Category: What We’re Reading

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

The Science Teacher -A long form read on house Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX), his interests, and how the House Science Committee functions. Read it at National Journal. 

Bill$ – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is trying to downplay expectations on a recently revealed Continuing Resolution discussion. Right now, the expectation is that the CR will fund the government sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which will give House and Senate Leadership time to discuss a larger full-funding measure with higher budget caps. Read more at The Hill. 

Join Us! – A new Administration initiative is encouraging legal immigrants to become American citizens. This is one of five ambitious Executive Orders announced in the last few weeks regarding immigration. Read more at the New York Times. 

The Debate – The Republican presidential candidates met again on Wednesday for a debate with CNN. It was three hours of sparing, zingers, specifics, facts and some exaggerations. Long and short, Carly won, easily. Here are some takeaways from Politico, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Roll Call.

Fissions and Fractures – The House Freedom Caucus is down a member because of their tactics over…Planned Parenthood. Rep. Mike McClintock (R-CA) is leaving because he says that the methods used by the caucus are doing the opposite of helping the Freedom Caucus set the agenda, rather, they are driving the Republicans as a whole to do Nancy Pelosi’s bidding. Read more a Roll Call. 

Senate Says No – Meanwhile, the Senate Leadership, which is Republican, has said that Planned Parenthood should be an issue for the 2016 presidential race and that funding or defunding the organization is not going to be the reason Congress fails to fund the government. Read more at Roll Call. But! The Senate will vote on the funding. Read more at Politico.

Vetting the Vetters – Two controversial picks for high-level positions within the higher education community have put a leading search firm under scrutiny for how their picks are being found, selected and reviewed. Read more at Inside Higher Education.  

Clocks – A 14 year old in Irving, TX was suspended for three days and nearly arrested for bringing clock he made to school. Ahmed Mohamed was denied his rights (over three hours of being held the minor was denied the ability to call his parents despite repeated requests) and the school and Irving police force are maintaining they did what they needed to and did not handcuff, deny him his rights, and suspend Ahmed for brining a clock to school because he’s Muslim. Read more at the New York Times. #istandwithahmed

Happy (almost) Fall!! Congress is back in session and here are a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Exit Stage Right? – House Speaker John Boehner has not had an easy tenure as leader of the House Republican Caucus. During histime, he’s seen the rise of the Tea Party and Libertarians as well as more and more members of his caucus willing to openly challenging him on votes and for his Speaker position. As he looks towards what will be a hellish fall (a fight to defund Planned Parenthood, a potential government shutdown, the deadline to raise the federal debt ceiling or risk default, a highly contentious fight over highway spending to extend the highway trust fund, and a vote to oust him as Speaker is also expected), his closest allies are wondering if Boehner will run for Speaker or Congress again. Read more at Politico.

60% Chance – Congress has routinely fought about raising the debt ceiling in recent years. These fights have had significant political consequences for the Republican party because of shutdowns. As Congress, again, has to raise the debt ceiling, political forecasters are giving odds of 60 percent that the federal government shuts down over the debt ceiling…again. Read more at Forbes. Meanwhile, those 60 percent odds might be a little low. Read more from The Washington Post. 

Planned Parenthood v. Debt Ceiling – Congressional leadership and the American people don’t want a government shutdown but the other looming political issue is the Republican outcry to defund Planned Parenthood, an effort currently being lead by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). While Planned Parenthood is not expected to lose all of its federal funding, how the House and Senate proceed on the issue, and a vote on de-funding the organization, is unclear. Further, it sets up a show down between defunding Planned Parenthood and raising the debt ceiling. Read more at Politico.

The POPE Is Coming – Pope Francis is scheduled to stop in DC at the end of the month to meet with Obama, hold a massive public mass where he will canonize a new saint, tour Catholic Charities, and address Congress. In a town that’s used to famous people living here and dropping by, preparations for the Pope have everyone atwitter. DC knows motorcades, but we’re not quite adept at Pope-mobiles…yet. It’s been treated as an inauguration and snow day all rolled in one. Read more at Roll Call. Or read more at the Washington Post. While the Pope is here, he will canonize 18th-century Spanish missionary, Junipero Serra, who worked in colonial California around modern day Monterey. Serra is not without his critics. Read more at the Washington Post. 

Remembering September 11th on the 14th anniversary. Yesterday, a rainbow was seen over Manhattan, which looked like it originated from the World Trade Center. See the pictures at Buzzed. 

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

Just Like a High School Cafeteria, But Not – As the United Nations addresses climate change, talks on how to address climate change are happening in micro groups, cliques basically. While the UN hopes to forge a new global agreement that will affect everything from energy production to agriculture to transportation, these groups, 14 in all, are how the negotiations are getting done. Read more at NPR.

Best of a Bad Situation – Higher education accreditation and accrediting agencies are under intense scrutiny in recent years, but while everyone agrees that the system is far from perfect, no one knows how to fix it. Read more at Inside Higher Ed.

Email Gate – Hillary Clinton’s emails while Secretary of State continue to be under scrutiny and continue to make headlines. Congress is expected to hold a hearing on the private server in September. Further, during that hearing, the individual who set up the private server is expected to assert their fifth amendment right. Read more at the Washington Post. 

Trump Talking – Trump’s candidacy is giving the GOP heartburn on multiple levels.  Trump’s straight talk is running right into the carefully crafted GOP message to woo middle class voters, and Trump’s isolationist statements are running contrary to the free-market approach that is the capstone of the GOP economy. Read more at the Washington Post. And all of his tough talk is making very hard to be latino and conservative these days or a Republican presidential candidate that appeals to latino voters. Read more at NPR. 

