Category: What We’re Reading

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Vast Benefits of Destruction – Donald Trump has not paid taxes for the last 19 years. In 1996, he declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a tax deduction so substantial, it has allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes since. The losses stem from the financial mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his experiment in the airline business, and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. The total losses would wipe out more than $50 million per year in federal taxes since reporting the loss. Read more in The New York Times. 

Reshape – Longwood University, which hosted the vice-presidential duel, is restructuring classes with a focus on civics to teach students to be good citizens. Read more in The Atlantic. 

Pocket Change?  – This week Harvard University announced that its endowment lost $2 billion from investments. While the institution and the endowment continue to flourish (with $35.7 billion), Harvard’s endowment returns have lagged behind all other Ivy League universities, except Cornell. It has caused the university, and the Harvard Investment Company some significant scrutiny into how and what it invests. Read more The Chronicle for Higher Education.  

Be a Role Model – Helping teenagers make the transition from high schoolers in their parents’ homes to college students balancing the freedoms of an unchaperoned social life with the load of academic expectations has always been a big job for R. A.s, most of whom are no older than 21 themselves. Added to this are the complications about sex and sexual assault on campus, and the role of the university in prevention, awareness and disciplinary measures. Read more in The New York Times. 

Food Wizard – Danny Meyer, who is a restaurant guru on the East Coast (Ed. Note: Shake Shack is AMAZING), is integrating the iWatch into the eating experience. At the reopening of his flagship restaurant Union Square Cafe in NYC,  every manager will have an iWatch. When a VIP walks through the front door, someone orders a bottle of wine, a new table is seated, a guest waits too long to order her or his drink, or a menu item runs out, every manager will get an alert via the tiny computer attached to their wrist. Read more in Eater.

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Not So Credible Any More – On Thursday, the Education Department  moved to shut down the nation’s largest accreditor of for-profit colleges, which had stood watch as failing institutions like Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute teetered on a pileup of fraud investigations. The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools — known as ACICS — is one of a few dozen different organizations charged with maintaining standards and quality at the country’s more than 5,400 higher education institutions. Read more in The New York Times. 

Police Brutality – Since the August 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, police in America have been under heightened scrutiny. The Black Lives Matter protests in particular have shined a light on what many see as a systemic emphasis on excessive use of force by police, particularly on racial and ethnic minorities. Vox has 9 things you should know about US police and shootings. 

Charlotte and Candidates – Charlotte experiences continued unrest from Keith Scott’s killing. As polls in North Carolina are in a dead heat, both nominees seized on the fatal shooting in ways meant to appeal to core supporters. Read more in The New York Times. 

This Really Happened – Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC), a white American male born in 1948, the lawmaker says he understands the motivations of young, African American protesters better than they do. When speaking about Charlotte, he said to BBC Newsmaker “They hate white people, because white people are successful and they’re not.” Read about it and see it at The Washington Post.

Maybe It’s Not So Bad – Clinton has had one of the worst months yet, but this maybe the best thing for her campaign. Read more in Politico. 

Winning Where It Counts – Polls may be tightening, but Clinton is winning in states where she needs to, and where the electoral college votes are. Read more at the 538.

President Trump – Looking at Trump’s campaign shows a glimpse of what at Trump Presidency would be like. Read more in The New Yorker. 

Trump Ed Plan – Speaking in Chester Township, PA this week Trump said that under his administration, universities would have to lower tuition and student debt if they want federal tax breaks. Watch it at The Washington Post. 

College, Yes. Degree, No – More Americans are attending college than ever before — nearly 90 percent of millennials who graduate from high school attend college within eight years. But a far smaller proportion of Americans actually have a college degree: only 40 percent of students complete a bachelor’s degree in four years and 60 percent graduate in six years. At two-year colleges, 29 percent of students graduate in three years. Read more at Inside Higher Education. 

Sleeping Beast – Oklahoma is actually full of fault lines — over 900, but the recent boom in oil fracking has made the infrequently moving faults very active.. Before 2008, Oklahoma had maybe a couple of earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater each year. Read more at the 538. 

Now What? – In a unique-to-DC job hazard, what do you do if your boss loses in the primary? Read more in Roll Call.

