Category: What We’re Reading

Happy Thanksgiving! Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is reading this week.

Downward Spiral  – University federal funding has failed to outpace inflation for the third consecutive year. Read more at NSF.

Revisiting History – Woodrow Wilson is one of Princeton’s most celebrated figures, but recently his attitudes on race have called into question his role, and the role his legacy should take at Princeton. Read more at the New York Times.

Game Change – A century ago, Albert Einstein was in a bit of a slump (divorced, living alone, had other scientists disproving his theories). And on November 25, 1915, Albert Einstein revealed a theory that ruled the universe – the Theory of Relativity. Read more at the New York Times. 

Future – Arne Duncan sits down for a discussion about his time at ED — it’s successes and failures. Read it at the Wall Street Journal.

Caliphate – The Washington Post has a story about the ISIS propaganda machine and what its like working for the organization’s PR arm.

NOAA Standoff – Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, has subpoenaed scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and demanded that they turn over internal e-mails related to their research for a groundbreaking climate change study which appeared in the June 4th online edition of Science. The scientists and NOAA Administrator Kathy Sullivan have refused. Read more at The Washington Post. 

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

Next Steps? – The Senate is having some issues moving forward with the Obamacare repeal. Read more at The Hill. 

Rolling Tide Lifts All Boats – University of Alabama has been a football powerhouse since the mid 1960s. First under legendary coach Bear Bryant and now under Coach Nick Sabin, the Crimson Tide football team earns nearly $95 million per year and is one of the best recruiting tools the university has for sports and academics. While the athletic department makes a tidy sum, the ancillary products and endorsement deals are truly where the revenue lies for the university, Tuscaloosa, and the state. Read more at The New York Times.  

Mismatches – NCAA head Mark Emmert caution colleges and universities about recruiting student athletes that were academic “mismatches”. Read more at USA Today. 

Clinton-type Money – Over the last 40 years in politics, Bill and Hillary Clinton have established a monumental network of donors and supporters in both high-monied and small individual donations. They’ve raised something to the tune of $3 billion. They have cultivated a vast network through charm, intellect, and personal interaction. How did they do it and who are these supporters? Read more in The Washington Post. 

Hoppe To It – Speaker Ryan’s new chief of staff, David Hoppe, is an old political hand, who eschews interviews, keeps his calm and agrees to disagree. His current job is helping herd cats — something he’s already experienced at working for Senator Trent Lott.  Read more in the Washington Post. 

Roe v. Wade v. Texas – The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the latest challenge to abortion access. Two years ago, Texas passed legislation that severely limited who and where abortions could be provided. It catapulted Texas State Senator Wendy Davis, and her tennis shoes, in to the national spotlight. Now, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging the restrictions. Read more from The Economist.

Geography Lesson – Presidential candidate Ben Carson’s campaign recently posted a map of all the states refusing to take in Syrian refugees. Unfortunately, he put some states in the wrong place. Read more at The Washington Post.

Nah… – Over a decade after the Attacks on 9/11, new information and correspondence has been declassified revealing the Bush Administration ignored detailed CIA warnings of an impending terrorist strike. Read more at Politico.

Missing Our Underestimation – Until the events of this week (Beirut, Paris, Egypt’s plan crash, and in March an attack in Yemen that killed 140) Western experts have routinely assumed ISIL efforts were successful in lone wolf attacks, and not as sophisticated at staging attacks like Al Quaeda. While we will learn a lot over the next weeks and months about the attacks, one immediate take away is that many in the West fundamentally misunderstood ISIL’s capabilities, behaviors and intentions. Read more at Politico.

Peace for Paris – The artist who created the much used and powerful Peace for Paris image, Jean Jullian, (see above) talks about creating the image minutes after hearing about the attacks in Paris. Read the story in Wired. 

Getting Here – How do refugees actually get into the United States? What is the actual process? Read about it at Vox. 

NY Times’s Table For Three series has a conversation with Gloria Steinem and the Notorious RBG.

Happy Veterans Day Week! Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team enjoyed this week.

First Gen – It’s a term that’s used often, “first generation” students, but who are these students and how are schools counting them? More at Inside Higher Education. 

Grounded – Speaker Paul Ryan has solicited a lot of information and has had a lot solicited from him as Speaker including a request from watchdog groups asking to end Members taking privately funded travel. Read more at Roll Call. 

POTUS? – When Paul Ryan agreed to run for Speaker, most understood this means that he’s put any presidential ambitions to rest because no Speaker of the House has been elected President except James Polk in 1844. Also it should be noted that, by the election, Polk had left the Speakership and was serving as Governor of Tennessee. So what’s Ryan’s long-term plan? Read more at The Hill.

Climate of Coal – Peabody coal, one of the nation’s largest coal companies, has been accused is misleading investors as to the impacts of climate change and the company’s bottom line. The allegation comes to light after a New York Attorney General’s investigation. Exxon Mobile is also being investigated for similar reasons. Read more at NPR.

Down On the Field & Out the Game – University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe resigned and University of Missouri Columbia Chancellor Loftin Flowers agreed to step down on Monday after over a month of growing tensions with the Columbia student body. SB Nation covers what the Missouri football strike is all about. The final hit came from Wolfe’s blindside, when the Mizzou football team refused to play their next game in solidarity with the #concernedstudents1950 movement. Read how the football team cut the president at the Washington Post. Read the New York Times take.

Sweeping Effects – As the turmoil in Missouri keeps going, an associate professor offered his resignation, which was rejected, for holding class (and a test). The true outrage was his email to students saying that he wasn’t going to “give in to the bullies”. Students had questioned holding class because popular site YikYak had reports of shooters planning to kill black students. The individual who made the threats has been arrested (and was not in Columbia Missouri, where MU is located). Read more at NBC News. 

