Gastonia, NC Correspondent — This is my trade, so I'll take some length and then be quiet on it for a while. The short answer is that a great deal of it isn't surviving, and that the pandemic finished something that was already most of the way finished. The chain that owned a large share … Continue reading Is local journalism going to survive this year, and does it matter if it doesn’t?
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Has the year changed what Americans count as essential work, and will the change survive the recovery?
Gastonia, NC Correspondent — I've held about six of the jobs on the essential list, which gives me an unusual vantage on the word. I've been a chef, a dispatcher, a farm worker, and a few other things before I ended up editing copy. Every one of those was essential this year. The job I … Continue reading Has the year changed what Americans count as essential work, and will the change survive the recovery?
Has the year changed what Americans count as essential work, and will the change survive the recovery?
Cheyenne, Wyoming Correspondent — The word arrived in March and meant one thing: you don't get to stay home. It came with no wage, no benefit, and no protection. It was a permission slip pointed the wrong direction. I keep books for a freight and energy firm and our drivers never stopped. Nobody sent them … Continue reading Has the year changed what Americans count as essential work, and will the change survive the recovery?
Has the rapid expansion of telemedicine been a durable improvement in access, or a temporary accommodation that will be rolled back once the emergency ends?
Wheeling, West Virginia Correspondent — I want to talk about one specific change, because in my part of the country it's the whole story. In late March the DEA allowed a physician to start a patient on buprenorphine without an in-person examination. That had been prohibited for twenty years under a statute written to stop … Continue reading Has the rapid expansion of telemedicine been a durable improvement in access, or a temporary accommodation that will be rolled back once the emergency ends?
Has the rapid expansion of telemedicine been a durable improvement in access, or a temporary accommodation that will be rolled back once the emergency ends?
Knoxville, Tennessee Correspondent — Improvement, and I say that as somebody who is usually the person in the room complaining that a new system won't work in a rural county. Our situation before March was that a patient in one of the outlying counties drove ninety minutes to see a specialist for a fifteen-minute appointment. … Continue reading Has the rapid expansion of telemedicine been a durable improvement in access, or a temporary accommodation that will be rolled back once the emergency ends?
Should public-health officers answer directly to elected officials, or be insulated from them?
Dayton, Ohio Correspondent — Ohio is the case study and I'd rather talk about it than about the principle. Our state health director resigned in June. There had been protests at her house, armed ones, and a run of legislative bills aimed at stripping the authority of her office. She was the most visible public … Continue reading Should public-health officers answer directly to elected officials, or be insulated from them?
Should public-health officers answer directly to elected officials, or be insulated from them?
Bismarck, North Dakota Correspondent — I'd start with what actually happened rather than with the principle, because the principle sounds fine in either direction. Health officers across the country have resigned, retired, or been removed since April — the count is somewhere near fifty by the reporting I've seen. Some of them left after threats … Continue reading Should public-health officers answer directly to elected officials, or be insulated from them?
If a vaccine arrives before Inauguration Day, should first doses be allocated by federal civilian formula, by Defense Production Act logic, or by the states that can actually put shots in arms?
Prescott Valley, AZ Correspondent — A dose in a freezer isn't a dose. A dose in an arm is a dose. If something usable arrives before January, the scarce objects are cold chain, a defensible list of who dies waiting, and a clinic that can run on a Tuesday. Use all three instruments in an … Continue reading If a vaccine arrives before Inauguration Day, should first doses be allocated by federal civilian formula, by Defense Production Act logic, or by the states that can actually put shots in arms?
As courts and legislatures chip at NCAA amateurism, should college athletes be treated as employees this fall, or is that a category error that will collapse the non-revenue sports?
Gastonia, NC Correspondent — A linebacker who fills a stadium and a biology major who swims at six in the morning are not the same worker. Pretending they are is how you get a category error with a legal memorandum attached. The courts are right that amateurism as a vow became a business model, and … Continue reading As courts and legislatures chip at NCAA amateurism, should college athletes be treated as employees this fall, or is that a category error that will collapse the non-revenue sports?
Is the renewed push for D.C. statehood a representation argument that should be settled on the merits, or a mid-cycle attempt to add Senate seats by statute?
Prescott Valley, AZ Correspondent — Taxation without a House vote is an argument I can hear. Two senators from a federal city, created by statute, in a presidential year, is a different argument wearing the first one's coat. The merits version would look like a constitutional process — an amendment that retires the Twenty-third, a … Continue reading Is the renewed push for D.C. statehood a representation argument that should be settled on the merits, or a mid-cycle attempt to add Senate seats by statute?