Leaf Peepers – We’ve just passed the autumnal equinox, which means several things, including Fall is nearly here! That means colored leaves! How can you determine peak fall foliage? There’s now an interactive map for that. See it at Smokymoutains.com.

You can now see your Patronus, thank you Pottermore. 

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

We Just Don’t Like You – After a tough week for both candidates, Trump isn’t doing well, but neither is Clinton. While national polls still show Clinton with a lead, it’s becoming more obvious that Clinton is the least-popular major party nominee of all time — except for Donald Trump. Read more in Vox. 

Path Forward – With the new round of polling, it looks like Trump has a path forward to the magical 270 electoral votes. Read more in Politico. 

Minibus or Bigbus? – In January, House and Senate vowed to move all 12 individual spending bills, something that hadn’t been accomplished in more than a decade. That leaves Republicans with the challenge of funding the government for the next fiscal year, which has in the past been done through passage of an omnibus that piles all 12 appropriations bills together…or in a series of piles considered “minibuses”. Neither of which has much political will to happen. Read more in The Hill. 

I’m Not That Guy – Last year, Speaker Ryan reluctantly shoved through an omnibus package after Boehner’s resignation and his own surprise ascension to the Speakership. The omnibus was a last testament to Boehner’s troubled leadership. House conservatives pressured him to resign after they grew sick of him ramming through last-minute, backroom spending deals with Democrats. This year, Ryan’s probably going to have to do the same thing again. Read more in The Hill. 

Take Note – A coalition of 40 civil rights, legal-aid and public-interest groups is urging the Education Department to track and monitor the effect of student loans on people of color, who are shouldering the burden of education debt. Read more in The Washington Post. 

Um, the Books? – SUNY Stoney Brook has a partnership with Amazon, now the university’s official book retailer. Students can purchase texts through a Stony Brook-specific Amazon page and have them delivered to campus. In the campus store, where the textbooks used to be, there are now adult coloring books, racks of university-branded polos and windbreakers and three narrow bookshelves displaying assorted novels. The rest of the store is a vibrant collage of spirit wear and school supplies: backpacks and baseball caps; pompom hats and striped scarves; notebooks and correction fluid. Read more in the New York Times. 

Well Endowed – One of the most polarizing issues in higher education took center stage on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as House members questioned whether universities could do more with their tax-exempt endowments to help families struggling with the high costs of college. Read more in The Washington Post. 

Best Towns – It’s that time of year again when college students are streaming back to school. Across the nation, some 17 million Americans are headed to college this fall. But, where, exactly, are they heading to? To get at this, we charted America’s biggest and best college towns based on 2014 enrollment data for some 750 metro and micropolitan locations across the U.S. Read more in The Atlantic’s CityLab. 

Best of the Best – USNews is out with it’s annual “Best of” Rankings on Colleges. Princeton came out on top. However, thanks to the Internet, there’s a plethora of rankings for just about every aspect of college life including best bars, best green colleges, best radio stations, best dorms. Read more at The Washington Post. 

Buying Bacon – You’ve probably seen and handled supermarket bacon countless times. The standard one-pound package shows the bacon slices fanned out, with only their leading edges exposed. Those front edges tend to feature more lean muscle than the fattier back edges creating the illusion that the bacon is leaner than it is. Thus selling more bacon. Read more in Bloomberg. 

The Rise of Chickens – Think chicken is every where? You can thank the Catholic Church. Read more in Science.

Here’s a selection of article the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Stepping Up – The House Freedom Caucus wasted no time since returning from their summer recess showing just how tough they can make life for Speaker Paul Ryan — and for Democrat Hillary Clinton if she becomes President. They’re pressuring Ryan to oppose a deal taking shape in the Senate on must-pass legislation to keep the government open, and promising Clinton to keep investigating email issues even if she ends up in the White House. Read more in the AP.

Take Down – The closure of ITT Technical Institutes, a national chain of career schools with a 50-year legacy, is fueling a debate over the federal government’s aggressive policing of for-profit higher education and whether it could destroy the industry. Read more in the Washington Post. 