Can’t Take the Heat? – Current GOP front runner Dr. Ben Carson has begun pushing back against the significant scrutiny recently that comes with being the leading presidential candidate. Carson’s statements on the pyramids (they were used to store grain), his West Point full ride after a dinner with a general (he never applied so could never be offered such), or to the most recent dust up over if he stabbed someone (he apparently didn’t). Carson has charged that no other candidate has faced this much scrutiny and the Washington Post says challenge accepted. It goes through almost of the major political stories for both parties and goes back to the last presidential election. Read more at The Washington Post.   Side note, The Atlantic is tracking the bigger political gaffes happening this cycle at their Gaffe Track.

Senate on O-care – The Senate is preparing to take up a measure repealing Obamacare, and plans on sending the measure to the President’s desk (for an assured veto). Unfortunately, the Senate GOP conference is undecided on how far the measure should go. Read more at The Hil. 

Team Marco – Hill staff predict that Marco Rubio will be the Republican nomination for President. Read more at Roll Call. 

Google Doodle celebrated actress and scientist Hedy Lamarr’s 101st birthday this week with this doodle:

It’s a balmy 70-something degrees in the nation’s capital…in November, but that hasn’t stopped the news cycle! Here’s a selection of articles Federal Relations is reading this week.

#Fail – Despite pouring millions of his vast personal fortune into politics, mega-donor Charles Koch said he and his brother David are “so far … largely failures at” buying up influence and changing the level of political rhetoric in the United States. He also compared himself to Martin Luther. See the interview at MSNBC here. Read about the interview at Politico here. 

Puff Puff Pass – Ohio was set to consider legalizing marijuana on Tuesday (which failed), but what’s truly making waves is how the ballot initiative is written. It would essentially allow only a handful of individuals (ten) to grow and sell pot in the state, effectively creating a monopoly. Read more at The Washington Post. Here are also the next states where marijuana will become an election issue. Read more at The Washington Post. 

Couch Caucus – About a third of Members of the House sleep in their congressional offices, the group has been informally dubbed “the Couch Caucus”, and one of those caucus members is new Speaker Paul Ryan, who has no intention of changing the arrangement. Read more at Roll Call. 

Va-cay – The House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has released the 2016 schedule and the House be enjoying a very long vacation for half of July, all of August, and half of September. Looks like lots of campaigning will be happening. Read more at Politico.

Early Release – Six thousand prisoners could get out early due to retroactive changes in US mandatory sentencing for drug crimes. It’s the largest release in history, and it’s only the beginning. Ultimately, the federal government is planning on releasing only 40,000 individuals. Read more at Vox. 

Next In Line – First true fight new Speaker Paul Ryan will have to negotiate is who replaces him as chair on the House Ways and Means committee. Read more at Politico.

Comeback Kid? – Jeb Bush is sinking in the polls after a series of disastrous or not strong debates. Can he make a comeback? Read more at The Washington Post. 

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

Mic Drop – Speaker John Boehner has orchestrated an impressive exit package: he’s raised the debt limit until March 2017, he’s lifted budget caps until September 2017, he’s pass a transportation reauthorization, and has generally set the House up for an exponentially easier end of year 2015 and 2016. He’s shown great leadership all the way to the end. Read more at NPR.

Being Speaker – It’s a huge role. Constitutionally mandated and mired in ceremony, history, institution, and politics. It is part landlord, fundraiser, leader, lightening rod, savior, cat-herder, fundraiser, whipping post, and fundraiser. Lots of raising money for everyone — some of it you can keep for your re-election too. A lot of these roles Ryan has never held or operated in. Read more at The New York Times. 

New Name – Rep. Paul Ryan asked the Clerk of the House Karen Hass to officially change his name to include the middle initial on all official documents and offices – just one day before Ryan is set to be elected speaker. Read more at Politico. 

Polar Opposites – If you think that Congress is only increasing in dysfunction and becoming more politically polarized, you would be correct! Congress is much more polarized. Vox has a graph showing how that’s happened.

Tea Party Ponzi – A number of Tea Party groups function as little more than Ponzi schemes. Republicans attacking Republicans is very lucrative…to the consultants. Read more at The New York Times. 

158 – Approximately 158 families have contributed nearly half of the money raised in the 2016 presidential campaign. These families, along with companies they own or control, contributed $176 million in the first phase of the campaign. Most built their own businesses, parlaying talent and an appetite for risk into huge wealth, and not all of them are born in the US. Overwhelmingly (138 to 20) these families lean right, contributing tens of millions of dollars to support Republican candidates who have pledged to pare regulations; cut taxes on income, capital gains and inheritances; and shrink entitlement programs. Read more at The New York Times. 

Debate – The consensus of the Republican debate this week was that while Cruz and Rubio were likely winners, the true loser was CNBC. Read more at Slate.

New Old Growth Opportunity – Presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders has an idea to help the failing US Post Office. He’s going to let them offer (once again) basic banking services. Read more at the Washington Post. 

Vox has charts on why police in schools is a bad idea. 

Oral History – The nonprofit oral history project StoryCorps has launched a new initiative, the Great Thanksgiving Listen , asking high school teachers to encourage their students to sit down over the Thanksgiving holiday and record a meaningful conversation with an older family or community member. StoryCorps, founded in 2003, traditionally has participants come to one of its booths to record conversations with a facilitator. But the group recently used a $1 million prize from TED to develop a mobile app, allowing anyone to record a conversation and upload it to the Library of Congress. Participate here.