special secretarial flag whenever Zinke enters the building. When the secretary goes home for the day or travels, the flag  comes down.  Read more from the Washington Post.

 

What We’re Reading, October 2-6

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Here’s a selection of articles we’re reading this week.

Will the 8th go blue? – The recent retirement announcement by seven-term U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert opens Washington’s first truly competitive congressional race since 2010. The 67-year-old Reichert was hardly the most obvious contender to step aside nationwide, especially after a 20-point win in 2016. But with Republican retirements mounting nationwide, Reichert becomes the latest in a series of races putting the GOP on the defensive. The question is: Can Democrats actually take advantage of the opportunity? Read more from Crosscut.

Tax cuts cost how much? – How to pay for policy proposals lawmakers want to enact is an age-old question in Congress that has killed or stalled countless ideas. That question is now a dark cloud hanging over Republicans as they seek to overhaul the tax code. Read more on Roll Call.

Data Retrival Tool: It’s baaaaack! – The IRS and the Department of Education on Sunday restored the data retrieval tool that allows students to automatically import their family income data into their applications for federal student aid. The IRS abruptly suspended the tool in March, citing suspicious activity and potential vulnerability of taxpayer information.  Read more from Inside Higher Education.

Supreme Court Watch – On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a major new case about partisan gerrymandering. The case began just days after the Nov. 8 election, when a federal court struck down a Republican-drawn legislative map in Wisconsin for being too partisan. Because of special rules for some voting rights cases, the Supreme Court is required to hear the case. Read the analysis from the Washington Post.

Gerrymandering, it’s a science –  About as many Democrats live in Wisconsin as Republicans do. But you wouldn’t know it from the Wisconsin State Assembly, where Republicans hold 65 percent of the seats, a bigger majority than Republican legislators enjoy in conservative states like Texas and Kentucky. The United States Supreme Court is trying to understand how that happened. On Tuesday, the justices heard oral arguments in Gill v. Whitford, reviewing a three-judge panel’s determination that Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn district map is so flagrantly gerrymandered that it denies Wisconsinites their full right to vote. Read more from the New York Times.

 

What We’re Reading, September 25-29

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Here is a selection of articles that we’re reading this week.

Fourth Time’s a Charm? –  Dino Rossi at first did not succeed. So he tried … and tried … and tried again. And now, the Washington Republican state senator, who lost two races for governor (2004, 2008) and one for the U.S. Senate (2010), is giving national politics another shot. Rossi announced at the state’s GOP dinner on Thursday he will run to fill the seat being vacated by Republican Dave Reichert in Washington’s 8th District. Reichert is retiring next year after seven terms. Read more about it on Roll Call.

NIH For All! – Some issues aren’t partisan. Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, independent or anything in between, your family and friends have been touched by disease. That is why the Tuesday Group, a caucus of moderate House Republicans, and the New Democrat Coalition, a coalition of moderate House Democrats, are working together to support funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  Read more on The Hill.

Feds Investigate NCAA Basketball Bribes – Now that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has formally announced its charges against four NCAA assistant basketball coaches, here’s what ESPN’s on what we know going forward regarding the federal probe into corruption and fraud in college basketball. Read more on ESPN.

Trump v. Ferguson – When the history books get around to Donald Trump, his unlikely rise to power will receive plenty of ink — the buttoned-up rivals he steamrolled, the scandals he survived, the biases and tensions he exploited. But each recollection of this period will inevitably include the first major defeat of his political career, delivered by a man who might seem his polar opposite: Washington state’s bookish attorney general, Bob Ferguson. Read more on Geek Wire.

Back to Square One – The Trump administration is hitting reset on its search for a permanent Department of Homeland Security secretary due to White House aides’ dissatisfaction with the slate of candidates, according to two people familiar with the process. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul had been considered the front-runner for the job, but he no longer is in contention. Read more on Politico.

What We’re Reading This Week– June 19 – 23

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Louisiana Bans the Box – Louisiana’s governor signed the state’s own ban-the-box law earlier on Friday, this time prohibiting state higher-education institutions from inquiring about a potential student’s criminal history during the application process. Read more from Inside Higher Ed.

When You Need a Burger — When you really need a burger when you’re overseas, you might be in luck. Read more here.