Endowed? – A Sept. 13 hearing of a House Ways and Means subcommittee is set to look at how colleges, through their tax-exempt endowments, are trying to reduce tuition. The hearing in Washington, which will feature testimony from policy experts and college representatives, comes as many endowments are expected to post investment declines for FY 2016. Read more in Bloomberg.

Five To Flip – Democrats must net five seats — or four and retain the White House — to regain control of the upper chamber. They are defending 10 seats, while Republicans face a more challenging path, needing to defend 24 seats. The Hill has the nine seats most likely to go from Red to Blue. 

10 Most Vulnerable – While several sitting Members of Congress have already been defeated in the primary, here is the latest 10 most likely Members to have a rough election. Read more at Roll Call. 

Long List – Congress is back for a few weeks, and they have a lot to pack in, including many to-dos for research and science. Read more in Science. 

Pledge for Childcare – Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton renewed her pledge to invest in child-care programs on college campuses, spotlighting the need for a service that has been disappearing at many schools just as the number of student parents grows. Read more in The Washington Post. 

Balancing Act – Speaker Ryan has a tough month ahead of competing interests and political demands. Uniting the GOP conference has not proven to be an easy task. Read more at Roll Call.  

Fact’s Don’t Matter – According to the Pew Research Center, the nation is more polarized than at any time in recent history. While some of the issues dividing us boil down to ideology and preference, there is at least one on which hard science should have a strong say. Facts, however, seem to polarize us more, rather than unite us. Read more in the New York Times. 

Redistricting Redrawing the Map – A Washington Post-SurveyMonkey poll of all 50 states indicates the 2016 campaign could flip several red and blue states from their longtime loyalties. See how it shakes out at The Washington Post. 

8 Hours in the Sky – For eight hours, with American airspace completely cleared of jets, a single blue-and-white Boeing-747, tail number 29000—filled with about 65 passengers, crew and press, and the 43rd President, George W. Bush, as well as 70 box lunches and 25 pounds of bananas—traversed the eastern United States. Politico has the story of those on Air Force One 15 years after the attacks of 9/11.

Happy end of August Recess. Here are a few articles the Federal Relations team has been enjoying this week.

Just 90 – According to ‘carbon accountant’ Richard Heede there are 90 companies contribute two thirds of the global carbon emissions. Among those, the top eight companies — ranked according to annual and cumulative emissions — account for 20 percent of world carbon emissions from fossil fuels and cement production since the Industrial Revolution.  Heede has compiled a massive database quantifying who has been responsible for taking carbon out of the ground and putting it into the atmosphere. Read more in Science. 

SCOTUS Scooch? – Senate Republicans could relent on their hard-line stance in opposition to granting Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland a confirmation hearing this year. Read more in Politico.

Extension Headache – Funding for the federal government dries up on October 1, which will force Congress to move a stopgap spending bill in September just weeks before the Nov. 8 presidential election. Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are pushing to extend government funding into early 2017, wary of a massive bipartisan spending deal in the lame-duck and rank in file Republicans are also wary of setting up the period after the election as a time to move on funding and a host of other issues.. But GOP leaders and House Democrats are already laying the groundwork for a short-term continuing resolution, or CR, that will set up a vote on a catch-all spending bill right before the holidays. Read more in The Hill. 

16 –  As more and more students and parents grow frustrated with the rising cost and uncertain quality of a college education; as employers and policymakers bemoan the negative economic effects of a lack of college-educated workers; and as voters turn angry about how the higher education system seems to perpetuate inequality rather than alleviate it, politicians are putting pressure on institutions to improve. Conditions are becoming ripe, in other words, for the innovators to take charge. Read about the 16 most innovative people in higher ed in Washington Monthly. 

110 – Over 100 Republican thought leaders have declared to be against Trump. Read when and why they flipped at the New York Times.

South of the Border – Trump will meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto ahead of a major speech on immigration on Wednesday. The surprise visit comes as Trump is later scheduled to deliver what’s billed as a “major speech” on immigration in Arizona. Read more at NBC News. 

7 Reasons – Why Trump will hate being President. Read them in Politico. 

Welcome BACK! – The scaffolding around the Capitol Dome has been slowly going away, and the picturesque structure is starting to look like itself again. Read more in Roll Call.