Redistricting – As House Democrats remain deeply in the minority and have no optimism to change that outcome, House Democratic leadership is choosing to focus on a different strategy: redistricting. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has sponsored a piece of legislation that looks to reform how states do their political gerrymandering and replace the partisan carving up of congressional districts with independent redistricting commissions. Read more at The Hill.

Meh – The Pentagon is trying to woo Silicon Valley to help with the national defense in its next generation warfare and innovations. Thus far, the Valley has been agnostic about engaging but Defense Secretary Ash Carter isn’t giving up and is doing another push to engage Apple, Google and more on a host of initiatives. Read more at Breaking Defense.

NLRB – The National Labor Relation’s Board (NLRB) has been a lightening rod while making controversial decisions under the Obama Administration. With new standards and interpretations, including new union election rules and minimum wage overtime rules, the NLRB has made waves. Here’s a look at the five biggest fights and controversies thus far. Read more at The Hill. 

Test Free – Many colleges are no longer requiring SAT or ACT scores to apply and enter university. Why are schools disregarding the test? Is it truly to get a broader student body and include more traditionally underrepresented groups? Or is it to be more exclusive? NPR goes deeper. Meanwhile, SAT scores are the lowest in a decade and certainly since the SAT test was redesigned. The average score was 1490 with 1550 being recognized as the score for college preparedness. Serious concerns are being raised about the elementary scores in reading in math are not translating to high school preparedness. Read more at the Washington Post.

What would happen to Asia’s coastline if the ice caps melted courtesy of IFL Science. 

CNN has footage of Obama getting spawned on by a salmon, which can happen if you hold salmon in Alaska in the summer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axRzSdWzV30

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

FAFSA – What is an initial barrier to enter college? The FASFA form. There is a major push right now to eliminate or simplify it. Read more at the New York Times. 

Biden 2016? – From deathbed promises to a dearth of excitement, Vice President Joe Biden is thinking of throwing his hat in the ring for the Presidency in 2016. With Hillary considered the only viable candidate thus far, Biden’s run could shake up and divide the Democratic political operative talent. Read more at Politico. 

Obama Foundation – With the Obama Administration about to hit its twilight, the Obamas and the Obama Foundation look forward to what’s next for life after the presidency, and Marty Nesbitt is helping shape that next step. Read more at Politico.

Selfie Line Too Far – Selfies are everywhere on the internet, as a way to celebrate life and milestones, like getting engaged, that great trip to the lake, or your first time voting. Recently the federal courts have decided to look into the legality of taking a selfie in the voting booth and if taking and posting that picture, particularly of marked ballots, is a constitutionally protected form of speech and political expression. Read more at the New York Times. 

Dumbfounding – Donald Trump is a conundrum wrapped in a quandary for the political class. Politicos don’t know how to deal with Trump, who was supposed to be a flash-in-the-pan candidate and has done everything wrong…but is still polling at over 20 percent. Read more at The Hill. 

You Can’t Do That In Politics – More over, Trump can get away with things, like saying he’d buy the Chinese president McDonalds, that other candidates can not do. Scott Walker recently echoed Trump’s China comments and is getting slammed in Iowa. Read more at the Des Moines Register. 

Unionize – The LA Times has an editorial on college athletes unionizing in the wake of the NLRB decision dismissing the Northwestern football player’s case. Read the op-ed here.

Tax the Rich – One little known believe of Donald Trump is that the rich should pay more taxes. It’s something Trump said Wednesday to Bloomberg. Read the it at Bloomberg. Read about it at the Washington Post.

Twitter Attack! – Nate Silver has broken down the Trump twitter attacks and attackers. Read more at 538.

10 Years – It’s been 10 years since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. While rebuilding both infrastructure and community has been challenging and controversial, New Orleans is and is not what it once was and it never will be again. Read more at ESPN. 

Seattle Hangover – NFL teams play the Seattle Seahawks, and then they lose. Read more at Grantland. 

The Congressional August Recess keeps rolling on, and while Federal Relations is very busy hosting people on campus and round the state (check out our Facebook page to see some of our visitors), we are still enjoying some reading material.

Gmail People – Fall out from recent Ashely Madison hack has started as the hackers have revealed the email addresses of 15,000 email addresses that end with “.gov” and “.mil”. Individuals emails released include persons who work on the Hill, including a staffer of Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) and Capitol police officers, as well as four dozen people who work in the White House. Read more at Roll Call. 

Unionizing Sacked – The NLRB dismissed the Northwestern football players case and bid to unionize. Read more at NPR. Read about implications at Sports Illustrated.

Hoarders – Universities, specifically Harvard, University of Texas, and Princeton, are hoarding funds according to a recent op-ed. Read More at the New York Times. 

Brutal Amazon – In case you missed it, the corporate culture at Amazon is somewhat akin to Lord of the Flies. Read more at the New York Times. Meanwhile, Amazon has announced that it is leasing another office building near South Lake Union, but not constructing a skyscraper as originally thought. Read more at the Puget Sound Business Journal. 

New Debt Rules – The Administration is expected to release new proposed rules to discharge college debt for defrauded borrowers.  The rules are expected to be released soon, so that they may be finalized by November and take effect by July 2017. Read more at Inside Higher Education. 

Grad School Binge – Experts are concerned that the increase in grad school enrollments, and debt, combined with the new Income Based Repayment programs, an entitlement, is causing an impending crash. Graduate school debt now accounts for forty percent of all college debt. Read more at the Wall Street Journal. 

Summer in the Hamptons – Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is taking a brief two-week break from the campaign trail to vacation in the Hamptons with her husband, former President Clinton. The rental house includes a private pool and beach, which it should for $50,000 a week. See pictures at the Daily Mail.

ach, which it should for $50,000 a week. See pictures at the Daily Mail.